FERN HILL
by Dylan Thomas
Now as I was young and easy under the apple boughs
About the lilting house and happy as the grass was green,
The night above the dingle starry,
Time let me hail and climb
Golden in the heydays of his eyes,
And honoured among wagons I was prince of the apple towns
And once below a time I lordly had the trees and leaves
Trail with daisies and barley
Down the rivers of the windfall light.
And as I was green and carefree, famous among the barns
About the happy yard and singing as the farm was home,
In the sun that is young once only,
Time let me play and be
Golden in the mercy of his means,
And green and golden I was huntsman and herdsman, the calves
Sang to my horn, the foxes on the hills barked clear and cold,
And the sabbath rang slowly
In the pebbles of the holy streams.
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read the rest)
THE LAKE ISLE OF INNISFREEby William Butler Yeats
I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made;
Nine bean rows will I have there, a hive for the honey bee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.
And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight's all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet's wings.
I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements gray,
I hear it in the deep heart's core.
Wow, I just discovered this poem this week for myself! I want to read more Bishop for sure. Thanks for posting this.
Posted by: writer2b | January 18, 2008 at 04:09 AM
Thanks - hadn't heard this - it's gorgeous and so true. Thanks for sharing.
Posted by: TadMack | January 18, 2008 at 06:47 AM
I am taking her advice and losing something every day, accepting the fluster. What a relief!
Posted by: cloudscome | January 18, 2008 at 07:38 AM
That's one of the very best villanelles going (right up there with Dylan Thomas's Do Not Go Gently Into that Good Night)
Posted by: Kelly Fineman | January 18, 2008 at 07:50 AM
"Accept the fluster"
Thanks for this, Lissa. You, and EB, knew just what I needed right about now. If I could needlepoint, I'd be tempted to stitch that on the pillow right about now. But she sounds so much more elegant, so much calmer, than I feel at the moment.
Posted by: Becky | January 18, 2008 at 09:26 AM
Aaaak. I just posted an original villanelle myself today and now, gulp, am reading Bishop's. Something to live up to, to be sure....
Posted by: Liz in Ink | January 18, 2008 at 09:51 AM