May and the Poets

 

There is May in books forever;

May will part from Spenser never;

May's in Milton, May's in Prior,

May's in Chaucer, Thomson, Dyer;

May's in all the Italian books: --

She has old and modern nooks,

Where she sleeps with nymphs and elves,

In happy places they call shelves,

And will rise and dress your rooms

With a drapery thick with blooms.

Come, ye rains, then if ye will,

May's at home, and with me still;

But come rather, thou, good weather,

And find us in the fields together.

Leigh Hunt

BIO: Leigh Hunt was born in London, England and became a well-known critic, essayist, poet, and writer. His parents were forced to leave America after the American Revolution due to their loyalty to the Crown. He married and had ten children. His notable poetical work, "The Story of Rimini," was published in 1816. He became editor of The Examiner, a newspaper known for its controversy and rebelliousness against the Crown, and spent time in jail as a result. Well-acquainted with Byron, Lamb, Shelley, Keats, and other intellectuals, Hunt frequently lived in poverty and was forced to seek the patronage of Shelley and then Byron. After Byron dropped him, Hunt published a tell-all book about the notorious Lord and his companions which further isolated him from society. He earned the reputation of a "rascal" and died in 1859. Charles Dickens' Bleak House character, Harold Skimpole, is based on Hunt.