Joined: Apr 2008 Posts: 2495 Images: 5 Location: Round Hill, VA
Thanks: 221 Thanked: 175 times in 141 posts
Gender: Country:
Re: The Top 500 Poems: 300-201
We all forgot to switch to this thread when we hit number 300. I will do my best to paste in the poems and comments that belong here. It will not look the same, but it will have to do.
_________________ Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads ~ Henry David Thoreau
“People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth. Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don’t even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child — our own two eyes. All is a miracle.” -Thich Nhat Hahn
Joined: Apr 2008 Posts: 2495 Images: 5 Location: Round Hill, VA
Thanks: 221 Thanked: 175 times in 141 posts
Gender: Country:
Re: The Top 500 Poems: 300-201
DWill:
300. "Grace for a Child," by Robert Herrick
Here a little child I stand Heaving up my either hand; Cold as paddocks though they be, Here I lift them up to Thee, For a benison to fall On our meat, and on us all. Amen.
Joined: Apr 2008 Posts: 2495 Images: 5 Location: Round Hill, VA
Thanks: 221 Thanked: 175 times in 141 posts
Gender: Country:
Re: The Top 500 Poems: 300-201
DWill: July 10 6:57AM
299. "A Nocturnal upon St. Lucy's Day, Being the Shortest Day," by John Donne. Didn't we have occasion to look at this poem some time ago? Another question: Is it any wonder that T. S. Eliot admired Donne's poetry and is partly responsible for raising his reputation? Glossary, please!
'TIS the year's midnight, and it is the day's, Lucy's, who scarce seven hours herself unmasks ; The sun is spent, and now his flasks Send forth light squibs, no constant rays ; The world's whole sap is sunk ; The general balm th' hydroptic earth hath drunk, Whither, as to the bed's-feet, life is shrunk, Dead and interr'd ; yet all these seem to laugh, Compared with me, who am their epitaph.
Study me then, you who shall lovers be At the next world, that is, at the next spring ; For I am every dead thing, In whom Love wrought new alchemy. For his art did express A quintessence even from nothingness, From dull privations, and lean emptiness ; He ruin'd me, and I am re-begot Of absence, darkness, death—things which are not.
All others, from all things, draw all that's good, Life, soul, form, spirit, whence they being have ; I, by Love's limbec, am the grave Of all, that's nothing. Oft a flood Have we two wept, and so Drown'd the whole world, us two ; oft did we grow, To be two chaoses, when we did show Care to aught else ; and often absences Withdrew our souls, and made us carcasses.
But I am by her death—which word wrongs her— Of the first nothing the elixir grown ; Were I a man, that I were one I needs must know ; I should prefer, If I were any beast, Some ends, some means ; yea plants, yea stones detest, And love ; all, all some properties invest. If I an ordinary nothing were, As shadow, a light, and body must be here.
But I am none ; nor will my sun renew. You lovers, for whose sake the lesser sun At this time to the Goat is run To fetch new lust, and give it you, Enjoy your summer all, Since she enjoys her long night's festival. Let me prepare towards her, and let me call This hour her vigil, and her eve, since this Both the year's and the day's deep midnight is. _________________ Trying to define yourself is like trying to bite your own teeth.----Tennessee Williams
Joined: Apr 2008 Posts: 2495 Images: 5 Location: Round Hill, VA
Thanks: 221 Thanked: 175 times in 141 posts
Gender: Country:
Re: The Top 500 Poems: 300-201
I am going to repost St. Lucy with notes. I thinik it helps a bit, although this is still a challenging poem. What is Doane saying about love, damn it! Or is the poem just about grief and loss?
John Donne (1572-1631)
A Nocturnal upon St. Lucy's Day
1 'Tis the year's midnight, and it is the day's, 2 Lucy's, who scarce seven hours herself unmasks; 3 The sun is spent, and now his flasks 4 Send forth light squibs, no constant rays; 5 The world's whole sap is sunk; 6 The general balm th' hydroptic earth hath drunk, 7 Whither, as to the bed's feet, life is shrunk, 8 Dead and interr'd; yet all these seem to laugh, 9 Compar'd with me, who am their epitaph.
10 Study me then, you who shall lovers be 11 At the next world, that is, at the next spring; 12 For I am every dead thing, 13 In whom Love wrought new alchemy. 14 For his art did express 15 A quintessence even from nothingness, 16 From dull privations, and lean emptiness; 17 He ruin'd me, and I am re-begot 18 Of absence, darkness, death: things which are not.
19 All others, from all things, draw all that's good, 20 Life, soul, form, spirit, whence they being have; 21 I, by Love's limbec, am the grave 22 Of all that's nothing. Oft a flood 23 Have we two wept, and so 24 Drown'd the whole world, us two; oft did we grow 25 To be two chaoses, when we did show 26 Care to aught else; and often absences 27 Withdrew our souls, and made us carcasses.
28 But I am by her death (which word wrongs her) 29 Of the first nothing the elixir grown; 30 Were I a man, that I were one 31 I needs must know; I should prefer, 32 If I were any beast, 33 Some ends, some means; yea plants, yea stones detest, 34 And love; all, all some properties invest; 35 If I an ordinary nothing were, 36 As shadow, a light and body must be here.
37 But I am none; nor will my sun renew. 38 You lovers, for whose sake the lesser sun 39 At this time to the Goat is run 40 To fetch new lust, and give it you, 41 Enjoy your summer all; 42 Since she enjoys her long night's festival, 43 Let me prepare towards her, and let me call 44 This hour her vigil, and her eve, since this 45 Both the year's, and the day's deep midnight is. Notes
1] St. Lucy's day, Dec. 13, was regarded as the shortest day in the old (Julian) calendar.
3] flasks: obsolete variant of flashes.
4] squibs: (unimpressive) fireworks.
6] general balm. It was thought that, as Donne puts it in one of his verse letters, "In everything there naturally grows / A Balsamum [balm] to keep it fresh and new." hydroptic: dropsical.
7] Miss Gardner notes that in Hippocrates' famous description of the signs of imminent death the dying man huddles at the foot of the bed.
14] express: press out.
15] quintessence: the fifth essence of ancient and mediaeval philosophy and alchemy, latent inall things and the substance of the heavenly bodies.
17-18] ruin'd: probably used in an alchemical sense of reducing to elements. absence, darkness, death probably correspond to the three basic elements of alchemy: salt, sulphur, mercury.
21] limbec: alembic for distillation.
29] elixir: quintessence.
31] prefer: be able to select and reject. Donne is comparing the powers possessed by man, beasts, plants, and stones. Grierson quotes from a sermon in which Donne says that even stones, though they have not even a vegetable soul, "may have life'' and may therefore select and reject, i.e., "detest and love."
34] invest: clothe.
39] the Goat: Capricorn; at the winter solstice the sun enters Capricorn.
_________________ Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads ~ Henry David Thoreau
“People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth. Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don’t even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child — our own two eyes. All is a miracle.” -Thich Nhat Hahn
Joined: Apr 2008 Posts: 2495 Images: 5 Location: Round Hill, VA
Thanks: 221 Thanked: 175 times in 141 posts
Gender: Country:
Re: The Top 500 Poems: 300-201
Re: The Top 500 Poems: 400-301
Quote:
DWill wrote: 299. "A Nocturnal upon St. Lucy's Day, Being the Shortest Day," by John Donne. Didn't we have occasion to look at this poem some time ago?
Yes, I posted it in December 2008, I believe. I don't remember if it was Poem of the Moment or a different thread. _________________ "Nothing in Biology Makes Sense Except in the Light of Evolution" is in a 1973 essay by the evolutionary biologist and Russian Orthodox Christian Theodosius Dobzhansky,
Joined: Apr 2008 Posts: 2495 Images: 5 Location: Round Hill, VA
Thanks: 221 Thanked: 175 times in 141 posts
Gender: Country:
Re: The Top 500 Poems: 300-201
Quote:
DWill wrote: Ah, I'm glad I'm not imagining that. Thanks. I suppose you had this poem all figured out?
sure....
I went back over the threads to find where and when I'd posted the poem. It was Dec. 14, 2008 on Poem of the Moment.
_________________ Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads ~ Henry David Thoreau
“People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth. Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don’t even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child — our own two eyes. All is a miracle.” -Thich Nhat Hahn
Joined: Apr 2008 Posts: 2495 Images: 5 Location: Round Hill, VA
Thanks: 221 Thanked: 175 times in 141 posts
Gender: Country:
Re: The Top 500 Poems: 300-201
DWill: July 11, 2010 8:46 am
Here's a good "explication" of "A Nocturnal upon St. Lucy's Day." I say explication in quotations because the writer honestly admits that he doesn't know what the poem means or even what is Donne's attitude toward love. The writer explores the possible meanings, which for me is always the best way to talk about poems anyway. http://unix.cc.wmich.edu/~cooneys/tchg/ ... urnal.html
298. "Rose-cheeked Laura," by Thomas Campion. Harmon's note: This lyric is one of the most successful of the many Elizabethan experiments in basing versification on principles drawn from classical antiquity. It contains no rhyme, the rhythm is based on quantity (length of syllable) as well as quality (accent), lines are made up of different kinds of foot, and a word may be broken at the end of a line--a very rare occurrence in serious poetry. (Note that: "concent" is "harmonious music-making.")
Rose-cheek'd Laura, come, Sing thou smoothly with thy beauty's Silent music, either other Sweetly gracing.
Lovely forms do flow From concent divinely framed; Heav'n is music, and thy beauty's Birth is heavenly.
These dull notes we sing Discords need for helps to grace them; Only beauty purely loving Knows no discord,
But still moves delight, Like clear springs renew'd by flowing, Ever perfect, ever in them- selves eternal.
297. "Where the Bee sucks, There suck I," by William Shakespeare. The "airy spirit" Ariel sings this happy song, looking forward to being freed from service to Prospero.
Where the bee sucks there suck I: In a cow-slip's bell I lie; There I couch when owls do cry. On a bat's back I do fly after summer merrily, Merrily, merrily shall I live now Under the blossom that hangs on the bough. _________________ Trying to define yourself is like trying to bite your own teeth.----Tennessee Williams
Last edited by DWill on Sun Jul 11, 2010 8:47 am, edited 2 times in total.
Joined: Apr 2008 Posts: 2495 Images: 5 Location: Round Hill, VA
Thanks: 221 Thanked: 175 times in 141 posts
Gender: Country:
Re: The Top 500 Poems: 300-201
July 12, 2010 9:22 am
296. "Farewell! Thou Art Too Dear for My Possessing," by William Shakespeare. I don't feel "liking" toward this sonnet, as hazardous as it might be to criticize the master. The poem revolves too much around wordplay and analogy with finance and law; it's a puzzle for the intellect that doesn't open up into significant feeling, for me.
FAREWELL! thou art too dear for my possessing, And like enough thou know'st thy estimate: The charter of thy worth gives thee releasing; My bonds in thee are all determinate.
For how do I hold thee but by thy granting? 5 And for that riches where is my deserving? The cause of this fair gift in me is wanting, And so my patent back again is swerving.
Thyself thou gav'st, thy own worth then not knowing, Or me, to whom thou gav'st it, else mistaking; 10 So thy great gift, upon misprision growing, Comes home again, on better judgment making.
Thus have I had thee as a dream doth flatter— In sleep, a king; but waking, no such matter. _________________ Trying to define yourself is like trying to bite your own teeth.----Tennessee Williams
Joined: Apr 2008 Posts: 2495 Images: 5 Location: Round Hill, VA
Thanks: 221 Thanked: 175 times in 141 posts
Gender: Country:
Re: The Top 500 Poems: 300-201
DWill: July 12, 2010 9:91 am
PREVIEW OF THE NEXT 100 POEMS
Maybe this might help increase interest? Between now and 200, we're going to see the following familiar poems that people might enjoy reading again (listed in descending order). Then there are the unfamiliar others, the introductions that could become favorites. This is the valuable feature of the "Top 500" approach for me.
"The Circus Animals' Desertion," Yeats "My Life closed twice before its close," Dickinson "The Charge of the Light Brigade," Tennyson "Il Pensero," Milton (oooh!) "Lord Randal," anonymous "A Supermarket in California," Ginsberg "Those Winter Sundays," Hayden "In a Station in the Metro," Pound "Acquainted with the Night," Frost "After Apple-Picking," Frost "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloomed," Whitman "Bright Star," Keats "My Heart Leaps Up," Wordsworth "anyone lived in a pretty how town," cummings "Sweeney Among the Nightingales," Eliot "Birches," Frost "The Wild Swans at Coole," Yeats "I like to see it lap the miles," Dickinson "Thanatopsis," Bryant "L'Allegro," Milton "The Dance," Williams "The Idea of Order at Key West," Stevens "The soul selects her own society," Dickinson "O Captain, My Captain," Whitman "The Owl and the Pussycat," Lear "The Snow-Storm," Emerson "To a Mouse," Burns (yes!) _________________ Trying to define yourself is like trying to bite your own teeth.----Tennessee Williams
Joined: Apr 2008 Posts: 2495 Images: 5 Location: Round Hill, VA
Thanks: 221 Thanked: 175 times in 141 posts
Gender: Country:
Re: The Top 500 Poems: 300-201
Saraphim: July 12, 2010 9:45 am
I'm excited about "To a Mouse" as well! I recognize a number of those from high school. I can't wait to read these familiar poems, not to mention the others you have in store for us! _________________ Deep in the human unconscious is a pervasive need for a logical universe that makes sense. But the real universe is always one step beyond logic. ~ Frank Herbert, Dune
Joined: Apr 2008 Posts: 2495 Images: 5 Location: Round Hill, VA
Thanks: 221 Thanked: 175 times in 141 posts
Gender: Country:
Re: The Top 500 Poems: 300-201
10:40 am
Quote:
DWill wrote: PREVIEW OF THE NEXT 100 POEMS
Maybe this might help increase interest? Between now and 200, we're going to see the following familiar poems that people might enjoy reading again (listed in descending order). Then there are the unfamiliar others, the introductions that could become favorites. This is the valuable feature of the "Top 500" approach for me.
What a good idea! I was thinking of doing a sum up of peoples favorites for the 500-401 and 400-301. If I can find a chunk of time I think I will.
_________________ Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads ~ Henry David Thoreau
“People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth. Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don’t even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child — our own two eyes. All is a miracle.” -Thich Nhat Hahn
Joined: Apr 2008 Posts: 2495 Images: 5 Location: Round Hill, VA
Thanks: 221 Thanked: 175 times in 141 posts
Gender: Country:
Re: The Top 500 Poems: 300-201
Froglipz: July 12, 2010 2:00 pm
There are several of those I am looking forward to as well. some from high school, others because my parents loved them, and some intriguing titles I have never met as well. _________________ ~froglipz~
The following user would like to thank Saffron for this post: froglipz
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 2 guests
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot post attachments in this forum
The 12th Disciple is now being
stocked at Poor Richard's
Bookstore in Colorado Springs.
We're happy to have the
title at such a historic
location in Colorado Springs.
If… more
For most of us, a very big
part of our lives will be a
dark place, we wont realize
it. We live, we eat, we have
some fun, we go to school, we
sleep. But it will come the
time, when… more
The 12th Disciple's
endorsement for a Presidential
Candidate...we'll pass.
If many haven't learned
over the past several decades,
centuries, and millennia, the
gover… more
So I've been looking for
new books to read, but I
haven't found any that
have caught my attention
lately. I want to try and
venture out into a different
genre, but I'… more
For those who constantly gripe
about jobs being sent
overseas, focus your anger on
this. Read about how one of
the most profitable companies
prided by American citizens
offshores t… more
Its January 1945 and British,
Commonwealth, US and POWs from
various other nationalities
are finally awaiting
liberation from the various
camps in Eastern Europe, where
some of the… more
A good friend of mine recently
received a pre-paid credit
card. She went to pay for a
$20.00 gas purchase only to
later find out that over a
$70.00 hold was placed on her
card for… more
While watching the bube tube
(TV) this morning I stumbled
on a motivational speaker
saying today marks a new
year, you now have a blank
canvas to work from.
The 12th Disciple wishes you
and yours a Happy New Year.
Many of us hope and pray that
2012 will bring better
leadership in the government
of the United States, better
leadership i… more
The Cat & The
Nightingale Saga, the docu
drama version of The Weekend
Trippers, also tells Rifleman
Ted Taylors story but in a
slightly different way. It too
tells of the… more
In 2011 I published my book;
in the book I outlined 9 Key
Principles to Prosperity
(happiness). Like
many of you, I walked through
2011 with the Woe is me
attitude. When… more
More and more these days I see
people using social media to
quote what someone else has
said. I see people posting
their favorite rappers lyrics,
lines from movies and what
seems t… more
Im down the school for the
first time today. My friend
visited two weeks ago and said
it was chaos. They must have
heard I was back
because everything is tidy and
orderly today… more
I'm quite positive that
everyone who enters this site
has the same thing in mind:
fear of seeing a world without
books, without literature. We
see it everyday, more people
qui… more
For once in my life I step off
the plane at Banjul, and
dont get a rush of elation.
I went home to see my
daughters twins safely
delivered. They are all well
now, but Im goin… more
Last weekend I witnessed a
couple of family members
literally fall apart at the
seams because of a problem
with a couple of their
employees. They recently
opened a group home, and
… more
Tell your friends when to meet you in the BookTalk.org Chat Room.
Booktalk.org on Facebook
If you enjoy business bestsellers and would like to expand your business knowledge check out the quality book summaries offered by the world's leading book summary company.
BookTalk.org is a free book discussion group or online reading group or book club. We read and talk about both fiction and non-fiction books as a group. We host live author chats where booktalk members can interact with and interview authors. We give away free books to our members in book giveaway contests. Our booktalks are open to everybody who enjoys talking about books. Our book forums include book reviews, author interviews and book resources for readers and book lovers. Discussing books is our passion. We're a literature forum, or reading forum. Register a free book club account today! Suggest nonfiction and fiction books. Authors and publishers are welcome to advertise their books or ask for an author chat or author interview.
Tweet This Topic
sure....
