Friday, October 13, 2006

Poetry Friday

The grand Old Duke of York
He had ten thousand men,
He marched them up to a very high hill
And he marched them down again.

And when he was up he was up
And when he was down he was down
And when he was only halfway up
He was neither up nor down.

-- Mother Goose. Assorted links: Wikipedia link; Mother Goose: A Scholarly Exploration. I like this poem because it's obvious; when you're up, you're up. When you're down, you're down. And when you're halfway, you're not up and you're not down. And sometimes, it seems like all it is is marching up and down, up and down.

MotherReader has Poetry Friday: The T Shirt Edition

Journey Woman highlights Longfellow and curls

Chasing Ray posts part of Ode to Iris Chang

Bookshelves of Doom shares The Cremation of Sam McGee

Fuse #8 presents The Back To School Survival Guide of Poetry

The Old Coot
publishes for the first time reprints (with permission) Untitled (Woodsmoke, leaves of golden brown)

Gotta Book proves it's never too early for Halloween

A Year of Reading and The Excrement Poem (nope, not a typo)

Please post in the comments if you have a poem this fine Friday morning.

Edited to add:
By Sun And Candlelight honors the US's first Children's Poet Laureate with When Tillie Ate The Chili

Chekhov's Mistress illustrates how poetry can ruin your career

Little Willow puts cats in the spotlight with To My Cat

What Adrienne Thinks About That toasts some marshmallows


and:

Big A little a reviews Drumbeat in our Feet

and:

Farm School and Historical Associations


and

Susan Taylor Brown
reminds me college, Susan Polis Schultz and Blue Mountain cards

Book Buds describes a poetry book as "Edward Gorey meets Magritte."

and Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast jumps into the Poetry Friday tradition with E.E. Cummings


and Scholar's Blog has Witches' Chants (and a reminder, go there and submit for the next Carnival of Children's Literature!)


and

a Wrung Sponge with William Carlos Williams

lightingthefires parties with October


The Simple and the Ordinary with the poem I almost picked

and

Tockla contributes a Poke In the I

The Cajun Cottage Under the Oaks Woke Up to a Chelsea Morning

Chicken Spaghetti highlights Auden: an interesting book about him and a poem

and

Kelly Fineman has a short parody from Lewis Carroll

and Ms Mac brings on the spooky

14 comments:

MotherReader said...

Wow. After last Friday's weak showing (me included, I'm sorry to say), I'm glad to see we're all back on the ball. And early no less!

I like your personal interpretation of the poem. And I appreciate your round-up.

Anonymous said...

Hi Liz, I have a poetry post up today. (Jack Prelutsky this time.) Thanks!

RM1(SS) (ret) said...

Actually, The Old Coot is printing, not reprinting, a poem - I don't think that one's ever been published anywhere.

Anonymous said...

Hi Liz:

I'm joining the party late today. Here's a link:

http://kidslitinformation.blogspot.com/2006/10/poetry-friday-drumbeat-in-our-feet.html

Anonymous said...

Eisha and I at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast have committed to the Poetry Friday weekly adventure, our inaugural post being a celebration of E.E. Cummings . . .

Andromeda Jazmon said...

My boys and I love that Noble Duke of York poem as a song. I have a William Carlos Williams poem up today.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the round-up, Liz!

I love that rhyme. I used to bounce my kids on my knee with that one when they were babies -- especially at prenatal checkups with a toddler, waiting for the doctor to show up : ). It brings back lots of fond memories...

Oh, here's one I don't think was mentioned, Karen at lightingthefires,

http://lightingthefires.blogspot.com/2006/10/octobers-party.html

Happy Friday!

christine M said...

I'm late to the party today - but I'm in.

Anonymous said...

Here's our selection:
Chelsea Morning: http://caygibson.typepad.com/cays_cajun_cottage/2006/10/chelsea_morning.html

A song actually but still...

Laura Atkins said...

Hello - I'm joining the party really late today, but got a concrete poem up in the nick of time!

Anonymous said...

Mine is up for this week. An excert from Nightmares: Poems to Trouble Your Sleep by Jack Pretlusky.

RM1(SS) (ret) said...

I've always sung my own version of that:

The grand old Duke of York,
He had ten thousand men.
He marched them all from here to there
And back to here again.

And when they were here, they were here,
And when they were there, they were there.
And when they were neither here nor there,
They must have been someplace else.

Anonymous said...

Liz,
I'm in with Auden's poem "September 1, 1939," and a mention of the group biography "February House."

http://tinyurl.com/yjglqd

Thank you for rounding up the poetry herd.

Nancy said...

You had a busy roundup today! Thanks so much!