Bits and Bites

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Put your arms around someone

Just put your arms around someone
Never know whose waiting for a little love
It's not a waste of time
We got enough
So put your arms around someone
There's a whole lot of hurt going around
If you got a smile
Won't you pass it down
It's going to mean so much
So go on go on and put your arms around someone

---

Jeannettte McCurdy
Lyrics from Put your arms around someone

Good things

come in all kinds of packages.

Pic of the day

And swam for Love

If, in the month of dark December,
Leander, who was nightly wont
(What maid will not the tale remember?)
To cross thy stream, broad Hellespont!

If, when the wintry tempest roared,
He sped to Hero, nothing loath,
And thus of old thy current poured,
Fair Venus! how I pity both!

For me, degenerate modern wretch,
Though in the genial month of May,
My dripping limbs I faintly stretch,
And think I’ve done a feat today.

But since he crossed the rapid tide,
According to the doubtful story,
To woo—and—Lord knows what beside,
And swam for Love, as I for Glory;

’Twere hard to say who fared the best:
Sad mortals! thus the gods still plague you!
He lost his labour, I my jest;
For he was drowned, and I’ve the ague.

---

Lord George Gordon Byron (1788 - 1824)
Written After Swimming From Sestos To Abydos

Gimme some of that ol' time . . .

Henry Scott Tuke: Idylls of youth (1858 - 1929)

O delicate youth, thy praises shall be sung
While yet my heart is young . . .
While Life and I, in search of lovely things,
Go out with dancing feet and dreaming eyes,
And find wild Folly, with her rainbow wings,
Sweeter than all the wisdom of the wise.

O delicate Youth, thy praises shall be sung
While yet my heart is young . . .
Thy whiteness, and thy brightness, and the sweet
Flushed softness of thy little restless feet . . .
The tossed and sunny tangle of thy hair,
Thy swiftness, slimness, shyness, simpleness,
That set the old folk sighing for the rare
Red rose of Joy thy careless days possess.

. . . And when at last, with sad, indifferent face,
I walk in narrow pathways patiently;
Forgetful of thy beauty, and thy truth,
Thy ringing laughter, thy rebellious grace . . .
When fair Love turns his face away from me . . .
Then, let me die, O delicate sweet Youth!

---

Olive Custance (1874 - 1944)
In Praise of Youth

Henry Scott Tuke

Henry Scott Tuke (1858 - 1929) was a British painter and photographer. Shown here are some of his paintings of youths, most from the late 1890's, early 1900's, in Falmouth, Cornwall. For those who might question the age of the models, we should remember that this was over a century ago and attitudes reflected a much different time than today. It's unfortunate that we have apparently lost the freedom that allowed Tuke to paint his models and that allowed the youths the simplicity of their innocence. It should be noted that,

"Although Tuke's paintings of nude youths undoubtedly appealed to his gay friends and art-buyers, they are never explicitly sexual. The models' genitals are almost never shown, they are almost never in physical contact with each other, and there is never any suggestion of overt sexuality. Most of the paintings have the nude models standing or crouching on the beach facing out to sea, so only the back view is displayed."
Catherine Wallace, Catching the Light: the art and life of Henry Scott Tuke 1858–1929

According to Wallace, all of Tuke's regular models were called up during WWI and, as expected, some did not return.