Durham Cathedral was beautiful, and has won lots of architecture and beloved building awards. No pictures were allowed inside so I have to rely on memory, but it was definitely one of the coolest cathedrals I've seen (and I've seen a lot)!
Sidenote: being in England just spurs a lot of Harry Potter trivia. Some parts of the HP movies were filmed at Durham Cathedral, and this week I learned that Mrs. Norris, the crotchety old cat, is named after a character in Jane Austen's Mansfield Park. The Brits do seem to love HP as much as we do!
We drove two more hours to Lindisfarne. The Holy Island, as it is known, is only an island at high tide, and we made it back without getting trapped! We visited the priory, which is a place where monks once lived, and is also the place where Celtic Christianity was first introduced to Britain. Then we hiked up to Lindisfarne Castle. We were supposed to go inside, but it was mysteriously closed. By then the sun had come out and we were in one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen, so we were happy to explore the coast and the fields, complete with sheep!
Today has been full of homework. I wrote a paper about W.H. Auden, whom I love, and read a bit of Boudica, a novel about the native Brits rebelling against Rome that prof. Bratt has assigned us. This week is looking good, I hope you all enjoy yours as well.
Lullaby Lay your sleeping head, my love,
Human on my faithless arm;
Time and fevers burn away
Individual beauty from
Thoughtful children, and the grave
Proves the child ephemeral:
But in my arms till break of day
Let the living creature lie,
Mortal, guilty, but to me
The entirely beautiful.
Human on my faithless arm;
Time and fevers burn away
Individual beauty from
Thoughtful children, and the grave
Proves the child ephemeral:
But in my arms till break of day
Let the living creature lie,
Mortal, guilty, but to me
The entirely beautiful.
Soul and body have no bounds:
To lovers as they lie upon
Her tolerant enchanted slope
In their ordinary swoon,
Grave the vision Venus sends
Of supernatural sympathy,
Universal love and hope;
While an abstract insight wakes
Among the glaciers and the rocks
The hermit's carnal ecstasy.
To lovers as they lie upon
Her tolerant enchanted slope
In their ordinary swoon,
Grave the vision Venus sends
Of supernatural sympathy,
Universal love and hope;
While an abstract insight wakes
Among the glaciers and the rocks
The hermit's carnal ecstasy.
Certainty, fidelity
On the stroke of midnight pass
Like vibrations of a bell
And fashionable madmen raise
Their pedantic boring cry:
Every farthing of the cost,
All the dreaded cards foretell,
Shall be paid, but from this night
Not a whisper, not a thought,
Not a kiss nor look be lost.
On the stroke of midnight pass
Like vibrations of a bell
And fashionable madmen raise
Their pedantic boring cry:
Every farthing of the cost,
All the dreaded cards foretell,
Shall be paid, but from this night
Not a whisper, not a thought,
Not a kiss nor look be lost.
Beauty, midnight, vision dies:
Let the winds of dawn that blow
Softly round your dreaming head
Such a day of welcome show
Eye and knocking heart may bless,
Find our mortal world enough;
Noons of dryness find you fed
By the involuntary powers,
Nights of insult let you pass
Watched by every human love.
Let the winds of dawn that blow
Softly round your dreaming head
Such a day of welcome show
Eye and knocking heart may bless,
Find our mortal world enough;
Noons of dryness find you fed
By the involuntary powers,
Nights of insult let you pass
Watched by every human love.
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