Ring Out, Wild Bells

Listen to:

Ring Out, Wild Bells (1:46)

by Alfred, Lord Tennyson 

performed by Bob Gonzalez, rhapsode

Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
   The flying cloud, the frosty light:
   The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.

Ring out the old, ring in the new,
   Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
   The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.

Ring out the grief that saps the mind
   For those that here we see no more;
   Ring out the feud of rich and poor,
Ring in redress to all mankind.

Ring out a slowly dying cause,
   And ancient forms of party strife;
   Ring in the nobler modes of life,
With sweeter manners, purer laws.

Ring out the want, the care, the sin,
   The faithless coldness of the times;
   Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes
But ring the fuller minstrel in.

Ring out false pride in place and blood,
   The civic slander and the spite;
   Ring in the love of truth and right,
Ring in the common love of good.

Ring out old shapes of foul disease;
   Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;
   Ring out the thousand wars of old,
Ring in the thousand years of peace.

Ring in the valiant man and free,
   The larger heart, the kindlier hand;
   Ring out the darkness of the land,
Ring in the Christ that is to be.

In Drear-Nighted December

Listen to:

In Drear-Nighted December (:59)

by John Keats 

performed by Bob Gonzalez, rhapsode

In drear nighted December,
   Too happy, happy tree,
Thy branches ne’er remember
   Their green felicity—
The north cannot undo them
With a sleety whistle through them
Nor frozen thawings glue them
   From budding at the prime.

In drear-nighted December,
   Too happy, happy brook,
Thy bubblings ne’er remember
   Apollo’s summer look;
But with a sweet forgetting,
They stay their crystal fretting,
Never, never petting
   About the frozen time.

Ah! would ‘twere so with many
   A gentle girl and boy—
But were there ever any
   Writh’d not of passed joy?
The feel of not to feel it,
When there is none to heal it
Nor numbed sense to steel it,
   Was never said in rhyme.

Jack Frost

Listen to:

Jack Frost (1:20)

by Cotton Noe 

performed by Bob Gonzalez, rhapsode

In a pixy chariot, drawn,

Not by deer, but elfin fawn,

Thou hast come, Jack Frost and gone.
Silently, unheralded,

O'er the earth thy chariot sped;

Dear Jack Frost, where hast thou fled?
Thou the child's and poet's friend,

Brings't us blessings without end,

Joys the world can not transcend.
Naught but beauty now remains—

Flowers, ferns and fairy fanes,

Wrought upon the window panes;
Fields and forests all aglow,—

Colors only thou dost know:

How the heart doth overflow!
Purple clusters thine and mine,

Winter-wild and muscadine,

Bursting with the wine of vine!
Haws, persimmons, berries red,

Nuts the earth have overspread—

Dear Jack Frost, why hast thou fled?
Old Chris we hail with all his boast,

His jolly fun and merry cost,

But oh, we love Jack Frost, Jack Frost!

The Ice-King of the South

Listen to:

The Ice-King of the South [excerpt] (1:44)

by Cotton Noe 

performed by Bob Gonzalez, rhapsode

He came, proud monarch of the Land of Snows,

Triumphant, in his argent chariot, decked

With jewels mined in regions of the polar zones!

He came! his fifty snowy steeds were swift

As howling north-winds, and their flowing manes

Were flecked with diamonds brighter than Brazilian stones!

He came! To celebrate his triumph, first

He spread a fleecy mantle o'er the earth—

A frozen shroud symbolic of the Death he wrought.

And then to every pendent branch he hung

A glittering sword,—the tyrant's right to rule,—

Demanding greater homage than ever warrior sought.
More brilliant pageant than the Ice-King's in

The Land of Flowers, never graced return

Of oriental monarch from victorious wars.

But oh! beneath the sparkle and the gleam

Of crystal beauty beats an icy heart,

And a sullen silence his splendid triumph mars;

The waterfalls that leap from jutting ledge

In happy song, are speechless as the tomb,

And every melody that haunts the woods and streams

Has vanished from the earth, and Nature's voice

That erstwhile woke the matin in the mead

Is silent now as music of forgotten dreams.


Winter

Listen to:

Winter (:57)

by Robert Southey 

performed by Bob Gonzalez, rhapsode

A wrinkled crabbed man they picture thee, 

Old Winter, with a rugged beard as grey 

As the long moss upon the apple-tree; 

Blue-lipt, an icedrop at thy sharp blue nose, 

Close muffled up, and on thy dreary way 

Plodding alone through sleet and drifting snows. 

They should have drawn thee by the high-heapt hearth, 

Old Winter! seated in thy great armed chair, 

Watching the children at their Christmas mirth; 

Or circled by them as thy lips declare 

Some merry jest, or tale of murder dire, 

Or troubled spirit that disturbs the night, 

Pausing at times to rouse the mouldering fire, 

Or taste the old October brown and bright.

Frost at Midnight

Listen to:

Frost at Midnight [excerpt] (1:07)

by Samuel Taylor Coleridge 

performed by Bob Gonzalez, rhapsode

The Frost performs its secret ministry,

Unhelped by any wind. The owlet’s cry

Came loud--and hark, again! loud as before.

The inmates of my cottage, all at rest,

Have left me to that solitude, which suits

Abstruser musings: save that at my side

My cradled infant slumbers peacefully.

’Tis calm indeed! so calm, that it disturbs

And vexes meditation with its strange

And extreme silentness. Sea, hill, and wood,

This populous village! Sea, and hill, and wood,

With all the numberless goings-on of life,

Inaudible as dreams! the thin blue flame

Lies on my low-burnt fire, and quivers not;

Only that film, which fluttered on the grate,

Still flutters there, the sole unquiet thing.


Hallow'd Season

Listen to:

Hallow’d Season (:32)

by William Shakespeare

performed by Bob Gonzalez, rhapsode

Some say that ever 'gainst that season comes
Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated,
The bird of dawning singeth all night long:
And then, they say, no spirit dares stir abroad;
The nights are wholesome; then no planets strike,
No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm,
So hallow'd and so gracious is the time.

Marcellus in Hamlet, Act I, Scene 1

Winter

Listen to:

Winter (:46)

by Walter de la Mare 

performed by Bob Gonzalez, rhapsode

 Clouded with snow 

The cold winds blow, 

And shrill on leafless bough 

The robin with its burning breast 

Alone sings now. 



The rayless sun,

Day's journey done, 

Sheds its last ebbing light 

On fields in leagues of beauty spread 

Unearthly white. 



Thick draws the dark, 

And spark by spark, 

The frost-fires kindle, and soon 

Over that sea of frozen foam 

Floats the white moon.

Winter-Time

Listen to:

Winter-Time (1:08)

by Robert Louis Stevenson 

performed by Bob Gonzalez, rhapsode

Late lies the wintry sun a-bed, 

A frosty, fiery sleepy-head; 

Blinks but an hour or two; and then, 

A blood-red orange, sets again. 



Before the stars have left the skies, 

At morning in the dark I rise; 

And shivering in my nakedness, 

By the cold candle, bathe and dress. 



Close by the jolly fire I sit 

To warm my frozen bones a bit; 

Or with a reindeer-sled, explore 

The colder countries round the door. 



When to go out, my nurse doth wrap 

Me in my comforter and cap; 

The cold wind burns my face, and blows 

Its frosty pepper up my nose. 



Black are my steps on silver sod; 

Thick blows my frosty breath abroad; 

And tree and house, and hill and lake, 

Are frosted like a wedding cake.

Jack Frost

Listen to:

Jack Frost (1:36)

by Gabriel Setoun 

performed by Bob Gonzalez, rhapsode

The door was shut, as doors should be,

Before you went to bed last night;

Yet Jack Frost has got in, you see,

And left your window silver white.
He must have waited till you slept;

And not a single word he spoke,

But pencilled o'er the panes and crept

Away again before you woke.
And now you cannot see the hills

Nor fields that stretch beyond the lane;

But there are fairer things than these

His fingers traced on every pane.
Rocks and castles towering high;

Hills and dales, and streams and fields;

And knights in armor riding by,

With nodding plumes and shining shields.
And here are little boats, and there

Big ships with sails spread to the breeze;

And yonder, palm trees waving fair

On islands set in silver seas,
And butterflies with gauzy wings;

And herds of cows and flocks of sheep;

And fruit and flowers and all the things

You see when you are sound asleep.
For, creeping softly underneath

The door when all the lights are out,

Jack Frost takes every breath you breathe,

And knows the things you think about.
He paints them on the window-pane

In fairy lines with frozen steam;

And when you wake you see again

The lovely things you saw in dream.

True Poem of Riches

Listen to:

True Poem of Riches (1:29)

[excerpt from Starting from Paumanok]

by Walt Whitman

performed by Bob Gonzalez, rhapsode

I will make the true poem of riches,
To earn for the body and the mind whatever adheres and goes forward
    and is not dropt by death;
I will effuse egotism and show it underlying all, and I will be the
    bard of personality,
And I will show of male and female that either is but the equal of
    the other,
...

And I will show that there is no imperfection in the present, and
    can be none in the future,
And I will show that whatever happens to anybody it may be turn'd to
    beautiful results,
And I will show that nothing can happen more beautiful than death,
And I will thread a thread through my poems that time and events are
    compact,
And that all the things of the universe are perfect miracles, each
    as profound as any.

I will not make poems with reference to parts,
But I will make poems, songs, thoughts, with reference to ensemble,
And I will not sing with reference to a day, but with reference to
    all days,
And I will not make a poem nor the least part of a poem but has
    reference to the soul,
Because having look'd at the objects of the universe, I find there
    is no one nor any particle of one but has reference to the soul.

Dead Poets, Philosophs, Priests

Listen to:

Dead Poets, Philosophs, Priests ()

 [excerpt from Starting from Paumanok]

by Walt Whitman

performed by Bob Gonzalez, rhapsode

Dead poets, philosophs, priests,
Martyrs, artists, inventors, governments long since,
Language-shapers on other shores,
Nations once powerful, now reduced, withdrawn, or desolate,
I dare not proceed till I respectfully credit what you have left
    wafted hither,
I have perused it, own it is admirable, (moving awhile among it,)
Think nothing can ever be greater, nothing can ever deserve more
    than it deserves,
Regarding it all intently a long while, then dismissing it,
I stand in my place with my own day here.

Starting from Paumanok

Listen to:

Starting from Paumanok [excerpt](1:27)

by Walt Whitman

performed by Bob Gonzalez, rhapsode

Starting from fish-shape Paumanok where I was born,
Well-begotten, and rais'd by a perfect mother,
After roaming many lands, lover of populous pavements,
Dweller in Mannahatta my city, or on southern savannas,
Or a soldier camp'd or carrying my knapsack and gun, or a miner
    in California,
Or rude in my home in Dakota's woods, my diet meat, my drink from
    the spring,
Or withdrawn to muse and meditate in some deep recess,
Far from the clank of crowds intervals passing rapt and happy,
Aware of the fresh free giver the flowing Missouri, aware of
    mighty Niagara,
Aware of the buffalo herds grazing the plains, the hirsute and
    strong-breasted bull,
Of earth, rocks, Fifth-month flowers experienced, stars, rain, snow,
    my amaze,
Having studied the mocking-bird's tones and the flight of the
    mountain-hawk,
And heard at dawn the unrivall'd one, the hermit thrush from the
    swamp-cedars,
Solitary, singing in the West, I strike up for a New World.

Poets to Come

Listen to:

Poets to Come (:55)

by Walt Whitman

performed by Bob Gonzalez, rhapsode

Poets to come! orators, singers, musicians to come!
Not to-day is to justify me and answer what I am for,
But you, a new brood, native, athletic, continental, greater than
    before known,
Arouse! for you must justify me.

I myself but write one or two indicative words for the future,
I but advance a moment only to wheel and hurry back in the darkness.

I am a man who, sauntering along without fully stopping, turns a
    casual look upon you and then averts his face,
Leaving it to you to prove and define it,
Expecting the main things from you.

I Hear America Singing

Listen to:

I Hear America Singing (1:14)

by Walt Whitman 

performed by Bob Gonzalez, rhapsode

I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear,
Those of mechanics, each one singing his as it should be blithe and strong,
The carpenter singing his as he measures his plank or beam,
The mason singing his as he makes ready for work, or leaves off work,
The boatman singing what belongs to him in his boat, the deckhand
    singing on the steamboat deck,
The shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench, the hatter singing as
    he stands,
The wood-cutter's song, the ploughboy's on his way in the morning,
    or at noon intermission or at sundown,
The delicious singing of the mother, or of the young wife at work,
    or of the girl sewing or washing,
Each singing what belongs to him or her and to none else,
The day what belongs to the day--at night the party of young
    fellows, robust, friendly,
Singing with open mouths their strong melodious songs.

One's Self I Sing

Listen to:

One's Self I Sing (:43)

by Walt Whitman 

performed by Bob Gonzalez, rhapsode

One's-self I sing, a simple separate person,
Yet utter the word Democratic, the word En-Masse.

Of physiology from top to toe I sing,
Not physiognomy alone nor brain alone is worthy for the Muse, I say
    the Form complete is worthier far,
The Female equally with the Male I sing.

Of Life immense in passion, pulse, and power,
Cheerful, for freest action form'd under the laws divine,
The Modern Man I sing.

Of English Verse

Listen to:

Of English Verse (1:49)

by Edmund Waller 

performed by Bob Gonzalez, rhapsode

     Poets may boast, as safely vain,
     Their works shall with the world remain:
     Both bound together, live or die,
     The verses and the prophecy.

     But who can hope his line should long
     Last, in a daily-changing tongue?
     While they are new, envy prevails;
     And as that dies our language fails.

     When architects have done their part,
     The matter may betray their art:
     Time, if we use ill-chosen stone,
     Soon brings a well-built palace down.

     Poets, that lasting marble seek,
     Must carve in Latin or in Greek:
     We write in sand, our language grows,
     And, like the tide, our work o'erflows.

     Chaucer his sense can only boast,
     The glory of his numbers lost!
     Years have defac't his matchless strain,
     And yet he did not sing in vain.

     The beauties which adorn'd that age,
     The shining subjects of his rage,
     Hoping they should immortal prove,
     Rewarded with success his love.

     This was the gen'rous poet's scope,
     And all an English pen can hope;
     To make the fair approve his flame,
     That can so far extend their fame.

     Verse thus design'd has no ill fate,
     If it arrive but at the date
     Of fading beauty, if it prove
     But as long-liv'd as present love.

No Platonic Love

Listen to:

No Platonic Love (1:36)

by William Cartwright 

performed by Bob Gonzalez, rhapsode

Tell me no more of minds embracing minds,
    And hearts exchang’d for hearts;
That spirits spirits meet, as winds do winds,
    And mix their subt’lest parts;
That two unbodied essences may kiss,
And then like Angels, twist and feel one Bliss.

I was that silly thing that once was wrought
    To practise this thin love;
I climb’d from sex to soul, from soul to thought;
    But thinking there to move,
Headlong I rolled from thought to soul, and then
From soul I lighted at the sex again.

As some strict down-looked men pretend to fast,
    Who yet in closets eat;
So lovers who profess they spirits taste,
    Feed yet on grosser meat;
I know they boast they souls to souls convey,
Howe’r they meet, the body is the way.

Come I will undeceive thee, they that tread
    Those vain aerial ways,
Are like young heirs and alchemists misled
    To waste their wealth and days,
For searching thus to be for ever rich,
They only find a med’cine for the itch.

Sonnet: To Science

Listen to:

Sonnet: To Science (:58)

by Edgar Allan Poe 

performed by Bob Gonzalez, rhapsode

Science! true daughter of Old Time thou art!
   Who alterest all things with thy peering eyes.
Why preyest thou thus upon the poet’s heart,
   Vulture, whose wings are dull realities?
How should he love thee? or how deem thee wise,
   Who wouldst not leave him in his wandering
To seek for treasure in the jewelled skies,
   Albeit he soared with an undaunted wing?
Hast thou not dragged Diana from her car,
   And driven the Hamadryad from the wood
To seek a shelter in some happier star?
   Hast thou not torn the Naiad from her flood,
The Elfin from the green grass, and from me
The summer dream beneath the tamarind tree?

I Remember, I Remember

Listen to:

I Remember, I Remember (1:19)

by Thomas Hood

performed by Bob Gonzalez, rhapsode

I remember, I remember,
The house where I was born,
The little window where the sun
Came peeping in at morn;
He never came a wink too soon,
Nor brought too long a day,
But now, I often wish the night
Had borne my breath away!

I remember, I remember,
The roses, red and white,
The vi'lets, and the lily-cups,
Those flowers made of light!
The lilacs where the robin built,
And where my brother set
The laburnum on his birthday,—
The tree is living yet!

I remember, I remember,
Where I was used to swing,
And thought the air must rush as fresh
To swallows on the wing;
My spirit flew in feathers then,
That is so heavy now,
And summer pools could hardly cool
The fever on my brow!

I remember, I remember,
The fir trees dark and high;
I used to think their slender tops
Were close against the sky:
It was a childish ignorance,
But now 'tis little joy
To know I'm farther off from heav'n
Than when I was a boy.

luburnum — noun

any of several small trees belonging to the genus Laburnum, of the legume family, having elongated clusters of pendulous yellow flowers, especially L. alpinum, the Scotch laburnum.

Silence

Listen to:

Silence (1:02)

by Thomas Hood

performed by Bob Gonzalez, rhapsode

There is a silence where hath been no sound,
   There is a silence where no sound may be,
   In the cold grave—under the deep deep sea,
Or in the wide desert where no life is found,
Which hath been mute, and still must sleep profound;
   No voice is hush’d—no life treads silently,
   But clouds and cloudy shadows wander free,
That never spoke, over the idle ground:
But in green ruins, in the desolate walls
   Of antique palaces, where Man hath been,
Though the dun fox, or wild hyena, calls,
   And owls, that flit continually between,
Shriek to the echo, and the low winds moan,
There the true Silence is, self-conscious and alone.

The Poets

Listen to:

The Poets (:57)

by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

performed by Bob Gonzalez, rhapsode

O ye dead Poets, who are living still

Immortal in your verse, though life be fled,

And ye, O living Poets, who are dead

Though ye are living, if neglect can kill,

Tell me if in the darkest hours of ill,

With drops of anguish falling fast and red

From the sharp crown of thorns upon your head,

Ye were not glad your errand to fulfil?

Yes; for the gift and ministry of Song

Have something in them so divinely sweet,

It can assuage the bitterness of wrong;

Not in the clamor of the crowded street,

Not in the shouts and plaudits of the throng,

But in ourselves, are triumph and defeat.

On the Departure of the Nightingale

Listen to:

On the Departure of the Nightingale (1:05)

by Charlotte Smith

performed by Bob Gonzalez, rhapsode

Sweet poet of the woods, a long adieu!
   Farewell soft mistrel of the early year!
Ah! ’twill be long ere thou shalt sing anew,
   And pour thy music on the night’s dull ear.
Whether on spring thy wandering flights await,
   Or whether silent in our groves you dwell,
The pensive muse shall own thee for her mate,
   And still protect the song she loves so well.
With cautious step the love-lorn youth shall glide
   Through the lone brake that shades thy mossy nest;
And shepherd girls from eyes profane shall hide
   The gentle bird who sings of pity best:
For still thy voice shall soft affections move,
And still be dear to sorrow and to love!

Poetry and Sorrow

Listen to:

Poetry and Sorrow (1:01)

by Charlotte Smith

performed by Bob Gonzalez, rhapsode

Should the lone wanderer, fainting on his way,
Rest for a moment of the sultry hours,
And, though his path through thorns and roughness lay,
Pluck the wild rose or woodbine's gadding flowers;
Weaving gay wreaths beneath some sheltering tree,
The sense of sorrow he awhile may lose:
So have I sought thy flowers, fair Poesy!
So charmed my way with friendship and the Muse.
But darker now grows life's unhappy day,
Dark with new clouds of evil yet to come;
Her pencil sickening Fancy throws away,
And weary Hope reclines upon the tomb,
And points my wishes to that tranquil shore,
Where the pale spectre, Care, pursues no more!



gad verb (used without object), gadded, gadding.
to move restlessly or aimlessly from one place to another: to gad about.

from Elegiac Sonnets and other Poems, by Charlotte Smith, 1797.

Ode on the Poets

Listen to:

Ode on the Poets (1:59)

by John Keats

performed by Bob Gonzalez, rhapsode

Bards of Passion and of Mirth,
Ye have left your souls on earth!
Have ye souls in heaven too,
Double-lived in regions new?
—Yes, and those of heaven commune      
With the spheres of sun and moon;
With the noise of fountains wond'rous
And the parle of voices thund'rous;
With the whisper of heaven's trees
And one another, in soft ease
Seated on Elysian lawns
Browsed by none but Dian's fawns;
Underneath large blue-bells tented,
Where the daisies are rose-scented,
And the rose herself has got
Perfume which on earth is not;
Where the nightingale doth sing
Not a senseless, trancèd thing,
But divine melodious truth;
Philosophic numbers smooth;
Tales and golden histories
Of heaven and its mysteries.

  Thus ye live on high, and then
On the earth ye live again;
And the souls ye left behind you
Teach us, here, the way to find you,
Where your other souls are joying,
Never slumber'd, never cloying.
Here, your earth-born souls still speak
To mortals, of their little week—
Of their sorrows and delights,
Of their passions and their spites,
Of their glory and their shame,
What doth strengthen and what maim:—
Thus ye teach us, every day,
Wisdom, though fled far away.

  Bards of Passion and of Mirth,
Ye have left your souls on earth!
Ye have souls in heaven too,
Double-lived in regions new!

The Grasshopper and the Cricket

Listen to:

The Grasshopper and the Cricket (1:04)

by Leigh Hunt

performed by Bob Gonzalez, rhapsode

Green little vaulter in the sunny grass,

  Catching your heart up at the feel of June,

  Sole voice that ’s heard amidst the lazy noon,

  When even the bees lag at the summoning brass;

And you, warm little housekeeper, who class
     
  With those who think the candles come too soon,

  Loving the fire, and with your tricksome tune

  Nick the glad silent moments as they pass;

O sweet and tiny cousins, that belong

  One to the fields, the other to the hearth,
     
  Both have your sunshine; both, though small, are strong

At your clear hearts; and both seem given to earth

  To sing in thoughtful ears this natural song,—

  In doors and out, summer and winter, Mirth.


December, 1816.


Written in the Vale of Health, Hampstead, and in companionship with that of Keats, on the same subject.

November

Listen to:

November (1:05)

by William Cullen Bryant

performed by Bob Gonzalez, rhapsode

Yet one smile more, departing, distant sun!
One mellow smile through the soft vapory air,
Ere, o’er the frozen earth, the loud winds run,
Or snows are sifted o’er the meadows bare.
One smile on the brown hills and naked trees,
And the dark rocks whose summer wreaths are cast,
And the blue gentian flower, that, in the breeze,
Nods lonely, of her beauteous race the last.
Yet a few sunny days, in which the bee
Shall murmur by the hedge that skirts the way,
The cricket chirp upon the russet lea,
And man delight to linger in thy ray.
Yet one rich smile, and we will try to bear
The piercing winter frost, and winds, and darkened air.