Category: Blog

Across the open common landshines glowing purple floral bloomsThe bumble bee can hardly stand,as flowers’ scent is rising fumes And lies there in the summer shadea resting deer quite joyfulyfor… Continue reading

It’s beautiful the Summer month of JuneWhen all of God’s own wildflowers are in bloomAnd sun shines brightly most part of the dayAnd butterflies o’er lush green meadows play. Light… Continue reading

THERE is May in books forever;May will part from Spenser never;May’s in Milton, May’s in Prior,May’s in Chaucer, Thomson, Dyer;May’s in all the Italian books:–She has old and modern nooks,Where… Continue reading

April has searched the winter landAnd found her petter flowers again;She kissed them to unfold her leaves,She coaxed them with her sun and rain,And filled the grass with green content,And… Continue reading

March’s poem is “The North Wind Doth Blow” aka “The Robin” … not least because of the weather that we are having at the moment ! The north wind doth… Continue reading

A small bird twitters on a leafless spray, Across the snow-waste breaks a gleam of gold: What token can I give my friend to-day But February blossoms, pure and cold?… Continue reading

“Someone painted pictures on my Windowpane last night — Willow trees with trailing boughs And flowers, frosty white, And lovely crystal butterflies; But when the morning sun Touched them with… Continue reading

It sifts from Leaden Sieves – It powders all the Wood. It fills with Alabaster Wool The Wrinkles of the Road – It makes an even Face Of Mountain, and… Continue reading

The stripped and shapely Maple grieves The ghosts of her Departed leaves. The ground is hard, As hard as stone. The year is old, The birds are flown. And yet… Continue reading

October gave a party; The leaves by hundreds came – The Chestnuts, Oaks, and Maples, And leaves of every name. The Sunshine spread a carpet, And everything was grand, Miss… Continue reading

“The breezes taste Of apple peel. The air is full Of smells to feel- Ripe fruit, old footballs, Burning brush, New books, erasers, Chalk, and such. The bee, his hive,… Continue reading

How do you like to go up in a swing, Up in the air so blue? Oh, I do think it the pleasantest thing Ever a child can do! Up… Continue reading

Great is the sun, and wide he goesThrough empty heaven without repose;And in the blue and glowing daysMore thick than rain he showers his rays. Though closer still the blinds… Continue reading

It’s beautiful the Summer month of June When all of God’s own wildflowers are in bloom And sun shines brightly most part of the day And butterflies o’er lush green… Continue reading

This month’s poem is “On May Morning” by John Milton NOW the bright morning Star, Dayes harbinger,Comes dancing from the East, and leads with herThe Flowry May, who from her… Continue reading

This April we are featuring William Wordsworth.We tweeted, as a meme, an extract from “The Green Linnet” at the start of the month. We really wanted to post this poem,… Continue reading

With Spring definitely in the air right now, March’s poem on LitraQuest is “New Life” by Litrasaurus’ latest guest author Jumping Jules The excitement that spring can bring I feel… Continue reading

Out of the bosom of the Air, Out of the cloud-folds of her garments shaken, Over the woodlands brown and bare, Over the harvest-fields forsaken, Silent, and soft, and slow… Continue reading

Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself. They come through you but not from you, And though they are with… Continue reading

  “The door was shut, as doors should be,Before you went to bed last night;Yet Jack Frost has got in, you see,And left your window silver white.He must have waited… Continue reading

“What an astonishing thing a book is. It’s a flat object made from a tree with flexible parts on which are imprinted lots of funny dark squiggles. But one glance… Continue reading

    When dark December glooms the day, And takes our autumn joys away; When short and scant the sunbeam throws, Upon the weary waste of snows, A cold and… Continue reading

Right now the world needs more, possibly more than anything else, empathy – that most humanising of abilities to understand and share the feelings of others. One of the most… Continue reading

    “When all the cows were sleeping And the sun had gone to bed, Up jumped the pumpkin, And this is what he said: I’m a dingle dangle pumpkin… Continue reading

The poem we have chosen to feature this month is “Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802” by William Wordsworth     Earth has not anything to show more fair:… Continue reading

Summer is here, along with the Silly Season, so what better excuse to share some wonderful Nonsense Verse !   The Walrus and the Carpenter By Lewis Carroll “The sun… Continue reading

“Summer Sun” by Robert Louis Stevenson   Great is the sun, and wide he goes Through empty heaven without repose; And in the blue and glowing days More thick than… Continue reading

This month we couldn’t make our minds up … so we have got two poems for you !     First a short verse by Heinrich Heine   Sweet May… Continue reading

“Through primrose tufts, in that green bower, The periwinkle trails its wreath; And ’tis my faith that every flower Enjoys the air it breathes. The birds around me hopped and… Continue reading

Out of the mud two strangers came And caught me splitting wood in the yard, And one of them put me off my aim By hailing cheerily “Hit them hard!”… Continue reading

  Spring I wonder if the sap is stirring yet, If wintry birds are dreaming of a mate, If frozen snowdrops feel as yet the sun And crocus fires are… Continue reading

Reading is extra-ordinarily powerful, particularly when one is young. The act of reading, that process of converting words on a page into concepts and images in one’s head, along with… Continue reading

  Hillside Narcissus by Nora McFarlane There’s a grassy slope not far away Where thousands of Narcissus bloom, And I catch my breath, as I watch them sway Tossing their… Continue reading

Two years ago, a few days after his 69th birthday, David Bowie died. David Robert Jones was a highly innovative polymath best known for his extra-ordinary, and outstandingly successful, career… Continue reading

JANUARY Janus am I; oldest of potentates; Forward I look, and backward, and below I count, as god of avenues and gates, The years that through my portals come and… Continue reading

The Foolish Fir Tree Then he sighed and groaned; but his voice was weak He was so ashamed that he could not speak. He knew at last that he had… Continue reading

  I am rich today with autumn’s gold, All that my covetous hands can hold; Frost-painted leaves and goldenrod, A goldfinch on a milkweed pod, Huge golden pumpkins in the… Continue reading

The poem for this month is “An October Garden” by Christina Georgina Rossetti.   In my Autumn garden I was fain To mourn among my scattered roses; Alas for that last… Continue reading

“September” by John Updike The breezes taste of apple peel. The air is full of smells to feel- Ripe fruit, old footballs, burning brush, new books, erasers, chalk, and such.… Continue reading