SPRING: ROBERT BROWNING: PIPPA'S SONG FROM "PIPPA PASSES"

2018 0325 12  Spring: Robert Browning: Pippa's Song from "Pippa Passes"

"the whole sunrise...grew gold, then overflowed the world"  Pippa Passes*

Robert Browning [1812-1889]

THE year 's at the spring,
And day 's at the morn;
Morning 's at seven;
The hill-side 's dew-pearl'd;

The lark 's on the wing;
The snail 's on the thorn;
God 's in His heaven—
All 's right with the world!

*For the full text of "Pippa Passes"  A Drama by Robert Browning: [Click Here]

http://www.campbellmgold.com/archive_ponder/pippa_passes_browning_1841.pdf

  

"Pippa Passes": Robert Browning

                                         



Dear Reader, Please spare six minutes to see this video -- a perfect presentation! 

YouTube Video: Pippa's Song with Text and Explanation: [Click Here]

https://youtu.be/p2RyL8VRj2Y

SPRING: ROBERT FROST: A PRAYER IN SPRING

2018 0318 11  Spring: Robert Frost: A Prayer in Spring

give us pleasure in the flowers today

A Prayer in Spring

Robert Frost [1874-1963]

by Robert Frost

Oh, give us pleasure in the flowers today;
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 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 fulfill.

                                            

YouTube Video: 'A Prayer in Spring' by Robert Frost: [Click Here]

For a Full Analysis of the Poem "A Prayer in Spring": [Click Here]

                                    

SPRING: WILLIAM WORDSWORTH: DAFFODILS

2018 0311 10  Spring: William Wordsworth: Daffodils

"Ten thousand saw I at a glance, tossing their heads in sprightly dance"

Daffodils signal the start of spring. The poem that is the best at conjuring up a picture of an English Spring-time is "Daffodils" by WilliamWordsworth. 

The poem describes the beauty of seeing a field full of daffodils with their head nodding in the spring breeze. Here is it:

William Wordsworth [1770-1850]

I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine

and twinkle on the Milky Way,

They stretched in never-ending line

along the margin of a bay:

Ten thousand saw I at a glance,

tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they

Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:

A poet could not but be gay,

in such a jocund company:

I gazed—and gazed—but little thought

what wealth the show to me had brought:

my heart... dances with the daffodils

For oft, when on my couch I lie

In vacant or in pensive mood,

They flash upon that inward eye

Which is the bliss of solitude;

And then my heart with pleasure fills,

And dances with the daffodils.

                                    

For a complete analysis of the poem "Daffodils": [Click Here]

YouTube Video: Daffodils by William Wordsworth: [Click Here]

   

SPRING: PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY: THE SENSITIVE PLANT

2018  0304 09  Spring: Percy Bysshe Shelley: The Sensitive Plant

 

A Sensitive Plant in a garden grew,

And the young winds fed it with silver dew,

And it opened its fan-like leaves to the light.

And closed them beneath the kisses of Night.

And the Spring arose on the garden fair,

Like the Spirit of Love felt everywhere;

And each flower and herb on Earth’s dark breast

Rose from the dreams of its wintry rest.

***                                  ***                                   ***

The snowdrop, and then the violet,

Arose from the ground with warm rain wet,

And their breath was mixed with fresh odour, sent

From the turf, like the voice and the instrument.

Then the pied wind-flowers and the tulip tall,

And narcissi, the fairest among them all,

Who gaze on their eyes in the stream’s recess,

Till they die of their own dear loveliness;

***                                  ***                                   ***

And the rose like a nymph to the bath addressed,

Which unveiled the depth of her glowing breast,

Till, fold after fold, to the fainting air

The soul of her beauty and love lay bare:

And the jessamine faint, and the sweet tuberose,

The sweetest flower for scent that blows;

And all rare blossoms from every clime

Grew in that garden in perfect prime.

***                                  ***                                   ***

           

The snowdrop, and then the violet, 

Arose from the ground

                                        


For the Full Text of Shelley's Poem "The Sensitive Plant": [Click Here]

For the Full Text of Shelley's Book "The Sensitive Plant": [Click Here]

For Analysis of Shelley's Poem -- "The Sensitive Plant": [Click Here]