Written in March
by William Wordsworth
(from our copy of Favorite Poems Old and New, selected by Helen Ferris and illustrated by Leonard Weisgard)
The cock is crowing,
The stream is flowing,
The small birds twitter,
The lake doth glitter,
The green field sleeps in the sun;
The oldest and youngest
Are at work with the strongest:
The cattle are grazing,
Their heads never raising;
There are forty feeding like one!
Like an army defeated
The snow hath retreated,
And now doth fare ill
On the top of the bare hill;
The ploughboy is whooping -- anon -- anon --
There's joy in the mountains;
There's life in the fountains;
Small clouds are sailing,
Blue sky prevailing;
The rain is over and gone!
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With apologies for the extended absence and lack of posts -- in the past and no doubt to come for at least the next month or so. Spring is springing, there are bluebird nesting boxes (and museums) to clean, pianos to tune, windows to wash (and new ones to order), mud to wipe, cows to calve, sweet peas (and 900+ new saplings...) to plant, noses to grindstone, plays to rehearse, great books to read (and converse about), swim clubs to restart, morels to hunt, lambs to visit, cinnamon buns to deliver to neighbors, bicycles and cap pistols to retrieve, 4H projects to complete, fairs to plan, birthday cakes to bake, and, as the kids would no doubt add, forts to build and holes to dig. Preferably in aforementioned mud.
Add a little more poetry to your family's life next month and for the rest year. Here are some of my poetry posts from last year at this time. And don't limit your kids, or anyone else's, to Young People's Poetry Week, the third week of National Poetry Month. Be a sport and give 'em, at the very least, the whole month. When my sister and I were children celebrating Mother's Day and Father's Day, we'd always ask about Children's Day. To which my father quite rightly always responded, "Every day is Children's Day". So should it be with poetry.
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