"In Flanders Fields" by John McCrae

 

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row,

That mark our place; and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

 

We are the Dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved and were loved, and now we lie

In Flanders fields.

 

Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from failing hands we throw

The torch; be yours to hold it high.

If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

In Flanders fields.

Enjoy the poem with beautiful music.

poem video👇 

https://youtu.be/v2yGwj06q3A

Who wrote the poem "In Flanders Fields"?

John McCrae (November 30, 1872 – January 28, 1918)

John McCrae was a Canadian poet, physician and soldier. He received his undergraduate and medical degrees at the University of Toronto. He suffered from recurring asthma from his youth. He worked as a physician in many medical institutions including Toronto General Hospital and Johns Hopkins Hospital. He served in the Boer War in South Africa as an artillery officer in Canadian military and later was promoted to the rank of major. When World War I broke out, he reenlisted in the Canadian Army and was stationed in Ypres, Belgium, in the area known as “Flanders.” During the war, his asthma worsened, and he died from pneumonia in 1918 at the age of 45.

"In Flanders Fields" explanation.

In the poem, the speaker describes poppies blooming around the soldiers’ graves in the field in Flanders, Belgium. He reminds the reader of the lost lives and urges to stand up against the enemies to not let down the fallen. The poet reportedly wrote this poem on the next day after his closest friend’s death in the battlefield of Ypres, Belgium. The poem has been very popular and is still used in Remembrance Day and Memorial Day celebrations in the US, Canada, and Europe.

"These I Can Promise" by Mark Twain

 

These I Can Promise

I cannot promise you a life of sunshine;

I cannot promise riches, wealth or gold;

I cannot promise you an easy pathway

That leads away from change or growing old.

But I can promise all my heart’s devotion

A smile to chase away your tears of sorrow;

A love that’s ever true and ever growing;

A hand to hold in yours through each tomorrow.

Enjoy the poem with beautiful music.

poem video👇 

https://youtu.be/V4XT8zA_sB0

Who wrote the poem "These I Can Promise"?

Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens) (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910)

Samuel Langhorne Clemens (known by his pen name Mark Twain) was an American writer, humorist, journalist, lecturer, and entrepreneur. His works include The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884). William Faulkner, an American writer, called Twain the “father of American literature.” Ernest Hemingway wrote, “All modern literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn.” As the sixth child of his parents, Twain was born two months prematurely and was in poor health in his youth. He often got into various mischief to test her mother’s love. Twain asked his mother in her 80s about his poor health as a child. Twain: “I suppose that during that whole time you were uneasy about me?” Mother: “Yes, the whole time.” Twain: “Afraid I wouldn’t live?” Mother: “No, afraid you would.” Apart from famous novels, Twain also wrote at least 126 poems despite his claims that he detested poetry. (He also said he detested novels.)

"These I Can Promise" explanation

This succinct and relatable poem has been a popular ceremony reading in wedding and anniversary celebrations. 

"Dust of Snow" by Robert Frost

 

Dust of Snow

The way a crow

Shook down on me

The dust of snow

From a hemlock tree

 

Has given my heart

A change of mood

And saved some part

Of a day I had rued.

Enjoy the poem with beautiful music.

poem video👇

https://youtu.be/Vk5kQnXQNvI

Who wrote the poem "Dust of Snow"?

Robert Frost (March 26, 1874 – January 29, 1963)

Robert Frost was an American poet who was born in San Francisco, California. Frost’s life was marked by grief and loss. When he was 11, his father died of tuberculosis, leaving just eight dollars. Frost’s mother died of cancer when he was 26. Mental illness ran in his family. He and his mother suffered from depression, and his sister and his daughter were committed to mental hospitals. Using realistic depictions of rural life, his poems often examined complex social and philosophical themes. Frost’s first book was published at the age of 40, but he ended up winning four Pulitzer Prizes for poetry and becoming the most famous poet of his time.

"Dust of Snow"  explanation

In the poem, the speaker describes a simple yet beautiful scene in nature where a crow causes the dust of snow fall down on him from the treetop. This simple event somehow changes the speaker’s (apparently bad) mood. Using minimalistic approach, the poet is perhaps trying to show nature’s pure beauty and curative power.

"I Am!" by John Clare

 

I Am!

I am—yet what I am none cares or knows;

My friends forsake me like a memory lost:

I am the self-consumer of my woes—

They rise and vanish in oblivious host,

Like shadows in love’s frenzied stifled throes

And yet I am, and live—like vapours tossed

 

Into the nothingness of scorn and noise,

Into the living sea of waking dreams,

Where there is neither sense of life or joys,

But the vast shipwreck of my life’s esteems;

Even the dearest that I loved the best

Are strange—nay, rather, stranger than the rest.

 

I long for scenes where man hath never trod

A place where woman never smiled or wept

There to abide with my Creator, God,

And sleep as I in childhood sweetly slept,

Untroubling and untroubled where I lie

The grass below—above the vaulted sky.

Enjoy the poem with beautiful music.

poem video👇

https://youtu.be/JWDI95GSTHc

Who wrote the poem "I Am!"

John Clare (July 13, 1793 – May 20, 1864)

John Clare was an English poet. As the son of a poor farm labourer, he received little formal education, and malnutrition from childhood may have contributed to his five-foot stature and poor physical health in later life. His works often celebrate the natural world and rural life and his love for his wife Patty and his childhood lover, Mary Joyce. Although his first book, Poems Descriptive of Rural Life and Scenery (1820), published in an attempt to stop his parents’ eviction from their home, became popular to readers and critics, Clare struggled as a writer for most of his life. His works were reevaluated in the late 20^th century, and he is now considered as a major 19^th century poet.

"I Am!" explanation

In the poem, the speaker (most likely the poet himself) talks about his depression and loneliness and looks for the next life where he could find peace alongside God in Heaven. Despite early success in his writing career, Clare soon struggled professionally, which probably induced serious mental and physical illness in the late 1820s. When his health became unmanageable, plagued by delusions and depression, he was voluntarily committed to a mental asylum in 1837 and escaped in 1841. (He walked 80 miles back to his family.) He was committed again in 1842 until his death in 1864. This poem was written during his second stay in the asylum in the late 1840s.

What is Pink (Color) - Christina Rossetti

 

What is Pink (Color)

What is pink? a rose is pink

By a fountain's brink.

What is red? a poppy's red

In its barley bed.

What is blue? the sky is blue

Where the clouds float thro'.

What is white? a swan is white

Sailing in the light.

What is yellow? pears are yellow,

Rich and ripe and mellow.

What is green? the grass is green,

With small flowers between.

What is violet? clouds are violet

In the summer twilight.

What is orange? Why, an orange,

Just an orange!

Enjoy the poem with beautiful music.

poem video👇

https://youtu.be/uJszboC9bzc

Who wrote the poem "What is Pink (Color)"?

Christina Rossetti (December 5, 1830 ~ December 29, 1894)

 

Christina Rossetti was an English poet who was lauded as one of the foremost female poets of the 19th-century Victorian era. She wrote romantic, devotional, and children's poems, marked by symbolism and intense feeling. Her literary status was often compared to that of Elizabeth Barren Browning, and upon Browning's death in 1861, Rossetti was hailed as Browning's rightful successor. She opposed slavery, cruelty to animals, and the exploitation of girls in under-age prostitution. Rossetti suffered from Graves' disease in the later decades of her life. In 1893, she was diagnosed of breast cancer and died of a recurrence in 1894.

"What is Pink (Color)" explanation

In the poem, the speaker describes different colors, alluding to the similarities between them and positive and beautiful aspects related to various things representing those colors. The only exception to this is “orange,” about which the speaker doesn’t show any effort to find any positivity or beauty. The poet is perhaps suggesting that we should look deeper to really find and appreciate the true value and beauty of things surrounding us. 

"My Love Is Like To Ice" by Edmund Spenser

 

My Love Is Like To Ice

My love is like to ice, and I to fire:

How comes it then that this her cold so great

Is not dissolved through my so hot desire,

But harder grows the more I her entreat?

Or how comes it that my exceeding heat

Is not allayed by her heart-frozen cold,

But that I burn much more in boiling sweat,

And feel my flames augmented manifold?

What more miraculous thing may be told,

That fire, which all things melts, should harden ice,

And ice, which is congeal'd with senseless cold,

Should kindle fire by wonderful device?

Such is the power of love in gentle mind,

That it can alter all the course of kind.

Enjoy the poem with beautiful music.

poem video👇

https://youtu.be/2AdQ6VMmi_A

Who wrote the poem "My Love Is Like To Ice" ?

Edmund Spencer (1552 or 1553 – January 13, 1599)

Edmund Spencer was an English poet, often considered as one of the greatest poets in the English language. Little is known about his family and childhood. He attended the Merchant Taylor School and later studied literature and religion at Cambridge University. Along with his poetry, he also had a political career, serving various official posts including a secretary to the Lord Deputy of Ireland. After his first wife died in 1594, he soon married Elizabeth Boyle, for whom he wrote many love poems.

"My Love Is Like To Ice" explanation

In the poem, the speaker compares his lover to ice and himself to fire. Despite the differences (or perhaps because of them), their love for each other grows greater. The poem is a fourteen-line Spenserian sonnet, pioneered by the poet, consisting of three quatrains with rhetorical questions and an answering couplet. This sonnet is also known as “Amoretti: XXX,” or “Sonnet 30,” which was one of 80 sonnets the poet wrote to celebrate his marriage to his second wife, Elizabeth Boyle.

"Can't" by Edgar Albert Guest

 

Can't

Can't is the worst word that's written or spoken;

Doing more harm here than slander and lies;

On it is many a strong spirit broken,

And with it many a good purpose dies.

It springs from the lips of the thoughtless each morning

And robs us of courage we need through the day:

It rings in our ears like a timely-sent warning

And laughs when we falter and fall by the way.

 

Can't is the father of feeble endeavor,

The parent of terror and half-hearted work;

It weakens the efforts of artisans clever,

And makes of the toiler an indolent shirk.

It poisons the soul of the man with a vision,

It stifles in infancy many a plan;

It greets honest toiling with open derision

And mocks at the hopes and the dreams of a man.

 

Can't is a word none should speak without blushing;

To utter it should be a symbol of shame;

Ambition and courage it daily is crushing;

It blights a man's purpose and shortens his aim.

Despise it with all of your hatred of error;

Refuse it the lodgment it seeks in your brain;

Arm against it as a creature of terror,

And all that you dream of you some day shall gain.

 

 

Can't is the word that is foe to ambition,

An enemy ambushed to shatter your will;

Its prey is forever the man with a mission

And bows but to courage and patience and skill.

Hate it, with hatred that's deep and undying,

For once it is welcomed 'twill break any man;

Whatever the goal you are seeking, keep trying

And answer this demon by saying: "I can."

Enjoy the poem with beautiful music.

poem video👇

https://youtu.be/wLPfHiGM-M4

Who wrote the poem "Can't"?

Edgar Albert Guest (August 20, 1881 ~ August 5, 1959)

Edgar Albert Guest was a Britishborn American poet who was popular in the first half of the 20th century. He wrote 11,000 poems which were syndicated in 300 newspapers. He became known as the People's Poet because his poems were easy to read and had an inspirational and optimistic view of everyday life with such themes as family, work, children, and God.

"Can't" explanation

There is no bigger obstacle than the lack of your own belief in yourself. As Henry Ford famously said, “Whether you think you can, or think you can’t, you are right.”

"Silver" by Walter de la Mare

 

Silver

Slowly, silently, now the moon

Walks the night in her silver shoon;

This way, and that, she peers, and sees

Silver fruit upon silver trees;

One by one the casements catch

Her beams beneath the silvery thatch;

Couched in his kennel, like a log,

With paws of silver sleeps the dog;

From their shadowy cote the white breasts peep

Of doves in a silver-feathered sleep;

A harvest mouse goes scampering by,

With silver claws and a silver eye;

And moveless fish in the water gleam,

By silver reeds in a silver stream.

Enjoy the poem with  beautiful music.

poem video👇

https://youtu.be/OY92pu0HdAg

Who wrote the poem "Silver"?

Walter de la Mare (April 25, 1873 – June 22, 1956)

Walter de la Mare was a British poet, short story writer and novelist. His works range diversely from children’s books to horror stories, often focusing around the themes of childhood, imagination, and the supernatural. He preferred to be called as “Jack” by family and friends instead of his name “Walter.” He was happily married to Elfrida Ingpen, who was ten years older than he, and the couple had four children. His wife died in 1943 of Parkinson’s disease. He died of a heart disease in 1956, and in his final year, he was cared for by a nurse whom he loved but never had a physical relationship with.

"Silver" explanation

In the poem, the speaker describes a calm, peaceful, and beautiful night scene impacted by the silver moonlight.

"Sailing to Byzantium" by William Butler Yeats

 

Sailing to Byzantium

I

 

That is no country for old men. The young

In one another's arms, birds in the trees,

—Those dying generations—at their song,

The salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas,

Fish, flesh, or fowl, commend all summer long

Whatever is begotten, born, and dies.

Caught in that sensual music all neglect

Monuments of unageing intellect.

 

 

II

 

An aged man is but a paltry thing,

A tattered coat upon a stick, unless

Soul clap its hands and sing, and louder sing

For every tatter in its mortal dress,

Nor is there singing school but studying

Monuments of its own magnificence;

And therefore I have sailed the seas and come

To the holy city of Byzantium.

 

 

III

 

O sages standing in God's holy fire

As in the gold mosaic of a wall,

Come from the holy fire, perne in a gyre,

And be the singing-masters of my soul.

Consume my heart away; sick with desire

And fastened to a dying animal

It knows not what it is; and gather me

Into the artifice of eternity.

 

 

IV

 

Once out of nature I shall never take

My bodily form from any natural thing,

But such a form as Grecian goldsmiths make

Of hammered gold and gold enamelling

To keep a drowsy Emperor awake;

Or set upon a golden bough to sing

To lords and ladies of Byzantium

Of what is past, or passing, or to come.

Enjoy the poem with beautiful music.

poem video👇

https://youtu.be/fbw_Ipnp3jk

Who wrote the poem "Sailing to Byzantium"?

William Butler Yeats (June 13, 1865 – January 28, 1939)

William Butler Yeats was an Irish poet, playwright, prose writer, and is widely considered as one of the greatest poets of the 20^th century. He was born to the Protestant, Anglo-Irish community that considered themselves English people born in Ireland and had largely controlled the economic, political, and social life of Ireland. However, Yeats strongly affirmed his Irish nationality and found inspiration in Irish legends and the occult in his early career. Later his poetry became more physical and realistic. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1923. 

"Sailing to Byzantium" explanation

In the poem, the speaker (an old man) tells the story of a journey to Byzantium, an old Greek colony (later Constantinople, and then Istanbul, Turkey). He describes a sense of alienation he experienced in his country (perhaps Ireland) where only the young and new and the worldly pleasures (“sensual music”) are appreciated, with “monuments of unaging intellect” neglected. He leaves his country and sails to Byzantium, a historical place known as a center for arts and intellectualism, where his artistic legacy can be appreciated for eternity. The poem was written in the late 1920’s when the poet was in his 60’s. Some speculate that the old man (the speaker) in this poem reflects the poet’s own feeling of alienation then in Ireland.