what is your favorite poem?

[Laura Corin]

For many years it has been this poem by Yeats, which was read at our wedding:

 

He wishes for the Cloths of Heaven

 

Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,

Enwrought with golden and silver light,

The blue and the dim and the dark cloths

Of night and light and the half-light,

I would spread the cloths under your feet:

But I, being poor, have only my dreams;

I have spread my dreams under your feet;

Tread softly because you tread upon my dreams.

 

Recently I came across two early poems by Philip Larkin that I like: The Trees and First Sight

 

Laura

[OrganicAnn]

I can't remember what its title but the Christina Rosetti poem that begins

 

"When I am dead my dearest, sing no sad songs for me"

 

I would put many Yeats poets are on my list, also Wendell Berry's Peace of Wild Things.

 

When I was a kid, it was Robert Louis Stevenson "Time to Rise"

[LoriM]

The Perfect Husband

 

He tells you when you've got on

too much lipstick

And helps you with your girdle

when your hips stick.

 

--Ogden Nash

 

A Word to Husbands

 

To keep your marriage brimming

With love in your loving cup,

Whenever you're wrong, admit it;

Whenever you'r right, shut up.

 

--Ogden Nash

 

Celery

 

Celery, raw

Develops the jaw,

But celery, stewed,

Is more quietly chewed.

 

--Ogden Nash

 

(Anyone seeing a pattern? I love Ogden Nash. He just delights me. But then, yesterday I spent an inordinate amount of time giggling over the photos of Chris McVeigh. So, I'm weird.)

[Loupelou]

I love this sweet and simple poem that reflects the many desires I have for my children.

 

For A Child - Fannie Stearns Davis

 

Your friends shall be the Tall Wind,

The River and the Tree;

The Sun that laughs and marches,

The Swallows and the Sea.

 

Your prayers shall be the murmur

Of grasses in the rain;

The song of wildwood thrushes

That makes God glad again.

 

And you shall run and wander,

And you shall dream and sing

Of brave things and bright things

Beyond the swallow's wings.

 

And you shall envy no man,

Nor hurt your heart with sighs,

For I will keep you simple

That God may make you wise.

 

This one by Longfellow was my favorite as a kid.

 

The Arrow and The Song

 

I shot an arrow into the air,

It fell to earth, I knew not where;

For, so swiftly it flew, the sight

Could not follow it in its flight.

 

I breathed a song into the air,

It fell to earth, I knew not where;

For who has sight so keen and strong,

That it can follow the flight of song?

 

Long, long afterward, in an oak

I found the arrow, still unbroke;

And the song, from beginning to end,

I found again in the heart of a friend.

 

 

i carry your heart with me by E. E. Cummings

 

 

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in

my heart)i am never without it(anywhere

i go you go,my dear; and whatever is done

by only me is your doing,my darling)

i fear

no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want

no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)

and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant

and whatever a sun will always sing is you

 

here is the deepest secret nobody knows

(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud

and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows

higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)

and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

 

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

 

 

I love Tennyson's Maud, a little long to put here. The Lady of Shalott too!

 

I love Shakespeare's sonnets. Longfellow's The Wreck of the Hesperus. Edgar Allan Poe's A Dream within a Dream. Anything by Robert Frost, Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

Edited June 25, 2009 by Loupelou

[Hannah]

What a great thread!

 

My personal favorite is a poem my son wrote for me

 

It's beautiful - thanks for sharing!

 

My favourites are in Afrikaans by Louis Leipoldt.

[littlebug42]

I have to add another vote for "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost. I also love "Annabel Lee". Here are a few others of my favorites I can remember from childhood.

 

Jenny Kissed Me (Since my name is Jenni, my Mom read me this one a lot).

by Leigh Hunt

 

Jenny kiss'd 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 miss'd me,

Say I'm growing old, but add,

Jenny kiss'd me.

 

In Flanders Fields

By: Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918)

Canadian Army

 

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses row on row,

That mark our place; and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved and were loved, and now we lie

In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from failing hands we throw

The torch; be yours to hold it high.

If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

In Flanders fields.

 

O Captain, My Captain

by Walt Whitman

O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done,

The ship has weathered every rack, the prize we sought is won,

The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,

While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring;

But O heart! heart! heart!

O the bleeding drops of red,

Where on the deck my Captain lies,

Fallen cold and dead.

 

O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;

Rise up--for you the flag is flung--for you the bugle trills,

For you bouquets and ribboned wreaths--for you the shores a-crowding,

For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;

Here Captain! dear father!

This arm beneath your head!

It is some dream that on the deck

You've fallen cold and dead.

 

My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still,

My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will.

The ship is anchored safe and sound, its voyage closed and done,

From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won;

Exult O shores, and ring O bells!

But I, with mournful tread,

Walk the deck my Captain lies,

Fallen cold and dead.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 23, 2009 by littlebug42
Change weird formatting in poem

[hsmom3tn]

The one that sticks out the most in my mind from when I was in school, would be If, by Rudyard Kipling. I always loved that one.

 

And anything by Ogden Nash cracked me up :)

 

But as an adult, I heard this one in a movie (Truly, Madly, Deeply) and couldn't get it out of my mind:

 

If suddenly you do not exist,

if suddenly you no longer live,

I shall live on.

 

I do not dare,

I do not dare to write it,

if you die.

 

I shall live on.

 

For where a man has no voice,

there, my voice.

 

Where blacks are beaten,

I cannot be dead.

When my brothers go to prison

I shall go with them.

 

When victory,

not my victory,

but the great victory comes,

even though I am mute I must speak;

I shall see it come even

though I am blind.

 

No, forgive me.

If you no longer live,

if you, beloved, my love,

if you have died,

all the leaves will fall in my breast,

it will rain on my soul night and day,

the snow will burn my heart,

I shall walk with frost and fire and death and snow,

my feet will want to walk to where you are sleeping, but

I shall stay alive,

because above all things

you wanted me indomitable,

and, my love, because you know that I am not only a man

but all mankind.

 

 

It's called Dead Woman, by Pablo Neruda. I only heard part of the last stanza in the movie, but it haunted me until I found out where it came from...

[nutmeg]

I just love this portion of Tennyson's "Ulysses":

 

Death closes all: but something ere the end,

Some work of noble note, may yet be done,

Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods.

The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks:

The long day wanes: the slow moon climbs: the deep

Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends,

'Tis not too late to seek a newer world.

Push off, and sitting well in order smite

The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds

To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths

Of all the western stars, until I die.

It may be that the gulfs will wash us down:

It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,

And see the great Achilles, whom we knew

 

Tho' much is taken, much abides; and though

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.

[Elizabeth Conley]

Lemme see...

 

What time is it?

 

Seriously, I have lots of favorites.

 

Here's one you don't hear a lot:

 

http://fasolt.mtcc.com/~mom/soap.html

 

Naughty Soap Song

by Dorothy Aldis

 

Just when I'm ready to

Start on my ears

That is the time that my

Soap disappears.

 

It jumps from my fingers and

Slithers and slides

Down to the end of the

Tub, where it hides. And acts in a most diso-

Bedient way.

And that's why my soap's growing

Thinner each day.

[Kfamily]

Me-"Lady of Shalot" by Tennyson

"Wreck of the Hesperus" by Longfellow

Dh-"If" by Kipling

Girls-"The Village Blacksmith" by Longfellow along with "The Children's Hour"

They also both loved and memorized "The Swing" by Robert Louis Stevenson

[catalinakel]

Batter my heart, three person'd God by John Donne

[SquirrellyMama]

Results and Roses

 

by Edgar A. Guest

 

The man who wants a garden fair,

Or small or very big,

With flowers growing here and there,

Must bend his back and dig.

The things are mighty few on earth

That wishes can attain.

Whate'er we want of any worth

We've got to work to gain. It matters not what goal you seek

Its secret here reposes:

You've got to dig from week to week

To get Results or Roses.

[SquirrellyMama]

I have to add another vote for "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost.

 

 

In high school I wrote a parody of "The Road Not Taken" called "The Cow Not Milked". I also wrote one from "The Raven" called "The Cow".

 

I need to find those again.

[mellifera]

John Masefield - Sea-Fever

 

I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,

And all I ask is a tall ship, and a star to steer her by,

And the wheel's kick and the wind's song and the white sail's shaking,

And a gray mist on the sea's face and a gray dawn breaking.

 

I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide

Is wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;

And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,

And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea gulls crying.

 

I must go down to teh seas again to the vagrant gypsy life,

To the gull's way and the whale's way where the wind's like a whetted knife;

And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover,

And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick's over.

 

 

It used to amuse me that Captain Kirk would quote the second line.

 

There are many other poems/poets that I like, but that one's been my favorite for a long time.

[claire+3]

This poem has kept me going on many days.

 

 

Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front

 

Love the quick profit, the annual raise,

vacation with pay. Want more

of everything ready-made. Be afraid

to know your neighbors and to die.

And you will have a window in your head.

Not even your future will be a mystery

any more. Your mind will be punched in a card

and shut away in a little drawer.

When they want you to buy something

they will call you. When they want you

to die for profit they will let you know.

 

So, friends, every day do something

that won't compute. Love the Lord.

Love the world. Work for nothing.

Take all that you have and be poor.

Love someone who does not deserve it.

Denounce the government and embrace

the flag. Hope to live in that free

republic for which it stands.

Give your approval to all you cannot

understand. Praise ignorance, for what man

has not encountered he has not destroyed.

 

Ask the questions that have no answers.

Invest in the millenium. Plant sequoias.

Say that your main crop is the forest

that you did not plant,

that you will not live to harvest.

Say that the leaves are harvested

when they have rotted into the mold.

Call that profit. Prophesy such returns.

 

Put your faith in the two inches of humus

that will build under the trees

every thousand years.

Listen to carrion - put your ear

close, and hear the faint chattering

of the songs that are to come.

Expect the end of the world. Laugh.

Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful

though you have considered all the facts.

So long as women do not go cheap

for power, please women more than men.

Ask yourself: Will this satisfy

a woman satisfied to bear a child?

Will this disturb the sleep

of a woman near to giving birth?

 

Go with your love to the fields.

Lie down in the shade. Rest your head

in her lap. Swear allegiance

to what is nighest your thoughts.

As soon as the generals and the politicos

can predict the motions of your mind,

lose it. Leave it as a sign

to mark the false trail, the way

you didn't go. Be like the fox

who makes more tracks than necessary,

some in the wrong direction.

Practice resurrection.

[eternalknot]

I have two all-time favorites, depending on which mood I'm in :)

 

"Myself" by Edgar Guest (I'm glad to see so many others enjoy his work!) and "Time does not bring relief ..." by Edna St Vincent Millay. They're below, for any one not familiar with them:

 

Time does not bring relief; you all have lied Who told me time would ease me of my pain! I miss him in the weeping of the rain; I want him at the shrinking of the tide; The old snows melt from every mountain-side, And last year's leaves are smoke in every lane; But last year's bitter loving must remain Heaped on my heart, and my old thoughts abide! There are a hundred places where I fear To go,--so with his memory they brim! And entering with relief some quiet place Where never fell his foot or shone his face I say, "There is no memory of him here!" And so stand stricken, so remembering him!

*~*~*~*

 

 

 

I have to live with myself, and so,

 

I want to be fit for myself to know;

 

I want to be able as days go by,

 

Always to look myself straight in the eye;

 

I don't want to stand with the setting sun

 

And hate myself for the things I've done.

 

I don't want to keep on a closet shelf

 

A lot of secrets about myself,

 

And fool myself as I come and go

 

Into thinking that nobody else will know

 

The kind of man I really am;

 

I don't want to dress myself up in sham.

 

I want to deserve all men's respect;

 

But here in this struggle for fame and pelf,

 

I want to be able to like myself.

 

I don't want to think as I come and go

 

That I'm for bluster and bluff and empty show.

 

I never can hide myself from me,

 

I see what others may never see,

 

I know what others may never know,

 

I never can fool myself -- and so,

 

Whatever happens, I want to be

 

Self-respecting and conscience free.

 

[OhM]

Wow - great post! Thanks for asking!

 

If and The God of the Copybook Headings were already mentioned, as well as Captain, My Captain.

 

I don't think Ozymandias (by Shelley) has been mentioned.

 

I met a traveller from an antique land

Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,

Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown

And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.

And on the pedestal these words appear:

`My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:

Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!'

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,

The lone and level sands stretch far away".

[Caitilin]

Almost anything by A. E. Housman, the love poetry of Pablo Neruda, the love poems of Robert Graves, and almost anything by Edna St. Vincent Millay.

 

"My candle burns at both ends,

It will not last the night--

But Ah! my foes, and Oh, my friends,

It gives a lovely light"

 

I feel like this is often a description of the HSing mother's life!:tongue_smilie:

[Susan in KY]

Well, I have a lot I love, but since I am in That Sort of Mood, I would have a hard time choosing just one from A.A.Milne.

 

Instead, I will enter one that always makes my kiddos laugh, by Shel Silverstein:

 

As I spit from the 26th floor

And it floats on the breeze to the ground,

Does it fall upon hats

Or on white Persian cats,

Or on heads—with a pitty-pat sound?

 

I used to think life was a bore,

But I don't feel that way any more

As I count up the hits

And I smile as I sits

As I spit from the 26h floor.

:D

[Susan in KY]

(Anyone seeing a pattern? I love Ogden Nash. He just delights me....)

 

Over here, too. DS's favorite Ogden Nash selection is:

 

The trouble with a kitten is that

Eventually it becomes a cat.

 

Yeah, we have severe cat allergies over here. :D

[helena]

I'm so glad this thread came back! Now that I've committed to 'Sea & Sky' next year I need to find a few poems to go with that. Any suggestions? At the moment I'm loving this one: http://oldpoetry.com/opoem/104053-Herbert--Ashley-Asquith-A-Ship-Sails-up-to-Bideford.

 

Rosie, I LOVE your new favorite poem!

[Pine Ledge Academy]

The Coin by Sara Teasdale

The Charge of the Light Brigade by Tennyson

Sea Fever by John Maesfield

just to name a few...

[Sebastian (a lady)]

My kids love When Daddy Fell into the Pond and The Song of the Pop Bottlers. Books Fall Open, You Fall In. The Owl and the Pussycat.

 

If by Kipling. Opportunity by Edward Rowland Sill (Which someone posted on the old board years ago). The Charge of the Light Brigade. The Man from Snowy River by Banjo Patterson (there's a video of this one read with clips from the movie that is outstanding). Cargoes by John Masefield.

 

I have always liked To Lucasta, Going to the Wars by Robert Lovelace. I knew I had a winner when my now husband quoted it to me on a dark beach soon after we'd met. It was one of his favorites too.

[NancyNellen]

The Eagle is my favorite, as well. Such imagery!

[TeacherZee]

I can't remember what its title but the Christina Rosetti poem that begins

 

"When I am dead my dearest, sing no sad songs for me"

 

 

That would be "Song"

 

SONG

by: Christina Rossetti (1830-1894)

 

WHEN I am dead, my dearest,

Sing no sad songs for me;

Plant thou no roses at my head,

Nor shady cypress tree:

Be the green grass above me

With showers and dewdrops wet;

And if thou wilt, remember,

And if thou wilt, forget.

 

I shall not see the shadows,

I shall not feel the rain;

I shall not hear the nightingale

Sing on, as if in pain;

And dreaming through the twilight

That doth not rise nor set,

Haply I may remember,

And haply may forget.

 

It is one of my favourites. I have also discovered another one by her this year that I love.

 

In an Artist's Studio by Christina Georgina Rossetti

(1830-1894)

One face looks out from all his canvases,

One selfsame figure sits or walks or leans:

We found her hidden just behind those screens,

That mirror gave back all her loveliness.

A queen in opal or in ruby dress,

A nameless girl in freshest summer-greens,

A saint, an angel -- every canvas means

The same one meaning, neither more nor less.

He feeds upon her face by day and night,

And she with true kind eyes looks back on him,

Fair as the moon and joyful as the light:

Not wan with waiting, not with sorrow dim;

Not as she is, but was when hope shone bright;

Not as she is, but as she fills his dream.

Edited June 25, 2009 by TeacherZee
formating issues