Splendor in the Grass

Kevin Coolidge

Don't judge a book by its cover. You might miss a good story. You've heard it before. We all have. Of course it's also a metaphor for life.

All kinds of people like to read. Maybe you think you know what somebody likes to read just by looking at them. Chances are you would be wrong.

When Hobo, our bookstore cat, died in January, we received several heartfelt sympathy cards, but perhaps the one that touched me the most quoted a stanza from "Intimations of Immortality," by William Wordsworth more commonly known as "Splendour in the Grass".

It was sent by a man who enjoys the classics. Many might not think a younger man with visible tattoos would enjoy reading, let along appreciate the romantic poets. You would be wrong.

There's no escaping death in our world, but we look beyond the loss. Perhaps we will remember the sunshine, the wind, and the splendor in the grass...


“What though the radiance which was once so bright
Be now for ever taken from my sight,
Though nothing can bring back the hour
Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower;
We will grieve not, rather find
Strength in what remains behind;
In the primal sympathy
Which having been must ever be;
In the soothing thoughts that spring
Out of human suffering;
In the faith that looks through death,
In years that bring the philosophic mind.” – William Wordsworth