# Your Favorite Poem **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 26, 2002, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-poem/110872 "2002-05-26T03:00:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![tetsusaru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f14d63/32.png) [@tetsusaru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tetsusaru)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2002, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-poem/110872/21 "2002-05-27T14:06:27Z")
Oh, life is a glorious cycle of song A medley of extemporanea And love is a thing that can never go wrong And I am Marie of Roumania Dorothy Parker There`s a also a great poem by the scientist J B S Haldane, which he wrote as he was dying of cancer: too long to quote here, but the opening couplet is I wish I had the voice of Homer To sing of rectal carcinoma ---
**Author:** ![cleops](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/2acd7d/32.png) [@cleops](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cleops)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2002, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-poem/110872/22 "2002-05-27T14:46:51Z")
I’m with pepperlandgirl and Ra Cha’ar on _Prufrock_. Two other favorites, in addition to some already mentioned, are Philip Larkin’s _Aubade_ and _Next, Please_. ---
**Author:** ![Tretiak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a88e57/32.png) [@Tretiak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tretiak)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2002, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-poem/110872/23 "2002-05-27T15:49:29Z")
_If_ by Rudyard Kipling … If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch. If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you, If all men count with you, but none too much; If you can fill the unforgiving minute With sixty seconds worth of distance run, Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it, And which is more, you’ll be a Man, my son! ---
**Author:** ![OfBlinkingThings](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ebca7d/32.png) [@OfBlinkingThings](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OfBlinkingThings)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2002, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-poem/110872/24 "2002-05-27T17:42:40Z")
The Genuis of the crowd By Charles Bukowski ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Rieux](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Dr.Rieux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Rieux)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2002, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-poem/110872/25 "2002-05-27T17:58:23Z")
_Shakespeare’s 29th Sonnet:_ When in disgrace with Fortune and men’s eyes, I all alone beweep my outcast state, And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries, And look upon myself and curse my fate, Wishing me like to one more rich in hope, Featured like him, like him with friends possessed, Desiring this man’s art, and that man’s scope, With what I most enjoy contented least; Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising, Haply I think on thee, and then my state (Like to the lark at break of day arising From sullen earth) sings hymns at heaven’s gate, For thy sweet love rememb’red such wealth brings That then I scorn to change my state with kings. ---
**Author:** ![SpoilerVirgin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2002, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-poem/110872/26 "2002-05-27T21:12:48Z")
**Dirge Without Music** I am not resigned to the shutting away of loving hearts in the hard ground. So it is, and so it will be, for so it has been, time out of mind: Into the darkness they go, the wise and the lovely. Crowned With lilies and with laurel they go; but I am not resigned. Lovers and thinkers, into the earth with you. Be one with the dull, the indiscriminate dust. A fragment of what you felt, of what you knew, A formula, a phrase remains,–but the best is lost. The answers quick and keen, the honest look, the laughter, the love, – They are gone. They are gone to feed the roses. Elegant and curled Is the blossom. Fragrant is the blossom. I know. But I do not approve. More precious was the light in your eyes than all the roses in the world. Down, down, down into the darkness of the grave Gently they go, the beautiful, the tender, the kind; Quietly they go, the intelligent, the witty, the brave. I know. But I do not approve. And I am not resigned. - Edna St. Vincent Millay I was going to add that I also love Shakespeare’s Sonnets, especially numbers 29 and 30, but I see **Dr. Rieux** has beaten me to it. ---
**Author:** ![milquetoast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@milquetoast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/milquetoast)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2002, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-poem/110872/27 "2002-05-28T12:10:10Z")
_In the desert_ In the desert I saw a creature, naked, bestial, Who, squatting upon the ground, Held his heart in his hands, And ate of it. I said, “Is it good, friend?” “It is bitter—bitter,” he answered; "But I like it "Because it is bitter, “And because it is my heart.” — **Stephen Crane** ---
**Author:** ![crazy4chaucer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b5e925/32.png) [@crazy4chaucer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crazy4chaucer)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2002, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-poem/110872/28 "2002-05-28T13:08:14Z")
Two of my favorites have already been listed–_The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock_ and _Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night_ . Here are my other two favorites: _She Walks in Beauty_ by George Gordon, Lord Byron She walks in beauty, like the night Of cloudless climes and starry skies; And all that’s best of dark and bright Meet in her aspect and her eyes: Thus mellow’d to that tender light Which heaven to gaudy day denies. One shade the more, one ray the less, Had half impair’d the nameless grace Which waves in every raven tress, Or softly lightens o’er her face; Where thoughts serenely sweet express How pure, how dear their dwelling-place. And on that cheek, and o’er that brow, So soft, so calm, yet eloquent, The smiles that win, the tints that glow, But tell of days in goodness spent, A mind at peace with all below, A heart whose love is innocent! AND _Pied Beauty_ by Gerard Manley Hopkins Glory be to God for dappled things– For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow; For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim; Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings; Landsacpe plotted and pieced–fold, fallow, and plough; And all trades, their gear and tackle and trim. All things counter, original, spare, strange; Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?) With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim; He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change: Praise him. AND _The Suicide_ by Edna St. Vincent Millay but since it’s quite long I won’t type it in here. ---
**Author:** ![Labdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/439d5e/32.png) [@Labdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labdad)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2002, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-poem/110872/29 "2002-05-28T13:26:12Z")
It would be something by Coleridge; either **Kubla Khan** or **The Rime of the Ancient Mariner**. The last lines of **Kubla Khan** give me shivers: I would build that dome in air, That sunny dome! those caves of ice! And all who heard should see them there, And all should cry, Beware! Beware! His flashing eyes, his floating hair! Weave a circle round him thrice, And close your eyes with holy dread, For he on honey-dew hath fed, And drunk the milk of Paradise. But then, so do these verses from **Ancient Mariner** : _The ancient Mariner beholdeth a sign in the element afar off._ At first it seemed a little speck, And then it seemed a mist ; It moved and moved, and took at last A certain shape, I wist. A speck, a mist, a shape, I wist! And still it neared and neared : As if it dodged a water-sprite, It plunged and tacked and veered. _At its nearer approach, it seemeth him to be a ship ; and at a dear ransom he freeth his speech from the bonds of thirst._ With throats unslaked, with black lips baked, We could nor laugh nor wail ; Through utter drought all dumb we stood! I bit my arm, I sucked the blood, And cried, A sail! a sail! ---
**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 28, 2002, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-poem/110872/30 "2002-05-28T14:34:48Z")
I can’t resist a poem thread–I love the Eliot, the Lewis Carroll and the Keats. I was also particularly struck by the Donne and the Millay today–I’ve always thought that Donne sounds so modern–maybe he should have been born in this century. Trying hard not to repost stuff I’ve posted before, I offer: Western wind, when wilt thou blow, The small rain down can rain? Christ, if my love were in my arms, And I in my bed again! –Anon. Also [here’s Eugen Field’s _Wynken, Blynken and Nod_](http://www.amherst.edu/~rjyanco/literature/eugenefield/poems/poemsofchildhood/wynkenblynkenandnod.html) which I read to my kids last night. Last verse: Wynken and Blynken are two little eyes, And Nod is a little head, And the wooden shoe that sailed the skies Is a wee one’s trundle-bed. So shut your eyes while mother sings Of wonderful sights that be, And you shall see the beautiful things As you rock in the misty sea, Where the old shoe rocked the fisherman three: Wynken, Blynken, and Nod. I want to fish for the herring fish and see the beautiful things too. ---
**Author:** ![puddleglum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puddleglum/32/137_2.png) [@puddleglum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puddleglum)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2002, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-poem/110872/31 "2002-05-28T14:49:33Z")
Alone by Edgar Poe FROM childhood’s hour I have not been As others were; I have not seen As others saw; I could not bring My passions from a common spring. From the same source I have not taken My sorrow; I could not awaken My heart to joy at the same tone; And all I loved, I loved alone. Then - in my childhood, in the dawn Of a most stormy life - was drawn From every depth of good and ill The mystery which binds me still: From the torrent, or the fountain, From the red cliff of the mountain, From the sun that round me rolled In its autumn tint of gold, From the lightning in the sky As it passed me flying by, From the thunder and the storm, And the cloud that took the form (When the rest of Heaven was blue) Of a demon in my view ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2002, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-poem/110872/32 "2002-05-28T15:31:42Z")
Love the Crane, too. I’m also a fan of Andrew Marvell’s [To His Coy Mistress](http://www.library.utoronto.ca/utel/rp/poems/marvell1.html), a poem of seduction (BTW, the footnote doesn’t correctly explain the bawdy pun Marvell was making when he used the phrase “Your quaint honor.”) ---
**Author:** ![erislover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/71e660/32.png) [@erislover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erislover)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2002, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-poem/110872/33 "2002-05-28T19:26:34Z")
Stephen Crane’s: > [@](#): > > In the desert > I saw a creature, naked, bestial, > Who, squatting upon the ground, > Held his heart in his hands, > And ate of it. > I said, “Is it good, friend?” > “It is bitter - bitter,” he answered; > “But I like it > Because it is bitter, > And because it is my heart.” > [@](#): > > A man said to the universe: > “Sir, I exist!” > “However,” replied the universe, > "The fact has not created in me > “A sense of obligation.” My two favorite poems (listed, incidentally, in opposite order here) by any poet, and they are the by the same poet. What a guy. Not my favorite poet, however. But I don’t read much poetry. ---
**Author:** ![erislover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/71e660/32.png) [@erislover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erislover)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2002, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-poem/110872/34 "2002-05-28T19:27:41Z")
hmm, and yet it seems someone else likes the desert/heart poem, too. It is good stuff, IMO. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![ThreeSarahBirds](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/43a26b/32.png) [@ThreeSarahBirds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThreeSarahBirds)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2002, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-poem/110872/35 "2002-05-28T23:03:02Z")
Here’s another we like, from the greatest writer ever “anon” Anon. “Two Little Shadows” I saw a young mother With eyes full of laughter And two little shadows Came following after. Wherever she moved, They were always right there Holding onto her skirts, Hanging onto her chair. Before her, behind her - An adhesive pair. “Don’t you ever get weary As, day after day, your two little tagalongs Get in your way?” She smiled as she shook Her pretty young head, And I’ll always remember The words that she said. “It’s good to have shadows That run when you run, That laugh when you’re happy And hum when you hum - For you only have shadows When your life’s filled with sun.” ---
**Author:** ![Melandry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8797f3/32.png) [@Melandry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melandry)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2002, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-poem/110872/36 "2002-05-28T23:31:47Z")
I’m a big fan of Wendy Cope. Here are some that are especially good: [Wasteland Limericks](http://www.utdallas.edu/~jenelow/Cope.html#wasteland), for all you Eliot fans. [Bloody Men](http://waves.loffredo.it/bilin/cope.html#3)- with a helpful Italian translation! I also like “Another Unfortuante Choice” and “Faint Praise”, but I can’t find either online in convenient linkable form, and they’re so short I think any coherent quote would go beyond fair use. (While I was looking for the others, I came across this: [A Poetic Way to Fight Some Ignorance](http://www.roundtower.com/Law_Of_Copyright/body_law_of_copyright.html)) ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2002, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-poem/110872/37 "2002-05-28T23:34:07Z")
**Dr. Rieux** already posted my favorite, Shakespeare’s Sonnet 29. ---
**Author:** ![Big\_Kahuna\_Burger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Big\_Kahuna\_Burger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Big_Kahuna_Burger)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2002, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-poem/110872/38 "2002-05-28T23:40:25Z")
**Labdad** beat me to the punch for Rime of the Ancient Mariner. ---
**Author:** ![Hoops](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hoops/32/6408_2.png) [@Hoops](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hoops)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2002, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-poem/110872/39 "2002-05-29T00:24:53Z")
Richard Brautigan’s **Your Catfish Friend** If I were to live my life in catfish forms in scaffolds of skin and whiskers at the bottom of a pond and you were to come by one evening when the moon was shining down into my dark home and stand there at the edge of my affection and think, “It’s beautiful here by this pond. I wish somebody loved me,” _I’d_ love you and be your catfish friend and drive such lonely thoughts from your mind and suddenly you would be at peace, and ask yourself, “I wonder if there are any catfish in this pond? It seems like a perfect place for them.” ---
**Author:** ![Citygirl852](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e8c25b/32.png) [@Citygirl852](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Citygirl852)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2002, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-poem/110872/40 "2002-05-29T00:41:19Z")
Pretty women wonder where my secret lies I’m not cute or built to suit a fashion model’s size But when I start to tell them They think I’m telling lies. I say It’s in the reach of my arms The span of my hips The stride of my steps The curl of my lips. I’m a woman Phenomenally Phenomenal woman That’s me. I walk into a room Just as cool as you please And to a man The fellows stand or Fall down on their knees Then they swarm around me A hive of honey bees. ``` I say ``` It’s the fire in my eyes And the flash of my teeth The swing of my waist And the joy in my feet. I’m a woman Phenomenally Phenomenal woman That’s me. Men themselves have wondered What they see in me They try so much But they can’t touch My inner mystery. When I try to show them They say they still can’t see. ``` I say ``` It’s in the arch of my back The sun of my smile The ride of my breasts The grace of my style. I’m a woman Phenomenally Phenomenal woman That’s me. Now you understand Just why my head’s not bowed I don’t shout or jump about Or have to talk real loud When you see me passing It ought to make you proud… ``` I say ``` It’s in the click of my heels The bend of my hair The palm of my hand The need for my care. 'Cause I’m a woman Phenomenally Phenomenal woman That’s me. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-poem/110872.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-poem/110872.md?page=3)