Tangent - memorable lines of poetry

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Skyfyre
Senior Member

since 1999-08-15

Posts 1906
Sitting in Michael's Lap

0 posted 2001-07-16 07:49 PM

One of my favorites that comes to mind is from Auden's "In Memory of W. B. Yeats" (if you haven't read this, DO!):

"What instruments we have agree
The day of his death was a dark, cold day."

Now I admit that these lines lose a good deal of their power without the body of the poem to back them up, but the fact remains that when I think of this poem or of Yeats, these are the lines that spring to mind.

What are some of the most memorable lines you've ever read?

... what if the Hokey Pokey really IS what it's all about ...?

hush
Senior Member

since 2001-05-27

Posts 1653
Ohio, USA

1 posted 2001-07-17 01:40 AM

"I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness......" (and so forth, I'd be typing all night if I wanted to hit all the wow-worthy lines in Howl... it's basically the entire poem.)

"If I had a soul I sold it
for pretty words" (After Lalon)

-both by Allen Ginsberg

everything's fine.

Janet Marie
Member Laureate

since 2000-01-22

Posts 18554

2 posted 2001-07-17 12:28 PM

"Nothing Gold Can Stay"
~Robert Frost~

so much truth and wisdom encompassing all the cycles of both mankind and Earth spoken in so few perfect and poetic words.
So understatedly profound

When your own emptiness is all thats getting through
There comes a point when youre not sure why youre still talking
I passed that point long ago

catalinamoon

Member Rara Avis

since 2000-06-03

Posts 9543
The Shores of Alone

3 posted 2001-07-17 01:33 PM

By William Wordsworth not sure of title

"What though the radiance that was once so bright
be forever taken from my sight"

Won't quote more but this poem has haunted me since (don't laugh), I heard it recited to someone on my favorite soap, back in 71.

Sandra

brian madden
Member Elite

since 2000-05-06

Posts 4374
ireland

4 posted 2001-07-17 02:38 PM

Below my window the wakening trees,
Hacked clean for better bearing, stand defaced
Suffering their brute necessities;
And how should the flesh not quail, that span for span
Is mutilated more?

from
Mirror in February by Thomas Kinsella.

"Here I am in prison,here I am with a ball and chain There is whiskey in the jar-o" Traditional irish song.

Ron

Administrator

Member Rara Avis

since 1999-05-19

Posts 8669
Michigan, US

5 posted 2001-07-17 05:46 PM

(Pssst, Sandra... It's this one)

Michael

Moderator

Member Rara Avis

since 1999-08-13

Posts 7666
California

6 posted 2001-07-17 06:15 PM

Just a few from Poe's "Introduction to Romance":

"While in the wild-wood I did lie
A child - with a most knowing eye."

"I could not love except where Death
Was mingling his with Beauty's breath -
Or Hymen, Time, and Destiny
Were stalking between her and me."

"An idle longing night and day
To dream my very life away."

"But dreams - of those who dream as I,
Aspiringly, are damned, and die."

and one line from Poe's "Alone"

"And all I've lov'd - I've lov'd alone -"
Michael

[This message has been edited by Michael (edited 07-17-2001).]

Skyfyre
Senior Member

since 1999-08-15

Posts 1906
Sitting in Michael's Lap

7 posted 2001-07-19 03:25 AM

"Good fences make good neighbors"

From Mending Fences, by Frost.

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