# Poetry rally: respond to the previous poster by quoting a related piece of poetry **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 27, 2008, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poetry-rally-respond-to-the-previous-poster-by-quoting-a-related-piece-of-poetry/457894 "2008-07-27T02:05:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2008, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poetry-rally-respond-to-the-previous-poster-by-quoting-a-related-piece-of-poetry/457894/1 "2008-07-27T02:05:10Z")
When that April with her showers sweet The drought of March hath pierced to the root And bathed every vine in such liquor Of which virtue engendered is the flower When Zephyrus eke with his sweet breath Inspired hath in every holt and heath The tender crops, and the young sun Hath in the Ram his half course run, And small fowls make melody That sleep all the night with open eye, So pricketh them Nature in their courages, Then long folk to go on pilgrimages. - Geoffrey Chaucer, prologue to _The Canterbury Tales_ ---
**Author:** ![Lamar\_Mundane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2008, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poetry-rally-respond-to-the-previous-poster-by-quoting-a-related-piece-of-poetry/457894/2 "2008-07-27T02:08:13Z")
APRIL is the cruellest month, breeding Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing Memory and desire, stirring Dull roots with spring rain. Winter kept us warm, covering Earth in forgetful snow, feeding A little life with dried tubers. The Wasteland, T.S. Eliot ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2008, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poetry-rally-respond-to-the-previous-poster-by-quoting-a-related-piece-of-poetry/457894/3 "2008-07-27T02:13:30Z")
I wander’d lonely as a cloud That floats on high o’er vales and hills, When all at once I saw a crowd, A host, of golden daffodils; Beside the lake, beneath the trees, Fluttering and dancing in the breeze. _Daffodils_ by Wordsworth ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2008, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poetry-rally-respond-to-the-previous-poster-by-quoting-a-related-piece-of-poetry/457894/4 "2008-07-27T02:48:38Z")
In Flanders Fields the poppies blow Between the crosses row on row, That mark our place; and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard amid the guns below. -John McCrae ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2008, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poetry-rally-respond-to-the-previous-poster-by-quoting-a-related-piece-of-poetry/457894/5 "2008-07-27T03:02:49Z")
I have seen a green country, useful to the race, Knocked silly with guns and mines, its villages vanished, Even the last rat and the last kestrel banished - God bless us all, this was peculiar grace. – Edmund Blunden ---
**Author:** ![freckafree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/freckafree/32/3050_2.png) [@freckafree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/freckafree)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2008, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poetry-rally-respond-to-the-previous-poster-by-quoting-a-related-piece-of-poetry/457894/6 "2008-07-27T03:15:22Z")
Pile the bodies high at Austerlitz and Waterloo. Shovel them under and let me work— I am the grass; I cover all. And pile them high at Gettysburg And pile them high at Ypres and Verdun. Shovel them under and let me work. Two years, ten years, and passengers ask the conductor: What place is this? Where are we now? ``` I am the grass. Let me work. ``` – Carl Sandburg ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2008, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poetry-rally-respond-to-the-previous-poster-by-quoting-a-related-piece-of-poetry/457894/7 "2008-07-27T03:32:21Z")
I went to turn the grass once after one Who mowed it in the dew before the sun. The dew was gone that made his blade so keen Before I came to view the leveled scene. [MATERIAL DELETED] _The Tuft of Flowers_, Robert Frost ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2008, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poetry-rally-respond-to-the-previous-poster-by-quoting-a-related-piece-of-poetry/457894/8 "2008-07-28T15:39:28Z")
old pond a frog jumps the sound of water - Matsuo Bashō ---
**Author:** ![betenoir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/258eb7/32.png) [@betenoir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/betenoir)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2008, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poetry-rally-respond-to-the-previous-poster-by-quoting-a-related-piece-of-poetry/457894/9 "2008-07-28T15:56:27Z")
Full fathoms five thy father lies. Of his bones are coral made. Those are pearls that were his eyes Nothing of him that doth fade But doth suffer a sea change. Into something rich and strange ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2008, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poetry-rally-respond-to-the-previous-poster-by-quoting-a-related-piece-of-poetry/457894/10 "2008-07-28T17:20:40Z")
“You are old, Father William,” the young man said, “And your hair has become very white; And yet you incessantly stand on your head— Do you think, at your age, it is right? ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2008, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poetry-rally-respond-to-the-previous-poster-by-quoting-a-related-piece-of-poetry/457894/11 "2008-07-28T17:51:49Z")
An aged man is but a paltry thing, A tattered coat upon a stick, unless Soul clap its hands and sing, and louder sing For every tatter in its mortal dress, Nor is there singing school but studying Monuments of its own magnificence; And therefore I have sailed the seas and come To the holy city of Byzantium.-W.B. Yeats ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2008, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poetry-rally-respond-to-the-previous-poster-by-quoting-a-related-piece-of-poetry/457894/12 "2008-07-28T18:20:46Z")
Istanbul was Constantinople Now it’s Istanbul, not Constantinople Been a long time gone, Constantinople Now it’s Turkish delight on a moonlit night! [DELETED EXCESS MATERIAL] Jimmy Kennedy & Nat Simon ---
**Author:** ![Cub\_Mistress](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ea666f/32.png) [@Cub\_Mistress](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cub_Mistress)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2008, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poetry-rally-respond-to-the-previous-poster-by-quoting-a-related-piece-of-poetry/457894/13 "2008-07-28T19:03:02Z")
Are song lyrics ok? Champagne don’t drive me crazy Cocaine don’t make me lazy Ain’t nobody’s business but my own Candy is dandy and liquor is quicker You can drink all the liquor down at Costa Rica Ain’t nobody’s business but my own composer is listed as Porter Grainger, Everett Robbins. I only know the Taj Mahal version. ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2008, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poetry-rally-respond-to-the-previous-poster-by-quoting-a-related-piece-of-poetry/457894/14 "2008-07-28T19:33:23Z")
Before I built a wall I’d ask to know What I was walling in or walling out, And to whom I was like to give offence. Something there is that doesn’t love a wall, That wants it down.’ I could say ‘Elves’ to him, But it’s not elves exactly, and I’d rather He said it for himself. I see him there Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed. He moves in darkness as it seems to me~ Not of woods only and the shade of trees. He will not go behind his father’s saying, And he likes having thought of it so well He says again, “Good fences make good neighbors.” - Robert Frost ---
**Author:** ![pinkfreud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pinkfreud/32/17603_2.png) [@pinkfreud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pinkfreud)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2008, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poetry-rally-respond-to-the-previous-poster-by-quoting-a-related-piece-of-poetry/457894/15 "2008-07-28T19:39:24Z")
Now the stone house on the lake front is finished and the workmen are beginning the fence. The palings are made of iron bars with steel points that can stab the life out of any man who falls on them. As a fence, it is a masterpiece, and will shut off the rabble and all vagabonds and hungry men and all wandering children looking for a place to play. Passing through the bars and over the steel points will go nothing except Death and the Rain and To-morrow. ~Carl Sandburg ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2008, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poetry-rally-respond-to-the-previous-poster-by-quoting-a-related-piece-of-poetry/457894/16 "2008-07-28T19:52:11Z")
so much depends upon a red wheel barrow glazed with rain water beside the white chickens. - William Carlos Williams ---
**Author:** ![descamisado](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e480ec/32.png) [@descamisado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/descamisado)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2008, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poetry-rally-respond-to-the-previous-poster-by-quoting-a-related-piece-of-poetry/457894/17 "2008-07-28T20:39:00Z")
A line in long array where they wind betwixt green islands, They take a serpentine course, their arms flash in the sun–hark to the musical clank, Behold the silvery river, in it the splashing horses loitering stop to drink, Behold the brown-faced men, each group, each person a picture, the negligent rest on the saddles, Some emerge on the opposite bank, others are just entering the ford–while, Scarlet and blue and snowy white, The guidon flags flutter gayly in the wind. – _Cavalry Crossing a Ford_, Walt Whitman ---
**Author:** ![Humble\_Servant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/47e85d/32.png) [@Humble\_Servant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Humble_Servant)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2008, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poetry-rally-respond-to-the-previous-poster-by-quoting-a-related-piece-of-poetry/457894/18 "2008-07-28T20:48:22Z")
O past! O happy life! O songs of joy! In the air, in the woods, over fields, Loved! loved! loved! loved! loved! But my mate no more, no more with me! We two together no more. –_Out of the Cradle, Endlessly Rocking_, Walt Whitman ---
**Author:** ![Surok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@Surok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surok)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2008, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poetry-rally-respond-to-the-previous-poster-by-quoting-a-related-piece-of-poetry/457894/19 "2008-07-28T20:56:45Z")
As I walked down by the river Down by the frozen fen I saw the grey cathedral With the eyes of a child of ten. O the railway arch is smoky As the Flying Scot goes by And but for the Education Act Go Jumper Cross and I. [DELETED EXCESS LYRICS] _A Ballad for Katherine of Aragon_, Charles Causley ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2008, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poetry-rally-respond-to-the-previous-poster-by-quoting-a-related-piece-of-poetry/457894/20 "2008-07-28T21:15:11Z")
_To a certain poetess_ Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge, Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs And towards our distant rest began to trudge. Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind; Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind. [DELETED EXCESS LYRICS] - Wilfred Owen [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poetry-rally-respond-to-the-previous-poster-by-quoting-a-related-piece-of-poetry/457894.md?page=2)