# Respond to the last poster by quoting a line of poetry **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 1, 2007, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/respond-to-the-last-poster-by-quoting-a-line-of-poetry/402257 "2007-05-01T03:03:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2007, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/respond-to-the-last-poster-by-quoting-a-line-of-poetry/402257/61 "2007-05-03T17:08:37Z")
[QUOTE=MacTech] Oh frettled gruntbuggly Thy micturations are to me As plurdled gableblochtis In a lurgid bee… Groop, I implore thee My foonting turlingdromes And hoopschiously drangle me With crinkly bindlewurdles For otherwise I will rend thee In the gobberworts With my burglecruncheon! …see if I don’t –Prostecnic Vogon Jeltz, as relayed by Douglas Adams [/QUOTE] Here we languish, a bunch of poor scholars, Battered by extremes of hunger and cold. Out of work, our only joy is poetry: Scribble, scribble, we wear out our brains. Who will read the works of such men? On that point you can save your sighs. We could inscribe our poems on biscuits And the homeless dogs wouldn’t deign to nibble. Han-shan (In translation) ---
**Author:** ![ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9bcb4/32.png) [@ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2007, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/respond-to-the-last-poster-by-quoting-a-line-of-poetry/402257/62 "2007-05-03T17:20:44Z")
[QUOTE=Squink] Here we languish, a bunch of poor scholars, Battered by extremes of hunger and cold. Out of work, our only joy is poetry: Scribble, scribble, we wear out our brains. Who will read the works of such men? On that point you can save your sighs. We could inscribe our poems on biscuits And the homeless dogs wouldn’t deign to nibble. Han-shan (In translation) [/QUOTE] All in the town were still asleep, When the sun came up with a shout and a leap. In the lonely streets unseen by man, A little dog danced. And the day began. All his life he’d been good, as far as he could, And the poor little beast had done all that he should. But this morning he swore, by Odin and Thor And the Canine Valhalla -he’d stand it no more! So his prayer he got granted -to do just what he wanted, Prevented by none, for the space of one day. “Jam incipiebo, sedere facebo,” In dog-Latin he quoth, “Euge! sophos! hurray!” He fought with the he-dogs, and winked at the she-dogs, A thing that had never been heard of before. “For the stigma of gluttony, I care not a button!” he Cried, and ate all he could swallow -and more. He took sinewy lumps from the shins of old frumps, And mangled the errand-boys -when he could get 'em. He shammed furious rabies, and bit all the babies, And followed the cats up the trees, and then ate 'em!" They thought 'twas the devil was holding a revel, And sent for the parson to drive him away; For the town never knew such a hullabaloo As that little dog raised -till the end of that day. When the blood-red sun had gone burning down, And the lights were lit in the little town, Outside, in the gloom of the twilight grey, The little dog died when he’d had his day. -Rupert Brooke ---
**Author:** ![HazelNutCoffee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ac91a4/32.png) [@HazelNutCoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HazelNutCoffee)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2007, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/respond-to-the-last-poster-by-quoting-a-line-of-poetry/402257/63 "2007-05-03T20:06:20Z")
[QUOTE=ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies] When the blood-red sun had gone burning down, And the lights were lit in the little town, Outside, in the gloom of the twilight grey, The little dog died when he’d had his day. -Rupert Brooke [/QUOTE] [. . .] And now I Foam to wheat, a glitter of seas. The child’s cry Melts in the wall. And I Am the arrow, The dew that flies, Suicidal, at one with the drive Into the red Eye, the cauldron of morning. - Sylvia Plath, “Ariel” ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2007, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/respond-to-the-last-poster-by-quoting-a-line-of-poetry/402257/64 "2007-05-03T20:34:05Z")
[QUOTE=HazelNutCoffee] [. . .] And now I Foam to wheat, a glitter of seas. The child’s cry Melts in the wall. And I Am the arrow, The dew that flies, Suicidal, at one with the drive Into the red Eye, the cauldron of morning. - Sylvia Plath, “Ariel” [/QUOTE] Awake! For Morning in the Bowl of Night Has flung the Stone that puts the Stars to Flight And lo! the Hunter of the East has caught The Sultán’s Turret in a Noose of Light. –Omar, again (Fitzgerald, first translation) ---
**Author:** ![descamisado](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e480ec/32.png) [@descamisado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/descamisado)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2007, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/respond-to-the-last-poster-by-quoting-a-line-of-poetry/402257/65 "2007-05-03T21:31:45Z")
[QUOTE=Malacandra] Awake! For Morning in the Bowl of Night Has flung the Stone that puts the Stars to Flight And lo! the Hunter of the East has caught The Sultán’s Turret in a Noose of Light. –Omar, again (Fitzgerald, first translation) [/QUOTE] Hark, hark! the lark at heaven’s gate sings, And Phoebus 'gins arise, His steeds to water at those springs On chaliced flowers that lies; And winking Mary-buds begin To ope their golden eyes: With every thing that pretty is, My lady sweet, arise: Arise, arise. – Shakespeare, _Hark, Hark! the Lark_ from _Cymbeline_ ---
**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:** [May 3, 2007, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/respond-to-the-last-poster-by-quoting-a-line-of-poetry/402257/66 "2007-05-03T21:48:49Z")
[QUOTE=5-4-Fighting] Hark, hark! the lark at heaven’s gate sings, And Phoebus 'gins arise, – Shakespeare, _Hark, Hark! the Lark_ from _Cymbeline_ [/QUOTE] First the glorious lamp was seen, Regent of day, and all the horizon round Invested with bright rays, jocund to run His longitude through Heaven’s high road; the gray Dawn, and the Pleiades, before him danced…JMilton, Paradise Lost ---
**Author:** ![ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9bcb4/32.png) [@ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2007, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/respond-to-the-last-poster-by-quoting-a-line-of-poetry/402257/67 "2007-05-03T22:04:58Z")
[QUOTE=Humble Servant] First the glorious lamp was seen, Regent of day, and all the horizon round Invested with bright rays, jocund to run His longitude through Heaven’s high road; the gray Dawn, and the Pleiades, before him danced…JMilton, Paradise Lost [/QUOTE] THE INDIFFERENT. COME to the dance with me, come with me, fair one! Dances a feast-day like this may well crown. If thou my sweetheart art not, thou canst be so, But if thou wilt not, we still will dance on. Come to the dance with me, come with me, fair one! Dances a feast-day like this may well crown. THE TENDER. Loved one, without thee, what then would all feast be? Sweet one, without thee, what then were the dance? If thou my sweetheart wert not, I would dance not. If thou art still so, all life is one feast. Loved one, without thee, what then would all feasts be? Sweet one, without thee, what then were the dance? THE INDIFFERENT. Let them but love, then, and leave us the dancing! Languishing love cannot bear the glad dance. Let us whirl round in the waltz’s gay measure, And let them steal to the dim-lighted wood. Let them but love, then, and leave us the dancing! Languishing love cannot bear the glad dance. THE TENDER. Let them whirl round, then, and leave us to wander! Wand’ring to love is a heavenly dance. Cupid, the near one, o’erhears their deriding, Vengeance takes suddenly, vengeance takes soon. Let them whirl round, then, and leave us to wander! Wand’ring to love is a heavenly dance. -Goethe ---
**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:** [May 4, 2007, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/respond-to-the-last-poster-by-quoting-a-line-of-poetry/402257/68 "2007-05-04T02:54:28Z")
Tomorrow shall be my dancing day; I would my true love did so chance To see the legend of my play, To call my true love to my dance; Sing, oh! my love, oh! my love, my love, my love, This have I done for my true love. - William Sandys ---
**Author:** ![descamisado](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e480ec/32.png) [@descamisado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/descamisado)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2007, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/respond-to-the-last-poster-by-quoting-a-line-of-poetry/402257/69 "2007-05-04T07:21:44Z")
[QUOTE=matt\_mcl] Tomorrow shall be my dancing day; I would my true love did so chance To see the legend of my play, To call my true love to my dance; Sing, oh! my love, oh! my love, my love, my love, This have I done for my true love. - William Sandys [/QUOTE] Though dusty wits dare scorn astrology, And fools can think those lamps of purest light Whose numbers, ways, greatness, eternity, Promising wonders, wonder do invite, To have for no cause birthright in the sky, But for to spangle the black weeds of night: Or for some brawl, which in that chamber high, They should still dance to please a gazer’s sight; For me, I do Nature unidle know, And know great causes, great effects procure: And know those bodies high reign on the low. And if these rules did fail, proof makes me sure, Who oft fore-judge my after-following race, By only those two stars in Stella’s face. – Sir Philip Sidney, Sonnet XXVI: Though Dusty Wits ---
**Author:** ![Surok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@Surok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surok)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2007, 7:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/respond-to-the-last-poster-by-quoting-a-line-of-poetry/402257/70 "2007-05-04T07:33:16Z")
[QUOTE=5-4-Fighting] Though dusty wits dare scorn astrology, And fools can think those lamps of purest light Whose numbers, ways, greatness, eternity, Promising wonders, wonder do invite, To have for no cause birthright in the sky, But for to spangle the black weeds of night: Or for some brawl, which in that chamber high, They should still dance to please a gazer’s sight; For me, I do Nature unidle know, And know great causes, great effects procure: And know those bodies high reign on the low. And if these rules did fail, proof makes me sure, Who oft fore-judge my after-following race, By only those two stars in Stella’s face. – Sir Philip Sidney, Sonnet XXVI: Though Dusty Wits [/QUOTE] I WONDER by my troth, what thou and I Did, till we loved ? were we not wean’d till then ? But suck’d on country pleasures, childishly ? Or snorted we in the Seven Sleepers’ den ? 'Twas so ; but this, all pleasures fancies be ; If ever any beauty I did see, Which I desired, and got, 'twas but a dream of thee. And now good-morrow to our waking souls, Which watch not one another out of fear ; For love all love of other sights controls, And makes one little room an everywhere. Let sea-discoverers to new worlds have gone ; Let maps to other, worlds on worlds have shown ; Let us possess one world ; each hath one, and is one. My face in thine eye, thine in mine appears, And true plain hearts do in the faces rest ; Where can we find two better hemispheres Without sharp north, without declining west ? Whatever dies, was not mix’d equally ; If our two loves be one, or thou and I Love so alike that none can slacken, none can die. John Donne, The Good-Morrow ---
**Author:** ![MerryMagdalen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c2a13f/32.png) [@MerryMagdalen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MerryMagdalen)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2007, 9:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/respond-to-the-last-poster-by-quoting-a-line-of-poetry/402257/71 "2007-05-04T09:31:07Z")
Jenny kissed me when we met, Jumping from the chair she sat in; Time, you thief, who love to get Sweets into your list, put that in: Say I’m weary, say I’m sad, Say that health and wealth have missed me, Say I’m growing old, but add, Jenny kissed me. Leigh Hunt - Rondeau ---
**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:** [May 4, 2007, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/respond-to-the-last-poster-by-quoting-a-line-of-poetry/402257/72 "2007-05-04T14:12:30Z")
I grow old … I grow old … I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled. Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach? I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach. I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each. I do not think that they will sing to me - T. S. Eliot ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2007, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/respond-to-the-last-poster-by-quoting-a-line-of-poetry/402257/73 "2007-05-04T14:21:05Z")
Drink to me only with thine eyes And I will pledge with mine. Or leave a kiss within the cup And I’ll not ask for wine. The thirst that from the soul doth rise Doth ask a drink divine; But might I of Jove’s nectar sip, I would not change for thine. I sent thee late a rosy wreath, Not so much hon’ring thee As giving it a hope that there It could not withered be; But thou thereon did’st only breathe, And sent’st it back to me, Since when it grows and smells, I swear Not of itself, but thee. ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2007, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/respond-to-the-last-poster-by-quoting-a-line-of-poetry/402257/74 "2007-05-04T14:41:16Z")
Clay comes out to meet Liston And Liston starts to retreat If Liston goes back any further He’ll end up in a ringside seat. Clay swings with a left, Clay swings with a right, Look at young Cassius Carry the fight. Liston keeps backing But there’s not enough room It’s a matter of time. There, Clay lowers the boom. Now Clay swings with a right, What a beautiful swing, And the punch raises the bear, Clear out of the ring. Liston is still rising And the ref wears a frown, For he can’t start counting, Till Sonny comes down. Now Liston disappears from view. The crowd is getting frantic, But our radar stations have picked him up. He’s somewhere over the Atlantic. Who would have thought When they came to the fight That they’d witness the launching Of a human satellite? Yes, the crowd did not dream When they laid down their money That they would see A total eclipse of the Sonny! I am the greatest! Cassius Clay/Muhammad Ali ---
**Author:** ![descamisado](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e480ec/32.png) [@descamisado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/descamisado)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2007, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/respond-to-the-last-poster-by-quoting-a-line-of-poetry/402257/75 "2007-05-04T21:36:41Z")
[QUOTE=pravnik] . . . Who would have thought When they came to the fight That they’d witness the launching Of a human satellite? Yes, the crowd did not dream When they laid down their money That they would see A total eclipse of the Sonny! I am the greatest! Cassius Clay/Muhammad Ali [/QUOTE] A Noiseless, patient spider, I mark’d, where, on a little promontory, it stood, isolated; Mark’d how, to explore the vacant, vast surrounding, It launch’d forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself; Ever unreeling them–ever tirelessly speeding them. And you, O my Soul, where you stand, Surrounded, surrounded, in measureless oceans of space, Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing,–seeking the spheres, to connect them; Till the bridge you will need, be form’d–till the ductile anchor hold; Till the gossamer thread you fling, catch somewhere, O my Soul. – Walt Whitman, _A Noiseless, Patient Spider_ ---
**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:** [May 5, 2007, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/respond-to-the-last-poster-by-quoting-a-line-of-poetry/402257/76 "2007-05-05T02:33:07Z")
It costs me never a stab or squirm To tread perchance upon a worm. “Aha, my little dear,” I say, “Your clan will pay me back one day.” - Dorothy Parker, “Thought for a Sunshiny Morning” ---
**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:** [May 5, 2007, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/respond-to-the-last-poster-by-quoting-a-line-of-poetry/402257/77 "2007-05-05T02:41:11Z")
[QUOTE=matt\_mcl] It costs me never a stab or squirm To tread perchance upon a worm. “Aha, my little dear,” I say, “Your clan will pay me back one day.” - Dorothy Parker, “Thought for a Sunshiny Morning” [/QUOTE] Hark, now every thing is still; The screech-owl and the whistler shrill Call upon our dame aloud And bid her quickly don her shroud. Much you had of land and rent; Your length in clay’s now competent: A long war disturbed your mind; Here your perfect peace is signed. - John Webster ---
**Author:** ![descamisado](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e480ec/32.png) [@descamisado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/descamisado)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2007, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/respond-to-the-last-poster-by-quoting-a-line-of-poetry/402257/78 "2007-05-05T03:31:13Z")
[QUOTE=Fretful Porpentine] Hark, now every thing is still; The screech-owl and the whistler shrill Call upon our dame aloud And bid her quickly don her shroud. Much you had of land and rent; Your length in clay’s now competent: A long war disturbed your mind; Here your perfect peace is signed. - John Webster [/QUOTE] If but some vengeful god would call to me From up the sky, and laugh: “Thou suffering thing, Know that thy sorrow is my ecstasy, That thy love’s loss is my hate’s profiting!” Then would I bear it, clench myself, and die, Steeled by the sense of ire unmerited; Half-eased in that a Powerfuller than I Had willed and meted me the tears I shed. But not so. How arrives it joy lies slain, And why unblooms the best hope ever sown? — Crass Casualty obstructs the sun and rain, And dicing Time for gladness casts a moan. . . . These purblind Doomsters had as readily strown Blisses about my pilgrimage as pain. - Thomas Hardy, _Hap_ ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2007, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/respond-to-the-last-poster-by-quoting-a-line-of-poetry/402257/79 "2007-05-05T03:34:30Z")
[QUOTE=5-4-Fighting] But not so. How arrives it joy lies slain, And why unblooms the best hope ever sown? — Crass Casualty obstructs the sun and rain, And dicing Time for gladness casts a moan. . . . These purblind Doomsters had as readily strown Blisses about my pilgrimage as pain. - Thomas Hardy, _Hap_ [/QUOTE] i once heard the survivors of a colony of ants that had been partially obliterated by a cow s foot seriously debating the intention of the gods towards their civilization -Archy of “archy and mehitabel” ---
**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:** [May 5, 2007, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/respond-to-the-last-poster-by-quoting-a-line-of-poetry/402257/80 "2007-05-05T04:32:12Z")
As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods: They kill us for their sport. - William Shakespeare, _King Lear_ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/respond-to-the-last-poster-by-quoting-a-line-of-poetry/402257.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/respond-to-the-last-poster-by-quoting-a-line-of-poetry/402257.md?page=5)