Poems for Birthdays

Birthdays are usually celebrated with a four-line ditty and a cake, but long before the Hill sisters composed the now ubiquitous birthday song (originally called "Good Morning to ll"! in the late nineteenth century, poets had been writing about birth" #homas #raherne, for e$ample, marked the occasion in "%alutation" by portraying the awe he felt at his own e$istence& "'rom (ust ) rise * nd out of +othing now awake"" Many poets use their birthdays as a moment for retrospection, for looking back o,er the past, or imagining the future" -oems about birthdays are often poems about the passing of time, about age, and an opportunity for change" .oyce %utphen, for e$ample, writes in "/rossroads"& #he second half of my life will be black to the white rind of the old and fading moon" #he second half of my life will be water o,er the cracked floor of these desert years" 0alter %a,age 1andor summed up 23 years in only four lines in the poem "4n His %e,enty-fifth Birthday"& ) stro,e with none5 for none was worth my strife, +ature ) lo,ed, and ne$t to +ature, rt5 ) warmed both hands before the fire of life, )t sinks, and ) am ready to depart" 0illiam Blake wrote numerous poems where he imagined his own birth, among them ")nfant .oy" and ")nfant %orrow," which contrast the 6oy of a parent at the birth of a new child to the sorrow the newborn feels upon entering this world" "-retty .oy7 %weet 6oy, but two days old" coos a parent in ")nfant .oy," against which the infant says in ")nfant %orrow"& My mother groaned, my father wept, )nto the dangerous world ) leapt5 Helpless, naked, piping loud, 1ike a fiend hid in a cloud" 1ike Blake, the twelfth century /hinese poet %u #ung-p8o, wrote a poem about birth to comment on the society that the child would be entering" )n his poem, "4n the Birth of his %on," for e$ample, he critici9ed the fact that the poor, no matter how intelligent, rarely rose to the top& 'amilies, when a child is born 0ant it to be intelligent" ), through intelligence, Ha,ing wrecked my whole life, 4nly hope the baby will pro,e )gnorant and stupid" #hen he will crown a tranquil life By becoming a /abinet Minister"

4f course, poets ha,e also been drawn to write about the birthday tradition of gi,ing gifts" %yl,ia -lath, for e$ample, imagines that she:s unworthy of her gift in her dark poem " Birthday -resent"& 0hat is this, behind this ,eil, is it ugly, is it beautiful; )t is shimmering, has it breasts, has it edges; ) am sure it is unique, ) am sure it is 6ust what ) want" 0hen ) am quiet at my cooking ) feel it looking, ) feel it thinking ")s this the one ) am to appear for, )s this the elect one, the one with black eye-pits and a scar; 'inally, #hom Gunn e$pressed a unique, perhaps 'reudian birthday wish, when he wrote, in "Baby %ong"& 'rom the pri,ate ease of Mother8s womb ) fall into the lighted room" 0hy don8t they simply put me back 0here it is warm and wet and black; 'or poems on birth consider the following& "1abor -ains" by <osano kiko ")nfant .oy" by 0illiam Blake ")nfant %orrow" by 0illiam Blake "#he ngel that -resided 48er My Birth" by 0illiam Blake " +ewborn Girl at -asso,er" by +an /ohen "Baby %ong" by #hom Gunn "Happy Birthday" by #ed =ooser "%eal 1ullaby" by >udyard =ipling "4n His %e,enty-'ifth Birthday" by 0alter %a,age 1andor "#he Birthnight" by 0alter de la Mare "#o Miss /harlotte -ulteney, in Her Mother8s rms" by mbrose -hilips "Morning %ong" by %yl,ia -lath "#he Birthday -resent" by %yl,ia -lath "/rossroads" by .oyce %utphen "#he %alutation" by #homas #raherne "%weet and 1ow" by 1ord lfred #ennyson "4n the Birth of His %on" by %u #ung-p8o - %ee more at& https&**www"poets"org*,iewmedia"php*prmM)(*3?@ABsthash"@4%>$<qC"dpuf