(no subject)

[sunshine_queen]

When you see this, post your favorite poem.

I have a really hard time picking just one of anything, so I have three! Lucky you.



THE TYGER (from Songs Of Experience)
By William Blake
Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare sieze the fire?

And what shoulder, & what art.
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? & what dread feet?

What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears,
And watered heaven with their tears,
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?



The Waste Land
T.S. Eliot



Dirge Without Music
Edna St Vincent Millay

I am not resigned to the shutting away of loving hearts in the hard ground.
So it is, and so it will be, for so it has been, time out of mind:
Into the darkness they go, the wise and the lovely. Crowned
With lilies and with laurel they go; but I am not resigned.

Lovers and thinkers, into the earth with you.
Be one with the dull, the indiscriminate dust.
A fragment of what you felt, of what you knew,
A formula, a phrase remains,—but the best is lost.

The answers quick and keen, the honest look, the laughter, the
love,—
They are gone. They are gone to feed the roses. Elegant and curled
Is the blossom. Fragrant is the blossom. I know. But I do not
approve.
More precious was the light in your eyes than all the roses in the
world.

Down, down, down into the darkness of the grave
Gently they go, the beautiful, the tender, the kind;
Quietly they go, the intelligent, the witty, the brave.
I know. But I do not approve. And I am not resigned.

Comments

[superswank.livejournal.com]

I love Edna St Vincent Millay.

[sunshine-queen.livejournal.com]

Me too.

[kerlin.livejournal.com]

Oh, I hadn't read that Edna St. Vincent Millay. I love it.

I need to take an afternoon and really thoroughly re-read The Waste Land again. Every line is a gem.

[sunshine-queen.livejournal.com]

I heard Dirge Without Music years and years ago and it's always stayed with me. I think it's lovely.

It really is! It is so well-crafted and amazing.

[beccab1026.livejournal.com]

that particular edna st. vincent millay poem has really been on my mind recently

[sunshine-queen.livejournal.com]

That's sad, bex! No bad thoughts from you!