January Poem – Happy New Year
“A happy new year” it will be – if it’s NEW New visions of all that is noble and true,New powers for service, new knowledge of God,New zeal for the… Continue reading
Category: Blog
December Poem – The Cold Earth Slept Below
The cold earth slept below,Above the cold sky shone;And all around,With a chilling sound,From caves of ice and fields of snow,The breath of night like death did flowBeneath the sinking… Continue reading
“The Hermit” James Beattie
At the close of day, when the hamlet is still,And mortals the sweets of forgetfulness prove,When nought but the torrent is heard on the hill,And nought but the nightingale’s song… Continue reading
October Leaves
October’s the monthWhen the smallest breezeGives us a showerOf autumn leaves.Bonfires and pumpkins,Leaves sailing down –October is redAnd golden and brown. October leaves are lovelyThey rustle when I runSometimes I… Continue reading
A Seasonal Poem for Autumn
Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;Conspiring with him how to load and bless With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;To bend with apples the… Continue reading
August Poem – Summertime
O Spirit of the Summertime! Bring back the roses to the dells; The swallow from her distant clime, The honey-bee from drowsy cells. Bring back the friendship of the sun; The gilded evenings, calm… Continue reading
Sleepy July
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
Beautiful June
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
May Books
![Queen Guinevre’s Maying by John Collier [1900]](https://quest.litrasaurus.com/q/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/20200501-May-Books-FEATURED-200x200.jpg)
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” by Hannah R. Hudson
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
The North Wind Doth Blow !
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
February Poem – Snowdrops
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
January Poem – Jack Frost
“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
Poem for December
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
Poem for November
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 – Poem
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
“September” 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. The bee, his hive,… Continue reading
The Swing – a poem for Summer
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
July Poem – Summer Sun
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
June – Francis Duggan
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
A May Poem by Milton
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
Early Spring Poem
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
“New Life” by Jumping Jules
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
February Poem Snow-flakes
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
“On Children” by Khalil Gibran
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
January Poem
“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
A book is proof that humans are capable of working magic
“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
December Poem – an extract from “Marmion” by Sir Walter Scott
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
November Poem
“How silently they tumble down And come to rest upon the ground To lay a carpet, rich and rare, Beneath the trees without a care, Content to sleep,… Continue reading
The Angels Of Babel
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
October Poem – Pumpkin
“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
Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802
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
The sun was shining on the sea …
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
Poem For July
“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
May Poems
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
Wordsworth “Through primrose tufts …”
“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
“Two Tramps in Mud Time” by Robert Frost
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
March Poem
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
If children read it transforms their lives
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
A Poem For February
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
