Celestial Silver Lining

By Harley White posted 06-08-2021 08:04

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Celestial Silver Lining

Quoth Milton, ‘Was I deceived, or did
a sable cloud upon the night
turn forth her silver lining amid
a tufted grove in gleam of light?’

That paraphrase of lining shining
which crept into the proverb coined,
‘Every cloud has a silver lining,’
was subsequently much purloined

as changeling idiom uplifting
reminding we should not lose hope,
for even troubles may be gifting
a brighter side within their scope.

But ‘twas piano virtuoso
Glenn Gould with art of magic touch
from Bach fugue to concerto grosso
not caring for the sunlight much

who said instead his private motto
was apothegm flip-flopped, defined
in mimicked slogan ostinato,
‘Each silver lining has behind

a cloud,’ due to his moods relating
in inverse way to clarity
of sky through his unique equating.
Ah yes, he was a rarity!

Yet here the nebula emission
termed NGC two three one three
befits the maxim of tradition
to suit an optimist’s esprit.

It’s in Monoceros, Unicorn,
a constellation fairly faint,
for mythic creature with single horn
oft limned as fancifully quaint.

The image with spikes diffraction seen
from brilliant central star in shroud
that’s argentine with a fan-shaped mien,
the right half being screened by cloud,

shows dust and gas of aura splendid
as if a break in darkened skies
of cosmic hues from wavelengths blended
through Hubble’s filtered photo eyes.

Some will for a silver lining look
while other persons might refuse
to find a fashion whate’er it took
for noting rosy colored views.

Still force of life as in Beckett’s stance
‘Keep going, going, going on’,
to cite ‘Unnamable’ phrasal dance,
may guide us through to rising dawn.

~ Harley White

* * * * * * * * *

Some sources of inspiration were the following…

Poem by John Milton ~ ‘Comus: A Mask Presented at Ludlow Castle’ (1634), in which he: coined the phrase ‘silver lining’…

“I tend to follow a very nocturnal sort of existence mainly because I don't much care for sunlight. Bright colors of any kind depress me, in fact. And my moods are more or less inversely related to the clarity of the sky, on any given day. A matter of fact, my private motto has always been that behind every silver lining there is a cloud.”
~ Glenn Gould (1932–1982) ~ From: ‘The Life and Times of Glenn Gould’

“Where now? Who now? When now? Unquestioning. I, say I. Unbelieving. Questions, hypotheses, call them that. Keep going, going on, call that going, call that on.”
~ Samuel Beckett ~ ‘The Unnamable’ (1953)

Hubble Spots a Cosmic Cloud’s Silver Lining…
https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2021/hubble-spots-a-cosmic-cloud-s-silver-lining

Explanation ~ The image taken with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope showcases the emission nebula NGC 2313. Emission nebulae are bright, diffuse clouds of ionized gas that emit their own light. The bright star V565 (center of the image) highlights a silvery, fan-shaped veil of gas and dust, while the right half of this image is obscured by a dense cloud of dust. The image of NGC 2313 is made up of observations from Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) instrument in the near-infrared and optical parts of the spectrum. Two filters — the wide-V (F606W) filter and the near-infrared (F814W) filter — were used to sample various wavelengths. The color results from assigning different hues to each monochromatic image associated with an individual filter.

Image credit: ESA/Hubble, R. Sahai

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