My father read this to me when I was a child, and it enchanted me.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Kubla Khan
In Xanadu did Kubla Khan A stately pleasure-dome decree : Where Alph, the sacred river, ran Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.
So twice five miles of fertile ground With walls and towers were girdled round : And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills, Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree ; And here were forests ancient as the hills, Enfolding sunny spots of greenery. But oh ! that deep romantic chasm which slanted Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover ! A savage place ! as holy and enchanted As e'er beneath a waning moon was haunted By woman wailing for her demon-lover ! And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething, As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing, A mighty fountain momently was forced : Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail, Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher's flail : And 'mid these dancing rocks at once and ever It flung up momently the sacred river. Five miles meandering with a mazy motion Through wood and dale the sacred river ran, Then reached the caverns measureless to man, And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean : And 'mid this tumult Kubla heard from far Ancestral voices prophesying war !
The shadow of the dome of pleasure Floated midway on the waves ; Where was heard the mingled measure From the fountain and the caves.
It was a miracle of rare device, A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice ! A damsel with a dulcimer In a vision once I saw : It was an Abyssinian maid, And on her dulcimer she played, Singing of Mount Abora. Could I revive within me Her symphony and song, To such a deep delight 'twould win me,
That with music loud and long, 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.
Love is not love until love's vulnerable.
~Theodore Roethke
When We Two Parted
by Lord Byron
When we two parted In silence and tears, Half broken-hearted To sever the years, Pale grew thy cheek and cold, Colder, thy kiss; Truly that hour foretold Sorrow to this.
The dew of the morning Sunk, chill on my brow, It felt like the warning Of what I feel now. Thy vows are all broken, And light is thy fame; I hear thy name spoken, And share in its shame.
They name thee before me, A knell to mine ear; A shudder comes o'er me... Why wert thou so dear? They know not I knew thee, Who knew thee too well.. Long, long shall I rue thee, Too deeply to tell.
In secret we met In silence I grieve That thy heart could forget, Thy spirit deceive. If I should meet thee After long years, How should I greet thee? With silence and tears.
Confession
by Frantisek Halas
Touched by all that love is I draw closer toward you Saddened by all that love is I run from you
Surprised by all that love is I remain alert in stillness Hurt by all that love is I yearn for tenderness
Music, When Soft Voices Die
by Percy Bysshe Shelley
Music, when soft voices die, Vibrates in the memory - Odours, when sweet violets sicken, Live within the sense they quicken.
Rose leaves, when the rose is dead, Are heaped for the beloved's bed; And so thy thoughts, when thou art gone, Love itself shall slumber on.
William Shakespeare Sonnet 30
When to the sessions of sweet silent thought I summon up remembrance of things past, I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought, And with old woes new wail my dear time's waste: Then can I drown an eye, unused to flow, For precious friends hid in death's dateless night, And weep afresh love's long since cancelled woe, And moan the expense of many a vanished sight. Then can I grieve at grievances foregone, And heavily from woe to woe tell o'er The sad account of fore-bemoanèd moan, Which I new pay as if not paid before. But if the while I think on thee, dear friend, All losses are restored and sorrows end.
Love is my sin, and thy dear virtue hate, Hate of my sin, grounded on sinful loving, O, but with mine, compare thou thine own state, And thou shalt find it merits not reproving, Or if it do, not from those lips of thine That have profaned their scarlet ornaments And sealed false bonds of love as oft as mine, Robbed others' beds' revenues of their rents. Be it lawful I love thee as thou lov'st those Whom thine eyes woo as mine importune thee. Root pity in thy heart, that when it grows Thy pity may deserve to pitied be. If thou dost seek to have what thou dost hide, By self-example mayst thou be denied!
Heart, we will forget him
Emily Dickinson
Heart, we will forget him, You and I, tonight! You must forget the warmth he gave, I will forget the light.
When you have done pray tell me, Then I, my thoughts, will dim. Haste! ‘lest while you’re lagging I may remember him!
I see you Invisible man standing
in the corner thinking of landing
a swing at my head
Why o Invisible man are you aiming
to be swinging for my head framing
a punch at my head
Invisible man invisible man looking at
my face and looking out of place
rat out of hole cereal out of bowl
drop and stop this stinking thinking
invisible man o man you silly man
who considers pain a gain to be
played on the lamb swinging punches
in bunches for my head and I said
stop it drop it Invisible man stan man
fan man stop it man mean seen man
What are you doing stop screwing around
invisible man, hop to stop and drop the
thoughts of shots to my skull they're null
invisible man i understand you I see you
thinking and winking in the room in I zoom
uh oh cherrio invisible man stop it man.
stilling thinking of winking and slowing throwing
bunches of punches at my head I said to stop it
drop it but can you stop it man?
Last edited by Anonymous on Mon Feb 25, 2008 6:42 pm, edited 2 times in total.
"Whatever appears to be against the Book of Mormon is going to be overturned at some time in the future. So we can be pretty open minded."-charity 3/7/07
meeting greeting, seating eating
banded handed, bliss kiss
one is none, two isn't few
uncold gold, ring 'er finger
sappy happy, very merry
no strife life, rid no kid
runny money, wife rife
wrong song, token broken
"Whatever appears to be against the Book of Mormon is going to be overturned at some time in the future. So we can be pretty open minded."-charity 3/7/07
A poem I always liked was Nothing Gold Can Stay by Robert Frost. I was introduced to it in the novel the Outsiders (good book by the way). I like the thinking, and more importantly I like Johnny's disagreement with the premise that "Nothing Gold Can Stay". I had to memorize it for fourth grade and still remember it to this day (ALong with the first two stanzas of The Raven by Poe..Once upon a Midnight Dreary.). Anyway:
Nature's first green is gold, Her hardest hue to hold. Her early leaf's a flower. But only so an hour. Then leaf subsides to leaf. So Eden sank to grief, So dawn goes down to day. Nothing gold can stay
"Whatever appears to be against the Book of Mormon is going to be overturned at some time in the future. So we can be pretty open minded."-charity 3/7/07