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The Rattle Bag: The H Poems

A platform to express and share your enthusiasm and passion for poetry. What are your treasured poems and poets? Don't hesitate to showcase the poems you've penned yourself!
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Penelope

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Re: The Rattle Bag: An Anthology of Poetry

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173. The Habit of Perfection - Gerard Manley Hopkins
174. Ha'nacker Mill - Hilaire Belloc
175. The hand that signed the paper felled a city - Dylan Thomas
176. The Happy Heart - Thomas Dekker
177. Hares at Play - John Clare
178. The Hart loves the high wood - anon
179. The Hawk - George Mackay Brown
180. He Hears the Cry of the Sedge - W B Yeats
181. Hear the voice of the Bard - William Blake
182. The Hearse Song - Anon
183. Heaven-Haven - Gerard Manley Hopkins
184. The Hen - Christian Morgenstern
185. Here - R S Thomas
186. Here Lies a Lady - John Crowe Ransom
187. Heredity - Thomas Hardy
188. A History Lesson - Miroslav Holub
189. The Horses - Edwin Muir
190. Hospital Barge at Cerisy - Wilfred Owen
191. The House of Hospitalities - Thomas Hardy
192. How doth the little crocodile - Lewis Carroll
193. How happy is the little Stone - Emily Dickinson
194. How the old Mountains drip with Sunset - Emily Dickinson
195. How to Kill - Keith Douglas
196. Humming-Bird - D H Lawrence
197. Hunter Poems of the Yoruba - anon
Baboon
Blue Cuckoo
Buffalo
Chicken
Colobus Monkey
Elephant
Hyena
Kob Antelope
Leopard
Red Monkey

198. Hurt Hawks - Robinson Jeffers
Only those become weary of angling who bring nothing to it but the idea of catching fish.

He was born with the gift of laughter and a sense that the world is mad....

Rafael Sabatini
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giselle

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Re: The Rattle Bag: The H Poems

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Very imaginative poem and an interesting reflection on a possible past, ending with a bit of humour, I like it:

Humming-Bird

I can imagine, in some otherworld
Primeval-dumb, far back
In that most awful stillness, that only gasped and hummed,
Humming-birds raced down the avenues.

Before anything had a soul,
While life was a heave of Matter, half inanimate,
This little bit chipped off in brilliance
And went whizzing through the slow, vast, succulent stems.

I believe there were no flowers, then,
In the world where the humming-bird flashed ahead of
creation.
I believe he pierced the slow vegetable veins with his long beak.

Probably he was big,
As mosses, and little lizards, they say were once big.
Probably he was a jabbing, terrifying monster.
We look at him through the wrong end of the long telescope of
Time,
Luckily for us.

D.H. Lawrence
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Penelope

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Re: The Rattle Bag: The H Poems

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What a lovely poem, The Humming Bird.

I've never seen a humming bird in real life. But one member on here 'Veneer' sent me photographs of ones visiting his porch in Pitsburg.

Before anything had a soul,
While life was a heave of Matter, half inanimate,
This little bit chipped off in brilliance
And went whizzing through the slow, vast, succulent stems.


I little bit of life - chipped off. Lovely!!!!
Only those become weary of angling who bring nothing to it but the idea of catching fish.

He was born with the gift of laughter and a sense that the world is mad....

Rafael Sabatini
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giselle

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Re: The Rattle Bag: The H Poems

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Penny, I hope you get to see a humming bird in real life, they are truely amazing creatures. Such speed and agility in the air and so tiny. Strange that DH Lawrence imagines them as a prehistoric monster in this poem but in a way their capability in flight is so amazing, almost bizarre, that I think the adjective 'monstrous' is not too huge a stretch.
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realiz

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Re: The Rattle Bag: The H Poems

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Yes, hummingbirds are amazing. I've sat and watched them feeding from flowers just feet away from me. They can dart in so fast and come to a complete halt mid-air. It is fascinating.
Interesting poem.
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Penelope

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Re: The Rattle Bag: The H Poems

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This is so intriguing, I would so like to watch this. Is the bird of paradise a relation?
Only those become weary of angling who bring nothing to it but the idea of catching fish.

He was born with the gift of laughter and a sense that the world is mad....

Rafael Sabatini
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giselle

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Re: The Rattle Bag: The H Poems

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I'm no ornithologist, but I don't think the humming bird and bird of paradise are related. The bird of paradise is certainly beautiful, especially the males. One thing for sure -- if DH Lawrence's prehistoric humming-bird-monster had the flying skills and agility of the modern humming-bird, it would truely be a formidable creature! :P I think he is right - best we see the humming bird/monster through the reverse telescope of time ..
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