Author Topic: Poems that move you  (Read 17229 times)

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Re: Poems that move you
« Reply #30 on: August 26, 2018, 05:33:19 PM »

Offline Neurotic Guy

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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.

Re: Poems that move you
« Reply #31 on: August 26, 2018, 05:41:28 PM »

Offline tarheelsxxiii

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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.
« Last Edit: August 26, 2018, 06:09:05 PM by tarheelsxxiii »
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Re: Poems that move you
« Reply #32 on: August 26, 2018, 06:27:21 PM »

Offline Greenback

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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
Everyone wants truth on his side, not everyone wants to be on the side of truth.

Re: Poems that move you
« Reply #33 on: August 26, 2018, 07:00:42 PM »

Offline liam

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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"

Re: Poems that move you
« Reply #34 on: August 26, 2018, 09:03:45 PM »

Offline Csfan1984

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Re: Poems that move you
« Reply #35 on: August 26, 2018, 09:54:25 PM »

Offline 2short

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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

Re: Poems that move you
« Reply #36 on: August 27, 2018, 12:54:33 AM »

Offline BlastFromThePast

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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

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.



« Last Edit: August 27, 2018, 10:06:39 AM by BlastFromThePast »

Re: Poems that move you
« Reply #37 on: August 27, 2018, 11:44:47 AM »

Offline PhoSita

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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.
You’ll have to excuse my lengthiness—the reason I dread writing letters is because I am so apt to get to slinging wisdom & forget to let up. Thus much precious time is lost.
- Mark Twain

Re: Poems that move you
« Reply #38 on: August 27, 2018, 01:18:29 PM »

Offline fairweatherfan

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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

Re: Poems that move you
« Reply #39 on: September 02, 2018, 08:24:01 PM »

Offline Greenback

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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
Everyone wants truth on his side, not everyone wants to be on the side of truth.

Re: Poems that move you
« Reply #40 on: September 04, 2018, 04:23:58 PM »

Offline greece66

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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

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.


Re: Poems that move you
« Reply #41 on: September 12, 2018, 09:18:01 PM »

Offline greece66

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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.


Re: Poems that move you
« Reply #42 on: September 13, 2018, 08:32:59 AM »

Offline dreamgreen

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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! ;)

Re: Poems that move you
« Reply #43 on: September 13, 2018, 09:11:40 AM »

Offline greece66

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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?



Re: Poems that move you
« Reply #44 on: September 13, 2018, 04:40:59 PM »

Offline greece66

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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. )