Share your favourite poems by established poets here! Here's one of my favourites: Take all my loves, my love, yea take them all; What hadst thou then more than thou hadst before? No love, my love, than thou mayst true love call; All mine was thine before thou hadst this more. Then, if for my love thou my love receivest, I cannot blame thee for my love thou usest; But yet be blamed if thou thyself deceivest By wilful taste of what thyself refusest. I do forgive thy robbery, gentle thief, Although thou steal thee all my poverty; And yet love knows it is a greater grief To bear love's wrong than hate's known injury. Lascivious grace, in whom all ill well shows, Kill me with spites; yet we must not be foes. -- Basically, the first stanza is the narrator telling his love that they can spite him for all of the affairs he's had, but then they would both lose the true love that is between them. The second stanza is really confusing (scholars can't quite figure it out either), but it does seem to be a warning against refusing his love. He goes on to forgive his love for taking inflicting such pain, despite that being betrayed like that is the worst mental injury. The couplet at the end basically means "O beautiful one, who makes all bad seem good, you can try to kill me with betrayal, but we will never truly be enemies." I like the drama and the play on words with "love" throughout the sonnet. Love poems sort of appeal to me, as do dark ones, so I guess this sort of mixed together some of my favourite elements! :lol: So, share some of your favourite poems! (I'll share more, too, later on.)
The poem from The Perks of Being a Wallflower has always stuck with me for some reason. Once on a yellow piece of paper with green lines he wrote a poem and he called it "chops" because that was the name of his dog and thats what it was all about his teacher gave him an A and a gold star and his mother hung it on the kitchen door and read it to his aunts. that was the year Father Tracy took all the kids to the zoo and he let them sing on the bus and his little sister was born with tiny nails and no hair and his mother and father kissed alot and the girl around the corner sent him a Valentine signed with a row of X's and he had to ask his father what the X's meant and his father always tucked him in bed at night and was always there to do it once on a piece of white paper with blue lines he wrote a poem he called it "Autumn" because that was the name of the season and that's what it was all about and his teacher gave him an A and asked him to write more clearly and his mother never hung it on the kitchen door beause of the new paint and the kids told him that Father Tracy smoked cigars and left butts on the pews and sometimes they would burn holes that was the year his sister got glasses with thick lenses and black frames and the girl around the corner laughed when he asked her to go see santa claus and the kids told him why his mother and father kissed alot and his father never tucked him in bed at night and his father got mad when he cried for him to do it once on a paper torn from his notebook he wrote a poem and he called it "Innocence: A Question" because that was the question about his girl and thats what it was all about and his professor gave him an A and a strange steady look and his mother never hung it on the kitchen door because he never showed her that was the year Father Tracy died and he forgot how the end of the Apostles's Creed went and he caught his sister making out on the back porch and his mother and father never kissed or even talked and the girl around the corner wore too much make up that made him cough when he kissed her but he kissed her anyway because it was the thing to do and at 3 a.m. he tucked himself into bed his father snoring soundly that's why on the back of a brown paper bag he tried another poem and he called it "Absolutely Nothing" because that's what it was really all about and he gave himself an A and a slash on each damned wrist and he hung it on the bathroom door because this time he didn't think he could reach the kitchen----
My favorite poem is Dylan Thomas' "And Death Shall Have No Dominion." A passage from it is quoted in my signature and my custom user title is part of a line from it. And death shall have no dominion. Dead mean naked they shall be one With the man in the wind and the west moon; When their bones are picked clean and the clean bones gone, They shall have stars at elbow and foot; Though they go mad they shall be sane, Though they sink through the sea they shall rise again; Though lovers be lost love shall not; And death shall have no dominion. And death shall have no dominion. Under the windings of the sea They lying long shall not die windily; Twisting on racks when sinews give way, Strapped to a wheel, yet they shall not break; Faith in their hands shall snap in two, And the unicorn evils run them through; Split all ends up they shan't crack; And death shall have no dominion. And death shall have no dominion. No more may gulls cry at their ears Or waves break loud on the seashores; Where blew a flower may a flower no more Lift its head to the blows of the rain; Though they be mad and dead as nails, Heads of the characters hammer through daisies; Break in the sun till the sun breaks down, And death shall have no dominion.
My all-time favorite poem is Dickinson's "'Hope' is the thing with feathers." “Hope” is the thing with feathers - That perches in the soul - And sings the tune without the words - And never stops - at all - And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard - And sore must be the storm - That could abash the little Bird That kept so many warm - I’ve heard it in the chillest land - And on the strangest Sea - Yet - never - in Extremity, It asked a crumb - of me.
The More Loving One Looking up at the stars, I know quite well That, for all they care, I can go to hell, But on earth indifference is the least We have to dread from man or beast. How should we like it were stars to burn With a passion for us we could not return? If equal affection cannot be, Let the more loving one be me. Admirer as I think I am Of stars that do not give a damn, I cannot, now I see them, say I missed one terribly all day. Were all stars to disappear or die, I should learn to look at an empty sky And feel its total dark sublime, Though this might take me a little time. --WH Auden
Great picks everyone! Especially the Dylan Thomas, I'd never actually read any of his work. How about some more Emily Dickinson? Your Riches taught me Poverty Your riches taught me poverty. Myself a millionaire In little wealths,—as girls could boast,— Till broad as Buenos Ayre, You drifted your dominions A different Peru; And I esteemed all poverty, For life’s estate with you. Of mines I little know, myself, But just the names of gems,— The colors of the commonest; And scarce of diadems So much that, did I meet the queen, Her glory I should know: But this must be a different wealth, To miss it beggars so. I’m sure ’t is India all day To those who look on you Without a stint, without a blame,— Might I but be the Jew! I’m sure it is Golconda, Beyond my power to deem,— To have a smile for mine each day, How better than a gem! At least, it solaces to know That there exists a gold, Although I prove it just in time Its distance to behold! It’s far, far treasure to surmise, And estimate the pearl That slipped my simple fingers through While just a girl at school! ---------- Post added 11th Aug 2011 at 12:42 AM ---------- Correction about Dylan Thomas. I had read his famous villanelle "Do not go Gentle into that Good Night."
Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) The Convergence of the Twain (Lines on the loss of the Titanic) I 1 In a solitude of the sea 2 Deep from human vanity, 3And the Pride of Life that planned her, stilly couches she. II 4 Steel chambers, late the pyres 5 Of her salamandrine fires, 6Cold currents thrid, and turn to rhythmic tidal lyres. III 7 Over the mirrors meant 8 To glass the opulent 9The sea-worm crawls -- grotesque, slimed, dumb, indifferent. IV 10 Jewels in joy designed 11 To ravish the sensuous mind 12Lie lightless, all their sparkles bleared and black and blind. V 13 Dim moon-eyed fishes near 14 Gaze at the gilded gear 15And query: "What does this vaingloriousness down here?" ... VI 16 Well: while was fashioning 17 This creature of cleaving wing, 18The Immanent Will that stirs and urges everything VII 19 Prepared a sinister mate 20 For her -- so gaily great -- 21A Shape of Ice, for the time far and dissociate. VIII 22 And as the smart ship grew 23 In stature, grace, and hue, 24In shadowy silent distance grew the Iceberg too. IX 25 Alien they seemed to be; 26 No mortal eye could see 27The intimate welding of their later history, X 28 Or sign that they were bent 29 By paths coincident 30On being anon twin halves of one august event, XI 31 Till the Spinner of the Years 32 Said "Now!" And each one hears, 33And consummation comes, and jars two hemispheres. ____________________ I'm not super into the Titanic, but this poem...well, a lot of Thomas Hardy's work actually...I just fall in love with it.
This poem describes how I felt in the closet. Not Waving but Drowning Nobody heard him, the dead man, But still he lay moaning: I was much further out than you thought And not waving but drowning. Poor chap, he always loved larking And now he's dead It must have been too cold for him his heart gave way, They said Oh, no, no, no, it was too cold always(Still the dead one lay moaning) I was much too far out all my life And not waving but drowning. Stevie Smith