Episode C: An Epic Ballade of New England

First: notice the title of the current episode? That's right, it is Episode C, coming from the Latin centum, or 100 (from which we derive century, or centurion). Which means, this is the 100th Epic Ballade post! Can you believe it? Second: notice up at the top? Coincident with the 100th episode, I have also renamed the entire blog to An Epic Ballade of New England, in accord with the results of the blog poll- although while the original plan was to call it An Epic Ballade of Cambridge, I since decided that since I don't actually live in Cambridge, and since I hope to relay interesting things from all over the region, the new official title shall be An Epic Ballade of New England.

This particular episode will be a hello to Massachusetts and a goodbye to Kansas.

Hello Massachusetts

My wife and I are moving to the most populous (0ver 6 million people) and I daresay most interesting of the six New England states. Massachusetts has some of the richest history in all of the United States, claiming such notable distinctions as the home of the Pilgrims' Plymouth colony, birthplace of the Revolutionary War, the nation's first institute of higher learning, a leader of the Industrial Revolution, the Transcendentalist and Abolition movements, and major contributor to U.S. politics from Samuel Adams to Mitt Romney, from the Adams family to the Kennedy family, Calvin Coolidge to Barack Obama (Harvard Law alum '91).


In coming episodes I will no doubt inundate you with tales of our adventures here in New England. For now, however, let us say adieu to The Midwest.

Goodbye Kansas

I had a great time in Kansas. I met some great people there. I had some great fun there. I met my wife there. I earned my Ph.D. there. I did lots of other things there of significance and insignificance (as detailed extensively in this very Ballade). Perhaps it has been Epic, perhaps it has not. One thing for sure that it has heretofore not been: a Ballade. A ballade (not to be confused with a ballad) is a poetic form that goes way back to 13th-century France. A good explanation is offered by Wikipedia:

"[It consists of] three eight-line stanzas, each with a consistent metre and a particular rhyme scheme. The last line in the stanza is a refrain. The stanzas are followed by a four-line concluding stanza (an envoi) usually addressed to a prince. The rhyme scheme is therefore usually 'ababbcbC ababbcbC ababbcbC bcbC', where the capital 'C' is a refrain."

And so it is, dear reader, after 99 episodes of the Epic Ballade, I finally present to you An Epic Ballade, of Kansas...

[Setting the scene photographically. It's a grassy field just outside of Lawrence.]

An Epic Ballade of Kansas

by Adam Norris

Oh for a land of blue and cloudless day
Without just cause to speak a downcast word
Oh for a land where quadrupedals play
With lowing, ne’er objecting voices heard
From those who next to fate stand undeterred
But rather stand and chew in myriad files
And wander honeyed trails of freshest curd
Where one can see for miles, and miles (and miles)

Oh for a town of people on the way
To whom no thought of pining back occurred
Who do not let the past obscure the day
Nor linger o’er the hearth of thoughts absurd
But rather sweep with freedom as a bird
And thus the sky reflects the peoples’ styles
And thus the two create a happy third
Where one can see for miles, and miles (and miles)

Ah for that land, a silent tear I lay
Upon the cheeks in grassy splendor gird
For those who in this lovely land still stay
For whom no freedom in their breast had stirred
A love for light or life but yet preferred
To slovenly heap up the land with biles
Retain the sound of joy and peace unheard
Where one can see for miles, and miles (and miles)

Dear sir (or ma’am) I’ve seen and felt and heard
That those with wiles indeed are those with wiles
Yet still the land and sky stand undeterred,
And one can see for miles, and miles (and miles)


[Good bye, Kansas]