Thursday 24 February 2011

More Favourite Poems

My Sister Jane

And I say nothing – no, not a word
About our Jane. Haven’t you heard?
She’s a bird, a bird, a bird, a bird.

Oh it never would do to let folks know
My sister’s nothing but a great big crow.

Each day (we daren’t send her to school)
She pulls on stockings of thick blue wool
To make her pin crow legs look right,
Then fits a wig of curls on tight,
And dark spectacles – a huge pair
To cover her very crowy stare.

Oh it never would do to let folks know
My sister’s nothing but a great big crow.

When visitors come she sits upright
(With her wings and her tail tucked out of sight).
They think her queer but extremely polite.
Then when the visitors have gone
She whips out her wings and with her wig on
Whirls through the house at the height of your head –
Duck, duck, or she’ll knock you dead.

Oh it would never do to let folks know
My sister’s nothing but a great big crow.

At meals whatever she sees she’ll stab it –
Because she’s a crow and that’s a crow habit.
My mother says ‘Jane! Your manners! Please!’
Then she’ll sit quietly on the cheese,
Or play the piano nicely by dancing on the keys –

Oh it would never do to let folks know
My sister’s nothing but a great big crow.

Ted Hughes

This was another favourite of mine, growing. I think I kind of identified with Jane, being a rather diffident, shy and gangly child myself!

Here's another poem I love dearly!

From a Railway Carriage

Faster than fairies, faster than witches,
Bridges and houses, hedges and ditches;
And charging along like troops in a battle
All through the meadows the horses and cattle:
All of the sights of the hill and the plain
Fly as thick as driving rain;
And ever again, in the wink of an eye,
Painted stations whistle by.
Here is a child who clambers and scrambles,
All by himself and gathering brambles;
Here is a tramp who stands and gazes;
And here is the green for stringing the daisies!
Here is a cart runaway in the road
Lumping along with man and load;
And here is a mill, and there is a river:
Each a glimpse and gone forever!

Robert Louis Stevenson

If only I could write like that! Wonderful!!!

Cheerio friends, till next time!

Dawn x