Posts Tagged ‘spring poetry’
Winifred Mary Letts: Spring’s Honest Voice in a Time of War
This botanical history post was featured on The Daily Gardener podcast: Click here to see the complete show notes for this episode. February 10, 1882 Dearest Gardeners, On this day, we celebrate the birth of Winifred Mary Letts, an English-born writer who spent much of her life in Ireland and became a singular voice of…
Read MoreThe Patience of Spring: Lessons from Emerson’s May Day
This botanical history post was featured on The Daily Gardener podcast: Click here to see the complete show notes for this episode. May 1, 1867 On this day, Ralph Waldo Emerson, the sage of Concord, inscribed a copy of his book, May Day, to Sophie Thoreau, the devoted sister of Henry David Thoreau. This gesture,…
Read MoreChristopher Morley: The Poet of Spring and Wit
This botanical history post was featured on The Daily Gardener podcast: May 5, 1890 The American journalist, novelist, essayist, and poet Christopher Morley was born. Morley was a man of boundless curiosity — producing plays, giving lectures, and publishing essays by the dozen. Yet it is his sparkling wit and tender reflections on life that…
Read MoreTheodore Roethke: The Gardener Poet of Life’s Light and Shadows
This botanical history post was featured on The Daily Gardener podcast: Click here to see the complete show notes for this episode. May 25, 1908 On this day, we celebrate the birth of Michigan-born Theodore Roethke (“RETH-key”), a poet whose words root themselves deeply in nature and the American Northwest. Awarded the Pulitzer Prize for…
Read MoreWinifred Mary Letts: The Poet Who Gave Gardeners Words for Spring
Spring the Cheat February 10, 1882 Today is the birthday of the English writer Winifred Mary Letts. Gardeners love her quote on spring: That God once loved a garden, we learn in Holy writ. And seeing gardens in the Spring, I well can credit it. Winifred also wrote a poem about spring called “Spring the…
Read MoreElijah Fenton’s Garden Poetry and the Legacy of an Honest Man
Variety of Nature Today is the anniversary of the death of the English writer and poet Elijah Fenton. His tomb is ornamented with a pair of sleeping angels. Alexander Pope composed his epitaph. The first two lines are inspired by the poet Richard Crashaw. At Easthamstead, Berks, 1729 THIS modest stone, what few vain marbles…
Read MoreWinifred Mary Letts: The Poet Who Gave Gardeners Words for Spring
Spring the Cheat Today is the birthday of the English writer Winifred Mary Letts. Gardeners love her quote on spring: That God once loved a garden, we learn in Holy writ. And seeing gardens in the Spring, I well can credit it. Winifred also wrote a poem about spring called “Spring the Cheat.” This is…
Read MoreApril’s Tender Return: Hannah Rebecca Hudson’s poetic celebration of spring’s gentle awakening
by Hannah Rebecca Hudson April has searched the winter land And found her petted flowers again. She kissed them to unfold her leaves, She coaxed them with her sun and rain, And filled the grass with green content, And made the woods and clover vain. Her crocuses and violets Give all the world a gay…
Read MoreJohn Milton’s “Song on May Morning”: Hailing the Bounteous May
by John Milton Now the bright morning-star, Day’s harbinger, Comes dancing from the East, and leads with her The flowery May, who from her green lap throws The yellow cowslip and the pale primrose. Hail, bounteous May, that dost inspire Mirth, and youth, and warm desire! Woods and groves are of thy dressing; Hill and…
Read MoreJames Henry Leigh Hunt’s “May and the Poets”: A Garland of Verse for Spring
by Leigh Hunt There is May in books forever; May will part from Spenser never; May’s in Milton, May’s in Prior, May’s in Chaucer, Thomson, Dyer; May’s in all the Italian books — She has old and modern nooks, Where she sleeps with nymphs and elves, In happy places, they call shelves, And will rise…
Read MoreLilacs in the Wind: Sara Teasdale’s Bittersweet May
Today’s Garden Words were featured on The Daily Gardener podcast: Click here to see the complete show notes for this episode. Words inspired by the garden are the sweetest, most beautiful words of all. Sara Teasdale, an American lyric poet born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1884. May 16, 2109 On this day devoted to…
Read MoreWindflowers: Agnes Falconer’s Poetic Gift for National Poem in Your Pocket Day
by Agnes Falconer So frail are we, pale are we, Mist-thin, ghost-white — Hark o’er us, spring’s chorus Trills all life’s delight! And no leaf stirs in all the wood Yet see! our blossoms quiver! Dance these not in thy solitude — Forever! Note: Windflower is the common name for Anemone blanda. Today’s Garden…
Read MoreFrancis Quarles’ “Nothing Perfect on Earth”: The Tender Blossoms of April
by Francis Quarles Even as the soil (which April’s gentle showers Have filled with sweetness and enriched with flowers) Rears up her sucking plants, still shooting forth The tender blossoms of her timely birth; But if denied the beams of cheerly May, They hang their withered heads, and fade away. Today’s Garden words were featured…
Read MoreAlways Marry an April Girl: Ogden Nash’s Playful Ode to Spring
by Ogden Nash Praise the spells and bless the charms, I found April in my arms. April golden, April cloudy, Gracious, cruel, tender, rowdy; April soft in flowered languor, April cold with sudden anger, Ever-changing, ever true — I love April, I love you. Today’s Garden words were featured on the podcast:…
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