What's your favorite poem -- if you have one?

Moose68Bash

TennMan,

Great poem, and a really tough standard to strive for!

tonyb

What...no Andrew Dice Clay ? lol

cnh

Now we digress to Comics, Tb? I guess Steven Wright is the King of the one-liner which could be seen as a comic form of poetry? Probably too much of a stretch...but...here's one by him:

I broke a mirror in my house. I'm supposed to get seven years bad luck, but my lawyer thinks he can get me five.

Now back to poetry:

Kitaro Nishida (Japanese Philosopher, founder of the Kyoto School)::

The ocean bed of my soul is deep,
Neither joy nor the wave of sorrow can there arise!

(I suppose I "do" remember a verse or two?)

cnh

Moose68Bash

cnh,

Well done!

Moose68Bash

The closing lines of Tennyson's "Ulysses" are bittersweet for those of us who are, shell we say, entering the autumn or our lives. These words are spoken by Ulysses as he and his aging comrades embark on a final journey together:

"We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield."

[Deleted User]

William Blake:


''Beneath them sit the aged men, wise guardians of the poor;
Then cherish pity, lest you drive an angel from your door.''

tophatjohnny

İstanbul
Down in Beyoğlu
killing fish, fries and mussels

Down in Bebek
your hands clenching flowers,
your sweat

Up on Galata tower
drummers on the roof,
their bombs won't reach

Up in Taksim
arsenic tastes sweet
on our salty cheeks

Along down the Bosphorus
all memories of me buried deep
for river snakes to nibble_

Finally,
you smiled

All my brass comes from grace!! Amen

mhardy6647

From T.S. Eliot's The Hollow Men

This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.

source: http://www.shmoop.com/hollow-men/poem-text.html

Moose68Bash

Eliot had such a bright and cheerful view of the world!

Between "The Hollow Men" and "The Wasteland" we find "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" to perk us up!

Kinds makes you want to take a long walk off a short pier!

gdb

Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon in front of them
Volley'd and thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of H*e*l*l (really ??? )
Rode the six hundred. - Alfred Lord Tennyson



And



Down the street you can hear her scream, you're a disgrace
As she slams the door in his drunken face
And now he stands outside
And all the neighbors start to gossip and drool
He cries, oh, girl, you must be mad
What happened to the sweet love you and me had?
Against the door he leans and starts a scene
And his tears fall and burn the garden green


And so castles made of sand fall in the sea eventually


A little Indian brave who before he was ten
Played war games in the woods with his Indian friends
And he built up a dream that when he grew up
He would be a fearless warrior Indian Chief
Many moons past, and more the dream grew strong until
Tomorrow he would sing his first war song and fight his first battle
But something went wrong, surprise attack killed him in his sleep that night


And so castles made of sand melt into the sea eventually


There was a young girl who's heart was a frown
Because she was crippled for life
And she couldn't speak a sound
And she wished and prayed she could stop living
So she decided to die
She drew her wheelchair to the edge of the shore
And to her legs she smiled you won't hurt me no more
But then a sight she'd never seen made her jump and say
Look a golden winged ship is passing my way
And it really didn't have to stop, it just kept on going


And so castles made of sand slips into the sea, eventually..... - Jimi H.

voltz

Take this kiss upon the brow!
And, in parting from you now
Thus much let me avow
You are not wrong, who deem
That my Days have been a dream;
Yet if Hope has flown away
In a night, or in a day,
In a vision, or in none,
Is it therefore the less gone?
All the we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream

Moose68Bash

volz,

Your quotation from Poe's "Dream Within a Dream" for some reason reminds me of a passage from Macbeth, Act V, Scene 5:

"Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing."

Maybe we need some lighter "stuff," e.g., "Jabberwocky" as jflail2 noted above.

voltz

remember Kevin Costner in postman when he butcher that line LOL! but its still a great line!

scottyboy76

It is a girl from nantucket, trust me.