January / Helen Hunt Jackson

from A Calendar of Sonnets

January

O Winter! frozen pulse and heart of fire,
What loss is theirs who from thy kingdom turn
Dismayed, and think thy snow a sculptured urn
Of death! Far sooner in midsummer tire
The streams than under ice. June could not hire
Her roses to forego the strength they learn
In sleeping on thy breast. No fires can burn
The bridges thou dost lay where men desire
In vain to build.
                              O Heart, when Love's sun goes
To northward, and the sounds of singing cease,
Keep warm by inner fires, and rest in peace.
Sleep on content, as sleeps the patient rose.
Walk boldly on the white untrodden snows,
The winter is the winter's own release.

~~
Helen Hunt Jackson (1830-1885)
from A Calendar of Sonnets, 1891 

[Poem is in the public domain worldwide]

"January" read for LibriVox. Courtesy LibriVox Audiobooks.

[February]

Helen Hunt Jackson biography

Penny's Top 100 of 2012

The 100 most-visited poems on  The Penny Blog during 2012:

  1. Penny (or Penny's Hat), George J. Dance
  2. Esthetique du Mal, Wallace Stevens
  3. Men Made Out of Words, Wallace Stevens
  4. The Reader, Wallace Stevens
  5. Last Week in October, Thomas Hardy

  6. Chaos in Motion and Not in Motion, Wallace Stevens
  7. Afterglow, George J. Dance
  8. A City Sunset, T.E. Hulme
  9. Wind and Silver, Amy Lowell
10. Large Red Man Reading, Wallace Stevens

11. Vowels / Voyelles, Arthur Rimbaud
12. The Huron Carol, trans. J. Edgar Middleton
13. Let No Charitable Hope, Elinor Wylie
14. Notes Toward a Supreme Fiction, Wallace Stevens
15. That time of year thou mayst in me behold, William Shakespeare

16. Whiteout, George J. Dance
17. Bird Song, George J. Dance
18. The Dwarf, Wallace Stevens
19. Mars & Avril, George J.Dance
20. The Bed of Old John Zeller, Wallace Stevens

21. For the Fallen, Laurence Binyon
22. Romance Novel / Roman, Arthur Rimbaud
23. May in the Greenwood, anonymous
24. Christmas, George Herbert
25. Wild Peaches, Elinore Wylie

26. The May Queen, Marie Fischer
27. Bird Cage / Cage d'oiseau, Hector de Saint-Denys Garneau
28. The cold earth slept below, Percy Bysshe Shelley
29. In June and Gentle Oven, Anne Wilkinson
30. March, Camilla Doyle

31. Defeat, Constance Woodrow
32. Songs, Demonspawn
33. Mnemosyne, Trumbull Stickney
34. Spring, Edna St. Vincent Millay
35. The Happy Tree, Gerald Gould

36. At the Year's Turn, Francis Sherman
37. The Book of Wisdom, Stephen Crane
38. The Fair Singer, Andrew Marvell
39. The Mahogay Tree, William Makepeace Thackeray
40. Accompaniment / Accompagnement, Hector de Saint-Denys Garneau

41. Spring, Thomas Nashe
42. Let me not to the marriage of true minds, William Shakespeare
43. The Hawk, Raymond Knister
44. An April Morning, Bliss Carman
45. Summer 1969, Michael G. Munoz

46. Early Spring, John Clare
47. Nebula, Desi Di Nardo
48. February, Helen Hunt Jackson
49. Sky Song, Will Dockery
50. Evening on the Marshes, Barry Straton

51. The Anxious Dead, John McCrae
52. To Winter, Robert Southey
53. Now winter nights enlarge, Thomas Campion
54. The Death of the Old Year, Alfred Tennyson
55. Fall, Leaves, Fall, Emily Bronte

56. Fair Summer Droops, Thomas Nashe
57. December, Stuart Livingston
58. His Lady of the Sonnets V, Robert Norwood
59. An Evening in October, Sophia Almon Hensley
60. Christmas Eve, Edgar Guest

61. Autumn Rain, D.H. Lawrence
62. Midsummer Night, Archibald Lampman
63. A Day in June, James Russell Lowell
64. Olympian Ode 14, Pindar
65. The Autumn Thistles, Charles G.D. Roberts

66. Daily News, George J. Dance
67. To an Athlete Dying Young, A.E. Housman
68. The Fall of the Leaf, Dante Gabriel Rossetti
69. In Fountain Court, Arthur Symons
70. May, Edward Thurlow

71. To My Mother, Thomas Moore
72. Solitude Surrounded, AE Reiff
73. When Yon Full Moon, W.H. Davies
74. Among the Rocks, Robert Browning
75. The Blue Heron, Theodore Goodridge Roberts

76. The Modern Politician, Archibald Lampman
77. The Old Year, John Clare
78. The March of the Dead, Robert W. Service
79. The Garden, Sara Teasdale
80. Christmas Sonnet, E.A. Woodward

81. A Christmas Carol, George Wither
82. The Winter Fields, Charles G.D. Roberts
83. The Lake Isle of Innisfree, W.B. Yeats
84. I Speak Your Name, Sophie Jewett
85. Spring's Welcome, John Lyly

86. April, Helen Hunt Jackson
87. London, F.S. Flint
88. A Canadian Summer Evening, Rosanna Leprohon
89. Spleen, Hector de Saint-Denys Garneau
90. Heat, Archibald Lampman

91. A Christmas-Cake, Helen Maria Williams
92. Like Rain it sounded till it curved, Emily Dickinson
93. The winter eve is clear and chill, Christopher Brennan
94. The sun that brief December day, John Greenleaf Whittier
95. The Year, Ella Wheeler Wilcox

96. Cherry-Ripe, Robert Herrick
97. A Winter's Tale, D.H. Lawrence
98. Drifting Away: A Fragment, Charles KIngsley
99. when i was young, David George
100. In Apple Time, Bliss Carman


Source: Blogger Stats

Penny's Top 100 of 2012 (1-10)

From Penny's Top 100: the 100 most-visited poems on  The Penny Blog during 2012:

  1. Penny (or Penny's Hat), George Dance
  2. Esthetique du Mal, Wallace Stevens
  3. Men Made Out of Words, Wallace Stevens
  4. The Reader, Wallace Stevens
  5. Last Week in October, Thomas Hardy

  6. Chaos in Motion and Not in Motion, Wallace Stevens
  7. Afterglow, George Dance
  8. A City Sunset, T.E. Hulme
  9. Wind and Silver, Amy Lowell
10. Large Red Man Reading, Wallace Stevens

Penny's Top 100 of 2012 (11-20)

From Penny's Top 100: the 100 most-visited poems on  The Penny Blog during 2012:

11. Vowels / Voyelles, Arthur Rimbaud
12. The Huron Carol, trans. J. Edgar Middleton
13. Let No Charitable Hope, Elinor Wylie
14. Notes Toward a Supreme Fiction, Wallace Stevens
15. That time of year thou mayst in me behold, William Shakespeare

16. Whiteout, George Dance
17. Bird Song, George Dance
18. The Dwarf, Wallace Stevens
19. Mars & Avril, George Dance
20. The Bed of Old John Zeller, Wallace Stevens

Penny's Top 100 of 2012 (21-30)

From Penny's Top 100: the 100 most-visited poems on  The Penny Blog during 2012:

21. For the Fallen, Laurence Binyon
22. Romance Novel / Roman, Arthur Rimbaud
23. May in the Greenwood, anonymous
24. Christmas, George Herbert
25. Wild Peaches, Elinore Wylie

26. The May Queen, Marie Fischer
27. Bird Cage / Cage d'oiseau, Hector de Saint-Denys Garneau
28. The cold earth slept below, Percy Bysshe Shelley
29. In June and Gentle Oven, Anne Wilkinson
30. March, Camilla Doyle

Penny's Top 100 of 2012 (31-40)

From Penny's Top 100: the 100 most-visited poems on  The Penny Blog during 2012:

31. Defeat, Constance Woodrow
32. Songs, Demonspawn
33. Mnemosyne, Trumbull Stickney
34. Spring, Edna St. Vincent Millay
35. The Happy Tree, Gerald Gould

36. At the Year's Turn, Francis Sherman
37. The Book of Wisdom, Stephen Crane
38. The Fair Singer, Andrew Marvell
39. The Mahogay Tree, William Makepeace Thackeray
40. Accompaniment / Accompagnement, Hector de Saint-Denys Garneau

Penny's Top 100 of 2012 (41-50)

From Penny's Top 100: the 100 most-visited poems on  The Penny Blog during 2012:

41. Spring, Thomas Nashe
42. Let me not to the marriage of true minds, William Shakespeare
43. The Hawk, Raymond Knister
44. An April Morning, Bliss Carman
45. Summer 1969, Michael G. Munoz

46. Early Spring, John Clare
47. Nebula, Desi Di Nardo
48. February, Helen Hunt Jackson
49. Sky Song, Will Dockery
50. Evening on the Marshes, Barry Straton