The earth

This piece by Canadian poet Archibald Lampman is a great evocation of the earth, the transience of life, and the endless amount of types of beauty in the natural world. It has a great ghostly feeling to it, with a real sense of danger--not dramatic danger, but the real, supreme danger of death. Of death's inevitability. 

BALLADE OF SUMMER'S SLEEP.

Sweet summer is gone; they have laid her away—The last sad hours that were touched with her grace—In the hush where the ghosts of the dead flowers play;The sleep that is sweet of her slumbering spaceLet not a sight or a sound eraseOf the woe that hath fallen on all the lands:Gather ye, dreams, to her sunny face,Shadow her head with your golden hands.

The woods that are golden and red for a dayGirdle the hills in a jewelled case,Like a girl's strange mirth, ere the quick death slayThe beautiful life that he hath in chase.Darker and darker the shadows paceOut of the north to the southern sands,Ushers bearing the winter's mace:Keep them away with your woven hands.

The yellow light lies on the wide wastes gray,More bitter and cold than the winds that race,From the skirts of the autumn, tearing away,This way and that way, the woodland lace.In the autumn's cheek is a hectic trace;Behind her the ghost of the winter stands;Sweet summer will moan in her soft gray place:Mantle her head with your glowing hands.

Envoi.

Till the slayer be slain and the spring displaceThe might of his arms with her rose-crowned bands,Let her heart not gather a dream that is base:Shadow her head with your golden hands.

Forests

Canadian poet Archibald Lampman [1861-1899] wrote some interesting work, especially this yearning, dream you want to visit of fall or winter in the countryside:

IN NOVEMBER.

The hills and leafless forests slowly yieldTo the thick-driving snow. A little whileAnd night shall darken down. In shouting fileThe woodmen's carts go by me homeward-wheeled,Past the thin fading stubbles, half concealed,Now golden-grey, sowed softly through with snow,Where the last ploughman follows still his row,Turning black furrows through the whitening field.

Far off the village lamps begin to gleam,Fast drives the snow, and no man comes this way;The hills grow wintery white, and bleak winds moanAbout the naked uplands. I aloneAm neither sad, nor shelterless, nor grey,Wrapped round with thought, content to watch and dream.

D.H.

The English writer D.H. Lawrence [1885-1930] is someone with a particular reputation, and especially famous for his novels. He's also a very interesting poet--try this piece below. More and other poets here.

SCENT OF IRISES

A faint, sickening scent of irises Persists all morning. Here in a jar on the table A fine proud spike of purple irises Rising above the class-room litter, makes me unable To see the class's lifted and bended faces Save in a broken pattern, amid purple and gold and sable. I can smell the gorgeous bog-end, in its breathless Dazzle of may-blobs, when the marigold glare overcast You with fire on your brow and your cheeks and your chin as you dipped Your face in your marigold bunch, to touch and contrast Your own dark mouth with the bridal faint lady-smocks Dissolved in the golden sorcery you should not outlast. You amid the bog-end's yellow incantation, You sitting in the cowslips of the meadows above, —Me, your shadow on the bog-flame, flowery may-blobs, Me full length in the cowslips, muttering you love— You, your soul like a lady-smock, lost, evanescent, You, with your face all rich, like the sheen on a dove—! [Pg 77] You are always asking, do I remember, remember The buttercup bog-end where the flowers rose up And kindled you over deep with a coat of gold? You ask again, do the healing days close up The open darkness which then drew us in, The dark that swallows all, and nought throws up. You upon the dry, dead beech-leaves, in the fire of night Burnt like a sacrifice;—you invisible— Only the fire of darkness, and the scent of you! —And yes, thank God, it still is possible The healing days shall close the darkness up Wherein I breathed you like a smoke or dew. Like vapour, dew, or poison. Now, thank God, The golden fire has gone, and your face is ash Indistinguishable in the grey, chill day, The night has burnt you out, at last the good Dark fire burns on untroubled without clash Of you upon the dead leaves saying me yea.

H.D.

H.D. [1886-1961], the famous American female Imagist/Modernist poet Hilda Doolittle [usually referred to with her initials], is one that is not often celebrated. Her work is incredible, often about the ancient world of Greece and Rome, and has an intense 'visual' aspect. For more, read here.

ORION DEAD

[Artemis speaks]

The cornel-trees uplift from the furrows, the roots at their bases strike lower through the barley-sprays. So arise and face me. I am poisoned with the rage of song. I once pierced the flesh of the wild-deer, now am I afraid to touch the blue and the gold-veined hyacinths? I will tear the full flowers and the little heads of the grape-hyacinths. I will strip the life from the bulb until the ivory layers lie like narcissus petals on the black earth. Arise, lest I bend an ash-tree into a taut bow, and slay—and tear all the roots from the earth. The cornel-wood blazes and strikes through the barley-sprays, but I have lost heart for this. I break a staff. I break the tough branch. I know no light in the woods. I have lost pace with the winds.

Spring materializes

As winter leaves us, it's depths seem more appealing than they used to be. That strange twilight of clouded winter days, that mist in the woods filled with snow, it's very unique. It's like a dream and yet an adventure that you're not sure you want to venture into. Hiking short trails in the winter can be a really fun experience, the atmosphere really cannot be reproduced anywhere else. 

One poem this brings to mind is the famous American poet Robert Frost's [1874-1963] "Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening"--here are more poems of his, and to hear/listen more of his work look here; his most famous poems also include "The Road Not Taken" and "Fire and Ice". Frost won four Pulitzers for poetry.

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

Edith

Famous American writer [though she lived in Europe for large parts of her life] Edith Wharton [1862-1937] is an acquired taste. Her society-satirizing novels are about a very particular set of upper class aristocrats in the mid-1800s, and they can sometimes be hard to get into. In a sense, she 'teaches' a lesson in her novels, or at least points out some problems with the societal rules of that time period.

Her poetry, however, is a great way to get into pre-1800 verse. Here's one example, look here for more:
"Aeropagus" [from the Atlantic Monthly 45 (Mar. 1880): 335.]

WHERE suns chase suns in rhythmic dance,
Where seeds are springing from the dust,
Where mind sways mind with spirit-glance,
High court is held, and law is just.
 

No hill alone, a sovereign bar;
Through space the fiery sparks are whirled
That draw and cling, and shape a star, --
That burn and cool, and form a world
 

Whose hidden forces hear a voice
That leads them by a perfect plan:
"Obey," it cries, "with steadfast choice,
Law shall complete what law began.
 

"Refuse, -- behold the broken arc,
The sky of all its stars despoiled;
The new germ smothered in the dark,
The snow-pure soul with sin assoiled."
 

The voice still saith, "While atoms weave
Both world and soul for utmost joy,
Who sins must suffer, -- no reprieve;
The law that quickens must destroy."

Fun reading

While usually LitNav focuses on classic, beautiful prose and poetry, there is no denying that reading for pure, simple fun is also amazing. Some people enjoy YA literature, others like Amish romance, some read sci-fi or mystery series, or even fanfic.

Others plow through all the Tom Clancys and Clive Cusslers, or turn to super long epics like Neal Stephenson, Follett, Paul Anderson, Russian classics Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky and James Joyce's epic Irish novels. For nature lovers, getting your hands on copies of Thoreau's seasonal journals is worth it. They are very long and immerse you in the beauty of nature.

While Pynchon counts, there are so many times when people want to turn their minds off and enjoy a great story without using any critical thinking. It's fun to enjoy stories as they wash over you. Gothic favorites like dreamy, macabre yet elegant Anne Rice are fun. For more esoteric work, try the incredible Scarlet Imprint Press for interesting, complex books about the intangible world and historical magic and religious traditions.

Other light books to try are the slim, comic Jeeves and Wooster books and the Nero Wolfe mysteries by Rex Stout. The early Janet Evanovich romantic adventures with Stephanie Plum can be enjoyable. The long list of Ludlum's Jason Bourne books are a great, fun series as is the perhaps opposite one of Anne of Green Gables.