April is National Poetry Month. Eight years ago, the Academy of American Poets also nationalized Poem in Your Pocket Day to foster the sharing of this neglected genre. Every April, on Poem in Your Pocket Day, people celebrate poetry by carrying a favorite poem with them and sharing it with as many others as they can throughout the day. This year, the day falls on April 21, which also happens to be Queen Elizabeth's 90th birthday. It seems only appropriate then, to choose a poem to commemorate her many years of faithful service.
From Ulysses...
...you and I are old;
Old age hath yet his honor and his toil:
Death closes all; but something ere the end,
Some work of noble note, may yet be done,
Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods.
The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks;
The long day wanes; the slow moon climbs; the deep
Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends.
'Tis not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down;
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.
Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho'
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are--
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
~ Alfred Lord Tennyson ~
Happy Birthday your Majesty.
Beautiful post!
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