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G4EBT > POETRY 22.11.05 10:29l 155 Lines 4726 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : C01345G4EBT
Read: GUEST DJ9AO
Subj: "The Woodworker's Ballad"
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From: G4EBT@GB7FCR.#16.GBR.EU
To : POETRY@WW
BBC Radio 4 has for years had a series of programmes entitled "Poetry
Please", in which the favourite poems of listeners are read out. These
have been published in a series of books.
As a keen woodworker and woodturner, the following poem caught my eye:
"The Woodworker's Ballad":
All that is made of iron
Has lent to destruction and blood;
But the things that are honoured of Zion
Are most of them made of wood.
Stone can be chiselled to beauty,
and iron shies bright for defence;
But when Mother Earth pondered her duty
She brought forth the forest from whence
Come tables, and chairs, and crosses,
Little things that a hot fire warps'
Old ships that the blue wave tosses,
And fiddles for music, and harps;
Old boards where the carved ferns mingle,
Monks' shrines in the wilderness,
Snug little huts in the dingle,
All things that the sad poets bless.
King Arthur had a wood table;
And Our Lord blesses wood; for, you see,
He was born in a wooden stable,
And He died on a wooden tree;
And he sailed in a wooden vessel
On the waters of Galilee,
And he worked on a wooden trestle,
At his wonderful carpentry.
Yes, all that is moulded of iron
Has lent to destruction and blood;
But the things that are honoured of Zion
Are most of them made of wood.
End.
(I suppose a pedant would say "What about bows and arrows and catapults
then? They're made of wood". I can overlook that and give poetic licence
to Palmer. It's just a poem - not a thesis).
Herbert Edward Palmer
Palmer was born in Market Rasen, Lincolnshire, England on Feb 10th 1880.
He was an English poet and critic. He was educated at Woodhouse Grove
School, Bonn and Birmingham Universities. He worked in teaching, tutoring
and lecturing, before becoming a full-time writer and journalist in 1921,
working in particular for the Workers' Educational Association
He spent many years in Germany and France.
He wasn't very prolific. Most of his poems were written between 1918 and
1945.
There are many poetry websites where poems can be traced by author, first
line etc. The link below is interesting - it has poems categorised under
themes such as war, love, spiritual, as well as mini-biogs on poets:
http://oldpoetry.com/Poetry
The "emule poetry archive" is also an excellent resource. In addition to
discussion forums, poetry can be accessed under the following headings:
Classic Poets
Random Poem
Top Poems
Top Authors
Find the Emule Poetry Archive at:
http://www.emule.com/poetry/
The Poetry Archive is run as an educational resource to aid students,
educators, and the curious. It houses a collection thousands of classical
poems to help you recall fond memories or to help create new ones.
The database is searchable by first-line, author and poem title, or by key
words. If you're having trouble finding a specific poem there are active
discussion forums where you can seek help. They constantly monitor user
requests and add them if they aren't under a copyright.
The site is American, but accessed by worldwide users. Thus, the taste in
poetry will not necessarily be that of "English poetry lovers", simply
"lovers of poetry written in English".
The ranking of poems will vary greatly according to the tastes of the
target audience. Only three of the top 48 poems would be on my list of
favourites, and perhaps only one in the top 20. Here are the top 20
favourite poems on the site, and in parentheses, the number of times
the poems have been read:
Top Classical Poems:
1)"I Am Not Yours", by Sara Teasdale (447588)
2) "If", by Rudyard Kipling (340276)
3) Road Not Taken (The), by Robert Lee Frost (267131)
4) Fire and Ice, by Robert Lee Frost (235745)
5) A Dream, by William Blake (217941)
6) Without warning, by Sappho (211004)
7) Love's Secret, by William Blake (196815)
8) How Do I Love Thee? by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (190728)
9) Alone, by Edgar Allan Poe (174886)
10) A Dream, by Edgar Allan Poe (160495)
11) Tiger (The), by William Blake (153370)
12) Tear (The), by George Gordon, Lord Byron (139055)
13) A Dream Within A Dream, by Edgar Allan Poe (131029)
14) I Heard an Angel, by William Blake (120205)
15) She Walks In Beauty, by George Gordon, Lord Byron (115316)
16) I cannot live with you, by Emily Dickinson (114595)
17) A Divine Image, by William Blake (109481)
18) Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening, by Robert Lee Frost (109154)
19) Because I could not stop for Death, by Emily Dickinson (105813)
20) A Little Girl Lost, by William Blake (100929)
Hope it's of interest.
73 - David, G4EBT @ GB7FCR
QTH: Cottingham, East Yorkshire.
Message timed: 08:55 on 2005-Nov-22
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