Pleasantries

"Undergrowth with a Couple", oil on canvas, 50.0 x 100.5 cm, between June 18 and 22, 1890.
Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, USA.

pleas·ant·ry (plzn-tr)
n. pl. pleas·ant·ries
1. A humorous remark or act; a jest.
2. A polite social utterance; a civility: exchanged pleasantries before getting down to business.
3. A good-humored or playful manner in conversation or social relations.

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[French plaisanterie, from Old French plesanterie, from plaisant, pleasant; see pleasant.]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved

Of splendor in the grass

The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth With a Memoir Por William Wordsworth:

Be now for ever taken from my sight
Though nothing can bring back the hour
Of splendor in the grass of glory in the flower
We will grieve not rather find
Strength in what remains behind
In the primal sympathy
Which having been must ever be
In the soothing thoughts that spring
Out of human suffering
In the faith that looks through death
In years that bring the philosophic mind