Category Archives: Misc

Sea Fever by John Masefield

10 Sunday Mar 2013

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Sea Fever

Sea Fever

I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by,
And the wheel’s kick and the wind’s song and the white sail’s shaking,
And a grey mist on the sea’s face, and a grey dawn breaking.

I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;
And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.

I must go down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,
To the gull’s way and the whale’s way, where the wind’s like a whetted knife;
And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover,
And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick’s over.”

Born in Ledbury, England, in June 1878, John Masefield was an English poet and writer and Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom from 1930 until his death in 1967. His mother died giving birth to his sister when he was only six and he went to live with his aunt. His father died soon after following a mental breakdown.

After attending King’s School in Warwick he went to sea at the age of fifteen on a large sailing ship, the HMS Conway, then worked for a time in New York City before returning to England in 1897. It was his experiences aboard the ship that provided him with the raw material that made him famous as a sea poet. It was in 1902 he published a collection of sea poems entitled Salt-Water Ballads, in which “Sea Fever” appeared.
Like Denny Bradbury, in her poem “So Grey the Sea” from her new collection of poetry “De:versify” where she writes:

“ So grey the sea
All white the foam
I journey forth
To come back home..”

Masefield talks of being drawn back to the sea – each of his poem’s three stanzas starts with the words “I must go down to the seas again…”- as he hears the call of the sea and is pulled towards a sense of exploring and adventure that the sea gives him; a feeling of wanderlust and travel.
Denny Bradbury talks of the power the sea holds for her in her poem “Sea Changes”:

“..Me, I walk along the shore –
Stare at the sea and smile,
Fling my arms and turn about
for fully half a mile.
While breathing in the wholesome air,
The waves come up to greet me.
They fizz around my naked feet
Then run away so sweetly.

My cares are gone,
And I can face the world again
With pleasure.
Sea’s never still;
It comes and goes
And soothes with equal measure.”

Just as Denny Bradbury’s Seascape inspired poems often have hidden metaphors for life, Masefield’s poem “Sea Fever” can also be interpreted as a metaphor for the journey of life, the challenges that life poses and the joy that can be found in the most simple elements of nature and life – a “windy day with the white clouds flying” “sea-gulls crying” or “a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover.”

A Prayer In Spring by Robert Frost

05 Tuesday Mar 2013

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Spring

Spring

“Oh, give us pleasure in the flowers to-day;
And give us not to think so far away
As the uncertain harvest; keep us here
All simply in the springing of the year.

Oh, give us pleasure in the orchard white,
Like nothing else by day, like ghosts by night;
And make us happy in the happy bees,
The swarm dilating round the perfect trees.

And make us happy in the darting bird
That suddenly above the bees is heard,
The meteor that thrusts in with needle bill,
And off a blossom in mid air stands still.

For this is love and nothing else is love,
The which it is reserved for God above
To sanctify to what far ends He will,
But which it only needs that we fulfil.”

Robert Frost, an American poet (1874-1963) is highly regarded for his realistic depictions of rural life. His poems frequently used settings from rural life in New England in the early twentieth century, just as Denny Bradbury does in her new collection ‘De-versify’ where she draws often on her love for the Dorset countryside such as in her poems “Waiting for Blossom”, “Lost Meadows” and “Kingcup and Friends” where she talks about the beauty of nature, often potentially threatened by the intrusion of man:

“… .. We all have been guilty by absence, design or merely a shake of
The head in resigned
Acceptance of what the men in dark suits were planning to plant next to
burgeoning shoots
Be it wind farm or pylon or merely a road we sighed and we tutted
but never did goad
Now as we look with fresh eyes do we see the reinstatement of the humble and
wonderful bee.”

‘ Lost Meadows.’

Like Denny, Robert Frost often drew on the rural life he wrote about to examine complex social and philosophical themes. Frost was one of the most popular and critically respected American poets of his generation and was honoured frequently during his lifetime, receiving four Pulitzer prizes for poetry.

His poem “A Prayer In Spring” begins illustrating to the reader a reminder that the present contains a bounty of wonderful gifts, regardless of what the harvest itself may bring. That it is a time of rebirth and fertility and that we should hold onto the here and now for as long as possible.

Denny Bradbury tells of something similar in the last verses of both her poems “Kingcup and Friends” and “Gossamer Green” where she talks of Nature’s cycle:

“…Meadowsweet silver birch chestnuts red
Lavender provender hops for your bed
Room for all there’s room for more
Love and leave
Glory
Nature will restore!”   ~ ‘Kingcup and Friends’

“…Gossamer napkins scattered and left
Summer no longer leaving bereft
All those who revel in warmth of the sun
Dying for living the cycle is spun.” ~ Gossamer Green

“A Prayer In Spring” goes on to illustrate numerous other aspects of beauty that can be found in nature – a field of white flowers, the bees buzzing about the daily tasks in an orderly fashion, and the “perfect trees” that exist in this idyllic setting. Even the bird, appearing unexpectedly and heading straight for the blossom does not disturb the peaceful scene but adds to it.

Through his poem, Frost uses the metaphors of different creatures within the beauty of nature to illustrate the love of God – his message is twofold, celebrating the perfect universe and showing that we too can reach God through the tools he gives us in life.

The Spring by William Barnes

21 Thursday Feb 2013

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Spring

Spring

When wintry weather’s all a-done,

An’ brooks do sparkle in the zun,

An’ nâisy-buildèn rooks do vlee

Wi’ sticks toward their elem tree;

When birds do zing, an’ we can zee

Upon the boughs the buds o’ spring —

Then I’m as happy as a king,

A-vield wi’ health an’ zunsheen.

Vor then the cowslip’s hangèn flow’r

A-wetted in the zunny show’r,

Do grow wi’ vi’lets, sweet o’ smell,

Bezide the wood-screen’d grægle’s bell;

Where drushes’ aggs, wi’ sky-blue shell,

Do lie in mossy nest among

The thorns, while they do zing their zong

At evenèn in the zunsheen.

An’ God do meäke his win’ to blow

An’ raïn to vall vor high an’ low,

An’ bid his mornèn zun to rise

Vor all alike, an’ groun’ an’ skies

Ha’ colors vor the poor man’s eyes:

An’ in our trials He is near,

To hear our mwoan an’ zee our tear,

An’ turn our clouds to zunsheen.

An’ many times when I do vind

Things all goo wrong, an’ vo’k unkind,

To zee the happy veedèn herds,

An’ hear the zingèn o’ the birds,

Do soothe my sorrow mwore than words;

Vor I do zee that ’tis our sin

Do meäke woone’s soul so dark ’ithin,

When God would gi’e woone zunsheen.

Like Denny Bradbury, who, in her new collection “De-versify” writes poems such as “Gossamer Green” which describes the beauty that can be found in nature and the seasons:

“…Who ordered beauty like this to be?
Who claims the ultimate mystery?
Little eight legs busying time
Eyes ever watchful waiting for rime
Frosty mornings when winter is here
Now to go burrowing Hard Jack is near..”

so too does William Barnes, a native Dorset poet like Denny herself, write poems on themes such as love, natural landscape and regional life. Born in 1801, he wrote over 800 poems, a number of which were in Dorset dialect, such as “The Spring.”  A friend of Thomas Hardy, Alfred Tennyson and Gerard Manley Hopkins, his poems are characterised by a sweetness and tenderness of feeling, his deep insight into humble country life and character and an exquisite feeling for the beauty to be found in the local scenery.

Just as Denny in her poem “Waiting for Blossom (I)” describes the beauty of spring as the blossom begins to push its way into the world:

“… Hawthorn is late this year
February bees come in March
Eyes that long searched for colour
Now see the wonderful hint of blossom
Soon it is everywhere
Brilliant white of blackthorn
Champagne pink of cherry
Dappled rose of apple
All framed by nature’s green
Bringing gladness and smiles…”

Barnes’ refers to how :

“…When birds do zing, an’ we can zee

Upon the boughs the buds o’ spring —

Then I’m as happy as a king,

A-vield wi’ health an’ zunsheen…”

and how, when things go wrong, the sound of the birds can soothe his sorrow far more than any words could:

.. An’ many times when I do vind

Things all goo wrong, an’ vo’k unkind,

To zee the happy veedèn herds,

An’ hear the zingèn o’ the birds,

Do soothe my sorrow mwore than words;…

Both Denny Bradbury and William Barnes also demonstrate a love for folklore in their poetry (literally meaning ‘the learning of the people’).

The Thought-Fox by Ted Hughes

17 Sunday Feb 2013

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The Thought-Fox

The Thought-Fox

I imagine this midnight moment’s forest:
Something else is alive
Beside the clock’s loneliness
And this blank page where my fingers move.

Through the window I see no star:
Something more near
Though deeper within darkness
Is entering the loneliness:

Cold, delicately as the dark snow
A fox’s nose touches twig, leaf;
Two eyes serve a movement, that now
And again now, and now, and now

Sets neat prints into the snow
Between trees, and warily a lame
Shadow lags by stump and in hollow
Of a body that is bold to come

Across clearings, an eye,
A widening deepening greenness,
Brilliantly, concentratedly,
Coming about its own business

Till, with a sudden sharp hot stink of fox
It enters the dark hole of the head.
The window is starless still; the clock ticks,
The page is printed.

Just like Denny Bradbury in her new collection of poems “De-versify”, where she draws upon her love of the Dorset countryside and writes often about the wisdom and mystical powers of nature and animals, the rural landscape of Hughes’ youth in Yorkshire exerted a lasting influence upon on his work. To read his poetry, is to enter into a world dominated by nature and especially by animals and the Thought-Fox, in his collection The Hawk in the Rain, is often been acknowledged as one of the most completely artistically satisfying of  all the poems in his first collection.  As Denny does in her poem “Hare in the Moonlight”,  as seen below, Hughes also illustrates the conflict between violence and tenderness.

“Hare in the moonlight
Staring at stars

Hare in the morning
Hiding in grass

Hare at his boxing
Playing around

Hare with her babies
Wisdom abounds

Hare caught in trap
Set cruelly by man

No escape for her
Try as she can….”

The Thought-Fox is a poem about writing a poem – when the poet senses a presence outside, it is not just an actual presence of an animal he is picking up on, but the stirring of an idea within his imagination that is causing him to be restless. At first the idea has no clear outlines – not seen but felt – and it is the task of the poet to coax the idea out. These beginnings of a poem are compared to the stirrings of an animal – a fox, whose body is invisible but who feels its way forward nervously through the darkness.

As Denny does in her poem “Seagull takes the Biscuit”, where she changes the rhythm of her stanzas during the course of the poem:

“Seagull sweeps in across the leaden  sky
There are rich pickings here for him to try…

Seagull is canny wise as owl his eyes are full of light
When he descends on promenade….”

Hughes breaks the rhythm of his verse by his use of punctuation and line-endings in his third and fourth stanza, to mimic the unpredictable nature of the fox’s movements and as the fox gets closer so the language and punctuation of the poem reflects this as the fox shoots off into his lair.

The question is raised – did the fox exist at all or is it merely a metaphor for the creation of a new poem that the poet is finally able to write, having coaxed the idea from the depths of his imagination:

“…The window is starless still, the clock ticks,
The page is printed.”

The Windhover by Gerard Manley Hopkins

08 Friday Feb 2013

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The Windhover

The Windhover

As Denny Bradbury can often be found to do in her new collection of poetry, “De-versify”, Gerard Manley Hopkins’ poem “The Windhover” is a love poem that is not directed at a particular person but at life itself. A Jesuit priest who died at the young age of 44, he was torn between his literary and religious callings throughout his life, swinging between joy and despair both in his poetry and about the poems he wrote.

Written at the end of May in 1877, Hopkins’ sonnet “The Windhover” starts with such enthusiasm and emotion that it immediately shows itself to be a love poem, just as Denny Bradbury does in her poem “Gossamer Green” where she describes the infinite, intricate beauty of nature that dies and begins again with a creature as small as a spider:

“Gossamer tablecloth covering green
Tiny creatures never to be seen
Gossamer threads weaving over all
Holding early dew in autumn’s thrall

Who ordered beauty like this to be?
Who claims the ultimate mystery?…

….Gossamer napkins scattered and left
Summer no longer leaving bereft
All those who revel in warmth of the sun
Dying for living the cycle is spun.”

Hopkins felt that “The Windhover” was the best thing he ever wrote. It starts off slowly for the first four and a half lines, with a rich repetition of sound:

“I caught this morning morning’s minion, king-
dom of daylight’s dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon, in his riding
Of the rolling level underneath him steady air, and striding
High there, how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing
In his ecstasy!..”

He uses alliteration and repetition to highlight the stirring this creature makes him feel in his heart, whilst at the same time describing how the bird relishes in both the freedom and the restriction within the air.

Denny Bradbury, in her poem “Lost Meadows” uses alliteration to describe the beauty of the lost meadows:

“Light flooded meadows brimming with sweet honeyed flowers
bedappled with dew
Butterflies, bumblebees, damosels too drunkenly stagger
in nectar filled hue
How is this image today now expressed as fields drunk with pesticides
only are dressed….”

Hopkins’ language turns from describing the kestrel’s flight in the first part of the sonnet to describing how that same mixture of fighting against the wind  brings about a new and exhilarating experience can be found within other areas of nature, and  ultimately within his own soul:

“…………………then off, off forth on swing,
As a skate’s heel sweeps smooth on a bow-bend: the hurl and gliding
Rebuffed the big wind.  My heart in hiding
Stirred for a bird – the achieve of; the mastery of the thing!

Brute beauty and valour and act, oh, air, pride, plume, here
Buckle! AND the fire that breaks from thee then, a billion
Times told lovelier, more dangerous, O my chevalier!

No wonder of it: sheer plod makes plough down sillion
Shine, and blue-bleak embers, ah my dear,
Fall, gall themselves, and gash gold-vermillion.”

Hopkins’ sweeps his readers up in his rhythms and then dashes them down again in the strident sounds of his final line.