I conceived of an excellent solution for the incongruous fourth stanza of the “Autumn” poem only to discover—once I considered it in the context of the larger poem—that I had unwittingly created a new problem: its rhyming words shared their diphthongs (/uː/ in “through” and “view”) with those of the very next stanza (that in “dew” and “new”)! This is too overpowering a repetition in the overall structure, and I must now rethink the fourth stanza, once again!
Month: February 2020
March Lilies in February
After an extended period of drought, the Western Cape province of South Africa has experienced a rainy summer. So unusual is this that wild autumn lilies have sprung from the ground a month early!1 Expected only after the first rain of March, this is the Belladonna lily (Amaryllis belladonna) blooming in early February—high summer in South Africa!
- The South African autumn begins in March and ends in May.
There is a new visitor to the wilder parts of the garden of late, what I believe to be a Cape Hare (Lepus capensis). It visits in the morningtide and again in the eventide, and is mostly unconcerned with my presence (though it is a wild animal).
Forgotten Fields 