The "discuss your favorite poems" thread

PralineQueen: This is a place to post and talk about poems and poets that you like. It cannot be something that you wrote. Gogogo!

wmglenn1: long fellow

PralineQueen: "Tell me not in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream!
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.

Life is real! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou are, to dust thou returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul."

Longfellow.

HannahGestalt: shelley is my fave poet coz everything he wrote is just beautifull - you don't have to know it's meaning, the overall affect of the way the words sing together is magic.
byron's she walks in beauty like the night , is simple and elegant - a classic; as is blake's (not simple) tyger tyger. auden's stop all the clocks (for grief) and davies's leisure (stand and stare like sheep or cows) (for a moment's reflection).

PralineQueen: Thanks! I hadn't heard of some of those so I'm glad you mentioned them. I really like Leisure. I feel the same way.

I really like Blake too, especially The Tyger. I had to write a paper in high school on the symbolism in The Tyger and The Lamb, and it was really interesting doing the research for it.

HannahGestalt: blakes really symbolic. i once read somewhere that he was into all mystical things and that a lot of his poetry can be interpreted prothetically like with nostradamus. not sure i see it entirely but some things like the lamb etc are at least pseudo religious.

PralineQueen: Yeah, Blake was a real crackpot. He hallucinated angels talking to him and all kinds of crap. I've never heard of his work as being prophetic though. It would be interesting. The Lamb isn't pseudo religious though, it is straight up religious. The Lamb and The Tyger are both about God.

Robot_Fox:

One of my favorites. Great energy, "impeccable" imagery and organized collection of words.

PralineQueen: Really nice! He puts a lot of impact in it.

scottenkainen: "Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner". It's an epic adventure movie. On paper. In rhyme.

PralineQueen: Hahaha. So true. For my illustration project I thought about doing Rime of the Ancient Mariner... but with cats. "I ate the albatross."

alleycat09: all of what we see or seem....is but a dream within a dream

scottenkainen: Shakespeare? You can always do Shakespeare with cats too. Anything is better with cats.

PralineQueen: Shakespeare with cats would have been excellent.

StuckInTheSixties:

My favorite, without a doubt:

"There Once Was A Man From Nantucket"

A classic.

alleycat09: right along the lines of humpty dumpty....do you buutter your bread butter side up or butter side down?

StuckInTheSixties:

Weeeelllllll ... you're not likely to find "Nantucket" in any of the books of children's books along side of "Humpty Dumpty" ...

PralineQueen: Haha, I can't imagine why not. xD

I used to get in trouble for making up my own versions of that when I was little.

StuckInTheSixties:

(laughs)

I don't know you THAT well, but I can easily imagine you doing that.

PralineQueen: Haha! Mine weren't vulgar though. I didn't know.

PralineQueen: Hey, I found the original though.

There once was a man from Nantucket
Who kept all his cash in a bucket.
But his daughter, named Nan,
Ran away with a man
And as for the bucket, Nantucket.


And then more clever sequels:


But he followed the pair to Pawtucket,
The man and the girl with the bucket;
And he said to the man,
He was welcome to Nan,
But as for the bucket, Pawtucket.

Then the pair followed Pa to Manhasset,
Where he still held the cash as an asset;
But Nan and the man
Stole the money and ran,
And as for the bucket, Manhasset.

StuckInTheSixties:

Those are actually really cool!

I'll refrain from posting the version I was thinking of.

PralineQueen: Oh, I saw that version. Haha. All on the Wikipedia page. Yes... that limerick has a Wikipedia page.

StuckInTheSixties:

It's a classic.

It's the best limerick ever written (in my humble opinion).

PralineQueen: It's pretty witty.

PralineQueen: I made a rhyme...