The extended entry has a music video for Beating Heart Baby by Head Automatica, beware of graphic neon images if you’re queasy to that sort of thing.
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Today I started going over George Herbert in class. Herbert and Donne were the concentration of my graduate studies. Moreover, he is the only saint on the Anglican church calendar who is not on the Roman Catholic calendar. His saint day is February 27th, my birthday. Herbert’s poetry was arranged to read on the 47 days of Lent, and ironically, when I went to check what was today’s poem, I realized it was the very poem I taught on today–”The Pulley.” For your enjoyment:

The Pulley
by George Herbert

When God at first made man,
Having a glass of blessings standing by;
“Let Us,” said He, “pour on him all We can:
Let the world’s riches, which disperséd lie,
Contract into a span.”

So strength first made a way;
Then beauty flowed, then wisdom, honor, pleasure:
When almost all was out, God made a stay,
Perceiving that alone of all His treasure
Rest in the bottom lay.

“For if I should,” said He,
“Bestow this jewel also on my creature,
He would adore My gifts in stead of Me,
And rest in Nature, not the God of Nature:
So both should losers be.

“Yet let him keep the rest,
But keep them with repining restlessness:
Let him be rich and weary, that at least,
If goodness lead him not, yet weariness
May toss him to My breast.”

Proverbs 30:18-19
by Agur son of Jakeh-an

There are three things that are too amazing for me,
four that I do not understand:
the way of an eagle in the sky,
the way of a snake on a rock,
the way of a ship on the high seas,
and the way of a man with a maiden.

“The Beautiful”
by W.H. Davies

Three things there are more beautiful
Than any man could wish to see:
The first, it is a full-rigged ship
Sailing with all her sails set free;
The second, when the wind and sun
Are playing in a field of corn;
The third, a woman, young and fair,
Showing her child before it is born.