Favourite poems

This is one of my favourites and has been since I was a child. I learned years later that it is also known as "Dutch Lullaby"; this was particularly significant for me because I have Dutch heritage on my mother's side.

Wynken, Blinken, and Nod one night
Sailed off in a wooden shoe.
Sailed on a river of misty light,
Into a sea of dew.
"Where are you going and what do you wish?"
The old moon asked the three.
"We are come to fish for the herring fish
That live in this beautiful sea.
Nets of silver and gold have we!"
Said Wynken, Blinken, and Nod.

The old moon laughed and sang a song
As they rocked in the wooden shoe.
And the wind that sped them all night long
Ruffled the waves of dew.
The little stars were the herring fish
That lived in the beautiful sea.
"Now cast your nets wherever you wish,
Never afeared are we!"
So cried the stars to the fishermen three,
Wynken, Blinken, and Nod.

All night long their nets they threw
To the stars in the twinkling foam.
Then down from the skies came the wooden shoe
Bringing the fishermen home.
'Twas all so pretty a sail, it seemed
As if it could not be.
And some folks thought 'twas a dream, they'd dreamed
Of sailing that beautiful sea.
But I shall name you the fishermen three,
Wynken, Blinken, and Nod.

Wynken and Blinken are two little eyes,
And Nod is a little head.
And the wooden shoe that sailed the skies
Is a wee one's trundle bed.
Now shut your eyes while Mother sings
Of wonderful sights that be.
And you shall see the beautiful things
As you rock in the misty sea
Where the old shoe rocked the fishermen three -
Wynken, Blinken, and Nod.

I love this poem which I first read in junior school. I love the words, and the way it conjures up images of the places mentioned in it.

Quinquireme of Nineveh from distant Ophir,
Rowing home to haven in sunny Palestine,
With a cargo of ivory,
And apes and peacocks,
Sandalwood, cedarwood, and sweet white wine.

Stately Spanish galleon coming from the Isthmus,
Dipping through the Tropics by the palm-green shores,
With a cargo of diamonds,
Emeralds, amythysts,
Topazes, and cinnamon, and gold moidores.

Dirty British coaster with a salt-caked smoke stack,
Butting through the Channel in the mad March days,
With a cargo of Tyne coal,
Road-rails, pig-lead,
Firewood, iron-ware, and cheap tin trays.

Lowering the tone somewhat but I just been reading and giggling at Pam Ayres - 'They should Have Asked My Husband'

From DDs 1 and 2 when they were early teens. DD1 wrote the poem and DD2 illustrated it:

For all your patient care,
For every anguished prayer,
For every gentle look,
For every step you took,
For every anxious night,
For every kindly light,
For tact with awkward ways,
For love on wayward day,
For hope when there was none,
For faith when hope was done,
For all you ever thought,
For all you ever wrought,
Today, and now, and here,
I thank my parents dear.

And I love this poem by Charlotte Mew:
I so liked Spring last year
Because you were here; –
The thrushes too –
Because it was these you so liked to hear –
I so liked you.

This year’s a different thing, –
I’ll not think of you.
But I’ll like the Spring because it is simply Spring
As the thrushes do.