Doggerel / George J. Dance

Doggerel

The playful dogs that frolic in the park
may run, and jump, and gambol happily,
but all dogs when they spy a likely tree
must lift a nether leg and leave a mark.
Some dogs must growl at every bird and frog,
and some must leave their stools upon the street,
and some must bark at every other dog,
and some must snap at every poor man's feet.
A man who's being dogged must learn to fight,
to put the boots to any mangy cur
that's troubled by the fleas amidst its fur
and make the mongrel yowl! Then doggie might
run off to find a more defenceless bone
and leave the weary traveller alone.

~~
George J. Dance, 2007
from Doggerel, and other doggerel, 2015.

[All rights reserved - used with permission]

George J. Dance biography 

 

Peter Wadsworth, American Foxhound and black Labrador Retriever playing with stick, 2007. 

CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons.

July / H. Cordelia Ray

from The Procession of the Seasons

July

Sunshine and shadow play amid the trees
In bosky groves, while from the vivid sky
The sun’s gold arrows fleck the fields at noon,
        Where weary cattle to their slumber hie.
How sweet the music of the purling rill,
Trickling adown the grassy hill!
While dreamy fancies come to give repose
When the first star of evening glows.

~~
H. Cordelia Ray (1852-1916)
from Poems, 1910

[Poem is in the public domain worldwide]

[August]

H. Cordelia Ray biography

Fredrik Marinus Kruseman (1816–1882), A Summer Landscape, 1863. Wikimedia Commons.

America / Walt Whitman

from Sands at Seventy

America

Centre of equal daughters, equal sons,
All, all alike endear’d, grown, ungrown, young or old,
Strong, ample, fair, enduring, capable, rich,
Perennial with the Earth, with Freedom, Law and Love, 

A grand, sane, towering, seated Mother, 

Chair’d in the adamant of Time.

~~
Walt Whitman (1819-1892)
from November Boughs, 1888

[Poem is in the public domain worldwide]

Walt Whitman biography

Walt Whitman reads from "America". Courtesy awtblackbough.

A July Fern-Leaf / Mortimer Collins

A July Fern-Leaf

Mors aurem vellens, "Vivite" ait, "Venio."

    I

 
White feet in the fairy fern –
    Quick wings in a chrysolite sky –
And an amethyst lamp in the west to burn,
When the cool dusk hours for which lovers yearn
    Pass in sweet silence by:
        Over summer seas
        Thou bringest these
                    Hither, July.

    II

Stern hours have the merciless Fates
    Plotted for all who die:
But looking down upon Richmond's aits,
Where the merles sing low to their amorous mates,
    Who cares to ask them why?
        We'll have wit, love, wine,
        Ere thy days divine
                    Wither, July.

    III

 
For the blossom of youth must fade,
    And the vigor of life must fly;
Yet to-day is ours with its odorous shade,
And the loving eyes which soon betrayed
    Dreams in the heart that lie.
        Swift life's stream flows,
        But alas! who knows
                    Whither, July.

~~
Mortimer Collins (1827-1876)
from The Inn of Strange Meetings, and other poems, 1871

[Poem is in the public domain worldwide]

Mortimer Collins biography

Edward Burne-Jones (1833-1898), Green Summer, 1868. Wikimedia Commons.

July's featured poem

The Penny Blog's featured poem for July 2023:

The Idlers, by Pauline Johnson

[...]

The river, deep and still,

The maple-mantled hill,

The little yellow beach whereon we lie,

The puffs of heated breeze,

All sweetly whisper – These

Are days that only come in a Canadian July.

[...]

https://gdancesbetty.blogspot.com/2010/07/idlers-pauline-johnson.html

This Canada of Ours / J.D. Edgar

This Canada of Ours

(A national song)

Let other tongues in older lands
    Loud vaunt their claims to glory,
And chaunt in triumph of the past,
    Content to live in story.
Tho' boasting no baronial halls,
    Nor ivy-crested towers,
What past can match thy glorious youth,
        Fair Canada of ours?
                Fair Canada,
                Dear Canada,
        This Canada of ours!

We love those far-off ocean Isles,
    Where Britain's monarch reigns;
 We'll ne'er forget the good old blood
    That courses through our veins;
Proud Scotia's fame, old Erin's name,
    And haughty Albion's powers,
Reflect their matchless lustre on
        This Canada of ours.
                Fair Canada,
                Dear Canada,
        This Canada of ours!

May our Dominion flourish then,
    A goodly land and free,
Where Celt and Saxon, hand in hand,
    Hold sway from sea to sea;
Strong arms shall guard our cherished homes,
    When darkest danger lowers,
And with our life-blood we'll defend
        This Canada of ours.
                Fair Canada,
                Dear Canada,
        This Canada of ours!

~~
J.D. Edgar (1841-1899)
from This Canada of Ours, and other poems, 1893

[Poem is in the public domain worldwide]

J.D.Edgar biography

Penny's Top 20 / June 2023

                          

Penny's Top 20

The most-visited poems on  The Penny Blog in June 2023:

  1.  June Rain, Richard Aldington

  2.  Maye, Edmund Spenser

  3.  Saint Augustine Blues #6, Will Dockery 

  4.  On My First Son, Ben Jonson

  5.  Penny, or Penny's Hat, George J. Dance
  6.  June, H. Cordelia Ray
  7.  The Red Wheelbarrow, William Carlos Williams

  8.  Dawn in the June Woods, William Wilfred Campbell
  9.  Summer Stars, Carl Sandburg

10.  To the Grasshopper and the Cricket, Leigh Hunt

11.  Skating, William Wordsworth
12.  June, William Cullen Bryant
13.  Spring Morning, A.A. Milne

14.  June in Maine, Hannah Augusta Moore
15.  A Morning Song (for the First Day of Spring), Eleanor Farjeon

16.  My Father, Ann Taylor

17.  The Poet in June, M.P.A. Crozier

18.  Spring Rains, George Sulzbach
19.  Winter Ghost, Will Dockery

20. White Sands Meet the Blue/Green Sea, Jeanne Ames

Source: Blogger, "Stats"