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Sticking with the theme for this month (which I’ve only just now decided was a theme for this month), here in National Poetry Month, I’ll continue exploring the intersection of music and poetry. Back when I was a serious music student, I sometimes thought about setting favorite poems to music, including what is likely my favorite poem of all time, “Annabel Lee” by Edgar Allan Poe. This complex and meaning-laden poem has thrilled me ever since I first read it, likely in 11th grade: It was many and many a year ago,    In a kingdom by the sea, That aDown the rabbit hole….

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In keeping with National Poetry Month, here is one of my favorite poems: “The Splendour Falls” by Alfred Lord Tennyson, who also happens to be my favorite poet. The splendor falls on castle walls   And snowy summits old in story;The long light shakes across the lakes,   And the wild cataract leaps in glory.Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying,Blow, bugle; answer, echoes, dying, dying, dying. O, hark, O, hear! how thin and clear,   And thinner, clearer, farther going!O, sweet and far from cliff and scar   The horns of Elfland faintly blowing!Blow, let us hear the purple glens replying,Blow, bugles;Down the rabbit hole….

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April is National Poetry Month. I can’t promise I’ll share a poem every day, but I’ll give it a shot. First up is a short poem that packs quite a punch the more you mull it over: The Lover in Winter Plaineth for the Spring Western wind, when will thou blowThe small rain down can rain?Christ, if my love were in my arms,And I in my bed again!   Share This PostDown the rabbit hole….

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For St. Patrick’s Day, obviously. All the words that I utter,    And all the words that I write,Must spread out their wings untiring,    And never rest in their flight,Till they come where your sad, sad heart is,    And sing to you in the night,Beyond where the waters are moving,    Storm-darken’d or starry bright. –William Butler Yeats   Share This PostDown the rabbit hole….

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A poem by JRR Tolkien. This appears in The Fellowship of the Ring, recited by Bilbo just after he has given Frodo his old sword and his old shirt of mithril. Remember that when Bilbo left The Shire, early in the book, it was in hopes of venturing far and wide again, perhaps as far as Laketown and the Lonely Mountain again, places he had visited in his earlier adventures. But once he was past the influence of the One Ring, all of his accumulated years caught up with him and he lived out most of his old age as a guestDown the rabbit hole….