Vintage Bunting this - declare something that she's just heard of as the new! the bold! the edgy! And wasn't Wordsworth rather big on nature and mankind a coupla hundred years ago? And D H Lawrence? And T H White? I haven't even scratched my lice-ridden head with my talon-like nails yet to come up with the names.
"Stop for a moment to examine closely a leaf or a blade of grass, and even these commonplace things become extraordinary."
And William Blake?
To see a world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.
I mean this is not obscure stuff I've dredged up but basic Eng Lit.
"The floods in Yorkshire last month were a sharp reminder of what happens when we don't understand the land on which we live. The sight of thousands of flooded homes made us realise what many previous generations would never have forgotten about the way in which water has to move through land. "
Now if you read the Mill on the Floss, say, you can see that people have known about floods and their causes but have still been flooded for many years. Understanding doesn't stop the rain. But that's more vintage Bunt. One small step of recent news, one giant leap to a cosmic conclusion. It's her style of bringing pronouncements from the gods based on a worm's knowledge that makes her the most kickable of Guardian writers.
Might I submit this as haiku?
Zoiks! Bunting goofs,
Flood in Ilyrium
Classical Proof.
Never dug it myself, but there you go.
Posted by: Flying Rodent | 01 August 2007 at 02:55 AM
I think you are a couple of syllables short of a haiku there...
Posted by: Rosie | 01 August 2007 at 06:03 PM
Haikus are too long anyway. That's good enough for me FR.
Posted by: Paul Evans | 07 August 2007 at 12:18 AM