Got Poetry?

[m1469]

Hello there friendly cyberspace fellows!

I was thinking it would be fun (to me anyway) to start a thread of sharing favorite poems (we could share favorite colors, but you know...).  So howabout it?  Either original works or those you have grown to love through reading.  I have not read too much in the way of poetry, for various reasons, so I would absoutely love it if people were willing to share.

m1469

[BajoranD]

I read this poem in 11th grade American Literature, and it really struck at my core. At the time, I hoped I could be as happy and blessed in marriage as the author obviously was. And, despite the odds (and my best/worst efforts to the contrary), I am! As a completely unnecessary sidenote: This poem and The Grapes of Wrath were the only things I enjoyed during that whole class. We spent three months on Moby Dick. Three months! My classmates and I were pretty sure that our teacher thought he was Captain Abab. And then there was the day he prentended to be a whale coming up from behind his desk . . . ah, the memories . . .

To My Dear and Loving Husband

If ever two were one, then surely we.
If ever man were lov'd by wife, then thee.
If ever wife was happy in a man,
Compare with me, ye women, if you can.
I prize thy love more than whole Mines of gold
Or all the riches that the East doth hold.
My love is such that Rivers cannot quench,
Nor ought but love from thee give recompetence.
Thy love is such I can no way repay.
The heavens reward thee manifold, I pray.
Then while we live, in love let's so persever
That when we live no more, we may live ever.

- Anne Bradstreet (1612-1672)

I also recommend her poem, "Verses upon the Burning of our House, July 18th, 1666," but it's a lot longer, so I didn't write it down here.  

[JK]

ok here's a really beautiful poem:

Ondine:

"Listen!--Listen!--it's me down here, Ondine, splashing all these droplets against your casement
windowpanes, to make them echo, here in the dim, regretful moonlight; and up there, high above us in her black silk dress, is the chateau's lady upon her balcony, gazing out at this beautiful starry night
and at my lovely, sleeping lake.

"Each ripple that you see is a water-sprite, swimming in the flowing currents; each current of each stream winds path-like towards my palace; and my palace, too, is a liquid domain, located well beneath the lake-waters, in the triangle of fire, and earth, and air.

"Listen!--Listen!--my father stirs the croaking stream with a green birch branch, and my sisters with their foam-flecked arms embrace entire islands of iris, water-lilies, and glistening stands of grass; or, giggling,
make mock of the ancient, bearded willow, as he bends his back and goes on fishing."

And when her softly murmured song was done, she begged me outright to slip her ring on my finger,
and to become an Ondine's husband; and to return with her to her palace, there to become king of the lakes.

And when I told her I loved a mortal woman, she pouted, as if vexed; then shed a teardrop or two--but
finally burst out into laughter, to dissolve then like radiant raindrops, streaming down the length of my
blue-black windows....


This is actually the poem that inspired Ravel to write ondine from Gaspard de la nuit, it's by Aloysius Betrand.

[benji]

Robert Frost's Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening is beautiful.

https://www.ketzle.com/frost/snowyeve.htm (I don't want to infringe upon any copyrights )

[JK]

Upon Westminster Bridge
By William Wordsworth
1770-1850

EARTH has not anything to show more fair:
        Dull would he be of soul who could pass by
        A sight so touching in its majesty:
This City now doth like a garment wear
The beauty of the morning; silent, bare,
        Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples lie
        Open unto the fields, and to the sky;
All bright and glittering in the smokeless air.
Never did sun more beautifully steep
        In his first splendour valley, rock, or hill;
Ne'er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep!
        The river glideth at his own sweet will:
Dear God! the very houses seem asleep;
        And all that mighty heart is lying still!