Pictures and Poetry. Not my poetry. I wouldn't do that to ya'll.

We are back to school here. But even with lesson plans, math reviews and diagramming sentences, my mind still roams back to London and our lovely lovely adventure. Luckily, I can call it school as the triplets are taking a British Literature course!!

I am still poring through the 2,525 photos I snapped. I still haven't seen them all but am struck -- as I warned I would be -- by my obsession with the Queen Elizabeth Tower (that houses Big Ben) and Parliament. Our hotel was right across the Westminster Bridge from these breath-taking sites and I may have snapped a photo with every single coming and going. So when the kids and I opened our poetry books yesterday to discover a sonnet written on the Westminster Bridge, I really did feel like we were right back meandering through the many (many many) tourists to get to the other side. We've deduced that the Mr. William Wordsworth obviously didn't have as many tourists on the bridge with him...it being 1802 and all....but I have to share! (Besides, it gives me a great chance to share a few of the dozens of photos I took from that very bridge!)

Our first glimpse.

Composed Upon Westminster Bridge, 
September 3, 1802

Earth has not anything to show more fair;

Dull would he be of soul who could pass by

A sight so touching in its majesty:

A rainy view from the London Eye. (That is Westminster Bridge!)

This City now doth, like a garment, wear

The beauty of the morning; silent, bare,

Ships, towers, domes, theater, and temples lie

Open unto the fields, and to the sky

All bright and glittering in the smokeless air.

Never did sun more beautifully steep

In his first splendor, valley, rock, or hill;

Ne'er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep!

The river glideth at his own sweet will:

Dear God! the very houses seem asleep,

All all that mighty heart is lying still!!

--William Wordsworth 

Thank you, Mr. Wordsworth. Thank you.