"Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing" by Robert Robinson

"Then Samuel took a stone, and set it between Mizpeh and Shen, and called the name of it Ebenezer, saying, 'Hitherto hath the Lord helped us.'" So reads 1 Samuel 7:12 in the King James Version of the Bible. Robert Robinson (1735-1790) wrote the words of the following hymn in 1758:


COME, THOU FOUNT OF EVERY BLESSING

Come, thou Fount of every blessing,
   Tune my heart to sing thy grace;
Streams of mercy, never ceasing,
   Call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet,
   Sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mount! I'm fixed upon it,
   Mount of thy redeeming love.

Here I raise mine Ebenezer;
   Hither by thy help I'm come;
And I hope, by thy good pleasure,
   Safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
   Wandering from the fold of God;
He, to rescue me from danger,
   Interposed his precious blood.

O to grace how great a debtor
   Daily I'm constrained to be!
Let thy goodness, like a fetter,
   Bind my wandering heart to thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
   Prone to leave the God I love;
Here's my heart, O take and seal it,
   Seal it for thy courts above.

Robert Robinson

Related post: Chris Rice sings "Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing"

Chris Rice - "Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing" (words by Robert Robinson)

An Old World Blessing (Anonymous)

AN OLD WORLD BLESSING

May there always be work for your hands to do.

May your purse always hold a coin or two.

May the sun shine on your windowpane.

May a rainbow be certain to follow each rain.

May the hand of a friend always be near you.

May God fill your heart with gladness to cheer you.

In the language of flowers,
the symbolic meaning of the chrysanthemum
is cheerfulness.

♫ Enya - "May it be" (lyrics) ♫

Two Poems by F. Scott Fitzgerald

On this day in 1896 American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald was born in Saint Paul, Minnesota. In This Side of Paradise (1920), the first novel that he wrote, there are "A Poem that Eleanor Sent Amory Several Years Later" and "A Poem Amory Sent to Eleanor and Which He Called 'Summer Storm'." To read the poem that Eleanor sent Amory, click here. To read the poem that Amory sent to Eleanor and which he called "Summer Storm," click here.

Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (1896-1940)

"The Final Say: Labor of Love" by Monty Gilmer

THE FINAL SAY

by Monty Gilmer

Quotations I have paired up for comparison

   Labor of Love

     Paul wrote, "We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers; remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labor of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father; knowing, brethren beloved of God, your election."

     THE BIBLE:

     1 Thessalonians 1:2-4 (King James Version)

     Do not hire a man who does your work for money, but him who does it for love of it.

     HENRY DAVID THOREAU (1817-1862)

     American writer

Henry David Thoreau

"Where Go the Boats?" by Robert Louis Stevenson

Yesterday I posted a video of Jordan Harling reading the classic poem "Paper Boats" by Rabindranath Tagore. That poem is good for children. Here is another poem about boats, a poem from A Child's Garden of Verses (1885) by Robert Louis Stevenson. A Child's Garden of Verses is a small collection of poems evoking the world and feelings of childhood.


WHERE GO THE BOATS?

Dark brown is the river,
   Golden is the sand.
It flows along for ever,
    With trees on either hand.

Green leaves a-floating,
   Castles of the foam,
Boats of mine a-boating --
   Where will all come home?

On goes the river
   And out past the mill,
Away down the valley,
   Away down the hill.

Away down the river,
   A hundred miles or more,
Other little children
   Shall bring my boats ashore.

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894)

Scottish author

"Paper Boats" by Rabindranath Tagore | Jordan Harling Reads

"Ave Maria" by Frank O'Hara : Poets.org

To read the poem "Ave Maria" by American poet Frank O'Hara (1926-1966), click here.

Frank O'Hara

Song: "Maria" from West Side Story

"The Walrus and the Carpenter" by Lewis Carroll | Jordan Harling Reads

"Richard Cory" by Edwin Arlington Robinson | Jordan Harling Reads

Quotation from Kurt Vonnegut: "Be soft. . . . "

To read about Kurt Vonnegut (1922-2007), click here.

"Sleeping on My Side" by Billy Collins : The Atlantic Magazine

American poet Billy Collins's most recent collection is The Rain in Portugal (2016). He served as the U.S. poet laureate from 2001 to 2003. To read his poem "Sleeping on My Side" in the October 2017 issue of The Atlantic, click here.

Billy Collins

(Photo by Steven Kovich)

Quotation: The Hurricane

Here, translated by Alida Malkus, is a quotation from Puerto Rican poet Pales Matos.

When the hurricane unfolds
Its fierce accordion of winds,
On the tip of its toes,
Agile dancer, it sweeps whirling
Over the carpeted surface of the sea
With the scattered branches of the palm.

Three Poems by Henry David Thoreau

Here are three short, untitled poems by American writer Henry David Thoreau. Each of two of these poems contains six words; and each of the lines of the third poem, a twelve-word couplet, is a complete sentence of six words.


Better wait
Than be too late.

     ~

The chicadee
Hops near to me.

     ~

In the East fames are won,
In the West deeds are done.


Source of the three poems: The Complete Poetical Works of Henry David Thoreau (2015), written by Henry David Thoreau

Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)

To read a biography of Thoreau, click here.

Song ("All day I hear the noise of waters") by James Joyce

The sea has many faces, many moods. Here is an untitled poem about the noise of waters. This poem is a song from Chamber Music (1907), a collection of poems by James Joyce. The sounds of wind and wave in never-ending ebb and flow chill Joyce with sadness.


All day I hear the noise of waters
   Making moan,
Sad as the sea-bird is when, going
   Forth alone,
He hears the winds cry to the water's
   Monotone.

The grey winds, the cold winds are blowing
   Where I go.
I hear the noise of many waters
   Far below,
All day, all night, I hear them flowing
   To and fro.

James Joyce (1882-1941)

To read a biography of Joyce, click here.

"Indeed, Indeed I Cannot Tell" by Henry David Thoreau | Jordan Harling Reads

Untitled poem ("I mark the summer's swift decline") by Henry David Thoreau

Here is an untitled poem from The Complete Poetical Works of Henry David Thoreau (2015), written by Henry David Thoreau.

I mark the summer's swift decline
The springing sward its grave clothes weaves
Whose rustling woods the gales confine
The aged year turns on its couch of leaves.
Oh could I catch the sounds remote
Could I but tell to human ear --
The strains which on the breezes float
And sing the requiem of the dying year.

Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)

American writer