by Allie Esiri
For Eliza Esiri
Contents
Introduction
March 1 I Am Taliesin Anon.
1 from Under Milk Wood Dylan Thomas
2 The Bright Field R. S. Thomas
2 March Anon.
3 Anger Against Beasts Wendell Berry
3 Dear March – Come In Emily Dickinson
4 Holi Chrissie Gittins
4 A Date with Spring John Agard
5 The River in March Ted Hughes
5 Spring Gerard Manley Hopkins
6 Young Lambs John Clare
6 To my Sister William Wordsworth
7 But These Things Also Edward Thomas
7 The Sound Collector Roger McGough
8 Warning Jenny Joseph
8 Phenomenal Woman Maya Angelou
9 The Battle of the Sexes Liz Brownlee
9 ‘Hope’ is the Thing with Feathers Emily Dickinson
10 Remember Christina Rossetti
10 Knocks on the Door Maram al-Massri
11 Green Rain Mary Webb
11 Prior Knowledge Carol Ann Duffy
12 Tarantella Hilaire Belloc
12 from The Lady of Shalott Alfred, Lord Tennyson
13 Seasons of the Heart Linton Kwesi Johnson
13 Lochinvar Sir Walter Scott
14 Mothering Sunday George Hare Leonard
14 Human Affection Stevie Smith
15 To Daffodils Robert Herrick
15 from Julius Caesar William Shakespeare
16 Go and Catch a Falling Star John Donne
16 Toad Norman MacCaig
17 Ich Am of Irlaunde Anon.
17 He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven W. B. Yeats
18 Spring Snow John Foster
18 Meeting at Night Robert Browning
19 Historical Associations Robert Louis Stevenson
19 Three Good Things Jan Dean
20 A Morning Song Eleanor Farjeon
20 from Pippa Passes Robert Browning
21 Spring Christina Rossetti
21 Flowers and Moonlight on the Spring River Yang-Ti
22 Spring William Blake
22 The Trees Philip Larkin
23 Sonnet 98 William Shakespeare
23 in Just- E. E. Cummings
24 The Frog and the Nightingale Vikram Seth
24 The Knight’s Tomb Samuel Taylor Coleridge
25 Today Billy Collins
25 In a Station of the Metro Ezra Pound
26 I Remember, I Remember Thomas Hood
26 A Donkey Ted Hughes
27 Ballad of the Bread Man Charles Causley
27 The Donkey G. K. Chesterton
28 I Watched a Blackbird Thomas Hardy
28 Easter Wings George Herbert
29 Loveliest of Trees, the Cherry Now A. E. Housman
29 Easter Day Oscar Wilde
30 Bitter State Duranka Perera
30 The Desired Swan-Song Samuel Taylor Coleridge
31 Against Idleness and Mischief Isaac Watts
31 How Doth the Little Crocodile Lewis Carroll
April 1 April Fool Louis MacNeice
1 Jabberwocky Lewis Carroll
2 The Walrus and the Carpenter Lewis Carroll
2 The Mad Gardener’s Song Lewis Carroll
3 The Jumblies Edward Lear
3 The Spider and the Fly Mary Botham Howitt
4 The Mock Turtle’s Song Lewis Carroll
4 Who Killed Cock Robin? Anon.
5 First Word (After Helen Keller) Rachel Rooney
5 You Are Old, Father William Lewis Carroll
6 The People of the Eastern Ice Rudyard Kipling
6 Old Mother Hubbard Anon.
7 from the Prologue to the Canterbury Tales Geoffrey Chaucer
7 Mrs Darwin Carol Ann Duffy
8 Home-Thoughts from Abroad Robert Browning
8 Awakening Tony Mitton
9 The Ballad of Semmerwater William Watson
9 Wynken, Blynken and Nod Eugene Field
10 The Sugar-Plum Tree Eugene Field
10 Do Not Stand at my Grave and Weep Mary Elizabeth Frye
11 In Time of ‘The Breaking of Nations’ Thomas Hardy
11 The Tickle Rhyme Ian Serraillier
12 Dear Yuri Brian Moses
12 Song in Space Adrian Mitchell
13 The Song of Wandering Aengus W. B. Yeats
13 Baisakhi Anon.
14 The Woods and the Banks W. H. Davies
14 O Captain! My Captain! Walt Whitman
15 Ode on the Loss of the Titanic Geoffrey Hill
15 The Convergence of the Twain Thomas Hardy
16 Will Ye No Come Back Again? Carolina Oliphant, Lady Nairne
16 The Skye Boat Song Sir Harold Boulton
17 from The Waste Land T. S. Eliot
17 Waste Land Limericks Wendy Cope
18 I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud William Wordsworth
18 Paul Revere’s Ride Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
19 Concord Hymn Ralph Waldo Emerson
19 Be Like the Bird Victor Hugo
20 I Had a Dove John Keats
20 Cynddylan on a Tractor R. S. Thomas
21 from The Old Vicarage, Grantchester Rupert Brooke
21 In Memoriam (Easter 1915) Edward Thomas
22 The Woodspurge Dante Gabriel Rossetti
22 A Dream within a Dream Edgar Allan Poe
23 from Richard II William Shakespeare
23 Incident of the French Camp Robert Browning
24 Sonnet 18 William Shakespeare
24 from The Tempest William Shakespeare
25 Robinson Crusoe’s Wise Sayings Ian McMillan
25 from Henry VIII William Shakespeare
26 Shakespeare Matthew Arnold
26 Into my Heart an Air that Kills A. E. Housman
27 o by the by E. E. Cummings
27 Child’s Song in Spring Edith Nesbit
28 Desiderata Max Ehrmann
28 Nostos Louise Glück
29 Dancing with Life Shauna Darling Robertson
29 The Emperor’s Rhyme A. A. Milne
30 The Hippopotamus’s Birthday E. V. Rieu
30 Facing It Yusef Komunyakaa
May 1 Verses said to written on the Union Jonathan Swift
1 May Day Sara Teasdale
2 The Merry Month of May Thomas Dekker
2 Leisure W. H. Davies
3 Tartary Walter de la Mare
3 The Fawn Edna St Vincent Millay
4 Back in the Playground Blues Adrian Mitchell
4 Old Pond Matsuo Bashō
5 Clouds Matsuo Bashō
5 The Song of the Banana Man Evan Jones
6 Buckingham Palace A. A. Milne
6 To a Squirrel at Kyle-Na-No W. B. Yeats
7 The Pobble Who Has No Toes Edward Lear
7 You Ain’t Nothing but a Hedgehog John Cooper Clarke
8 Why the Bat Flies at Night Roger Stevens
8 Impromptu on Charles II John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester
9 What the teacher said when asked: What er we avin for geography, Miss? John Agard
9 Mayfly Mary Ann Hoberman
10 For my Niece Kae Tempest
10 Brother Mary Ann Hoberman
11 from Doctor Faustus Christopher Marlowe
11 The Selkie Bride Tony Mitton
12 Silkie Dave Calder
12 On a Lane in Spring John Clare
13 The Lanyard Billy Collins
13 Swan and Shadow John Hollander
14 Rondeau Leigh Hunt
14 Love You More James Carter
15 I Found a Ball of Grass among the Hay John Clare
15 from The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock T. S. Eliot
16 Instructi
ons Neil Gaiman
16 Apple Blossom Louis MacNeice
17 A Handsome Young Fellow Called Frears Michael Palin
17 Aunt Julia Norman MacCaig
18 Matilda: Who Told Lies, and was Burned to Death Hilaire Belloc
18 The Moment Margaret Atwood
19 Oranges and Lemons Anon.
19 One Art Elizabeth Bishop
20 Courage Amelia Earhart
20 The Mouse’s Tale Lewis Carroll
21 Friends Polly Clark
21 Little Orphant Annie James Whitcomb Riley
22 Today Is Very Boring Jack Prelutsky
22 Jim, Who Ran Away from his Nurse and was Eaten by a Lion Hilaire Belloc
23 A Tragic Story William Makepeace Thackeray
23 Bookworm Anon.
24 Buddha Tony Mitton
24 A Riddle Christina Rossetti
25 The Riddle Song Anon.
25 from The Ballad of Reading Gaol Oscar Wilde
26 Full Moon Vita Sackville-West
26 One Fine Day in the Middle of the Night Anon.
27 God’s Grandeur Gerard Manley Hopkins
27 M.O.R.E.R.A.P.S. Joseph Coelho
28 I Am! John Clare
28 Yes Adrian Mitchell
29 from Everest Climbed Ian Serraillier
29 There was a Young Lady whose Chin Edward Lear
30 Life Doesn’t Frighten Me Maya Angelou
30 Joan of Arc Florence Earle Coates
31 The Man He Killed Thomas Hardy
31 This is Just to Say William Carlos Williams
Index of First Lines
Index of Poets and Translators
Acknowledgements
Introduction
In this new anthology, the third in a four-part cycle of seasons, you will discover some of the most lively and life-affirming poems ever to be written about spring, and many significant cultural events and historical anniversaries that lie in our calendars between 1 March and 31 May.
There is perhaps no season that has inspired as many poets to pick up their pens (or quills) as spring. In fact, it’s almost impossible to name a writer who hasn’t responded to these months of verdant renewal and new beginnings. For Gerard Manley Hopkins, who said ‘Nothing is so beautiful as Spring’, and Christina Rossetti, who wrote ‘There is no time like Spring / When life’s alive in everything’, the season is incomparable in its vitality and splendour. And who could disagree? Not even the infamously curmudgeonly Philip Larkin, better associated with cynicism and gloom, could resist the allure of spring. I can’t walk past a blossoming tree in March without thinking of his poem ‘The Trees’ and its inviting opening line: ‘The trees are coming into leaf / Like something almost being said.’
Given the sheer number of dazzling springtime poems that have been composed over the centuries, it’s just as well that this anthology offers you not just one, but two pieces of verse for each spring day, almost all of which have been drawn from my anthologies: A Poem for Every Day of the Year and A Poem for Every Night of the Year. The hope is that the first daily instalment imbues you with the same vivacity and energy that define a dewy spring morning, while the second poem offers an opportunity for gentle reflection and contemplation, and perhaps some ideas to mull over on a balmy night.
As you might expect, there are entries like Wordsworth’s ‘To My Sister’, which extols the joys and sweetness of the season. Of course you’ll also find his most anthologized poem, ‘I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud’, which not only captures the essence of vernal beauty, but encourages us to wander with our minds; to draw on our memories of golden flowers and the enveloping breeze in those moments when we can’t experience them directly. But this collection isn’t just packed full of romantic, cheerful and bucolic images of nature in bloom and birthing animals. After all, for T. S. Eliot, ‘April is the cruellest month’. It certainly does tend to be rainy …
What is more, although spring is usually synonymous with new life, growth and vigour, it is for some writers redolent of loss and death. For instance, poets such as A. E. Housman, Linton Kwesi Johnson and the 2020 Nobel Laureate Louise Glück write poignantly of how spring represents a past youth, accessible now only through nostalgic reminiscence.
Some works are even more explicitly tragic and sobering. In his 1915 work ‘But These Things Also’, the war poet Edward Thomas reminds us that though spring offers hope, it is still inexorably shrouded by traumas past (in this case, the brutal 1914 campaigns of the First World War): ‘Spring’s here, Winter’s not gone.’ And over a hundred years later, the spoken word poet Duranka Perera composed a pain-stricken response to the terrorist attacks that wreaked devastation on Easter Sunday 2019, in his native country of Sri Lanka.
Perera’s poem is one of several pieces in this collection that relate to specific landmark dates in the calendar rather than the season of spring. International Women’s Day on 8 March is celebrated with Maya Angelou’s anthem ‘Phenomenal Woman’; Mothering Sunday is recognized with poignant pieces by Stevie Smith and George Hare Leonard, while World Wildlife Day brings us a thought-provoking rebuke of humans’ mistreatment of animals by the poet-farmer Wendell Berry. And who better than Lewis Carroll to exhibit the joy of nonsense on April Fool’s Day?
World-changing historical moments and events are also made immediate through the brilliance of verse. So, an extract from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar transports us to the Roman Senate on the Ides (15) of March as the eponymous general is warned about his imminent assassination; Henry Wadsworth Longfellow lets us ride alongside Paul Revere to deliver his message about the invading British on 18 April 1775, the eve of the American Revolutionary War; and Robert Browning takes us into the French camp where Emperor Napoleon chats to an injured young soldier on 23 April at the 1809 Battle of Ratisbon. Elsewhere, Carol Ann Duffy asks us to imagine what really inspired Charles Darwin to write The Origin of Species on a day out with his wife on 7 April 1852.
The best poems are those that are able to immerse us in their worlds through their perfectly chosen words. They give us a chance to be present in the past, and to see our current world in its infinite variety. Too many of these kinds of anthologies keep us rooted in the West, and in the minds of white men. This collection seeks to champion long overlooked poets. Thanks to the diverse array of poems here, you’ll be able to travel to China, India, Pakistan, Jamaica and Sri Lanka – to name but a few – and celebrate festivals, religious (Easter and the Sikh Baisakhi) and national (Ireland’s St Patrick’s Day and Japan’s Midori no hi,) all from the comfort of your couch – or ‘inward eye’.
The poems themselves come in all shapes and sizes. There are sonnets, ballads, limericks, odes, blank verses, rhyming couplets, haikus and cinquains, as well as extracts from epics, and snapshots from plays, on subjects as disparate as tractor dreams, hippos and the sitcom Friends.
Each of these poems will be prefaced by a short introduction that will provide some illuminating background context – either about the poem’s author, style or content – and the occasional anecdotal gem. But this isn’t an academic book that’s been made for studying, so rest assured, you won’t find any bits of impenetrable analysis or long-winded literary digressions.
In fact, this book has been compiled to be enjoyed by all the family. Until relatively recently, poems were never written with a particular age group in mind, and this anthology takes the view that the best poetry can work on different levels and is able to beguile children and adults alike. There are poems here for every spring day, and for every type of person to have their own favourite. I would love to hear from you which yours might be.
Allie Esiri
March
1 March • I am Taliesin • Anon.
The opening poem is in honour of St David’s Day, the feast day of the Welsh patron saint who is celebrated every 1 March. These lines, thought to have been composed in the 13th century, have been passed down through generations as part of an ancient oral tradition and introduce us to the legen
dary and much mythologized Welsh bard Taliesin.
I am Taliesin. I sing perfect metre,
Which will last to the end of the world.
My patron is Elphin …
I know why there is an echo in a hollow;
Why silver gleams; why breath is black; why liver is bloody;
Why a cow has horns; why a woman is affectionate;
Why milk is white; why holly is green;
Why a kid is bearded; why the cow-parsnip is hollow;
Why brine is salt; why ale is bitter;
Why the linnet is green and berries red;
Why a cuckoo complains; why it sings;
I know where the cuckoos of summer are in winter.
I know what beasts there are at the bottom of the sea;
How many spears in battle; how may drops in a shower;
Why a river drowned Pharaoh’s people;
Why fishes have scales.
Why a white swan has black feet …
I have been a blue salmon,
I have been a dog, a stag, a roebuck on the mountain,
A stock, a spade, an axe in the hand,
A stallion, a bull, a buck,
I was reaped and placed in an oven;
I fell to the ground when I was being roasted
And a hen swallowed me.
For nine nights was I in her crop.
I have been dead, I have been alive.
I am Taliesin.
1 March • from Under Milk Wood • Dylan Thomas
Dylan Thomas, who was one of Wales’s finest twentieth-century poets, wrote the following lines as part of his celebrated radio play Under Milk Wood.
Every morning when I wake,
Dear Lord, a little prayer I make,
O please do keep Thy lovely eye
On all poor creatures born to die.
And every evening at sun-down
I ask a blessing on the town,
For whether we last the night or no
I’m sure is always touch-and-go.
We are not wholly bad or good
Who live our lives under Milk Wood,
And Thou, I know, wilt be the first
To see our best side, not our worst.
O let us see another day!
Bless us this holy night, I pray,
And to the sun we all will bow
And say goodbye – but just for now!