Database of the Month: Grangers Poetry

Monthly Featured E-Resource: Grangers Poetry

Happy February! Are you looking for the perfect love poem? Try Columbia Granger’s World of Poetry, the online resource for thousands of full-text poems including biographical information about the poet. The database is searchable by poet, title, keyword and theme. Searching the word ‘valentine’ in the text, we found,

from Hamlet, IV,v (Ophelia sings)

‘Tomorrow is Saint Valentine's day,   

All in the morning betime,

And I a maid at your window,

To be your Valentine.’ 

Go to our Database links at http://www.bhplnj.org/databases/ to find our full-text poetry database and dozens of other online resources for research, homework and entertainment.

This post is an excerpt from this month's library newsletter, The Buzz, which can be found on our website  http://www.bhplnj.org/buzz/  You can subscribe to the newsletter as a monthly email by emailing reference at bhplnj dot org. Put 'Sign up for the Buzz' in the subject line. We don't sell our email list and we won't email you more than once a month with the Buzz, well, maybe twice with corrections or additions.

                                             

Happy Birthday, Mary Oliver

If this blog were a greeting card, it would have a 'happy belated birthday' option. I noticed that our post on Mary Oliver's poem 'Percy and Books' has really been trending on our usage statistics in the last week. That's because Ms. Oliver's birthday was Saturday, September 10. She is 81. Happy birthday to a wonderful, American poet! Here is the link to our post 'Percy and Books' about her dog Percy. What does Percy feel about books? Well, they aren't dog treats or a walk are they?

Percy and Books (Eight) by Mary Oliver

Spring at the Berkeley Heights Public Library

Winter into Spring, 

a slide show made with Animoto's free video maker app for iPad.

Just a few weeks ago, the Berkeley Heights Public Library, and most of New Jersey, was covered in snow. Now spring is beginning to appear as a few intrepid daffodil shoots poke up through the bare, muddy ground. The days are getting a little longer and a little warmer.
I searched our 'Columbia Granger's World of Poetry' database for a poem to express the feeling of relief that the winter of 2013 - 2014 is over. I found hundreds of poems about spring and April. Willliam Leighton's 'April' tells it like it is, don't you think?

'Gusty March is dead and gone!

 April heard his parting sighs,

 Smiling through her tearful eyes

At the sweet days coming on.'

There's more to this poem. To find this and other poems by first line, last line, subject or poet, search the Granger's Poetry database from our  'Databases and Articles' webpage. Type in your Berkeley Heights Library barcode number at the prompt.

  MLA
Leighton, William. “April.” Columbia Granger's World of Poetry Online. 2014. Columbia University Press. 4 Apr. 2014.

[Originally posted on this blog in April 2014 ]

The Thanksgiving Post

Every Thanksgiving for some years now, we have posted Thanksgiving cooking advice, jokes and a very long shaggy dog story, er shaggy turkey story? Here is the link to last years Thanksgiving post:
http://bhplnjbookgroup.blogspot.com/2013/11/which-side-of-turkey-has-most-feathers.html

In the interest of new blog content, here is an even newer bit to help our faithful blog readers and library patrons get in the holiday spirit: a Thankgiving poem from Granger's poetry database.

Poem: Thanksgiving Wishes

Author: Arthur Guiterman (1871–1943)

 I wish you all that pen and ink

—Could write, and then some more!

I hope you cannot even think

—Of half you're thankful for.

5

I hope your table holds a wealth

—Of prime Thanksgiving fare,

And Love and Peace and Joy and Health

—Will all be seated there.

I trust your guests will all be bright,

10

—But none of them too wise,

And each will bring an appetite

—For mince or pumpkin pies.

I hope the fowls will all be fat,

—The cider sweet to quaff,

15

And when you snap a Wishbone, that

—You'll win the larger half!

 MLA
Guiterman, Arthur. “Thanksgiving Wishes.” Columbia Granger's World of Poetry Online. 2014. Columbia University Press. 22 Nov. 2014. . 

To find this and 103  other full-text poems with the word "Thanksgiving' in the title, Berkeley Heights patrons can search our 'Columbia Granger's World of Poetry database.' All BHPL databases are linked to our 'Databases and Articles' page. Have your library card barcode handy to authenticate yourself so you can use Granger's and dozens of our other online research resources.

Decoration Day by H.W. Longfellow

Sleep, comrades, sleep and rest

On this Field of the Grounded Arms,

Where foes no more molest,

Nor sentry's shot alarms!

Ye have slept on the ground before,

And started to your feet

At the cannon's sudden roar,

Or the drum's redoubling beat.

But in this Camp of Death

No sound your slumber breaks;

Here is no fevered breath.

No wound that bleeds and aches.

All is repose and peace,

Untrampled lies the sod;

The shouts of battle cease,

It is the truce of God!

Flag on my front porch

Rest, comrades, rest and sleep!

The thoughts of men shall be

As sentinels to keep

Your rest from danger free.

Your silent tents of green

We deck with fragrant flowers;

Yours has the suffering been.

The memory shall be ours.

 Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth. “Decoration Day.” Columbia Granger's World of Poetry Online. 2012. Columbia University Press. 28 May. 2012. .

 

I found this poem by typing "Memorial Day" into the search box of 'Columbia Grangers World of Poetry', an online poetry resource available from the library's "Databases and Articles" page. In the U.S., Memorial Day was commonly called 'Decoration Day' until 1967. Searching Grangers yielded 70 poems, many full text. 

Watching '60 Minutes' tribute "Honoring Our Soldiers" last night put a human face on the wars the U.S. is waging now.  As the young soldiers struggled to describe their experiences, I thought about how poets, artists and authors have also attempted to express the feelings that wars evoke.

Percy and Books by Mary Oliver, a poem

This poem by Mary Oliver arrived in my email inbox today, appended to a notice from the Reference Department at Newark Public Library.

Percy and Books (Eight), by Mary Oliver

Percy does not like it when I read a book.
He puts his face over the top of it and moans.
He rolls his eyes, sometimes he sneezes.
The sun is up, he says, and the wind is down.
The tide is out and the neighbor's dogs are playing.
But Percy, I say, Ideas! The elegance of language!
The insights, the funniness, the beautiful stories
that rise and fall and turn into strength, or courage.
Books? says Percy. I ate one once, and it was enough. Let's go.

The poem is from Oliver's collection, Red Bird (2008)

I didn't mean to post poems two days in a row on the blog, but ironically, modern technology pushed me into into the world of poetry. Yesterday, I took a digital camera on my lunchtime walk, thinking I would make images that were absolutely copyright free to post on the blog. Then I used Grangers' Poetry database to find poems about (keyword) "woods" and chose a suitable poem to post, illustrated by my picture of the swampy area behind the library. Today, the New Jersey librarians' listserv brought me the usual array of notices, salespitches from publishers and bibliophilic chatter, some useful, but taken as a whole, mostly causing a strong feeling of Email Overload. Was it a reward to me for diligently going through my entire inbox, that one email brought this terrific poem? Proving that new means of communication are not incompatible with the old. Or maybe proving the adage, it's an ill wind that blows no good - even a surfeit of digital hot air in your inbox can bring a hidden gem.
PS: my Border Collie ate the dog obedience book that I borrowed from the first library I worked in.