How Clear, How Lovely Bright

Soaring up from the eastern sea, this Pied Coorawong enjoys his breakfast, a large worm or more likely a tiny skink whose tail can still be seen dangling from the beak. (Photo: DW Chambers)

How clear, how lovely bright,
How beautiful to sight
Those beams of morning play;
How heaven laughs out with glee
Where, like a bird set free,
Up from the eastern sea
Soars the delightful day.

Many readers will recognize the first stanza of what may be A. E. Housman’s most popular poem, a composition I saw enacted before my eyes just as I began today’s morning meditation. I apologize for the ornithological dietary note in the caption, which does perhaps detract from the glory of the sunrise recorded both in the photo and delightfully in Housman’s vivid verse. Like many others, having discovered Housman’s Shropshire Lad in high school, I promptly committed this one to memory. The main attraction for me was actually the second stanza which bolstered the courage of an Oklahoma lad, who although profoundly lazy was somehow already hopeful of making a certain mark in the world.

To-day I shall be strong,
No more shall yield to wrong,
Shall squander life no more;
Days lost, I know not how,
I shall retrieve them now;
Now I shall keep the vow
I never kept before.