favourite classic poems
-
I love William Blake's 'Auguries of Innocence'.
Particularly the stanza below. It just holds so much meaning for me.
do share you favourite classic poets/poems
-------
To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour. -
my fav is william blake's too.
a poison tree
I was angry with my friend:
I told my wrath, my wrath did end.
I was angry with my foe;
I told it not, my wrath did grow.
And I water'd it in fears,
Night & morning with my tears;
And I sunned it with my smiles
And with soft deceitful wiles.
And it grew both day and night,
Till it bore an apple bright;
And my foe beheld it shine,
And he knew that it was mine,
And into my garden stole
When the night had veil'd the pole:
In the morning glad I see
My foe outstretch'd beneath the tree -
i really like that stanza from Auguries of Innocence too! i checked out the whole poem once, and almost died. i doubt i even finished reading the entire poem. i do Blake's Songs of Innocence and of Experience for lit and sometimes, i just want him to die a second time. heh.
anyway, i don't think i've explored poetry enough to have a favourite classic poem, but i was given this poem in a recent exam. i like it quite a lot
Meeting Point
by Louis MacNeice
Time was away and somewhere else,
There were two glasses and two chairs
And two people with the one pulse
(Somebody stopped the moving stairs):
Time was away and somewhere else.
And they were neither up nor down;
The stream's music did not stop
Flowing through heather, limpid brown,
Although they sat in a coffee shop
And they were neither up nor down.
The bell was silent in the air
Holding its inverted poise -
Between the clang and clang a flower,
A brazen calyx of no noise:
The bell was silent in the air.
The camels crossed the miles of sand
That stretched around the cups and plates;
The desert was their own, they planned
To portion out the stars and dates:
The camels crossed the miles of sand.
Time was away and somewhere else.
The waitier did not come, the clock
Forgot them and the radio waltz
Came out like water from a rock:
Time was away and somewhere else.
Her fingers flicked away the ash
That bloomed again in tropic trees:
Not caring of the markets crash
When they had forests such as these,
Her fingers flicked away the ash.
God or whatever means the Good
Be praised that time can stop like this,
That what the heart has understood
Can verify in the body's peace
God or whatever means the Good.
Time was away and she was here
And life no longer what it was,
The bell was silent in the air
And all the room one glow because
Time was away and she was here. -
Robert Frost's Home Burial
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15730
Too long to be posted here.
That's excellent drama, and explores the differences between two people dealing with grief. -
Tks for sharing...interesting and sinister!!!Originally posted by The man who was death:my fav is william blake's too.
a poison tree
I was angry with my friend:
I told my wrath, my wrath did end.
I was angry with my foe;
I told it not, my wrath did grow.
And I water'd it in fears,
Night & morning with my tears;
And I sunned it with my smiles
And with soft deceitful wiles.
And it grew both day and night,
Till it bore an apple bright;
And my foe beheld it shine,
And he knew that it was mine,
And into my garden stole
When the night had veil'd the pole:
In the morning glad I see
My foe outstretch'd beneath the tree -
heeehee...yes, probably need one lifetime to finish reading it rite...like Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner...had to read that for my exams....really a struggle trying to get thru that one!Originally posted by prayingbudda:i really like that stanza from Auguries of Innocence too! i checked out the whole poem once, and almost died. i doubt i even finished reading the entire poem. i do Blake's Songs of Innocence and of Experience for lit and sometimes, i just want him to die a second time. heh.
. -
When We Two Parted
by Lord Byron (1788 - 1824)
When we two parted
In silence and tears,
Half broken-hearted
To sever the years,
Pale grew thy cheek and cold,
Colder, thy kiss;
Truly that hour foretold
Sorrow to this.
The dew of the morning
Sunk, chill on my brow,
It felt like the warning
Of what I feel now.
Thy vows are all broken,
And light is thy fame;
I hear thy name spoken,
And share in its shame.
They name thee before me,
A knell to mine ear;
A shudder comes o'er me...
Why wert thou so dear?
They know not I knew thee,
Who knew thee too well..
Long, long shall I rue thee,
Too deeply to tell.
In secret we met
In silence I grieve
That thy heart could forget,
Thy spirit deceive.
If I should meet thee
After long years,
How should I greet thee?
With silence and tears -
Prayingbudda, that poem by Louis MacNeice makes me feel i also want to sit in a cafe or desert and see camels with my darling and feel time standing still. But the ending is abit sad and abrupt do you think?
-
This one really reads like a very english play unfolding in front of you. Nice..Originally posted by Bluesky_Liz:Robert Frost's Home Burial
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15730
Too long to be posted here.
That's excellent drama, and explores the differences between two people dealing with grief. -
I’ve quite a few favourite classic poems for example “Love Philosophy” by Percy Bysshe Shelley.
Love's Philosophy
The fountains mingle with the river
And the rivers with the ocean,
The winds of Heaven mix for ever
With a sweet emotion;
Nothing in the world is single,
All things by a law divine
In one spirit meet and mingle -
Why not I with thine?
See the mountains kiss high Heaven
And the waves clasp one another;
No sister-flower would be forgiven
If it disdained its brother;
And the sunlight clasps the earth,
And the moonbeams kiss the sea -
What are all these kissings worth
If thou kiss not me? -
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
Whose woods these are I think I know,
His house is in the village though.
He will not see me stopping here,
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer,
To stop without a farmhouse near,
Between the woods and frozen lake,
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake,
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep,
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
-- Robert Frost
I simply love the mood of this poem.. -
Hey sis,Originally posted by expiringpoet:heeehee...yes, probably need one lifetime to finish reading it rite...like Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner...had to read that for my exams....really a struggle trying to get thru that one!
Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Coleridge was my favourite in JC, ya know!
Very supernatural...I like! -
I like Robert Frost too!!!Originally posted by missqi:Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
Whose woods these are I think I know,
His house is in the village though.
He will not see me stopping here,
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer,
To stop without a farmhouse near,
Between the woods and frozen lake,
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake,
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep,
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
-- Robert Frost
I simply love the mood of this poem.. -
And you not sleeping at 4am+ is also quite supernatural! Heh heh....Originally posted by S-wordsman:Hey sis,
Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Coleridge was my favourite in JC, ya know!
Very supernatural...I like!
I hate Coleridge...blurdy long winded..gah...
me havent slept too since the last 24 hours...think i'm going nuts. might start seeing big flying white birds soon on my ceiling....zzzzzzzzzzzz........ -
who doesnt?Originally posted by expiringpoet:I like Robert Frost too!!! -
yeah, i find the ending abrupt too, but i don't find it sad. i think the repetition of "time was away" in the last line makes the poem more...still, intensifying the line "time was away and somewhere else" earlier in the poem. the addition of "and she was here" to it shifts the focus back to the two people in the poem, erasing the previous focus on the surroundings and everything else. i think this was done to show how it is like for the two people in love- that there may be many things going on in their surroundings, but it doesn't really matter because "time was away and she was here".Originally posted by expiringpoet:Prayingbudda, that poem by Louis MacNeice makes me feel i also want to sit in a cafe or desert and see camels with my darling and feel time standing still. But the ending is abit sad and abrupt do you think?
agree/disagree? :p -
agree!!!Originally posted by prayingbudda:yeah, i find the ending abrupt too, but i don't find it sad. i think the repetition of "time was away" in the last line makes the poem more...still, intensifying the line "time was away and somewhere else" earlier in the poem. the addition of "and she was here" to it shifts the focus back to the two people in the poem, erasing the previous focus on the surroundings and everything else. i think this was done to show how it is like for the two people in love- that there may be many things going on in their surroundings, but it doesn't really matter because "time was away and she was here".
agree/disagree? :p
pretty focused on here n now
-
Remember
Remember me when I am gone away,
Gone far away into the silent land;
When you can no more hold me by the hand,
Nor I half turn to go, yet turning stay.
Remember me when no more day by day
You tell me of our future that you plann'd:
Only remember me; you understand
It will be late to counsel then or pray.
Yet if you should forget me for a while
And afterwards remember, do not grieve:
For if the darkness and corruption leave
A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,
Better by far you should forget and smile
Than that you should remember and be sad.
Christina G. Rossetti -
I would like to post Wilfred Owen's "Dulce et Decorum Est " but I think Randall Jarrell 's "The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner " is just as good.
The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner
From my mother's sleep I fell into the State,
And I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze.
Six miles from earth, loosed from its dream of life,
I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters.
When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose.
by Randall Jarrell -
Originally posted by dsnake1:
I still prefer "Dulce et Decorum Est".
I would like to post Wilfred Owen's "Dulce et Decorum Est " but I think Randall Jarrell 's "The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner " is just as good.
[b]The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner
From my mother's sleep I fell into the State,
And I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze.
Six miles from earth, loosed from its dream of life,
I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters.
When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose.
by Randall Jarrell
[/b]
-
I suppose this is very familiar to all Englishmen...this poem by William Blake formed the lyrics of that national hymn, 'Jerusalem' by Elgar. It was apparently used in the movie 'Chariots of Fire' as well...
And did those feet in ancient time
Walk upon EnglandÂ’s mountains green?
And was the Holy Lamb of God
On EnglandÂ’s pleasant pastures seen?
And did the countenance divine
Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
And was Jerusalem builded here
Among these dark satanic mills?
Bring me my bow of burning gold!
Bring me my arrows of desire!
Bring me my spear! O clouds, unfold!
Bring me my chariot of fire!
I will not cease from mental fight,
Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand,
Till we have built Jerusalem
In EnglandÂ’s green and pleasant land. -
"Out, Out -"
The buzz saw snarled and rattled in the yard
And made dust and dropped stove-length sticks of wood,
Sweet-scented stuff when the breeze drew across it.
And from there those that lifted eyes could count
Five mountain ranges one behing the other
Under the sunset far into Vermont.
And the saw snarled and rattled, snarled and rattled,
As it ran light, or had to bear a load.
And nothing happened: day was all but done.
Call it a day, I wish they might have said
To please the boy by giving him the half hour
That a boy counts so much when saved from work.
His sister stood beside him in her apron
To tell them "Supper." At the word, the saw,
As if it meant to prove saws know what supper meant,
Leaped out at the boy's hand, or seemed to leap -
He must have given the hand. However it was,
Neither refused the meeting. But the hand!
The boy's first outcry was a rueful laugh,
As he swung toward them holding up the hand
Half in appeal, but half as if to keep
The life from spilling. Then the boy saw all -
Since he was old enough to know, big boy
Doing a man's work, though a child at heart -
He saw all was spoiled. "Don't let him cut my hand off -
The doctor, when he comes. Don't let him, sister!"
So. The hand was gone already.
The doctor put him in the dark of ether.
He lay and puffed his lips out with his breath.
And then - the watcher at his pulse took a fright.
No one believed. They listened to his heart.
Little - less - nothing! - and that ended it.
No more to build on there. And they, since they
Were not the one dead, turned to their affairs.
By Robert Frost (1874 - 1963)