Status Updates From Poem For the Day Two

Felix Randal

Gerard Manley Hopkins
(July 28th 1844 — June 8th 1889)

.... After his ordination, the works of Hopkings began to focus on "inscaping the heart", the expression usedto render the wide range of responses to God that he observed among those for whom he cared; he would write of the 'heart fine' of a cheery beggar ('A Cheery Beggar', 1879) or the 'heavenlier heart' of Felix ?Randal.

Ralph Waldo Emerson died April 27th 1882

I rose — because He sank

Emily Dickinson
(December 10th 1830 — May 15th 1886)

But she also gave a full account of her life: "You ask of my Companions Hill [sic]— Sir—and the Sundown—and a Dog—large as myself, that my Father bought me — They are better than Beings because they know — but do not tell — and the noise in the Pool, at Noon — excels my Piano ,.. I have a Brother and Sister — ...

The Ideal

James Fenton
(April 25th 1949 — )

... As a freelance reporter working in Southeast Asia, he documented periods of momentous political change such as the rise of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia and the fall of Saigon. He was awarded the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize following the publication of Children of Exile: Poems, 1968-84 and from 1994-1999 served as Professor of Poetry at Oxford University.

From Litany to the Holy Spirit

Robert Herrick
(August ? 1591 — October 15th 1674)

... In 1628 he was nominated to the vicarage of Dean Prior, and spent the next 18 yers confined to "dull Devonshire" as he called it, bemoaning his dislocation from the literary and social scene in London, but drawing consolation from his books, especially the Bible and Latin verse as well as his many household pets and fiercely ...

From Antony and Cleopatra
Act V Scene ii

William Shakespeare
(April 23rd 1564 — April 23rd 1616)

1. While records show that Shakespeare was baptized on April 26th 1564, there is no evidence to support the popular belief that he was actually born — as fifty two years later he was to die — on April 23rd, St George's Day.

The Wild Iris

Louise Glück
(April 22nd 1943 — )

Louise Glück (pronounced 'Glick'), is the author of seven collections of poetry, and a book of essays, The Wild Iris, the book-length sequence for which she won the Purlitzer Prize, explores the mystery of life through the voices of individual flowers.

Poet and novelist Charlotte Bronté born in Thornton, Yorkshire, April 21st 1816.

You, Andrew Marvell

...

And Spain go under and the shore
Of Africa the gilded sand
And evening vanish and no more
The low pale light across that land

Nor now the long light on the sea:

And here face downward in the sun
to feel how swift how secretly
The shadow of the night comes on...

Archibald MacLeish
(May 7th 1892 — April 20th 1982)

Byron died of a malarial fever in Greece April 19th 1824. Tennyson described it as a day "when the whole world seemed to be darkened for me."

Dick Davis, poet and translator from the Persian, born April 18th 1945.

Peace

Henry Vaughan
(c. April 17th 1622 — April 234d 1695)

...In 1647 Henry wrote a Latin poem asserting that he had not fought in the war; that "there was a voice in a brother's blood, which could cry to Heaven against the shedder of it."
Thomas Vaughan's wife, Rebecca, died on this da in 1658.

Tristan Tzara, French poet and founder of the Dadaist Movement, born in Moinesti, Romania, April 16th, 1896.

William Oldys, poet and bibliographer, died April 15th 1761

Night Thoughts

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
(August 28th 1749 — March 22n 18932)

translated by Christopher Middleton

'Night Thioughts' ('Die Nacht') was first published in a songbook published by Bernard Breitkopf in 1796, which contained a number of Goethes early lyrics set to music. Goethe's name appeared nowhere in the book, despite this being the first time his work had been published in any form.

Lightness

Meg Bateman
(April 13th 1959 — )
translated from the Gaelic by the poet


... Many of her poems deal with the experiences of women, always with great delicacy and frankness. She featured in the seminal Dream State: The New Scottish Poets; her second full-length collection of Gaelic poems, Aotromachd ages gain mile (Lightness and other poems), has facing English translations.

Alone

Edgar Allan Poe
(January 19th 18909 — October 7th 1849)

...Poe instead entered West Point cadet school, but could not reconcile his literary ambitions with a military career. His failure to make a decent living and his repeated appeals for money eventually resulted in a complete breakdown in their relations.
Poe sent him a final letter on this day in 1833, imploring "Pity me and save me from destruction."

On His Mistress Drown'd

Thomas Spratt, Bishop of Rochester()c. 1635 — May 20th 1713)

... He became Dean of Westminster in 1683 and oversaw Sir Christopher Wren's restoration of the Abbey. As a member of James II's ecclesiastical commission, Spratt opposed the motion of 1689 declaring the throne vacant, but nonetheless assisted at the coronation of William of Orange and his wife Mary, on this day in 1689.

Coleridge was discharged from the army as 'insane' and returned to Cambridge April 10th 1794.

Lights Out

Edward Thomas
(March 3rd 1878 — April 9th 1917)

Thomas was killed by an unexploding shell on Easter Monday 1917, the first day of the Battle of Arras. His body showed no outward sign of injury, but his watch was stopped and his pocket diary buckled by the force of the blast.

Drinking

Abraham Cowley
(c. 1618 July 28th 1667)

...Cowley was buried in Westminster Abbey next to Chaucer and Spenser, an indication of the high regard in which he was held at the time, and also the degree to which his reputation has waned over the intervening years.

It is a beauteous evening, calm and free

William Wordsworth
(April 7th 1770n — April 234d 1850)

...This episode, during which Wordsworth came into contact with the French Revolution, wrought a power influence on the young poet's sensibilities and poetry. Indeed, it was in France that Wordsworth developed the sympathetic interest in the speech and troubles of the "common man" which came to characterise his work.

William Wordsworth appointed Poet Laureate April 6th 1843

The Pilot

Edwin Arlington Robinson
(December 22nd 1869 — April 6th 1935)

'The Pilot' is Robinson's tribute to Dean. Robinson moved to New York where he languished in poverty until assisted, much to his surprise, by President Roosevelt. Impressed by his earl work,

Celia Celia

Adrian Mitchell
(October 24th 1932 — )

PPS Celia and I are happy married and ar still together after 40 years, so the poem worked."
Adrian Mitchell was educated at Greenways School, Dauntsey's School, and Christ Church, Oxford. He worked as a theatre reviewer and freelance journalist on a wide range of newspapers including the Sun (pre-tabloid), the Sunday Times and New Statesman.

Come And Be My Baby

Maya Angelou
(May 4th 1928 — )

Angelou became mute after she was raped by her mother's boyfriend as a child. She is best known for her autobiographical writings, especially her first book, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1970), the title of which was taken from a poem, 'Sympathy', by the black poet Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906).

From The Flower

George Herbert
(April 3rd 1593 — March 3rd 1633)

... and tell him that he shall find in it a picture of the many spiritual conflicts that have passed betwixt God and my soul, before I could subject mine to the will of Jesus my master, in whose service I have now found perfect freedom; desire him to read it, and then, ...

The Gateway

A.D. Hope
July 21st 1907 July 13 2000)

Though viewed at times in his career as elitist and even anti-Australian, Hope is now widely regarded as one of Australias foremost 20th century poets. Like Robert Graves and W. B Yeats, he believed in the serious, almost sacred, role of the poet, a belief which infuses much of his writing.

John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, born April 1st 1647

A Hymn to God the Father

John Donne
(c. June 1572 — March 31st 1631)

...that Harmony, added to this Hymn has raised the Affections of my heart, and quickened my graces of zeal and gratitude; and I observe, that I always return from paying this public duty of Prayer and Praise to God, with an inexpressible tranquillity of mind, and a willingness to leave the world,"