National Poetry Day
Happy National Poetry Day, a day set up by the Forward Arts Foundation to encourage all to enjoy, discover and share poetry.
To celebrate, we’re sharing some of our favourite excerpts from Batsford’s newest poetry infused titles to keep all you literary lovers well fed with verse!
From The Poetry of Birds edited by Samuel Carr
The Kingfisher
From Upon Appleton House
So when the Shadows laid asleep
From underneath these Banks do creep,
And on the River as it flows With ebon shuts begin to close;
The modest Halcyon comes in sight,
Flying betwixt the day and night;
And such an horror calm and dumb,
Admiring Nature does benumb.
The viscous air, wheresoe’er she fly,
Follows and sucks her azure dye;
The jellying stream compacts below,
If it might fix her shadow so;
The stupid fishes hang, as plain
As flies in chrystal overta’en,
And men the silent scene assist,
harm’d with the sapphire-winged mist.
Upon Appleton House by Andrew Marvell was originally published in 1651 for Thomas Fairfax, 3rd Lord Fairfax of Cameron
From A Poem to Read Aloud Every Day of the Year edited by Liz Ison
The Swan
Did you too see it, drifting, all night, on the black river?
Did you see it in the morning, rising into the silvery air,
an armful of white blossoms,
a perfect commotion of silk and linen as it leaned
into the bondage of its wings: a snowbank, a bank of lilies,
biting the air with its black beak?
Did you hear it, fluting and whistling
a shrill dark music, like the rain pelting the trees,
like a waterfall
knifing down the black ledges?
And did you see it, finally, just under the clouds—
a white cross streaming across the sky, its feet
like black leaves, its wings like the stretching light
of the river?
And did you feel it, in your heart, how it pertained to
everything?
And have you too finally figured out what beauty is for?
And have you changed your life?
The Swan by Mary Oliver is the poem Liz selected for October 6th
And finally, from An Apothecary of Art by Ravenous Butterflies
A book that celebrates inspirational words, both poetry and prose alike.
From ‘Poems of Ralph Waldo Emerson’
‘Write it on your heart
that every day is the best day in the year.
He is rich who owns the day, and no one owns the day
who allows it to be invaded with fret and anxiety.
Finish every day and be done with it.
You have done what you could.
Some blunders and absurdities, no doubt crept in.
Forget them as soon as you can, tomorrow is a new day;
begin it well and serenely, with too high a spirit
to be cumbered with your old nonsense.
This new day is too dear,
with its hopes and invitations,
to waste a moment on the yesterdays.’
This poem was paired by Lisa with the painting ‘Moonlight, Winter’ by Rockwell Kent with the hopes of encouraging a sense of wisdom within the reader.
An Apothecary of Art features quotations of prose as well as poetry, learn more about Ravenous Butterflies’ founder Lisa Azarmi’s upcoming appearance at The Bloomsbury Festival, discussing the book.
We’ve got more poetry books to discover, including The Poetry of Birds, A Poem to Read Aloud Every Day and An Apothecary of Art as well as our further collection of poetry titles.
