Doggerel, and other doggerel: new collection by George J. Dance

George J. Dance, proprietor of  The Penny Blog and the Penny's Poetry Pages wiki, is pleased to announce the publication of his first poetry collection, Doggerel, and other doggerel.

Doggerel contains roughly 50 short poems, written over 44 years (1972-2015). The book also contains translations of works by Tu Fu ("Spring Scene"), Arthur Rimbaud ("Romance Novel," "Sensation," "Vowels"), and Heinrich Heine ("Lorelei's Song").

Poems that can be sampled on  The Penny Blog include "Spring Again," "Round the Mercury," "Mars & Avril," "May," "Only the Lonely," "June," "Lucky Penny," "July," and "Light of Day."

Doggerel, and other doggerel is published by Lulu.com. For a substantial discount, you now have the option to order the book at Amazon.com as well.

Update, January 2025: Logos and other logoi, the companion volume to Doggerel and other doggerel, is now also on sale at Amazon.com. 

In the Fields / Charlotte Mew

In the Fields

             Lord when I look at lovely things which pass,
                Under old trees the shadow of young leaves
                Dancing to please the wind along the grass,
Or the gold stillness of the August sun on the August sheaves;
      Can I believe there is a heavenlier world than this?
                                   And if there is
               Will the heart of any everlasting thing
      Bring me these dreams that take my breath away?
They come at evening with the home-flying rooks and the scent of hay,
                     Over the fields. They come in spring.

~~

Charlotte Mew (1869-1928)

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

Charlotte Mew biography

"In the Fields" read by Philip. Courtesy The Voice Poetic.

The Soul of Summer / Edward Sapir

The Soul of Summer

Incessant chatter of blackbirds over the flags,
Sinuous falls of the swallows and sudden turns,
Short flights, preoccupied, of the robin mothers —
This is the living summer, this is summer.

The fine dust drifts in the torpid air, sluggish —
A faint-blue shadow veil hung before green,
A dry hush on the grass stalks, on the corn stalks —
Lazy dust-drift of the heavy summer.

This is summer fulfilled, this is the summer
Of waiting wings, still wings in passionate tremor.
This is the summer when torpor blossoms to storms
And throbbing wings burst out to the height of the wind.

I too know the summer, I know the summer
Of light poured on the soft white of her neck;
I know the hair that flashed in the summer sun.    
I know the summer whose laughter pierced my heart.

~~
Edward Sapir (1884-1939)
from Poetry, August 1919

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

Edward Sapir biography

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? / William Shakespeare

XVIII

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date.
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature’s changing course, untrimmed;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st,
Nor shall death brag thou wand’rest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to Time thou grow’st.
     So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
     So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

~~
William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
from Shakespeare's Sonnets (London: John Lane, 1899)

[Poem is in the public domain worldwide]

"Sonnet 18" read by Lorna Laidlaw. Courtesy BBC.

William Shakespeare biography
Shakespeare's Sonnets
Analysis of Sonnet 18

Garden (I) / H.D.

Garden

I

You are clear
O rose, cut in rock,
hard as the descent of hail.
I could scrape the colour
from the petals
like spilt dye from a rock.
If I could break you
I could break a tree.
If I could stir
I could break a tree —
I could break you.

~~
H.D. (1886-1961)
from Sea Garden, 1916

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

Garden (II)

H.D. biography

Velardena Sunset / Grace Hazard Conkling

from Out of Mexico

Velardena Sunset

When I saw the hills before dawn,
They were of the texture of thin gauze —
The sky shone through.

Now they are molten hills.
Like metal on the lip of a crater they palpitate and change,      
Radiant, volatile.
The iron ravines flare and glow;
Scarlet lava brims the arroyo channels;
Overflowing in rivulets
It glazes the flashing sand.      
Caverns, purple-dark a moment since,
Are boiling cauldrons of light;
They seethe under a primrose vapor.
There are no shadows anywhere;
Only undulating ridges of flamboyant copper,      
Boulders of brass,
Precipices dripping hot gold,
Incandescent peaks that quiver upward
And hiss at contact with the sky.

Can these be the hills I saw hanging like pale rose gauze
Against the door of the dawn?

~~
Grace Hazard Conkling (1878-1958)
from Poetry, April 1917

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

Grace Hazard Conkling biography

The Summer Sea / Nathan Haskell Dole

The Summer Sea

After the Japanese manner

Unbroken by a ripple, but yet drifting
  Onward in long wide billows, vast and free,
Upon its bosom ship and shadow lifting,
  Beneath the sunset lies the summer sea.

~~
Nathan Haskell Dole (1852-1935)
from Poetry, August 1915

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

Nathan Haskell Dole biography