Ode To Autumn by John Keats

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run;
To bend with apples the mossed cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
For Summer has o'er-brimmed their clammy cell.

Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?
Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find
Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,
Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;
Or on a half-reaped furrow sound asleep,
Drowsed with the fume of poppies, while thy hook
Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers;
And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep
Steady thy laden head across a brook;
Or by a cider-press, with patient look,
Thou watchest the last oozings, hours by hours.

Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?
Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,---
While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,
And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue;
Then in a wailful choir, the small gnats mourn
Among the river sallows, borne aloft
Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;
And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;
Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft
The redbreast whistles from a garden-croft,
And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.

Review: Jennifer Government

Jennifer Government by Max Barry

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



A comic dystopia? Yes, please. Considering the slowly incubating cold, this was the perfect read. Amusing, interesting, nice and light.

That may be 3 stars, but it's not a meh 3 stars, but a fun and fluffy and worth reading sort of 3 stars.



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Review: The Constant Princess

The Constant Princess by Philippa Gregory

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



The best thing about this book was in gleaning the basics behind the formation of Spain, the presence of Moors in Europe and what happened before Henry VIII between him and the War of the Roses (which, let's be honest, I know vaguely about only because of a brief trip to York during university when I was actually more interested in the attraction with "AUTHENTIC VIKING SMELLS!"

I didn't really like the use of italics to switch narrative perspectives and I wasn't really fond of Katalina as a character either.



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