A Pastoral / A. Mary F. Robinson

A Pastoral

It was Whit Sunday yesterday,
The neighbours met at church to pray;
But I remembered it was May
And went a-wandering far away.

I rested on a shady lawn,
Behind I heard green branches torn,
And through the gap there looked a Faun,
Green ivy hung from either horn.

We built ourselves a flowery house
With roof and walls of tangled boughs,
But while we sat and made carouse
The church bells drowned our songs and vows.

The light died out and left the sky,
We sighed and rose and said good-bye.
We had forgotten, He and I,
That he was dead, that I must die.

~~
A. Mary F. Robinson (1857-1944)
from A Handful of Honeysuckle, 1878

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

A. Mary F. Robinson biography

Verses Written in the Spring / Ann Batten Cristall (s 1)

from Verses Written in the Spring

From yon fair hill, whose woody crest
The mantling hand of spring has dress'd,
Where gales imbibe the May-perfume,
And strew the blushing almond's bloom,
I view the verdant plains below,
And lucid streams which gently flow;
The opening foliage, drench'd with showers,
Weeps o'er the odorous vernal flowers;
And while before my temper'd eye
From glancing clouds swift shadows fly,
While nature seems serene and bless'd,
And inward concord tunes my breast,
I sigh for those by fortune cross'd,
Whose souls to Nature's charms are lost.

~~
Ann Batten Cristall (1769-1848)
from Poetical Sketches, 1795

[Poem is in the public domain worldwide]

Anne Batten Cristall biography
Read the complete poem here

To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time / Robert Herrick

To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time

Gather ye rose-buds while ye may,
Old Time is still a-flying;
And this same flower that smiles today
Tomorrow will be dying.

The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun,
The higher he’s a-getting,
The sooner will his race be run,
And nearer he’s to setting.

That age is best which is the first,
When youth and blood are warmer;
But being spent, the worse, and worst
Times still succeed the former.

Then be not coy, but use your time,
And while ye may, go marry;
For having lost but once your prime,
You may forever tarry.

~~
Robert Herrick (1591-1674)
from Hesperides, 1648

[Poem is in the public domain worldwide]

Robert Herrick biography

Ode to May / Mary Darwall

Ode to May

Fairest daughter of the year,
Ever blooming, lovely May;
While thy vivid skies appear,
Nature smiles, and all is gay.

Thine the flowery-painted mead,
Pasture fair, and mountain green;
Thine, with infant-harvest spread,
Laughing lies the lowland scene.

Friend of thine, the shepherd plays
Blithsome near the yellow broom,
While his flock, that careless strays,
Seeks the wild thyme's sweet perfume.

May, with thee I mean to rove
O'er these lawns and vallies fair,
Tune my gentle lyre to love,
Cherish hope, and soften care.

Round me shall the village swains,
Shall the rosy nymphs, appear;
While I sing in rural strains,
May, to shepherds ever dear.

I had never skill to raise
Peans from the vocal strings,
To the god-like Hero's praise,
To the pageant pomp of Kings,

Stranger to the hostile plains,
Where the brazen trumpets sound;
Life's purple stream the verdure stains,
And heaps promiscuous press the ground:

Where the murderous cannon's breath
Fate denounces from afar,
And the loud report of death
Stuns the cruel ear of war.

Stranger to the park and play,
Birth-night balls, and courtly trains;
Thee I woo, my gentle May,
Tune for thee my native strains.

Blooming groves, and wandering rills,
Soothe thy vacant poet's dreams,
Vocal woods, and wilds, and hills,
All her unexalted themes.

~~
Mary Darwall (1738-1825)
from A Collection of Poems, in four volumes; by several hands, 1770

[Poem is in the public domain worldwide]

Mary Darwall biography

Amarant / AE Reiff

Amarant

Immortal Amarant, a Flower which once

In Paradise, fast by the Tree of Life

Began to bloom, but soon for man’s offence

To Heav'n removed where first it grew, there grows,

And flowers aloft shading the Fount of Life.

And where the river of Bliss through midst of Heaven

Rolls o're Elysian Flowers her Amber stream;

With these that never fade the Spirits elect

Bind their resplendent locks inwreath'd with beams.

Paradise Lost, III: 353-361.

Where Love-Lies-Bleeding stretches all bejeweled,

I watch the fields that purple with their blood,

Incarnate flowers quicker turn to red,

A spark, a torch, forgotten in a flood.

Was this their care and that a sign, to light

The mind of spice that fills the heart?  Or must

The crimson drape of time obscure the flight

Of sunlight fleeing from the mind of dust?

There flowers bloom a vein of Love and Life

To wind about a disembodied cross,

But lose into the earthly air their life,

As night, dark sun, burns darkly on their loss.

And now my heart is but an aging sack,

For Love's gone to the world and won't come back.

From their blissful Bowers

Of Amarantin Shade, Fountain or Spring,

By the waters of Life, where ere they sat

In fellowships of joy: the Sons of Light

Hasted.

Paradise Lost, XI: 77-81f.

~~

AE Reiff

from The True Light that Lights, 2020

[All rights reserved by the author - Used with permission]

AE Reiff biography

The Wild Flower's Song / William Blake

XIX

The Wild Flower's Song

As I wander'd the forest,
The green leaves among,
I heard a wild flower
Singing a song.

'I slept in the Earth
In the silent night,
I murmur'd my fears,
 And I felt delight.

'In the morning I went,
As rosy as morn,
To seek for new Joy;
But I met with scorn.'

~~
William Blake (1757-1827), 1793
from Poetical Works, 1905

[Poem is in the public domain worldwide]

William Blake biography

A Garden of Love / Lilian Leveridge

A Garden of Love

Mother, if my love for you
Could express itself in flowers,
Were each prayer a shower of dew
In the morn and evening hours,
You would walk in blossomed ways,
Fair and fragrant, all your days.

Blooms that clothed the vales and hills
In the springtides long ago —
Crocuses and daffodils,
Hawthorn, lilies, white as snow,
Primroses and cuckoo flowers
You would find within your bowers.

Pearly daisies, pink and white,
Marigolds and meadow rue,
All would bloom for your delight.
Here would wait to welcome you
Every flower that loved the May
In the homeland far away.

Flowers that on an alien shore
Made your homesick heart grow glad,
Till you loved it more and more,
Found the sweetness in the sad —
Blowing by the northern streams,
Do they greet you still in dreams?

Trilliums that starred the dells,
Mayflowers’ rosy, perfumed bells,
Columbines o’er hill and vale,
Violets yellow, purple, white —
Countless well-springs of delight!

You, who loved all lovely things,
Taught my heart to love them, too
Essences of all the springs
That my happy childhood knew,
Spirit-sweet, invisible,
Linger all about you still

Take this little wreath of verse,
With the blossoms that I send —
Dearest in God’s universe,
Best of sweethearts, truest friend!
Fairest flowers may fade, but never
Love that lives and blooms for ever.

~~
Lilian Leveridge (1879-1953)
from The Blossom Trail, 1932

[Poem is in the public domain in Canada]

Lilian Leveridge biography

Dandelions / George Sulzbach

Dandelions

I

Dancing dandelions
Springtime golden
later silver white

Riders
on the wind
seeking new homes


II

Bringers of life
Sealed with a kiss
Over the hill
I watch them float

Time sent
they flutter
like dust


III

Thirsty dandelions
like our taste for love
and action
by the campfire

I watch you blow
the little floaters
we watch them
cross the pass


IV

We wish to say
goodbye
to winter

the icy demon
who continues
to bite us

as we laugh
for the dandelions
will bring us all the Spring

~~
George Sulzbach, 2020

[All rights reserved - used with permission]

George Sulzbach biography

Penny's Top 20 / April 2020

Penny's Top 20
The most-visited poems on  The Penny Blog in April 2020:

  1.   The Plant, AE Reiff
  2.  The Key, George J. Dance 

  3.  The Dwarf, Wallace Stevens

  4.  April's Fool, John McClure
  5.  The Bright Extensive Will, AE Reiff
  6.  Avril, la Douce Esperance, Thomas Ashe
  7.  The Lover in April, Charles Hanson Towne
  8.  Esthetique du Mal, Wallace Stevens
  9.  Sweet Wild April, William Force Stead
10.  An April Interlude - 1917, Bernard Freeman Trotter

11.  Autumn, T.E. Hulme
12.  Easter Hymn, A.E. Housman
13.  Ode on the Pleasure Arising from Vicissitude, Thomas Gray
14.  When June is Come, Robert Bridges
15.  Easter, Edmund Spenser
16.  Good Friday, 1613, Riding Westward, John Donne
17.  Vowels, Arthur Rimbaud
18.  The Man with the Blue Guitar, Wallace Stevens
19.  A Song for September, Thomas William Parsons

20. Love-songs of the Open Road, Kendall Banning

Source: Blogger, "Stats"

April / George J. Dance

          April

          I see a flower
          that died in late November,
          reborn as a bud.

          ~~

          George J. Dance, 2020

Thangaraj Kumaravel. Rose bud, Coonoor, India, 2011. CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons.

["April" by George J. Dance is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 International license.]

George J. Dance biography