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The Internet Is Not Yet Full: A Brief Tale of Two Poems
In a brief moment of quiet this afternoon, I was browsing the poetry shelf in my home library today and noticed a book I did not know we owned: Sonnets of This Century, edited and arranged, with a critical introduction on the sonnet, by William Sharp. The little volume was published by Walter Scott of…
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Antony and Cleopatra
Antony and Cleopatra by William Haines Lytle, 1826–1863 I AM dying, Egypt, dying! Ebbs the crimson life-tide fast, And the dark Plutonian shadows Gather on the evening blast; Let thine arm, O Queen, enfold me, Hush thy sobs and bow thine ear, Listen to the great heart secrets Thou, and thou alone, must hear. Though…
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Autumnal
Autumnal by Ernest Dowson, from Verses, 1896 Pale amber sunlight falls across The reddening October trees, That hardly sway before a breeze As soft as summer: summer’s loss Seems little, dear! on days like these. Let misty autumn be our part! The twilight of the year is sweet: Where shadow and the darkness meet Our…
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Post title
Limerick (III) from Generic Literature by Steve White There once was an X from place B That satisfied predicate P He or she did thing A In an adjective way Resulting in circumstance C Maybe my brain is not functioning entirely properly, being three days from freedom, but I found this poem to be rather…
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Kisses
Jenny Kissed Me by Leigh Hunt Jenny kissed me when we met, Jumping from the chair she sat in; Time, you thief, who love to get Sweets into your list, put that in. Say I’m weary, say I’m sad, Say that health and wealth have missed me; Say I’m growing old, but add— Jenny kissed…
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Boredom
The other day, I decided to try my hand at composing a more modern piece of poetry, but the results were dismal: A Meta-Analysis of Free Verse in Free VerseorOde on Itself by Michael Hoke Imagine how beautiful this poem could have been had you but written it Yourself I was struck today, however, when…
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Excelsior!
Excelsior by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow The shades of night were falling fast, As through an Alpine village passed A youth, who bore, ’mid snow and ice, A banner with the strange device, Excelsior! His brow was sad; his eye beneath, Flashed like a falchion from its sheath, And like a silver clarion rung The accents…
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Poeta Loquitur
I haven’t had a chance to listen to much yet, and what I have listened to hasn’t really inspired me to listen to much more, but I figure some of you might be interested: I found a link over at Salon to several downloadable CDs worth of Dylan Thomas reading his and others’ poetry, with…
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I’m in a Drayton mood
It’s so well known that it hardly needs posting… but I’m in a Drayton mood, I have posting privileges, and it should come as no surprise to anyone that I would spend my time doing things that hardly need doing. Idea, LXI by Michael Drayton Since there’s no help, come, let us kiss and part;…
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Les Yeux des pauvres
While reading about the devastation occasioned by Hurricane Katrina, I came across this prose poem by Baudelaire. It, of course, was written long before our southern cities and towns were ravaged, having been first published in 1864, and I’m not sure it has much to contribute to a discussion of the disaster (at any rate,…