Thursday, August 26, 2010

Pinguinus Impennis

"Hope" is the thing with feathers—
That perches in the soul—
And sings the tune without the words—
And never stops—at all—

And sweetest—in the Gale—is heard—
And sore must be the storm—
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm—

I've heard it in the chillest land—
And on the strangest Sea—
Yet, never, in Extremity,
It asked a crumb—of Me.

—Emily Dickinson, "Poem 254," ca. 1861


Related Reading:

Yeah, that's a lot of reading but very informative - with photos. Be sure and check out all the Audubon article's images.

I've been trying to learn a few Icelandic words like:
Geirfugl = Great Auk
halló = hello
niðursoðinn sardína = tinned sardines
bjór = beer
einn bjór þóknast = one beer please
skál = cheers
hvar er klósettið? = where is the toilet?
but that's not going so well...

Does the binomial nomenclature for Great Auk seem dirty?
Nevermind.

Next Day

4 comments:

Gunnar Berg said...

s/b Pinguinea Impenis.

wanderlust said...

What's the Icelandic word for "take me with you"?

P77 said...

If bjor is beer, is bjork six-pack?

Dominic Benton said...

Apprecciate you blogging this

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