Favorite Poems

[son_of_a_gunn_25]

Posted: 4/12/04 at 5:38pm

Well I decided to go with a more 'intellectual' thread. What is everyone's favorite poem. It'll take me a minute for me to try to pick a favorite.

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 4/12/04 at 5:45pm

just because i quote it so freakin' much...

the highwayman by alfred noyes

"...down like a dog on the highway,
and he lay in his blood on the highway"

[BroadwayDiva]

Posted: 4/12/04 at 5:50pm

I absolutely love the poem "The Naming of Cats" by T.S. Eliot. Yes, it's from CATS, but it's still one of my favorite poems.

Other favorites include "In Flanders Fields" by John McCrae and "The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

[redhotinnyc2]

Posted: 4/13/04 at 9:17am

Invictus, by W.E. Henley

Out of the night that covers me
Black as the pit from pole to pole
I thank whatever Gods may be
For my unconquerable soul

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody but unbowed

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the horror of the shade
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me Unafraid.

It matters not how straight the gait
How charged with punishments the scroll
I am the master of my fate
I am the captain of my soul.

[joeyjoe]

Posted: 4/13/04 at 9:26am

(shameless plug) mine is of my own writing, published a few years ago...

Seize the moment
For love's sake
Before it's too late
At the moment of enlightenment
Painful confessions
Seem more important than ever
Some things should not be predicted
We have much to say to each other
Just as the roof caves in


but my favorite by another author is the Desiderata...

Updated On: 4/13/04 at 09:26 AM

[SonofMammaMiaSam]

Posted: 4/13/04 at 9:59am

Phanty is not logged-on, so I'll do the honors ... "There once was a boy from Nantucket ..."

[emonkeygirl]

Posted: 4/13/04 at 10:01am

Lady of Shallot by Alfred, Lord Tennyson.

Also one of my favorite paintings by William Holman Hunt.

And a song that I love, by Loreena McKennit. For that matter, so is The Highwayman.

[redhotinnyc2]

Posted: 4/13/04 at 12:29pm

I Am Completely Different
by Kuroda Saburo

I am completely different
Though I am wearing the same tie as yesterday
Am as poor as yesterday
As good for nothing as yesterday
Today
I am completely different.
Though I am wearing the same clothes,
Am as drunk as yesterday
Living as clumsily as yesterday, nevertheless
Today
I am completely different

Ah -
I patiently close my eyes
On all the grins and smirks
On all the twisted smiles and the horse laughs-
And glimpse then, inside me
One beautiful white butterfly
Fluttering towards tomorrow.

[BrooklynsChild]

Posted: 4/13/04 at 12:50pm

Mine would have to be Sonnet 116 by William Shakespeare and then the Highwayman. I like poems that tell a story but Shakespeare is just so beautifully written.

[TheaterBaby]

Posted: 4/13/04 at 1:29pm

Lady of Shallot is actually my favorite as well.
It's one of those poems that tells an entire story in a short amount of time. It's easily relatable to anyone who might be feeling trapped or wants to push the limits and see if the pre-determined consequences will actually happen.

I actually own a framed copy of that painting "Lady of Shallot."
lol My Mother hates it because she thinks it's so sad; but I think it's beautiful.

[orion59]

Posted: 4/13/04 at 1:47pm

I've always been more partial to Waterhouses painting of The Lady of Shallot. I have a print of it prominently displayed in my apartment.

As far as favorite poems....one of my favorites has always been Frost's "The Road Less Traveled"

I also like Hughes "Night Funeral In Harlem" and Sanburg's "Chicago"