Water in Summer: THE FOUNTAINS OF ROME

Posted on July 9, 2016 by wordcloud9

On a hot summer day, the sound of water is so cooling.

Happy 137th Birthday to Ottorino Respighi, born this day, July 9th, 1879, in Bologna, Italy. Here is Eugene Ormandy conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra playing Respighi’s The Fountains of Rome.

Villa d Este-Tivoli-426x320

Childrens_Fountain KC MO Tom Corbin

Horses_Fountain_Alexander_Gardens_Moscow

ROMAN FOUNTAIN

by Louise Bogan

Up from the bronze, I saw
Water without a flaw
Rush to its rest in air,
Reach to its rest, and fall.

Bronze of the blackest shade,
An element man-made,
Shaping upright the bare
Clear gouts of water in air.

O, as with arm and hammer,
Still it is good to strive
To beat out the image whole,
To echo the shout and stammer
When full-gushed waters, alive,
Strike on the fountain’s bowl
After the air of summer.

  • “Roman Fountain” from Collected Poems, © 1954 by Louise Bogan, Noonday Press
    http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/roman-fountain/
  • Fountain at Villa d’Este, Tivoli, Italy
  • The Children’s Fountain, Kansas City, MO
  • Horses Fountain, Alexander Gardens, Moscow, Russia
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About wordcloud9

Nona Blyth Cloud has lived and worked in the Los Angeles area for over 50 years, spending much of that time commuting on the 405 Freeway. After Hollywood failed to appreciate her genius for acting and directing, she began a second career managing non-profits, from which she has retired. Nona has now resumed writing whatever comes into her head, instead of reports and pleas for funding. She lives in a small house overrun by books with her wonderful husband.
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