XXXI.

Beloved, Let Us Once More Praise The Rain 
by Conrad Aiken


Beloved, let us once more praise the rain.

Let us discover some new alphabet,

For this, the often praised; and be ourselves,

The rain, the chickweed, and the burdock leaf,

The green-white privet flower, the spotted stone,

And all that welcomes the rain; the sparrow too,—

Who watches with a hard eye from seclusion,

Beneath the elm-tree bough, till rain is done.

There is an oriole who, upside down,

Hangs at his nest, and flicks an orange wing,

—Under a tree as dead and still as lead;

There is a single leaf, in all this heaven

Of leaves, which rain has loosened from its twig:

The stem breaks, and it falls, but it is caught

Upon a sister leaf, and thus she hangs;

There is an acorn cup, beside a mushroom

Which catches three drops from the stooping cloud.

The timid bee goes back to the hive; the fly

Under the broad leaf of the hollyhock

Perpends stupid with cold; the raindark snail

Surveys the wet world from a watery stone...

And still the syllables of water whisper:

The wheel of cloud whirs slowly: while we wait

In the dark room; and in your heart I find

One silver raindrop,—on a hawthorn leaf,—

Orion in a cobweb, and the World.

XXX.

Weather Idioms and Weather Lore

"as right as rain" ~ means that everything is just fine or going well."

"billy wind" ~ used primarily in England, referring to a blustery, howling wind.

"bolt from the clear blue sky" ~ something [usually wonderful or horribly tragic] has happened and it is sudden and unexpected.

"break the ice" or "ice breaker" ~ is the means in which someone opens up a conversation, generally to make others feel more relaxed or at ease.

"buzzards flying high indicate fair weather" ~ weather lore

"calm before the storm" ~ an unnatural lull or calm before an eruption of emotion or activity.

"chasing rainbows" ~ to try to find or get something that cannot be obtained.

"chill wind [of]" ~ to have fore-knowledge of trouble or a problem.

"cloud on the horizon" ~ this means you can expect trouble in the near future.

"cold light of day" ~ being grounded in reality, seeing things as they really are.

"come rain or shine" - pertaining to a personal goal or to achieve success, that no matter what it will be accomplished.

"comets bring cold weather" ~ weather lore

"don't have the foggiest idea" ~ having no knowledge of a person, place or thing.

"dry spell" ~ being unsuccessful for any length of time, abnormally.

"every cloud has a silver lining" ~ there is always good in a bad situation.

"face like thunder" ~ pertains to identifying someone, by reading the signs in their face, that they are very upset or angry.

"fair weather friend" ~ a person whom you engage infrequently, they are usually unreliable, and there are conditions attached the friendship.

"get wind of" ~ to be privy to information that should have been kept secret.

"greased lightening" ~ an event or moment that is happening extremely fast.

"head in the clouds" ~ not having one's mind on the topic at hand.

"if shooting stars fall in the south in winter, there will be a thaw" ~ weather lore

"in the dark" ~ to be left without information, to be uninformed, or without knowledge of an event, or a situation or problem.

"in the eye of the storm" ~ in the center of, or otherwise deeply involved in a problem or difficult situation.

"into each life, rain must fall" ~ something bad will happen to each and every one of us.

"it never rains, but it pours" ~ a small situation or problem becomes exacerbated by more trouble or problems.

"Jack Frost" ~ when all of outdoors is frozen, [weather lore], then Jack Frost has paid the region a visit.

"know which way the wind blows" ~ being able to judge someone's mood, or to prepare for changes in a situation.

"knows enough to come out of the rain" ~ may refer to someone who is stupid, or un-knowledgeable, but they have the sense enough to seek shelter or safety when a situation or event turns bad, or is imminent.

"left out in the rain" ~ to be left out of a problem or situation, without support or assistance.

"lightning under the North Star will bring rain in three days" ~ weather lore

"Mackerel skies and mares' tails; Make tall ships take in their sails." ~ Cirrus scattering clouds often follow warm weather that brings rain.

"make hay while the sun still shines" ~ to take advantage of a period of time or a situation as it may not last.

"on cloud nine" ~ a feeling of elation or extreme happiness.

"on a pink cloud" ~ a feeling of elation or extreme happiness - often used when one first begins recovery [from alcoholism] and are sober, one may experience extreme happiness, but are often not grounded or facing reality.

"once in a blue moon" ~ an event that occurs only very rarely.

"one crow flying alone is a sign of foul weather; but if crows fly in pairs, expect fine weather" ~weather lore

"pink at night, sailor's delight; pink in the morning, sailor's take warning" ~ or the idiom may use the color red, in place of pink.  [Weather Lore] Pink at night is predicting that fair weather will occur the next day; however, pink in the morning cautions the viewer that rain or a storm may be imminent.

"rainbow to windward, foul fall the day; rainbow to leeward, rain runs away." ~ If wind is coming from the direction of a rainbow, then, rain is heading toward you. Likewise, if the rainbow is in the opposite direction, it has passed by you.

"raindrop in a drought" ~ to wait or hope for something to happen.

"rain on my parade" ~ to ruin or spoil something planned; or to usurp another's plans or event.

"rain on wet" - to make a situation worse.

"raining cats and dogs" ~ to rain very heavily.

"ray of sunshine" ~ to bring happiness or hope to a situation.

"reach for the moon" ~ to be very ambitious, to set your personal standards or goals very high and hope to obtain success.

"right as rain" ~ everything is going as planned.

"save for a rainy day" ~ to save something - usually money - for an unplanned event or unexpected debt.

"sail close to the wind" ~ means that someone may be doing something that is barely legal or somewhat dangerous.

"seagull, seagull, sit on the sand; it's a sign of rain when you are at hand" ~ birds tend to roost before a storm or hurricane.  It is believed that it may be difficult for a bird to take-off when there is low pressure, or when the air has become thinner as the updrafts are lessened.

"seven sheets to the wind" ~ means a person is very drunk.

"shoot the breeze" ~ to converse in a casual or relaxed way.

"snowed under" ~ pertains to having so much work to do, it feels impossible to get through it all.

"steal my thunder" ~ to take the attention away from someone else.

"storm in a teacup" ~ to make a fuss or a problem out of something that is not important

"storm is brewing" ~ you believe that there may be trouble, anger or outbursts of emotion.

"stormy relationship" ~ usually pertains to an intimate relationship, during which many arguments or disagreements occur.

"take a rain check" ~ you will return later, but cannot take an immediate invitation or offer to do something or to be somewhere at an appointed time.

"tempest in a teapot" ~ to exaggerate an event  in an attempt to make it worse.

"there is something in the wind" ~ someone may suspect that something important, or significant is about to happen.

"throw caution to the wind" ~ to forget planned commitments and do something wild and crazy or unexpected.

"twisting in the wind" ~ to be left alone and without assistance.

"two full moons in a calendar month bring on a flood" ~weather lore

"under a cloud" ~ in disgrace or under suspicion.

"under the weather" ~ to feel sickly or ill; not feeling "yourself" on a particular day.

"weather the storm" ~ to be successful upon surviving a difficult situation, period of time or problem.

"when halo rings the moon or sun; rain's approaching on the run." ~ A halo is caused by ice crystals that forms a clouds that indicate warm weather and predicts rain within a day.

"when leaves fall early, autumn and winter will be mild; when leave fall later, winter will be severe" ~ weather lore

"when porpoises and whales spout about ships at sea, storm may be expected" ~weather lore

"when windows won't open, and the salt clogs the shaker, the weather will favor the umbrella maker" ~ moisture in the air is very heavy, and rain is imminent.

"wind from the south, has rain in its mouth" ~ southerly winds usually blow before a cold front occurs, after which rain will generally happen in the east.

                  

XXIX

KATHY'S SONG

I hear the drizzle of the rain

Like a memory it falls

Soft and warm continuing

Tapping on my roof and walls

And from the shelter of my mind

Through the window of my eyes

I gaze beyond the rain-drenched streets

To England, where my heart lies

My mind’s distracted and diffused

My thoughts are many miles away

They lie with you when you’re asleep

And kiss you when you start your day

And a song I was writing is left undone

I don’t know why I spend my time

Writing songs I can’t believe

With words that tear and strain to rhyme

And so you see, I have come to doubt

All that I once held as true

I stand alone without beliefs

The only truth I know is you

And as I watch the drops of rain

Weave their weary paths and die

I know that I am like the rain

There but for the grace of you go I

© 1965 Words and Music by Paul Simon

XXVIII.

“It is a strange world, a sad world, a world full of miseries, and woes, and troubles. 

And yet when King Laugh come, he make them all dance to the tune he play. 

Bleeding hearts, and dry bones of the churchyard, and tears that burn as they fall, all dance together to the music that he make with that smileless mouth of him. 

Ah, we men and women are like ropes drawn tight with strain that pull us different ways. 

Then tears come, and like the rain on the ropes, they brace us up, until perhaps the strain become too great, and we break. 

But King Laugh he come like the sunshine, and he ease off the strain again, and we bear to go on with our labor, what it may be.” 

Dr. Seward's recollection of his conversation w/ Van Helsing ― Bram Stoker, Dracula

Analysis:

"...generally seen as a flaw in the novel is the tone of a passage that follows Lucy’s death and burial. Dr. Seward records in his diary his conversation with Van Helsing, who makes a lengthy speech, known as the “King Laugh” speech, to explain his laughter at this apparently inappropriate time. His laughter is caused by Arthur’s statement that he felt married to Lucy following the blood transfusion Van Helsing performed. Van Helsing and Seward know, as Arthur does not, that Lucy also received transfusions from the two of them and Morris. The function of this passage is not clear, but it does seem to contain symbolically important ideas concerning blood and marriage."  Source: novelexplorer.com

XXVII.

cul de sac

On this dark and pluvious evening,

I drew the curtain back,

to peer from my window discretely,

Looking down upon a dreary cul de sac.

Black lamps line granite streets, so neatly;

Seemingly intended for illumination,

but in reality, contributes to the bleak,

as it feeds the weak and desolation.

The rain showers are incessant, unending;

People move slowly and with hesitation.

They are dressed in black and grey,

I watch them pause and delay; as if in sedation.

With indifference, they survey each step,

casting a black silhouette, over wet walkways.

The outdoor conditions have worsened,

As I close the tatted lace curtain,

to inspect the room herein.

On the table of teak, lie confections sweet,

with roses and grapes nestled on a silver tray;

and the wine is chilling in a crystal vessel,

Intended for a party of two.

Yet, the door knocker has not knocked;

and the clocks have not stopped,

As I wait in vain for you.

The candles upon the mantle have receded;

my expectations have been defeated,

and the temperature has fallen from red to blue.

Instantly, the fruit upon the table appears decayed,

and I feel deflated and betrayed.

In profound disgust, the candle is snuffed;

and, like the weather external,

where clouds are black and nocturnal;

I am eclipsed of hope and illumination,

and in my wretched imagination,

I wear the eternal disguise of rain.


© Original poetry by Denise Goodwin, Lady Denyse and moonspyre.blogspot.com; 
All rights reserved.

XXVI.

September in the Rain

The leaves of brown
Came tumblin' down, remember
In September, in the rain

The sun went out
Just like a dying ember
That September in the rain

To every word of love
I heard you whisper
The raindrops seemed to play
A sweet refrain

Though spring is here
To me it's still September
Ooh, that September in the rain

To every word of love
I heard you whisper
The raindrops seemed to play
A sweet refrain

Though spring is here
To me it's still September
That September in the rain
I said, that September in the rain

Songwriters
WARREN, HARRY/DUBIN, AL

Video:  Sarah Vaughn - YouTube

XXV.

"It was a dark and stormy night..."

These famous words are the opening line from the first paragraph of the 1830 English novel entitled, Paul Clifford by Edward Bulwer-Lytton. The novel tells the life of Paul Clifford, a man who leads a dual life as both a criminal and an well-to-do gentleman.

"It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents — except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness."

In actuality, the very first paragraph of the novel are NOT those exact words, but are the third stanza from a poem, written by George Crabbe, called The Parish Workhouse.   Crabbe was one the earliest of English realistic poets, called the "poet of the poor." In this case, Edward Bulwer-Lytton uses the third stanza of Crabbe's poem, after which he begins the famous line, "It was a dark and stormy night....":

"Say ye, oppressed by some fantastic woes,

Some jarring nerve that baffles your repose;

Who press the downy couch while slaves advance

With timid eye, to read the distant glance;

Who with sad prayers the weary doctor tease,

To name the nameless ever-new disease;

Who with mock patience dire complaints endure,

Which real pain and that alone can cure:

How would ye bear in real pain to lie,

Despised, neglected, left alone to die?

How would ye bear to draw your latest breath

Where all that’s wretched paves the way for death?"

Much debate still rages on as to whether Edward Bulwer-Lytton was a literary genius or simply a mediocre novelist.  Bulwer-Lytton's great-great-great grandson, defended his ancestor, stating that the writer is believed,

"to have been the first person to have penned a cliché was a mark of genius". He said that Bulwer-Lytton invented a raft of sayings we still use today, including "the pen is mightier than the sword", "the great unwashed" and "the almighty dollar"." - theguardian.com

Bulwer-Lytton also wrote the following novels:

Eugene Aram (1832) 

Godolphin (1833) 

The Last Days of Pompeii (1834) 

Leila: or The Siege of Granada (1838) 

Zanoni (1842) 

The Last of the Barons (1843) 

The Caxtons (1849) 

Vril (1871)

And, let us never forget Snoopy's parody....

..."and suddenly, a shot rang out!"

Here is the full first paragraph of Paul Clifford:

"It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents, except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the house-tops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness. Through one of the obscurest quarters of London, and among haunts little loved by the gentlemen of the police, a man, evidently of the lowest orders, was wending his solitary way. He stopped twice or thrice at different shops and houses of a description correspondent with the appearance of the quartier in which they were situated, and tended inquiry for some article or another which did not seem easily to be met with. All the answers he received were couched in the negative; and as he turned from each door he muttered to himself, in no very elegant phraseology, his disappointment and discontent. At length, at one house, the landlord, a sturdy butcher, after rendering the same reply the inquirer had hitherto received, added, "But if this vill do as vell, Dummie, it is quite at your sarvice!" Pausing reflectively for a moment, Dummie responded that he thought the thing proffered might do as well; and thrusting it into his ample pocket, he strode away with as rapid a motion as the wind and the rain would allow. He soon came to a nest of low and dingy buildings, at the entrance to which, in half-effaced characters, was written "Thames Court." Halting at the most conspicuous of these buildings, an inn or alehouse, through the half-closed windows of which blazed out in ruddy comfort the beams of the hospitable hearth, he knocked hastily at the door. He was admitted by a lady of a certain age, and endowed with a comely rotundity of face and person."

Denise Goodwin 8/22/15

XXIV.

"The song is a combination of several inspirations. The lyrics directly reference a recurring dream Gabriel was having where he swam in his backyard pool drinking cold red wine. Another version of the dream had bottles falling from a cliff, and the bottles were in the shape of people. When they were smashed on impact with the ground, the people-shaped bottles had red liquid coming out, and then it began to rain the same red liquid."  -wikipedia

RED RAIN

Red rain is coming down
Red rain
Red rain is pouring down
Pouring down all over me

I am standing up at the water's edge in my dream
I cannot make a single sound as you scream
It can't be that cold, the ground is still warm to touch
We touch, this place is so quiet, sensing that storm

Red rain is coming down
Red rain
Red rain is pouring down
Pouring down all over me

Well I've seen them buried in a sheltered place in this town
They tell you that this rain can sting, and look down
There is no blood around, see no sign of pain
Hey hey no pain
Seeing no red at all, see no rain

Red rain is coming down
Red rain
Red rain is pouring down
Pouring down all over me

Red rain
Ohhhh
Putting the pressure on much harder now
To return again and again
Just let the red rain splash you
Let the rain fall on your skin
I come to you defenses down
With the trust of a child

Red rain is coming down
Red rain
Red rain is pouring down
Pouring down all over me

And I can't watch any more
No more denial
It's so hard to lay down in all of this

Red rain coming down
Red rain
Red rain is pouring down
I'm bathing in
Red rain coming down
Red rain is falling down
Red rain is coming down all over me
I'm begging you

Red rain coming down
Red rain coming down
Red rain coming down
Red rain coming down

Over me in the red red sea
Over me
Over me
Red rain

Songwriters: Peter Gabriel
Red Rain lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLCR

CREDITS
Jerry Marotta – drums
Chris Hughes – Linn programming
Stewart Copeland – hi-hat
Tony Levin – bass
David Rhodes – guitar, backing vocals
Daniel Lanois – guitar
Peter Gabriel – vocals, piano, CMI, Prophet

XXIII.

TAXI

It was raining hard in 'Frisco

I needed one more fare to make my night

A lady up ahead waved to flag me down

She got in at the lights

"Oh, where you going to, my lady blue?"

It's a shame you ruined your gown in the rain

She just looked out the window, she said

"Sixteen Park side Lane"

Something about her was familiar

I could swear I'd seen her face before

But she said, "I'm sure you're mistaken"

Then she didn't say anything more

It took a while but she looked in the mirror

Then she glanced at the license for my name

A smile seemed to come to her slowly

It was a sad smile, just the same

And she said, "How are you, Harry?"

I said, "How are you, Sue?

Through the too many miles and the too little smiles

I still remember you"

It was somewhere in a fairy tale

I used to take her home in my car

We learned about love in the back of a Dodge

The lesson hadn't gone too far

You see, she was gonna be an actress

And I was gonna learn to fly

She took off to find the footlights

I took off to find the sky

Oh, I've got something inside me

To drive a princess blind

There's a wild man, wizard

He's hiding in me, illuminating my mind

Oh, I've got something inside me

But it's not what my life's about

'Cause I've been letting my outside tide me

Over till my time runs out

Baby's so high that she's skying

Yes she's flying, afraid to fall

I'll tell you why baby's crying

She's dying, aren't we all?

There was not much more for us to talk about

Whatever we had once was gone

So I turned my cab into the driveway

Past the gates and the fine trimmed lawns

And she said, "We must get together"

But I knew it'd never be arranged

Then she handed me twenty dollars for a two-fifty fare

She said, "Harry, keep the change"

Well another man might have been angry

And another man might have been hurt

But another man never would have let her go

I stashed the bill in my shirt.

And she walked away in silence

It's strange how you never know

But we'd both gotten what we'd asked for

Such a long, long time ago

You see, she was gonna be an actress

And I was gonna learn to fly

She took off to find the footlights

And I took off for the sky

And here, she's acting happy

Inside her handsome home

And me, I'm flying in my taxi

Taking tips, getting stoned

I go flying so high when I'm stoned.....

Songwriter:

CHAPIN, HARRY F.

Published by
Lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc., Universal Music Publishing Group

Harry Forster Chapin (December 7, 1942 – July 16, 1981) was an American singer-songwriter best known for his folk rock songs.  "Taxi"  and the No. 1 hit "Cat's in the Cradle." - which many people erroneously credit Cat Stephens.

Harry Chapin posthumously was awarded  the Congressional Gold Medal for his humanitarian work, for his fight to end world hunger, in 1987.  In the mid-1970s, Chapin focused on social activism, including raising money to combat hunger in the United States. His daughter Jen said: "He saw hunger and poverty as an insult to America."  Much of the money from sales of his concert merchandise were used to support an organization that he co-founded called "World Hunger Year".  Harry also released a book of poetry, Looking...Seeing, in 1977.

Chapin, w/ his daughter

After the debut of his album Heads and Tales, which included his hit song "Taxi", Harry and three band members (playing cello, bass, electric guitar) who had never met before rehearsed for one week and arranged the songs with cello parts and background vocals.

Elektra Records and Columbia Records actually battled over signing him, and Harry ended up signing w/ Elektra as this smaller company would provide the artist with "greater personal attention to his unique work."  Elektra Records had just merged with Warner Brothers and Atlantic Records to form the mammoth WEA, and Harry Chapin happened to be the first test of who now had the greater artist signing power. The band was in the right place at the right time and were able to negotiate what was said to be the largest recording contract in history for a new artist.

Chapin ultimately signed with Elektra for a smaller advance, but with provisions that were much more valuable. The biggest stipulation in the nine-album deal was that he receive free studio time, meaning he paid no recording costs. It was a move that would ultimately save Chapin hundreds of thousands of dollars over the term of his contract and set a precedent for other musicians.  "This was completely unheard of," said Davis in the Coan book. "There was no such thing as free studio time."

Chapin met Sandy Cashmore (née Gaston), a New York socialite nine years his senior, in 1966, after she called him asking for music lessons. They married two years later. The story of their meeting and romance is told in his song "I Wanna Learn a Love Song." He had two children with her, Jennifer and Joshua, and was stepfather to her three children from a previous marriage, Jaime, Jason and Jonathan. Chapin wrote several songs about her, including "Shooting Star" about their relationship, and "Sandy".

On Thursday, July 16, 1981, just after noon, Chapin was driving in the left lane on the Long Island Expressway at about 65 mph on the way to perform at a free concert scheduled for later that evening at Eisenhower Park in East Meadow, New York. Near exit 40 in Jericho he put on his emergency flashers, presumably because of either a mechanical or medical problem (possibly a heart attack). He then slowed to about 15 miles (24 km) per hour and veered into the center lane, nearly colliding with another car. He swerved left, then to the right again, ending up directly in the path of a tractor-trailer truck. The truck could not brake in time and rammed the rear of Chapin's blue 1975 Volkswagen Rabbit, rupturing the fuel tank as it climbed up and over the back of the car, causing it to burst into flames.

The driver of the truck and a passerby were able to get Chapin out of the burning car through a window after cutting the seat belts before the car was engulfed in flames. Chapin was taken by police helicopter to a hospital, where ten doctors tried for 30 minutes to revive him. A spokesman for the Nassau County Medical Center said Chapin had suffered a heart attack and died of cardiac arrest, but there was no way of knowing whether it occurred before or after the accident.

His epitaph is actually are his own words from the song, ""I Wonder What Would Happen to this World." He was 44 years old at the time of his death.  - Source:  wikipedia

Oh if a man tried
To take his time on Earth
And prove before he died
What one man's life could be worth
I wonder what would happen
to this world 

XXII.

                

“I wanted so badly to lie down next to her on the couch, to wrap my arms around her and sleep. Not fuck, like in those movies. Not even have sex. Just sleep together, in the most innocent sense of the phrase. But I lacked the courage and she had a boyfriend and I was gawky and she was gorgeous and I was hopelessly boring and she was endlessly fascinating. So I walked back to my room and collapsed on the bottom bunk, thinking that if people were rain, I was drizzle and she was a hurricane.” 

– John Green, Looking for Alaska

“Then they went into José Arcadio Buendía’s room, shook him as hard as they could, shouted in his ear, put a mirror in front of his nostrils, but they could not awaken him. A short time later, when the carpenter was taking measurements for the coffin, through the window they saw a light rain of tiny yellow flowers falling. They fell on the town all through the night in a silent storm, and they covered the roofs and blocked the doors and smothered the animals who slept outdoors. So many flowers fell from the sky that in the morning the streets were carpeted with a compact cushion and they had to clear them away with shovels and rakes so that the funeral procession could pass by.” – Gabriel Garcia Marquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude

XXI.

RAINBOWS

A rainbow is a multicolored arc, which forms when light strikes water droplets. They are actually optical illusions and never exist in a specific spot in the sky, and it appearance depends upon where you are standing and from where the sun shines.

Rainbows are commonly seen in fog, sea spray, or waterfalls.

A rainbow is a multi-colored arc that forms in the sky.

Rainbows are created by both reflection and refraction (bending) of light in water droplets in the atmosphere, which results in a spectrum of light appearing.

A rainbow is in fact a full circle of light. However, due to most people viewing a rainbow on the ground we only see a semi-circle or arc of the rainbow.

A rainbow is not situated at a specified distance, instead it will always be visible to a person at the precise angle freshwater droplets reflect the light which is 42 degrees in the opposite direction of the sun.

A rainbow is not an object, it cannot be approached or physically touched.

No two people see the same rainbow, in fact even our individual eyes see slightly different rainbows. If someone appears to be standing under a rainbow you can see, they will see a different rainbow at the same angle but further away.
Rainbows can be seen not just in rain but also mist, spray, fog, and dew, whenever there are water drops in the air and light shining from behind at the right angle.

Sir Isaac Newton identified the 7 colors of the visible spectrum that together make up white light. All of which are present in a rainbow in the order red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet (the acronym or name ROY G BIV is a good way to remember these colors and their order).

Most rainbows we see will be a "primary rainbow" whereby the color red can be seen on the outer edge through to violet on the inner edge.

The sky within a primary rainbow is brighter than the sky outside of the arc. This is due to the fact that the millions of droplets needed to make a rainbow are spherical and overlap to create white light. At the edge however, these colored discs don't overlap so display their individual colors producing the rainbow arc.

A "double rainbow" is where a second, much fainter arc can be seen outside of the primary arc. This is caused by the light reflecting twice inside the water droplets. As a result of this double reflection the colors of the second arc are inverted with violet on the outer edge and red on the inner edge.

The dark, unlit sky between the primary arc and secondary arc is called Alexander's band, after Alexander of Aphrodisias who first described it in 200 AD.

Very rarely, light can be reflected 3 or 4 times within a water droplet which produces even fainter tertiary (third) and quaternary (fourth) rainbows in the direction of the sun.

A "moonbow" is a rare lunar rainbow or night time rainbow produced by light from the moon. Our eyes see it as white even though all colors are faintly present.

A "fogbow" is formed by cloud and fog droplets, they are almost white with very faint colors visible. Fogbows are quite large and much broader than a rainbow.

Source:  sciencekids.co.nz/sciencefacts/weather/rainbows

XX.

~ An excerpt from THE BELL JAR, by Sylvia Plath


"I woke to the sound of rain....

It was pitch dark. After a while I deciphered the faint outlines of an unfamiliar window. Every so often a beam of light appeared out of thin air, traversed the wall like a ghostly, exploratory finger, and slid off into nothing again. 

Then I heard the sound of somebody breathing.

At first I thought it was only myself, and that I was lying in the dark in my hotel room after being poisoned. I held my breath, but the breathing kept on.

 A green eye glowed on the bed beside me. It was divided into quarters like a compass. I reached out slowly and dosed my hand on it. I lifted it up. With it came an arm, heavy as a dead man's, but warm with sleep.

Constantin's watch said three o'clock.

 He was lying in his shirt and trousers and stocking feet just as I had left him when I dropped asleep, and as my eyes grew used to the darkness I made out his pale eyelids and his straight nose and his tolerant, shapely mouth, but they seemed insubstantial, as if drawn on fog. For a few minutes I leaned over, studying him. I had never fallen asleep beside a man before.

I tried to imagine what it would be like if Constantin were my husband.

It would mean getting up at seven and cooking him eggs and bacon and toast and coffee and dawdling about in my nightgown and curlers after he'd left for work to wash up the dirty plates and make the bed, and then when he came home after a lively, fascinating day he'd expect a big dinner, and I'd spend the evening washing up even more dirty plates till I fell into bed, utterly exhausted.

This seemed a dreary and wasted life for a girl with fifteen years of straight A's, but I knew that's what marriage was like, because cook and clean and wash was just what Buddy Willard's mother did from morning till night, and she was the wife of a university professor and had been a private school teacher herself.

Once when I visited Buddy I found Mrs. Willard braiding a rug out of strips of wool from Mr. Willard's old suits. She'd spent weeks on that rug, and I had admired the tweedy browns and greens and blues patterning the braid, but after Mrs. Willard was through, instead of hanging the rug on the wall the way I would have done, she put it down in place of her kitchen mat, and in a few days it was soiled and dull and indistinguishable from any mat you could buy for under a dollar in the five and ten.  And I knew that in spite of all the roses and kisses and restaurant dinners a man showered on a woman before he married her, what he secretly wanted when the wedding service ended was for her to flatten out underneath his feet like Mrs. Willard's kitchen mat.

Hadn't my own mother told me that as soon as she and my father left Reno on their honeymoon -- my father had been married before, so he needed a divorce -- my father said to her, "Whew, that's a relief, now we can stop pretending and be ourselves"? - - and from that day on my mother never had a minute's peace.

I also remembered Buddy Willard saying in a sinister, knowing way that after I had children I would feel differently, I wouldn't want to write poems any more. So I began to think maybe it was true that when you were married and had children it was like being brainwashed, and afterward you went about numb as a slave in some private, totalitarian state.

As I stared down at Constantin the way you stare down at a bright, unattainable pebble at the bottom of a deep well, his eyelids lifted and he looked through me, and his eyes were full of love. I watched dumbly as a shutter of recognition clicked across the blur of tenderness and the wide pupils went glossy and depthless as patent leather.

Constantin sat up, yawning. "What time is it?"

 "Three," I said in a flat voice. "I better go home.

"The Bell Jar is the only novel written by the American writer and poet Sylvia Plath. Originally published under the pseudonym "Victoria Lucas" in 1963, the novel is semi-autobiographical, with the names of places and people changed. The book is often regarded as a roman à clef since the protagonist's descent into mental illness parallels Plath's own experiences with what may have been clinical depression. Plath committed suicide a month after its first UK publication. The novel was published under Plath's name for the first time in 1967 and was not published in the United States until 1971, pursuant to the wishes of Plath's mother and her husband Ted Hughes. The novel has been translated into nearly a dozen languages." - Source: wikipedia