December / Folgore da San Geminiano

from Of the Months

December

Last, for December, houses on the plain,
    Ground-floors to live in, logs heaped mountain-high,
    And carpets stretched, and newest games to try,
And torches lit, and gifts from man to man
(Your host, a drunkard and a Catalan);
    And whole dead pigs, and cunning cooks to ply
    Each throat with tit-bits that shall satisfy;
And wine-butts of Saint Galganus' brave span.
And be your coats well-lined and tightly bound,
    And wrap yourselves in cloaks of strength and weight,
        With gallant hoods to put your faces through.
And make your game of abject vagabond
    Abandoned miserable reprobate
    Misers; don't let them have a chance with you.

~~
Folgore da San Geminiano (?1270-1332?)
translated by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882)
from The Early Italian Poets, 1861

[Poem is in the public domain worldwide]

[January]

Folgore da San Geminiano biography
Dante Gabriel Rossetti biography

Joseph Nash, Christmas revels at Haddon Hall, from 

Mansions of England in the Olden Time, 1839. Wikimedia Commons.

November / Folgore da San Geminiano

from Of the Months

November

Let baths and wine-butts be November's due,
    With thirty mule-loads of broad gold-pieces;
    And canopy with silk the streets that freeze;
And keep your drink-horns steadily in view.
Let every trader have his gain of you:
    Clareta shall your lamps and torches send, —
    Caeta, citron-candies without end; 

And each shall drink, and help his neighbour to.
And let the cold be great, and the fire grand:
    And still for fowls, and pastries sweetly wrought,
        For hares and kids, for roast and boil'd, be sure
You always have your appetites at hand;
    And then let night howl and heaven fall, so nought
        Be miss'd that makes a man's bed-furniture.

~~
Folgore da San Geminiano (?1270-1332?)
translated by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882)
from The Early Italian Poets, 1861

[Poem is in the public domain worldwide]

[December]

Folgore da San Geminiano biography
Dante Gabriel Rossetti biography

from Livre d'heures de la reine Yolande, 15th century. Wikimedia Commons.

October / Folgore da San Geminiano

from Of the Months

October

Next, for October, to some shelter'd coign
    Flouting the winds I'll hope to find you slunk:
    Though in bird-shooting (lest all sport be sunk),
Your foot still press the turf, the horse your groin.
At night with sweethearts in the dance you'll join,
    And drink the blessed must, and get quite drunk.
    There's no such life for any human trunk;
And that's a truth that rings like golden coin!
Then, out of bed again when morning's come,
    Let your hands drench your face refreshingly,
        And take your physic roast, with flask and knife.
Sounder and snugger you shall feel at home
    Than lake-fish, river-fish, or fish at sea,
        Inheriting the cream of Christian life.

~~
Folgore da San Geminiano (?1270-1332?)
translated by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882)
from The Early Italian Poets, 1861

[Poem is in the public domain worldwide]

[November]

Folgore da San Geminiano biography
Dante Gabriel Rossetti biography

Relief of a medieval scene of three couples dancing. Wikimedia Commons.

September / Folgore da San Geminiano

from Of the Months

September

And in September, O what keen delight!
    Falcons and astors, merlins, sparrowhawks:
    Decoy-birds that shall lure your game in flocks;
And hounds with bells; and gauntlets stout and tight;
Wide pouches; crossbows shooting out of sight;
    Arblasts and javelins; balls and ball-cases;
    All birds the best to fly at; moulting these,
Those rear'd by hand; with finches mean and slight;
And for their chase, all birds the best to fly;
    And each to each of you be lavish still
        In gifts; and robbery find no gainsa}ang;
And if you meet with travellers going by.
    Their purses from your purse's flow shall fill;
        And avarice be the only outcast thing.

~~
Folgore da San Geminiano (?1270-1332?)
translated by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882)
from The Early Italian Poets, 1861

[Poem is in the public domain worldwide]

[October]

Folgore da San Geminiano biography
Dante Gabriel Rossetti biography

from the Taccuinum Sanitatis, 14th century. Wikimedia Commons.

August / Folgore da San Geminiano

from Of the Months

August

For August, be your dwelling thirty towers
    Within an Alpine valley mountainous,
    Where never the sea-wind may vex your house,
But clear life separate, like a star, be yours.
There horses shall wait saddled at all hours,
    That ye may mount at morning or at eve:
    On each hand either ridge ye shall perceive,
A mile apart, which soon a good beast scours.
So alway, drawing homewards, ye shall tread
    Your valley parted by a rivulet
        Which day and night shall flow sedate and smooth.
There all through noon ye may possess the shade,
    And there your open purses shall entreat
        The best of Tuscan cheer to feed your youth.

~~
Folgore da San Geminiano (?1270-1332?)
translated by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882)
from The Early Italian Poets, 1861

[Poem is in the public domain worldwide]

[September]

Folgore da San Geminiano biography
Dante Gabriel Rossetti biography

Limbourg brothers, from Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, 

ca. 1402-1416 (detail), Wikimedia Commons.

July / Folgore da San Geminiano

from Of the Months

July

For July, in Siena, by the willow-tree,
    I give you barrels of white Tuscan wine
    In ice far down your cellars stored supine;
And morn and eve to eat in company
Of those vast jellies dear to you and me;
    Of partridges and youngling pheasants sweet,
    Boil'd capons, sovereign kids: and let their treat
Be veal and garlic, with whom these agree.
Let time slip by, till by-and-hy, all day;
    And never swelter through the heat at all,
But move at ease at home, sound, cool, and gay;
    And wear sweet-colour'd robes that lightly fall;
And keep your tables set in fresh array.
    Not coaxing spleen to be your seneschal.

~~
Folgore da San Geminiano (?1270-1332?)
translated by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882)
from The Early Italian Poets, 1861

[Poem is in the public domain worldwide]

[August]

Folgore da San Geminiano biography
Dante Gabriel Rossetti biography

Limbourg brothers, from Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry,.

ca. 1402-1416 (detail). Wikimedia Commons.

June / Folgore da San Geminiano

from Of the Months

June

In June I give you a close-wooded fell,
    With crowns of thicket coil'd about its head,
    With thirty villas twelve times turreted,
All girdling round a little citadel;
And in the midst a springhead and fair well
    With thousand conduits branch'd and shining speed,
    Wounding the garden and the tender mead,
Yet to the freshen'd grass acceptable.
And lemons, citrons, dates, and oranges,
    And all the fruits whose savour is most rare,
Shall shine within the shadow of your trees;
    And every one shall be a lover there;
Until your life, so fill'd with courtesies,
    Throughout the world be counted debonair.

~~
Folgore da San Geminiano (?1270-1332?)
translated by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882)
from The Early Italian Poets, 1861

[Poem is in the public domain worldwide]

[July]

Folgore da San Geminiano biography
Dante Gabriel Rossetti biography

Peasants picking fruit, from Une Compilation d’œuvres d’Art Médiévales Liées: 

Aux Pommes et aux Vergers, 19th century. Courtesy Orchard Notes.

May / Folgore da San Geminiano

from Of the Months

May

I give you horses for your games in May,
    And all of them well trained unto the course,–
    Each docile, swift, erect, a goodly horse;
With armor on their chests, and bells at play
Between their brows, and pennons fair and gay;
    Fine nets, and housings meet for warriors,
    Emblazoned with the shields ye claim for yours;
Gules, argent, or, all dizzy at noonday.
And spears shall split, and fruit go flying up
In merry counterchange for wreaths that drop
    From balconies and casements far above;
And tender damsels with young men and youths
Shall kiss together on the cheeks and mouths
    And every day be glad with joyful love.

~~
Folgore da San Geminiano (?1270-1332?)
translated by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882)
from The Early Italian Poets, 1861

[Poem is in the public domain worldwide]

[June]

Folgore da San Geminiano biography
Dante Gabriel Rossetti biography

Medieval jousting tournament. Unknown ms., 17th century. Wikimedia Commons.

April / Folgore da San Geminiano

from Of the Months

April

I give you meadow-lands in April, fair
    With over-growth of beautiful green grass;
    There among fountains the glad hours shall pass,
And pleasant ladies bring you solace there.
With steeds of Spain and ambling palfreys rare;
    Provencal songs and dances that surpass;
    And quaint French mummings; and through hollow brass
A sound of German music on the air.
And gardens ye shall have, that every one
    May lie at ease about the fragrant place;
        And each with fitting reverence shall bow down
        Unto that youth to whom I gave a crown
    Of precious jewels like to those that grace
The Babylonian Kaiser, Prestcr John.

~~
Folgore da San Geminiano (?1270-1332?)
translated by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882)
from The Early Italian Poets, 1861

[Poem is in the public domain worldwide]

[May]

Folgore da San Geminiano biography
Dante Gabriel Rossetti biography

Limbourg brothers, "April" from Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, 

ca. 1402-1416. Wikimedia Commons.

March / Folgore da San Geminiano

from Of the Months

March

In March I give you plenteous fisheries
    Of lamprey and of salmon, eel and trout.
    Dental and dolphin, sturgeon, all the rout
Of fish in all the streams that fill the seas.
With fishermen and fishingboats at ease,
    Sail-barques and arrow-barques and galeons stout,
    To bear you, while the season lasts, far out,
And back, through spring, to any port you please.
But with fair mansions see that it be fill'd,
    With everything exactly to your mind,
        And every sort of comfortable folk.
No convent suffer there, nor priestly guild:
    Leave the mad monks to preach after their kind
        Their scanty truth, their lies beyond a joke.

~~
Folgore da San Geminiano (?1270-1332?)
translated by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882)
from The Early Italian Poets, 1861

[Poem is in the public domain worldwide]

[April]

Folgore da San Geminiano biography
Dante Gabriel Rossetti biography

from the Taccuinum Sanitatis, 14th century. Wikimedia Commons.

January / George J. Dance

    January

    Black branches on white
    with one smear of colour,
    a leaf unfallen.

    ~~
    George J. Dance

    from Logos, and other logoi, 2021

["January" by George J. Dance is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 Unported License.]

Image by George J. Dance created with Grok (xAI). CC0 1.0, public domain.

[February]

George J. Dance biography

December / Edwin Arnold

from The Twelve Months

December

In fret-work of frost and spangle of snow
Unto his end the year doth wend;
And sadly for some the days did go,
And glad for some were beginning and end!
But — sad or glad — grieve not for his death,
Mournfully counting your measures of breath,
You, that, before the stars began,
Were seed of woman and promise of man,
You who are older than Aldebaran!
It was but a ring round about the Sun,
One passing dance of the planets done;
One step of the Infinite Minuet
Which the great worlds pace, to a music set
By Life immortal and Love divine:
Whereof is struck, in your threescore and ten,
One chord of the harmony, fair and fine,
Of that which maketh us women and men!
In fret-work of frost and spangle of snow,
Sad or glad — let the old year go!

~~

Edwin Arnold (1832-1904), 1884

from Poems: National and non-oriental, 1906

[Poem is in the public domain worldwide]

[January]

Edwin Arnold biography

Hannes Grobe, New Year's Eve 2022/23 in Bremerhaven, Germany.

Wikimedia Commons.<

November / Edwin Arnold

from The Twelve Months

November

Come! in thy veil of ashen cloud
With mists around thee, like a shroud,
And wan face coloured with no light
Of sun or moon, by day or night;
I would not see thee glad and gay,
Dark month! that called my Love away!

I would not see thee otherwise,
Gray month! that hast the dying eyes;
Cold month! that com'st with icy hands
Chaining the waters and the lands!
So didst thou chill two hearts at play,
Dark month! that called my Love away!

And yet, I know, behind thy mists
The bright Sun shines, Love's star subsists!
If we could lift thy veil, may be,
Thy hidden face were good to see!
Come as thou wilt — I say not nay,
Dark month! that called my Love away!

~~

Edwin Arnold (1832-1904), 1884

from Poems: National and non-oriental, 1906

[Poem is in the public domain worldwide]

Thanurietz, Rain and Misty Mountains, November 2017 (detail). 

CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons.

[December]

Edwin Arnold biography

November / George J. Dance

Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890), Rain, November 1889.
Public domain, Wikimedia Commons.

November

        dying land
            crying sky
                cold, cold tears

~~
George J. Dance

from Logos, and 

other logoi, 2021

[December]

["November" by George J. Dance is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 Unported License.]

George J. Dance biography

October / George J. Dance

October

How soon leaves fall:
scarlet, canary, brown
trampled alike on the ground.

~~
George J. Dance

from Logos, and other logoi, 2021

["October" by George J. Dance is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 Unported License.]

Eric Sonstroem, Fallen Leaves in the Rain, 2020. CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons.

[November]

George J. Dance biography

October / Edwin Arnold

from The Twelve Months

October

A bold brunette she is, radiant with mirth,
    Who comes a-tripping over corn-fields cropped;
    Fruits and blown roses, from her full arms dropped,
Carpet her feet along the gladdened earth;

Around her brow glitters a careless crown
    Of bronzed oak, and apple-leaves, and vine;
    And russet-nuts and country berries twine
About her gleaming shoulders and loose gown.

Like grapes at vintage, where the ripe wine glows,
    Glows so her sweet cheek, summer-touched but fair;
    And, like grape-tendrils, all her wealth of hair,
Gold on a ground of brown, nods as she goes:

Grapes too, a-spirt, her brimming fingers bear,
    A dainty winepress, pouring wet and warm
    The crimson river over wrist and arm,
And on her lips — adding no crimson there!

Ah! golden autumn hours — fly not so fast!
    Let the sweet Lady long with us delay;
    The sunset makes the sun so wished-for, — stay!
Of three fair sisters — loveliest and the last!

But after laughter ever follows grief,
    And Pleasure's sunshine brings its shadow Pain;
    Even now begins the dreary time again.
The first dull patter of the first dead leaf.

~~

Edwin Arnold (1832-1904), 1884

from Poems: National and non-oriental, 1906

[Poem is in the public domain worldwide]

[November]

Edwin Arnold biography

ТиЈок, Zhiva - Old Slavic Goddess of Autumn, 2024. CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons.

September / VizantOr*

September

Can I touch you in autumn, 

beautiful soft-skinned one 

fragrant with heady wishes? 

 ~~ 

VizantOr* 

(translated by George J. Dance) 

from Logos and Other Logoi, 2021

["September" translated by George J. Dance is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 Unported License.]

Emile Friant (1863-1932), The Lovers (Autumn Evening), 1888. Wikimedia Commons.

[October]

George J. Dance biography

September / Edwin Arnold

from The Twelve Months

September

The harvest-moon stands on the sea,
    Her golden rim's adrip;
She lights the sheaves on many a lea,
    The sails on many a ship;
Glitter, sweet Queen! upon the spray,
    And glimmer on the heather;
Right fair thy ray to gild the way
    Where lovers walk together.

The red wheat rustles, and the vines
    Are purple to the foot;
And true-love, waiting patient, wins
    Its blessed time of fruit:
Lamp of all lovers, Lady-moon!
    Light these ripe lips together
Which reap alone a harvest sown
    Long ere September weather.

~~

Edwin Arnold (1832-1904), 1884

from Poems: National and non-oriental, 1906

[Poem is in the public domain worldwide]

[October]

Edwin Arnold biography

Archie 2909, Full Moon, August 2021. CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons.

August / Edwin Arnold

from The Twelve Months

August

(From the German)

Gerda Arendt, Apple tree in field, Ehrenbach

(detail). Public domain, Wikimedia Commons.

Once, with a landlord wondrous fine,
    A weary guest, I tarried;
A golden pippin was his sign,
    Upon a green branch carried!

Mine host — he was an apple-tree
    With whom I took my leisure;
Fair fruit, and mellowed juicily,
    He gave me from his treasure.

There came to that same hostel gay
    Bright guests, in brave adorning;
A merry feast they made all day,
    And sang, and slept till morning.

I, too, to rest my body laid
    On bed of crimson clover;
The landlord with his own broad shade
    Carefully spread me over.

I rose; — I called to pay the score,
    But "No!" he grandly boweth;
Now, root and fruit, for evermore
    God bless him, while he groweth!

~~

Edwin Arnold (1832-1904), 1884

from Poems: National and non-oriental, 1906

[Poem is in the public domain worldwide]

[September]

Edwin Arnold biography

August / George J. Dance

August

Sun-hardened earth
waits panting for the first crack
of thunder,

~~
George J. Dance, 2007

from Doggerel, and other doggerel, 2015

["August" by George J. Dance is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 International License]

Dominicus Johannes Bergsma, Under the influence of sun and wind torn earth (detail).

CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons.

[September]

George J. Dance biography