MAYA ANGELOU 1928-2014

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ALONE

Lying, thinking

Last night

How to find my soul a home

Where water is not thirsty

And bread loaf is not stone

I came up with one thing

And I don't believe I'm wrong

That nobody,

But nobody

Can make it out here alone.

Alone, all alone

Nobody, but nobody

Can make it out here alone.

There are some millionaires

With money they can't use

Their wives run round like banshees

Their children sing the blues

They've got expensive doctors

To cure their hearts of stone.

But nobody

No, nobody

Can make it out here alone.

Alone, all alone

Nobody, but nobody

Can make it out here alone.

Now if you listen closely

I'll tell you what I know

Storm clouds are gathering

The wind is gonna blow

The race of man is suffering

And I can hear the moan,

'Cause nobody,

But nobody

Can make it out here alone.

Alone, all alone

Nobody, but nobody

Can make it out here alone. 

This American author and poet is famous for her six autobiographical books, the first of which "I know why the Caged Bird sings" made her name known worldwide. She was awarded over 30 honorary degrees and in 1971 was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.

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WILLIAM BARNES 1801-86

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ZUMMER AN' WINTER

When I led by zummer streams

The pride o' Lea, as naighbours thought her,

While the zun, wi' evenen beams,

Did cast our sheades athirt the water;

Winds a-blowen,

Streams a-flowen,

Skies a-glowen,

Tokens ov my jay zoo fleeten,

Heightened it, that happy meeten.

Then, when maid an' man took pleaces,

Gay in winter's Chris'mas dances,

Showen in their merry feaces

Kindly smiles an' glisnen glances;

Stars a-winken,

Day a-shrinken,

Sheades a-zinken,

Brought anew the happy meeten,

That did meake the night too fleeten. 

William Barnes was a Dorset clergyman whose poetry about local life soon made his name well-known. However, he was later writing on a variety of subjects including geography, mathematics and astronomy. Barnes is particularly remembered today for using the Dorset dialect in some of his poems.

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THOMAS HARDY 1840-1928

THE WHITE-WASHED WALL

Why does she turn in that shy soft way

Whenever she stirs the fire,

And kiss to the chimney-corner wall,

As if entranced to admire

Its whitewashed bareness more than the sight

Of a rose in richest green?

I have known her long, but this raptured rite

I never before have seen.

Well, once when her son cast his shadow there,

A friend took a pencil and drew him

Upon that flame-lit wall. And the lines

Had a lifelike semblance to him.

And there long stayed his familiar look;

But one day, ere she knew,

The whitener came to cleanse the nook,

And covered the face from view.

"Yes," he said: "My brush goes on with a rush,

And the draught is buried under;

When you have to whiten old cots and brighten,

What else can you do, I wonder?"

But she knows he's there. And when she yearns

For him, deep in the labouring night,

She sees him as close as hand, and turns

To him under his sheet of white.

Author of Far from the Madding Crowd, Tess of the D'Urbervilles and The Mayor of Casterbridge, Thomas Hardy always regarded himself first and foremost as a poet. His large output of poetry was not properly discovered until the middle of the 20th century

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LITTLE LESSONS

Anonymous

(From The Point of View, U.S., 1905)

"The love I bear you, dearest,

Would make the sweetest tale,

We'd sail upon a sea of bliss,

And I would lift the sail.

Our happiness would be sublime,

Surpassing tongue or pen.

You may as well learn things from me,

As to learn from other men."

"Oh! you have touched me - deeply"

The young thing whispered low.

He pleaded: "Come! oh! come with me."

She could not answer: "No."

She said: "I'll be your pupil."

And softly added then:

"I may as well learn things from you

As to learn from other men."

They dined alone that evening,

And the young man got his wish.

They even broke the unwritten law

Of: "Never before the fish."

At half-past-three, next morning,

He staggered home again.

She had taught him tricks he never knew,

That she'd learned from other men. 

The new blog ART BY 20TH CENTURY WOMEN PAINTERS began on Monday

http://artby20thcenturywomenpainters.blogspot.com

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ELLA WHEELER WILCOX 1850-1919

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A POEM FOR NEW YEAR

What can be said in New Year rhymes,

That's not been said a thousand times?

The new years come, the old years go,

We know we dream, we dream we know.

We rise up laughing with the light,

We lie down weeping with the night.

We hug the world until it stings,

We curse it then and sigh for wings.

We live, we love, we woo, we wed,

We wreathe our brides, we sheet our dead.

We laugh, we weep, we hope, we fear,

And that's the burden of the year.

The best-known work of this American writer and poet was her Poems of Passion. She will always be remembered for  "Solitude" which contains the famous lines "Laugh, and the world laughs with you; weep and you weep alone."

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The first post of the new blog ART BY 20TH CENTURY WOMEN PAINTERS appeared yesterday.

http://artby20thcenturywomenpainters.blogspot.com

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EUBULUS 4th century

THE BENEFITS AND MISUSE OF ALCOHOL

Three cups of wine a prudent man may take,

The first of these for constitution’s sake.

The second to the girl he loves the best,

The third and last to lull him to his rest.

Then home to bed - but, if a fourth he pours,

That is the cup of folly and not ours.

Loud noisy talking on the fifth attends,

The sixth breeds feuds and falling out of friends.

Seven begets blows and faces stained with gore,

Eight, and the watch patrol breaks ope the door.

Mad with the ninth, another cup goes round,

And the swilled sot drops senseless to the ground.

The new blog ART BY 20TH CENTURY WOMEN PAINTERS began today
http://artby20thcenturywomenpainters.blogspot.com

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CLINTON SCOLLARD 1860-1932

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A BELL

Had I the power

To cast a bell that should from some grand tower,

At the first Christmas hour,

Outring,

And fling

A jubilant message wide,

The forged metals should be thus allied:-

No iron Pride,

But soft Humility, and rich-veined Hope

Cleft from a sunny slope;

And there should be

White Charity,

And silvery Love, that knows not Doubt nor Fear,

To make the peal more clear;

And then to firmly fix the fine alloy,

There should be Joy! 

THE NEXT POST HERE WILL BE ON MONDAY 4TH JANUARY

A new Art Blog ART BY 20TH CENTURY WOMEN PAINTERS begins on Monday 4th January

http://artby20thcenturywomenpainters.blogspot.com

WISHING EVERYONE A MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR

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