Favourite poems

[ipanemagirl]

Poem lyrics of Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost.

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village, though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there's some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

I LOVE this poem and the last line reminds me to go to bed!

Have posted this one on here before, but can't resist posting it again. (My youngest dd is now 5... )

Beattie is Three

At the top of the stairs
I ask for her hand. O.K.
She gives it to me.
How her first fits my palm,
A bunch of consolation.
We take our time
Down the steep carpetway
As I wish silently
that the stairs were endless

(Adrian Mitchell)

[sob]

the highway man

My dad used to read this to me when i were a tot...i love it

Also this (translation is mine, and doesn't do it justice)

RITRATTO DELLA MIA BAMBINA
(Umberto Saba)

La mia bambina con la palla in mano,
con gli occhi grandi colore del cielo
e dell?estiva vesticciola: «Babbo
? mi disse ? voglio uscire oggi con te».
Ed io pensavo: Di tante parvenze
che s?ammirano al mondo, io ben so a quali
posso la mia bambina assomigliare.
Certo alla schiuma, alla marina schiuma
che sull?onde biancheggia, a quella scia
ch?esce azzurra dai tetti e il vento sperde;
anche alle nubi, insensibili nubi
che si fanno e si disfanno in chiaro cielo;
e ad altre cose leggere e vaganti.

PORTRAIT OF MY DAUGHTER
My daughter with a ball in her hand, with her big eyes the colour of the sky, and in her little summer dress: "Daddy" she said, "I want to come out with your today".
And I thought: Of all the things in the world which people admire, I well know which are comparable to my daughter. The foam, certainly, the foam on the sea, which whitens the waves, and to that blue trail which emerges from the rooftops and is lost in the wind; to the clouds too, the unfeeling clouds, which form and disperse in the clear sky; and to other light and evanescent things.

This thread is lovely

I love Sylvia Plath too - how sad that her grave is overgrown and unkept Three Women is one of my favourites. All those verses about 'What did my heart do with it's love?' regarding the woman who had her baby. Fantastic!

Robert Browning 'How They Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix' was one of the first poems I did at school. I love the way it gallops along in time with the horses

Ellbell that's beautiful.

TG that's why I love Sea Fever - the alliteration really makes the poem sound like waves when you read it out loud.

ellbell i love Beattie is three...... ( I know what you mean, my ds is 6!!!)

Adrian Mitchell is very very underrated, that is a beautiful poem Ellbell

"He breathed in air, he breathed out light
Charlie Parker was my delight"

gorgeous man

Am going to mail Ellbell's to dh. Our dd is three and took a bit of a tumble on Wednesday so it will strike a chord :

Right - sound of sea: the famous Homeric line, meaning "by the shores of the ever-sounding sea" kind of thing, but not translatable - read this out loud and just hear the pebbles tumbling in the surf & the hiss of the wave receding ...

para tou polyphlosboiou thalasses

Bink - that's lovely.

Love Adrian Mitchell and also the other Liverpool poets. Brian Patten has some lovely stuff.

(it's really "para thina ..." but no-one's counting are they?)

This is the first verse of Sea Fever - must be read aloud.

I must go down to the seas again,
to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship
and a star to steer her by,
And the wheel's kick and the wind's song
and the white sail's shaking,
And a grey mist on the sea's face
and a grey dawn breaking.

That's lovely bink (but para thina) does sound better

I also like, In My Craft or Sullen Art by Dylan Thomas.

I wish I could do links but technology baffles me.

shallidoitforyetnog?

thanks talcy

sullen art

that was quick!

Thank you [gurn]

snice

This is a great thread.

MN is wonderful that you can have an uplifting thread like this in the middle of a friday afternoon.

Was it Thomas that wrote about Raging against the dying of the light? That's fab.

It was.

Do not go gentle into the good night.

Beautiful poem.

Re Sylvia Plath - it's not all dark. Do you like this? WH Auden

Lay your sleeping head, my love

Lay your sleeping head, my love,
Human on my faithless arm;
Time and fevers burn away
Individual beauty from
Thoughtful children, and the grave
Proves the child ephemeral:
But in my arms till break of day
Let the living creature lie,
Mortal, guilty, but to me
The entirely beautiful.

Soul and body have no bounds:
To lovers as they lie upon
Her tolerant enchanted slope
In their ordinary swoon,
Grave the vision Venus sends
Of supernatural sympathy,
Universal love and hope;
While an abstract insight wakes
Among the glaciers and the rocks
The hermit's sensual ecstasy.

Certainty, fidelity
On the stroke of midnight pass
Like vibrations of a bell,
And fashionable madmen raise
Their pedantic boring cry:
Every farthing of the cost,
All the dreaded cards foretell,
Shall be paid, but from this night
Not a whisper, not a thought,
Not a kiss nor look be lost.

Beauty, midnight, vision dies:
Let the winds of dawn that blow
Softly round your dreaming head
Such a day of sweetness show
Eye and knocking heart may bless,
Find the mortal world enough;
Noons of dryness see you fed
By the involuntary powers,
Nights of insult let you pass
Watched by every human love.