# Your favorite poetry image(s) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 20, 2005, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-poetry-image-s/313314 "2005-07-20T16:41:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2005, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-poetry-image-s/313314/1 "2005-07-20T16:41:21Z")
Without quoting the entire poem, and with just enough words included to capture it, can you share the image from a poem that affects you the most as nearly perfect words to express something profound. Two that have worked for me since I first read them are: From _Ozymandias_: “Nothing beside remains. Round the decay Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare The lone and level sands stretch far away.” From _The Listeners_: “Aye, they heard his foot upon the stirrup, And the sound of iron on stone, And how the silence surged softly backward, When the plunging hoofs were gone.” ---
**Author:** ![An\_Arky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@An\_Arky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Arky)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2005, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-poetry-image-s/313314/2 "2005-07-20T17:09:14Z")
_When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose_ 😃 from _The Death Of The Ball Turret Gunner_ by **Randall Jarrell**. ---
**Author:** ![N.Sane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f19dbf/32.png) [@N.Sane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N.Sane)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2005, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-poetry-image-s/313314/3 "2005-07-20T17:26:32Z")
“Nothing gold can stay.” I love the whole poem (and I’m sorry I can’t recall the title or poet), but the essence for me is captured in the last four words. “I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be. An attendant lord, one that will do, perhaps to swell a scene or two.” I probably haven’t quoted it precisely, but that’s from “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by T.S. Eliot. I think it’s a tremendous pity for Prufrock not to be Prince Hamlet in his own life. Of course, I could pull any number of liens from that poem that also capture it perfectly . . . I have measured out my life in coffee spoons. Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach? And, referring to the mermaids, I do not think they will sing for me. ---
**Author:** ![Loopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loopus/32/15343_2.png) [@Loopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loopus)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2005, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-poetry-image-s/313314/4 "2005-07-20T19:58:36Z")
From memory: > [@](#): > > And the Raven, never flitting, still is sitting, _still is sitting_ > On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door. > And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon’s that is dreaming > And the lamplight o’er him gleaming casts his shadow on the floor > And my soul from 'neath that shadow that lies floating on the floor > Shall be lifted—nevermore! The image of the eyes of a dreaming demon is very striking to me. ---
**Author:** ![Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac8455/32.png) [@Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bippy_the_Beardless)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2005, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-poetry-image-s/313314/5 "2005-07-20T20:16:34Z")
Tiger, tiger, burning bright. ---
**Author:** ![Motorgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e36b37/32.png) [@Motorgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Motorgirl)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2005, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-poetry-image-s/313314/6 "2005-07-20T20:25:58Z")
from The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock > [@](#): > > The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes, > The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes > Licked its tongue into the corners of the evening, > Lingered upon the pools that stand in drains, > Let fall upon its back the soot that falls from chimneys, > Slipped by the terrace, made a sudden leap, > And seeing that it was a soft October night, > Curled once about the house, and fell asleep. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2005, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-poetry-image-s/313314/7 "2005-07-20T20:27:22Z")
(I’m not sure if these are exact.) I hate most poetry, but I’ve always liked “The woods are long, dark, and deep And I have miles to go before I sleep.” Also Invictus has a lot of personal meaning. Does Shakespeare count? 'Cause I’ve always been partial to “What’s Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba, That he should weep for her? What would he do Had he the motive and the cue for passion That I have?” ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2005, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-poetry-image-s/313314/8 "2005-07-20T20:34:11Z")
> [@N. Sane](#): > > “Nothing gold can stay.” > > I love the whole poem (and I’m sorry I can’t recall the title or poet), but the essence for me is captured in the last four words. I did a search on those four words to find that that’s the title, and it’s by Robert Frost. ---
**Author:** ![MandaJo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@MandaJo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MandaJo)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2005, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-poetry-image-s/313314/9 "2005-07-20T20:54:37Z")
A violet by a mossy stone, half hidden from the eye –Fair as a star when only one is shining in the sky. Wordsworth, “She dwelt among untrodden ways” ---
**Author:** ![Sunshine\_and\_Smiles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@Sunshine\_and\_Smiles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunshine_and_Smiles)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2005, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-poetry-image-s/313314/10 "2005-07-20T21:03:09Z")
Next door There’s an old man Who lived to his nineties And one day Passed away In his sleep And his wife, she stayed For a couple of days And passed away I’m sorry, I know that’s a Strange way to tell you That I know we belong Well, it’s from the Ben Folds song “The Luckiest,” but damn if that isn’t some beautiful poetry to me. Really just sums up something much great for me. ---
**Author:** ![Beadalin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@Beadalin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beadalin)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2005, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-poetry-image-s/313314/11 "2005-07-20T21:04:20Z")
The whole poem is lovely, but from e. e. cummings’ “It may not always be so”: > [@](#): > > if this should be,i say if this should be- > you of my heart,send me a little word; > that i may go unto him,and take his hands, > saying,Accept all happiness from me. > Then shall i turn my face,and hear one bird > sing terribly afar in the lost lands. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Angel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d26b3c/32.png) [@Johnny\_Angel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Angel)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2005, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-poetry-image-s/313314/12 "2005-07-20T21:13:34Z")
I love the tower from A.E. Housman’s The Recruit. First it’s: ``` *Leave your home behind, lad, And reach your friends your hand, And go, and luck go with you While Ludlow tower shall stand.* ``` Later, the state of the tower is less certain: ``` *Come you home a hero, Or come not home at all, The lads you leave will mind you Till Ludlow tower shall fall.* ``` And in the final reassurance to the soldier, the tower appears to be doomed: ``` *Leave your home behind you, Your friends by field and town: Oh, town and field will mind you Till Ludlow tower is down.* ``` ---
**Author:** ![Zabali\_Clawbane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/ecd19e/32.png) [@Zabali\_Clawbane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zabali_Clawbane)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2005, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-poetry-image-s/313314/13 "2005-07-20T21:21:45Z")
I too, like “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” by Robert Frost, but I am also fond of “[The Skater of Ghost Lake](http://www.alishya.com/literary/skater/)” by William Rose Benet > [@](#): > > Dance of the dim moon, a rhythmical reel, > A swaying, a swift tune – skurr of the steel; > Moon for a candle, maid for a mate, > Jeremy Randall skates, skates late. > > Black as is\* lacquered the wide lake lies; > Breath is a frost-fume, eyes seek eyes; > Souls are a sword-edge tasting the cold. > Ghost Lake’s a deep lake, a dark lake and old! \*The website had a typo, the word is “if” not “is”. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2005, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-poetry-image-s/313314/14 "2005-07-20T21:51:51Z")
> [@Edna St. Vincent Millay](#): > > I should not cry aloud—I could not cry > Aloud, or wring my hands in such a place— > I should but watch the station lights rush by > With a more careful interest on my face > [@Gabriel Westling](#): > > and the weather reeks > of God’s great flood, the world to drown, > and the stray cat lapping the baptismal font, > so Thomas held him down. > [@ST Coleridge](#): > > 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. > [@Béla Selendy](#): > > your ears had swiveled to greet the dawn squeak > and scurry of tiny shadow creatures, scrabbling in the dust > just beyond the barn door. I love these, but I think they really lose something being disconnected from the larger poems. I’m having trouble reading them as standalone images. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2005, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-poetry-image-s/313314/15 "2005-07-20T21:56:27Z")
> [@jsgoddess](#): > > I love these, but I think they really lose something being disconnected from the larger poems. I’m having trouble reading them as standalone images. I do understand that sentiment. It’s the mark of a good poem that the image(s) can’t really stand alone. However, the ones that we seem to remember do carry some extra power due to word choice and the underlying idea or feeling. Now and then some piece of dialog in an otherwise prosaic movie will have the same effect. Sometimes, words just say way more than what they say. ---
**Author:** ![JohnM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/848f3c/32.png) [@JohnM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnM)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2005, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-poetry-image-s/313314/16 "2005-07-20T22:06:16Z")
A beginning and end of "God’s Grandeur " by Gerard Manley Hopkins evoke images that have always stuck in my head: > [@](#): > > The world is charged with the grandeur of God. > It will flame out, like shining from shook foil; > [@](#): > > Because the Holy Ghost over the bent > World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings. ---
**Author:** ![JohnM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/848f3c/32.png) [@JohnM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnM)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2005, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-poetry-image-s/313314/17 "2005-07-20T22:07:41Z")
“A” = “The” ---
**Author:** ![SkeptiJess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea666f/32.png) [@SkeptiJess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SkeptiJess)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2005, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-poetry-image-s/313314/18 "2005-07-20T22:13:12Z")
I have lots of favorite ‘bits’ of poetry for various reasons, but I’m giving this post to my dad, because I love his reason for his favorite bit. He loves the refrain from “Mandalay” by Rudyard Kipling. You know, " ---
**Author:** ![lizardling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f4b2a3/32.png) [@lizardling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lizardling)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2005, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-poetry-image-s/313314/19 "2005-07-20T22:13:39Z")
Oooh, ooh. Let me play! (warning: English major and poetry geek ahead) _All changed, changed utterly: A terrible beauty is born._ – William Butler Yeats, ‘Easter 1916’ _as when the heart of this flower imagines the snow carefully everywhere descending;_ – e.e. cummings, ‘somewhere i have never travelled’ _Wild men, who caught and sang the sun in flight, And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way, Do not go gentle into that good night._ – Dylan Thomas, ‘Do Not Go Gentle’ _World-losers and world-forsakers, Upon whom the pale moon gleams; Yet we are the movers and shakers, Of the world forever, it seems._ – Arthur William Edgar O’Shaughnessy, ‘Ode’ _A dream that a lion had dreamed Till the wilderness cried aloud, A secret between you two, Between the proud and the proud. … Yet she, singing upon her road, Half lion, half child, is at peace._ – William Butler Yeats, ‘Against Unworthy Praise’ ---
**Author:** ![SkeptiJess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea666f/32.png) [@SkeptiJess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SkeptiJess)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2005, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-poetry-image-s/313314/20 "2005-07-20T22:16:30Z")
On the road to Mandalay, Where the flyin’-fishes play, An’ the dawn comes up like thunder outer China 'crost the Bay!" If you ask him why he loves that, he says, “Because I’ve seen the sun rise off the coast of China and the dawn really _does_ come up like thunder.” I’ve alwasy thought that was cool as hell – although, when he first told me this (when I was just a wee one), I was mostly interested in whether or not he’d seen flying fishes (he had) and whether or not they really flew (sort of, it’s more like really long jumping). [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-poetry-image-s/313314.md?page=2)