A January Painting
Morning in January 1956
Gerald Gardiner (1902 -1959)
A January Poem
Cold is the winter day, misty and dark:
The sunless sky with faded gleams is rent:
And patches of thin snow outlying, mark
The landscape with a drear disfigurement.
The trees their mournful branches lift aloft:
The oak with knotty twigs is full of trust,
With bud-thronged bough the cherry in the croft;
The chestnut holds her gluey knops upthrust.
No birds sing, but the starling chaps his bill
And chatters mockingly; the new-born lambs
Within their straw-built fold beneath the hill
Answer with plaintive cry their bleating lambs.
Their voices melt in welcome dreams of spring,
Green grass and leafy trees and sunny skies:
My fancy decks the woods, the thrushes sing,
Meadows are gay, bees hum and scents arise.
And God the Maker doth my heart grow bold
To praise wintry works not understood,
Who all the worlds and ages doth behold,
Evil and good as one, and all is good
January by Robert Bridges(1844 - 1930)
Can you guess I'm short of things to write about?!
I read that poem yesterday, I think it was in the Country Commonplace Book. Apart from snow (and lambs) it's such a good description of recent days here.
ReplyDeleteThat's where I saw it but it said 'From' January so I had to look for what the whole poem was and found the Country Commonplace Book had just missed off the last verse - they could have used the whole poem!
DeleteMaybe Miranda didn't want the religious aspect of the last verse, or she might have found the poem from a different source. It is nice to have the complete poem though isn't it.
DeleteDefinitely the 'drear days of January'. And definitely not a month for blogging.
ReplyDeleteJust-stay-in-January is no good for blogging at all!
DeleteI would never have guessed, and yet somehow you always manage to come up with something. I don't know why but I found that an awkward poem to read at first.
ReplyDeleteJanuary has been damp and dreary here but no snow-we have been very lucky compared to the north of Scotland. I said to a friend yesterday that it felt more like November. Catriona
ReplyDeleteIm concerned by the gluey knows...
ReplyDeleteOur January is cold and snowy. Today the sun is shining, and the trees branches are lined with snow to the very tops.
ReplyDeleteI like the poem. The mention of no birds singing in January is so true. We wait for Spring and the songbirds return.
I've lost most of January to the flu but am finally feeling like I can start doing things again. I will try going to my Zumba class tomorrow as I can use some laughter and always find that while dancing with my Zumba friends.
ReplyDeleteNot too sure of the poem, but love the way in the painting they have tried desperately to keep the building standing!
ReplyDeleteThat's a beautiful painting. We have starlings in our garden too -- but interesting that Bridges didn't mention our noisiest birds, the ring-necked parakeets! (Yes, I realize they weren't here when he wrote that. :) )
ReplyDeleteI really like the poem.
ReplyDeleteGod bless.