A happy Poetry Friday to one and all!
It's my birthday today*, so I'm going to post two Poetry Friday entries--yet another from Ted Hughes' Collected Poems for Children and, later, a review of Lorie Ann Grover's On Pointe.
It's my birthday today*, so I'm going to post two Poetry Friday entries--yet another from Ted Hughes' Collected Poems for Children and, later, a review of Lorie Ann Grover's On Pointe.
I understand that you all may be tired of me going on and on and on about Ted Hughes' Collected Poems for Children. But it's just come out in the U.S. and I've reviewed it this month for The Edge of the Forest. Now I am going to quote one final selection and then, sadly, leave him be for at least six months. (But, really, you should all buy this book.)
Today's poem comes from the last book included in Collected Poems for Children--a book intended for older children and teens (Season Songs):
April Birthday
When your birthday brings the world under your window
And the song-thrush sings wet-throated in the dew
And aconite and primrose are unsticking the wrappers
Of the package that has come today for you
.....
And the trees
Stagger, they stronger
Brace their boles and biceps under
The load of gift. And the hills float
Light as bubble glass
On the smoke-blue evening
And rabbits are bobbing everywhere, and a thrush
Rings coolly in a far corner. A shiver of green
Strokes the darkening slope as the land
Begins her labour.
-------------------------------------------
When your birthday brings the world under your window
And the song-thrush sings wet-throated in the dew
And aconite and primrose are unsticking the wrappers
Of the package that has come today for you
.....
And the trees
Stagger, they stronger
Brace their boles and biceps under
The load of gift. And the hills float
Light as bubble glass
On the smoke-blue evening
And rabbits are bobbing everywhere, and a thrush
Rings coolly in a far corner. A shiver of green
Strokes the darkening slope as the land
Begins her labour.
-------------------------------------------
*It's a big one, my friends. The big 4-0.
-------------------------------------------
The lovely Liz B. of A Chair, a Fireplace and a Tea Cozy is on the roundup this week. Please leave her your links in the comments.
