F is for "For Auld Lang Syne"

 Sorry, full post tomorrow!

A to Z 2026: "Ethereal minstrel! pilgrim of the sky!" (To the Skylark) by William Wordsworth (~1800)

"Ethereal minstrel! pilgrim of the sky!" (To the Skylark) by William Wordsworth (~1800)

Bonus: 

It is pretty ethereal. My cay is very interested.

Summary: Do birds like the ground, or not? They sure are pretty.

Content:

10 feet, ABABCC. (It's a sestain?)

I guess it's fine? Verse one kind of raises a question, but verse two opens with the (seemingly ever popular) "whatever bird vs the nightingale" theme that seems to pop up a lot. 2/5

A to Z 2026: Dies Irae by (maybe) Thomas of Celano (~1250, or not)

 Dies Irae

Bonus: 

I think the Mozart is more popular, but I prefer Verdi's. Those little bassoon runs...

Summary: Day of Wrath

Commentary: Surprisingly, not "D is for Drinking."

Let's get the song out of the way first. Besides the Verdi requiem, there's also Mozart's:

More of a "plotting villain" feel.

And the chant:

For your funeral mass.

Mostly 8 foot stanzas (my Latin syllable counting is probably off). Each verse rhymes with itself (AAA, BBB, etc.)

Lyrically, I think the first person urgency is what sticks out here:

What shall I, frail man, be pleading?

Who for me be interceding,

When the just are mercy needing?

Quid sum miser tunc dicturus?
Quem patronum rogaturus,
Cum vix iustus sit securus? 

There are plenty of first person hymns and salvation/judgement ones ("Amazing Grace" is both), but none with this level of desperation. 5/5 if you do the Verdi, other scores depending on accompaniment, or lack there of.

A to Z 2026: "Cheer up, my mates, the wind does fairly blow" by Abraham Cowley (1806)

 "Cheer up, my mates, the wind does fairly blow"

Bonus: 

Not the chair, but related.

Summary: Drinking in a historically significant chair.

Commentary:

It's possible I'm just changing the theme to drinking songs...

I like the opening where he explains where the poem would be said. It's like when someone writes POV: You're... today.

Mostly rhyming AABB... etc. The number of lines per stanza is inconsistent. Mostly 10 foot lines. I think it'd benefit from a refrain. 

I'm just impressed someone managed a page and a half all about a chair. 3/5

A to Z 2026: BEER! ("Beer bring I to thee..." and "Back and Side go Bare")

 B is for Beer!

Bonus: 

Beer, beer, and MORE BEER!

Summary: Poets like beer.

Commentary: So, one of the idiosyncrasies of  doing A to Z out of the index is that I'm seeing a lot of repeats. Today I had a lot of "bless" and "bonnie" poems to pick from. Beer isn't the kind of thing I normally think of when I think of poetry, and because it kind of surprised me I'm going to do two poems today (already breaking my rules on day 2).

"Beer bring I to thee..." is a long song? from the middle of one of the sagas. I haven't read much of them, but it feels similar to the Greek epics. It's got some kennings like Beowulf (Learnt for ship's saving,/For the good health of the swimming horse;) I don't see any particular rhyme or meter. Lots of references to to beer, ale, mead, etc. It's fine, I guess. A poem in the middle of a chapter in the middle of a larger piece is going to be weird.

"Back and Side go Bare" feels like it needs to be sung. I don't really see how to bridge the last two lines of the refrain (Whether-enough), but it's fun. 

The verses mostly alternate between 7 and 8 feet, and the 1st and 3rd lines rhme.

It's mostly just a fun drinking song. 4/5. 

A to Z 2026: "A Tragic Fragment" (All villain as I am...) by ROBERT BURNS!? (~1786)

Link

Bonus: 

I really respect this guy's beard.

Summary: I may be a bad guy, but at least I'm not oppressing all of society.

Commentary: (Long ramble on organization at the bottom.)

Returning readers from two years ago may remember my unending hatred of Robert Burns (Eliot's favorite, or at least most featured, poet). The irony of picking one of his poems to start the month is vaguely amusing.

Someone could make a play at turning this into an 18th century villain song, I think. "Sure, I murdered and stole more than anyone else... EXCEPT THE REAL VILLAIN, THE KING!" We'll have Simon Templeman do it. Or Tim Curry.

The lines are mostly (depending on how you over/under pronounce certain parts) 10 syllables.  You can read it in Iambic Pentameter (unstressed-STRESSED x5) I guess, but it doesn't seem to flow that well for me. I don't think there's any particular rhyme scheme.

There's not a ton of flowery poetic language here. I don't think that children is necessarily literal in, "I view the helpless children of distress," but invoking children is effective.

Similarly, "Ev'n you, ye hapless crew! I pity you;/Ye, whom the seeming good think sin to pity" is more general than a crew of sailors, but it gives some imagery. 

The social commentary is pretty straight forward, God/society harms more people than even the worst individual villain. It's a fair message, and communicated well enough.

All in all: Fun, readable, and reasonable social commentary. 4/5 on the poem scale (much less judgy than the traditional classics scale.

Plan for this run is fairly simple:

1. Grab the first line index and pick a poem.

2. Read it, and try not to be a hater.

3. Attempt to do poetry analysis both technically (meter and rhyme and stuff) and artistically (imagery, theme, etc.)

4. Mini Review

One thing that's nice about this round is I can find most of the poems just by searching the titles online. Normally, I have to cross reference different PDFs and stuff.

I think I'm going to focus on one poem a day, so that I actually have to look at/think about it, rather than speed running 3 or 4 like I normally would for short pieces.

I'm pleased by the relatively loose definition of "poem" the index uses, including things like poetic monologues in the plays.

I'm not checking authors or anything before I grab the poems, so we'll have to see if there are any interesting trends.

I wrote my wife a letter tonight.

 You should all go write more letters. Very classic thing to do.