poems

• Love's Philosophy ☆- Shelley


  fountains mingle with the river,

  the rivers with the ocean,

  nothing in the world is single

  why not i with thine?

  mountains kiss the high heaven

  waves clasp one another

  the sunlight clasps the earth,

  the moonbeams kiss the sea

  CONTEXT - Romantic poet, usually wrote about more serious subjects such as politics, has a dislike of urban life and embraces the natural world

  
• Porphyria's Lover ☆- Browning


  she shut the cold out/ all the cottage warm

  made her smooth white shoulder bare

  give herself to me forever

  passion sometimes would prevail

  porphyria worshipped me

  made my heart swell

  that moment she was mine, mine, fair

  perfectly pure and good

  laughed the blue eyes without a stain

  blushed bright beneath my burning kiss

  CONTEXT - well respected Victorian poet and playwright, used his works to make observations about victorian society, married to s29

  
• Sonnet 29

  "I think of thee!"

  My thoughts do twine and bud

  As wild vines about a tree

  The strangling green which hides the wood

  My palm tree, be it understood

  I will not have my thoughts instead of thee

  And let these bands of greenery which insphere thee

  drop heavily down - burst, shattered everywhere

  I do not think of thee - I am too near thee

  CONTEXT - she suffered from poor health, sonnet is one of 44

  
• Singh Song ☆- Nagra


  Tiny eyes ov a gun

  And di tummy ov a teddy

  Vee rowing through Putney

  Vee share in chapatti

  Tartan sari

  At di beaches ov di UK in di brightey moon

  is priceless baby

  as my vife on di web is playing wid di mouse

  CONTEXT - known for celebrating the Indian voice, poems should be celebrated for their difference

  
• The Farmers Bride ☆- Mew


  I chose a maid

  When us was wed she turned afraid

  Of love and me and all things human

  Like a little frightened fray

  she runned away

  Lying awake with her wide brown stare

  We chased her, flying like a hare

  Like a mouse

  Shy as a leveret, swift as he

  Straight and slight as a young larch tree

  Sweet as the first wild violets, she

  Alone, poor maid

  Her eyes, her hair, her hair!

  CONTEXT - published 1912, mew challenged society’s view of how women should behave themes in her poetry and stories include death, mental illness, loneliness, and disillusionment

  
• Neutral tones ☆


  Sun was white, as though chidden of God

  They had fallen from an ash and were grey

  Tedious riddles from years ago

  Some words played between us

  The smile on your mouth was the deadest thing

  Alive enough to have strength to die

  Like an ominous bird a-wing

  keen lessons that love deceives...have shaped to me

  God-curst sun

  And a pond edged with greyish leaves

  CONTEXT - initially more famous for his novels, uses sympathetic background in many of his novels

  
• When we two parted ☆


  in silence and tears

  half-broken hearted

  pale grew thy cheek and cold, colder thy kiss

  it felt like the warning of what i feel now

  thy vows are all broken

  they name thee before me.. a knell in mine ear; a shudder comes o'er me

  in silence i grieve, that thy heart could forget

  CONTEXT - poem is said to be about his love affair, famous members of the Romantic movement, famously said to be ‘Mad, bad and dangerous to know’!

  
• Eden Rock ☆


  they are waiting for me somewhere beyond Eden Rock

  still two years old and trembling at his feet

  her hair, the colour of wheat, takes on the light

  pours tea from a thermos..

  slowly sets out the same three plates

  the sky whitens as if lit by three suns

  'crossing is not as hard as you might think'

  i had not thought that it would be like this

  CONTEXT - poetry is known for its simplicity and directness, one of several poignant poems that Causley wrote about his parents (they died), born in Cornwall, where he lived for most of his life, and which he wrote about in many of his poems.

  
• Before you were mine ☆


  I'm ten years away from the corner you laugh on

  holding each other.. shriek at the pavement

  Marilyn.

  I knew you would dance

  The decade ahead of my loud, possessive yell was the best eh?

  those high-heeled red shoes, relics

  whose small bites on your neck, sweetheart?

  that glamorous love lasts where you sparkle and waltz and laugh before you were mine

  CONTEXT - renowned for exploring issues around gender and sexuality, draws on her personal experiences as a woman, daughter and a mother.

  
• CONTEXT

  WA - published 1962, poetry tended to focus on personal details, dedicated to his first son Sean

  F - poem is thought to be autobiographical, published in 1966, within a collection on themes of childhood, identity and rural life, his poems praised the concept of hard work and a rural lifestyle.

  CMG - keen environmental campaigner, wrote a series of walking guidebooks, committed suicide

  WS - Welsh history and identity is an important theme in his writing, writes fiction, non-fiction and drama, this poem is from his collection called Skirrid Hill (a welsh landscape)