Poetry

[JSherlock]

I love poetry, and I'm sure other people do too. So, to start, here's one of my all-time favorite poems:

The Chariot

Because I could not stop for Death,
He kindly stopped for me;
The carriage held but just ourselves
And Immortality.

We slowly drove, he knew no haste,
And I had put away
My labor, and my leisure too,
For his civility.

We passed the school where children played,
Their lessons scarcely done;
We passed the fields of gazing grain,
We passed the setting sun.

We paused before a house that seemed
A swelling of the ground;
The roof was scarcely visible.
The cornice but a mound.

Since then 'tis centuries but each
Feels shorter than the day
I first surmised the horses' heads
Were toward eternity.

-Emily Dickinson

[Slarti]

Heh! I memorized that poem in high school - I do have some I really like. I'll have to hunt them up!

[Bamfing_Bob]

Once I knew a limerick
That only had two lines
...

Ha ha, I love that one. Now here's a Nightcrawler haiku:

I love Nightcrawler
with his teleportation
and fuzzy blue skin.

[Saffire]

lol I read this in a book once and since I was doing 4-h at the time I memorized it...

The Eulogies where penned perforce,
In honour of the dog and horse.
TheCow excels them definetly,
In matters of fidelity.

In winter winds, and summer breeze,
She labours for our milk and cheese.
And scientific tests have shown,
She puts the icecream in the cone.

When in elysian fields she rests,
She leaves us numerous bequests.
Wallets, gellatins, and shoes,
Leather, pocket books, and glues.

Bequeths her very bones indeed,
to pulverise for pultry feed.
The briefcases she leaves behind,
To protect the plans of all mankind.

And belts...her halo and her crown...
SHE KEEP OUR PANTS, FROM FALLING DOWN!!!!

[Bamfing_Bob]

Ha ha, I love that poem. I like this poem, featured in The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton

Nothing Gold Can Stay

Nature's first green is gold
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
but only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.
Robert Frost

Also, my grandmother has published a book of poetry about her life and family. I guess that's where I get my love for it. She also won our city's volenteer of the year award for her work as the President of the Poetry Society, among other things.

[JSherlock]

Oh, The Outsiders is one of my all-time favorite books. That's such a great story.

[kamizzi]

I looooove Blake!

"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 and morning with my tears;
And I sunned it with 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

[JSherlock]

Darn, Kami! I had that one all ready to go today! I adore Blake too. So.... here's one by e. e. cummings that I read the other day for class:

Buffalo Bill's
defunct
who used to
ride a watersmooth-silver
stallion
and break onetwothreefourfive pigeonsjustlikethat
Jesus

he was a handsome man
and what i want to know is
how do you like your blueeyed boy
Mister Death

EDIT: Drat, when I post it the weird spacing doesn't hold up. I'm going to see if I can find an online version with the original format intact.

HERE

[Edited on 17/2/2007 by JSherlock]

[JSherlock]

Suicide in the Trenches

I knew a simple soldier boy
Who grinned at life in empty joy,
Slept soundly through the lonesome dark,
And whistled early with the lark.

In winter trenches, cowed and glum,
With crumps and lice and lack of rum,
He put a bullet through his brain.
No one spoke of him again.

You smug-faced crowds with kindling eye
Who cheer when soldier lads march by,
Sneak home and pray you'll never know
The hell where youth and laughter go.

-Siegfried Sassoon (1917)

[Edited on 21/11/2007 by JSherlock]

[wingyding]

Oh, my goodness I love these. I think Blake is one of my favorites, so here's one of the greats: The Chimney Sweep.

A little black thing among the snow:
Crying weep, weep, in notes of woe!
Where are thy father & mother! say!
They are both gone up to the church to pray.

Because I was happy upon the heath,
And smil'd among the winters snow:
They clothed me in the clothes of death,
And taught me to sing the notes of woe.

And because I am happy, & dance & sing,
They think they have done me no injury:
And are gone to praise God & his Priest & King
Who make up a heaven of our misery.

[kamizzi]

It's so short but I full of meaning and I really like it. Blake's of course.

"Augries of Innocence"

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.

[puppygirl]

This is my favorite Blake poem.

O Rose thou art sick.
The invisible worm.
That flies in the night
In the howling storm:

Has found out thy bed
Of crimson joy:
And his dark secret love
Does thy life destroy.

The Sick Rose
William Blake

I think what I like about this poem isn't so much the words but the illustration that goes with it, I've used it for my dA user icon.

[kamizzi]

yeah, I saw it. it's really pretty. Like almost all of his works. The guy was amazing...