Malu Bhalu - English poem Kamla Bhasin

High up in an icy lair

Lived a little polar bear

Snow white, snow bright was her mane,

Malu Bhalu was her name.

Very soon our Malu Bhalu

Learnt the things her parents knew.

Fish to catch, big and small...

Malu was a clever girl.

Malu said to her mother one day:

Ma, I'm going far out to play.

I want to see the things that lie

There beyond the big blue sky.

A little patience, child, said Mum.

In the summer when next it comes.

Summer?... Patience?... What a test!

Malu simply could not rest.

First things first! Malu’s mum

Clasped Malu tight within her arms.

Then she said — her voice was firm

Now my dear you'll have to swim

But Ma! said Malu, what do I know?

How will I? I've never swum before!

Don't worry dear, said Malu's moth

Do as I do, that's all, she advised her

She had no choice, no other way,

Malu had to swim that day.

Tight she gripped her mother's hand.

Into the water, splash! to land.

Brave mother’s brave young daughter!

Doubt and fear she left behind her..

Malu swam with all her might,

It didn’t matter wrong or right.

But swimming came so naturally,

Her mother knew this and all could see.

Fearless was Malu, this she knew.

Not just brave, but special too.

English poem - Lazy frog

Fred is a very lazy frog
Who lolls all day upon a log.
He always manages to shirk
Doing a single stroke of work.
His poor old mother calls in vain

"Come in and help!" he does not bother
To move two inches, much preferring
To be extremely hard-of-hearing.
He lies there in a silent heap.
And stays conveniently asleep.

If a lady frog hops past
You'd think he would get up at last
To bow, and help her on her way?
But no, I am ashamed to say
That when a lady frog comes by
He does not open up one eye!

Crying - English poem

Crying only a little bit
is no use. You must cry
until your pillow is soaked!
Then you can jump in the shower

and splash-splash-splash!

Then you can throw open

your window
and, "Ha, ha! ha ha!"
And if people say, "Hey,
what's going on up there?"
"Ha ha!" sing back, "Happiness
was hiding in the last tear!

I wept it! Ha ha!"

Galway Kinnell

English POEM TREE

Under the greenwood tree
Who loves to lie with me,
And turn his merry note
Unto the sweet bird’s throat,
Come hither, come hither, come hither:
Here shall he see
No enemy
But winter and rough weather.
Who doth ambition shun,
And loves to live i’ the sun,
Seeking the food he eats,
And pleased with what he gets,
Come hither, come hither, come hither:
Here shall he see
No enemy
But winter and rough weather.
.                                                               - W Shakespeare

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) is a great playwright and poet. He has written a number of plays and poems. He has also written 154 sonnets. Here, in this poem, he invites us to be friendly with Nature where there is always joy and harmony and no enmity. This is taken from the play ‘As You Like It’.

English poem - THE BRIDGE BUILDER

An old man, going a lone highway,
Came, at the evening, cold and gray,
To a chasm, vast, and deep, and wide,
Through which was flowing a sullen tide.
The old man crossed in the twilight dim;
The sullen stream had no fears for him;
But he turned, when safe on the other side,
And built a bridge to span the tide.
“Old man,” said a fellow pilgrim, near,
“You are wasting strength with building here;
Your journey will end with the ending day;
You never again must pass this way;
You have crossed the chasm, deep and wide –
Why build you the bridge at the eventide?”
The builder lifted his old gray head:
“Good friend, in the path I have come,” he said,
“There followeth after me today
A youth, whose feet must pass this way.
This chasm that has been naught to me,
To that fair-haired youth may a pitfall be.
He, too, must cross in the twilight dim;
Good friend, I am building the bridge for him.”
.                                                         - Will Allen Dromgoole

(Will Allen Dromgoole (1860-1934),was born in Tennessee. She had published thirteen books, 7,500 poems and 5,000 columns of essays, making her one of the most prolific of Tennessee writers.)

English POEM - Mouse and the cake

THE MOUSE AND THE CAKE

A mouse found a beautiful piece of plum cake,
The richest and sweetest that mortal could make;
‘There’s a noise,1 cried the mouse, ‘ ’tis my brothers at play;
So I’ll hide with the cake, lest they wander this way.’
He nibbled, and nibbled, and panted, but still
He kept gulping it down till he made himself ill;
Yet he swallowed it all, and ’tis easy to guess,
He was soon so unwell that he groaned with distress.
His family heard him, and as he grew worse,
They sent for the doctor, who made him rehearse
How he’d eaten the cake to the very last crumb,
Without giving his playmates and relatives some.
‘Ah me!’ cried the doctor, ‘advice is too late;
You must die before long, so prepare for your fate.
If you had but divided the cake with your brothers,
’Twould have done you no harm, and been good for the others.
.                                    - Eliza Cook