Art, Book reviews, Ceramics, Photographs, Postcards, Quick Fiction, Quotations, and (Usually Aquatic) Reflections.
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Monday, September 3, 2012
Robert Graves: "A Spirit in Grace"
GRACE NOTES It was not the words, nor the melody, Not the beat, nor the pace; It was that slow suspension of our breathing As we watched your face, And the grace-notes, unrecordable on the clef, Sung only by a spirit in grace.
My favorite word--garsecg--from the Old English Beowulf is a kenning or poetic riddle-word for the sea. It means "the spear-man," perhaps the echo of a figure like the Norse Aegir or some other surly northern Neptune. In other texts, garsecg seems to be an adjective meaning "sea-like," "stormy" or "tempestuous."