Poets & Poetry

nothing modern

I believe I left my last posting with a, somewhat less than subtle, hint that I really didn't much care for our, so-called, modern poetry. Continuing on in that vein, today's writing will be about poets and their poetry from an era before you had to be educated to understand the meaning of the written word. As a case-in-point, several years ago there was an article in a newspaper (Probably The Commercial Appeal) pertaining to the winner of a poetry contest which was sponsored by some Federal Agency. The author's name has slipped my mind but that winning poem will stay with me forever. The entire poem consisted of seven letters which were; "LIGHGHT". If you missed it, here it is again; "LIGHGHT". Surely there is someone, somewhere who can compete with that writer but the biggest problem would probably be with the judges.

With that out of the way, let's move on to a few of the better known and therefore more famous of our, mostly 19th century, poets. Below I will list a few of my favorites along with a short excerpt (2 or 3 verses) from one or more of their poems.

When we think, if we even think, about Edgar Allan Poe (1809 - 1849) we usually remember him as the writer of "The Raven" but my favorite of all his writings is "Annabel Lee". Two verses below;

"It was many and many a year ago, in a kingdom by the sea, / That a maiden there lived whom you may know / By the name of Annabel Lee; / And this maiden she lived with no other thought / Than to love and be loved by me.

I was a child and she was a child, /In this kingdom by the sea; / But we loved with a love that was more than love. / I and my Annabel Lee. -------."

John Greenleaf Whittier, born December 17, 1807 - died September 7, 1892, was an influential American Quaker poet.One of my favorite Whittier poems is "In School Days"; and I'm including the last three verses here;

"I'm sorry that I spelt the word, / I hate to go above you / "Because" - the brown eyes lower fell - / "Because, you see I love you"

Still memories to a gray-haired man / That sweet child-face is showing / Dear girl! The grasses on her grave / have forty years been growing.

He lived to learn, in life's hard school / how few who pass above him / Lament their triumph and his loss / Like her - because they love him."

Another Whittier poem that really needs to be mentioned here is "The Barefoof Boy". The first 10 lines are;

"Blessings on thee, little man / Barefoot boy with cheek of tan! / With thy turned up pantaloons, / And thy merry whistled tunes; / With thy red lips redder still / Kissed by strawberries on the hill; / With the sunshine on thy face, / Through thy torn brim's jaunty grace; / From my heart I give thee joy, - / I was once a barefoot boy."

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, born in 1807 - died 1882, taught French, Italian, Spanish and German at Harvard but preferred to write poetry. Probably his most famous poem was "Evangeline", written in 1847, a fictional, epical saga which chronicles Evangeline's search for her lover Gaberiel(from whom she had been seperated) after the Acadians were exiled from Canada in 1755. Since that poem has hundreds of verses and is much too long to get any sense of its meaning in a few verses, I picked an alternate named "The Village Blacksmith". The first two verses are:

"Under a spreading chestnut tree / The village smithy stands; / The smith, a mighty man is he, / With large and sinewy hands; / And the muscles of his brawny arms / Are strong as iron bands.

His hair is crisp, and black, and long, / His face is like the tan; / His brow is wet with honest sweat, / He earns whate'er he can, / And looks the whole world in the face, / For he owes not any man."

Sam Walter Foss, born June 19, 1858 and died Februry 26, 1911, was a librarian and poet whose work included one of my all time favorites, especially in my senior years, "The House by the Side of the Road" along with "The Coming America" and "Toil's Sweet Content". The first two verses of "The House by the Side of the Road",written in 1897, are quoted here;

"There are hermit / souls that live withdrawn / In the peace of their self-content / There are souls, like stars, that dwell apart, / In a fellowless firmament; / There are pioneer souls that blaze their paths / Where highways never ran; - / But let me live by the side of the road / And be a friend to man.

Let me live in a house / By the side of the road, / Where the race of men go by - / The men who are good and the men who are bad, / As good and as bad as I. / I would not sit in the scorner's seat, / Or hurl the cynic's ban;- / Let me live in a house by the side of the road / And be a friend to man."

It is my hope that someone who might accidentally stumble on this blog would be curious enough to seek out these old poets and their poetry. You'll be glad you did. I may revisit this subject in the future with more of our female poets from yesteryear. Until then, thanks and stay tuned - William