Sketch / F.S. Flint

Sketch

Gold on her head, and in her heart's heart, gold!
She seems to breathe a rhododendron glow
Of blossoming colour, Fra Angelico
Would love to picture — angels aureoled!

An early Summer in her smiling glance,
The virginal sap and sweetness of her June,
And calm serenity of a crescent moon,
Weaving a glamour where the young leaves dance.

She has too something of unclouded skies
Of day and night about her, blue and dark
In turn, and deep. You see it if you mark
The limpid laughing purity of her eyes.

~~
F.S. Flint (1885-1960)
from In the Net of the Stares, 1909

[Poem is in the public domain in Canada and the United States]

F.S. Flint biography

"Sketch" read by Nemo. Courtesy LibriVox Audiobooks.

(Poem begins at 29:55)

June Night / Hazel Hall

June Night

The Astrologer of the Nineteenth Century,

 1825. Wikimedia Commons.

Into my room to-night came June,

A band of stars caught up her hair,
And woven of the mist of moon,
And patterned from the leaf-laced air,
Her garments spread a soft perfume
Over the shadows of my room.

But hardly had her coming stirred
My darkness with a hope like dawn,
Or had my anxious silence heard
Her faint footfall, than she was gone.
She went as though with a quick fear
Of the eternal winter here.

~~
Hazel Hall (1886-1924)
from Curtains, 1921

[Poem is in the public domain in Canada, the United States, and the European Union]

Hazel Hall biography

June's featured poem

  

The Penny Blog's featured  poem for June 2026:

Adlestrop, by Edward Thomas

Yes, I remember Adlestrop –

The name, because one afternoon

Of heat, the express-train drew up there

Unwontedly. It was late June

[...]

(read by poet Arthur L. Wood)

https://gdancesbetty.blogspot.com/2015/06/adlestrop-edward-thomas.html

Penny's Top 20 / May 2026

Penny's Top 20

The most-visited poems on  The Penny Blog in May 2026:

  1.  A Road Song in May, Francis Sherman

  2.  God's Grandeur, Gerard Manley Hopkins

  3.  To My Mother, Christina Rossetti

  4.  A Dirge, Amy Levy

  5.  Holy Ghost Cement, AE Reiff

  6.  3 May poems, Annette Wynne

  7.  Afternoon on a Hill, Edna St. Vincent Millay

  8.  Chanson D'Aventure, C.S. Lewis

  9.  The Woods in May, Ellwood Roberts

10.  May, Jane G. Austin

11.  The Waste Land, T.S. Eliot

12.  Dandelions, George Sulzbach

13.  Skating, William Wordsworth

14.  In May, Madison Cawein

15.  Winter Ghost (Taking a Time Out), Will Dockery

16.  Songs to Joannes XIII, Mina Loy

17.  May, George J. Dance

18.  Large Red Man Reading, Wallace Stevens

19.  Vowels, Arthur Rimbaud

20. The Stare's Nest by My Window, W.B. Yeats

Source: Blogger, "Stats" 

In May / Madison Cawein

 

Rolf Dietrich Brecher, Spring, 2018.

CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons.

In May

When you and I in the hills went Maying,
     You and I in the bright May weather,
     The birds, that sang on the boughs together,
There in the green of the woods, kept saying
     All that my heart was saying low,
     ‘I love you! love you!’ soft and low,
          And did you know?
When you and I in the hills went Maying.

There where the brook on its rocks went winking,
     There by its banks where the May had led us,
     Flowers, that bloomed in the woods and meadows,
Azure and gold at our feet, kept thinking
     All that my soul was thinking there,
     ‘I love you! love you!’ softly there
          And did you care?
There where the brook on its rocks went winking.

Whatever befalls through fate’s compelling,
     Should our paths unite or our pathways sever,
     In the Mays to come I shall feel forever
The wildflowers thinking, the wild birds telling,
     In words as soft as the falling dew,
     The love that I keep here still for you,
          Both deep and true,
Whatever befalls through fate’s compelling.

~~
Madison Cawein (1865-1914)
from Myth and Romance, 1899

[Poem is in the public domain worldwide]

Madison Cawein biography

"In May" read for Audiobook Passion.

May / Jane G. Austin

May

Sweet month of Mary, month of May,
What pale pure flowerets strew thy way;
                Bellissima!

Low lilies press about thy feet
With violets changing kisses sweet;
                Dulcissima!

While through the snow that latest lingers
The Mayflower thrusts her fairy fingers;
                Rubentissima!

As though the Virgin's holy mood
Struck tender joys of motherhood;
                Sanctissima!

Even thy moon, so cold and clear,
Shines with a beauty half austere;
                Splendissima!

While chill pure winds from eastern seas
Enfold no dream of tropic breeze;
                Purissima!

.        .        .        .        .        .        .        .

But month of Mary, month of May,
Still with our love we'll strew thy way;
                Bellissima!

For O, sweet maiden of the year,
We cannot choose but hold thee dear;
                Carissima!

~~
Jane G. Austin (1831-1894)
from Through the Year with the Poets: May, 1886

[Poem is in the public domain worldwide]

Bart Everson, Wildflowers – New Orleans May 2021. CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons.

[June]

Jane G. Austin biography

A Dirge / Amy Levy

A Dirge

Rhoda Baer, Woman Staring out Window,
2009. Public domain, Wikimedia Commons.

"Mein Herz, mein Herz ist traurig
Doch lustig leuchtet der Mai"

There's May amid the meadows,
    There's May amid the trees;
Her May-time note the cuckoo
    Sends forth upon the breeze.

Above the rippling river
    May swallows skim and dart;
November and December
    Keep watch within my heart.

The spring breathes in the breezes,
    The woods with wood-notes ring,
And all the budding hedgerows
    Are fragrant of the spring.

In secret, silent places
    The live green things upstart; 

Ice-bound, ice-crown'd dwells winter
    For ever in my heart.

Upon the bridge I linger,
    Near where the lime-trees grow;
Above, swart birds are circling,
    Beneath, the stream runs slow.

A stripling and a maiden
    Come wand'ring up the way;
His eyes are glad with springtime,
    Her face is fair with May.

Of warmth and sun and sweetness
    All nature takes a part;
The ice of all the ages
    Weighs down upon my heart.

~~
Amy Levy (1861-1889)
from A Minor Poet, and other verse, 1884

[Poem is in the public domain worldwide]

Amy Levy biography