Poem for April 2009
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!
Home thoughts from Abroad by Robert Browning (1812-1889)
click link to read in full
Poem for February 2009
Gone were but the Winter,
Come were but the Spring,
I would go to a covert
Where the birds sing.
Where in the whitethorn
Singeth a thrush,
And a robin sings
In the holly-bush.
Full of fresh scents
Are the budding boughs
Arching high over
A cool green house:
Full of sweet scents,
And whispering air
Which sayeth softly:
“We spread no snare;
February's poem is by the English Romantic poet Christina Rossetti. Read it in full at the link.
Poem for January 2009
A cloudy winter morning it was,
As if dawn did not want to break,
And out there in the fog,
A hollow bell had struck.
Click to read in full
Poem for December 2008
How like a winter hath my absence been from thee, the pleasure of the fleeting year!
What freezings have I felt, what darkness seen!
What old December's bareness everywhere!
by William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
Click on link to read in full
Poem for November 2008
The Morns are Meeker than they were
"The morns are meeker than they were,
The nuts are getting brown;
The berry's cheek is plumper,
The rose is out of town.
The maple wears a gayer scarf,
The field a scarlet gown.
Lest I should be old-fashioned,
I'll put a trinket on."
This month's poem is by one of The Naked Reader's favourite poets, the American lyric poet Emily Dickinson
Poem for October 2008
Poem for October
"It was my thirtieth year to heaven
Woke to my hearing from harbour and neighbour wood
And the mussel pooled and the heron
Priested shore
The morning beckon........"
Poem for September 2008
Ode to Autumn by John Keats
"Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run;
To bend with apples the mossed cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel;
by John Keats (1795-1821)
Poem for August 2008
He'd Nothing but his Violin
"He'd nothing but his violin,
I'd nothing but my song,
But we were wed when skies were blue
And summer days were long;"
by Mary Kyle Dallas (1837-1897)
Click on heading to read poem in full and find out more about its author
Poem for July 2008
What is pink? A rose is pink
By the fountain's brink.
What is red? A poppy's red
In its barley bed.
From Sing-Song, a book of nursery rhymes by Christina Rossetti published in 1893.
Click on heading to read in full
Poem for June 2008
June Thunder
by Louis MacNeice (1907-63)
.......Then the curtains in my room blow suddenly inward,
The shrubbery rustles, birds fly heavily homeward,
The white flowers fade to nothing on the trees and rain comes
Down like a dropscene.
Click on link to read poem in full
Poem for May 2008
"Now the bright morning-star, day’s harbinger,
Comes dancing from the east, and leads with her
The flowery May, who from her green lap throws
The yellow cowslip and the pale primrose....."
Poem for April 2008
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!
Poem for March 2009
For winter's rains and ruins are over,
And all the season of snows and sins;
The days dividing lover and lover,
The light that loses, the night that wins;
And time remembered is grief forgotten,
And frosts are slain and flowers begotten,
And in green underwood and cover
Blossom by blossom the spring begins.
Poem for March 2008
"The afternoon is bright,
with spring in the air,
a mild March afternoon,
with the breath of April stirring,
I am alone in the quiet patio
looking for some old untried illusion -
some shadow on the whiteness of the wall
some memory asleep
on the stone rim of the fountain,
perhaps in the air
the light swish of some trailing gown."
Antonio Machado 1875-1939
Selected Poems, # 3, Translated by Alan S. Trueblood
Poem for February 2008
Can Death be Sleep
Can death be sleep, when life is but a dream,
And scenes of bliss pass as a phantom by? The transient pleasures as a vision seem, And yet we think the greatest pain's to die.
How strange it is that man on earth should roam,
And lead a life of woe, but not forsake
His rugged path; nor dare he view alone
His future doom which is but to awake.
by John Keats 1795-1821
February's Poem of the Month is dedicated to the fine young Australian actor Heath Ledger, tragically found dead last month in New York, at the age of 28
Poem for January 2008
Winter Lady
"Well I lived with a child of snow
when I was a soldier,
and I fought every man for her
until the nights grew colder."
by Leonard Cohen 1934-present
Our poem for January is a song by the Canadian poet, novelist and singer songwriter Leonard Cohen.
Cohen will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 10, 2008 for his status among the "highest and most influential echelon of songwriters."
Poem for December 2007
Mistletoe
Sitting under the mistletoe
(Pale-green, fairy mistletoe),
One last candle burning low,
All the sleepy dancers gone,
Just one candle burning on,
Shadows lurking everywhere:
Some one came, and kissed me there.
by Walter de La Mare 1873-1956
Poem for November 2007
"Well, if you're travelin' in the north country fair,
Where the winds hit heavy on the borderline,
Remember me to one who lives there.
She once was a true love of mine."
by Bob Dylan
Click on heading to read in full.
Poem for September 2007
September
We sit late, watching the dark slowly unfold:
No clock counts this.
When kisses are repeated and the arms hold
There is no telling where time is.
by Ted Hughes (1930-1998)
Ted Hughes was one of England's leading poets of the twentieth century. He was married to the American poet Sylvia Plath (1932-63), author of The Bell Jar and widely regarded as the most talented poet of her generation.
Poem for August 2007
August
by Dorothy Parker (1893-1967)
"When my eyes are weeds,
And my lips are petals, spinning
Down the wind that has beginning
Where the crumpled beeches start
In a fringe of salty reeds;
When my arms are elder-bushes,
And the rangy lilac pushes
Upward, upward through my heart"
Read poem in full at link for August poem of the month
Poem for July 2007
A Thunderstorm by Emily Dickinson (1830-86)
The wind began to rock the grass
With threatening tunes and low,
He flung a menace at the earth,
A menace at the sky.
The leaves unhooked themselves from trees
And started all abroad;
The dust did scoop itself like hands
And throw away the road.
(Double click on heading to read in full)
Poem for June 2007
The Lake Isle of Innisfree
"I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made:
Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honeybee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade."
William Butler Yeats (1865-1939)
Click on link to hear the poet reading this poem (you need Real Player for this)
Poem for May 2007
"It is Spring.
Vast mists cover the Five Lakes.
My dear, let me buy a red painted boat
And carry you away. "
by Wu Tsao
19th Century Chinese Lesbian poet
Translated by Kenneth Rexroth and Ling Chung
Read in full at our link to Poem of the Month
Poem for April 2007
"April is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain."
T.S. Eliot (1888-1965)
Poem for March 2007
"For winter's rains and ruins are over,
And all the season of snows and sins;
The days dividing lover and lover,
The light that loses, the night that wins;
And time remembered is grief forgotten,
And frosts are slain and flowers begotten,
And in green underwood and cover
Blossom by blossom the spring begins."
Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837–1909)
from "Atalanta in Calydon" (1865)
Poem for February 2007
Wild Nights-Wild Nights!
Were I with thee
Wild Nights should be
Our luxury!
Futile-the Winds-
To a Heart in Port-
Done with the Compass-
Done with the Chart!
Rowing in Eden-
Ah, the Sea!
Might I but moor-Tonight--
In Thee!"
Emily Dickinson (1830-86)
Poem for January 2007
Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening
"Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year..........."
by Robert Frost 1874-1963
Poem for December 2006
In a drear-nighted December
"In a drear-nighted December,
Too happy, happy tree,
Thy branches ne’er remember
Their green felicity:
The north cannot undo them,
With a sleety whistle through them;
Nor frozen thawings glue them
From budding at the prime........ "
Poem for November 2006
Poem for November
"There is wind where the rose was,
Cold rain where sweet grass was,
And clouds like sheep
Stream o'er the steep
Grey skies where the lark was......."
