Laudator Temporis Acti

From my son:

A pair of wrens nested in our garage and laid five eggs. One of the hatchlings got ejected by the other four, but we helped it back in the nest with a plastic spoon and they all finally fledged. They spent a couple of days in "flight school" flapping around the garage before they took their leave. Here's a photo attached.

My son also contributed the following example of a series of asyndetic, privative adjectives to my collection, from Charles Dickens, The Old Curiosity Shop, chapter 32:

Here, every night, the child was too, unseen by them, unthought of, unregarded; but feeling as if they were her friends, as if they had confidences and trusts together, as if her load were lightened and less hard to bear; as if they mingled their sorrows, and found mutual consolation.

Here's another example, from a Song by Ebenezer Elliott (1781-1849):

Like a rootless rose or lily;
  Like a sad and life-long sigh;
Like a bird pursued and weary,
  Doom'd to flutter till it die;
Landless, restless, joyless, hopeless,
  Gasping still for bread and breath,
To their graves by trouble hunted,
  Albion's helots toil for death.

Tardy day of hoarded ruin,
  Wild Niagara of blood!
Coming sea of headlong millions,
  Vainly seeking work and food!
Why is famine reaped for harvest?
  Planted curses always grow;
Where the plough makes want its symbol,
  Fools will gather as they sow.

Labels: asyndetic privative adjectives