DAFFODILS AND MUD INSPIRED POETRY: REPRINT FROM OLD SCRATCH PRESS

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Welcome to Week Two of National Poetry Month. The four seasons of the year are the subjects of many different types of poetry from traditional sonnets to exuberant free verse sprawled out across the page. So to start this week we are sharing two poems by American poets from the past.

The first poem is by Amy Lowell (1874-1925). A Pulitzer Prize winner for her poetry collection, What’s O’Clock, Lowell is associated with the early 20th Century Imagist Movement, which sought to use precise, colloquial language and concrete imagery in lieu of traditional poetic diction and meter. Compared with the second poem we’re posting by E.E. Cummings, however, to our twenty-first century ears it sounds very traditional, until you compare it to last week’s poem posting by William Shakespeare.

To an Early Daffodil

By Amy Lowell

          Thou yellow trumpeter of laggard Spring!

           Thou herald of rich Summer’s myriad flowers!           

           The climbing sun with new recovered powers

          Does warm thee into being, through the ring

          Of rich, brown earth he woos thee, makes thee fling

           Thy green shoots up, inheriting the dowers

           Of bending sky and sudden, sweeping showers,

          Till ripe and blossoming thou art a thing

           To make all nature glad, thou art so gay;

          To fill the lonely with a joy untold;

           Nodding at every gust of wind to-day,

          To-morrow jewelled with raindrops.  Always bold

           To stand erect, full in the dazzling play

          Of April’s sun, for thou hast caught his gold.

The second poet, E.E. Cummings ( 1984-1962) was one of the most popular poets of the twentieth century. Challenging the established approach to words on a page, Cummings experimented with form and language to create a distinct personal style. The exhilaration of the change in seasons is transmitted by his merging certain words together and distancing others in a poem that shouts out to be read aloud.

[in Just-]

By E.E. Cummings

in Just-

spring          when the world is mud-

luscious the little

lame balloonman

whistles          far          and wee

and eddieandbill come

running from marbles and

piracies and it’s

spring

when the world is puddle-wonderful

the queer

old balloonman whistles

far          and             wee

and bettyandisbel come dancing

from hop-scotch and jump-rope and

it’s

spring

and

         the

                  goat-footed

balloonMan          whistles

far

and

wee

Do you have a favorite poem to greet the season? Share it with us and share it by posting it on your own social media account as well. Poetry is not only meant to be read aloud, it is meant to be shared.

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