lørdag den 4. januar 2025

The Second Oopsie-Moment of the Day

And one more Oopsie, MotherOwl. Among your Keepers You had:

Birthdays - of people known and not so known, mostly poets and writers. I like to cite and celebrate.

and yesterday, Friday, January third, was the 133rd birthday of one of my favourite writers: J.R.R. Tolkien! MotherOwl! You had ONE JOB!

I am as I may have told, still trying t improve my drawing skills by drawing the prompts from the Facebook-based group 365 Days of Drawing Prompts. The prompts for Thursday and Friday were Best Memory and Creativity. I let out the "Best" part and combined them to show some good blogging / creativity memories, that I miss: The TUSAL (Totally Useless Stitch-A-Long) challenge hosted by Daffycat every New moon (More explanation here). But since May 2021 no more TUSAL posts were posted on her blog, everything went over to Facebook. And as I am not a big fan of things happening on Facebook, sadly and reluctantly I stopped my participation in this fun Stitch-A-Long. I still miss this challenge - and many more of the same sort from when the blogosphere was more of a a place for lighthearted stuff and fun challenges than it is today.

Yesterday I drew a New moon with a ball of yarn hanging from its upper horn, and an ORTs jar half hidden behind the lower ... Well, why not just show you?
And all this a very long detour to tell why I choose The Man in the Moon Stayed up too Late for this year's belated celebration of Tolkien's birthday.


The Man in the Moon Stayed up too Late
There is an inn, a merry old inn
beneath an old grey hill,
and there they brew a beer so brown
that the Man in the Moon himself came down
one night to drink his fill.

The ostler has a tipsy cat
that plays a five-stringed fiddle;
And up and down he runs his bow,
now squeaking high, now purring low,
now sawing in the middle.

The landlord keeps a little dog
that is mighty fond of jokes;
When there's good cheer among the guests,
he cocks an ear at all the jests
and laughs until he chokes.

They also keep a horned cow
as proud as any queen;
But music turns her head like ale,
and makes her wave her tufted tail
and dance upon the green.

And O! the rows of silver dishes
and the store of silver spoons!
For Sunday there's a special pair,
and these they polish up with care
on Saturday afternoons.

The Man in the Moon was drinking deep,
and the cat began to wail;
A dish and a spoon on the table danced,
the cow in the garden madly pranced,
and the little dog chased his tail.

The Man in the Moon took another mug,
and then rolled beneath his chair;
And there he dozed and dreamed of ale,
till in the sky the stars were pale,
and dawn was in the air.

Then the ostler said to his tipsy cat;
"The white horses of the Moon,
they neigh and champ their silver bits;
but their master's been and drowned his wits,
and the Sun'll be rising soon!"

So the cat on his fiddle played hey-diddle-diddle,
a jig that would wake the dead:
He squeaked and sawed and quickened the tune,
while the landlord shook the Man in the Moon:
"It's after three!" he said.

They rolled the Man slowly up the hill
and bundled him into the Moon,
while the horses galloped up in rear,
and the cow came capering like a deer,
and a dish ran up with a spoon.

Now quicker the fiddle went deedle-dum-diddle;
the dog began to roar,
the cow and the horses stood on their heads;
The guests all bounded from their beds
and danced upon the floor.

With a ping and a pong the fiddle-strings broke!
the cow jumped over the Moon,
and the little dog laughed to see such fun,
and the Saturday dish went off at a run
with the silver Sunday spoon.

The round Moon rolled behind the hill,
as the Sun raised up her head.
She hardly believed her fiery eyes:
For though it was day, to her surprise
they all went back to bed!

6 kommentarer:

  1. I LOVE this poem which I have never read in its entirety before. Too many oopsie moments suggests you might be trying to do too much.

    SvarSlet
    Svar
    1. Thank you. Yes too much on my plate, and the standard start of the year-downs. Normally writing, drawing, drinking tea - and bloging about it - is the best cure. I hope it all works out.

      Slet
  2. I love that poem! The only bit I ever knew was the cow jumped over the moon and the dish ran away with the spoon.

    SvarSlet
    Svar
    1. I think this is cited somewhere ... that's also the part I knew best. I think, maybe, it's the part we hear when Sam (or is it Frodo?) is showing off at the inn in Bree while waiting for Aragorn, known to them as Strider?

      Slet
  3. Wonderful! I enjoyed this so much.

    SvarSlet
    Svar
    1. Thank you. This is after all the objective of these celebrations.

      Slet

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