A Tribute to Nature – Remembering Britain’s Romantic Era Poets & New England’s Fireside Poets!

From 1790 to 1830, six British poets – Blake, Byron, Coleridge, Keats, Shelly, Wordsworth – were busy shaping a movement known as “Romanticism” that elevated “nature” to its most poetic splendor .   Meanwhile across the pond in New England, from 1800 to 1865 five ‘fireside’ poets – Bryant, Holmes, Longfellow, Lowell, Whittier – (also known as the ‘schoolroom’ poets) – were developing the same kind of poetry but in a way which made their body of work easy to memorize and recite at school and at home.   See how well you can match their nature-themed verses (V1 thru V11) with the appropriate authors and titles (A thru K).

AUTHOR & TITLE

A. William Wordsworth (I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud)

B. James Russell Lowell (The First Snowfall)

C. Percy Bysshe Shelly (Ode to a Skylark)

D. William Cullen Bryant (The Planting of the Apple-Tree)

E. Samuel Taylor Coleridge (Frost at Midnight)

F. John Greenleaf Whittier (Snow-Bound)

G. Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. (The Last Leaf)

H. Lord Byron (Adieu, Adieu! My Native Shore)

I.  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (The Song of Hiawatha)

J. John Keats (A Draught of Sunshine)

K. William Blake (Ah Sunflower)

NATURE-THEMED VERSES

(V1) The Frost performs its secret ministry, Unhelped by any wind. The owlet’s cry Came loud–and hark, again! loud as before. The inmates of my cottage, all at rest….

(V2) Adieu, adieu! my native shore  Fades o’ver the waters blue;  The night-winds sigh, the breakers roar,  And shrieks the wild sea-mew….

(V3) And if I should live to be The last leaf upon the tree In the spring, Let them smile, as I do now, At the old forsaken bough Where I cling….

(V4) Every pine and fir and hemlock Wore ermine too dear for an earl, And the poorest twig on the elm-tree Was ridged inch deep with pearl….

(V5) Ah Sunflower, weary of time, Who countest the steps of the sun; Seeking after that sweet golden clime Where the traveller’s journey is done….

(V6) I wandered lonely as a cloud That floats on high o’er vales and hills, When all at once I saw a crowd, A host, of golden daffodils….

(V7) By the shores of Gitche Gumee, By the shining Big-Sea-Water, Stood the wigwam of Nokomis, Daughter of the Moon, Nokomis….

(V8) Hence Burgundy, Claret, and Port, Away with old Hock and madeira, Too earthly ye are for my sport; There’s a beverage brighter and clearer. Instead of a piriful rummer, My wine overbrims a whole summer; My bowl is the sky, And I drink at my eye….

(V9) What plant we in this apple-tree! Fruits that shall swell in sunny June, And redden in the August noon, And drop, when gentle airs come by, That fan the blue September sky, While children come, with cries of glee, And seek them where the fragrant grass Betrays their bed to those who pass, At the foot of the apple-tree….

(V10) As zigzag wavering to and fro Crossed and recrossed the wingéd snow: And ere the early bedtime came The white drift piled the window-frame, And through the glass the clothes-line posts Looked in like tall and sheeted ghosts….

(V11) Higher still and higher From the earth thou springest, Like a cloud of fire; The blue deep thou wingest, And singing still dost soar and soaring ever singest….

Answers:

‘A’:Wordsworth (I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud)-V6

‘B’:Lowell (The First Snowfall)-V4

‘C’:Shelly (Ode to a Skylark)-V11

‘D’:Bryant (The Planting of the Apple-Tree)-V9

‘E’:Coleridge (Frost at Midnight)-V1

‘F’:Whittier (Snow-Bound)-V10

‘G’:Holmes Sr. (The Last Leaf)-V3

‘H’:Byron (Adieu, Adieu! My Native Shore)-V2

‘I’:Longfellow (The Song of Hiawatha)-V7

‘J’:Keats (A Draught of Sunshine)-V8

‘K’:Blake (Ah Sunflower)-V5