Mud time
The sun was warm but the wind was chill.
You know how it is with an April day
When the sun is out and the wind is still,
You’re one month on in the middle of May.
But if you so much as dare to speak,
A cloud comes over the sunlit arch,
A wind comes off a frozen peak,
And you’re two months back in the middle of March…The water for which we may have to look
In summertime with a witching wand,
In every wheelrut’s now a brook,
In every print of a hoof a pond.
Be glad of water, but don’t forget
The lurking frost in the earth beneath
That will steal forth after the sun is set
And show on the water its crystal teeth…
Apparently, in Russia they call it rasputitsa. Same deal, though.
1. I suppose this is quoted merely for its é¦sthetic quality, rather than because it describes the conditions of Spring in upstate New York (I believe you said). *g*
Much appreciated. (I had to go re-read the whole thing. *smile*)
As for the second stanza in the quote, tell it to the Sacketts of Idaho.
You may have noted that today’s Google Doodle is a poem by Maya Angelou, each stanza read by different notables.
The elocution is well-done.
The graphics are nice.
The idea is meaningful.
The verbiage is embarrassingly ungrammatical and the prosody almost childish.
YMMV
Be happy for mud.
https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-lf-F4aykF48/Tc5BeznkPqI/AAAAAAAAGW0/iv4OiFlKRZE/s1600/germans-stuck-mud-russian-rains-ww2-002.jpg
It can stop Nazi tanks.
Steve57 Says:
April 5th, 2018 at 4:37 pm
Be happy for mud.
* * *
One interesting factoid I learned reading about the Eastern Front, is that the German guns — highly accurate and precision arms, because German fabrication, right? — would become useless in the mud and cold, while the much more primitive Russian guns just kept shooting.
Don’t know if it’s true, but it sounds about right.
AesopFan, I suspect it’s true. In the Philippines the AK is far more popular in the illegal arms trade than US rifles, whether M14s or M16s. The reason is simple. If you’re going to have an illegal rifle, you can’t be ordering maintenance supplies from the Brownell’s catalog.
https://www.brownells.com/gun-cleaning-chemicals/solvents-degreasers/index.htm
You might as well turn yourself in to the local police chief.
The Filipinos think the Armalite, as they call it, is a fine rifle for a first world nation. But an AK will work if you wipe it down once a year with dirty transmission fluid.
The legend from WWII is that the Germans showed up with their Mauser hunting rifles, the Americans showed up with their target rifles, and the British showed up with their Enfield battle rifles.
I have to caveat my earlier statement. M14s are very popular with the communist NPA. Because it’s what the Filipino armed forces carry. While an AK will present a different silhouette and it’s a dead give away, the M14 blends right in.