A dull lightning of love ... to me: The Pocket University 28 August 2023

Look, I confess: love letters and poems often aren't for me. A good Shakespeare-level sonnet, sure ... or the letters of Heloise and Abelard. But the average work waxing romantic ...

(Source: “lightning and love” text-to-image query with Adobe Firefly)

Alexander Pope’s Homer translations don’t really do it for me.¹ But his prayer was pretty good.² And, of course, I loved his “Essay on Criticism” back in my grad school days.³

Here, we get a letter and a poem.

Let’s start with the poem, very short, “Where E’ever You Walk,” a bit of the slightly longer “Summer”:

Where-e'er you walk, cool gales shall fan the glade,
Trees, where you sit, shall crowd into a shade,

Where-e'er you tread, the blushing flow'rs shall rise,
And all things flourish where you turn your eyes.

It’s fine. It’s okay. Wherever you are, nature takes a cue from your wondrous self.

Yay.

Yes.

You’re great.

If you like this poem, I want to know. Tell me below. Or email me. Not because I want to roll my eyes, but I just want to hear what people like about something that doesn’t do it for me.