Why We Read Books and Poems

Dylan Thomas Update

Just a quick mention that I had spent most of the last two days updating all of the older Dylan Thomas poetry posts for those who may have an interest in Dylan's verse. I had noticed that many of the 14 posts needed larger reading fonts from the older fonts once provided in the early days of Google Blogger and that many of the videos had expired on YouTube. To these I've added a few more articles to each one to help flesh out the many perspectives from Dylan's life journey. I hope by reformatting and upgrading each verse set they will become even more readable and enjoyable to delve into than they were before.

R.E. Slater

June 26, 2021

Central Lakes College instructor Jeff Johnson sits atop his truck, reading a poem by Poet Laureate of the United States Joy Harjo, from her book "An American Sunrise", Friday, Nov. 6, in the parking lot at CLC in Brainerd. Johnson was distributing copies of her book to students in the lakes area. Kelly Humphrey / Brainerd Dispatch

5 Poems About Books

and the Joy of Reading

https://www.bookishsanta.com/blogs/booklings-world/5-poems-about-books-and-the-joy-of-reading

by Bookish Santa

August 3, 2020

When I was younger, I often went to the park just for one reason: The Monkey Bars. I’d climb up to the highest rung, hook my legs around the frame, and suspend myself upside-down. It was the best thing I would do all day! I saw everything that I saw normally, except that it would all look so new, so foreign, and so different. I looked at familiar scenery from an unfamiliar perspective.

When you tilt your head sideways or look at something upside-down, a normal object can look completely new. It’s the same thing that you’re seeing, just differently, from a view, you’re not used to. A rarer take on something mundane.

That’s what Poems do to our perspective. They tell us what we may already know, in words and devices that we might not already know. The simple, musical, flowing narrative of poems breathe some artful life into Literature. Poems tell tales and convey feelings just as well as paragraphs or stories do. But they communicate differently, and that’s what makes them special (Oof, don’t I sound like a yearning lover describing her affections).

Well, I’m guessing, some very eloquent people of the past thought:

“So, we love poems, and we love books...let’s throw them together in a blender and make the best smoothie there ever will be for all people Bookish.”

You’re here, so it must mean that you’re somewhere on the Bibliophile Scale. Well, I’ve got just the thing for you! Or just the...five things? Here are 5 wonderful poems about the joy of reading and life as a Bookworm:

1. There is no Frigate like a Book
by Emily Dickinson

There is no Frigate like a Book

To take us Lands away
Nor any Coursers like a Page
Of prancing Poetry.
This Traverse may the poorest take
Without oppress of Toll;
How frugal is the Chariot
That bears the Human Soul!

2. Old English Song - A Jolly Good Book
by Anonymous

Oh for a book and a shady nook,
Either indoor or out;
With the green leaves whispering overhead,
Or the street cry all about.
Where I may read all at my ease,
Both of the new and old;
For a jolly good book whereon to look,
Is better to me than gold.

3. The Book-Worm
by C.W. Pearson

To heroes who on battlefields win fame
We do not grudge the lordly lion's name;
Those who, insensible to others' cares,
Are always rough and surly, we call bears;
To those who learn no lesson from what passes,
The ever dull and stupid, we call asses.
All claim to be a lion I resign,
And shun all bearish traits and asinine;
Nature has cast me for another part
And I embrace my lot with all my heart;
To satisfy an ever-craving need,
All day upon the leaves of books I feed,
And by night I find a resting-place
In what by day appears of books a case;
Thus day and night I think my title firm
To be that busy idler—a book-worm.

4. I Opened a Book
by Julia Donaldson

I opened a book and in I strode.
Now nobody can find me.
I’ve left my chair, my house, my road,
My town and my world behind me.
I’m wearing the cloak, I’ve slipped on the ring,
I’ve swallowed the magic potion.
I’ve fought with a dragon, dined with a king
And dived in a bottomless ocean.
I opened a book and made some friends.
I shared their tears and laughter
And followed their road with its bumps and bends
To the happily ever after.
I finished my book and out I came.
The cloak can no longer hide me.
My chair and my house are just the same,
But I have a book inside me.

5. My Book
by Annette Wynne

A little gate my book can be
That leads to fields of minstrelsy,
And though you think I sit at home
Afar in foreign fields I roam.

---

And here’s a bonus as dessert; A Poem about Poems, perfectly describing what it feels like once you’ve jumped aboard the train of poetry. There’s no going back, because poetry is ADDICTING.

Pass The Poems, Please
by Jane Baskwill

Pass the poem please

Pile them on my plate
Put them right in front of me
For I can hardly wait
To take each tangy word
To try each tasty rhyme
And when I’ve tried them once or twice
I’ll try them one more time:
So pass the poems please
They just won’t leave my head
I have to have more poems
Before I go to bed.

- Anukriti Sharma