Summer Eden Poetry Center: English poems

Showing posts with label English poems. Show all posts

Friday, December 23, 2022

Christmas Poems by Christina Rossetti

Christmas Eve

Christmas hath a darkness

Brighter than the blazing noon,

Christmas hath a chillness

Warmer than the heat of June,

Christmas hath a beauty

Lovelier than the world can show:

For Christmas bringeth Jesus,

Brought for us so low.

Earth, strike up your music,

Birds that sing and bells that ring;

Heaven hath answering music

For all Angels soon to sing:

Earth, put on your whitest

Bridal robe of spotless snow:

For Christmas bringeth Jesus,

Brought for us so low.

~Christina Rossetti~

1893

A Christmas Carol

(Set to music as "In the Bleak Mid-winter)

In the bleak mid-winter

Frosty wind made moan,

Earth stood hard as iron,

Water like a stone;

Snow had fallen, snow on snow,

Snow on snow,

In the bleak mid-winter

Long ago.

Our God, heaven cannot hold Him

Nor earth sustain;

Heaven and earth shall flee away

When He comes to reign:

In the bleak mid-winter

A stable-place sufficed

The Lord God Almighty

Jesus Christ.

Enough for Him, whom cherubim

Worship night and day,

A breastful of milk

And a mangerful of hay;

Enough for Him, whom angels

Fall down before,

The ox and ass and camel

Which adore.

Angels and archangels

May have gathered there,

Cherubim and seraphim

Thronged the air;

But only His mother

In her maiden bliss

Worshipped the Beloved

With a kiss.

What can I give Him,

Poor as I am?

If I were a shepherd

I would bring a lamb,

If I were a Wise Man

I would do my part,--

Yet what can I give Him,

Give my heart.

~Christina Rossetti~

BIO: Christina Rossetti (1830-1894) came from a family of talented poets, writers, and painters. Her father, Gabriele Rossetti, emigrated to England as a poet and political exile from Vasto, Abruzzo, Italy. Her mother, Frances Polidori, was the sister of the notorious Lord Byron physician, John William Polidori. Her brother was the renowned poet and painter, Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Christina often posed for her brother's paintings and became a popular poetess in her own right. In popularity, she became the successor of Elizabeth Barrett Browning after the famous poetess died in 1861. Christina published her first collection of poems in 1862, Goblin Market and Other Poems, which remains popular even today. Two of her poems were set to music: A Christmas Carol and Love Came Down at Christmas. She is buried in London's Highgate Cemetery.

Sunday, March 13, 2016

My Pretty Rose Tree and Other Poems by William Blake

My Pretty Rose Tree

A flower was offered to me;
Such a flower as May never bore.
But I said I've a Pretty Rose Tree;
And I passed the sweet flower o'er.

Then I went to my Pretty Rose Tree;
To tend her by day and by night.
But my Rose turned away with jealousy;
And her thorns were my only delight.

Ah! Sunflower

Ah Sunflower! weary of time,
Who countest the steps of the Sun:
Seeking after that sweet golden clime
Where the traveler's journey is done.

Where the Youth pined away with desire,
And the pale Virgin shrouded in snow:
Arise from their graves and aspire,
Where my Sunflower wishes to go.

The Lily

The modest Rose puts forth a thorn:
The humble Sheep, a threatening horn:
While the Lily white, shall in Love delight,
Nor a thorn nor a threat stain her beauty bright.

The Garden of Love

I went to the Garden of Love,
And saw what I never had seen:
A Chapel was built in the midst,
Where I used to play on the green.

And the gates of this Chapel were shut,
And Thou shalt not. writ over the door;
So I turn'd to the Garden of Love,
That so many sweet flowers bore.

And I saw it was filled with graves,
And tombstones where flowers should be:
And Priests in black gowns, were walking their rounds,
And binding with briars, my joys and desires.

ALL OF THESE POEMS BY WILLIAM BLAKE ARE FROM

SONGS OF EXPERIENCE

William Blake (1757-1827) was an English poet, painter, engraver, and mystic. His book of poems, Songs of Experience (1794), contains some of his most beloved poems, including "The Tyger."

HAPPY EASTER! HAPPY SPRING!

Friday, December 5, 2014

Yuletide Joy

THE OXEN

by Thomas Hardy

Christmas Eve, and twelve of the clock.

"Now they are all on their knees,"

An elder said as we sat in a flock

By the embers in hearthside ease.

We pictured the meek mild creatures where

They dwelt in their strawy pen,

Nor did it occur to one of us there

To doubt they were kneeling then.

So fair a fancy few would weave

In these years! Yet, I feel,

If someone said on Christmas Eve,

"Come; see the oxen kneel!

"In the lonely barton by yonder coomb

Our childhood used to know."

I should go with him in the gloom,

Hoping it might be so.

CHRISTMAS SONG

(Traditional)

The trees are all bare not a leaf to be seen

And the meadows their beauty have lost.

Now winter has come and 'tis cold for man and beast,

And the streams they are,

And the streams they are all fast bound down with frost.

'Twas down in the farmyard where the oxen feed on straw,

They send forth their breath like steam.

Sweet Betsy the milkmaid now quickly she must go,

For flakes of ice she finds,

For flakes of ice she finds a-floating on her cream.

'Tis now all the small birds to the barn-door fly for food

And gently they rest on the spray.

A-down the plantation the hares do search for food,

And lift their footsteps sure,

Lift their footsteps sure for fear they do betray.

Now Christmas is come and our song is almost done

For we soon shall have the turn of the year.

So fill up your glasses and let your health go round,

For I wish you all,

For I wish you all a joyful New Year.

THE YULE DAYS

(Traditional)

The king sent his lady on the first Yule day,

A papingo-aye;