|
|
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Willie Nelson | |
|
 Veteran country music singer Willie Nelson is always up to something new. Read our Willie Watch column to keep up.
|
| |
|
|
Poem of the Month |
|
|
|
|
Poem for April 2009
• by Robert Browning (1812-89)
 Images |
|
|
 On the Web |
|
|
Tuesday,
14 April, 2009
Home thoughts from Abroad
Oh, to be in England now that April ’s there
And whoever wakes in England sees,
some morning, unaware,
That the lowest boughs and the brushwood sheaf
Round the elm-tree bole are in tiny leaf,
While the chaffinch sings on the orchard bough
In England—now!
And after April, when Mary follows
And the white-throat builds, and all the swallows!
Hark, where my blossom’d pear-tree in the hedge
Leans to the field and scatters on the clover
Blossoms and dewdrops—at the bent spray’s edge—
That ’s the wise thrush: he sings each song twice over
Lest you should think he never could re-capture
The first fine careless rapture!
And, though the fields look rough with hoary dew,
All will be gay when noontide wakes anew
The buttercups, the little children’s dower,
Far brighter than this gaudy melon-flower!
by Robert Browning (1812-1889)
Robert Browning was a leading Victorian poet and writer. His father, the son of a sugar plantation owner, was a noted social reformer and campaigner for the abolition of the slave trade.
Brownings immediate family were artistic, musical and literary. Browning is also known as the husband of the poetess Elizabeth Barrett Browing.
In 1845, Browning met Elizabeth Barrett, who lived as a semi-invalid and virtual prisoner in her father's house in Wimpole Street. Gradually a significant romance developed between them, leading to their secret marriage and flight in 1846.
From the time of their marriage, the Brownings lived in Italy, first in Pisa, and then, within a year, finding an apartment in Florence which they called Casa Guidi (now a museum to their memory).
Their only child, Robert Wiedemann Barrett Browning, nicknamed "Penini" or "Pen", was born in 1849. In these years Browning was fascinated by and learned hugely from the art and atmosphere of Italy. He would, in later life, say that 'Italy was my university'. The Brownings also bought a home in Asolo, in the Veneto outside Venice.
This poem was written when Browing was living in Italy and reflects his longing for the English spring.
On the Lam 2009
| |
|
|
|
|
|
| Advertise! |
|
|
|
Advertise! |
|
|
|
Copyright OnTheLam 2006
Terms of Service
|
Contact Us
|
|
 Wireless Access
 RSS Feeds
|
|
|
