Heliodora, by HD (c.1922) He and I sought together,over the spattered table,rhymes and flowers,gifts for a name. He said, among others,I will bring(and the phrase was just and good,but not as good as mine)“the narcissus that loves the rain.”
The Sun Never Says, by Hafiz Even after all this time The sun never says to the earth, “You owe Me.” Look what happens with A love like that, It lights the whole sky. – from The Gift
Tagged: Hafiz, Persian art, poetry, The Sun Never Says
Home is so Sad, by Philip Larkin Home is so sad. It stays as it was left,Shaped to the comfort of the last to goAs if to win them back. Instead, bereftOf anyone to please, it withers so,Having no heart to put aside the theft And turn again to what it started as,A joyous shot at how things ought to be,Long fallen wide. You can see how it was:Look at the pictures and the cutlery.The music in the piano stool. That vase. From Collected Poems by Philip Larkin. Copyright © 1988, 2003 by the Estate of Philip Larkin.
And in the hanging gardens there is rain
From midnight until one, striking the leaves
And bells of flowers, and stroking boles of planes,
And drawing slow arpeggios over pools,
And stretching strings of sound from eaves to ferns.
The princess reads. The knave of diamonds sleeps.
The king is drunk, and flings a golden goblet
Down from the turret window (curtained with rain)
Into the lilacs.
Marie Spartali Stillman, Beatrice (1895) The Samuel & Mary R. Bancroft Collection of Pre-Raphaelite Art at the Delaware Art Museum
Tagged: And in the Hanging Gardens, Beatrice, Blue Voyage, Bonaventure Cemetery, Conrad Aiken, F.W. Burton, Hanging Gardens of Babylon, John Everett Millais, Marie Spartali Stillman, poetry, The Knight Errant, The Meeting on the Turret Stairs
This week, we are beginning a new series called One Drop of Wine, featuring our favourite poets and poems. We will add to the series randomly, as we discover or remember poems we wish to include. Sometimes, we will share a few interesting facts about the poet but, if the poet is modern and still widely read today, we will skip the fact-sharing and simply post the poem on its own. The choices we make will be based purely on our belief in the aesthetic value of the poetry itself, rather than on any social, political, or other “extra-poetic” (as Harold Bloom would say) factors. We hope you enjoy them as much as we do, and we welcome your comments.
Tagged: poetry, Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, The Favourite Poet