Remembering Ray Bradbury

It’s almost midnight and I should be in bed, but I have to write something about the loss of Ray Bradbury. I’m too tired to adequately explain how much I admire his work. Let me just say that if I could choose any author’s style to emulate, it would be Ray Bradbury’s. I love his simple prose and vivid images. He was a true storyteller who rose above genre and left behind a legacy of powerful literature.

I began to really appreciate Bradbury’s work when I taught Fahrenheit 451 to seventh graders in my first years as a teacher. Because of books like The October Country, Something Wicked This Way Comes, The Halloween Tree, and Dandelion Wine, I always think of Bradbury when October comes around.

The Halloween Tree; oil painting by Ray Bradbury, 1960

One of my favorite Bradbury stories is “…And the Moon Be Still As Bright” from The Martian Chronicles. The title comes from the poem “We’ll Go No More A-Roving” by George Gordon, Lord Byron. It seems like a fitting tribute.

Here’s to you, Ray:

So, we’ll go no more a-roving
So late into the night,
Though the heart be still as loving,
And the moon be still as bright.

For the sword outwears its sheath,
And the soul wears out the breast,
And the heart must pause to breathe,
And love itself have rest.

Though the night was made for loving,
And the day returns too soon,
Yet we’ll go no more a-roving
By the light of the moon.