There has been a bit of a dearth of books around here lately, and that's because I seem to be having a much-needed, though unintended, reading pause. I suppose it's rather like having eaten a lot of rich food, you have to give your system a rest and feed it something small and plain and palate-cleansing. So as there's a lull on the book front, let's look at the word 'lull' which I think is a good one, soft of sound and cadence, largely pleasant of meaning.
I say largely pleasant because a lull is a whaling term, being a tube to convey blubber into the hold of the ship (not a lot of people know that - and nor did I until I looked it up just now!), but we know it rather as a verb meaning "to soothe with sounds or caresses; to induce to sleep or to pleasing quiescence" (I'm drifting off even as I type...).
There's a lull in a storm, of course, which perhaps lulls those caught up in it into a false sense of security; Matthew Arnold talks of "a lull in the hot race" in the last stanza of his soulful poem The Buried Life, and Paul Robeson famously sings "lulla lulla lulla lulla bye bye" in this old song!
Lulls can be good things. Hopefully you've been filling the time with something nice and restful!
Posted by: Danielle | 11 November 2009 at 02:32 AM
ooh .... quiescence... that's a soothing one too.
Posted by: Ruth | 11 November 2009 at 08:05 AM
I think we all need a lull now and then. I always get a bit frustrated but I try now to just enjoy the lull.
Posted by: Simon S | 11 November 2009 at 08:47 AM
I agree with the others - lulls are useful sometimes and get you ready forr the next onslaught. In the meantime, enjoy other things!
Posted by: Verity | 11 November 2009 at 09:17 AM
Makes you wonder how 'lullaby' grew out of blubber tubes...
Posted by: Ruth M | 11 November 2009 at 03:06 PM
I hope you're not suggesting the whaling term is the origin of "lull" in the sense of a quiet period in a storm, or the verb to induce sleep? It has a very respectable ancestry back to the C13th at least in English, and earlier in other languages such as Latin!
Posted by: Lindsay | 12 November 2009 at 08:54 PM
I'm getting worried... I've been seeing "Ruth M" commenting in various blogs that I visit daily.
But I"M "Ruth M"! Am I sleep-walking and reading each blog twice, once awake and once asleep?
Posted by: Ruth Ma---- | 12 November 2009 at 09:11 PM
No, I certainly wasn't suggesting that, and of course I'd read the OED entry before doing the post.
Posted by: Cornflower | 13 November 2009 at 09:56 AM