Nevermore

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
`'Tis some visitor,' I muttered, `tapping at my chamber door -
Only this, and nothing more.'

                                 from Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven"

Goooood Evening

and

Happy Hallow's Eve . . .



I briefly digress from my usual blog style, well a bit, and the last Delta post, at least for now,to wish you a very happy Halloween night.

My grandmother Nanny was born in 1903.  Much of her elementary education in the Arkansas Delta town of Mariana, Arkansas, consisted of "memory work" and recitation for her teacher Mrs. Alma Futrell, whom Nanny quoted until the day she died.  

My grandmother Nanny with my mother, Anna Ruth, ca 1939

Until she passed away in 1990 in the Mississippi Delta,she could perfectly recite among other things:

 The Gettysburg Address

The Preamble to the Constitution

Tennyson's "Charge of the Light Brigade"

Longfellow's "Hiawatha's Childhood"

Joyce Kilmer's "Trees"

Edgar Allan Poe's "Annabelle Lee"

Robert Burns' "To a Louse" and

"My Love is Like a Red, Red Rose"

and VERY often did.

Nanny could recite practically everything in this book, copyright 1924.

The one that has always seemed to stick in my head though was

Edgar Allan Poe's

"THE RAVEN".

Raven chandelier

I can still hear Nanny's voice reciting to me and my sister Susan, "Ne-ver moreeee", with lots of feeling.

  

Nanny LOVED Poe, and particularly "The Raven".  I do too. 

"The Raven" is probably another reason I love:
 birds
  AND  
macabre stories
Halloween
and 
black and white design with a touch of earthy orange

Suzanne Kasler Design

I think next year I WILL hostess a "Nevermore" Halloween party.

Raven cookies

Raven cocktails: Black vodka, creme de cassis, and cranberry juice

over champagne and a sugar cube.  I adore champagne cocktails!

Of course the perfect costume will be in order.  Perhaps something like one of these. . .

I will wear this with my costume



Fabulous 'bird' Carmen Dell'Oreface is 80 years old.



OR

a fabulous Andy Warhol/

Carol Channing

like my friend designer John Lyle wore at brunch/tea in New York yesterday. 

I love the

STRIKING

MODERN

CLEVER

PROVOCATIVE

accessories and furniture

that John designs.

Designer John Lyle in his NY loft with his black and white marble inlaid Tobey desk

A visit to John's loft in NY is coming in the next post!

Enjoy the night, my birds of
a feather . . .

I'm off to bed to read

"THE RAVEN", again.

Then this ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling,
By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore,
`Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou,' I said, `art sure no craven.
Ghastly grim and ancient raven wandering from the nightly shore -
Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night's Plutonian shore!'
Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.'

What do you love about Halloween? Do you like black and white design with a twist of orange?

Photo Credits: Elle Decor, Marilyn Storey, Etsy, Suzanne Kasler,

Callaway Gable, Jason Juta, Vanity Fair Italia