Friday, April 10, 2009

Poetry Friday - Spring Carol

Before I launch into my poetry post for today, let me remind you of the Poetry Makers series happening here every day in April. In honor of poetry Friday there are TWO poets featured today. They are Linda Ashman and Julie Larios. Poetry books will be given away, so be sure to visit and comment.

Alright, on with the regularly scheduled poetry post!
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This week, while I enjoyed the colors, the smell, the beauty of spring, it snowed at my parent's home in western NY. That surprising news had me reading a bit of poetry about spring.
Spring Carol
by Robert Louis Stevenson

When loud by landside streamlets gush,
And clear in the greenwood quires the thrush,
With sun on the meadows
And songs in the shadows
Comes again to me
The gift of the tongues of the lea,
The gift of the tongues of meadows.

Straightway my olden heart returns
And dances with the dancing burns;
It sings with the sparrows;
To the rain and the (grimy) barrows
Sings my heart aloud—
To the silver-bellied cloud,
To the silver rainy arrows.

It bears the song of the skylark down,
And it hears the singing of the town;
And youth on the highways
And lovers in byways
Follows and sees:
And hearkens the song of the leas
And sings the songs of the highways.

So when the earth is alive with gods,
And the lusty ploughman breaks the sod,
And the grass sings in the meadows,
And the flowers smile in the shadows,
Sits my heart at ease,
Hearing the song of the leas,
Singing the songs of the meadows.
The round up is being hosted by Carol at Carol's Corner. Do stop by and take in all the great poetry being shared this week. Before you go, be sure to check out the bite-sized sonnets written for this week's poetry stretch. Happy poetry Friday, all!

3 comments:

  1. "Singing the songs of the meadows." YES!! this is prefect for my mood today. Thanks for posting!

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  2. This has just all of those good words in it, like streamlet, gush, lea, skylark, silver-bellied... it's like he opened a book and found this list under the word "Spring." Lovely, lovely.

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  3. I'm really trying to understand more of the less modern poems and this was a good for me.

    I've been working in my garden a lot this week so like Andromeda Jazmon, the line "Singing the songs of the meadows" really spoke to me.

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