Thanksgiving

"Thanksgiving,
and terror of loss,
make all but my love of life
dross."

Rick Lee, via Nic Jones


The Staid Saxon

The ox he's never woe
till he to harrow go,
for the harrow like the witches
runeth the rows in twitches

-Thomas Tusser, 15th century

Commentary: Dorothy Hartley compares oxen to English Saxons who, like oxen, preferred life's steady unchanging pace. The tails of mediæval harrows were made of dense, sharp twigs which jerked and skipped when drawn. Witches shiftily followed the lines of hedgerows (literally 'hag-rows') at darting speeds upon sticks.