Poetry Please The Seasons

by BBC Radio

This new anthology of poems, favourites from the nation's longest-running and best-loved request programme for verse, moves with the seasons, following the turning year from John Clare's 'pale splendour of the winter sun' to John Keats's 'Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness', by way of Larkin's 'young-leafed June' and Gerard Manley Hopkins' 'glassy peartree leaves and blooms' when 'Nothing is so beautiful as Spring'.

As the year changes, so we change with it. Since time out of mind our daily lives have been shaped and directed by the seasons, and it is here that we find poems about harvest and hardship, growth and new life, the warmth of the life-giving sun, Christmas and the closing of the year. Poetry Please: Seasonal Poems is a vital and generous gathering to treasure.

Genres: Poetry, Nonfiction, Nature, Anthologies

Paperback

Published January 1, 2016

Reviews

[Realini Ionescu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Poetry Please 100 poems from the BBC Radio 4 programme



This is a wonderful book. I do not know where and how I’ve got it, but I found it again on a shelf and read through it. When I was 15, 16 I had a great teacher of literature- Chevorchian. I keep remembering and mentioning him, because he was a wonderful, kind, intelligent and well read man. He told us what to read and gave us the names of a number of poems which we could learn. He saw the seeds of what would become a fondness for poetry, which lasted –and the proof is the joy I experienced reading Poetry Please which has some poems which I simply LOVE! Here are some of them:



Shall I Compare Thee To A Summer's Day?
by William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date.
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.







Code Poem For The French Resistance

The life that I have is all that I have

And the life that I have is yours.

The love that I have of the life that I have

Is yours and yours and yours.



A sleep I shall have

A rest I shall have,

Yet death will be but a pause,

For the peace of my years in the long green grass

Will be yours and yours and yours.



desiderata - by max ehrmann



Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence.

As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even to the dull and the ignorant, they too have their story. Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are vexations to the spirit.

If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain and bitter; for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself. Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.

Exercise caution in your business affairs, for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals, and everywhere life is full of heroism. Be yourself. Especially, do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love, for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment it is perennial as the grass.

Take kindly to the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth. Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.

Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be, and whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul.

With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world.

Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.

Max Ehrmann c.1920

Indian Prayer by Anonymous



When I am dead
Cry for me a little
Think of me sometimes
But not too much.


Think of me now and again
As I was in life
At some moments it’s pleasant to recall
But not for long.


Leave me in peace
And I shall leave you in peace
And while you live
Let your thoughts be with the living.



My Mind to me a Kingdom is

My mind to me a kingdom is;
Such perfect joy therein I find
That it excels all other bliss
Which God or nature hath assign'd.
Though much I want that most would have,
Yet still my mind forbids to crave.

No princely port, nor wealthy store,
No force to win a victory,
No wily wit to salve a sore,
No shape to win a loving eye;
To none of these I yield as thrall,--
For why? my mind despise them all.

I see that plenty surfeit oft,
And hasty climbers soonest fall;
I see that such as are aloft
Mishap doth threaten most of all.
These get with toil and keep with fear;
Such cares my mind can never bear.

I press to bear no haughty sway,
I wish no more than may suffice,
I do no more than well I may,
Look, what I want my mind supplies.
Lo ! thus I triumph like a king,
My mind content with anything.

I laugh not at another's loss,
Nor grudge not at another's gain;
No worldly waves my mind can toss;
I brook that is another's bane.
I fear no foe, nor fawn on friend,
I loathe not life, nor dread mine end.

My wealth is health and perfect ease,
And conscience clear my chief defence;
I never seek by bribes to please,
Nor by desert to give offence.
Thus do I live, thus will I die,--
Would all did so as well as I!

Sir Edward Dyer





Because I Have loved Life



Because I have loved life, I shall have no sorrow to die.
I have sent up my gladness on wings, to be lost in the blue of the sky.
I have run and leaped with the rain, I have taken the wind to my breast.
My cheek like a drowsy child to the face of the earth I have pressed.
Because I have loved life, I shall have no sorrow to die.

I have kissed young Love on the lips, I have heard his song to the end,
I have struck my hand like a seal in the loyal hand of a friend.
I have known the peace of heaven, the comfort of work done well.
I have longed for death in the darkness and risen alive out of hell.
Because I have loved life, I shall have no sorrow to die.

I give a share of my soul to the world where my course is run.
I know that my another shall finish the task I must leave undone.
I know that no flower, nor flint was in vain on the path I trod.
As one looks on a face through a window, through life I have looked on God,
Because I have loved life, I shall have no sorrow to die.

Amelia Josephine Barr

[sawaaiiq · Rating 2 out of 5]

I did not enjoy most of this, even what was tolerable was lacking thematically and the chosen themes were very repetitive. There were a few that were okay but I am yet to read great poetry in English in recent times, I prefer translations of other languages in English far more than those written in English!

[Jayne Hood · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful collection of poems.

[Andy Hickman · Rating 4 out of 5]

“The Seasons”, by Poetry Please (BBC Radio 4)
Another wonderful anthology of poems from this team. ****

Poems include:

"The Human Seasons", John Keats
KEATS!
".. His soul has in its Autumn, when his wings / He furleth close; contented so to look
On mists in idleness—to let fair things / Pass by unheeded as a threshold brook..."
.

"The Twelve Months", George Ellis
I can only assume this has value because of its child-like wit
.

“Ceremonies for Candlemasse Eve”, Robert Herrick
He’s looking forward to Christmas
.

“A Christmas Carol”, Christina Rossetti
Wonderful poems concludes with these stunning lines:
“.. What can I give Him, / Poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd / I would bring a lamb,
If I were a Wise Man / I would do my part,—
Yet what I can I give Him, / Give my heart.”
.

“Frost at Midnight”, Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Opens with:
“The Frost performs its secret ministry,
Unhelped by any wind. The owlet's cry
..”
Inaudible as dreams! The thin blue flame! (line 13)
With his wife at his side (lines 44-49)
.

“London Snow”, Robert Bridges
Wonderful poem, opens with:
“When men were all asleep the snow came flying,
In large white flakes falling on the city brown,
Stealthily and perpetually settling and loosely lying,
Hushing the latest traffic of the drowsy town;”
.

“Winter Night”, William Barnes
Beautiful and desolate poem:
“It was a chilly winter's night;
And frost was glitt'ring on the ground,
And evening stars were twinkling bright;
And from the gloomy plain around
Came no sound,
But where, within the wood-girt tower,
The churchbell slowly struck the hour;

As if that all of human birth
Had risen to the final day,
And soaring from the worn-out earth
Were called in hurry and dismay,
Far away;
And I alone of all mankind
Were left in loneliness behind.”
.

“Home-Thoughts”, Robert Browning
To be a beloved poem of your fellow citizens just open with adoration for your country. Instant approval! “Oh, to be in England ..”
.

“Lines Written in Early Spring”, William Wordsworth
Great poem of the romantic era, opens with:
“I heard a thousand blended notes,
While in a grove I sate reclined,
In that sweet mood when pleasant thoughts
Bring sad thoughts to the mind.”
.

“Loveliest of Trees, by A.E. Housman”
Indeed short, but cherry bloom sweet
.

The Passionate Shepherd to His Love, Christopher Marlowe
“.. A gown made of the finest wool
Which from our pretty Lambs we pull..”

“Come live with me and be my love..” Influential poem that impacted Walter Raleigh and John Donne
.

“Adlestrop”, Edward Thomas
Sweet and eerie.

“Yes. I remember Adlestrop—
The name, because one afternoon
Of heat the express-train drew up there
Unwontedly. It was late June.

The steam hissed. Someone cleared his throat.
No one left and no one came
On the bare platform. What I saw
Was Adlestrop—only the name

And willows, willow-herb, and grass,
And meadowsweet, and haycocks dry,
No whit less still and lonely fair
Than the high cloudlets in the sky.

And for that minute a blackbird sang
Close by, and round him, mistier,
Farther and farther, all the birds
Of Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire.”
.

“The Schoolboy”, William Blake
Tender with longing and joy, e.g. “I love to rise in a summer morn, / When the birds sing on every tree; / The distant huntsman winds his horn, / And the skylark sings with me: / O what sweet company!”
Is this where Maya Angelou got the concept of “How can the bird that is born for joy / Sit in a cage and sing?”?
.

"Summer Shower", Emily Dickinson
The always unique ED, opens with:
"A drop fell on the apple tree,
Another on the roof;
A half a dozen kissed the eaves,.."
.

“Autumn Song”, W.H. Auden
Opens and closes with such intrigue:
"Now the leaves are falling fast, .... None may drink except in dreams."
.

"Poem in October", Dylan Thomas
Intense! E.g. ".. It was my thirtieth Year to heaven stood there then in the summer noon / Though the town below lay leaved with October blood .."
.

"Postscript", Seamus Heaney
Nostalgic! ".. As big soft buffetings come at the car sideways / And catch the heart off guard and blow it open."
.

“To Autumn”, John Keats
Gorgeous! Stunning observations of ecological connectivity. A masterpiece in how to look, sound, smell, taste and feel. ".. Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours."
.

"The Wild Swans At Coole", W.B. Yeats
A poem about a heart sore from love. Opens with:
"The trees are in their autumn beauty,
The woodland paths are dry,
Under the October twilight the water
Mirrors a still sky;
Upon the brimming water among the stones
Are nine-and-fifty swans. .."
.

"Weathers", Thomas Hardy.
Simple but honest poem:
This is the weather the cuckoo likes,
And so do I;
When showers betumble the chestnut spikes,
And nestlings fly;
And the little brown nightingale bills his best,
And they sit outside at 'The Traveller's Rest,'
And maids come forth sprig-muslin drest,
And citizens dream of the south and west,
And so do I.

This is the weather the shepherd shuns,
And so do I;
When beeches drip in browns and duns,
And thresh and ply;
And hill-hid tides throb, throe on throe,
And meadow rivulets overflow,
And drops on gate bars hang in a row,
And rooks in families homeward go,
And so do I.”

[crw eley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Those " Blue Remembered Hills "

One of the happiest times of my life was my time as an English teacher, conveying my passion for poetry. So many of my favourite poems are here.

[Phil Altimas · Rating 5 out of 5]

a great anthology of poems broken down into the four season, as with all of these collections
there are a few i didn take to but in teh whole a great collection of great poems from great poets

[Iulia · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5*

Much more of a mixed bag than I would have liked. Many didn't do much for me, for various reasons - either due to language barriers, or because they were, quite frankly, dull (I'm thinking Michael Hofmann).

Stand-outs include:

"Snow" and "June Thunder" (Louis Macneice)
"Death of a Naturalist" and "Postscript" (Seamus Heaney)
"Lines Written in Early Spring" (Wordsworth)
"Spring in Belfast" (Derek Mahon)
"Out of Time" (Stevie Smith)
"Strawberries" (Edwin Morgan)
"A Summer Night" (Auden)
"Beech" (Elizabeth Jennings)
"Poem in October" (Dylan Thomas)

[Rhea Nathan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nothing wrong with the book just not the sort of poetry I can really get in to

[Sw33t_heart89 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ci sono belle poesie dedicate alle quattro stagioni, La maggior parte non li conoscevo è stata una bella scoperta.

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable selection of easily accessible poems, nicely grouped by Season.

[Falling Leaves · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good book to pull out at different times of the year. Some of it doesn't chime with me. Has poems by Plath, Keats, Armitage, Cope.

[Winifred · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved these poems. Great book to just dip into. This was my book for reading on the train.

[Susan Corcoran · Rating 3 out of 5]

This books contains some very beautiful poems.