Poetry - just for the sake of it!

The arts , poetry & creative writing forum
Post Reply
User avatar
marymary
Global Moderator
Posts: 15584
Joined: December 31st, 2009, 7:59 pm

Poetry - just for the sake of it!

Post by marymary »

:hiya:

The Lake Isle Of Innisfree

I WILL arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made:
Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of the mourning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight's all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet's wings.

I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,
I hear it in the deep heart's core.


William Butler Yeats
User avatar
Little John
member
Posts: 16399
Joined: January 2nd, 2010, 1:46 pm
Location: SE London

Re: Poetry - just for the sake of it!

Post by Little John »

That's more like it.
Yes this is the real "Little John" (or it could be "colin")
User avatar
SRD
Rantipole
Posts: 9252
Joined: December 31st, 2009, 7:23 pm
Location: Wiltshire
Contact:

Re: Poetry - just for the sake of it!

Post by SRD »

marymary wrote::hiya:

The Lake Isle Of Innisfree

I WILL arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made:
Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of the mourning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight's all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet's wings.

I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,
I hear it in the deep heart's core.


William Butler Yates
So who's this fella Yates then?
Children are like Slinkys - not much use for anything, but it always brings a smile to your face when you throw them down the stairs. Chinchilla
User avatar
Little John
member
Posts: 16399
Joined: January 2nd, 2010, 1:46 pm
Location: SE London

Re: Poetry - just for the sake of it!

Post by Little John »

He's the bloke that runs the wine bars.
Yes this is the real "Little John" (or it could be "colin")
User avatar
marymary
Global Moderator
Posts: 15584
Joined: December 31st, 2009, 7:59 pm

Re: Poetry - just for the sake of it!

Post by marymary »

User avatar
marymary
Global Moderator
Posts: 15584
Joined: December 31st, 2009, 7:59 pm

Re: Poetry - just for the sake of it!

Post by marymary »

SRD wrote: So who's this fella Yates then?
The dangers of relying on memory.
User avatar
Little John
member
Posts: 16399
Joined: January 2nd, 2010, 1:46 pm
Location: SE London

Re: Poetry - just for the sake of it!

Post by Little John »

You may remember my quest to find this poem. in fact, for a long time, if you googled for the Light House Keepers bicyle, all you got was my name on forums asking if anyone knew it.

THE LIGHTHOUSE KEEPER'S BICYCLE
by William Bealby-Wright


The Lighthouse Keeper's bicycle
Was covered in rust and mud.
The rattles were indescribable,
It shuddered from hub to hub.
But twice a day he peddled the track,
Five miles there and five miles back,
Through hurricane, storm and ice, until
He sat in the village pub.

The Lighthouse Keeper's bicycle
Leans on the lighthouse wall,
Near the neat little whitewashed vestibule
At the base of the tower so tall.

The muffled cannon in the caves,
The organ wind and the seagull's cry,
The baleful moan when the foghorn brays
And unknown ships edge warily by.

They're all the company he'll get
Until his lonely watch is done,
Then down he winds, stone step by step
And tests the back tyre with his thumb

Oh, the Lighthouse Keeper's bicycle
Was caked with salt and tar,
The brakes they were derisable,
One mud-guard swung ajar,
But he beat up the track in the North wind's teeth
With the handlebars reading North-by-East,
Through hurricane, storm and ice, until
His fist closed round a jar.

The Lighthouse Keeper's bicycle's
Tied up at the Harbour Inn,
In the parlour bar he drinks his fill
Of ale, both thick and thin.

There were tales to tell, and as midnight near'd
The tales grew taller and steeper,
But the tallest tales they ever hear'd
Were told by the Lighthouse Keeper.

He told each night how he had to pass
A haunted house whose ruins scar'd
Stood back from the sea on the Lighthouse path,
How a ghost stood always in the yard.

All clad in white, a spectral hand he'd rear,
-The bar room chills, the listeners hug their fright, -
But the Lighthouse Keeper said he had no fear,
And never failed to wish it a 'Good Night'.

His grave account impressed the simple jury,
The silent smoked-filled parlour was aghast,
But a sly one there, who doubted the whole story,
Slipped out unseen and ran home very fast.

He grabs a sheet, then quickly hies
Off to the haunted farm and waited there,
He'd guessed the Lighthouse Keper's yarn a pack of lies,
And planned a cruel shock to raise his hair.

Draped in a sheet he stood, the moon shone eerily,
A cold wwind whistled round the ruined byres.
Meanwhile, the Lighthouse Keeper, singing beerily,
Was pumping up his patched and porous tyres.

Then he struck a match for his nice nickle-
Plated acetyline light,
And clattered away on his bicycle
Into the depths of the night.
When he came by the farmhouse now, - what did he see?-
Twas haunted for once! - 'Oh ho' - says he,
'Here's one that another's leg tries to pull, -
Hello, there's TWO of you there tonight_
GOODNIGHT, GOODNIGHT!!!'

The man leaped out of his skin, almost,
And fled before the wind,
Pursued by his sheet, like an angry ghost.
The Lighthouse Keeper grinned.

Now all this happened a long time ago,
Before I sowed any oats.
The Lighthouse Keeper died, you know,
And he joined the sppoks and the spirits and the ghosts.

And they tell the tale at the Harbour inn,
When the window shines like a lantern
Across the bay where the waves pound in
Of the Terrible Lighthouse Phantom.

'Tis an ancient riderless bicycle
Covered in rust and mud,
As though hurled by a poltergeist, it'll
Clatter over rocks and scrub.
And twice a night, when the moon's at its height,
Comes pelting down the lane with a rattle of chain
Though hurricane, storm and ice, until,
It reaches the village pub.
Yes this is the real "Little John" (or it could be "colin")
User avatar
marymary
Global Moderator
Posts: 15584
Joined: December 31st, 2009, 7:59 pm

Re: Poetry - just for the sake of it!

Post by marymary »

So where did you find it then?



Grief by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
I tell you hopeless grief is passionless,
That only men incredulous of despair,
Half-taught in anguish, through the midnight air
Beat upward to God's throne in loud access
Of shrieking and reproach. Full desertness
In souls, as countries, lieth silent-bare
Under the blanching, vertical eye-glare
Of the absolute heavens. Deep-hearted man, express
Grief for thy dead in silence like to death—
Most like a monumental statue set
In everlasting watch and moveless woe
Till itself crumble to the dust beneath.
Touch it; the marble eyelids are not wet;
If it could weep, it could arise and go.



(Sticking with the "arise and go" phrase)
User avatar
Little John
member
Posts: 16399
Joined: January 2nd, 2010, 1:46 pm
Location: SE London

Re: Poetry - just for the sake of it!

Post by Little John »

[quote="marymary"]So where did you find it then?

I found it on a poetry forum somewhere. Someone had posted it long after I must have started searching for it or I would have found it before.
Yes this is the real "Little John" (or it could be "colin")
User avatar
marymary
Global Moderator
Posts: 15584
Joined: December 31st, 2009, 7:59 pm

Re: Poetry - just for the sake of it!

Post by marymary »

Before You Were Mine

I'm ten years away from the corner you laugh on
with your pals, Maggie McGeeney and Jean Duff.
The three of you bend from the waist, holding
each other, or your knees, and shriek at the pavement.
Your polka-dot dress blows round your legs. Marilyn.

I'm not here yet. The thought of me doesn't occur
in the ballroom with the thousand eyes, the fizzy, movie tomorrows
the right walk home could bring. I knew you would dance
like that. Before you were mine, your Ma stands at the close
with a hiding for the late one. You reckon it's worth it.

The decade ahead of my loud, possessive yell was the best one, eh?
I remember my hands in those high-heeled red shoes, relics,
and now your ghost clatters toward me over George Square
till I see you, clear as scent, under the tree,
with its lights, and whose small bites on your neck, sweetheart?

Cha cha cha! You'd teach me the steps on the way home from Mass,
stamping stars from the wrong pavement. Even then
I wanted the bold girl winking in Portobello, somewhere
in Scotland, before I was born. That glamorous love lasts
where you sparkle and waltz and laugh before you were mine.

Carol Ann Duffy
User avatar
marymary
Global Moderator
Posts: 15584
Joined: December 31st, 2009, 7:59 pm

Re: Poetry - just for the sake of it!

Post by marymary »

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings


The free bird leaps
on the back of the wind
and floats downstream
till the current ends
and dips his wings
in the orange sun rays
and dares to claim the sky.

But a bird that stalks
down his narrow cage
can seldom see through
his bars of rage
his wings are clipped and
his feet are tied
so he opens his throat to sing.

The caged bird sings
with fearful trill
of the things unknown
but longed for still
and is tune is heard
on the distant hill for the caged bird
sings of freedom

The free bird thinks of another breeze
an the trade winds soft through the sighing trees
and the fat worms waiting on a dawn-bright lawn
and he names the sky his own.

But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams
his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream
his wings are clipped and his feet are tied
so he opens his throat to sing

The caged bird sings
with a fearful trill
of things unknown
but longed for still
and his tune is heard
on the distant hill
for the caged bird
sings of freedom.

Maya Angelou
User avatar
Little John
member
Posts: 16399
Joined: January 2nd, 2010, 1:46 pm
Location: SE London

Re: Poetry - just for the sake of it!

Post by Little John »

I know that one. I also know that I know something about but cant remember what it is I know.
Yes this is the real "Little John" (or it could be "colin")
User avatar
marymary
Global Moderator
Posts: 15584
Joined: December 31st, 2009, 7:59 pm

Re: Poetry - just for the sake of it!

Post by marymary »

User avatar
marymary
Global Moderator
Posts: 15584
Joined: December 31st, 2009, 7:59 pm

Re: Poetry - just for the sake of it!

Post by marymary »

The Windhover - Gerard Manley Hopkins
To Christ Our Lord

I caught this morning morning's minion, king-
dom of daylight's dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon, in his riding
Of the rolling level underneath him steady air, and striding
High there, how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing
In his ecstasy! then off, off forth on swing,
As a skate's heel sweeps smooth on a bow-bend: the hurl and gliding
Rebuffed the big wind. My heart in hiding
Stirred for a bird, – the achieve of, the mastery of the thing.

Brute beauty and valour and act, oh, air, pride, plume, here
Buckle! AND the fire that breaks from thee then, a billion
Times told lovelier, more dangerous, O my chevalier!

No wonder of it: shéer plód makes plough down sillion
Shine, and blue-bleak embers, ah my dear,
Fall, gall themselves, and gash gold-vermilion.
User avatar
marymary
Global Moderator
Posts: 15584
Joined: December 31st, 2009, 7:59 pm

Re: Poetry - just for the sake of it!

Post by marymary »

The Wind

With no companion to my mood,
Against the wind as it should be,
I walk, but in my solitude
Bow to the wind that buffets me.

Vikram Seth
Post Reply