Friday Poetry: William Shakespeare

Happy Friday!

My chosen poem this week is the song sung at the end of the second act of As You Like It.

from As You Like It

Blow, blow, thou winter wind,
Thou art not so unkind
As man's ingratitude;
Thy tooth is not so keen,
Because thou art not seen, 
Although thy breath be rude.
Heigh-ho! sing, heigh-ho! unto the green holly:
Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly:
Then, heigh-ho, the holly!
This life is most jolly. 

Freeze, freeze, thou bitter sky,
That dost not bite so nigh
As benefits forgot:
Though thou the waters warp,
Thy sting is not so sharp
As friend remembered not.
Heigh-ho! sing, heigh-ho! unto the green holly...
Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly:
Then, heigh-ho, the holly!
This life is most jolly. 

William Shakespeare

Happy Reading!

Etsy

Friday Poetry: Roald Dahl

Happy Friday!

It will soon be Halloween so I have chosen a poem from Roald Dahl’s book The Witches.

Down Vith Children!

Down vith children! Do them in!
Boil their bones and fry their skin!
Bish them, sqvish them, bash them, mash them!
Brrreak them, shake them, slash them, smash them!
Offer chocs vith magic powder!
Say, 'Eat up!' then say it louder.
Crrram them full of sticky eats,
Send them home still guzzling sveets.
And in the morning little fools
Go marching off to separate schools.
A girl feels sick and goes all pale.
She yells, 'Hey look! I've grrrown a tail!'
A boy who's standing next to her
Screams, 'Help! I think I'm grrrowing fur!'
Another shouts, 'Vee look like frrreaks!
There's viskers growing on our cheeks!'
A boy who vos extremely tall
Cries out, 'Vot's wrong? I'm grrrowing small!'
Four tiny legs begin to sprrrout
From everybody rrround about,
And all at vunce, all in a trrrice,
There are no children! Only MICE!
In every school is mice galore
All rrruning rrround the school-rrrom floor!
And all the poor demented teachers
Is yelling, 'Hey, who are these crrreatures?'
They stand upon the desks and shout, 
'Get out, you filthy mice! Get out!
Vill someone fetch some mouse-trrraps, please!
And don't forrrget to bring the cheese!'
Now mouse-trrraps come and every trrrap
Goes snippy-snipp and snappy-snap.
The mouse-trrraps have a powerful spring,
The springs go crack and snap and ping!
Is lovely noise for us to hear!
Is music to a vitch's ear!
Dead mice is every place arrround,
Piled two feet deep upon the grrround,
Vith teachers searching left and rrright,
But not a single child in sight!
The teachers cry, 'Vot's going on?
Oh vhere have all the children gone?
Is half-past nine and as a rrrule
They're never late as this for school!'
Poor teachers don't know vot to do.
Some sit and rrread, and just a few
Amuse themselves throughout the day
By sveeping all the mice avay. 
AND ALL US VITCHES SHOUT 'HOORAY!'

Roald Dahl

Happy Reading

Etsy

Friday Poetry: Anon

Happy Friday!

My chosen poem today is a little different but something that means a lot to me. It is quite often used as a blessing and is a traditional Irish Gaelic prayer.

A Prayer for Travellers

May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face;
The rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of His hand.

Anon

Happy Reading

Etsy

Friday Poetry: Matt Goodfellow

Happy Friday!

Yesterday was National Poetry Day so my chosen poem is one that was specially written for National Poetry Day in 2016.

Messages

look closely and you'll find them
everywhere

in fields of patterned grasses
drafted by the hare

embroidered by the bluebells
through a wood

in scattered trails of blossom
stamped into the mud

scorched by heather-fire
across the moors

in looping snail-trails
scrawled on forest floors

scored across the sky
by screaming swifts

in rolling, twisting peaks
of drifting mountain mist

scribbled by an ocean
on the sand

look closely: you will see 
and understand. 

Matt Goodfellow

Happy Reading

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Friday Poetry: Emily Bronte

Happy Friday!

I hope everyone has some exciting plans for the weekend. My chosen poem this week is by Emily Bronte and I think it is perfect for this time of year.

Fall, Leaves, Fall

Fall, leaves, fall; die, flowers, away;
Lengthen night and shorten day;
Every leaf speaks bliss to me
Fluttering from the autumn tree.
I shall smile when wreaths of snow
Blossom where the rose should grow;
I shall sing when night's decay
Ushers in a drearier day. 

Emily Bronte

Happy Reading

Etsy

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Friday Poetry: Kenneth Grahame

Happy Friday!

I hope you all have some fun plans for the weekend.

My chosen poem this week is one from my childhood. Mr Toad was one of my favourite characters in The Wind in the Willows so I have decided to share The Song of Mr Toad today.

The Song of Mr Toad

The world has held great Heroes, 
As history-books have showed;
But never a name to go down to fame
Compared with that of Toad!

The clever men at Oxford
Know all that there is to be knowed.
But they none of them knew one half as much
As intelligent Mr Toad!

The animals sat in the Ark and cried,
Their tears in torrents flowed.
Who was it said, 'There's land ahead'?
Encouraging Mr Toad!

The Army all saluted
As they marched along the road.
Was it the King? Or Kitchener?
No. It was Mr Toad!

The Queen and her Ladies-in-waiting
Sat at the window and sewed.
She cried, 'Look! who's that handsome man?'
They answered, 'Mr Toad.'

Kenneth Grahame

Happy Reading

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Friday Poetry: Gerard Manley Hopkins

Happy Friday!

My chosen poem today is by Gerard Manley Hopkins. Gerard Manley Hopkins was born on the 28th July 1844, he was an English poet and Jesuit priest. His two main themes in his poetry are nature and religion. He died in 1889 of what is believed to be typhoid fever. His work was largely ignored during his life but was published posthumously.

Pied Beauty

Glory be to God for dappled things - 
For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;
For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;
Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches' wings;
Landscape plotted and pieced - fold, fallow, and plough;
And all trades, their gear and tackle and trim. 

All things counter, original, spare, strange;
Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)
With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;
He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:
Praise him.

Gerard Manley Hopkins

Happy Reading

Etsy

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Friday Poetry: Ade Hall

Hello!

I hope everyone is having a good week so far.

My chosen poem this week is by a new poet for me and I chose it because it made me laugh.

Astrophysics Lesson

I took an orange and a plum
To demonstrate the Earth and Sun;
held in place by gravity -
Our little planet, you and me. 

I grabbed some grapes for all the stars
And cast them out so wide and far;
Distant suns and foreign moons
In all four corners of the room.

The wonders of the galaxy
Spread out before class 2BT.
'Where did they come from?' someone cried;
'From the fruit bowl' I replied. 

Ade Hall

Happy Reading

Etsy

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Friday Poetry: William Wordsworth

Hello!

I hope everyone is having a good start to September so far.

My chosen poem this week is by William Wordsworth.

Composed Upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802

Earth has not anything to show more fair:
Dull would he be of soul who could pass by
A sight so touching in its majesty:
This City now doth, like a garment, wear
The beauty of the morning; silent, bare,
Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples lie
Open unto the fields, and to the sky;
All bright and glittering in the smokeless air,
Never did sun more beautifully steep
In his first splendour, valley, rock, or hill;
Ne'er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep!
The river glideth at his own sweet will;
Dear God! the very houses seem asleep;
And all that mighty heart is lying still! 

William Worsdworth

Happy Reading

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Friday Poetry: George Herbert

Happy Friday!

I hope everyone has had a good week so far.

My chosen poem this week is by the Welsh poet, orator and priest George Herbert (1593-1633).

Prayer (I)

Prayer the Church's banquet, angels' age,
God's breath in man returning to his birth,
The soul in paraphrase, heart in pilgrimage,
The Christian plummet sounding heav'n and earth;
Engine against th' Almighty, sinners' tow'r,
Reversed thunder, Christ-side-piercing spear,
The six-days' world transposing in an hour,
A kind of tune, which all things hear and fear;
Softness, and peace, and joy, and love, and bliss,
Exalted manna, gladness of the best,
Heaven in ordinary, man well drest,
The milky way, the bird of Paradise,
Church-bells beyond the stars heard, the soul'd blood,
The land of spices; something understood. 

George Herbert

Happy Reading

Etsy

If you enjoy reading my blog and would like to make a donation I would be very grateful. Thank you