Poetry Friday 2

It's time for another Poetry Friday. This time I've gone for the Spring theme as it's actually been sunny and fairly warm in Oxford this afternoon.

But These Things Also

But these things also are Spring's --
On banks by the roadside the grass
Long-dead that is greyer now
Than all the Winter it was;

The shell of a little snail bleached
In the grass; chip of flint, and mite
Of chalk; and the small bird's dung
In splashes of purest white:

All the white things a man mistakes
For earliest violets
Who seeks through Winter's ruins
Something to pay Winter's debts,

While the North blows, and starling flocks
By chattering on and on
Keep their spirits up in the mist,
And Spring's here, Winter's not gone.

Edward Thomas

This was the first of Thomas' poems I ever read, so it has a particularly strong resonance for me.

Spring

Sound the Flute!
Now it's mute.
Birds delight
Day and Night
Nightingale
In the dale
Lark in Sky
Merrily
Merrily Merrily to welcome in the Year

Little Boy
Full of joy,
Little Girl
Sweet and small,
Cock does crow
So do you.
Merry voice
Infant noise
Merrily Merrily to welcome in the Year

Little Lamb
Here I am.
Come and lick
My white neck.
Let me pull
Your soft Wool.
Let me kiss
Your soft face
Merrily Merrily we welcome in the Year

William Blake, Songs of Innocence

Blake's Songs of Innocence and Experience were required reading for my English degree, and the contrast between the Innocent poems and the Experienced ones is quite often startling.

Finally, I have to echo the opening of T S Eliot's The Wasteland: April is the cruellest month ! We've had some quite bad weather this April in the UK, so having the sunshine today was a real blessing - and it's the start of the May Day Bank Holiday weekend (which is another blessing !)