Year End With Christina

Posted byRebecca BuddPosted inChristina Rossetti, Poetry, Seasons, WinterTags:, ,

Last year I celebrated Christmas with Christina.  Of all the poets, Christina Rossetti understands the inscrutability of the winter season. I thought it was fitting to end the year 2013, with her poetry.  There is much speculation and curiosity surrounding the “secret.”   My preference is to let Christina keep her secret hidden and let the beauty and nuance of the language speak for itself.

One of my 2013 goals was to find a way to record via SoundCloud.  I left it to that last breath of the year, but I finally had the courage to upload an audio file.      

Winter

Winter: My Secret

By Christina Rossetti

I tell my secret? No indeed, not I;
Perhaps some day, who knows?
But not today; it froze, and blows and snows,
And you’re too curious: fie!
You want to hear it? well:
Only, my secret’s mine, and I won’t tell.

Or, after all, perhaps there’s none:
Suppose there is no secret after all,
But only just my fun.
Today’s a nipping day, a biting day;
In which one wants a shawl,
A veil, a cloak, and other wraps:
I cannot ope to everyone who taps,
And let the draughts come whistling thro’ my hall;
Come bounding and surrounding me,
Come buffeting, astounding me,
Nipping and clipping thro’ my wraps and all.
I wear my mask for warmth: who ever shows
His nose to Russian snows
To be pecked at by every wind that blows?
You would not peck? I thank you for good will,
Believe, but leave the truth untested still.

Spring’s an expansive time: yet I don’t trust
March with its peck of dust,
Nor April with its rainbow-crowned brief showers,
Nor even May, whose flowers
One frost may wither thro’ the sunless hours.

Perhaps some languid summer day,
When drowsy birds sing less and less,
And golden fruit is ripening to excess,
If there’s not too much sun nor too much cloud,
And the warm wind is neither still nor loud,
Perhaps my secret I may say,
Or you may guess.

 

Published by Rebecca Budd

Blogger, Visual Storyteller, Podcaster, Traveler and Life-long Learner

28 thoughts on “Year End With Christina”

  1. Happy New Year to you and thank you so much for this beautiful post. What a wonderful reading and bravo for trying the sound cloud, which works so well. It chimes completely with one of my perspectives for 2014. Taken from the book ‘One Word That Will Change Your Life’, I have chosen for this year the word ‘opportunity’. There are various reasons for this, not least because I start a great new job on 6 Jan. But to return to Christina, as we must, who knows what secrets/opportunities the year will bring – we should always make the most of every day 🙂

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    1. What a wonderful word to take into the new year. There are so many themes and nuances to the word, “opportunity” for it is illusive and full of complexity. Congratulations on your new job – I know that you will be amazing. My word for this coming year is “courage” which is why I decided to try out SoundCloud. We make a dynamic duo – opportunity and courage.

      “When a great moment knocks on the door of your life, it is often no louder than the beating of your heart, and it is very easy to miss it.” Boris Pasternak

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      1. That too is an excellent word, which you are clearly already embracing with gusto! A brilliant quote from BP, as ever – let me throw in one other from Jack Canfield, of ‘Chicken Soup for the Soul’ fame – ‘everything you want is on the other side of fear’…. Wow – what a year we two are going to have!!

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    1. Do join me in going on SoundCloud! I think it would be wonderful to add an oral tradition to blogging! Blogging 2014 has plenty of adventures waiting for us!!! 🙂

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      2. You will LOVE the feeling of reading aloud to yourself and then hearing it come back to you in a familiar, yet not familiar voice. Looking forward to the technology adventures ahead! 🙂

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    1. My dear friend, how kind of you to reblog! I strongly encourage you to try SoundCloud out for yourself. I was intimidated by the technology, but it it straightforward!! And its lots of fun! 🙂

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  6. Wow! Beautiful poem, and beautiful voice! It is the first time I hear this on a blog. It is wonderful, Rebecca. Congrats on your year end fulfillment of your wish! I wish to hear more from you in 2014. I may give it a try one day….just curious to see how soundcloud works!

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    1. Thank you so very, very much for your support!! You would love SoundCloud. You already figured out how to publish – this is even easier! I look forward to listening….

      All the very best of the holiday season – looking forward to our 2014 Blogging adventures. 🙂

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  7. What a fantastic reading voice you have. 🙂 Since you’re now on Soundcloud, we can hopefully look forward to more such readings. The photo is absolutely stunning, too.

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    1. Thank you for your kind encouragement. I love this poem and I wanted to hear someone read it to me. I couldn’t find anything on-line so I thought – this is the time to try SoundCloud. Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “Do one thing every day that scares you.” And I confess, I was intimidated by the technology!! I just found a poem for the first of January – I know that you will like it!!! 🙂

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  8. You did it, you did it. Hooray! And such a lovely thing it is to hear your voice. I haven’t had time to do another recording but I really must again. I am sure it is ever so good for us to read out loud and I would certainly be happy to listen to a regular poetry reading from you. I also read Christina today, 29th Dec…’Song’ this day being the anniversary of her death.

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    1. I can’t believe that I missed the anniversary of her passing!!! This is the reason why I believe in synchronicity! Thank you for sharing that insight. And thank you for giving me the encouragement to record on SoundCloud. Reading poetry aloud is a testament to the oral tradition of story telling. Looking forward to sharing these moments! 2014 beckons us on.

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