Winter Olympics and Poetry



The Winter Olympics are starting soon. The kids and I will be doing a fun little study on the Olympics. We will try to watch a few events online. 

Today, we started watching the We are Winter Team Canada commercials. These are beautiful and interesting. There are several to watch. Some are quick commercials and others are interesting mini biographies. You can view them at Canadian Olympic Team Official Website

Screen shot of all the #wearewinter videos
We really liked the one featuring the poem that I included at the top of this post. I am a little confused as to which poem is being recited though, as when I searched for the one mentioned in the articles I read, it didn't match. It is supposed to be "In the Winter Woods" by Frederick George Scott. It's a beautiful poem, I added it below but it doesn't seem to match the one in the video. Maybe it was a mistake and it is supposed to be "The Winter Spirit" by Helen Fairbairn? I can't find that last one online anywhere. Maybe someone knows and can leave me a comment! 


In The Winter Woods
WINTER forests mutely standing
Naked on your bed of snow,
Wide your knotted arms expanding
To the biting winds that blow,
Nought ye heed of storm or stress,
Stubborn, silent, passionless.

Buried is each woodland treasure,
Gone the leaves and mossy rills,
Gone the birds that filled with pleasure
All the valleys and the hills;
Ye alone of all that host
Stand like soldiers at your post.

Grand old trees, the words ye mutter,
Nodding in the frosty wind,
Wake some thoughts I cannot utter,
But which haunt the heart and mind,
With a meaning, strange and deep,
As of visions seen in sleep.

Something in my inmost thinking
Tells me I am one with you,
For a subtle bond is linking
Nature's offspring through and through,
And your spirit like a flood
Stirs the pulses of my blood.

While I linger here and listen
To the crackling boughs above,
Hung with icicles that glisten
As if kindling into love,
Human heart and soul unite
With your majesty and might.

Horizontal, rich with glory,
Through the boughs the red sun's rays
Clothe you as some grand life-story
Robes an aged man with praise,
When, before his setting sun,
Men recount what he has done.

But the light is swiftly fading,
And the wind is icy cold,
And a mist the moon is shading,
Pallid in the western gold;
In the night-winds still ye nod,
Sentinels of Nature's God.

Now with laggard steps returning
To the world from whence I came,
Leave I all the great West burning
With the day that died in flame, .
And the stars, with silver ray,
Light me on my homeward way. 


Comments

  1. Neat! I am not sure about the poem but I like the commercial.
    We just bought an antenna so we could watch some Olympic events.
    The kids are pretty into it this time around. My brother has a gold metal from the Sydney Paralympics in wheelchair rugby... The Olympics have always been a pretty big deal in my family. ;-)

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  2. I came across the poem in the winter Olympics advert by accident. A student forum....a chap called Ollie calls it The Winter Spirit by Helen Fairbairn......the poem is read by "Tywin Lannister" from The House of Thrones played by Charles Dance. I have Googled this info but Helen seems to be a travel writer from Ireland. if you Google......Winter Olympic poem read by Tywin Lannister......you should get all the words. good luck

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  3. I am the dreadful menace.
    The one whose will is done.
    The haunting chill upon your neck.
    I am the conundrum.
    I will summon armies.
    Of wind and rain and snow.
    I made the black cloud overhead.
    The ice, like glass below.
    Not you, nor any other.
    Can fathom what is nigh.
    I will tell you when to jump.
    And I’ll dictate how high.
    The ones that came before you.
    Stood strong and tall and brave.
    But I stole their dreams away.
    Those dreams could not be saved.
    But now you stand before me.
    Devoid of all dismay.
    Could it be? Just maybe.
    I’ll let you have your day.

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