<![CDATA[The Common Reader: Poetry by Heart]]>https://www.commonreader.co.uk/s/poetry-by-hearthttps://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!ky0b!,w_256,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe2c6a46d-baa9-4856-95df-1ac4a77fc908_709x709.pngThe Common Reader: Poetry by Hearthttps://www.commonreader.co.uk/s/poetry-by-heartSubstackSat, 11 Apr 2026 05:29:30 GMT<![CDATA[Prayer (I), George Herbert]]>https://www.commonreader.co.uk/p/prayer-i-george-herberthttps://www.commonreader.co.uk/p/prayer-i-george-herbertThu, 02 Apr 2026 15:54:17 GMTFor my third memorization, I chose Prayer (I) by Herbert, a poem I have been thinking about for many years. I am some hayfever (allergies to the Americans) so I sound a little rusty. In general, while I am delighted to be memorizing these great poems, I find the video inhibiting to recitation. I shall have to work on improving that. Here it is on YouTube. Full text below or at Poetry Foundation. I am working on ‘The Whitsun Weddings’ and as well as Gray’s ‘Elegy’ I want to memorize a Psalm or two.

I forgot to put the second memorization online, so you can find that here now. Richard Wilbur’s ‘Love Calls us to the Things of this World.’

Prayer the church’s banquet, angel’s age,

God’s breath in man returning to his birth,

The soul in paraphrase, heart in pilgrimage,

The Christian plummet sounding heav’n and earth

Engine against th’ Almighty, sinner’s tow’r,

Reversed thunder, Christ-side-piercing spear,

The six-days world transposing in an hour,

A kind of tune, which all things hear and fear;

Softness, and peace, and joy, and love, and bliss,

Exalted manna, gladness of the best,

Heaven in ordinary, man well drest,

The milky way, the bird of Paradise,

Church-bells beyond the stars heard, the soul’s blood,

The land of spices; something understood.

]]><![CDATA[Love Calls us to the Things of This World]]>https://www.commonreader.co.uk/p/love-calls-us-to-the-things-of-thishttps://www.commonreader.co.uk/p/love-calls-us-to-the-things-of-thisThu, 02 Apr 2026 15:49:34 GMTHere is the second installment of ‘Poetry by Heart’, a poem by Richard Wilbur. You can read it on Poetry Foundation here, or watch Wilbur himself recite it—obviously he is much better at it than I am.

]]><![CDATA[My true love hath my heart]]>https://www.commonreader.co.uk/p/my-true-love-hath-my-hearthttps://www.commonreader.co.uk/p/my-true-love-hath-my-heartTue, 24 Feb 2026 13:58:26 GMTI’m starting a series of “poetry by heart” videos. It’s an experiment. Here’s the Philip Sidney I have been memorizing recently. ‘My true love hath my heart and I have his’.

You can see it on YouTube here.

My true-love hath my heart and I have his,
By just exchange one for the other given:
I hold his dear, and mine he cannot miss;
There never was a bargain better driven.
His heart in me keeps me and him in one;
My heart in him his thoughts and senses guides:
He loves my heart, for once it was his own;
I cherish his because in me it bides.
His heart his wound received from my sight;
My heart was wounded with his wounded heart;
For as from me on him his hurt did light,
So still, methought, in me his hurt did smart:
Both equal hurt, in this change sought our bliss,
My true love hath my heart and I have his.

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