Leisure
By Hennry William Davies
What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.
No time to stand beneath the boughs
And stare as long as sheep or cows.
No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.
No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night.
No time to turn at Beauty's glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance.
No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began.
A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.
Who would have thought that the Poem 'Leisure' by Henry Davies which I learnt in my fourth or fifth grade would come back to haunt me after all these years.. This poem formed an essential part of many of my English poetry books and I remember reciting it aloud or rather mugging it up for the examinations..
but I knew not what poor Mr. Davies was trying so hard to convey grade after grade and refused to leave the poetry textbooks year after year. Its actually quite comical as to how children are expected to understand and assimilate some of these profound realities of life which we come to understand very much later on in life when it kicks us in the rear and teaches it to us.. 
No text book or rather any book can teach u what life does.. Likewise, I didn't realize how priceless leisure was to me until my life became devoid of it.. We, as children, were so blissfully unaware of the responsibilities, the burdens, the stress and what not, which our parents endured day and night.. Now that I'm a parent myself, I'm filled with an extreme sense of awe and admiration for my parents.. and a sense of helplessness for being so awfully busy all the time.. I just have no time to stand n stare.. to think straight or to ponder over where life is leading me to..
I'm just mechanically going on with the flow.. the grind.. with absolutely no time for myself.. No time to watch raindrops making those pitter patter noises on the ground, no time to grab a book sipping a hot cup of tea.. no time to gaze at the sky and marvel at God's creations.. to watch the stars and feel the cool breeze blowing over ur face.. These have become a thing of the bygone days.. a luxury actually.. Now when I get some time off my hands.. I just want to sit back and relax and do some soul searching.. Everything is happening at such a breakneck speed that I'm finding no time to even realize that I'm aging
.. I just don't know how the heck did the last 3 years of my life whiz past me.. maybe its a blessing not to realize how fast life is passing u by.. but the sad twist is that.. I'm aging and there is no denying the fact.. I wanted to do so many things in life and now I realize I haven't done anything except watch the days go by and hopelessly procrastinate stuff which I so enthusiastically wanted to do before.. Looks like I'm sooo drained of all energy and motivation. But I got to do something.. I got to self-motivate myself.. goshhh! I should start raking all the pending tasks which I had so conveniently pushed behind the medulla-oblangata (thats the scientific name for the smallest part of the brain) I'm all charged up for now and rearing to go.. bring it onnnn!
These r some of the things which I very much longed to do or rather do at leisure:
1. Write some great emotional tear jerking couplets/poetry.. (yes I'm a poetess.. main shayara hoon.. blush blush!
)
2. Sit on a recliner with a hot cuppa tea and read a best seller.. or rather any book I can lay my hands on..
3. Watch the twinkling stars on a breezy night.. chance upon a falling star or a comet and make a wish (I know u must be thinking I've gone crazy watching Shahrukh n Kajol's movies)
4. Do scrap booking.. make beautiful embellished, glittering, awesome stuff..
5. Go for a loooooooooooooooong drive all by myself.. main aur meri tanhayi.. ufff!
6. Sit by the balcony and watch the twittering of the birds, the smell of the raindrops on the leaves and the cooing of the mynah.. (reminds me of India..
)
7. Buy motiya bahar (jasmine) and sew them to make a gajra.. lolz.. yeah seriously.. longing to smell the jasmine flowers..
8. Eat a hot corn cob on a wet, rainy day.. neembu namak maar ke.. lol!
9. Put on henna on my palms.. and watch the color deepen from a red to a dark red to a maroon.. I just love the smell and look of henna
10. Go shopping.. shop like crazy.. and kick the shopkeeper if he tells me the stuff is available only in petites..
(how could u think I would've forgotten this one.. lol)
By Hennry William Davies
What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.
No time to stand beneath the boughs
And stare as long as sheep or cows.
No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.
No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night.
No time to turn at Beauty's glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance.
No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began.
A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.
Who would have thought that the Poem 'Leisure' by Henry Davies which I learnt in my fourth or fifth grade would come back to haunt me after all these years.. This poem formed an essential part of many of my English poetry books and I remember reciting it aloud or rather mugging it up for the examinations..
but I knew not what poor Mr. Davies was trying so hard to convey grade after grade and refused to leave the poetry textbooks year after year. Its actually quite comical as to how children are expected to understand and assimilate some of these profound realities of life which we come to understand very much later on in life when it kicks us in the rear and teaches it to us.. No text book or rather any book can teach u what life does.. Likewise, I didn't realize how priceless leisure was to me until my life became devoid of it.. We, as children, were so blissfully unaware of the responsibilities, the burdens, the stress and what not, which our parents endured day and night.. Now that I'm a parent myself, I'm filled with an extreme sense of awe and admiration for my parents.. and a sense of helplessness for being so awfully busy all the time.. I just have no time to stand n stare.. to think straight or to ponder over where life is leading me to..
I'm just mechanically going on with the flow.. the grind.. with absolutely no time for myself.. No time to watch raindrops making those pitter patter noises on the ground, no time to grab a book sipping a hot cup of tea.. no time to gaze at the sky and marvel at God's creations.. to watch the stars and feel the cool breeze blowing over ur face.. These have become a thing of the bygone days.. a luxury actually.. Now when I get some time off my hands.. I just want to sit back and relax and do some soul searching.. Everything is happening at such a breakneck speed that I'm finding no time to even realize that I'm aging.. I just don't know how the heck did the last 3 years of my life whiz past me.. maybe its a blessing not to realize how fast life is passing u by.. but the sad twist is that.. I'm aging and there is no denying the fact.. I wanted to do so many things in life and now I realize I haven't done anything except watch the days go by and hopelessly procrastinate stuff which I so enthusiastically wanted to do before.. Looks like I'm sooo drained of all energy and motivation. But I got to do something.. I got to self-motivate myself.. goshhh! I should start raking all the pending tasks which I had so conveniently pushed behind the medulla-oblangata (thats the scientific name for the smallest part of the brain) I'm all charged up for now and rearing to go.. bring it onnnn!These r some of the things which I very much longed to do or rather do at leisure:
1. Write some great emotional tear jerking couplets/poetry.. (yes I'm a poetess.. main shayara hoon.. blush blush!
)2. Sit on a recliner with a hot cuppa tea and read a best seller.. or rather any book I can lay my hands on..
3. Watch the twinkling stars on a breezy night.. chance upon a falling star or a comet and make a wish (I know u must be thinking I've gone crazy watching Shahrukh n Kajol's movies
)4. Do scrap booking.. make beautiful embellished, glittering, awesome stuff..
5. Go for a loooooooooooooooong drive all by myself.. main aur meri tanhayi.. ufff!
6. Sit by the balcony and watch the twittering of the birds, the smell of the raindrops on the leaves and the cooing of the mynah.. (reminds me of India..
)7. Buy motiya bahar (jasmine) and sew them to make a gajra.. lolz.. yeah seriously.. longing to smell the jasmine flowers..
8. Eat a hot corn cob on a wet, rainy day.. neembu namak maar ke.. lol!
9. Put on henna on my palms.. and watch the color deepen from a red to a dark red to a maroon.. I just love the smell and look of henna
10. Go shopping.. shop like crazy.. and kick the shopkeeper if he tells me the stuff is available only in petites..
(how could u think I would've forgotten this one.. lol)
4 comments:
oho re...shayari sun n ki liye bekaraar hain hum tussi zaban se...remeber armi apan kaise bike pe..tu,main aur maimu butte(maize) khate the tankbund pe woh bhi triples...wah kya din the woh...n i loved shopping with u...apne mazak yaaro...i miss thm
Kya baat hai,aap shayara bhi hain.Kabhi fursat mein kuch farmaeagaa.
Lots of things even i didn't realize are priceless until i was devoid of it,the most apparent right now is the sunny tropical climate,never realized the beauty and warmth in 365 days of sunshine until I landed in one of the least sunny cities.Of course the responsibilities of parenthood are better understood after becoming parents ourselves.Oh I also yearn for all those invaluable sweet pleasures:)
btw dear armina,I tried sending you an invite for facebook,got some privacy setting for your email.anyway I'll email you soon.
That was an awesome lovely post..having one of my favourite poems...when my FIL and MIL were trying to impress me with their knowledge of Shakespeare complete with dialogues..your post reminded me of this poem and I impressed them back...hehehe
BTW Ms. Poetess missing your posts (I know I know)...hope to you see back in action very soon..I am sure you got lots to write about..till then take care and as you said BRING IT ONNNN!!
Hey Anju.. shayari likhne ki arzoo to bahut hain magar waqt nahi.. sob sob.. magar ek woh bhi din aayega.. ;) so wait n watch.. :p
I do miss our rendezvous.. Woh bike pe triples and binging on food.. wah! jab immunity bhi achhi khaasi thi..lol.. Miss everything yaaro.. hope we get to relive those days..
Yasmeen.. a truly warm comment on my post.. But I admire ur passion for cooking and blogging.. it amazes me to no end as to how u can spare so much time to try out such exciting new recipes every time.. I would be blessed if just a little of that passion rubbed off on me..:)
Zainipoo.. u don't require anything else to impress anyone.. ur personality and ur punchlines are just enough to make people speechless.. :)) Tum ne bulaya aur hum chale aaye.. ;)
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