I love the concept of Throwback Thursday, so I thought it’d be fun if on Thursdays I talk about older books that I love to read over and over again. You see, I’m one of those people who can watch the same movie or read the same book 50 times over the years. My favorites are, for me, like old friends I only get to see once in a great while. Visiting with them is always a pleasure & I always find little things I’d forgotten, or never noticed before. For the first Throwback Thursday on Starry Skies Romance, I thought I’d share with you the reason I’ve used the phrase “Starry Skies” for so many years.
I don’t particularly care for poetry. I don’t really dislike it, either. It’s just that I grew up around very practical people and beyond Dr. Seuss & Shel Silverstein, I simply wasn’t exposed to a lot of it. So it really means something to me when I find a poem I do like.
I was in English class in high school the first time I read Lord Byron’s “She Walks In Beauty.” As I read it, I remember that for a moment everything inside me went completely still. The simplicity of his words, the elegant and loving way he describes this woman…as a romantic teenager, it swept me away. The words stuck with me, because I have used “Starry Skies” as a screen name many times over the years.
She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that’s best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes;
Thus mellowed to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.
One shade the more, one ray the less,
Had half impaired the nameless grace
Which waves in every raven tress,
Or softly lightens o’er her face;
Where thoughts serenely sweet express,
How pure, how dear their dwelling-place.
And on that cheek, and o’er that brow,
So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,
The smiles that win, the tints that glow,
But tell of days in goodness spent,
A mind at peace with all below,
A heart whose love is innocent!
Isn’t that lovely? Sigh.
