How many Books are inspired by Television Commercials?

May 6, 2013

The popular Yellow Pages television commercial posted below aired in the UK in 1983.  Actor Norman Lumsden portrays JR Hartley, a man trying to locate a bookstore that stocks a book he wrote.

A 27 September 2009 article in The Telegraph, “Title Deed: How the Book got its Name,” by Gary Dexter, explains how the commercial led to a series of actual books authored by Michael Russel and published under the fictional Hartley’s name:

Fly Fishing was at first just a title: it appeared in the famous Yellow Pages ad in which an old man, one JR Hartley, makes telephone calls to bookshops asking for a book of that name and, after much searching, finally finds it and announces himself as its author. Then the sports-writer Roddy Bloomfield sensed an opportunity. He contacted a bona fide fly-fisherman, Michael Russell, to write the book of the ad, and in Christmas 1991 Fly Fishing by JR Hartley shifted an eye-watering 130,000 copies in hardback. It was followed by two sequels, JR Hartley Casts Again and Golfing by JR Hartley. Two other examples of ‘fictional’ titles spawning real books are L Sprague de Camp’s Necronomicon, drawn from the non-existent book by HP Lovecraft, and Philip José Farmer’s Venus on the Half-Shell, a realization of a fictional work by Kilgore Trout (himself the fictional creation of Kurt Vonnegut).

Despite the unusual source of inspiration for the book, Russel’s Fly Fishing, is really a great read. I recommend it very highly to fly fishers on non-fishers alike. Incidentally, the book and its sequels were best sellers.  The out-of-print Fly Fishing is now a collectible title.

Posted in Fly Fishing Literature, The Arts | Leave a Comment »

Local and Handmade (You don’t Hear it often Enough): Drawbaugh Outdoors Landing Nets

April 29, 2013

IMG-20130406-00049

IMG-20130406-00048

I recently went to the grand opening of the Pennsylvanian Fly Fishing Museum. There, I came across some wonderful landing nets from Drawbaugh Outdoors, based in Dover, PA. These beautiful nets are made by Chad and Billie Jo Drawbaugh (pictured), who are assisted in marketing and other matters by Jack Gotwalt.

The most obvious characteristics of D.O. Nets are their beauty and quality.  The picture above, which I took on my cellphone, does not do justice to them.  No doubt, if you contact Jack, Billie Jo, or Chad, they will be happy to provide you with better photos of their products. In such photos, you will see that D.O. nets are carefully constructed in pleasing and practical forms.

The fine construction of D.O. Nets contrasts greatly with that of many cheaper wooden and bamboo nets available today.  Looking at these latter nets, you can see with your own eye that they are often glued and varnished imperfectly.  Such problems in construction are no small thing; a few years back I picked up a cheap, wooden net after traveling to a fishing destination via plane.  During my trip, I stumbled and very briefly placed some of my weight upon the net. It broke and splintered in a break that was comparable to an explosion. I’m grateful that a portion of the splintered net didn’t pierce my upper arm, especially since I was fishing alone, in a remote area, in grizzly country. Of course, imperfect construction can lead to much more subtle problems, such as premature delamination (I say “premature” because even the finest nets should be treated with at least some care).

I am as impressed by the materials used in D.O. Nets as I am by their construction.  Chad and Billie Jo can make a net of whatever suitable woods that a customer prefers. Many fly fishers interested in handmade tackle prefer exotic woods.  I can understand this preference.  To me, though, fly fishing is largely about place.  It’s about getting to know a particular place–a particular ecosystem. This knowledge is necessary to successful fishing.  But appreciating a particular place is what makes it pleasurable.  Thus, I am most interested in tackle that reflects my relationship to the places I fish.  In other words, I prefer domestic and often local materials.  Drawbaugh Outdoors makes their standard nets of such woods.

My profession is not one that typically brings great wealth, to put it mildly. As a man of modest means, I am very mindful of what I pay for fly fishing related items. It’s true, of course, that quality products are generally more expensive than inferior ones.  And it’s also true that quality products will last much longer than inferior ones. Fortunately, D.O. Nets are both high quality and fairly priced.  And while I have yet to purchase my own, I am willing to bet that D.O. nets will serve you every bit as well or better than a more expensive one.  And, if you’re like me — if you are mindful of your relationship to place — the materials used in the nets might bring you some added pleasure too.

You can contact Drawbaugh Outdoors at 717-580-5595 or at info@drawbaughoutdoors.com.  You can also find them on facebook at http://www.facebook.com/DrawbaughOutdoors.  If you’re in the market for a landing net that is both beautiful and practical, get a hold of Billie Jo, Chad, or Jack.  They can provide you with a net that is suitable for landing anything from native brook trout to wild salmon and steelhead.  They offer both nylon and rubber “catch-and-release” netting material.

Posted in Fly Fishing, Fly Fishing Tackle, The Arts, The Environment | 3 Comments »

Short Reading List of Angling and other Environmental Literature. Recommendations?

April 24, 2013

As the semester comes to a close, I am providing my “Religion, Nature, and Environment” students (the theme is fly fishing literature) with a bibliography of selected readings.  If you feel that there are any important texts that must be included in a reading list on the topics mentioned, please let me know. Of course, the wonderful texts we’ve already read in class are not included here.  Note that I will add titles, as I think of them and as they are recommended to me.

IMG-20130424-00094

Bibliography of Selected Angling, Environmental, and other Outdoor Literature (to serve as supplements to assigned readings).

RELI 438, Spring 2013

Henry David Thoreau, Walden, 1854.

Essays produced during transcendentalist Thoreau’s two-year stay at Walden Pond, in MA.

Antoine de Saint-Exupery, Wind, Sand, and Stars, 1939.

Early reflections by acclaimed aviator, best known for writing The Little Prince.

Beryl Markham, West with the Night, 1942.

Amazing memoir by aviation pioneer, who spent her childhood and young adult years in Africa.

Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac, and Sketches Here and There, 1949.

Foundational book in American conservationism.

Heinrich Harrar, Seven Years in Tibet, 1952.

Austrian Mountaineer and Himalayan explorer (and then member of the Nazi Ahnenerbe) described his escape from Allied  internment in India, and subsequent years spent in Lhasa with the Dalai Lama (book was made into film starring Brad Pitt).

Henry Bugbee, The Inward Morning: A Philosophical Exploration in Journal Form, 1958.

Lyrical wilderness philosophy, in the existentialist vein, from University of Montana professor and angler.

Thomas Merton, Thoughts in Solitude. Farrar, Straus & Cudahy. 1958.

One of many books on contemplation by Trappist monk and nature mystic.

Rachel Carson, Silent Spring, 1962.

Book that helped launch the modern environmentalist movement.

John McDonald, Quill Gordon, 1972.

Historical essays on fly fishing literature by economist and Fortune magazine contributor.

Barry Lopez, Arctic Dreams: Imagination and Desire in a Northern Landscape, 1986.

National Book Award winner by prolific author of environmental literature.

Arnold Gingrich, The Fishing in Print, 1974.

Detailed, bibliographic tour of angling literature through the centuries, by founding editor of Esquire magazine and early promoter of Hemingway and others.

Robert Traver (John Voelker), Trout Magic, 1974.

Entertaining essays by circuit-court judge and famed author of Anatomy of a Murder.

Peter Mattheissen, The Snow Leopard, 1978.

Chronicles personal and professional Himalayan quest by founder of The Paris Review literary magazine.

Gaston Bachelard, Water and Dreams: an Essay on the Imagination of Matter,  1983 (orig. published in French, 1942).

Influential French philosopher and historian of science considers the epistemological significance (or significations) of water.  The text is part of a larger series.

Russell Chatham, Dark Waters: Essays, Stories, and Articles, 1988.

Successful artist and angler reflects upon past experiences and friendships with such figures as writer Richard Brautigan.

Harry Middleton, The Earth is Enough, 1989.

Moving memoir of a childhood spent with eccentric, fly fishing grandfather and uncle by the later nature writer, which now has a cult following.

Doug Peacock, The Grizzly Years: In Search of the American Wilderness, 1990.

Vietnam-era Special Forces medic retreats to the Glacier National Park area to find himself again and becomes grizzly expert along the way.  Peacock is the model for one of environmental writer Edward Abbey’s.

Pete Fromm, Indian Creek Chronicles: A Winter in the Wilderness, 1993.

Author leaves college to work alone in Idaho’s Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness.

Lyla Foggia, Reel Women: The World of Women who Fish, 1997.

Addresses various female figures in the world of fishing, from Juliana Berners to living individuals.

John Krakauer, Into Thin Air, 1997.

Book based upon tragic 1996 deaths on Mount Everest.  Krakauer was there as a journalist for Outside magazine.  He also authored Into the Wild.

Craig Nova, Brook Trout and the Writing Life, 1999.

Describes the place of fish and family in Nova’s early years as a writer.

Thomas McGuane, Some Horses: Essays, 2000.

Reflections upon individual horses loved and admired by McGuane.

Kathy Scott, Moose in the Water/Bamboo on the Bench : a Journal and a Journey, 2000.

Reflective essays upon craft[wo]manship and nature.

Thomas McGuane, The Longest Silence, 2001.

An acclaimed series of essays on angling by one of America’s best know Western writers.

Jamling T. Norgay, Touching My Father’s Soul: A Sherpa’s Journey to the Top of Everest, 2002.

Book by son of Tenzing Norgay, Sherpa who was first to summit Mt. Everest, alongside Sir Edmund Hillary.

 Yvon Chouinard, Let My People Go Surfing, 2005.

Patagonia’s founder explains how he came to understand that sustainable business can be profitable.

Steven Kotler, West of Jesus: Surfing, Science, and the Origins of Belief, 2007.

Book explores the phenomenon of “soul surfing,” and other forms of outdoor recreation often described as religious, from a biological perspective.

Wayne K. Sheldrake, Instant Karma: The Heart and Soul of a Ski Bum (Ghost Road Press, 2007).

Religiously oriented memoir of an avid skier’s early years.

Paul Schullery, Royal Coachman, 1999.

Essays on fly fishing history in the U.S.

Maximillian Werner, Black River Dreams, 2009.

Reflective, religiously oriented essays on angling by creative-writing professor.

Anders Halverson, An Entirely Synthetic Fish, 2010.

Highly acclaimed book on the role of non-native fish in changing the American landscape.

Erin Block.  The View from Coal Creek, 2011.

The writer describes her angling centered life in Colorado.

Eric Eisenkramer and Michael Attas, Fly-Fishing, the Sacred Art: Casting a Fly as a Spiritual Practice, 2012.

Co-authored by a Reform Rabbi and an Episcopal Priest/MD.

 

Tags:
Posted in Fishing and Religion, Fly Fishing Literature, The Environment | 18 Comments »

A North Carolina Evening: Bluegrass in the Town Square

April 20, 2013

Center-20130420-00084

My wife, and daughter, and I enjoyed a pleasant evening downtown in our community, listening to local resident Tommy Edwards (founder of The Bluegrass Experience) and Friends.  Edwards is a legendary guitar player.  And among his “friends” tonight he had mandolin player Jerry Stuart.  According to Henderson and others, David Grisman identifies Stuart as his musical hero.  That’s something.  Yep, I like classic fly fishing tackle and old timey music too.

Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments »

The Romantics, Blake, and Water

April 10, 2013
Sabrina's Silvery Flood

“Sabrina’s Silvery Flood,” from Robert John Thornton’s “The Pastorals of Virgil.” William Blake, 1821.

In preparing a lecture on the possible relationship between the Romantic Movement and the eventual embrace of outdoor recreation (other than field sports) in the United States, I found myself thinking of William Blake. Blake is certainly not one of the optimistic romantics, such as transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau, who might normally come to mind when thinking about outdoor recreation. Still, Blake’s poetry and visual art are stunning. In his song “Memory, hither come,” composed when he was just a boy, Blake captures the sense of mystery that all moving water embodies with just a few words.

“Memory, hither come” (1783)

Memory, hither come,
And tune your merry notes;
And, while upon the wind
Your music floats,

I’ll pore upon the stream
Where sighing lovers dream,
And fish for fancies as they pass
Within the watery glass.

I’ll drink of the clear stream,
And hear the linnet’s song;
And there I’ll lie and dream
The day along:

And, when night comes, I’ll go
To places fit for woe,
Walking along the darken’d valley
With silent Melancholy.

Posted in Fly Fishing Literature, The Arts | 4 Comments »

Museums, Nature, and the Substance of the Things we Love.

April 9, 2013

A man is the substance of the things he loves. The love of Nature was passed on to me and I in turn am passing it along. Maybe in their overcrowded world my boy and girl will discover escape from the concentrations and complications of people and revel in their own outdoors.

Charlie Fox, “By Way of Introduction” (no page number), Rising Trout (Carlisle: Foxcrest, 1967).

Charlie Fox Memorial, Letort

Charlie Fox Memorial, Letort Spring Run

This last weekend, I visited Central Pennsylvania, where I used to work and live for much of each year, to attend the 66th Anniversary Banquet of the Fly Fisher’s Club of Harrisburg.  I have written about this club, founded by Charlie Fox and Vince Marinaro, before.   Being in attendance at the dinner of this second oldest fly fishing club in America is always a somewhat humbling experience, when considered in the light of the figures who attended in the past.

This year, many of those figures were honored at the grand opening of the Pennsylvania Fly Fishing Museum (the website is not yet updated), now permanently installed at the Allenberry Resort in Boiling Springs, PA.  Of course, the museum will remain open henceforth.

IMG-20130406-00050

George Harvey Display

IMG-20130406-00060

Vince Marinaro Display

Visitors to the museum can enjoy the incredible displays focusing upon George Harvey and Vince Marinaro.  Both of these displays are reconstructions of these figures’ respective fly tying and rod building rooms.  In the latter, the visitor can see no less than four of Marinaro’s own, incredibly rare bamboo rods.  Between these two displays are shelves and full display cases devoted to other famous figures in Pennsylvania fly fishing history.  Of course, many of these figures influenced the development of fly fishing techniques, associated literature, and cold water conservation well beyond the boundaries of their state.

IMG-20130406-00056

Gene Utech Display

IMG-20130406-00054

Ed Shenk Display

For me, the highlights of the visit included seeing a shelf devoted to Gene Utech, a master of wet fly fishing techniques.  Gene was a close friend, to whom I was introduced by fishing buddy John Bechtel.  Gene, sadly, is now deceased, but I am immensely happy his love of fly fishing will live on in this museum.  A second highlight of the visit was shaking Ed Shenk’s hand.  While I have done so numerous times before, shaking Ed’s aging hand at this particular time, after viewing the display devoted to him, held special significance.  The final highlight included meeting (or renewing acquaintances with) the numerous visitors who were sharing their handmade bamboo rods, flies, landing nets, and art with the public. I was particularly impressed with the affordable (truly affordable — no lie) yet stunning nets offered by Drawbaugh Outdoors (info@drawbaughoutdoors.com).  I will devote a separate post to them, however, as honest, affordable, handmade products deserve special attention these days.

Gene Utech's 80th, Yellow Breeches 3

Gene Utech’s 80th Birthday, on the Yellow Breeches

Any angler or lover of the outdoors (notice my avoidance of the term “nature,” the meaning of which is so very complicated) would enjoy the PA Fly Fishing Museum.  But it is equally true that such people would enjoy the literature produced by many of the people honored there.  One will find no more sincere a lover of the outdoors than Charlie Fox, who is quoted in the epigraph.  If you are a tree hugger and clean water lover — if you love the substances of this world, of which we are all made — he is your man.

Please forgive the poor quality photos.  Most of them, with the exception of the birthday party photo by Leslie Bechtel, were taken on a camera phone.  I am simply too lazy (or focused upon the present) to carry a decent camera around.

Tags: ,
Posted in Uncategorized | 5 Comments »

Springtime and Wildness in Appalachia

April 1, 2013
IMG-20130330-00038

Wild, native Appalachian brook trout, caught last week (on a fly I first learned about while living in Arizona).

A tame animal is already invested with a certain falsity by its tameness. By becoming what we want it to be, it takes a disguise which we have decided to impose upon it.

Even a wild animal, merely “observed,” is not seen as it really is, but rather in the light of our investigation (color changed by fluorescent lighting).

But people who watch birds and animals are already wise in their way.

I want not only to observe but to know living things, and this implies a dimension of primordial familiarity which is simple and primitive and religious and poor.

This is the reality I need, the vestige of God in His Creatures.

Fr. Thomas Merton, O.C.S.O.  When the Trees say Nothing, edited by Kathleen Deignam (Notre Dame: Sorin Books, 2003), 45.  From Merton’s diaries, written at The Trappist Abbey of our Lady of Gethsemani, Kentucky.

IMG-20130330-00037

Black bear paw print at my favorite Southern Appalachian Stream. It’s an encouraging fact that black bears and brook trout still persist among all the other human and non-human immigrants to the American Southeast.

Posted in Fly Fishing, The Environment | 5 Comments »

W.B. Yeats’ “The Fisherman”

March 20, 2013

I was reading A.A. Luce’s Fishing and Thinking (19590 today. Luce considered himself a great empiricist, inspired by philosopher George Berkeley. It stuck me as odd, then, that Luce was a fan of W.B. Yeats’ poetry. Yeats had a rather fanciful imagination.

Luce reflects upon the meaning of Yeats’ poem, “The Fisherman,” and wonders why this boyhood acquaintance and later colleague wrote about a fly fisher, instead of some other figure. Ultimately, he decides it is because angling “takes us out of ourselves, and confronts us with the comforting blank wall of something not ourselves, to which our sensing, imagining, thinking and action must conform” (Fishing and Thinking, 82).

Luce continues:

The fresh air, the open spaces, the physical exercise, the nature of the occupation and the objectivity of the chase combine to make angling a sedative and a general tonic for the occupational dis-ease of the man of letters; and if W.B. Yeats had found it so, as seems probable, it is no wonder that in later life he turned back nostalgically to the sport of his young and active days, and idealized it. (Fishing and Thinking, 83)

I do not agree with Luce about many things — I suppose I am more of a romantic than an empiricist — but I do share his admiration of Yeats and his belief that fly fishing calms our souls by connecting us with what something real, that is beyond ourselves.

“The Fisherman,” by W.B. Yeats, first published in Poetry, 1916.

Although I can see him still—

The freckled man who goes

To a gray place on a hill

In gray Connemara clothes

At dawn to cast his flies—

It’s long since I began

To call up to the eyes

This wise and simple man.

All day I’d looked in the face

What I had hoped it would be

To write for my own race

And the reality:

The living men that I hate,

The dead man that I loved,

The craven man in his seat,

The insolent unreproved—

And no knave brought to book

Who has won a drunken cheer—

The witty man and his joke

Aimed at the commonest ear,

The clever man who cries

The catch cries of the clown,

The beating down of the wise

And great Art beaten down.

Maybe a twelve-month since

Suddenly I began,

In scorn of this audience,

Imagining a man,

And his sun-freckled face

And gray Connemara cloth,

Climbing up to a place

Where stone is dark with froth,

And the down turn of his wrist

When the flies drop in the stream—

A man who does not exist,

A man who is but a dream;

And cried, “Before I am old

I shall have written him one

Poem maybe as cold

And passionate as the dawn.

Posted in Fly Fishing Literature, The Arts, The Environment | 2 Comments »

Chasing “mamiiksi” near Raven’s Home

March 15, 2013

DSC02430

I visit Southern Alberta, in Canada, regularly.  My family has roots in the area, primarily on the other side of the Alberta/Montana border, in Glacier National Park and on the Blackfeet Reservation. Also, my academic work has brought me to this area many times over the years to visit with Blackfoot religious leaders and practitioners, primarily among the North Piikani Blackfoot band. These days, my visits are also personally motivated.  I have many friends here, and there is some pretty great fishing too.

In the Blackfoot language, the word for fish (plural) is mamiiksi. There are a lot of them in Blackfoot Country, though  their abundance does not mean that they are easily caught. In addition to the wiliness and strength of the mamiiksi, anglers must deal with some truly brutal winds and generally unpredictable weather.

DSC02401

I managed to make a couple of very quick trips to my favorite rivers in Southern Alberta this week.  I did so in between bouts of bad weather and grading different stacks of midterm exams and papers.  I had hoped to get out again today, but the temperature dropped thirty degrees.  Still, my short times at the rivers were enjoyable.

IMG-20130313-00019

My priority during these visits to Alberta is to enjoy the company of friends and to learn from them.   Much of what I have learned actually complements my fishing excursions.  This is because, for me, fly fishing is about experiencing a place and its inhabitants, not just catching fish.

One of my favorite rivers in the area — the river in which I hooked an 18-inch rainbow (pictured above) with a size 20 thread midge yesterday — is the Crowsnest River.  This river flows through an area that is particularly sacred to the Blackfeet.  It’s best not to talk in detail about such places, but let me just say that it is associated with Omahkai’stoo or Raven (literally, “big crow”). Thus, in a sense, the entire area is Raven’s back yard.  He happens to have jurisdiction over winter, as well.  But the rivers are not his. They are the dominion of the “Underwater People.” Fortunately for me, the Underwater People were willing to share some mamiiksi with me during this trip.

DSC02415

I thank my wife for allowing me these trips that are so important to me, professionally and personally.  Of course, I thank my many human friends here, and the non-human persons too, for being such wonderful hosts.  But, it isn’t all roses (FYI, the province calls Southern Alberta “Wild Rose Country”).

Last night, I was leaving a store when a young Piikani man approached me and said, “You look like a nice, kind cowboy.”  He then asked me for some money to get back to the reserve, up the road.  Of course, I’ve been hit up for money by people all around the world.  But this guy had a really pained look in his eyes.  He wasn’t a regular drunk; he was a guy who was wrapping up a particularly bad bender.  He probably knew that he had caused a lot of people a lot of pain in the past few days.  He apologized for asking for money from me with tears in his eyes.  I saw him again this morning, as I had a coffee with a Piikani friend.  The young man came over and greeted my friend in the Blackfoot language, before saying that he needed some help.  My friend asked him what sort of help he needed.  For a moment, I thought that the young man had made an important decision to improve his life.  You see, my friend is a traditional religious elder. Unfortunately, the young man just wanted some more money. Anyway, I hope he made it home. And I hope he is working hard to mend the many things he probably broke during his bender.

In many ways, I consider this area and neighboring northwestern Montana — where I grew up and where my family lives — home. For now, though, life circumstances dictate that I am a visitor. And as much I love it here, I am eager to get back “home” to my beautiful wife, my wonderful daughter, and my fuzzy dog in the East. I’m sure I’ll be back here soon enough, chasing mamiiksi once again very near to Raven’s own home.

Posted in Fly Fishing, The Environment | 4 Comments »

“The Retirement”

March 3, 2013

Izaak Walton first published his immensely popular The Compleat Angler or, The Contemplative Man’s Recreation in 1653.  In 1676, he published the fifth edition of his book, with an added section on fly fishing.  This section, as anyone familiar with the book knows, was authored at Walton’s invitation by poet Charles Cotton.

Walton and Cotton were very close.  Cotton described himself, in correspondence between the two, as Walton’s “son.”  He also dedicated one of his own poems to his much older “father,” mentor, and fishing companion.  This poem is entitled “The Retirement.”  In content, it seems to speak to Walton’s profound love for the English country landscape, and specifically The River Dove, which the two friends fished together (Cotton’s fishing house, which he shared with Walton, is pictured below).

  © Copyright neil gibbs

Creative Commons Licence [Some Rights Reserved]   © Copyright neil gibbs

Upon a close reading, though, it is clear that many of the sentiments are, understandably, Cotton’s.  In his section of The Compleat Angler, Walton praises intimate companionship with fellow sportsmen as highly as he does the landscape created by his “God of Nature.”  (His attitude is remarkably sunny, considering that he published the book just after the conclusion of the long, bloody English Civil War).  Yet, in “The Retirement,”  Cotton speaks longingly of the “solitude,” “safety,” and “privacy” that he can sometimes find on The River Dove.  Moreover, it is quite clear that Walton had no interest in “retirement,” whether on a stream or elsewhere.  After all, he spent many of his last years working on further editions of The Compleat Angler.  In fact, he was 83 years old, when he published the fifth edition.  Still, “The Retirement” is a lovely and all-too-often overlooked poem, which Walton no doubt appreciated, even if it didn’t precisely capture his feelings about fishing and old age.

“The Retirement”*

I.

Farewell, thou busy world! and may
We never meet again;
Here I can eat and sleep, and pray,
And do more good in one short day,
Than he, who his whole age outwears
Upon the most conspicuous theaters,
Where naught but vanity and vice do reign.

II.

Good God! how sweet are all things here!
How beautiful the fields appear!
How cleanly do we feed and lie!
Lord! what good hours do we keep!
How quietly we sleep!
What peace! what unanimity!
How innocent from the lewd fashion
Is all our business, all our recreation!

III.

O, how happy here’s our leisure!
O, how innocent our pleasure!
O ye valleys! O ye mountains!
O ye groves, and crystal fountains!
How I love at liberty,
By turns to come and visit ye!

IV.

Dear solitude, the soul’s best friend,
That man acquainted with himself dost make,
And all his Maker’s wonders to entend,
With thee I here converse at will,
And would be glad to do so still,
For it is thou alone that keep’st the soul awake.

V.

How calm and quiet a delight
Is it alone
To read, and meditate, and write;
By none offended, and offending none!
To walk, ride, sit, or sleep at one’s own ease,
And, pleasing a man’s self, none other to displease!

VI.

O my beloved nymph, fair Dove!
Princess of Rivers! how I love
Upon thy flowery banks to lie,
And view thy silver stream,
When gilded by a summer’s beam
And in it all thy wanton fry
Playing at liberty;
And, with my angle, upon them,
The all of treachery
I ever learned industriously to try.

VII.

Such streams, Rome’s yellow Tiber cannot show,
The Iberian Tagus, or Ligurian Po;
The Maese, the Danube, and the Rhine,
Are puddle-water all, compared with thine;
And Loire’s pure streams yet too polluted are
With thine, much purer, to compare;
The rapid Garonne and the winding Seine,
Are both too mean,
Beloved Dove, with thee
To vie priority;
Nay, Thame and Isis, when conjoined submit,
And lay their trophies at thy silver feet.

VIII.

O my beloved rocks, that rise
To awe the earth and brave the skies!
From some aspiring mountain’s crown,
How dearly do I love,
Giddy with pleasure, to look down,
And from the vales to view the noble heights above!
O my beloved caves! from Dog-star’s heat,
And all anxieties, my safe retreat;
What safety, privacy, what true delight,
In th’ artificial night
Your gloomy entrails make,
Have I taken, do I take!
How oft, when grief has made me fly,
To hide me from society,
Ev’n of my dearest friends, have I
In your recesses’ friendly shade,
All my sorrows open laid,
And my most secret woes intrusted to your privacy!

IX.

Lord! would men let me alone,
What an over-happy one
Should I think myself to be,
Might I, in this desert place,
Which most men in discourse disgrace,
Live but undisturbed and free!
Here, in this despised recess,
Would I, maugre Winter’s cold,
And the Summer’s worst excess,
Try to live out to sixty full years old!
And, all the while,
Without an envious eye,
On any thriving under Fortune’s smile,
Contented live, and then–contented die.

C.C.

*This version of “Retirement” is taken from Izaak Walton and Charles Cotton, The Compleat Angler, or The Contemplative Man’s Recreation, with an Introduction by Howell Raines  (New York: The Modern Library, 1996).   The Modern Library’s text is based upon the 1889 edition of The Compleat Angler, published by James Russell Lowell.

Posted in Fly Fishing Literature | 4 Comments »

« Older Entries
Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 238 other followers