Another Georgian poet, Rupert Brooke, took an idyllic view of the countryside, `and, as we have seen, was much attracted by water and river scenery, viewing fish with particular appreciation. He combines this interest with playful but telling satire of an anthropomorphic view of God and the Future Life in his poem, HEAVEN Fish (fly-replete, […]
Author: Peter Wood
June 4 Edmund Blunden
FOREFATHERS Edmund Blunden’s “Forefathers”, written in the earlier years of our own century, owes something to these earlier poems, but adds a feeling of fellowship and continuity with the older generation: Here they went with smock and crook, Toiled in the sun, lolled in the shade, This poem is still protected by copyright. Read the […]
June 3 Oliver Goldsmith
Another poet of the eighteenth century, Oliver Goldsmith, expresses a similar regard for rural life and character in his “The Deserted Village”, looking back to his childhood in Lissoy, a village in West Meath in Ireland; which he idealises as ‘Sweet Auburn’, with a veteran of the Spanish wars, Thomas Byrne, as the village schoolmaster. […]
June 2 Thomas Gray
Tranquillity induced by the quiet of a Summer evening is the emotional setting for “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” by Thomas Gray: The curfew tolls the knell of parting day, The lowing herd wind slowly oe’r the lea, The ploughman homeward plods his weary way, And leaves the world to darkness and to me. […]
June 1 Edmund Spenser
And after her came jolly June arrayed All in green leaves, as he a Player were; Yet in his time he wrought as well as played That by his plough-irons mote right well appear. Upon a Crab he rode ….. Spenser’s pageant figure is that of the Green Man, symbolizing the full growth of grass, […]
May Poems Index
Title/From Begins Poet Song on a May Morning Now the bright morning star, Day’s harbinger, John Milton L’Allegro But come thou goddess fair and free, John Milton The Fairie Queene Then came fair May, the fairest maid on ground Edmund Spenser The Legend of Good Women And as for me, though than I konne but […]
May 8 Rupert Brooke
We concluded April with Browning’s “Home thoughts from Abroad”. Rupert Brooke’s “The Old Vicarage Grantchester” was written in the same vein, but from a cafe in Berlin in May, 1912. Here are some lines from the poem: Just now the lilac is in bloom, All before my little room; And in my flower-beds, I think, […]
May 7 John Betjeman
The emotions that produce poetry include, we see, exhilaration. The Poet Laureate, Sir John Betjeman, a past-master at poeticising the commonplace, bases upon this feeling his poem entitled; “Seaside Golf”: This poem is still within the copyright period. How straight it flew, how long it flew, Read the poem here Previous poem Great Things by […]
May 6 Thomas Hardy
It is fitting at this jolly season of the year to redress gloomy stereotypes such as that of Milton: April’s poems showed us Thomas Hardy in his familiar image as the pessimist, seeing mankind in the power of an Immanent Will unconcerned with his sufferings; but there is also Hardy the Dorset countrymen, who, although […]
May 5 Beaumont and Fletcher
From “The Knight of the Burning Pestle” by Beaumont and Fletcher This month of early morning forays into the countryside to bring home branches of the May, to decorate the may-pole and to dance around it, forms part of our vision of Merry England. It is well portrayed in Beaumont and Fletcher’s play, “The Knight […]