Fun_People Archive
4 Oct
LIT BITS V3 #278

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From: Peter Langston <psl>
Date: Wed,  4 Oct 100 17:35:47 -0700
To: Fun_People
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Subject: LIT BITS V3 #278

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Excerpted-from: LITERARY CALENDAR V3 #278
From: ptervin@pent.yasuda-u.ac.jp

Today is Thursday, 5 October 2000; on this day,

394 years ago (1606),

     The French courtier poet whose light, facile verse led 17th century
     French poetry and whose sonnets served as models for the late
     Elizabethan poets, Philippe Desportes, dies in Abbey of Bonport.

171 years ago (1829),

     The Comedie-Francaise accepts Victor Hugo's _Hernani_.

89 years ago (1911),

     Irish novelist, dramatist, 26-year _Irish Times_ columnist, Flann
     O'Brien is born in Strabane, County Tyrone.

Today's poem:

                       Conquest

     Those eyes that set my fancy on a fire,
     Those crispId hairs that hold my heart in chains,
     Those dainty hands which conquered my desire,
     That wit which of my thoughts doth hold the reins:
     Those eyes for clearness do the stars surpass,
     Those hairs obscure the brightness of the sun,
     Those hands more white than ever ivory was,
     That wit even to the skies hath glory won.
     O eyes that pierce our hearts without remorse!
     O hands that conquer more than Caesar's force!
     O wit that turns huge kingdoms upside down!
     Then, Love, be judge, what heart may therewith stand
     Such eyes, such hair, such wit, and such a hand?

                                          Philippe Desportes

© 2000 Peter Langston