Tuesday 27 October 2009

A Hawthorn Berry by Mary Webb

I have taken a leaf from my dear friend across at Where Beechmast Falls, who posted beautiful Mary Webb poem yesterday. For some reason, Blogger is not flagging her blog up when she makes a fresh post, so please visit daily as regular postings will be missed otherwise - and that would be such a shame, as Dartford Warbler posts such interesting things and lovely photos.


A HAWTHORN BERRY

How sweet a thought,
How strange a deed,
To house such glory in a seed -
A berry, shining rufously,
Like scarlet coral in the sea!
A berry, rounder than ring,
So round, it harbours everything;
So red, that all the blood of men
Could never paint it so again.
And, as I hold it in my hand,
A fragrance steals across the land:
Rich, on the wintry heaven, I see
A white, immortal hawthorn-tree.

Mary Webb

7 comments:

  1. Lovely pic of hawthorn rich in berry - and thankyou for reminidng me of the beauty of Mary Webb's work.

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  2. I have just come inside from the fields, where hawthorn berries are at their ripest in the hedges. Blackbirds and thrushes are feasting and squabbling over the best of them.
    Another beautiful Mary Webb poem, thank you.

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  3. Thanks for the alert re Warbler's posts---blogger is not doing its job!

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  4. We don't know how to mend it either! Suggestions?

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  5. Such a lovely poem about such a simple thing. Those berries are well ripe here in North Yorkshire and the fieldfares are moving in to remove them all in double quick time.

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  6. This so sums up my feelings about the Hawthorn, so often overlooked, but once seen, forever cherished :)

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  7. Truly a poem for fall...and a lovely photograph to go along with it.

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