Your favourite poem?
What kind of poetry do you guys enjoy?
My favourite poems are the epic poetry of Homer and Vergil. These are the opening and closing lines of Vergil's Aeneid:
Aeneid Book I Start:
I sing of arms and the man, he who, exiled by fate,
first came from the coast of Troy to Italy, and to
Lavinian shores – hurled about endlessly by land and sea,
by the will of the gods, by cruel Juno’s remorseless anger,
long suffering also in war, until he founded a city
and brought his gods to Latium: from that the Latin people
came, the lords of Alba Longa, the walls of noble Rome.
Muse, tell me the cause: how was she offended in her divinity,
how was she grieved, the Queen of Heaven, to drive a man,
noted for virtue, to endure such dangers, to face so many
trials? Can there be such anger in the minds of the gods?
Aeneid Book XII End:
As soon as his eyes took in the trophy, a memory of cruel grief,
Aeneas, blazing with fury, and terrible in his anger, cried:
‘Shall you be snatched from my grasp, wearing the spoils
of one who was my own? Pallas it is, Pallas, who sacrifices you
with this stroke, and exacts retribution from your guilty blood.’
So saying, burning with rage, he buried his sword deep
in Turnus’s breast: and then Turnus’s limbs grew slack
with death, and his life fled, with a moan, angrily, to the Shades.
I love this poetry because it has such intricacy of meaning that modern poetry and narrative lacks, in addition to be a fusion between poetry and novels. That is to say, for example, Vergil may use a word only once in the entire poem (10,000 lines!) which isn't just 'emphatic'; it may represent the uniqueness of a person, and highlight their excellence. In book 1, which I translated today, he uses one word to mean 'shrouded' in cloud to show people sneaking into a camp to avoid combat and then uses the same word to mean 'shrouded' in weapons to show the utter contrast of approach.
So yeah, what poetry do you guys enjoy and why?
Comments
A Bright Day In The Middle Of The Night
One bright day in the middle of the night,
Two dead boys got up to fight.
Back to back they faced each other,
drew their swords and shot each other.
A deaf policeman heard the noise
and ran to save the two dead boys.
And if you don't believe it's true,
go ask the blind man, he saw it too.
I don't know who wrote it but
I, why?
I just really like it
Every poem in this book:
Fucking epic. I cry every time.
'Back to back they faced each other' is a clever line.
Is the entire poem 'I, why?'
That doesn't really count as a poem if so :P
Beautiful. Blows Vergil out of the water tbh.
Not Waving but Drowning
From what I could interpret, this poem is about a depressed individual who pretends to be fine and happy when in reality, he or she is far from okay. I've experienced depression before, and I can still relate to this poem in many levels. I think that's one of the reasons why I like it.
That, and I'm a sucker for dark literature.
I'm sure I've posted this before, but here's a really great band putting T.S. Eliot to music:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOs4tkNhy2s
Edgar Allan Poe: "Evening Star"
'Twas noontide of summer,
And mid-time of night;
And stars, in their orbits,
Shone pale, thro' the light
Of the brighter, cold moon,
'Mid planets her slaves,
Herself in the Heavens,
Her beam on the waves.
I gazed awhile
On her cold smile;
Too cold- too cold for me-
There pass'd, as a shroud,
A fleecy cloud,
And I turned away to thee,
Proud Evening Star,
In thy glory afar,
And dearer thy beam shall be;
For joy to my heart
Is the proud part
Thou bearest in Heaven at night,
And more I admire
Thy distant fire,
Than that colder, lowly light.
Edgar Allan Poe: "A Dream Within a Dream"