Judi’s Reviews > Poem for the Day One > Status Update

Julian Grensfell, who wrote the poem 'Into Battle', was killed on the Western front at Ypres, May 26th 1915.

From The Song of Solomon

...

Thy two breast are like two young roes that are twins, which feed among the lilies

Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, I will get me to the fountain of myrrh, and to the hill of frankincense.

Thou art all fair, my love; there is no spot in thee.

His cheeks are as a bed of spices, as sweet flowers: his lips like lilies, dropping sweet smelling myrrh.

The Tables Turned

William Wordsworth
(April 7th 1770 — April 23rd 1850)

Composed about May 23rd 1798. At the time, the Wordsworths were bringing up Basil Montagu. "We teach him nothing at present," explained Dorothy Wordsworth, "but what he learns from the evidence of his senses. He has his own insatiable curiosity which we are always careful to satisfy to the best of our ability...

Playwright Lady Augusta Gregory, Yeats' associate, died May 22nd 1932

Christopher Smart died in a debtors' prison, May 21st 1771

Magnificat
for Sian, after thirteen years

...

when we met, I tell you
it was a birthday party, a funeral
it was a holy communion
between women, a Visitation

it was two old she-0goats butting
and nuzzling each other in the smelly fold


Michéle Roberts
(May 20th 1949 — )

Slough

...

In labour-saving homes, with care
Their wives frizz out peroxide hair
And dry it in synthetic air
and paint their nails.

come, brined bombs, and fall on Slough
To get it ready for the plough.
the cabbages are coming now;
The earth exhales.

John Betjeman
(August 28th 1906 — May 19th 1984)

Novelist and cerebral poet George Maricith died May 18th 1909.

Oft in the Stilly Night

Thomas Moore
(May 28th 1779 — February 25th 1852)

Thomas Moore was born in Dublin, the son of a Catholic grocer. His Poems of 1801 and his talent as a singer were his e entrée into high society. He married Betsy Dyke, and actress, and they lived in Wiltshire. His Irish Melodies brought him an income of £500 a year.

Feminist poet and critic Adrienne Rich, who wrote the polemical poem 'The Phenomenology of Anger', was born in Baltimore May 16th 1929.