Sunsets in Barnes

I tend to think that sunsets must always be best in exotic places. Here are two which prove me wrong!

Sun setting, Barnes bridge

Sun setting, Barnes bridge

This also gives me the opportunity to quote one of my favourite speeches in Shakespeare’s Henry IV Pt. 1. This play was part of the ‘The Hollow Crown’ series which was on BBC 2 earlier this year, produced by Sam Mendes. Jeremy Irons was faultless as the old king and Tom Hiddleston shone out as his son, Hal. This is spoken by him …

‘Yet herein will I imitate the sun
Who doth permit the base contagious clouds
To smother up his beauty from the world,
that, when he pleases again to be himself
Being wanted, he may be more wonder’d at,
By breaking through the foul and ugly mists
Of vapours that did seem to strangle him.’

We have had more than enough of those vapours of late but tempered by some glorious open skies. The sunset below is taken from the top window of our house.

October sky - Barnes

October sky – Barnes

The colours remind me of the leaves described by Shelley in his ‘Ode to the West Wind’ – ‘yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red’ – worth a look for that and the rhythm of the poem. I must sweep up those Autumn leaves now!

END

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