“And what is so rare as a day in June?”
Prelude to Pt. I, st. 5
The Vision of Sir Launfal (1848)
Context: And what is so rare as a day in June?
Then, if ever, come perfect days;
Then Heaven tries the earth if it be in tune,
And over it softly her warm ear lays:
Whether we look, or whether we listen,
We hear life murmur, or see it glisten;
Every clod feels a stir of might,
An instinct within it that reaches and towers,
And, grasping blindly above it for light,
Climbs to a soul in grass and flowers.
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James Russell Lowell 175
American poet, critic, editor, and diplomat 1819–1891Related quotes
“So many lovely things, so rare, so young,
A day begat them, and a day will end.”
Tot species, tantosque ortus variosque novatus<br/>una dies aperit, conficit ipsa dies.
Tot species, tantosque ortus variosque novatus
una dies aperit, conficit ipsa dies.
"De Rosis Nascentibus", line 39; translation from Helen Waddell Mediaeval Latin Lyrics ([1929] 1943) p. 29.
This poem used to be misattributed to Virgil, but is now usually ascribed to Ausonius.
“It was one of those perfect autumn days so common in stories and so rare in the real world.”
Source: The Name of the Wind (2007), Chapter 2, “A Beautiful Day” (p. 19)
“It is the rare fortune of these days that one may think what one likes and say what one thinks.”
Rara temporum felicitate, ubi sentire quae velis, et quae sentias dicere licet.
Book I, 1
Histories (100-110)
“Let June 23 go down in our history as our independence day.”
Leave campaign ahead in UK's EU referendum vote https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-eu-referendum-36612368 BBC News (24 June 2016)
2016
Noting Italy's declaration of war against France on that day, during the commencement address at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville (June 10, 1940); reported in The Public Papers and Addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1940 (1941), p. 263
1940s
“Too often I would hear men boast of the miles covered that day, rarely of what they had seen”
“To be capable of respect is, in these days, almost as rare as to be worthy of it.”
