Favourite poems - identify the writer and add your own?

[Swizzler]

(as I can't remember my Shakespeare )

What seas what shores what grey rocks and what islands
What water lapping the bow
And scent of pine and the woodthrush singing through the fog
What images return
O my daughter

this poet so reminds me of my childhood...

the lamps now glitter down the street
faintly sound thefalling feet
and the blkue Even slowly falls
About the garden trees and walls

now in the falling of the gloom
the red fire paints the empty room
and warmly on the roof it looks
and flickers on the backs of books..

in case anyone was wondering..

Mine was "Taking off Emily Dickinson's clothes" by Billy Collins who is great.

I hadn't noticed that one, M&J, it's funny.

Time for me to hunt out some more poems I'd forgotten about: does anyone know this?

It's not that we surrender to our fear
or trust in nothing
it's just that the darkness
opens
on mornings like this
filling with distance and starlight for mile after mile...
it's not that we are alone
or far from home
it's just that the world seems strange
on nights like this
when we lie with the ghosts of ourselves...

no, never seen it before swizz, it's lovely

Not pablo neruda is it?

sounds a bit like one of his i love

John Burnside: only discovered him recently

Swizzler, that's lovely! I'm going to look for more John Burnside. Thank you!

How about (well known but one of my fabourite images):

We slowed again
And as the tightened brakes took hold, there swelled
A sense of falling, like an arrow-shower
Sent out of sight, somewhere becoming rain.

Wow wellie, another goodie i've never heard of (not hard)

not u a fanshawe is it? (is that her name?)

Philip Larkin, Whitsun Weddings. Finally guessed one!

OK, what about this:

yesterday
secure behind
your barricade
of polite coffeecups
you sat
whittling cliches

but lastnight
slyold me
got you up
some dark alleyway
of my dreams

this morning
you have a faraway look
in your smalltalk

noone?

Recognise it Swizzler, but can't place it. Have read this thread through from the beginning, it has stirred some great memories and reminded me of many hours spent dicussing poetry in my dim and distant past.

Nice, but I've no idea!

Roger McGough, Man the barricdes, the enemy has let loose his pyjamas

Anyway, off to bed!

Only just found this thread - fabulous! Recognised loads of stuff I love in here. How about this one (from memory)?

First lines:
"Now leave the check-rein slack
The seed is flying far today,
The seed like stars against the black
Eternity of April clay."

And the last:
...."For you are driving your horses through
The mist where Genesis begins."

woh. Hardy?

Pruni - yes, Ogden Nash.
Jessica - I absolutely love that Bath teashop one - it makes me cry.

Here's another for anyone who still wants to play:

I must go down to the sea again, to the lonely sea and the sky
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by...

Kathy - John Masefield
Birdie Bump - Patrick Kavanagh?

Here's one to make you swoon (1st verse only):

I speak not, I trace not, I breathe not thy name,
There is grief in the sound, there is guilt in the fame:
But the tear which now burns on my cheek may impart
The deep thoughts that dwell in that silence of heart.