On the Snow in April
Apr. 11th, 2014 06:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osprey_archerIt’s National Poetry Month! I only realized this yesterday, after I had posted the Browning poem, in fact. I don’t think I have enough beloved poems on file to post one every day this month, but I will try to post a bunch.
I’ve been reading Pamela Dean’s Juniper, Gentian, and Rosemary and really loving it. Here, then, is a poem that the Gentian’s best friend Becky writes in the book, which kicks off a discussion between them about religion. Dean’s characters are always discussing ideas, religion, feminism, their ambitions and dreams; it gives the books an extra layer of interest and deepens the characters, too.
Dean also has a beautiful poem in Tam Lin, but I left my copy in my parents’ house, so I can’t post if just now.
On the Snow in April
by Pamela Dean (from Juniper, Gentian, and Rosemary)
It’s enough to make one turn to pagan rites,
Burn incense with sly purpose, promise anything,
To bring to these obediently shortening nights
Some herald of the obstinate spring.
Dear Heaven, has it not been cold long enough?
Remember that the regular is beautiful.
Things stretched past their due time are not the stuff
Of loveliness, and all chaos is dull.
What shivering sad time is this for Easter?
There are not even natural miracles.
Is it that through this gaunt delay there pulls
The gleeful string of that essential jester?
They say, let spring bring Christ to mind; this year,
Christ must persuade there will be violets here.
I’ve been reading Pamela Dean’s Juniper, Gentian, and Rosemary and really loving it. Here, then, is a poem that the Gentian’s best friend Becky writes in the book, which kicks off a discussion between them about religion. Dean’s characters are always discussing ideas, religion, feminism, their ambitions and dreams; it gives the books an extra layer of interest and deepens the characters, too.
Dean also has a beautiful poem in Tam Lin, but I left my copy in my parents’ house, so I can’t post if just now.
On the Snow in April
by Pamela Dean (from Juniper, Gentian, and Rosemary)
It’s enough to make one turn to pagan rites,
Burn incense with sly purpose, promise anything,
To bring to these obediently shortening nights
Some herald of the obstinate spring.
Dear Heaven, has it not been cold long enough?
Remember that the regular is beautiful.
Things stretched past their due time are not the stuff
Of loveliness, and all chaos is dull.
What shivering sad time is this for Easter?
There are not even natural miracles.
Is it that through this gaunt delay there pulls
The gleeful string of that essential jester?
They say, let spring bring Christ to mind; this year,
Christ must persuade there will be violets here.
