Sonnet 73: That Time of Year Thou Mayst in Me Behold
by William Shakespeare

That time of year thou mayst in me behold
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
Bare ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.
In me thou see’st the twilight of such day
As after sunset fadeth in the west;
Which by and by black night doth take away,
Death’s second self, that seals up all in rest.
In me thou see’st the glowing of such fire,
That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,
As the death-bed whereon it must expire
Consumed with that which it was nourish’ d by.
This thou perceivest, which makes thy love more strong,
To love that well which thou must leave ere long.


“Sonnet 73: That Time of Year Thou Mayst in Me Behold” by William Shakespeare. Public Domain.  (buy now)

It's the birthday of the poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning (books by this author), born near Durham, England (1806).

It's the birthday of Michelangelo, born in the village of Caprese, Italy (1475). His first major work of art was the Pietà, a marble statue of the Madonna holding the dead Christ in her arms. The figures were perfectly balanced and carved from a single block of marble. The story was that, after the statue had been put on display, Michelangelo went to see it and overheard a crowd of people praising its beauty. Someone asked who had made it and another replied that it was il Gobbo, from Milan. That night Michelangelo locked himself in with the statue and carved an inscription on the Madonna's robe that reads "Michelangelo Buonarroti the Florentine made this." It was the only work he ever signed.

It's the birthday of the novelist who said, "What matters in life is not what happens to you but what you remember and how you remember it." That's Gabriel García Márquez (books by this author), born in Aracataca, Colombia (1927). He grew up with his maternal grandparents. His grandfather was a colonel, a military hero of Colombia's Thousand Days War, and his grandmother was a wonderful storyteller. His grandfather told him stories of the revolution and his grandmother told stories of ghosts, curses, and magic.

García Márquez studied law at university. During his first year he read The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka. He was so impressed by it that at 8 o'clock the next morning he began reading all the classic literature he could get his hands on, and eventually dropped out of school to work as a journalist while writing stories on the side.

Just before his 23rd birthday he traveled back to Aracataca with his mother to help her sell his grandparents' house and he was inspired by Aracataca to create a fictional town named Macondo, which would become the setting of his epic novel One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967).

In 1985 Márquez published Love in the Time of Cholera, the love story of Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza. Márquez said:

"People spend a lifetime thinking about how they would really like to live ... I wish my life could have been like the years when I was writing Love in the Time of Cholera. I would get up at 5:30 or 6 in the morning. I need only six hours of sleep. Then I quickly listened to the news. I would read from 6 to 8, because if I don't read at that time I won't get around to it anymore. I lose my rhythm. Someone would arrive at the house with fresh fish or lobster or shrimp caught nearby. Then I would write from 8 till 1. By midday, Mercedes would go to the beach and wait for me with friends. I never quite knew who to expect; there were always people coming and going. After lunch I had a little siesta. And when the sun started going down I would go out on the street to look for places where my characters would go, to talk to people and pick up language and atmosphere. So the next morning I would have fresh material I had brought from the streets."

Márquez's novels and novellas include The Autumn of the Patriarch (1975), Chronicle of a Death Foretold (1981), and Memories of My Melancholy Whores (2004). He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1982.

It's the birthday of the soldier and writer Cyrano de Bergerac , born in Paris (1619). He was famous in his day for his heroism on the battlefield, his writing, and his wit. He fought in several battles but after he survived a stab wound in the neck, he decided to study astronomy. He used his studies to write a satirical novel about traveling to the moon, The Government of the World in the Moon (1656). His work influenced future writers of science fiction, but he's best known to us today as the subject of the play Cyrano de Bergerac (1897) by the French playwright Edmond Rostand.

Rostand often wrote plays about historical figures and embellished the details. He read one description of Cyrano de Bergerac that mentioned his nose was large and Rostand decided to portray him as a romantic, heroic soldier and poet who has to overcome the embarrassment of having an incredibly huge nose. Rostand also learned that Cyrano had once written letters for a fellow soldier to help him woo a lady, so Rostand invented a tragic love story in which Cyrano is forced to secretly write letters to Roxanne, the woman he loves, for a fellow soldier. He is only able to confess his love at the end of his life.

The play became a huge hit in France. The audience loved it so much on opening night that the standing ovation lasted for a full hour with the audience calling back the cast for bows more than 40 times. Cyrano de Bergerac is now one of France's most beloved characters even if he isn't quite the same person as the real Cyrano de Bergerac.

Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.^®

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