Quote of the Day (T. S. Eliot, on Winter Rain)

“The winter evening settles down

With smell of steaks in passageways.

Six o'clock.

The burnt-out ends of smoky days.

And now a gusty shower wraps

The grimy scraps

Of withered leaves about your feet

And newspapers from vacant lots;

The showers beat

On broken blinds and chimney-pots,

And at the corner of the street

A lonely cab-horse steams and stamps.

“And then the lighting of the lamps.”—American-born English poet, playwright, critic—and Nobel Literature laureate--T. S. Eliot (1888-1965), “Preludes” (written 1910-11, published 1917)

Well, winter in London just before the Great War, when Eliot wrote this (as you can tell from the “cab-horse” reference), is a good deal different from suburban New Jersey (where I am blogging now) nearly 110 years later. But a “gusty shower” is in the air right now, so I identify with the spirit of these lines.