The Deities Approve

 I woke up this morning to something beautiful on Radio 3 (where 'beautiful' is by no means a given these days). It was the fine countertenor Iestyn Davies singing 'Here the Deities Approve' from Purcell's Welcome to All the Pleasures, a piece dedicated to St Cecilia. The words are by Christopher Fishburn, an obscure figure, but here writing better than many whose verse Purcell somehow transmuted into musical gold. 'Here the Deities Approve' ends with a particularly ravishing instrumental passage. Here is the great Andreas Scholl singing it –

After this, my morning blindfold poem selection also went well, coming up with Auden's sonnet 'Who's Who', nestling in the pages of Don Paterson's excellent anthology 101 Sonnets. I see that I wrote about 'Who's Who' ten years ago, so the best thing would be to link you to that piece...