Clik here to view.
High summer
Apparently Ebenezer Jones is an uneven poet in that sometimes he is good and sometimes he is… well to put it kindly, not good. He was an English poet although he had Welsh heritage, and e was born in...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Soote Season
This a sweet sonnet, by Henry Howard, the Earl of Surrey who lost his head at the age of thirty, at the behest of the king, Henry VIII. This is such a sweet sonnet but it has several words which are...
View ArticleClik here to view.
John Masefield… his sonnets
John Masefield is a favourite poet for the compilers of anthologies; his vivid narratives in his verse are ideal for children… children of all ages I should add. There are certain poems which every...
View ArticleClik here to view.
There comes the dream
Goodnight all, a lovely sonnet to end a lovely day: III Even after all these years there comes the dream Of lovelier life than this in some new earth, In the full summer of that unearthly gleam Which...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The unseen twin
This sonnet by John Masefield conjures some very strange imagery… ‘the unseen friend, the unseen twin’… I can imagine that would make a good movie! The man who mistakes a palace for an inn, and then...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Beauty is here
You may have gathered that John Masefield is a favourite poet of mine; Shakespeare to my mind is the master, but Masefield who only died when I was sixteen, speaks to me in a different way. It strikes...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Like a shadow on the sky
Everyone who reads a poem reads it in a different way and sees different things in it, which probably the poet was not even aware of! When I was teaching poetry there would sometimes be quite noisy...
View ArticleClik here to view.
We know no beauty
Another Masefield sonnet, another fourteen lines packed with imagery as well as the poet’s continued discourse on beauty. her ewe are in the ‘noisy sickroom’, with a whole little scene painted in eight...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The thought of gold
A hungry dog, a miser, hidden treasure, digging for gold, death, a glint of gold… these little scenes are drawn in a mere handful of words by the master of imagery, John Masefield. He is writing once...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Haunted Gate
Just fourteen lines, and yet this sonnet by John Masefield offers so many images and pictures, micro-synopses of gripping tales. ‘That broken hedge’ – broken here conjures more than damage to a line...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Not for your human beauty
As I mentioned before, although John Masefield is one of my favourite poets, not all his poems seem to be quite my cup of tea… which is a personal thing and doesn’t necessarily reflect on the work...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A marvellous solitude
John Masefield, who later became a very popular Poet Laureate, grew up in the country in the 1880’s near Ledbury. His early childhood was blighted by the loss of his parents, but from a very early age...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Let that which is to come be as it may
This is the last of a cycle of sonnets that John Masefield, later the Poet laureate, published in 1916, when he was aged thirty-eight. He had an extraordinary life up till then, orphaned when only a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The long love that in my heart doth harbour
The sonnet, which originated in the thirteenth century in Italy; is a short poem with fourteen lines, which usually have a particular rhyming patter, and originally had contrasting ideas – or emotions...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Sigh then no more
This sonnet by Sir Thomas Wyatt is a little more tricky to understand, even though the lovely flow of words is beautiful in itself. However, sometimes having to work to gain a full comprehension makes...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A blast of wind
It has been so blustery here, Storm Abigail, the tail end of Hurricane Kate, Storm Barney, I couldn’t resist sharing this sonnet by Barnabe Barnes. He’s not as famous as many of his contemporary sonnet...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Young men should not write sonnets
Frederick William Faber was born in Yorkshire 1814, and is known for the hymns he wrote, and as a theologian. Although he was brought up in the Church of England, and was ordained as a vicar, he...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Chasms of the wasted past
I posted this first last year, but it conjures such vivid images that I’m going to share it again: This sonnet by John Masefield no doubt inspires different images for different people; somehow to me...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Poetry month – proud pied April
Tomorrow is the 1st of April, April Fool’s Day and also the start of poetry month; this idea was started in the USA by the Academy of American Poets, a wonderful organisation with incredible on-line...
View Article
