Roger Boyle, Baron Broghill, Lord Orrery, b. 1621. Pepys, the famous seventeenth century diarist, wrote of one of Lord Orrery’s plays:

. . . to the new play, at the Duke’s house, of ‘Henry the Fifth;’ a most noble play, writ by my Lord Orrery; wherein Betterton, Harris, and Ianthe’s parts are most incomparably wrote and done, and the whole play the most full of height and raptures of wit and sense, that ever I heard; having but one incongruity, or what did, not please me in it, that is, that King Harry promises to plead for Tudor to their Mistresse, Princesse Katherine of France, more than when it comes to it he seems to do; and Tudor refused by her with some kind of indignity, not with a difficulty and honour that it ought to have been done in to him.

I wonder how this play compares to Shakespeare’s Henry V, one of my favorite Shakespearean history plays?

John Keble, poet and churchman, b.1792.

A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come; but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world. St. John xvi. 21.

Well may I guess and feel
Why Autumn should be sad;
But vernal airs should sorrow heal,
Spring should be gay and glad:
Yet as along this violet bank I rove,
The languid sweetness seems to choke my breath,
I sit me down beside the hazel grove,
And sigh, and half could wish my weariness were death.

Like a bright veering cloud
Grey blossoms twinkle there,
Warbles around a busy crowd
Of larks in purest air.
Shame on the heart that dreams of blessings gone,
Or wakes the spectral forms of woe and crime,
When nature sings of joy and hope alone,
Reading her cheerful lesson in her own sweet time.

Nor let the proud heart say,
In her self-torturing hour,
The travail pangs must have their way,
The aching brow must lower.
To us long since the glorious Child is born
Our throes should be forgot, or only seem
Like a sad vision told for joy at morn,
For joy that we have waked and found it but a dream.

Walter de la Mare, b.1873. See Favorite Poets: Walter de la Mare. Also here, here, and here.

Maud Hart Lovelace, b.1892.
Sarah’s Library Hospital on Betsy-Tacy.

“From you have I been absent in the spring,
When proud-pied April dress’d in all his trim
Hath put a spirit of youth in every thing,
That heavy Saturn laugh’d and leap’d with him.
Yet nor the lays of birds nor the sweet smell
Of different flowers in odour and in hue
Could make me any summer’s story tell,
Or from their proud lap pluck them where they grew;
Nor did I wonder at the lily’s white,
Nor praise the deep vermilion in the rose;
They were but sweet, but figures of delight,
Drawn after you, you pattern of all those.
Yet seem’d it winter still, and, you away,
As with your shadow I with these did play.”
– William Shakespeare, Sonnet 98

Shakespearean resources from last year’s Shakespeare birthday post.

Poet of the Day: Wm. Shakespeare, of course.
11 poetry activities for today:
1. Read some Shakespeare in the original version.
2. Read Shakespeare in a modern English version.
3. Watch a play. Shakespeare Movies for the Family from Higher Up and Further In.
4. Memorize some of your favorite lines from Shakespeare.
5. Check out the Mental Multivitamin Bardolatry archives.
6. Find a live performance of one of Shakespeare’s plays to attend with your family.
7. Write or read a sonnet.
8. Read a biography or a historical nonfiction book about Shakespeare and his times.
9.Have some fun with Macbeth.
10. Answer these questions for a Shakespearean meme.

For a little humor, you might like this poem by Don Marquis about Shakespeare’s thwarted ambitions:

pete the parrot and shakespeare.

The English Room presents 30 Days of Poetry, a series of lessons on writing poetry for students in the middle grades. Students learn to write all sorts of poetry from cinquains to sestinas to concrete poems.

This poem by George Herbert, written in the 17th century, is a sort of a concrete poem, probably one of the earliest examples:

Poetry activity for today: Try writing a concrete poem.
Poet of the day: George Herbert, who was born on this date in 1593.

I’m becoming more and more fond of Mr. Herbert, as evidenced by these Herbert posts from the archives.

The Dawning by George Herbert.

The Sonne by George Herbert.

A Wreath by George Herbert.

More April 3 Birthdays.