The Unchosen

Thanks to those of you who followed along with Small Pond’s 2013 celebration of National Poetry Month. After today, the blog returns to its general hodgepodge of posts on books, food, travel, and whatever miscellany crosses my mind.

But one last note on poetry first. As I looked through poetry anthologies and collections, deciding what poems to include in this year’s poetry month celebration, I kept coming across poems that held interesting lines. I didn’t like the poems enough to include them fully, but I still wanted to share the pieces that caught my eye and ear.

Poetry Month: Acquainted with the Night (Frost)

Acquainted with the Night

I have been one acquainted with the night.
I have walked out in rain—and back in rain.
I have outwalked the furthest city light.

Best loved poems

Today’s poem and the previous two come from an anthology that I’ve always loved. My nana had a copy and I would read it when I visited her. She knew I loved it and ended up giving me my own copy when I graduated from high school.

The Best Loved Poems of the American People was first published in 1936. To the best of my knowledge, not many (if any) post-1936 poems have been added. The anthology has an old-fashioned feel, as you can probably guess from the last 3 poems posted here. Yes, some of it can feel simplistic, jingoistic, or overly sentimental or overly religious.

But it was one of my early introductions to poetry, and I still like many of the poems in it. Some of them are by poets unknown to me or history; some are by Kipling and Wordsworth and Longfellow. It’s definitely worth taking a look at.

Poetry Month: If You but Knew (Unknown)

If You but Knew

If you but knew
How all my days seemed filled with dreams of you,
How sometimes in the silent night
Your eyes thrill through me with their tender light,

Poetry Month: Fate (Spalding)

Fate

Two shall be born, the whole wide world apart,
And speak in different tongues and have no thought
Each of the other’s being, and no heed;