Poetry

O Blue Jay up in the maple tree, Shaking your throat with such bursts of glee, How did you happen to be so blue? Did you steal a bit of the lake for your crest, And fasten blue violets into your vest? Tell me, I pray you,–tell me true! Did you dip your wings in [...]

Continue Reading Susan Hartley Swett – THE BLUE JAY POEM

Over the shoulders and slopes of the dune I saw the white daisies go down to the sea, A host in the sunshine, an army in June, The people God sends us to set our hearts free. The bobolinks rallied them up from the dell, The orioles whistled them out of the wood; And all [...]

Continue Reading Bliss Carman – THE DAISIES POEM

Up, up! ye dames and lasses gay! To the meadows trip away. ‘Tis you must tend the flocks this morn, And scare the small birds from the corn. Not a soul at home may stay: For the shepherds must go With lance and bow To hunt the wolf in the woods to-day. Leave the hearth [...]

Continue Reading Samuel T. Coleridge – HUNTING SONG POEM

The leaves are fading and falling, The winds are rough and wild, The birds have ceased their calling, But let me tell you, my child, Though day by day, as it closes, Doth darker and colder grow, The roots of the bright red roses Will keep alive in the snow. And when the winter is [...]

Continue Reading ALICE AND PHOEBE CARY – NOVEMBER POEM

Dance to the beat of the rain, little Fern, And spread out your palms again, And say, “Tho’ the Sun Hath my vesture spun, He hath labored, alas, in vain, But for the shade That the Cloud hath made, And the gift of the Dew and the Rain.” Then laugh and upturn All your fronds, [...]

Continue Reading John Bannister Tabb – THE FERN SONG POEM

I have got a new-born sister. I was nigh the first that kissed her. When the nursing-woman brought her To papa, his infant daughter, How papa’s dear eyes did glisten! She will shortly be to christen, And papa has made the offer I shall have the naming of her. Now, I wonder what would please [...]

Continue Reading Mary Lamb – CHOOSING A NAME POEM

Have you ever heard the wind go “Yooooo”? ‘Tis a pitiful sound to hear! It seems to chill you through and through With a strange and speechless fear. ‘Tis the voice of the night that broods outside When folk should be asleep, And many and many’s the time I’ve cried To the darkness brooding far [...]

Continue Reading Eugene Field – THE NIGHT WIND POEM

Three fishers went sailing away to the west– Away to the west as the sun went down; Each thought on the woman who loved him the best, And the children stood watching them out of the town; For men must work, and women must weep; And there’s little to earn, and many to keep, Though [...]

Continue Reading CHARLES KINGSLEY – THE THREE FISHERS POEM