POETRY: A Delightful Journey Through Life is an arrangement of over eighty well-selected classical poems into eight basic life stages in which most people pass through or experience in the course of a lifetime. These eight stages are Childhood, Beyond a Bumbling Society, In Search of Love, On Pain and Irony, Satisfaction with the Simple Things of Life, The Seasons, On Death, and Lines to Lift and Inspire.
Each of the eight stages is first introduced within an appropriate setting or frame of mind under which the selected poems follow. The reader is then carefully introduced to each poem, making it more readily understood. Inasmuch as poetry generally uses figurative symbols and imagery, the reader, coming from any number of backgrounds of education and experience, is allowed to put his or her own finishing touches on the poem, and can thus experience personal enjoyment from the poetic images embodied in the poems.
About The Book
Life is full of wonder and beauty beyond a person’s normal understanding. But so is it full of challenges and unanswered questions for many. And so it’s not surprising that a universal aim of man is that of finding purpose and solace in life.
These are areas well addressed in realms of poetry. But depth of such pursuits is hampered in a world declining in the lure to read. Poetry is void of prominence where ease of viewing an image oft precludes a willingness to think of meaning or varied application beyond a visual image. Nevertheless it’s been appropriately written that poetry survives because it aims to give some explanation to life. The author takes a risk in introducing each poem with some personal interpretation, but with the intention of securing a more pleasant and successful introduction to the poems.
Poetry: A Delightful Journey Through Life is an effort not only to provide ease in accessing a selected poem or poems as may suit a specific desire or need, but also to provide, in a reader-friendly form, a leisured or relaxing poetic journey for those so inclined. More in-depth discussion of the mechanics of poetry, some of the deeper meanings, or backgrounds of either the poems or the poets is found in numerous other remarkable and scholarly volumes covering such aspects of poetry.
A bard or poet can well be viewed at times as parallel with prophets in having power beyond the normal to know and share in wondrous language insight of great import in life. Introduction here is made for poetry to stretch the reader’s sense of wonderment amidst the often sober and awesome journey of life sharing its oft-surrounding beauty, depth and light.
Poems selected for this introduction are but a fraction of the many worthy of inclusion. Following then are poems, mainly classics, in some cases poetic lines or insights from other literary forms, and most of which have passed the sifting test of time. They cover several topics alphabetically arranged in the book’s indexes, to help the reader glean by theme or topic the wisdom of many of age’s greatest poets. Finally, they touch on much of life’s universal experience, and have the power to leave a sensitive reader with a glimpse of some of the finest imagery and inspiration as centuries have revealed.
Book Sample
(introduction to CHILDHOOD)
No earthly sojourn is more universal to reflect upon than that of early childhood. The magic that surrounds an infant has oft drawn society in awe. Many have yearned the carefree innocence they used to feel when once they were a child. And only may that certain charm again return in later years when oft the hair is white and body bowed. Only then a certain sense of childlike purity again attends the soul, though not so much this time in innocence as in virtue tried and proven. To be sure, someone wrote that “every noble man a boy once used to be”.
Broad is the range of sentiment that oft is thought and writ in reminiscing childhood. And many are the memories, thoughts and dreams of early youth. In following pages are just a few poetic images of early childhood. Perhaps the greatest miracle in life is that of birth. In various ways a growing child will step by step reflect upon the pond’rous moments in his life. But still there’s wonderment about the very source of life. The thought ennobling that infant spirits come from God whose image dear they bear may give direction and a sense of destiny in life. It speaks of sacred heritage, and gives a special aura to an infant. Wordsworth adds a touch immortal to the thought in following lines well quoted:
from “Ode on Intimations of Immortality”
William Wordsworth
1770-1850
Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting;
The soul that rises with us, our life’s star,
Hath had elsewhere its setting,
And cometh from afar;
Not in entire forgetfulness,
And not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory do we come
From God who is our home;…
Heaven lies about us in our infancy….
There’s something magic in the stage called childhood like the favored games of “Peek-a-Boo”, or “Hide and Seek”. The child is there, and then he’s not. He’s there again, and then for various reasons he is never seen again.
Is it possible the toys of Little Boy Blue but symbolize the hesitance we have to let our glowing childhood memories slip us by? We feel a sense of wonder in the passing of a little one, whether it is from childhood or even from mortal life itself, and feel a sense of tender yearning and an ardent hope to live again some day those precious moments.
Eugene Field has captured the hearts of thousands in penning the following lines:
“Little Boy Blue”
Eugene Field
1850-1895
The little toy dog is covered with dust,
But sturdy and staunch he stands;
And the little toy soldier is red with rust,
And his musket molds in his hands.
Time was when the little toy dog was new,
And the soldier was passing fair,
And that was the time when our Little Boy Blue
Kissed them and put them there.
“Now, don’t you go till I come,” he said,
“And don’t you make any noise!”
So toddling off to his trundle-bed
He dreamt of the pretty toys.
And as he was dreaming, an angel song
Awakened our Little Boy Blue—
Oh, the years are many, the years are long,
But the little toy friends are true!
Ay, faithful to Little Boy Blue they stand,
Each in the same old place,
Awaiting the touch of a little hand,
The smile of a little face.
And they wonder, as waiting these long years through,
In the dust of that little chair,
What has become of our Little Boy Blue
Since he kissed them and put them there.
Though part of childhood’s magic is its quality of vanishment, one of the primal goals for childhood is a foundation pleasant of memories free of heavy concerns that often laden adults. It’s a time of imagination and innocence often lacking in the structure of practicality, economics or efficiency.
Yet to have the child perform the way a parent wants is often agenda sacred. In numerous ways are parents guilty of robbing a child and often times in ways that can’t be easily repaid. The following lines but share the haunt that “parents have but a single chance to raise a child”.
“Tragedy”
Jill Spargur
I always wanted a red balloon,
It only cost a dime,
But Ma said it was risky,
They broke so quickly,
And besides, she didn’t have time;
And even if she did, she didn’t
Think they were worth a dime.
We lived on a farm, and I only went
To one circus and fair,
And all the balloons I ever saw
Were there.
There were yellow ones and blue ones,
But the kind I liked the best
Were red, and I don’t see why
She couldn’t have stopped and said
That maybe I could have one—
But she didn’t I suppose that now
You can buy them anywheres,
And that they still sell red ones
At circuses and fairs.
I got a little money saved;
I got a lot of time,
I got no one to tell me how to spend my dime;
Plenty of balloons but somehow
There’s something died inside of me,
And I don’t want one now.
Chapters
Pages
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About the author
The author has had an identified interest in writing since one of his grandmothers recognized his writing skill during his teens. Having been orphaned at 12 years of age, he began living with his mother’s parents. Later in college he studied Sociology and English, then spent a couple of years in humanitarian service in New Zealand, and a year of active military service during the Berlin Crisis. Upon college graduation, he taught high school English for several years, then pursued a Master’s degree in Social Work, followed by over thirty years as a clinical social worker and writer/editor for a state health department.
He has had a life-long drive in recording beautiful and meaningful quotes and poems which have helped mold his writing interests and have subsequently found their way into a number of books in his retirement years.
He has a love of the gospel of Jesus Christ; but in his concern over the general decline in scripture reading, and the fact that the average reading level is now below the Jr. high school level; therefore, he has had a major focus on and has spent decades in making scripture reading much more clear for the reader, while maintaining the integrity of original text.
He also has a rather palpable love of people, nature, adventure, music and literature, which is reflected in his writings. He is the father of five grown children, and is currently living with his wife and their aged cat.
Sterling H. Redd, Sr.
