Aug 1, 2017
"Whilst August yet wears her golden crown,
Ripening fields lush- bright with promise;
Summer waxes long, then wanes, quietly passing
Her fading green glory on to riotous Autumn."
- Michelle L. Thieme, August's Crown
"Blessed be the Harvest,
Blessed be the Corn Mother,
Blessed be the Grain God,
For together they nourish both body and soul.
Many blessings I have been given,
I count them now by this bread.
Guardian of the East, I pray for your indulgence.
Hear me now as I request your aid in the cycle of life.
As your winds blow through fields of ripened grain,
Carry loosened seeds upon your back
That they may fall amidst the soil
That is our Mother Earth."
- Lammas Ritual
"'Lughnassad' means 'the funeral games of Lugh', referring to Lugh, the Irish sun god. However, the funeral is not his own, but the funeral games he hosts in honor of his foster-mother Tailte. For that reason, the traditional Tailtean craft fairs and Tailtean marriages (which last for a year and a day) are celebrated at this time. As autumn begins, the Sun God enters his old age, but is not yet dead. It is also a celebration of the first harvest. The Christian religion adopted this theme and called it 'Lammas', meaning 'loaf-mass', a time when newly baked loaves of bread are placed on the altar. An alternative date around August 5 (Old Lammas), when the sun reaches 15 degrees Leo, is sometimes employed by Covens."
- Wiccan Holidays, Lughnassad (July 31 - August 1 Eve)
"Summertime
And the living is easy
Fish are jumpin'
And the cotton is high
Oh, your daddy's rich
And your mama's good lookin'
So hush little baby now
don't you cry
One of these mornin's
You're gonna rise up singin'
Then you'll spread your wings
And take to the sky
But til that mornin'
Ain't nothin' can harm you
With your daddy
And your mammy
standin' by."
- George Gershwin and Dubose Heyward, Porgy and Bess
"All your renown is like the summer flower that blooms and dies; because the sunny glow which brings it forth,
soon slays with parching power."
- Alighieri Dante
"The collision of hail or rain with hard surfaces, or the song of cicadas in a summer field. These sonic events are made out of thousands of isolated sounds; this multitude of sounds, seen as totality, is a new sonic event."
- Iannis Xenakis
"What wondrous life is this I lead!
Ripe apples drop about my head;
The luscious clusters of the vine
Upon my mouth do crush their wine;
The nectarine and curious peach
Into my hands themselves do reach;
Stumbling on melons, as I pass,
Ensnared with flowers, I fall on grass."
- Andrew Marvell, Thoughts in a Garden
"My life is like the summer rose
That opens to the morning sky,
But ere the shades of evening close
Is scattered on the ground - to die."
- Richard Henry Wilde
"And hate the bright stillness of the noon
without wind, without motion.
the only other living thing
a hawk, hungry for prey, suspended
in the blinding, sunlit blue.
And yet how gentle it seems to someone
raised in a landscape short of rain—
the skyline of a hill broken by no more
trees than one can count, the grass,
the empty sky, the wish for water."
- Dana Gioia, California Hills in August
"Open the window, and let the air
Freshly blow upon face and hair,
And fill the room, as it fills the night,
With the breath of the rain's sweet might.
Hark! the burthen, swift and prone!
And how the odorous limes are blown!
Stormy Love's abroad, and keeps
Hopeful coil for gentle sleeps.
Not a blink shall burn to-night
In my chamber, of sordid light;
Nought will I have, not a window-pane,
'Twixt me and the air and the great good rain,
Which ever shall sing me sharp lullabies;
And God's own darkness shall close mine eyes;
And I will sleep, with all things blest,
In the pure earth-shadow of natural rest."
- James Henry Leigh Hunt, A Night Rain in Summer
"In summer, the song sings itself."
- William Carlos Williams
"August rushes by like desert rainfall,
A flood of frenzied upheaval,
Expected,
But still catching me unprepared.
Like a matchflame
Bursting on the scene,
Heat and haze of crimson sunsets.
Like a dream
Of moon and dark barely recalled,
A moment,
Shadows caught in a blink.
Like a quick kiss;
One wishes for more
But it suddenly turns to leave,
Dragging summer away."
- Elizabeth Maua Taylor
"In August, the large masses of berries, which, when in flower, had attracted many wild bees, gradually assumed their bright velvety crimson hue, and by their weight again bent down and broke their tender limbs."
- Henry David Thoreau
"Summer is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces up, snow is exhilarating; there is no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather."
- John Ruskin
"The moon is at her full, and riding high,
Floods the calm fields with light.
The airs that hover in the summer sky
Are all asleep to-night."
- William C. Bryant
"As in the bread and wine, so it is with me.
Within all forms is locked a record of the past
And a promise of the future.
I ask that you lay your blessings upon me, Ancient Ones,
That this season of waning light
And increasing darkness may not be heavy.
So Mote It Be!"
- Faille, Lammas Ritual
"Oh, the summer night,
Has a smile of light,
And she sits on a sapphire throne."
- Barry Cornwall
"There's a time each year
That we always hold dear,
Good old summer time;
With the birds and the trees'es
And sweet scented breezes,
Good old summer time,
When you day's work is over
Then you are in clover,
And life is one beautiful rhyme,
No trouble annoying,
Each one is enjoying,
The good old summer time."
- Lyrics by Ron Shields, In the Good Old Summertime
"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?"
- William Shakespeare
“The streets lie, the sidewalks lie, everything lies
You can try and read it but you're gonna get it wrong...all wrong
The summer evenings burn and melt and the nights glitter but you're gonna get it wrong
And it's gonna sink its teeth into your flesh and pull you to the bottom.”
- Henry Rollins
"Once upon a Lammas Night
When corn rigs are bonny,
Beneath the Moon's unclouded light,
I held awhile to Annie...
The time went by with careless heed
Between the late and early,
With small persuasion she agreed
To see me through the barley...
Corn rigs and barley rigs,
Corn rigs are bonny!
I'll not forget that happy night
Among the rigs with Annie!"
- Robert Burns
"I celebrate myself, and what I assume you shall assume, For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you. I loafe and invite my soul, I lean and loafe at my ease ... observing a spear of summer grass."
- Walt Whitman
"Let your children be as so many flowers, borrowed from God. If the flowers die or wither, thank God for a summer loan of them."
- Samuel Rutherford
"O Spirit of the Summertime!
Bring back the roses to the dells;
The swallow from her distant clime,
The honey-bee from drowsy cells.
Bring back the friendship of the sun;
The gilded evenings, calm and late,
When merry children homeward run,
And peeping stars bid lovers wait.
Bring back the singing; and the scent
Of meadowlands at dewy prime;—
Oh, bring again my heart's content,
Thou Spirit of the Summertime!"
- William Allingham
"When summer gathers up her robes of glory, and like a dream of beauty glides away."
- Sarah Helen Power Whitman
"Fairest of the months!
Ripe summer's queen
The hey-day of the year
With robes that gleam with sunny sheen
Sweet August doth appear."
- R. Combe Miller
"The Queen of Hearts, she made some tarts,
All on a summer day:
The Knave of Hearts, he stole those tarts,
And took them quite away!"
- Lewis Carroll
"Like a welcome summer rain, humor may suddenly cleanse and cool the earth, the air and you."
- Langston Hughes
"When in still air and still in summertime
A leaf has had enough of this, it seems
To make up its mind to go; fine as a sage
Its drifting in detachment down the road."
- Howard Nemerov, Threshold
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