# What is your favorite poem?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-poem/436802>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [February 8, 2008, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-poem/436802 "2008-02-08T15:39:31Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 17\
**Page:** 7

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\
**Post date:** [February 11, 2008, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-poem/436802/121 "2008-02-11T20:14:16Z")

</div>

[QUOTE=jackelope]  
Many, many poems leap to mind, but standing over them all is Philip Larkin’s [Aubade](http://www.poemhunter.com/best-poems/philip-larkin/aubade/).

[/QUOTE]

My current favourite (and, apparently, half of England’s) is also a Larkin:

> [@](#):
>
> _ **This Be The Verse** _  
> They fuck you up, your mum and dad.  
> They may not mean to, but they do.  
> They fill you with the faults they had  
> And add some extra, just for you.

Others - Wallace Stevens, \*Emperor of Ice Cream \*seconded, but also

> [@](#):
>
> \*\*\* Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird\*\*\*  
> V  
> I do not know which to prefer,  
> The beauty of inflections  
> Or the beauty of innuendoes,  
> The blackbird whistling  
> Or just after.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![PastAllReason](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f07891/32.png) [@PastAllReason](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastAllReason)\
**Post date:** [February 12, 2008, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-poem/436802/122 "2008-02-12T01:29:25Z")

</div>

As with many others posting in this thread, it would be very hard for me to name just one favourite poem.

I’ve always had a fondness for \*\*_Ozymandias_, \*\* and even had the opportunity to reference it [here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=405153&highlight=ozymandias) on the SDMB once in reference to a bust of Lenin re-discovered in the centre of Antarctica where it did seem quite appropriate.

I saw at least one reference to \*\*_Fern Hill_, \*\* and echo an appreciation for that poem, and for Dylan Thomas generally, and that would include _Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night_. (Rage, rage against the dying of the light).

Lastly, I’d mention Yeats. Two other posters included _ **He Wishes For The Cloths of Heaven** _ and also \*\*_The Second Coming_, \*\* both of which resonate with me, and I’ll add a third **_The Lake of Innisfree_:**

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,  
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made:  
Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honeybee,  
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow  
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;  
There midnight’s all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,  
And evenings full of the linnet’s wings.

I will arise and go now, for always night and day  
I hear the lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;  
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements gray,  
I hear it in the deep heart’s core.

This past year I had the opportunity to travel in Ireland, and spent time in Sligo. While there, I went to Drumcliffe where Yeats is buried and where there is a magnificent three dimensional bronze memorial of Yeats crouching with the spread “cloth of heaven” and the words to the poem impressed into it. I also drove down quite the road to get near to Innisfree. One of the many pictures that I took is now my wallpaper on my computer.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\
**Post date:** [February 12, 2008, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-poem/436802/123 "2008-02-12T01:48:27Z")

</div>

[QUOTE=jali]  
The poem that has touched me the most in my life is:  
[First Writing Since](http://www.inmotionmagazine.com/ac/shammad.html) by Suheir Hammad.

"there have been no words.  
i have not written one word.  
no poetry in the ashes south of canal street.  
no prose in the refrigerated trucks driving debris and dna.  
not one word.

today is a week, and seven is of heavens, gods, science.  
evident out my kitchen window is an abstract reality.  
sky where once was steel.  
smoke where once was flesh…"  
[/QUOTE]

I read your link. That poem _absolutely kicks ass_…in the best possible way, I mean.

Sailboat

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Max\_the\_Immortal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6de8d8/32.png) [@Max\_the\_Immortal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_the_Immortal)\
**Post date:** [February 12, 2008, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-poem/436802/124 "2008-02-12T02:04:40Z")

</div>

When I first read [Sonnet 26](http://www.shakespeare-online.com/sonnets/26.html), it reached across the centuries and captured _exactly_ how I felt.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\
**Post date:** [February 12, 2008, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-poem/436802/125 "2008-02-12T02:25:34Z")

</div>

The golf links lie so near the mill,  
That almost every day,  
The laboring children can look out,  
And watch the men at play

(Sarah Norcliffe Cleghorn)  
Every night and every morn  
Some to misery are born.  
Every morn and every night  
Some are born to sweet delight.  
Some are born to sweet delight,  
Some are born to endless night.

(William Blake, from _Auguries of Innocence_)  
To her fair works did Nature link  
The human soul that through me ran;  
And much it grieved my heart to think  
What man has made of man.

(William Wordsworth, from _Lines Written in Early Spring_)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Pixilated](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/aeb1de/32.png) [@Pixilated](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pixilated)\
**Post date:** [February 12, 2008, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-poem/436802/126 "2008-02-12T04:44:41Z")

</div>

I have been blessed with the friendship of two very talented writers, so anything they write. Garon Whited, though he focuses more on short sci-fi/fantasy stories and my BFF, Thvia Cossey. The following is a semi-recent work of hers:

He with his fiery sword  
She with her scrying chalice  
Action, abstraction  
And polar opposition  
Each fearing the damage the other could do  
Holding back trust; the unshakeable foundation  
Holding tight the insecurities; eventual destruction  
Preventing the flow of limitless possibilities

Remember the ashes!  
Let go of their previous form  
There is no wisdom  
In recreating what has been intentionally shed  
There is no place for past trauma  
In the imagines of what may or may not be

Leave the embers to burn  
Let Boreas gather them up  
To scatter the ashes about the earth  
Until there is no evidence  
Of what they once were  
Allow the phoenix to manifest  
Give it form and purpose  
Find the collective energies  
Seek out the common dreams  
Grow with these, achieve fulfillment  
Freely accept, nurture and love

Perfection has never existed

Let him be the yang  
Let her be the yin  
For this is what they are

Of course - my favorite favorite of all is the one Thvia wrote when she found me a-musing. I’ll have to find that one…

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![sinjin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@sinjin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sinjin)\
**Post date:** [February 12, 2008, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-poem/436802/127 "2008-02-12T05:06:30Z")

</div>

I really like Billy Collins and this is one of my favorites.

Questions About Angels  
by Billy Collins. Cut because of copyright with link at bottom.

Of all the questions you might want to ask  
about angels, the only one you ever hear  
is how many can dance on the head of a pin.

No curiosity about how they pass the eternal time  
besides circling the Throne chanting in Latin  
or delivering a crust of bread to a hermit on earth  
or guiding a boy and girl across a rickety wooden bridge.

\<snip\>

It is designed to make us think in millions,  
billions, to make us run out of numbers and collapse  
into infinity, but perhaps the answer is simply one:  
one female angel dancing alone in her stocking feet,  
a small jazz combo working in the background.

She sways like a branch in the wind, her beautiful  
eyes closed, and the tall thin bassist leans over  
to glance at his watch because she has been dancing  
forever, and now it is very late, even for musicians.

[Questions about Angels](http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poem.html?id=176044)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![FloatyGimpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/floatygimpy/32/7750_2.png) [@FloatyGimpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FloatyGimpy)\
**Post date:** [February 12, 2008, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-poem/436802/128 "2008-02-12T06:31:38Z")

</div>

Maybe somebody can help me remember the name of a poem that I read many years ago and just loved.

It’s about a beekeeper and there is a line that goes something like “and I will have a cottage…be happy…” or something like that.

I’ve searched for it online to no avail and would love to read it again!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\
**Post date:** [February 12, 2008, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-poem/436802/129 "2008-02-12T12:39:33Z")

</div>

It’s not The Lake of Innisfree from post #122?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Maeglin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8baadc/32.png) [@Maeglin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maeglin)\
**Post date:** [February 12, 2008, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-poem/436802/130 "2008-02-12T15:44:56Z")

</div>

A new day, a new favorite poem. But some bits and pieces never seem to leave my brain.

Ezra Pound’s Fourth Canto is just unbeatable. Here Pound blends the legend of Itys with the murder of the troubadour Cabestan. They occur in Pound in the same time and place.

```auto

And by the curved, carved foot of the couch,

           claw-foot and lion head, an old man seated

Speaking in the low drone... :

                   Ityn!
Et ter flebiliter, Ityn, Ityn!

And she went toward the window and cast her down,

            "All the while, the while, swallows crying:

Ityn!

            "It is Cabestan's heart in the dish."

            "It is Cabestan's heart in the dish?"

            "No other taste shall change this."

And she went toward the window,

                 the slim white stone bar

Making a double arch;

Firm even fingers held to the firm pale stone;

Swung for a moment,

                and the wind out of Rhodez

Caught in the full of her sleeve.

            . . . the swallows crying:

'Tis. 'Tis. Ytis!

```

Here’s another nod to Housman. He was a solid poet, and happened here to translate one of the most beautiful poems in the Latin language, Horace’s Ode iv, 7, written at the end of his life.

My wife and I like it so much, we incorporated it into our wedding ceremony.

> [@](#):
>
> The snows are fled away, leaves on the shaws  
> And grasses in the mead renew their birth,  
> The river to the river-bed withdraws,  
> And altered is the fashion of the earth.
> 
> The Nymphs and Graces three put off their fear  
> And unapparelled in the woodland play.  
> The swift hour and the brief prime of the year  
> Say to the soul, Thou wast not born for aye.
> 
> Thaw follows frost; hard on the heel of spring  
> Treads summer sure to die, for hard on hers  
> Comes autumn with his apples scattering;  
> Then back to wintertide, when nothing stirs.
> 
> But oh, whate’er the sky-led seasons mar,  
> Moon upon moon rebuilds it with her beams;  
> Come we where Tullus and where Ancus are  
> And good Aeneas, we are dust and dreams.
> 
> Torquatus, if the gods in heaven shall add  
> The morrow to the day, what tongue has told?  
> Feast then thy heart, for what thy heart has had  
> The fingers of no heir will ever hold.
> 
> When thou descendest once the shades among,  
> The stern assize and equal judgment o’er,  
> Not thy long lineage nor thy golden tongue,  
> No, nor thy righteousness, shall friend thee more.
> 
> Night holds Hippolytus the pure of stain,  
> Diana steads him nothing, he must stay;  
> And Theseus leaves Pirithous in the chain  
> The love of comrades cannot take away.

And, because it’s fucking cold outside, here is one more from Ezra Pound.

> [@](#):
>
> 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.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\
**Post date:** [February 12, 2008, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-poem/436802/131 "2008-02-12T15:52:31Z")

</div>

I can’t let that last Pound citation go by without mentioning Robert W. Service’s [A Song of Winter Weather](http://www.robertwservice.com/modules/smartsection/item.php?itemid=178):

(last stanza)

Oh, the rain, the mud, and the cold,  
The cold, the mud, and the rain;  
With weather at zero it’s hard for a hero  
From language that’s rude to refrain.  
With porridgy muck to the knees,  
With sky that’s a-pouring a flood,  
Sure the worst of our foes  
Are the pains and the woes  
Of the RAIN,  
THE COLD,  
AND THE MUD.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\
**Post date:** [February 12, 2008, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-poem/436802/132 "2008-02-12T16:51:15Z")

</div>

Here’s my favorite by Pound. [The River-Merchant’s Wife](http://homepages.wmich.edu/~cooneys/poems/li-po-pound.html).

Well, mostly by Pound…a very loose translation of an 8th-century Chinese poet.

Sailboat

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\
**Post date:** [February 12, 2008, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-poem/436802/133 "2008-02-12T16:59:47Z")

</div>

My favorite has always been the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, translated by Edward Fitzgerald. Some excerpts:

The Worldly Hope men set their Hearts upon  
Turns Ashes–or it prospers; and anon,  
Like Snow upon the Desert’s dusty Face,  
Lighting a little hour or two–is gone.

Why, all the Saints and Sages who discuss’d  
Of the Two Worlds so wisely–they are thrust  
Like foolish Prophets forth; their Words to Scorn  
Are scatter’d, and their Mouths are stopt with Dust.

You know, my Friends, with what a brave Carouse  
I made a Second Marriage in my house;  
Divorced old barren Reason from my Bed,  
And took the Daughter of the Vine to Spouse.

Strange, is it not? that of the myriads who  
Before us pass’d the door of Darkness through,  
Not one returns to tell us of the Road,  
Which to discover we must travel too.

I sent my Soul through the Invisible,  
Some letter of that After-life to spell:  
And by and by my Soul return’d to me,  
And answer’d “I Myself am Heav’n and Hell:”

And that inverted Bowl they call the Sky,  
Whereunder crawling coop’d we live and die,  
Lift not your hands to It for help–for It  
As impotently moves as you or I.

========================

Also, I like Robert Browning’s “My Last Duchess”. Rather chilling:

That’s my last Duchess painted on the wall,  
Looking as if she were alive. I call  
That piece a wonder, now; Frà Pandolf’s hands  
Worked busily a day, and there she stands.  
Will’t please you sit and look at her? I said  
“Frà Pandolf” by design, for never read  
Strangers like you that pictured countenance,  
The depth and passion of its earnest glance,  
But to myself they turned (since none puts by  
the curtain I have drawn for you, but I)  
And seemed as they would ask me, if they durst,  
How such a glance came there; so, not the first  
Are you to turn and ask thus. Sir, ‘twas not  
Her husband’s presence only, called that spot  
Of joy into the Duchess’ cheek; perhaps  
Frà Pandolf chanced to say “Her mantle laps  
Over my lady’s wrist too much,” or, “Paint  
Must never hope to reproduce the faint  
Half-flush that dies along her throat.” Such stuff  
Was courtesy, she thought, and cause enough  
For calling up that spot of joy. She had  
A heart—how shall I say—too soon made glad,  
Too easily impressed; she liked whate’er  
She looked on, and her looks went everywhere.  
Sir, 'twas all one! My favour at her breast,  
The dropping of the daylight in the West,  
The bough of cherries some officious fool  
Broke in the orchard for her, the white mule  
She rode with round the terrace—all and each  
Would draw from her alike the approving speech,  
Or blush, at least. She thanked men—good! but thanked  
Somehow—I know not how—as if she ranked  
My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name  
With anybody’s gift. Who’d stoop to blame  
This sort of trifling? Even had you skill  
In speech—which I have not—to make your will  
Quite clear to such an one, and say, “Just this  
Or that in you disgusts me; here you miss,  
Or there exceed the mark”—and if she let  
Herself be lessoned so, nor plainly set  
Her wits to yours, forsooth, and made excuse—  
E’en that would be some stooping; and I choose  
Never to stoop. Oh sir, she smiled, no doubt,  
Whene’er I passed her; but who passed without  
Much the same smile? This grew; I gave commands;  
Then all smiles stopped together. There she stands  
As if alive. Will’t please you rise? We’ll meet  
The company below, then. I repeat,  
The Count your master’s known munificence  
Is ample warrant that no just pretence  
Of mine for dowry will be disallowed;  
Though his fair daughter’s self, as I avowed  
At starting, is my object. Nay, we’ll go  
Together down, sir. Notice Neptune, though,  
Taming a sea-horse, thought a rarity,  
Which Claus of Innsbruck cast in bronze for me!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![FloatyGimpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/floatygimpy/32/7750_2.png) [@FloatyGimpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FloatyGimpy)\
**Post date:** [February 12, 2008, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-poem/436802/134 "2008-02-12T17:15:38Z")

</div>

[QUOTE=Dung Beetle]  
It’s not The Lake of Innisfree from post #122?  
[/QUOTE]

Uh, yeah… :smack:

Thank You!!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**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:** [February 12, 2008, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-poem/436802/135 "2008-02-12T19:59:51Z")

</div>

Belated but elated–thanks for the poems, posters.

Here’s one that cracked my 10-year old right up–see line 12.

> **[Afraid So – Break Out Of The Box](https://www.breakoutofthebox.com/afraidso.htm)**

Here’s another by an old Yankee subversive:

[http://nongae.gsnu.ac.kr/~songmu/Poetry/TellAllTheTruthButTEllItSlant.htm](http://nongae.gsnu.ac.kr/~songmu/Poetry/TellAllTheTruthButTEllItSlant.htm)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\
**Post date:** [February 12, 2008, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-poem/436802/136 "2008-02-12T20:54:20Z")

</div>

[QUOTE=FloatyGimpy]  
Uh, yeah… :smack:

Thank You!!  
[/QUOTE]

No problem. I’m just happy I know the answer to a question once in a while. 🙂

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Lord\_Ashtar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ea924/32.png) [@Lord\_Ashtar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Ashtar)\
**Post date:** [February 12, 2008, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-poem/436802/137 "2008-02-12T21:25:53Z")

</div>

_My soul is wrapped in harsh repose  
Midnight descends in raven-colored clothes  
But soft, behold  
A sunlight beam  
Butting a swath of glimmering glean  
My heart expands  
'Tis grown a bulge in it  
Inspired by her beauty…effulgent._

-Some really talented poet who worked as a writer on _Angel_

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-poem/436802.md?page=6)