Urgent - I need a verse from your favourite poem please!

Last line should be "stared"

I stood and stared
The sky was lit
The sky had stars all over it
I stood, I knew not why.
Without a wish, without a will
I stood upon that silent hill
And stared into the sky until
My eyes were blind with stars and still
I stares into the sky.

Ralph Hodgson

After the Lunch, by Wendy Cope

On Waterloo Bridge where we said our goodbyes
The weather conditions bring tears to my eyes
I wipe them away with a black woolly glove
And try not to notice I've fallen in love.

On Waterloo Bridge I am trying to think
This is nothing you're high on the charm and the drink
But the jukebox inside me is playing a song that says something different
And when was it wrong?

On Waterloo Bridge with wind in my hair
I am tempted to skip. You're a fool. I don't care
The head does it best - but the heart is the boss.
I admit it before I am halfway across.

Florrie by Eileen Silver

There was a young lady called Florrie
Who went for a wee in a quarry
She lay on her back
And opened her crack
And a driver backed in with his lorry

(My nan's favourite)

^Cock up your beaver, and cock it fu' sprush!
We'll over the border and gie them a brush:
There's somebody there we'll teach better behavior -
Hey, brave Johnie lad, cock up your beaver!^

Well, it was my favourite poem yesterday anyway [bgrin]

Oops there shouldn't have been a comma at the end of the first line

dea ex machina by John Updike?

What would the world be, once bereft,
Of wet and wildness? Let them be left;
O let them be left, wildness and wet,
Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet.

From 'Inversnaid' by Hopkins.

Oops, bollocks, modern.

Please Mrs Butler?

I just saw that you wanted modern.

What about the 'Song of Lunch' by Christopher Reid, fabulous for reading aloud. I really love it.

....'Once more she is distracted,
catching the eye of the waiter
with a demur flutter
of restaurant semaphore
and asking for more water.'...

Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Come not, when I am dead,
To drop thy foolish tears upon my grave,
To trample round my fallen head,
And vex the unhappy dust thou wouldst not save.
There let the wind sweep and the plover cry;
But thou, go by.
Child, if it were thine error or thy crime
I care no longer, being all unblest:
Wed whom thou wilt, but I am sick of time,
And I desire to rest.
Pass on, weak heart, and leave me where I lie;
Go by, go by.

Did this at A Level. Teenage angst ahoy! Would be accused of EA on MN though

sirsugar am feeling that!

He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven by W B Yeats

Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths
Enwrought with silver and golden light;
The dark and the dim and the blue cloths of night,
And the light and the half light,
I would spread those 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 on my dreams.

I carry your heart with me by e e cummings is also interesting, as is

At Lunchtime by Roger McGough

My true-love hath my heart by Sir Phillip Sidney

My true-love hath my heart and I have his,
By just exchange one for the other given:
I hold his dear, and mine he cannot miss;
There never was a bargain better driven.
His heart in me keeps me and him in one;
My heart in him his thoughts and senses guides:
He loves my heart, for once it was his own;
I cherish his because in me it bides.
His heart his wound received from my sight;
My heart was wounded with his wounded heart;
For as from me on him his hurt did light,
So still, methought, in me his hurt did smart:
Both equal hurt, in this change sought our bliss,
My true love hath my heart and I have his.

or

Strawberries by Edwin Morgan

There were never strawberries
like the ones we had
that sultry afternoon
sitting on the step
of the open french window
facing each other
your knees held in mine
the blue plates in our laps
the strawberries glistening
in the hot sunlight
we dipped them in sugar
looking at each other
not hurrying the feast
for one to come
the empty plates
laid on the stone together
with the two forks crossed
and I bent towards you
sweet in that air
in my arms
abandoned like a child
from your eager mouth
the taste of strawberries
in my memory
lean back again
let me love you

let the sun beat
on our forgetfulness
one hour of all
the heat intense
and summer lightning
on the Kilpatrick hills

let the storm wash the plates

Here You go.....

Tax his land,
Tax his bed,
Tax the table
At which he's fed.

Tax his work,
Tax his pay,
He works for peanuts
Anyway!

Tax his cow,
Tax his goat,
Tax his pants,
Tax his coat.

Tax his tobacco,
Tax his drink,
Tax him if he
Tries to think.

Tax his car,
Tax his gas,
Find other ways
To tax his ass.

Tax all he has
Then let him know
That you won't be done
Till he has no dough.

When he screams and hollers;
Then tax him some more,
Tax him till
He's good and sore.

Then tax his coffin,
Tax his grave,
Tax the sod in
Which he's laid.

When he's gone,
Do not relax,
It's time to apply
The inheritance tax.

I love the Yeats, posted by Unfortunately.

But I also like this - it has a certain resonance for me now

Those cruel girls we loved are over forty
Their subtle daughters have stolen their beauty
And with a blue stare of cruel surprise
The mock their anxious mothers with their mothers' eyes.

It's by an Australian poet, Stevie Smith.

Here's another one she wrote.

Not Waving But Drowning

Nobody heard him, the dead man,
But still he lay moaning:
I was much further out than you thought
And not waving but drowning.

Poor chap, he always loved larking
And now he's dead
It must have been too cold for him his heart gave way,
They said.

Oh, no no no, it was too cold always
(Still the dead one lay moaning)
I was much too far out all my life
And not waving but drowning.

The life that I have
By Leo marks
Violette szabos call sign during her resistance work in the 2nd world war.

Jabberwocky - Lewis Carroll

Twas brillig and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wave
All mimsy were the borrogroves
And the mome rates outgabe.

Since very few of the individual words make sense, it is all about how the fit together, rhythm etc.

this so tells how it feels to be stood up!

A Broken Appointment

You did not come,
And marching Time drew on, and wore me numb.
Yet less for loss of your dear presence there
Than that I thus found lacking in your make
That high compassion which can overbear
Reluctance for pure lovingkindness' sake
Grieved I, when, as the hope-hour stroked its sum,
You did not come.

You love not me,
And love alone can lend you loyalty;
-I know and knew it. But, unto the store
Of human deeds divine in all but name,
Was it not worth a little hour or more
To add yet this: Once you, a woman, came
To soothe a time-torn man; even though it be
You love not me.
Thomas Hardy

Link no worky...

m.youtube.com/watch?v=KtYkyB35zkk

Not modern, but as it is close to Burns Night...

A Red, Red Rose
O my Luve's like a red, red rose
That's newly sprung in June;
O my Luve's like the melodie
That's sweetly play'd in tune.

As fair art thou, my bonnie lass,
So deep in luve am I:
And I will luve thee still, my dear,
Till a' the seas gang dry:

Till a' the seas gang dry, my dear,
And the rocks melt wi' the sun:
I will luve thee still, my dear,
While the sands o' life shall run.

And fare thee well, my only Luve
And fare thee well, a while!
And I will come again, my Luve,
Tho' it were ten thousand mile.

Storm, by tim minchin

It's 9 minutes long, so I've not put all the lyrics here

It's here tho m.youtube.com/watch?v=KtYkyB35zkk the actual poem starts at 1 minute in.