Remember back in college when it was your job to read great works in literature. You HAD to sit, read, think and discuss what you thought about a specific work...Those were the days. I miss them. Inspired my my amazing friend Sarah Oliver, I am trying to make time to read poems, classics, and other things that wouldn't naturally make their way into my day.
Its amazing how powerful a little poem can be. They aren't filling me in on current events, giving tips on how to manage my time or advertising anything. They speak to basic human conditions. Love, war, death, nature, fear, joy, hope, family, courage...its nice to stop and think about the basics sometimes. So, I thought I'd share one of my favorites with you guys:
Fire And Ice by Robert Frost
Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if I had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
I'm sure you are each thinking this means a variety of different things. To me, this poem makes me think about the destructive nature of uncontrolled passion & hatred both. I just like it for some reason.
Any great poems we should all read? Add them in the comments! Or if you get bored this weekend you could always speak in iambic pentameter...
I love your blog, Elizabeth. You express yourself in writing exceptionally well!
ReplyDeleteOK...poetry...I love it, but my absolute favorite certainly isn't a haiku!
It's "The Explorer" by Rudyard Kipling. It's a great style, but most of all, my heart just links up with it somehow. It has for 40 years now...and I still read it regularly...
ulysses by tennyson is my all time favourite.
ReplyDeleteCome, my friends,
'Tis not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down:
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.
Though much is taken, much abides; and though
We are not now that strength which in the old days
Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are,
One equal-temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
oh and ps, thanks for the shout out! saraheoliver.wordpress.com
ReplyDelete"The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. I read it in Brit Lit once when I was bored with whatever we were talking about and for some reason I really liked it.
ReplyDeleteEustess McCray went into the fray
ReplyDeletehis cudgel was a-flyin'.
When Eustess McCray cam out o' the fray
many a men were a-dyin'.
"Eustess," they'd say, "come out of the fray,
and follow us to the river."
There Eustess was drowned, without any sound,
and afterwards everyone went home to eat because they were really hungry