This is topic Eccentric, Poetic Request in forum Books, Films, Food and Culture at Hatrack River Forum.


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Posted by Jonathan Howard (Member # 6934) on :
 
Dear forum,

I've been learning poetry lately in school. When I *suddenly* realised how sophisticated every thing is. The sentence and line lengths, the rhyming sequence, the phonetic sounding (as in: "The fierce foam flew", F, F, F), as well as the syllables' collaboration to make a certain sound effect (as in horses' hooves; you have that in a Latin poem).

Does anyone know the most complex and sophisticated English stansa (AKA: "Verse") - needless to say, in a poem - in which as many of these (and others) occur as flawlessly as possible? Please, no older than 1550 AD; as my English gets less powerful older than then.

This is bizzare, I know. That's why I posted here: this is the one of those forums whose entire members' minds' value would be enough to... Well, let's not discuss it here.

Anyone knows any poems with such "perfect" stansas? Thank you all in advance,

Jonathan Howard (NOT THE AUSTRALIAN PRY MINIATURE!)
 

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Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :
 
Let me say it.

"Do your own homework."

We love poetry here - what is your favorite that you've studied so far?
 

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Posted by Jonathan Howard (Member # 6934) on :
 
Probably Coleridge.

"The sun came out upon the left,
Out of the sea came he;
And he shone bright, and on the right
Went down into the sea."

"Water, water everywhere,
And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water everywhere,
Nor any drop to drink."

"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."

"'Ah wretch!' said they, the bird to slay,
That made the breeze to blow!"

Tennyson's OK, and I like Milton; despite his very powerful poetry. I'd go for Coleridge's "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" and "Kubla Khan".
 

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Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :
 
"The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" is one of my all-time favorites too. I love everything about that poem.

I've recently become very fond of Edna St. Vincent Milay and Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. Also, Robert Frost. He's so traditional and so subversive at the same time.

Edgar Allen Poe has several poems, including "The Bells" that fit the description of what you were looking for in the first post. My favorite of his is "Alone," for content reasons.
 

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Posted by Jonathan Howard (Member # 6934) on :
 
I'll happily check out Edgar Allen Poe.

Did I ever mention I liked (and preferred to George Bernard Shaw) Yeats?

But then, I haven't been acquainted to THAT much poetry; I'm regarded unusual locally for actually READING a Shakespeare play (Julius Caesar + Antony & Cleopatra) *gasping*.

But then, how can a man or a woman, especially a child, avoid a good poem written by the greatest of all times? Cicero, Caesar, Milton or Edgar Kereth (local Israeli) - how can you override that desire?

Jonathan Howard
 

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Posted by advice for robots (Member # 2544) on :
 
Now come on. I've gotten jatraqueros to do my homework for me before. All it takes is making a game out of it. Jatraqueros love games.

I won't help at all with poetry because I know next to nothing about it. But good luck!
 

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Posted by Jonathan Howard (Member # 6934) on :
 
Thanks!
 

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Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :
 
I love Yeats!!

quote:

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When you are old, and gray, and full of sleep
And nodding by the fire, take down this book
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and their shadows deep.

How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love false or true
But one man loved the pilgrin soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face.

And bending down beside the glowing bars,
Murmur, a little sadly, how love fled
And paced upon the mountains overhead
And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.

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quote:

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'Twas down the street one merry night,
A lovely chill of air;
When something peeked into my sight,
Momently - I was aware.

A bird above my head did fly,
So swift and quick, so rare;
And as I gazed up to the sky,
Perplexed I was right there.

And as I gazed into the Heavens,
A lovely scene saw I;
A view of skyhigh havens,
Right there, up in the sky.

Like Heaven's earthly brooks,
A view so bright and clear;
I could not shake off it my looks,
and thought - it's near, it's here.

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To my great grief, I lost the page with the rest. Upon retrieal you'll be informed.

Jonathan Howard
 

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Posted by Teshi (Member # 5024) on :
 

quote:

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I met a traveler from an antique land,
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desart. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read,
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed:
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings.
Look on my works ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that Colossal Wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

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"Ozymandias" Percy B. Shelley.

EDIT: The site I copied this from had so many errors in the poem. Gah!

[ November 04, 2004, 07:21 PM: Message edited by: Teshi ]
 

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Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :
 
Had you copied it from my site, you would have found fewer errors.
 

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Posted by Teshi (Member # 5024) on :
 
I didn't know you had a site, or of course I would have.

(ooo this is my 1776th post! I like date posts)

[ November 04, 2004, 10:36 PM: Message edited by: Teshi ]
 

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Posted by Jonathan Howard (Member # 6934) on :
 
Mine's just in the tough days in Judea following the death of Hrod Agrippa the 1st. 10 years later and all Romans were hating the jews. Got another 13 posts to the big days of destruction.

Hey, why don't I write a poem about it?

Jonathan Howard
 

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