An Abandoned Field at Halesworth
Subtle almost beyond thought are these dim colours,
The mixed, the all-including, the pervasive,
Earth's own delightful livery, banqueting
The eye with dimness that includes all brightness
Ruth Pitter; Dun-Colour
In my beginning is my end. In succession
Houses rise and fall, crumble, are extended,
Are removed, destroyed, restored, or in their place
Is an open field, or a factory, or a by-pass.
Old stone to new building, old timber to new fires,
Old fires to ashes, and ashes to the earth
Which is already flesh, fur and faeces,
Bone of man and beast, cornstalk and leaf.
T. S. Eliot; East Coker
What would the world be, once bereft
Of wet and of wildness? Let them be left,
O let them be left, wildness and wet;
Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet.
Gerard Manley Hopkins; Inversnaid
What profit hath a man of all his labour
Which he taketh under under the sun?
One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh:
But the earth abideth for ever.
The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down,
And hasteth to his place where he arose.
The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north;
It whirleth about continually,
And the wind returneth again according to his circuits.
All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full;
Unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return.
All things are full of labour; man cannot utter it.
The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.
The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be;
And that which is done is that which shall be done:
And there is no new thing under the sun.
Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new?
It hath been hear already of old time, which was before us.
There is no remembrance of former things;
Neither shall there be any remembrance
Of things that are to come
With those that shall come after.
Ecclesiastes; 3-11
