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Other Discussions => Entertainment => Off Topic => Other Entertainment / Hobbies => Topic started by: greece66 on July 19, 2018, 01:02:14 AM

Title: Poems that move you
Post by: greece66 on July 19, 2018, 01:02:14 AM
Last thread I start before the current form of the forums closes down.


Some guidelines - no need to follow them in full, but I think they will facilitate a smooth running of the thread.


i/ quality beats quantity


ii/excerpts are welcome esp. if the whole poem is quite long


iii/ non-Eng lang poems welcome, but please provide a good translation by a professional


iv/ a short intro on why you chose the poem could be very useful





Title: Re: Poems that move you
Post by: greece66 on July 19, 2018, 01:09:21 AM
I start with Robert Frost. His poems made me understand New England better and I love his use of simple, everyday language.


The Death of the Hired Man (1905/06, excerpt)

But Warren, please remember how it is:
He’s come to help you ditch the meadow.
He has a plan. You mustn’t laugh at him.
He may not speak of it, and then he may.
I’ll sit and see if that small sailing cloud
Will hit or miss the moon.’

                                      It hit the moon.
Then there were three there, making a dim row,
The moon, the little silver cloud, and she.

Warren returned—too soon, it seemed to her,
Slipped to her side, caught up her hand and waited.

‘Warren,’ she questioned.

                                     ‘Dead,’ was all he answered.



Full poem here (https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44261/the-death-of-the-hired-man)
Title: Re: Poems that move you
Post by: saltlover on July 19, 2018, 02:43:12 AM
Written by e e cummings over 90 years ago, this sonnet feels as current as ever.

"next to of course god america i
love you land of the pilgrims' and so forth oh
say can you see by the dawn's early my
country 'tis of centuries come and go
and are no more. what of it we should worry
in every language even deafanddumb
thy sons acclaim your glorious name by gorry
by jingo by gee by gosh by gum
why talk of beauty what could be more beaut-
iful than these heroic happy dead
who rushed like lions to the roaring slaughter
they did not stop to think they died instead
then shall the voice of liberty be mute?"

He spoke. And drank rapidly a glass of water
Title: Re: Poems that move you
Post by: colincb on July 19, 2018, 03:40:17 AM
One never knows...

Richard Cory
BY EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON

Whenever Richard Cory went down town,
We people on the pavement looked at him:
He was a gentleman from sole to crown,
Clean favored, and imperially slim.

And he was always quietly arrayed,
And he was always human when he talked;
But still he fluttered pulses when he said,
"Good-morning," and he glittered when he walked.

And he was rich—yes, richer than a king—
And admirably schooled in every grace:
In fine, we thought that he was everything
To make us wish that we were in his place.

So on we worked, and waited for the light,
And went without the meat, and cursed the bread;
And Richard Cory, one calm summer night,
Went home and put a bullet through his head.
Title: Re: Poems that move you
Post by: greece66 on August 20, 2018, 05:38:46 AM
Let America Be America Again by Langston Hughes (1938)

Let America be America again.
Let it be the dream it used to be.
Let it be the pioneer on the plain
Seeking a home where he himself is free.

(America never was America to me.)

Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed--
Let it be that great strong land of love
Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme
That any man be crushed by one above.

(It never was America to me.)

O, let my land be a land where Liberty
Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,
But opportunity is real, and life is free,
Equality is in the air we breathe.

(There's never been equality for me,
Nor freedom in this "homeland of the free.")

Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark?
And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?

I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,
I am the Negro bearing slavery's scars.
I am the red man driven from the land,
I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek--
And finding only the same old stupid plan
Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.

I am the young man, full of strength and hope,
Tangled in that ancient endless chain
Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land!
Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need!
Of work the men! Of take the pay!
Of owning everything for one's own greed!

I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil.
I am the worker sold to the machine.
I am the Negro, servant to you all.
I am the people, humble, hungry, mean--
Hungry yet today despite the dream.
Beaten yet today--O, Pioneers!
I am the man who never got ahead,
The poorest worker bartered through the years.

Yet I'm the one who dreamt our basic dream
In the Old World while still a serf of kings,
Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true,
That even yet its mighty daring sings
In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned
That's made America the land it has become.
O, I'm the man who sailed those early seas
In search of what I meant to be my home--
For I'm the one who left dark Ireland's shore,
And Poland's plain, and England's grassy lea,
And torn from Black Africa's strand I came
To build a "homeland of the free."

The free?

Who said the free? Not me?
Surely not me? The millions on relief today?
The millions shot down when we strike?
The millions who have nothing for our pay?
For all the dreams we've dreamed
And all the songs we've sung
And all the hopes we've held
And all the flags we've hung,
The millions who have nothing for our pay--
Except the dream that's almost dead today.

O, let America be America again--
The land that never has been yet--
And yet must be--the land where every man is free.
The land that's mine--the poor man's, Indian's, Negro's, ME--
Who made America,
Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,
Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,
Must bring back our mighty dream again.

Sure, call me any ugly name you choose--
The steel of freedom does not stain.
From those who live like leeches on the people's lives,
We must take back our land again,
America!

O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath--
America will be!

Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death,
The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,
We, the people, must redeem
The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
The mountains and the endless plain--
All, all the stretch of these great green states--
And make America again!
Title: Re: Poems that move you
Post by: gouki88 on August 20, 2018, 05:49:31 AM
Ulysses, by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45392/ulysses

This excerpt in particular:

Old age hath yet his honour and his toil;
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,
'T is not too late to seek a newer world.
Title: Re: Poems that move you
Post by: greece66 on August 20, 2018, 06:09:35 AM
Ulysses, by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45392/ulysses (https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45392/ulysses)

This excerpt in particular:

Old age hath yet his honour and his toil;
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,
'T is not too late to seek a newer world.

Such optimism from a poet who was a deeply sad person.
Title: Re: Poems that move you
Post by: gouki88 on August 20, 2018, 06:18:21 AM
Ulysses, by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45392/ulysses (https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45392/ulysses)

This excerpt in particular:

Old age hath yet his honour and his toil;
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,
'T is not too late to seek a newer world.

Such optimism from a poet who was a deeply sad person.
Definitely part of the appeal to me, for some reason
Title: Re: Poems that move you
Post by: positivitize on August 20, 2018, 10:25:26 AM
Prufrock is my favorite of all time: ( https://www.bartleby.com/198/1.html ), too long to share in full.

"After great pain, a formal feeling comes" by Dickinson is amazing for the ending ( https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47651/after-great-pain-a-formal-feeling-comes-372 ) :

"This is the Hour of Lead –
Remembered, if outlived,
As Freezing persons, recollect the Snow –
First – Chill – then Stupor – then the letting go –"


and finally, I've been tonguing "The Snow Man" by Wallace Stevens in my mind like a wisdom tooth hole.

"One must have a mind of winter
To regard the frost and the boughs
Of the pine-trees crusted with snow;

And have been cold a long time
To behold the junipers shagged with ice,
The spruces rough in the distant glitter

Of the January sun; and not to think
Of any misery in the sound of the wind,
In the sound of a few leaves,

Which is the sound of the land
Full of the same wind
That is blowing in the same bare place

For the listener, who listens in the snow,
And, nothing himself, beholds
Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is."

Title: Re: Poems that move you
Post by: arctic 3.0 on August 20, 2018, 10:29:25 AM
Last thread I start before the current form of the forums closes down.


Some guidelines - no need to follow them in full, but I think they will facilitate a smooth running of the thread.


i/ quality beats quantity


ii/excerpts are welcome esp. if the whole poem is quite long


iii/ non-Eng lang poems welcome, but please provide a good translation by a professional


iv/ a short intro on why you chose the poem could be very useful
Thanks Greece, what a way to send out the forum.
Also TP for the full transcription of Langston Houghes. Haven’t read that in years.
Title: Re: Poems that move you
Post by: Spilling Green Dye on August 20, 2018, 11:21:32 AM
I start with Robert Frost. His poems made me understand New England better and I love his use of simple, everyday language.


The Death of the Hired Man (1905/06, excerpt)

But Warren, please remember how it is:
He’s come to help you ditch the meadow.
He has a plan. You mustn’t laugh at him.
He may not speak of it, and then he may.
I’ll sit and see if that small sailing cloud
Will hit or miss the moon.’

                                      It hit the moon.
Then there were three there, making a dim row,
The moon, the little silver cloud, and she.

Warren returned—too soon, it seemed to her,
Slipped to her side, caught up her hand and waited.

‘Warren,’ she questioned.

                                     ‘Dead,’ was all he answered.



Full poem here (https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44261/the-death-of-the-hired-man)

TP for the refreshing topic here, and for the Robert Frost poem.  I've read some of his poems, but had never read this particular one so I followed the link and thoroughly enjoyed it.  Thank you!
Title: Re: Poems that move you
Post by: liam on August 20, 2018, 11:54:53 AM

Poetry

 it
takes
a lot of
desperation
dissatisfaction
and
disillusion
to
write
a
few
good
poems.
 
it's not
for
everybody
either to
write
it
or even to
read
it.

-Charles Bukowski 
Title: Re: Poems that move you
Post by: fairweatherfan on August 20, 2018, 12:41:07 PM
Always liked this Dylan Thomas poem. I try not to overthink my enjoyment of things like poetry, but it makes me think of renewal and the transcendence of human experience.


Light breaks where no sun shines

Light breaks where no sun shines;
Where no sea runs, the waters of the heart
Push in their tides;
And, broken ghosts with glow-worms in their heads,
The things of light
File through the flesh where no flesh decks the bones.

A candle in the thighs
Warms youth and seed and burns the seeds of age;
Where no seed stirs,
The fruit of man unwrinkles in the stars,
Bright as a fig;
Where no wax is, the candle shows its hairs.

Dawn breaks behind the eyes;
From poles of skull and toe the windy blood
Slides like a sea;
Nor fenced, nor staked, the gushers of the sky
Spout to the rod
Divining in a smile the oil of tears.

Night in the sockets rounds,
Like some pitch moon, the limit of the globes;
Day lights the bone;
Where no cold is, the skinning gales unpin
The winter’s robes;
The film of spring is hanging from the lids.

Light breaks on secret lots,
On tips of thought where thoughts smell in the rain;
When logics die,
The secret of the soil grows through the eye,
And blood jumps in the sun;
Above the waste allotments the dawn halts.
Title: Re: Poems that move you
Post by: Redz on August 20, 2018, 01:48:41 PM
Poetry eludes me.  I’m impatient and literal.  I do a have a soul though, so there’s hope.

I signed up for a poetry class this summer that a friend was teaching.  As I type, I’m sitting in a seat where the class was taught.

Life got in the way.  Once again no time for poetry.

At least I’m writing something from this space.

He’d be proud.
Title: Re: Poems that move you
Post by: liam on August 20, 2018, 02:02:33 PM
Poetry eludes me.  I’m impatient and literal.  I do a have a soul though, so there’s hope.

I signed up for a poetry class this summer that a friend was teaching.  As I type, I’m sitting in a seat where the class was taught.

Life got in the way.  Once again no time for poetry.

At least I’m writing something from this space.

He’d be proud.

What you just wrote could be a poem and a pretty good one.

The beauty of poetry is that it doesn't have to be anything just some words presented in any way you wish....
Title: Re: Poems that move you
Post by: Redz on August 20, 2018, 02:08:12 PM
Poetry eludes me.  I’m impatient and literal.  I do a have a soul though, so there’s hope.

I signed up for a poetry class this summer that a friend was teaching.  As I type, I’m sitting in a seat where the class was taught.

Life got in the way.  Once again no time for poetry.

At least I’m writing something from this space.

He’d be proud.

What you just wrote could be a poem and a pretty good one.

The beauty of poetry is that it doesn't have to be anything just some words presented in any way you wish....

Well that was easy!

What’s all the fuss?

Kidding.  I do admire the craftsmanship of well constructed poems.

I struggle with implied meaning when reading poetry, but I guess that’s a skill to work on like anything. 
Title: Re: Poems that move you
Post by: greece66 on August 20, 2018, 02:41:11 PM
Always liked this Dylan Thomas poem. I try not to overthink my enjoyment of things like poetry, but it makes me think of renewal and the transcendence of human experience.


Light breaks where no sun shines

Light breaks where no sun shines;
Where no sea runs, the waters of the heart
Push in their tides;
And, broken ghosts with glow-worms in their heads,
The things of light
File through the flesh where no flesh decks the bones.

A candle in the thighs
Warms youth and seed and burns the seeds of age;
Where no seed stirs,
The fruit of man unwrinkles in the stars,
Bright as a fig;
Where no wax is, the candle shows its hairs.

Dawn breaks behind the eyes;
From poles of skull and toe the windy blood
Slides like a sea;
Nor fenced, nor staked, the gushers of the sky
Spout to the rod
Divining in a smile the oil of tears.

Night in the sockets rounds,
Like some pitch moon, the limit of the globes;
Day lights the bone;
Where no cold is, the skinning gales unpin
The winter’s robes;
The film of spring is hanging from the lids.

Light breaks on secret lots,
On tips of thought where thoughts smell in the rain;
When logics die,
The secret of the soil grows through the eye,
And blood jumps in the sun;
Above the waste allotments the dawn halts.

Dylan Thomas is among my favourites. His verses have depth without having to use "difficult" words. An ex from Wales had bought me a collection of his poems. My favourite is And Death Shall Have No Dominion.
Title: Re: Poems that move you
Post by: Redz on August 20, 2018, 02:49:39 PM
My poet friend tells me what I wrote was an “Ars Poetica”.  Which, of coourse, I had to a google.

——
Ars Poetica
A poem that explains the “art of poetry,” or a meditation on poetry using the form and techniques of a poem. Horace’s Ars Poetica is an early example, and the foundation for the tradition. While Horace writes of the importance of delighting and instructing audiences, modernist ars poetica poets argue that poems should be written for their own sake, as art for the sake of art. Archibald MacLeish’s famous “Ars Poetica” sums up the argument: “A poem should not mean / But be.” See also Alexander Pope’s “An Essay on Criticism,” William Wordsworth’s Prelude, and Wallace Stevens’s “Of Modern Poetry.”

——

I’m more of an Arse than an Ars...
Title: Re: Poems that move you
Post by: designmao on August 20, 2018, 04:36:23 PM
From Robin Williams when he was teaching at a Prep School.
(For these uncertain times) 


Invictus

Out of the night that covers me,   
  Black as the Pit from pole to pole,   
I thank whatever gods may be   
  For my unconquerable soul.   
   
In the fell clutch of circumstance
  I have not winced nor cried aloud.   
Under the bludgeonings of chance   
  My head is bloody, but unbowed.   
   
Beyond this place of wrath and tears   
  Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years   
  Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.   
   
It matters not how strait the gate,   
  How charged with punishments the scroll,   
I am the master of my fate:
  I am the captain of my soul.
Title: Re: Poems that move you
Post by: Celtics4ever on August 20, 2018, 04:39:27 PM
Invictus, is one I like as well.   Really makes on stronger in adversity and was helpful during my time as a soldier.
Title: Re: Poems that move you
Post by: csfansince60s on August 20, 2018, 07:42:55 PM
Regarding the interconnectedness of humanity, Robert Dunne's "No man is an island...." Canto is the one that has stood the test of time for me:

"No man is an island,
Entire of itself,
Every man is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manor of thy friend's
Or of thine own were:
Any man's death diminishes me,
Because I am involved in mankind,
And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;
It tolls for thee."



But the one that moves me the most is by the immortal "Curly" Howard:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSS_C73yJck

EDIT: Swingin the Alphabet was a classic too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgmdnxtz3Bo
Title: Re: Poems that move you
Post by: More Banners on August 20, 2018, 08:06:18 PM
Saw Bobby Kennedy's speech in Indy, 1968 on PBS the other night.

His use of that poem at that moment and the response...ahh...beauty.
Title: Re: Poems that move you
Post by: colincb on August 20, 2018, 09:36:53 PM
Regarding the interconnectedness of humanity, Robert Dunne's "No man is an island...." Canto is the one that has stood the test of time for me:

"No man is an island,
Entire of itself,
Every man is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manor of thy friend's
Or of thine own were:
Any man's death diminishes me,
Because I am involved in mankind,
And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;
It tolls for thee."

...



Actually, the poem's author is John Donne and it was originally written as prose in 1623. Nonetheless, its sentiments are timeless and it is also one of my favorites:


"No man is an iland, intire of it selfe; every man is a peece of the Continent, a part of the maine; if a clod bee washed away by the Sea, Europe is the lesse, as well as if a Promontorie were, as well as if a Mannor of thy friends or of thine owne were; any mans death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankinde; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee...."
Title: Re: Poems that move you
Post by: csfansince60s on August 21, 2018, 12:40:57 AM
Regarding the interconnectedness of humanity, Robert Dunne's "No man is an island...." Canto is the one that has stood the test of time for me:

"No man is an island,
Entire of itself,
Every man is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manor of thy friend's
Or of thine own were:
Any man's death diminishes me,
Because I am involved in mankind,
And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;
It tolls for thee."

...



Actually, the poem's author is John Donne and it was originally written as prose in 1623. Nonetheless, its sentiments are timeless and it is also one of my favorites:


"No man is an iland, intire of it selfe; every man is a peece of the Continent, a part of the maine; if a clod bee washed away by the Sea, Europe is the lesse, as well as if a Promontorie were, as well as if a Mannor of thy friends or of thine owne were; any mans death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankinde; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee...."

TP FOR THE CORRECTION

I had a brain fart. John Donne!!!! I’m intimately familiar with that name. I

I had a Xaverian brother who was a doctoral candidate at Tufts back in the late 60s when I had him as my HS English teacher in Malden. His doctoral dissertation was on John Donne, and the Old English that you quote was as we studied it and how Donne obviously had written it, despite the modernized version that I proffered for readability and clarity. We spent a lot more time on John Donne in that class than any survey of English Lit class should.

The Olde English’s use is somewhat pedantic to me, so I rarely use it, except in a scholarly setting.
Title: Re: Poems that move you
Post by: greece66 on August 21, 2018, 03:22:37 AM
@liam

Nice Buk poem, he's very popular on this side of the Atlantic. He's well known and translated in Greece, and back in the day I went once or twice to the "Bukowski Bar" in Madrid - poetry nights and good cocktails. I'm also grateful to him because he wrote one of the few books that are simple written enough that I can enjoy in Russian (Factotum).
Title: Re: Poems that move you
Post by: blink on August 21, 2018, 03:42:41 AM
What a great / interesting / unconventional thread.  Nice job Greece!  TP
Title: Re: Poems that move you
Post by: greece66 on August 26, 2018, 04:31:31 PM
Anxiety

The hoar-frost crumbles in the sun,   
The crisping steam of a train   
Melts in the air, while two black birds   
Sweep past the window again.   

Along the vacant road, a red
Bicycle approaches; I wait   
In a thaw of anxiety, for the boy   
To leap down at our gate.   

He has passed us by; but is it   
Relief that starts in my breast?
Or a deeper bruise of knowing that still   
She has no rest.   

D. H. Lawrence
Title: Re: Poems that move you
Post by: Greenback on August 26, 2018, 04:39:17 PM
The Poetical Books of the Bible:

Job
Psalms
Proverbs
Ecclesiastes
Song of Solomon
Title: Re: Poems that move you
Post by: greece66 on August 26, 2018, 05:07:37 PM
The Poetical Books of the Bible:

Job
Psalms
Proverbs
Ecclesiastes
Song of Solomon

I haven't read much the Old Testament, partly bcs I find the LXX text harder to follow than the New Testament Greek. And tbh because I just find  the Gospels more enjoyable.

By all means, quotes of the parts you consider poetic are welcome.
Title: Re: Poems that move you
Post by: tarheelsxxiii on August 26, 2018, 05:27:51 PM
Excerpt from Teddy Roosevelt's speech, Man in the Arena:

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.
Title: Re: Poems that move you
Post by: Neurotic Guy on August 26, 2018, 05:33:19 PM
What a great / interesting / unconventional thread.  Nice job Greece!  TP

Yes -- great thread.  Unfortunately, I think many (like me) become excited when we think we actually understand a poem --  and are deeply under-read and unsophisticated when it comes to poetry.   We know popular ones, ones we are assigned in school -- and are attracted to those we can comprehend without tremendous effort AND aren't too long.  The Road Less Traveled fits the bill for me.

I also got a kick out of reading Shakespeare's sonnets when I was assigned them in college.  I liked "Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day" -- mostly because I liked the ending couplet (from memory -- hope it's correct): "As long as men can breathe or eyes can see, so long lives this and this gives life to thee".   I liked the message that the sonnet itself, "this", creates immortality for its subject.
Title: Re: Poems that move you
Post by: tarheelsxxiii on August 26, 2018, 05:41:28 PM
What a great / interesting / unconventional thread.  Nice job Greece!  TP

Yes -- great thread.  Unfortunately, I think many (like me) become excited when we think we actually understand a poem --  and are deeply under-read and unsophisticated when it comes to poetry.   We know popular ones, ones we are assigned in school -- and are attracted to those we can comprehend without tremendous effort AND aren't too long.  The Road Less Traveled fits the bill for me.

I also got a kick out of reading Shakespeare's sonnets when I was assigned them in college.  I liked "Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day" -- mostly because I liked the ending couplet (from memory -- hope it's correct): "As long as men can breathe or eyes can see, so long lives this and this gives life to thee".   I liked the message that the sonnet itself, "this", creates immortality for its subject.

The Road Less Traveled was the next one I was going to post, TP.  And then IF by Rudyard Kipling.
Title: Re: Poems that move you
Post by: Greenback on August 26, 2018, 06:27:21 PM
The Poetical Books of the Bible:

Job
Psalms
Proverbs
Ecclesiastes
Song of Solomon

I haven't read much the Old Testament, partly bcs I find the LXX text harder to follow than the New Testament Greek. And tbh because I just find  the Gospels more enjoyable.

By all means, quotes of the parts you consider poetic are welcome.

He who planted the ear, does He not hear? He who formed the eye, does He not see?

~ Psalm 94:9
Title: Re: Poems that move you
Post by: liam on August 26, 2018, 07:00:42 PM
The Poetical Books of the Bible:

Job
Psalms
Proverbs
Ecclesiastes
Song of Solomon

I haven't read much the Old Testament, partly bcs I find the LXX text harder to follow than the New Testament Greek. And tbh because I just find  the Gospels more enjoyable.

By all means, quotes of the parts you consider poetic are welcome.

He who planted the ear, does He not hear? He who formed the eye, does He not see?

~ Psalm 94:9

"Vanity of vanities all is vanity and vexation of spirit. I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and, behold, all is vanity"
Title: Re: Poems that move you
Post by: Csfan1984 on August 26, 2018, 09:03:45 PM
Ozymandias, it's a reminder that things change with time and all things come to an end.

Like the Cranston reading.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://m.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DT3dpghfRBHE&ved=2ahUKEwjbm7yEhIzdAhXwdN8KHSajAE0QwqsBMB56BAgKEAU&usg=AOvVaw0dOLV3wEDg-akc5ihytNmZ
Title: Re: Poems that move you
Post by: 2short on August 26, 2018, 09:54:25 PM
Some tp given out and i will go back and give one for the op
Robert frost
I have many others that I do appreciate but for some reason road less travelled still is so powerful to me
Title: Re: Poems that move you
Post by: BlastFromThePast on August 27, 2018, 12:54:33 AM
Poems are words arranged in a way designed to evoke images and emotions.  Sometimes sweetly, sometimes subtlely, sometimes powerfully, the meaning cloaked in ways that many cannot discern when read nor heard when sung in song.  One such "poem" was by Bob Dylan: 

How many roads must a man walk down
Before you call him a man?
How many seas must a white dove sail
Before she sleeps in the sand?
Yes, 'n' how many times must the cannon balls fly
Before they're forever banned?
The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind
The answer is blowin' in the wind
Yes, 'n' how many years can a mountain exist
Before it's washed to the sea?
Yes, 'n' how many years can some people exist
Before they're allowed to be free?
Yes, 'n' how many times can a man turn his head
And pretend that he just doesn't see?
The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind
The answer is blowin' in the wind
Yes, 'n' how many times must a man look up
Before he can see the sky?
Yes, 'n' how many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry?
Yes, 'n' how many deaths will it take till he knows
That too many people have died?
The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind
The answer is blowin' in the wind

Taking literary license with a portion of a lyric by another songwriter who came afterward, while those who created a cultural revolution in this country are now "pumping iron" to maintain their  control of every aspect of life, here and overseas, the "irony" is that the same or similar changes are "blowin' in the wind", growing in intensity and yet they cannot recognize their own attempts at control are doomed to..."futility". 

Another poem put to song with imagery accompanying it enhancing its power is: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6wDhs2wZH0 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6wDhs2wZH0)

Borrowing a lyric from yet another songwriter, "My 'guitar' gently weeps" every single time I hear and watch this young British soldier's "poetic" message sung in song.



Title: Re: Poems that move you
Post by: PhoSita on August 27, 2018, 11:44:47 AM
A Line-storm Song

Robert Frost, 1874 - 1963


 The line-storm clouds fly tattered and swift, 
  The road is forlorn all day, 
Where a myriad snowy quartz stones lift, 
  And the hoof-prints vanish away. 
The roadside flowers, too wet for the bee,
  Expend their bloom in vain. 
Come over the hills and far with me, 
  And be my love in the rain. 
 
The birds have less to say for themselves 
  In the wood-world’s torn despair
Than now these numberless years the elves, 
  Although they are no less there: 
All song of the woods is crushed like some 
  Wild, easily shattered rose. 
Come, be my love in the wet woods; come,
  Where the boughs rain when it blows. 
 
There is the gale to urge behind 
  And bruit our singing down, 
And the shallow waters aflutter with wind 
  From which to gather your gown.     
What matter if we go clear to the west, 
  And come not through dry-shod? 
For wilding brooch shall wet your breast 
  The rain-fresh goldenrod. 
 
Oh, never this whelming east wind swells   
  But it seems like the sea’s return 
To the ancient lands where it left the shells 
  Before the age of the fern; 
And it seems like the time when after doubt 
  Our love came back amain.       
Oh, come forth into the storm and rout 
  And be my love in the rain.
Title: Re: Poems that move you
Post by: fairweatherfan on August 27, 2018, 01:18:29 PM
In the light of the McCain thread, he considered "The Cremation of Sam McGee" by Robert Service to be his favorite poem. What's truly remarkable is he memorized the 14-stanza poem by a fellow POW tapping out the letters in Morse Code on their shared cell wall.  McCain said as recently as the early 2000s that he still sometimes dreamed in that code.

It's probably too long to post the whole thing so here's the first stanza and a link:

There are strange things done in the midnight sun
      By the men who moil for gold;
The Arctic trails have their secret tales
      That would make your blood run cold;
The Northern Lights have seen queer sights,
      But the queerest they ever did see
Was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge
      I cremated Sam McGee.

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45081/the-cremation-of-sam-mcgee (https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45081/the-cremation-of-sam-mcgee)
Title: Re: Poems that move you
Post by: Greenback on September 02, 2018, 08:24:01 PM
From Sir Galahad:

    My good blade carves the casques of men,
    My tough lance thrusteth sure,
    My strength is as the strength of ten
    Because my heart is pure.

~Tennyson
Title: Re: Poems that move you
Post by: greece66 on September 04, 2018, 04:23:58 PM
The Fountain of Blood (Baudelaire, 1857)


My blood in waves seems sometimes to be spouting
As though in rhythmic sobs a fountain swooned.
I hear its long, low, rushing sound till, doubting,
I feel myself all over for the wound.

Across the town, as in the lists of battle,
It flows, transforming paving stones to isles,
Slaking the thirst of creatures, men, and cattle,
And colouring all nature red for miles.

Sometimes I've sought relief in precious wines
To lull in me the fear that undermines,
But found they sharpened every sense the more.

I've also sought forgetfulness in lust,
But love's a bed of needles, and they thrust
To give more drink to each rapacious wh*re.

Translated by Roy Campbell in 1952.

For the original French text as well as more translations in English, look here (https://fleursdumal.org/poem/183)

I first took an interest in Les Fleurs du Mal reading Enki Bilal's The Carnival of Immortals. The protagonist, Nikopol, goes crazy and starts quoting Baudelaire's verses. I went on to buy a Gr translation of Les Fleurs du Mal by Simiriotis (which turned out to be very good). I was 15-6 yo then and I since retain an interest in Baudelaire's poetry. It's powerful and moving, and although sad, it always maintains a deep interest in life.

A strip from The Carnival of the Immortals. Bilal gave to Nikopol the features of Bruno Ganz.

(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6sngx-R-YAk/TdmESq_4CjI/AAAAAAAABFU/065KRgBxWRE/s1600/bilal_nikopol_1.jpg)
Title: Re: Poems that move you
Post by: greece66 on September 12, 2018, 09:18:01 PM
Litanies of Satan (Charles Baudelaire, 1857)

Wisest of Angels, whom your fate betrays,
And, fairest of them all, deprives of praise,

Satan have pity on my long despair!

O Prince of exiles, who have suffered wrong,
Yet, vanquished, rise from every fall more strong,

Satan have pity on my long despair!

All-knowing lord of subterranean things,
Who remedy our human sufferings,

Satan have pity on my long despair!

To lepers and lost beggars full of lice,
You teach, through love, the taste of Paradise.

Satan have pity on my long despair!

You who on Death, your old and sturdy wife,
Engendered Hope — sweet folly of this life —

Satan have pity on my long despair!

You give to the doomed man that calm, unbaffled
Gaze that rebukes the mob around the scaffold,

Satan have pity on my long despair!

You know in what closed corners of the earth
A jealous God has hidden gems of worth.

Satan have pity on my long despair!

You know the deepest arsenals, where slumber
The breeds of buried metals without number.

Satan have pity on my long despair!

You whose huge hand has hidden the abyss
From sleepwalkers that skirt the precipice,

Satan have pity on my long despair!

You who give suppleness to drunkards' bones
When trampled down by horses on the stones,

Satan have pity on my long despair!

You who, to make his sufferings the lighter,
Taught man to mix the sulphur with the nitre,

Satan have pity on my long despair!

You fix your mask, accomplice full of guile,
On rich men's foreheads, pitiless and vile.

Satan have pity on my long despair!

You who fill the hearts and eyes of wh0res
With love of trifles and the cult of sores,

Satan have pity on my long despair!

The exile's staff, inventor's lamp, caresser
Of hanged men, and of plotters the confessor,

Satan have pity on my long despair!

Step-father of all those who, robbed of pardon,
God drove in anger out of Eden's garden

Satan have pity on my long despair!

Prayer

Praise to you, Satan! in the heights you lit,
And also in the deeps where now you sit,
Vanquished, in Hell, and dream in hushed defiance
O that my soul, beneath the Tree of Science
Might rest near you, while shadowing your brows,
It spreads a second Temple with its boughs.

Translated by Roy Campbell in 1952.

Unfortunately, this poem has been appropriated by metal groups worldwide because they fancy its supposed Satanism (there are two adaptations by Greek bands alone smh). This is a distortion of what Baudelaire had in mind. Not that he does not refer in an affectionate manner to Satan in the poem. He also clearly wanted to annoy the religious establishment and the poem earned him a deserving fine for insulting public decency.

But IMO this is not the main thing that makes the poem attractive.I see it more as an attempt to offer solace to victims of injustice as well as pity for the outcasts. Baudelaire's peculiar ethics can be exemplified in the following quotes:
"There is an invincible taste for prostitution in the heart of man, from which comes his horror of solitude. He wants to be 'two'. The man of genius wants to be 'one'.... It is this horror of solitude, the need to lose oneself in the external flesh, that man nobly calls 'the need to love'."
"Unable to suppress love, the Church wanted at least to disinfect it, and it created marriage."

The poem is also beautifully constructed and helped revitalize Romanticism. The dedication to Theophile Gautier might be a sign that he was more interest in form than one might think - and the poem having the form of a litany might have something to do with aesthetic reasons too. It is no accident that someone as remote as Victor Hugo from Baudelaire's ethics and values praised his work.

Nikopol quoting the poem in The Carnival of the Immortals.
(https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IBG0C7c4xCw/VrEWXSsESoI/AAAAAAAAIgQ/pSFDX_rlHfg/s1600/101_28.jpg)
Title: Re: Poems that move you
Post by: dreamgreen on September 13, 2018, 08:32:59 AM
Thanks for the laugh this morning hahahahaha.

Good luck with this one guys and have fun. In general I hate poetry but I am happy that others like it! ;)
Title: Re: Poems that move you
Post by: greece66 on September 13, 2018, 09:11:40 AM
Thanks for the laugh this morning hahahahaha.

Good luck with this one guys and have fun. In general I hate poetry but I am happy that others like it! ;)

Quote
Thanks for the laugh this morning hahahahaha. Good luck with this one guys and have fun.

Is this an attempt in Dadaist prose?


Title: Re: Poems that move you
Post by: greece66 on September 13, 2018, 04:40:59 PM
Song of Myself (Walt Whitman, 1891, excerpt)

And I say to mankind, Be not curious about God,
For I who am curious about each am not curious about God,
(No array of terms can say how much I am at peace about God and about death.)

I hear and behold God in every object, yet understand God not in the least,
Nor do I understand who there can be more wonderful than myself.

Why should I wish to see God better than this day?
I see something of God each hour of the twenty-four, and each moment then,
In the faces of men and women I see God, and in my own face in the glass,
I find letters from God dropt in the street, and every one is sign’d by God’s name,
And I leave them where they are, for I know that wheresoe’er I go,
Others will punctually come for ever and ever.

========

Simple words used in a powerful way.

(Also, a kind request to refrain from irrelevant comments in the future. It spoils a thread that some of us actually enjoy. )
Title: Re: Poems that move you
Post by: Greenback on September 13, 2018, 08:21:21 PM
“Come out for the Domhnall, ye brave men and proud,

The scion of Torquil and best of MacLeod!

With purpose and strength he came down from his tower

To snatch from a tyrant his ill-gotten power.

Now the cry has gone up with a cheer from the crowd:

“Come out for the Domhnall, the best of MacLeod!”

 When freedom is threatened by slavery’s chains

And voices are silenced as misery reigns,

We’ll come out for a leader whose courage is true

Whose virtues are solid and long overdue.

For, he’ll never forget us, we men of the crowd

Who elected the Domhnall, the best of MacLeod!

When crippling corruption polluted our nation

 And plunged our economy into stagnation,

As self-righteous rogues took the opulent office

And plump politicians reneged on their promise

 The forgotten continued to form a great crowd

That defended the Domhnall, the best of MacLeod!

The Domhnall’s a giver whilst others just take,

Ne’er gaining from that which his hands did not make.

A builder of buildings, employing good men,

 He’s enriched many cities by factors of ten.

The honest and true gladly march with the crowd

Standing up for the Domhnall, the best of MacLeod!

True friend of the migrant from both far and near,

 He welcomes the worthy, but guards our frontier,

Lest a murderous horde, for whom hell is the norm,

 Should threaten our lives and our nation deform.

We immigrants hasten to swell the great crowd.”

Coming out for the Domhnall, the best of MacLeod!

Academe now lies dead, the old order rots,

No longer policing our words and our thoughts;

Its ignorant hirelings pretending to teach

 Are backward in vision, sophomoric in speech.

Now we learnčd of mind add ourselves to the crowd

That cheers on the Domhnall, the best of MacLeod!

 The black man, forgotten, in poverty dying,

The poor man, the sick man, with young children crying,

The soldier abroad and the mother who waits,

The young without work or behind prison gates,

The veterans, wounded, all welcome the crowd

That fights for the Domhnall, the best of MacLeod!

Whilst hapless old harridans flapping their traps

Teach women to look and behave like us chaps,

The Domhnall defends the defenseless forlorn;

For, a woman’s first right is the right to be born.

Now the bonnie young lassies that fly to the crowd

Have a champion in Domhnall, the best of MacLeod!
Title: Re: Poems that move you
Post by: greece66 on September 19, 2018, 05:22:24 PM
Home is so Sad (Philip Larkin, 1988)

Home is so sad. It stays as it was left,
Shaped to the comfort of the last to go
As if to win them back. Instead, bereft
Of anyone to please, it withers so,
Having no heart to put aside the theft

And turn again to what it started as,
A joyous shot at how things ought to be,
Long fallen wide. You can see how it was:
Look at the pictures and the cutlery.
The music in the piano stool. That vase.
Title: Re: Poems that move you
Post by: SHAQATTACK on September 19, 2018, 06:01:48 PM
Ah yes ....

Gunga Din



regimental bhisti


Read it and  remember . Kipling
Title: Re: Poems that move you
Post by: greece66 on September 19, 2018, 08:21:59 PM
Ah yes ....

Gunga Din



regimental bhisti


Read it and  remember . Kipling

Gunga Din (Kipling, 1890)

You may talk o’ gin and beer   
When you’re quartered safe out ’ere,   
An’ you’re sent to penny-fights an’ Aldershot it;
But when it comes to slaughter   
You will do your work on water,
An’ you’ll lick the bloomin’ boots of ’im that’s got it.   
Now in Injia’s sunny clime,   
Where I used to spend my time   
A-servin’ of ’Er Majesty the Queen,   
Of all them blackfaced crew   
The finest man I knew
Was our regimental bhisti, Gunga Din,   
      He was ‘Din! Din! Din!
   ‘You limpin’ lump o’ brick-dust, Gunga Din!
      ‘Hi! Slippy hitherao
      ‘Water, get it! Panee lao,
   ‘You squidgy-nosed old idol, Gunga Din.’

The uniform ’e wore
Was nothin’ much before,
An’ rather less than ’arf o’ that be’ind,
For a piece o’ twisty rag   
An’ a goatskin water-bag
Was all the field-equipment ’e could find.
When the sweatin’ troop-train lay
In a sidin’ through the day,
Where the ’eat would make your bloomin’ eyebrows crawl,
We shouted ‘Harry By!’
Till our throats were bricky-dry,
Then we wopped ’im ’cause ’e couldn’t serve us all.
      It was ‘Din! Din! Din!
   ‘You ’eathen, where the mischief ’ave you been?   
      ‘You put some juldee in it
      ‘Or I’ll marrow you this minute
   ‘If you don’t fill up my helmet, Gunga Din!’

’E would dot an’ carry one
Till the longest day was done;
An’ ’e didn’t seem to know the use o’ fear.
If we charged or broke or cut,
You could bet your bloomin’ nut,
’E’d be waitin’ fifty paces right flank rear.   
With ’is mussick on ’is back,
’E would skip with our attack,
An’ watch us till the bugles made 'Retire,’   
An’ for all ’is dirty ’ide
’E was white, clear white, inside
When ’e went to tend the wounded under fire!   
      It was ‘Din! Din! Din!’
   With the bullets kickin’ dust-spots on the green.   
      When the cartridges ran out,
      You could hear the front-ranks shout,   
   ‘Hi! ammunition-mules an' Gunga Din!’

I shan’t forgit the night
When I dropped be’ind the fight
With a bullet where my belt-plate should ’a’ been.   
I was chokin’ mad with thirst,
An’ the man that spied me first
Was our good old grinnin’, gruntin’ Gunga Din.   
’E lifted up my ’ead,
An’ he plugged me where I bled,
An’ ’e guv me ’arf-a-pint o’ water green.
It was crawlin’ and it stunk,
But of all the drinks I’ve drunk,
I’m gratefullest to one from Gunga Din.
      It was 'Din! Din! Din!
   ‘’Ere’s a beggar with a bullet through ’is spleen;   
   ‘’E's chawin’ up the ground,
      ‘An’ ’e’s kickin’ all around:
   ‘For Gawd’s sake git the water, Gunga Din!’

’E carried me away
To where a dooli lay,
An’ a bullet come an’ drilled the beggar clean.   
’E put me safe inside,
An’ just before ’e died,
'I ’ope you liked your drink,’ sez Gunga Din.   
So I’ll meet ’im later on
At the place where ’e is gone—
Where it’s always double drill and no canteen.   
’E’ll be squattin’ on the coals
Givin’ drink to poor [dang]ed souls,
An’ I’ll get a swig in hell from Gunga Din!   
      Yes, Din! Din! Din!
   You Lazarushian-leather Gunga Din!   
   Though I’ve belted you and flayed you,   
      By the livin’ Gawd that made you,
   You’re a better man than I am, Gunga Din!

I see there is also a 1939 film with Cary Grant. Added it to my watch list.
Title: Re: Poems that move you
Post by: greece66 on September 20, 2018, 03:15:27 PM
Ballade to the Forgotten Poets of the Ages (Kostas Karyotakis, 1921)

Detested by both men and gods,
like nobles who have bitterly decayed,
the Verlaines wither; wealth remains
to them, of rich and silvery .
With ‘Les Chatiments’ the Hugos are intoxicated
by their terrible Olympian revenge.
But I shall write a sorrowful
ballade to the forgotten poets.

Though the Poes have lived in misery,
and though the Baudelaires have suffered living deaths,
they've all been granted Immortality.
Yet no-one now remembers,
and the deepest darkness has completely buried,
every poetaster who produced limp poetry.
But I make as an offering this reverent
ballade to the forgotten poets.

The world’s disdain is heaped on them,
but they pass by, unyielding, pallid,
sacrifices to the tragic fraud that
out there somewhere Glory waits for them,
that wise and merry virgin.
But knowing that they're all due for oblivion,
I weep nostalgically this sorrowful
ballade to the forgotten poets.

And off in some far future epoch:
‘What forgotten poet’ I should like it to be asked
‘has written such a beggarly
ballade to the forgotten poets?’
Title: Re: Poems that move you
Post by: greece66 on September 29, 2018, 12:58:42 PM
When Dead (Thomas Hardy, could not find the year)
 

It will be much better when

I am under the bough;

I shall be more myself, Dear, then,

Than I am now.

 

No sign of querulousness

To wear you out

Shall I show there:  strivings and stress

Be quite without.

 

This fleeting life-brief blight

Will have gone past

When I resume my old and right

Place in the Vast.

 

And when you come to me

To show you true,

Doubt not I shall infallibly

Be waiting for you.

 ====================

I needed a healthy dose of Victorian sentimentalism, and that felt just about right.
Title: Re: Poems that move you
Post by: SHAQATTACK on September 29, 2018, 04:20:54 PM
Minstrel Boy. by Thomas Moore  written circa 1800 ...not quite poetry...inspiration for the ❤️ just the same  :)

The minstrel boy to the war is gone,
In the ranks of death you'll find him;
His father's sword he has girded on,
And his wild harp slung behind him;
"Land of Song!" said the warrior bard,
"Though all the world betrays thee,
One sword, at least, thy rights shall guard,
One faithful harp shall praise thee!"

The Minstrel fell! But the foeman's chain
Could not bring that proud soul under;
The harp he loved ne'er spoke again,
For he tore its chords asunder;
And said "No chains shall sully thee,
Thou soul of love and bravery!
Thy songs were made for the pure and free
They shall never sound in slavery!"
Title: Re: Poems that move you
Post by: liam on October 10, 2018, 01:59:31 PM
I need to get out more

The postal carrier

Drove by as I came home from the dentist

She stopped and said she had the Neflix movie

I had asked about when I left for the dentist

"Thanks"

"No problem" she said

"If you have a package, just leave it on the back porch and I'll take care of it" She said

I blushed

I need to get out more


~Liam Brooks
Title: Re: Poems that move you
Post by: greece66 on October 13, 2018, 03:47:50 AM
Minstrel Boy. by Thomas Moore  written circa 1800 ...not quite poetry...inspiration for the ❤️ just the same  :)

The minstrel boy to the war is gone,
In the ranks of death you'll find him;
His father's sword he has girded on,
And his wild harp slung behind him;
"Land of Song!" said the warrior bard,
"Though all the world betrays thee,
One sword, at least, thy rights shall guard,
One faithful harp shall praise thee!"

The Minstrel fell! But the foeman's chain
Could not bring that proud soul under;
The harp he loved ne'er spoke again,
For he tore its chords asunder;
And said "No chains shall sully thee,
Thou soul of love and bravery!
Thy songs were made for the pure and free
They shall never sound in slavery!"

I really enjoyed reading the Minstrel Boy Fred. Not only does this song have poetic qualities, it also has strong emotional associations as it talks about true deaths, friends of Thomas Moore who were killed in the 1798 Rebellion.



I need to get out more

The postal carrier

Drove by as I came home from the dentist

She stopped and said she had the Neflix movie

I had asked about when I left for the dentist

"Thanks"

"No problem" she said

"If you have a package, just leave it on the back porch and I'll take care of it" She said

I blushed

I need to get out more


~Liam Brooks

^The most original submission I've seen so far.
Title: Re: Poems that move you
Post by: greece66 on October 13, 2018, 05:55:00 AM
And There Was a Great Calm

(On the Signing of the Armistice, 11 Nov. 1918)
 
                                       I
There had been years of Passion—scorching, cold,
And much Despair, and Anger heaving high,
Care whitely watching, Sorrows manifold,
Among the young, among the weak and old,
And the pensive Spirit of Pity whispered, “Why?”
 
 
                                       II
Men had not paused to answer. Foes distraught
Pierced the thinned peoples in a brute-like blindness,
Philosophies that sages long had taught,
And Selflessness, were as an unknown thought,
And “Hell!” and “Shell!” were yapped at Lovingkindness.
 
 
                                       III
The feeble folk at home had grown full-used
To 'dug-outs', 'snipers', 'Huns', from the war-adept
In the mornings heard, and at evetides perused;
To day-dreamt men in millions, when they mused—
To nightmare-men in millions when they slept.
 
 
                                       IV
Waking to wish existence timeless, null,
Sirius they watched above where armies fell;
He seemed to check his flapping when, in the lull
Of night a boom came thencewise, like the dull
Plunge of a stone dropped into some deep well.
 
 
                                       V
So, when old hopes that earth was bettering slowly
Were dead and [dang]ed, there sounded 'War is done!'
One morrow. Said the bereft, and meek, and lowly,
'Will men some day be given to grace? yea, wholly,
And in good sooth, as our dreams used to run?'
 
 
                                       VI
Breathless they paused. Out there men raised their glance
To where had stood those poplars lank and lopped,
As they had raised it through the four years’ dance
Of Death in the now familiar flats of France;
And murmured, 'Strange, this! How? All firing stopped?'
 
 
                                       VII
Aye; all was hushed. The about-to-fire fired not,
The aimed-at moved away in trance-lipped song.
One checkless regiment slung a clinching shot
And turned. The Spirit of Irony smirked out, 'What?
Spoil peradventures woven of Rage and Wrong?'
 
 
                                       VIII
Thenceforth no flying fires inflamed the gray,
No hurtlings shook the dewdrop from the thorn,
No moan perplexed the mute bird on the spray;
Worn horses mused: 'We are not whipped to-day;'
No weft-winged engines blurred the moon’s thin horn.
 
 
                                       IX
Calm fell. From Heaven distilled a clemency;
There was peace on earth, and silence in the sky;
Some could, some could not, shake off misery:
The Sinister Spirit sneered: 'It had to be!'
And again the Spirit of Pity whispered, 'Why?'


Thomas Hardy