{"id":19421,"date":"2013-03-12T06:30:11","date_gmt":"2013-03-11T17:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/?p=19421"},"modified":"2013-03-10T20:59:48","modified_gmt":"2013-03-10T07:59:48","slug":"tuesday-poem-home-thoughts-from-abroad-by-robert-browning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2013\/03\/12\/tuesday-poem-home-thoughts-from-abroad-by-robert-browning\/","title":{"rendered":"Tuesday Poem: “Home Thoughts From Abroad” by Robert Browning"},"content":{"rendered":"

Home Thoughts From Abroad<\/h3>\n

Oh, to be in England
\nNow that April ‘s there,
\nAnd whoever wakes in England
\nSees, some morning, unaware,
\nThat the lowest boughs and the brushwood sheaf
\nRound the elm-tree bole are in tiny leaf,
\nWhile the chaffinch sings on the orchard bough
\nIn England\u2014now!<\/p>\n

And after April, when May follows,
\nAnd the whitethroat builds, and all the swallows —
\nHark! where my blossom’d pear-tree in the hedge
\nLeans to the field and scatters on the clover
\nBlossoms and dewdrops \u2014 at the bent spray’s edge \u2014
\nThat ‘s the wise thrush; he sings each song twice over,
\nLest you should think he never could recapture
\nThe first fine careless rapture!
\nAnd though the fields look rough with hoary dew,
\nAll will be gay when noontide wakes anew
\nThe buttercups, the little children’s dower
\n\u2014 Far brighter than this gaudy melon-flower!<\/p>\n

Robert Browning, 1812-1889<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

Again this week, I\u2019m continuing my Tuesday Poem<\/a> theme of poems on a theme of summer, although technically this is as much spring as early summer. Nonetheless it’s a wonderful poem and a longtime favourite—and you really just can’t beat a line like:\u00a0 “The first fine careless rapture!”<\/em> (Imho.)<\/p>\n

Despite the plus-200 year time difference between their era’s, Browning’s poem, like Shakespeare’s sonnet last week<\/a>, is distinguished for me by its accessability, as well as the beauty and richness of the language. In both cases, I also really love the way the end rhyme is almost ‘invisible’ because it’s so seamless—the rhymes don’t jar the reader out of the poem, as a lesser rhyming scheme too-often does. But when you recite the poems aloud—ah, then you hear it, the fluidity and the power of those rhymes.<\/p>\n

To read a biography of the poet, see Poets.Org<\/a>: Robert Browning<\/a>.<\/p>\n

To read another Browning poem, featured here in 2010, click on Ferrara: My Last Duchess<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>To read the featured poem on the Tuesday Poem Hub<\/strong>\u2014and link to other Tuesday Poets posting around NZ and the world\u2014either click here<\/strong><\/a> or on the Quill icon in the sidebar.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Home Thoughts From Abroad Oh, to be in England Now that April ‘s there, And whoever wakes in England Sees, some morning, unaware, That the lowest boughs and the brushwood sheaf Round the elm-tree bole are in tiny leaf, While the chaffinch sings on the orchard bough In England\u2014now! And after April, when May follows, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19421"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19421\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19434,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19421\/revisions\/19434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}