The Ivy Green

from The Ivy Green - Charles Dickens (1812-1870)

Whole ages have fled and their works decayed,
And nations have scattered been;
But the stout old Ivy shall never fade,
From its hale and hearty green.
The brave old plant, in its lonely days,
Shall fatten upon the past:
For the stateliest building man can raise
Is the Ivy's food at last.
Creeping on where time has been,
A rare old plant is the Ivy green.

After a sunny morning, the rain has arrived ... but, in this morning's post, so, too, has my Blipfoto calendar. I'm very pleased with it. The picture for December is the same as the one I've used for my Christmas Card this year.

This poem extract, beautifully illustrated in waterclour by Jane Leycester Paige, is one of the 135 poems in my book The RSPB Anthology of Wildlife Poems, which would make a great Christmas present. Blatant plug! - But it is a beautiful, hardback 'family book for keeps', with poems old and new.