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September 16, 2008
The Secret Ministry
News that the DCMS has been conducting its review of the public library service in secret since July reminds me of the opening lines of my favourite poem
'The Frost performs its secret ministry,
Unhelped by any wind. The owlet's cry
Came loud--and hark, again ! loud as before.
The inmates of my cottage, all at rest,
Have left me to that solitude, which suits
Abstruser musings : save that at my side
My cradled infant slumbers peacefully......'
and so on, Frost at Midnight by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Listen to the old recording of it being read by Richard Burton
By the way, Perkins has a birthday next Monday. She will be 3. It is many years since I said that the public library service could be run better by a small black cat than by those who run it now. She has proudly proved me right.
Posted by Perkins at September 16, 2008 10:06 PM