{"id":2249,"date":"2011-01-11T20:45:16","date_gmt":"2011-01-11T10:45:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.msnaughty.com\/blog\/?p=2249"},"modified":"2011-01-11T20:45:16","modified_gmt":"2011-01-11T10:45:16","slug":"down-the-rivers-dim-expanse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/msnaughty.com\/blog\/2011\/01\/11\/down-the-rivers-dim-expanse\/","title":{"rendered":"Down The River’s Dim Expanse"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/param><\/param><\/param><\/embed><\/object><\/code><\/p>\n

I’m flooded in.<\/p>\n

I haven’t been posting on my blog or doing much work lately because I’ve a) been on holidays and b) have been very distracted by an unfolding natural disaster over the last few days. Where I live in Australia is suffering the worst flooding in many years. I’m safe but all the roads into my town are cut by floodwater. And yesterday things became so much worse with flash flooding (see above) and drownings further south. Brisbane is due to be seriously flooded tomorrow and Thursday.<\/p>\n

The disaster is huge in scale and heartbreaking for so many.<\/p>\n

Today, however, there was a more quiet, sad moment. We went down to the water’s edge where the flood is very slowly receding. There an ambulance crew were delivering the body of someone who had died, handing over the maroon-wrapped bundle to the SES emergency workers. They put the body in a small boat and ferried it across the huge, brown, swollen river, presumably to the morgue.<\/p>\n

The death was of natural causes, as far as I know. Even in major emergencies, life – and death – goes on.<\/p>\n

The scene had echoes of the tale of the River Styx and the robed ferryman awaiting his toll. But I also found myself thinking of Alfred Lord Tennyson’s poem, The Lady of Shallott<\/em>. And reading that romantic piece of writing, I felt moved to post it here. I don’t have prayers to offer people caught up in the floods but I do want to say I’m thinking of them. And a beautiful piece of writing is always better than a prayer.<\/p>\n

\"Lady
\nIn the stormy east-wind straining,
\nThe pale yellow woods were waning,
\nThe broad stream in his banks complaining.
\nHeavily the low sky raining
\nOver tower’d Camelot;
\nDown she came and found a boat
\nBeneath a willow left afloat,
\nAnd around about the prow she wrote
\nThe Lady of Shalott.<\/p>\n

And down the river’s dim expanse
\nLike some bold seer in a trance,
\nSeeing all his own mischance —
\nWith a glassy countenance
\nDid she look to Camelot.
\nAnd at the closing of the day
\nShe loosed the chain, and down she lay;
\nThe broad stream bore her far away,
\nThe Lady of Shalott.<\/p>\n

Lying, robed in snowy white
\nThat loosely flew to left and right —
\nThe leaves upon her falling light —
\nThro’ the noises of the night,
\nShe floated down to Camelot:
\nAnd as the boat-head wound along
\nThe willowy hills and fields among,
\nThey heard her singing her last song,
\nThe Lady of Shalott.<\/p>\n

Heard a carol, mournful, holy,
\nChanted loudly, chanted lowly,
\nTill her blood was frozen slowly,
\nAnd her eyes were darkened wholly,
\nTurn’d to tower’d Camelot.
\nFor ere she reach’d upon the tide
\nThe first house by the water-side,
\nSinging in her song she died,
\nThe Lady of Shalott.<\/p>\n

Under tower and balcony,
\nBy garden-wall and gallery,
\nA gleaming shape she floated by,
\nDead-pale between the houses high,
\nSilent into Camelot.
\nOut upon the wharfs they came,
\nKnight and Burgher, Lord and Dame,
\nAnd around the prow they read her name,
\nThe Lady of Shalott.<\/p>\n

Who is this? And what is here?
\nAnd in the lighted palace near
\nDied the sound of royal cheer;
\nAnd they crossed themselves for fear,
\nAll the Knights at Camelot;
\nBut Lancelot mused a little space
\nHe said, “She has a lovely face;
\nGod in his mercy lend her grace,
\nThe Lady of Shalott.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m flooded in. I haven’t been posting on my blog or doing much work lately because I’ve a) been on holidays and b) have been very distracted by an unfolding natural disaster over the last few days. Where I live in Australia is suffering the worst flooding in many years. I’m safe but all the roads into my town are cut by floodwater. And yesterday things became so much worse Read More …<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[341],"class_list":["post-2249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ramblings","tag-flood"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/msnaughty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/msnaughty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/msnaughty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/msnaughty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/msnaughty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/msnaughty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2249\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/msnaughty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/msnaughty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/msnaughty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}