My Dad had this book when i was a child. He would read poetry to me at bedtime (and sometimes he would cry). Little Boy Blue always got to him. It's about the death of a child. There are a lot of great poems in here and i just love this book. I wish I had my Dad's original - i bought this one for myself. The cover hasn't changed! I used to like "Invictus" by William Ernest Henley. Of course, now I know he was a famous atheist. I guess he appealed to the defiance in a child. I recited it in the fifth grade and everybody laughed. I should have gone with "Trees" (also in there). When i was in college, one of my first friends, Pat Croyle, had a book with favorite sayings and poems that she had written out and darned if "Invictus" wan't in there. Now they have the movie and I guess Nelson Mandela liked it, too. I tend to cry reading "Barefoot Boy". " The Daffodils" is in there. Tower Hill Botanic Garden has a field of daffodils that always makes me think of that poem. Well, what made me think of this book is James Russell Lowell from my previous post. "June" is a great poem - "What is so rare as a day in June, then if ever come perfect days.' My grandmother had to learn that one in school. The stanza I like best is
Earth gets its price for what Earth gives us;
The beggar is taxed for a corner to die in,
The priest hath his fee who comes and shrives us,
We bargain for the graves we lie in;
At the Devil’s booth are all things sold
Each ounce of dross costs its ounce of gold;
For a cap and bells our lives we pay,
Bubbles we earn with a whole soul’s tasking:
‘T is heaven alone that is given away,
‘T is only God may be had for the asking;
Everybody should have this book.
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