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A poem for Burns Night
So many of Scotland's people were torn away from their homeland, and this poem by Rabbie Burns reflects their heartache...
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Midwinter hope
It’s been a while (six months, in fact!) since I posted my tribute to Edward Thomas’ Adlestrop, and the season has now rolled around from midsummer to midwinter. I can’t resist the opportunity to publish what is possibly my favourite poem of all time: ‘The Darkling Thrush’ by Thomas Hardy. It paints a vivid picture of a landscape in the icy grip of winter; death and desolation reign, but the gloom is pierced by an unexpected ray of hope. This is something that speaks to all of us as we struggle bleary-eyed on cold dark mornings, and then, a few meagre hours later, watch helplessly as the sun collapses below…
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An Adlestrop moment
I’m taking a bit of a diversion from my usual Hazel Tree topics because it’s late June. I think I’d better explain. There are lots of poems that I admire, and while I was remembering some of them recently it occurred to me that most of them are connected with the seasons. And every summer, around about now, the words of Edward Thomas’s ‘Adlestrop’ are going round in my head, and I’m looking for my Adlestrop moment. Not every summer has one of these, but when it happens you just have to stop and enjoy it. It doesn’t have to be late June, but it’s even better if it…
The Hazel Tree
by Jo Woolf
