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The Top 500 Poems: 200-101

A platform to express and share your enthusiasm and passion for poetry. What are your treasured poems and poets? Don't hesitate to showcase the poems you've penned yourself!
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lady of shallot

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Re: The Top 500 Poems: 200-101

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Oblivion, I too think this is very beautiful. The beauty of course is not in the theme. . . the death of what sounds like a dear little girl, full of spirit and energy. the beauty lies in the imagery of the lines.

I think now I understand the last line a little better
"to say we are vexed at her brown study. Lying so primly propped"
Maybe this does not refer to her death but to the undertakers arrangement of her in the coffin.
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Penelope

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Re: The Top 500 Poems: 200-101

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Saffron wrote:

I'm with you, Penelope. I can't really give this a ding, not even if I try.
I am so glad...thank you Saffron, I thought it was just me.
Only those become weary of angling who bring nothing to it but the idea of catching fish.

He was born with the gift of laughter and a sense that the world is mad....

Rafael Sabatini
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oblivion

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Re: The Top 500 Poems: 200-101

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Penelope,
Poetry would be truly boring if we all agreed on it. It's the discussion that matters and gives us all a different perspective. Keep those comments and opinions coming!
Gods and spirits are parasitic--Pascal Boyer

Religion is the only force in the world that lets a person have his prejudice or hatred and feel good about it --S C Hitchcock

Believe those who are seeking the truth. Doubt those who find it. --André Gide

Reading is a majority skill but a minority art. --Julian Barnes
lady of shallot

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Re: The Top 500 Poems: 200-101

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Just read "Dulce et decorum est" what a beautiful and starkly real poem. Had to look up the title of the poem as I do not know Latin . . . oops just see that Dwill had included the explanation.

Owen's comment on this philosophy is so true! Reminds me of the recent Masterpiece theater show they had about Rudyard Kipling's son and how eager he was for his son (who was so near sighted they wouldn't enlist him till his father pulled strings) to serve in this war. Even though the boy was barely 18 and was killed almost immediately.
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DWill

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Re: The Top 500 Poems: 200-101

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That's all for the second 100, but I just wanted to say, what a fine discussion of "John Whiteside's Daughter." It's an enigmatic piece. Wonder why she doesn't get a name.
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Saffron

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Re: The Top 500 Poems: 200-101

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DWill wrote:That's all for the second 100, but I just wanted to say, what a fine discussion of "John Whiteside's Daughter." It's an enigmatic piece. Wonder why she doesn't get a name.
I can hardly believe it, we are on the last 100! I will be a little sad when this ends. Oh, and I wondered the same thing about the child being nameless.
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geo

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Re: The Top 500 Poems: 200-101

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DWill wrote:148. "Richard Cory, by Edward Arlington Robinson. You know, like the famous Simon and Garfunkel song.

Whenever Richard Cory went down town,
We people on the pavement looked at him:
He was a gentleman from sole to crown,
Clean-favoured and imperially slim.

And he was always quietly arrayed,
And he was always human when he talked;
But still he fluttered pulses when he said,
"Good Morning!" and he glittered when he walked.

And he was rich, yes, richer than a king,
And admirably schooled in every grace:
In fine -- we thought that he was everything
To make us wish that we were in his place.

So on we worked and waited for the light,
And went without the meat and cursed the bread,
And Richard Cory, one calm summer night,
Went home and put a bullet in his head.

Edwin Arlington Robinson
I dug this up from the murky depths of Booktalk. I'm hoping to generate a bit of discussion. This is such an interesting poem and approachable. I'm using it in my literature class as an introduction to poetry (along with Stopping by Woods), hoping to get a discussion going. The theme of appearance versus reality comes into play later when we read A Rose for Emily.
-Geo
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Saffron

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Re: The Top 500 Poems: 200-101

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geo wrote:
DWill wrote:148. "Richard Cory, by Edward Arlington Robinson. You know, like the famous Simon and Garfunkel song.

Whenever Richard Cory went down town,
We people on the pavement looked at him:
He was a gentleman from sole to crown,
Clean-favoured and imperially slim.

And he was always quietly arrayed,
And he was always human when he talked;
But still he fluttered pulses when he said,
"Good Morning!" and he glittered when he walked.

And he was rich, yes, richer than a king,
And admirably schooled in every grace:
In fine -- we thought that he was everything
To make us wish that we were in his place.

So on we worked and waited for the light,
And went without the meat and cursed the bread,
And Richard Cory, one calm summer night,
Went home and put a bullet in his head.

Edwin Arlington Robinson
I dug this up from the murky depths of Booktalk. I'm hoping to generate a bit of discussion. This is such an interesting poem and approachable. I'm using it in my literature class as an introduction to poetry (along with Stopping by Woods), hoping to get a discussion going. The theme of appearance versus reality comes into play later when we read A Rose for Emily.
I love to explore the theme that things are not always what they seem or that there is so much more under the surface (like DWill's avatar the iceberg). In life, so often they are not. Thanks, Geo, for dredging this up. Doing the Top 500 was one of my most favorite things.
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DWill

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Re: The Top 500 Poems: 200-101

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That's true, "Richard Cory" is an accessible poem, the kind that was more common when poetry was more popular. I like Paul Simon's version of the poem, because after we learn that RC shot himself in the head, we hear the refrain, "Oh, I wish that I could be...Richard Cory." And isn't that just how people think--not heeding the lesson that riches don't buy happiness, but wanting to give Cory's life a go anyway. It's like the stories of all those lottery winners that end up busted and miserable. We all think that we could handle the dough much better (and wouldn't I like to try).
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oblivion

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Re: The Top 500 Poems: 200-101

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he "fluttered pulses" and "glittered when he walked".....fantastic, isn't it?
Gods and spirits are parasitic--Pascal Boyer

Religion is the only force in the world that lets a person have his prejudice or hatred and feel good about it --S C Hitchcock

Believe those who are seeking the truth. Doubt those who find it. --André Gide

Reading is a majority skill but a minority art. --Julian Barnes
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