Marianne Moore*

Marianne Moore (1887―1972) was raised for the first few years of her life in the manse of the First Presbyterian Church in Kirkwood, Missouri, since her grandfather was pastor there, and since her father, whom she never met, was not on the scene. In 1918 Marianne and her mother moved to Greenwich Village; here she was able to interact with such poets as E.E. Cummings and William Carlos Williams.

Her second book, Observations, won The Dial Award in 1924, and then from 1925 to 1929 she served as editor for The Dial. Her awards include: the Helen Haire Levinson Prize from Poetry magazine, the National Book Award, the Pulitzer Prize, and the Bollingen Prize. She once said that her favourite poem was the Book of Job.

At the Yankee's 1968 season opener, at age eighty, Marianne Moore threw the opening pitch. In her poem “Baseball and Writing” she expressed:
------Fanaticism? No. Writing is exciting
------and baseball is like writing.
------------You can never tell with either
---------------how it will go
---------------or what you will do…

Her Christian faith informed and influenced her poetry significantly. The following poem is identified in a Wendell Berry poem in his book Another Day: Sabbath Poems, 2013—2023.

What Are Years

What is our innocence,
what is our guilt? All are
naked, none is safe. And whence
is courage: the unanswered question,
the resolute doubt, —
dumbly calling, deafly listening—that
in misfortune, even death,
encourage others
and in its defeat, stirs
the soul to be strong? He
sees deep and is glad, who
accedes to mortality
and in his imprisonment rises
upon himself as
the sea in a chasm, struggling to be
free and unable to be,
in its surrendering
finds its continuing.
So he who strongly feels,
behaves. The very bird,
grown taller as he sings, steels
his form straight up. Though he is captive,
his mighty singing
says, satisfaction is a lowly
thing, how pure a thing is joy.
This is mortality,
this is eternity.

*This is the third Kingdom Poets post about Marianne Moore: first post, second post.

Entry written by D.S. Martin. He is the author of six poetry collections including Angelicus (2021, Poiema/Cascade), plus three anthologies — available through Wipf & Stock. His new book The Role of the Moon, inspired by the Metaphysical Poets, is now available from Paraclete Press.

Felicia Hemans

Felicia Hemans (1793—1835) is a prolific English poet and playwright — publishing 19 individual books during her lifetime — whose popularity and extensive output enabled her to support her children.

In 1818, her husband departed for Rome, leaving her with five sons all under the age of six for her to raise on her own. They continued a correspondence, particularly relating to their boys, but it is unknown what caused the separation.

She became a literary celebrity, writing on such Romantic themes as nature, childhood, foreign travel, and heroic tales — and even drew the admiration of such older writers as William Wordsworth and Lord Byron. She was one of the best-selling poets of her time. Ironically, such popularity, her reputation for dealing with women’s domestic issues, and the use of many of her poems in school books, has worked against her continued legacy as a serious poet.

The following poem first appeared in her collection Hymns on the Works of Nature, for the Use of Children (1827).

The Sky-Lark

The Sky-lark, when the dews of morn
Hang tremulous on flower and thorn,
And violets round his nest exhale
Their fragrance on the early gale,
To the first sunbeam spreads his wings,
Buoyant with joy, and soars, and sings.

He rests not on the leafy spray,
To warble his exulting lay,
But high above the morning cloud
Mounts in triumphant freedom proud,
And swells, when nearest to the sky,
His notes of sweetest ecstacy.

Thus, my Creator! thus the more
My spirit's wing to Thee can soar,
The more she triumphs to behold
Thy love in all thy works unfold,
And bids her hymns of rapture be
Most glad, when rising most to Thee!

Entry written by D.S. Martin. He is the author of six poetry collections including Angelicus (2021, Poiema/Cascade), plus three anthologies — available through Wipf & Stock. His new book The Role of the Moon, inspired by the Metaphysical Poets, is now available from Paraclete Press.

William Lisle Bowles

William Lisle Bowles (1762—1850) is an English priest, poet and critic. He’d won a scholarship to Trinity College, Oxford, and demonstrated his proficiency by winning the 1783 Chancellor’s prize for Latin verse. He followed his family line by becoming an Anglican Priest, like his great-grandfather, grandfather, and father before him.

In 1789 he published a small book called Fourteen Sonnets, which was a break from much of the poetry currently being written by such poets as Alexander Pope. These poems were highly praised by the younger poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge who credited Bowles as helping to re-establish the sonnet as a contemporary form. It was his criticism of such poets as Pope — upholding the Natural as opposed to the Artificial — that particularly inspired Coleridge and Wordsworth. Bowles later summarized these views in his controversial 1819 publication, The Invariable Principles of Poetry.

He also published several volumes of longer poems, including, The Spirit of Discovery (1804), The Missionary (1813); The Grave of the Last Saxon (1822); and St John in Patmos (1833). Bowles is today best remembered for his sonnets, his shorter poems, and for his work as a critic.

The Withered Leaf

Oh! mark the withered leaves that fall
In silence to the ground;
Upon the human heart they call,
And preach without a sound.
They say, So passes man’s brief year!
To-day, his green leaves wave;
To-morrow, changed by time and sere,
He drops into the grave.
Let Wisdom be our sole concern,
Since life’s green days are brief!
And faith and heavenly hope shall learn
A lesson from the leaf.

Entry written by D.S. Martin. He is the author of six poetry collections including Angelicus (2021, Poiema/Cascade), plus three anthologies — available through Wipf & Stock. His new book The Role of the Moon, inspired by the Metaphysical Poets, is now available from Paraclete Press.

Kristijonas Donelaitis

Kristijonas Donelaitis (1714—1780) is a Lithuanian Evangelical Lutheran pastor and poet. At age 29 he was appointed the pastor of a small parish in East Prussia where he cared for the peasants of the area. Half of his congregation were Germans, who were supported by the government to push the Lithuanians out of the most fertile farmland. Donelaitis, as pastor, was frequently involved in settling disputes. He remained there in Tolminkiemis for the rest of his life.

The following is from his extensive work, Metai — sometimes translated as The Year, and sometimes as The Seasons — which is 2,997 lines in length, and depicts the cycle of life for Lithuanian serfs in East Prussia. Donelaitis did not publish this work in his own lifetime. It is considered the first classic Lithuanian language poem. Its’ first publication was in a shortened version called Metai in 1818, in both Lithuanian and a translation into German.

Donelaitis, in this part of the longer work describes the fading of summer from the viewpoint of his peasant agricultural workers and the world around them:
------There, where the black hawk fed his young on chicken meat,
------And where the raven brought a gosling to his nest,
------Lo, there, all summer joy and merriment is gone!

He then goes into great detail about a Lithuanian wedding feast, about the behaviours — good and bad — by various people, and finally sermonizes about how the peasants (the boors) should behave.

from Autumn Wealth

Of course, there is no lack of faithful Christians, too.
Most of Lithuanians are men of good character;
They love their families, obey the will of God.
Each day live saintly lives, steer clear of all misdeeds,
And rule their modest homes with kind parental care.

Take men like Selmas, he is worthy of good praise.
A boor nay, not a lord — but a fair-minded boor.
His house is simple, just like any other boor's;
His food each day is plain, of meager seasoning;
He only drinks root beer or water from a brook;
He wears but homespun, three heald woven, linen garb,
Or, in the winter time, a worn-out sheepskin coat.
It's not through penury he lives so modestly,
But to pay up the taxes to the government,
And then to render to the school and church what's due.
Of course, you know full well the hardships of these times,
How we are forced to live on beet soup and dry crusts.
Therefore is it not good that Selmas, a plain boor,
Discreetly manages to save a little bit?
Besides, one does not have to tell how much he saves,
Nor to disclose the place where he his savings keeps.

In case you plan to visit Selmas' modest home,
Well, you will find it clean, and restful as a church.
His table's like the holy altar, neatly set,
And on it rest many selected sacred books,
So that, when all the daily doings have been done,
Himself, or even his enlightened family,
May read the Word of God, or sing the holy hymns,
And ease the miseries of this oppressive life.

Entry written by D.S. Martin. He is the author of six poetry collections including Angelicus (2021, Poiema/Cascade), plus three anthologies — available through Wipf & Stock. His new book The Role of the Moon, inspired by the Metaphysical Poets, is now available from Paraclete Press.

Michellan Sarile-Alagao

Michellan Sarile-Alagao is a Filipino writer and poet. She has published a verse-novella (Black, 2020), two poetry chapbooks, her full-length collection After the Sunstone, a short-story collection, and six children’s books.

She came to faith in Christ as a university student. She describes the experience, saying, “When I read the first chapter of John, my stone heart stirred. I had lived in darkness, where words were my only light.” She was drawn to the Word — the one who can love her back.

Until recently she was an acquisitions and book editor at OMF Literature in the Philippines, and remains one of their authors. She contributed to the book Joyful Light: Modern Christian Poetry by Filipino Women (2019).

The following poem is from her book After the Sunstone (2016).

Psalm

I would like you to sing over me
a song of deliverance.
I am tired of singing to you,
offering praises that don't get past the ceiling.
If this is presumptuous,
then I know I am forgiven already.
I am a little girl—dancing, demanding:
Look at me. Look at me.
I am a child ready to play hide and seek,
ready to be found.
Oh Lord, remind us that we were loved into being.
Shout it, if you must.
Let that fact be the music I dance to,
and the song that finds me.

Posted with permission of the poet.

Entry written by D.S. Martin. He is the author of six poetry collections including Angelicus (2021, Poiema/Cascade), plus three anthologies — available through Wipf & Stock. His new book The Role of the Moon, inspired by the Metaphysical Poets, is now available from Paraclete Press.

Wendell Berry*

Wendell Berry is an essayist, novelist and poet who lives on a farm in Henry County, Kentucky. He is known for his environmentalism, and his agrarian values. His most recent poetry collection, Another Day: Sabbath Poems 2013-2023 is a follow-up to his book This Day in which he had gathered all of his Sabbath Poems to date from 1979 to 2012. Berry’s Sabbaths, according to Southern Review of Books, are “poems mostly written on Sunday walks in the woods as a spiritual or reflective exercise.”

He celebrated his 91st birthday on August 5th, and has been married to his wife Tanya since 1957. He expresses his belief in Sabbath rest, saying, “the providence or the productivity of the living world, the most essential work, continues while we rest.” This reminds me of Christ’s parable in Mark 4:17 where “whether [the farmer] sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how.”

Counterpoint Press suggests “With the publication of this new edition, it has become increasingly clear that the Sabbath Poems have become the very heart of Berry’s work.” I included five of Berry’s earlier Sabbath poems in the anthology The Turning Aside: The Kingdom Poets Book of Contemporary Christian Poetry, and see them as significant to the poetry of our times.

The following poem I suspect may have arisen from Berry’s meditations on Piero della Francesca's painting, "The Resurrection". It is from Another Day (Counterpoint, 2024).

Sabbaths 2020 VIII

Piero

A brushstroke,
another, another,
a day and a day,
and finally Christ
stands, risen
out of his grave,
as this witness
at last has seen.

*This is the fourth Kingdom Poets post about Wendell Berry: first post, second post, third post.

Entry written by D.S. Martin. He is the author of six poetry collections including Angelicus (2021, Poiema/Cascade), plus three anthologies — available through Wipf & Stock. His new book The Role of the Moon, inspired by the Metaphysical Poets, is now available from Paraclete Press.

Henry Alline

Henry Alline (1748—1784) (pronounced Allen) is an evangelist and hymn-writer known as the Apostle of Nova Scotia. Born in Rhode Island, he moved with his family to Falmouth, Nova Scotia in 1760 (which is where the pictured memorial is situated). The family were New England Planters who came to obtain farmland offered by the British government to English-speaking Protestants after the expulsion of the Acadians.

Alline experienced a remarkable conversion in March 1775, after which he dedicated himself to preaching the gospel. Educational opportunities were non-existent for Planters, and so he was self-educated through his own reading. In the 1770s he was influential in starting a Great Awakening religious revival. His New Lights ideas and followers quickly spread across the region and into northeastern New England.

The following poem appeared in Hymns, and Spiritual Songs (Peter Edes, 1786) which was published in Boston. His autobiography, The Life and Journal of the Rev. Mr. Henry Alline, appeared in 1806.

On Death

I
Death reign'd with vigour since the Fall,
------And rides with fury still;
Nor rich nor poor, nor great nor small,
------Can e'er resist his will.
II
He ravages both night and day,
------Through all our mortal stage;
And ev'ry creature falls a prey
------To his resistless rage.
III
Nations and empires he has slain,
------And laid whole cities waste,
And doth his cruel siege maintain
------To sweep the world in haste.
IV
Ride forth, O mighty Prince of Peace,
------And take away his sting.
Then shall his cruel kingdom cease,
------And saints his triumph sing.

Entry written by D.S. Martin. He is the author of six poetry collections including Angelicus (2021, Poiema/Cascade), plus three anthologies — available through Wipf & Stock. His new book The Role of the Moon, inspired by the Metaphysical Poets, is now available from Paraclete Press.