# 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:** 19\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2008, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poetry-rally-respond-to-the-previous-poster-by-quoting-a-related-piece-of-poetry/457894/81 "2008-08-02T15:13:46Z")
[QUOTE=PerditaX] … Rather at once our time devour That languish in his slow-chapt power… _To his Coy Mistress_ - Andrew Marvell [/QUOTE] Happy the man, and happy he alone, He who can call today his own He who, secure within, can say, Tomorrow do thy worst, for I have lived today! Come fair or foul, or rain or shine The joys I have possessed, in spite of Fate, are mine. Not Heaven itself upon the past has power, But what has been has been, and I have had my hour! John Dryden, from _Twenty-Ninth Ode of the Third Book of Horace_ ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2008, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poetry-rally-respond-to-the-previous-poster-by-quoting-a-related-piece-of-poetry/457894/82 "2008-08-02T22:12:35Z")
“Happy, he who had the skill to understand Nature’s hidden causes, and beneath his feet All terrors cast, and death’s relentless doom, And the loud roar of greedy Acheron. Blest too is he who knows the rural gods, Pan, old Silvanus, and the sister-nymphs! Him nor the rods of public power can bend, Nor kingly purple, nor fierce feud that drives Brother to turn on brother, nor descent Of Dacian from the Danube’s leagued flood, Nor Rome’s great State, nor kingdoms like to die” -Vergil, “The Georgics” ---
**Author:** ![PerditaX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/65b543/32.png) [@PerditaX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PerditaX)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2008, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poetry-rally-respond-to-the-previous-poster-by-quoting-a-related-piece-of-poetry/457894/83 "2008-08-03T01:23:38Z")
Who trusted God was love indeed And love Creation’s final law– Tho’ Nature, red in tooth and claw With ravine, shriek’d against his creed _In Memoriam_ - Tennyson And, btw, I apologize to **Lissa** for repeating the Marvell lines. Mea culpa for not reading more closely. ---
**Author:** ![Lissla\_Lissar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8491ac/32.png) [@Lissla\_Lissar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissla_Lissar)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2008, 10:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poetry-rally-respond-to-the-previous-poster-by-quoting-a-related-piece-of-poetry/457894/84 "2008-08-04T10:45:16Z")
The World is charged with the grandeur of God. It will flame out, like shining from shook foil; It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod? Generations have trod, have trod, have trod; And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil; And wears man’s smudge and shares man’s smell: the soil Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod. And for all this, nature is never spent; There lives the dearest freshness deep down things; And though the last lights off the black West went Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs— Because the Holy Ghost over the bent World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings. -God’s Grandeur, Hopkins (Public Domain) ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2008, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poetry-rally-respond-to-the-previous-poster-by-quoting-a-related-piece-of-poetry/457894/85 "2008-08-04T14:30:27Z")
Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening \*Whose woods these are I think I know. His house is in the village though; He will not see me stopping here To watch his woods fill up with snow. […] The woods are lovely, dark and deep. But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep. \* Robert Frost (fair use) ---
**Author:** ![Spiff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiff/32/9852_2.png) [@Spiff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiff)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2008, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poetry-rally-respond-to-the-previous-poster-by-quoting-a-related-piece-of-poetry/457894/86 "2008-08-05T15:20:15Z")
“To sleep, perchance to dream – ay, there’s the rub.” _Hamlet (III, i, 65-68)_ ---
**Author:** ![Archergal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c89c15/32.png) [@Archergal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Archergal)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2008, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poetry-rally-respond-to-the-previous-poster-by-quoting-a-related-piece-of-poetry/457894/87 "2008-08-05T18:31:47Z")
[QUOTE=Spiff] “To sleep, perchance to dream – ay, there’s the rub.” _Hamlet (III, i, 65-68)_ [/QUOTE] Deep in the arms of winter The snow falls like a blessing. The wild things sleep below the ground. They are not cold, they are not lonely Deep in the arms of winter. ---
**Author:** ![Maeglin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8baadc/32.png) [@Maeglin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maeglin)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2008, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poetry-rally-respond-to-the-previous-poster-by-quoting-a-related-piece-of-poetry/457894/88 "2008-08-05T20:27:32Z")
[QUOTE=Archergal] Deep in the arms of winter The snow falls like a blessing. The wild things sleep below the ground. They are not cold, they are not lonely Deep in the arms of winter. [/QUOTE] Can’t resist another dose of Ezra: Winter is icummen in, Lhude sing Goddamm, Raineth drop and staineth slop And how the wind doth ramm! Sing: Goddamm. Skiddeth bus and sloppeth us, An ague hath my ham. Freezeth river, turneth liver Damn you, sing: Goddamm. Goddamm, Goddamm, tis why I am, Goddamm. So 'gainst the winter’s balm Sing Goddamm, damm, sing Goddamm Sing Goddamm, sing Goddamm, DAMM. ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2008, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poetry-rally-respond-to-the-previous-poster-by-quoting-a-related-piece-of-poetry/457894/89 "2008-08-05T20:39:47Z")
What is this that roareth thus? Can it be a Motor Bus? Yes, the smell and hideous hum Indicat Motorem Bum! Implet in the Corn and High Terror me Motoris Bi: Bo Motori clamitabo Ne Motore caedar a Bo — Dative be or Ablative So thou only let us live: Wither shall thy victims flee? Spare us, spare us, Motor Be! Thus I sang; and still anigh Came in hordes Motores Bi, Et complebat omne forum Copia Motorum Borum. How shall wretches live like us Cincti Bis Motoribus? Domine, defende nos Contra hos Motores Bos! A.D. Godley ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2008, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poetry-rally-respond-to-the-previous-poster-by-quoting-a-related-piece-of-poetry/457894/90 "2008-08-05T20:40:20Z")
Time, time, time, see whats become of me While I looked around For my possibilities I was so hard to please But look around, leaves are brown And the sky is a hazy shade of winter Hear the salvation army band Down by the riverside, its bound to be a better ride Than what youve got planned Carry your cup in your hand And look around, leaves are brown now And the sky is a hazy shade of winter – Simon & Garfunkel ---
**Author:** ![Archergal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c89c15/32.png) [@Archergal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Archergal)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2008, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poetry-rally-respond-to-the-previous-poster-by-quoting-a-related-piece-of-poetry/457894/91 "2008-08-05T21:54:55Z")
Booth led boldly with his big bass drum— (Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?) The Saints smiled gravely and they said: “He’s come.” (Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?) Walking lepers followed, rank on rank, Lurching bravoes from the ditches dank, Drabs from the alleyways and drug fiends pale— Minds still passion-ridden, soul-powers frail:— Vermin-eaten saints with mouldy breath, Unwashed legions with the ways of Death— (Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?) from General William Booth Enters into Heaven, by Vachel Lindsay (1879–1931) ---
**Author:** ![Mythtery](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ee7513/32.png) [@Mythtery](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mythtery)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2008, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poetry-rally-respond-to-the-previous-poster-by-quoting-a-related-piece-of-poetry/457894/92 "2008-08-05T22:24:48Z")
We are coming down the pike, All of us, in no particular order, Not grouped by age, Wanda and Val, her fourth husband, Sallie Swift, the fellows who play bridge Every Thursday, at Mason’s Grill, in the back, Two of them named George, We are all coming down the pike. Carolyn Kizer, “Exodus” (fair use) (Newbie delurks to chime in) ---
**Author:** ![descamisado](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e480ec/32.png) [@descamisado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/descamisado)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2008, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poetry-rally-respond-to-the-previous-poster-by-quoting-a-related-piece-of-poetry/457894/93 "2008-08-05T22:46:54Z")
New love, new love, where are you to lead me? All along a narrow way that marks a crooked line. How are you to slake me, and how are you to feed me? With bitter yellow berries, and a sharp new wine. New love, new love, shall I be forsaken? One shall go a-wandering, and one of us must sigh. Sweet it is to slumber, but how shall we awaken — Whose will be the broken heart, when dawn comes by? _The Last Question_, Dorothy Parker ---
**Author:** ![Archergal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c89c15/32.png) [@Archergal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Archergal)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2008, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poetry-rally-respond-to-the-previous-poster-by-quoting-a-related-piece-of-poetry/457894/94 "2008-08-05T23:08:31Z")
Be not troubled by your pain now, it has nothing to teach you, do you remember every bump in the road? Think of the road, and your journey, and with all of joy, may this bump pass quickly and be forgotten faster, as you progress to joy A little Sufi prayer of healing. ---
**Author:** ![CrowJane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a183cd/32.png) [@CrowJane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrowJane)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2008, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poetry-rally-respond-to-the-previous-poster-by-quoting-a-related-piece-of-poetry/457894/95 "2008-08-08T13:37:49Z")
Razors pain you; Rivers are damp; Acids stain you; And drugs cause cramp. Guns aren’t lawful; Nooses give; Gas smells awful; You might as well live. -Dorothy Parker. ---
**Author:** ![lisacurl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/41988e/32.png) [@lisacurl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisacurl)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2008, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poetry-rally-respond-to-the-previous-poster-by-quoting-a-related-piece-of-poetry/457894/96 "2008-08-08T19:21:58Z")
I have done it again. One year in every ten I manage it---- A sort of walking miracle, my skin Bright as a Nazi lampshade, My right foot A paperweight, My face a featureless, fine Jew linen. Peel off the napkin 0 my enemy. Do I terrify?---- The nose, the eye pits, the full set of teeth? The sour breath Will vanish in a day. Soon, soon the flesh The grave cave ate will be At home on me And I a smiling woman. I am only thirty. And like the cat I have nine times to die. - from _Lady Lazarus_ by Sylvia Plath ---
**Author:** ![descamisado](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e480ec/32.png) [@descamisado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/descamisado)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2008, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poetry-rally-respond-to-the-previous-poster-by-quoting-a-related-piece-of-poetry/457894/97 "2008-08-08T19:51:46Z")
This is how it happened. Spring wore on my nerves– all that wheezing and dripping while others in galoshes reaped compost and seemed enamored most of the time. Why should I be select? I got tired of tearing myself down. Let someone else have the throne of blues for a while, let someone else suffer mosquitoes. As my mama always said: half a happiness is better than none at all. _Rusks_, Rita Dove ---
**Author:** ![Maeglin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8baadc/32.png) [@Maeglin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maeglin)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2008, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poetry-rally-respond-to-the-previous-poster-by-quoting-a-related-piece-of-poetry/457894/98 "2008-08-08T20:10:50Z")
I am a mostly one trick pony. > [@](#): > > Why should I be select? > I got tired of tearing myself down. ```auto The ant's a centaur in his dragon world. Pull down thy vanity, it is not man Made courage, or made order, or made grace, Pull down thy vanity, I say pull down. Learn of the green world what can be thy place In scaled invention or true artistry, Pull down thy vanity, Paquin pull down! The green casque has outdone your elegance. "Master thyself, then others shall thee beare" Pull down thy vanity Thou art a beaten dog beneath the hail, A swollen magpie in a fitful sun, Half black half white Nor knowst'ou wing from tail Pull down thy vanity How mean thy hates Fostered in falsity, Pull down thy vanity, Rathe to destroy, niggard in charity, Pull down thy vanity, I say pull down. ``` Ezra Pound, Cantos, LXXXI ---
**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:** [August 8, 2008, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poetry-rally-respond-to-the-previous-poster-by-quoting-a-related-piece-of-poetry/457894/99 "2008-08-08T21:23:43Z")
[QUOTE=Maeglin] Pull down thy vanity, I say pull down. Learn of the green world what can be thy place [/QUOTE] She slips ouside, her shawl floating in the dark, And meets him in a bower overgrown With vines. They sit close on a bench of stone And watch the lanterns glowing in the jasmine. Or here, this stanza: you hear a goose pen Creak, the butterfly of an oil lamp Flutters slowly over scrolls and parchment, A crucifix, bronze busts. The lines complain, In plangent rhythms, that desire is vain. –Czeslaw Milos, A Book in the Ruins Hey, I like the Latin bus poem–never saw that one before! Also, my two cents is that all is fair in allusional responses–thus, Emily after Emily scores, and so does quoting a poem that’s already been used as a response–double bonus points for heightened interconnectedness. And if you can relate everything in the thread to Ezra Pound, you get a cookie. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poetry-rally-respond-to-the-previous-poster-by-quoting-a-related-piece-of-poetry/457894.md?page=4)