posted
Since I've noticed Hatrackers have impeccable literary taste, I'd like to ask what your favorite poem is and why.
My favorite is Song, by John Donne, which goes as follows:
Go and catch a falling star Get with child a mandrake root Tell me where the past years are Or who cleft the devil's foot. Teach me to hear mermaids singing Or to keep off envy's stinging And find What wind Serves to advance an honest mind.
If thou be'st born to strange sights Things invisible to see Ride ten thousand days and nights Till age snow white hairs on thee. Thou, when thou return'st, will tell me All strange wonders that befell thee And swear Nowhere Lives a woman true and fair.
If thou findst one, let me know Such a pilgrimage were sweet Yet do not; I would not go Though at next door we might meet Though she were true when you met her And last till you write your letter Yet she Will be False, ere I come, to two or three.
Punctuation's a bit off because this is typed from memory, but otherwise, that's it. I like the interesting imagery and concepts of the first verse, and the wry finish of the poem, the third verse, is just too much fun to recite aloud. Also, it really attracts the babes.
posted
Words to live by, Kipling-style. It's not my all-time favorite, but it's philosophically on my level and holds special meaning.
quote:If
If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you; If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too; If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies, Or, being hated, don't give way to hating, And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;
If you can dream - and not make dreams your master; If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim; If you can meet with triumph and disaster And treat those two imposters just the same; If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, Or watch the things you gave your life to broken, And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;
If you can make one heap of all your winnings And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, And lose, and start again at your beginnings And never breath a word about your loss; If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew To serve your turn long after they are gone, And so hold on when there is nothing in you Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch; If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you; If all men count with you, but none too much; If you can fill the unforgiving minute With sixty seconds' worth of distance run - Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it, And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!
--Rudyard Kipling
My father introduced this one to me, to give words to his own teachings.
Posts: 37 | Registered: Feb 2006
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posted
Desolation dreamed of, though not accomplished, Set my heart to rocking like a boat in a swell. To every face I met, I said farewell.
Green rollers breaking white along a clean beach...when shall I reach that island? Gladly, O painted nails and shaven arm-pits, would I see less of you! Glady, gladly, would I be far from you for a long time, O noise and stench of man!
I said farewell. Nevertheless, Whom have I quitted?---which of my posessions do I propose to leave? Not one. This feigning to be asleep when wide awake is all the loneliness I shall ever achieve.
---Edna St. Vincent Millay
This is only my favorite at the moment, and my favorite poem tends to change on a weekly basis. This one sticks out for now because it's so true to where I am, personally... And anything my Millay is lovely, if you ask me.
Posts: 36 | Registered: Dec 2005
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posted
I feel like posting a poem I wrote, it isn't my favorite poem of all time or anything, I just feel moved to do so.
quote:Love can change me, transform in a moment all I am into something new, something whole. The world slips away, melting from my consciousness to just background noise. When my lips are on yours, they destroy me and form me again, brain distant, heat billowing, my skin alive. I breath you in and I can no longer remember who or what I am. Your body pressed onto mine, nothing else seems important, everything but the moment fades, my pulse races and pounds in my ears, and all I can feel is you. Place your mark upon my soul, wrap your fist around my heart, break it if you must, but this moment is ours alone. Whispered words and heavy breath, our bodies entwined, in our passion, lost together, we find each other.
posted
The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock. Eliot.
Do I dare Disturb the universe? In a minute there is time For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.Posts: 866 | Registered: Aug 2005
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posted
I love Prufrock, Celaeno, but if I had to choose a single favorite poem I think it would be Wasteland. There's a stanza about rat claws scraping on dry bones that's absolutely...amazing. Since it's very long, I'll quote one of my favorite sections, from near the beginning.
quote:What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow Out of this stony rubbish? Son of man, You cannot say, or guess, for you know only A heap of broken images, where the sun beats, And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief, And the dry stone no sound of water. Only There is shadow under this red rock, (Come in under the shadow of this red rock), And I will show you something different from either Your shadow at morning striding behind you Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you; I will show you fear in a handful of dust
posted
Man. My favorite poem. This is one of those impossible questions.
I have different poems for different moods. Right now, my favorite poem is probably "Prufrock." But sometimes it isn't.
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quote:Originally posted by Infrared: [QB] Words to live by, Kipling-style. It's not my all-time favorite, but it's philosophically on my level and holds special meaning.
[QUOTE]If
If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you; If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too; If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies, Or, being hated, don't give way to hating, And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;
If you can dream - and not make dreams your master; If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim; If you can meet with triumph and disaster And treat those two imposters just the same; If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, Or watch the things you gave your life to broken, And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;
If you can make one heap of all your winnings And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, And lose, and start again at your beginnings And never breath a word about your loss; If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew To serve your turn long after they are gone, And so hold on when there is nothing in you Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch; If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you; If all men count with you, but none too much; If you can fill the unforgiving minute With sixty seconds' worth of distance run - Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it, And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!
--Rudyard Kipling
Maybe I'm just oversensitive at the moment, maybe I suffer from a lack of sleep, but I nearly started too while reading this poem. It's so touching...
If only because of the last line, I wished I were a man/boy (or had a son), so I could recite this poem more convincingly. Nevertheless I'll learn it by heart. It's a pity, that it's actually too long to be used as a kind of Mantra.
Posts: 262 | Registered: Feb 2006
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posted
I think lack of sleep is preventing me from finding/reading the above posted poems. I want to do them justice. My mind is not up to poetry at the moment. For that matter, it often isn't. Anyway, my teacher had us memorize twelve lines of poetry for our final. I basically opened a book and picked out the first few twelve-lined poems there. I memorized this one, and I'm growing to like it.
Последняя туча рассеянной бури! Одна ты несешься по ясной лазури, Одна ты наводишь унылую тень, Одна ты печалишь ликующий день. Ты небо недавно кругом облегала, И молния грозно тебя обвивала; И ты издавала таинственный гром И алчную землю поила дождем. Довольно, сокройся! Пора миновалась, Земля освежилась, и буря промчалась, И ветер, лаская листочки древес, Тебя с успокоенных гонит небес.
Александр Сергеевич Пушкин, 1835
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posted
My favorite poem is "Please Master" by Allen Ginsberg. The language isn't appropriate for this forum, but IMO it is the most intense and passionate love poem while being the least conventional.
Look it up if your interested in an excellent poem and are not faint of heart.
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IT is morning, Senlin says, and in the morning When the light drips through the shutters like the dew, I arise, I face the sunrise, And do the things my fathers learned to do. Stars in the purple dusk above the rooftops Pale in a saffron mist and seem to die, And I myself on swiftly tilting planet Stand before a glass and tie my tie.
Vine-leaves tap my window, Dew-drops sing to the garden stones, The robin chirps in the chinaberry tree Repeating three clear tones.
It is morning. I stand by the mirror And tie my tie once more. While waves far off in a pale rose twilight Crash on a coral shore. I stand by a mirror and comb my hair: How small and white my face!— The green earth tilts through a sphere of air And bathes in a flame of space. There are houses hanging above the stars And stars hung under a sea... And a sun far off in a shell of silence Dapples my walls for me....
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