Wednesday, April 07, 2010


My blog has been strangely bereft of comments lately. Was it something I said? Dear me, I know I'm not the most popular girl on the block, but ever since I began posting a verse each day in honor of National Poetry Month, I have been astounded by the silence (except for one or two poetry lovers - you know who you are).

Does anyone have a favorite poet....or poem? I confess to being partial to Robert Louis Stevenson, many of whose poems I memorized as a young girl and still remember. I suspect my elementary school teacher was fond of him as well; I have distinct memories of reciting "My Shadow" and "The Swing" aloud in class. At home we owned a very worn old copy of A Child's Garden of Verses, beautifully illustrated by Jessie Willcox Smith. Many years ago, Dwayne surprised me at Christmas with a newer copy of the book which still contained the original artwork. "Oh frabjous day! Callooh callay!" (And I truly did chortle in my joy.) Happily, Anna Rose shares my delight in his poetry, and she is well on her way to memorizing the entire book I do believe. How sweet it is to revisit my childhood through her enjoyment of these poems.


The Flowers

All the names I know from nurse:
Gardner's garters, Shepherd's purse,
Bachelor's buttons, Lady's smock,
And the Lady Hollyhock.

Fairy places, fairy things,
Fairy woods where the wild bee wings,
Tiny trees for tiny dames -
These must all be fairy names!

Tiny woods below whose boughs
Shady fairies weave a house;
Tiny tree-tops, rose or thyme,
Where the braver fairies climb!

Fair are grown-up people's trees,
But the fairest woods are these;
Where, if I were not so tall,
I should live for good and all.

5 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Glancing at a small book of poems with a Fairy illustration the other day ,I thought of you and so put it in little stack. Turning out to cost twenty dollars I the purchase was postponed,but I jotted down the author's name.This is one of hers I found online. Maybe you are already familiar with it?

~Fairy Frilly~

Fairy Frilly for half an hour
Went to sleep in a poppy flower-
Went to sleep in her little green frock,
And the time of the ball was ten o'clock.

Quarter to ten and five to ten
Ticked from the dandelion clock again,
But Fairy Frilly was deaf to all,
And ten was the time of the fairy ball!

Little west wend came by that way,
And he pulled off the petal where Frilly lay,
Pulled it off with the fairy on it,
And blew with a great big breath upon it.

Off sailed the petal,
Frilly and all-
And that's how she managed
to get to the ball.

--Florence Hoatson

Is wend the original spelling,I wonder? Kind of inspires one to get frilly...

7:28 PM  
Blogger Emily said...

I love it! And no, I've never heard of the author. You've made my day...now to go and hunt her up online and see what I can find. Thank you dear cousin of mine!

8:40 PM  
Blogger Lynn Bartlett said...

To be honest, Emily, I've heardly read any poetry. It wasn't required reading in high school, so I haven't required it of my boys, either. Last Thurs. night we listened to Doug Phillips of Vision Forum talk about poetry, and I must admit he made a good case for the importance of understanding and appreciating good poetry. We should do more.

10:44 PM  
Blogger Lynn Bartlett said...

Please excuse my spelling, it seems almost as bad as my poetry reading!

10:45 PM  
Anonymous Blueberry patch said...

When trumpets blow,
and fallen snow
is blowed up, up, up into the air!
Poems are one of my favorite categories!

2:12 PM  

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