"The Great Pumpkin Waltz" from Peanuts Greatest Hits by Vince Guaraldi Trio

"This living hand, now warm and capable" by John Keats

Today is Halloween. Happy Halloween! On this day in 1795, English poet John Keats was born in London. Happy birthday, John Keats! Here is an untitled poem of his that is appropriate for Halloween. It is the last poem that he wrote.

This living hand, now warm and capable
Of earnest grasping, would, if it were cold
And in the icy silence of the tomb,
So haunt thy days and chill thy dreaming nights
That thou would wish thine own heart dry of blood
So in my veins red life might stream again,
And thou be conscience-calm'd -- see here it is --
I hold it towards you.

John Keats (1795-1821)

An Observation from the Journal of Henry David Thoreau

"In rough October / Earth must disrobe her," wrote Christina Rossetti in her poem "The Months." On this day in 1858 Henry David Thoreau wrote in his journal the following observation about Nature:

Nature now, like an athlete, begins to strip herself in earnest for her contest with her great antagonist Winter. In the bare trees and twigs what a display of muscle!

Source: Daily Observations: Thoreau on the Days of the Year (2005), edited by Steve Grant

Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)

"The Charge of the Light Brigade" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

On this day in 1854, the "Charge of the Light Brigade" took place at Balaklava, on the Black Sea, during the Crimean War as an English brigade of more than 600 men charged the Russian army, suffering heavy losses. It is not known who was responsible for the useless sacrifice. English poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson described that charge in his poem "The Charge of the Light Brigade" (1854).

Read "The Charge of the Light Brigade" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson >>

Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892)

Poet laureate from 1850 to 1892

An Observation from the Journal of Henry David Thoreau

On this day in 1857 Henry David Thoreau wrote the following observation in his journal:

Is not the poet bound to write his own biography? Is there any other work for him but a good journal? We do not wish to know how his imaginary hero, but how he, the actual hero, lived from day to day.

Source: Daily Observations: Thoreau on the Days of the Year (2005), edited by Steve Grant

Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)

"The Final Say: The Hen and the Golden Eggs" by Monty Gilmer

The following poem, titled "The Hen and the Golden Eggs" (1912), is a fable that William Ellery Leonard adapted from Aesop:

A cottager and wife possessed a Hen

Who laid each day a golden Egg again;

So each one thought that in its fair inside

A lump of gold there surely must abide.

And thus they killed it in the hope of gain,

And found no more than entrails, quite as plain

As fill the insides of all mortal chicks.

The foolish pair were in a silly fix.

And thus 'tis ever with the Get-rich-quicks.

The following quotation is an observation that Henry David Thoreau wrote in his journal on October 9, 1860:

This haste to kill a bird or quadruped and make a skeleton of it, which many young men and some old ones exhibit, reminds me of the fable of the man who killed the hen that laid golden eggs, and so got no more gold. It is a perfectly parallel case. Such is the knowledge which you may get from the anatomy as compared with the knowledge you get from the living creature.