Douglas Adams Continuum (DAC)

Oh, Gah!
While listening to the Dubliners I almost fell over, like the old saying goes 'helplessly noticing the ground getting closer'. There's this poem by Patrick Kavanagh which Luke Kelly added some music to. And it is by far the strongest description of the helplessness rendered by being 'hit' by the old compadre 'love' I could ever imagine.

Here it goes, Raglan Road By Patrick Kavanagh:


On Raglan Road of an autumn day

I saw her first and knew

That her dark hair would weave a snare

That I might one day rue

I saw the danger and I passed

Along the enchanted way

And said let grief be a fallen leaf

At the dawning of the day



On Grafton Street in November

We tripped lightly along the ledge

Of a deep ravine where can be seen

The worth of passion's pledge

The Queen of Hearts still making tarts

And I not making hay

Oh I loved too much and by such by such

Is happiness thrown away



I gave her gifts of the mind

I gave her the secret signs

Known to the artists who have known

The true gods of sound and stone

And word and tint I did not stint

I gave her poems to say

With her own name there

And her own dark hair

Like clouds over fields of May



On a quiet street where old ghosts meet

I see her walking now

Away from me so hurriedly
My reason must allow

That I had loved not as I should

A creature made of clay

When the angel woos the clay

He'll lose his wings at the dawn of day

By Douglas, these are some very fine words, holy smoke...

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Ophelia was a preference, not humanly accessible, not as such.

Very, very nice. I loved Luke Kelly, such a shame that he was taken away from us so early...

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Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.
(Douglas Adams, "Last Chance to See")