tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-45896316760424613872024-03-08T06:17:45.648+00:00Marnie1591love language? love p o e t r y . . . .Marnie1591http://www.blogger.com/profile/15000995326786323810noreply@blogger.comBlogger98125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4589631676042461387.post-82272690416930840262014-04-10T11:41:00.002+01:002015-11-19T02:40:03.619+00:00Now by Laurence Lerner<div class="p1">
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> <span style="font-size: large;">Now</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Yes, now, as I entered the tube,</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As the door slid shut with unconcern,</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As no-one looked up, I felt your grip</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Tighten, and now my blood</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Races in tunnels from you.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> Listen, now,</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">You catch at my heart and then let go.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I know those fingers, recognise the touch,</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The tearing muscles, the insensate lurch,</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The dip and the recovery of my heart.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">My heart beats fast at its ring of fat,</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Will go on beating as long as blood</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Gets through the gap ; till I drop down dead</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I will feel in my limbs what my heart is at.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As I did just now. The train moves on,</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Flows in the tunnel like blood and the men</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Rustle their newspapers. It’s not true</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">That it doesn’t hurt when you run your nails</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Along the tissues. And what leaps up</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">When your fingers flex is no longer hope.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">What flows in my veins is only blood.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Let me go. This time. Just this once</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Let the train move on and the door slide shut</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And you on the platform. No-one’s heart</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Is stronger than so many times, and – now –</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">That was another. It isn’t true</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">That habit and newspapers kill the pain.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">You can dry my blood though I know you so well.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I carry you with me. I always shall.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Laurence Lerner, <i>Selves</i> (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1969), no pagination.</span></div>
Marnie1591http://www.blogger.com/profile/15000995326786323810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4589631676042461387.post-49969367154008023272014-04-10T11:40:00.000+01:002015-11-19T02:40:17.381+00:00Adam names the creatures by Laurence Lerner<div class="p1">
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> <span style="font-size: large;">Adam names the creatures</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">. . . And him, and him, and then</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">That big one there in baggy skin,</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The stamper. He roars, and sends,</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Three messages into the air :</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Two silver slivers and a wave of dark</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">– See how it lifts, and bends !</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I’ve seen that darkness since,</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Coiled round a tree. It shines,</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It rears on air, it rides</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">(The bending grass divides).</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Its tongue goes in and out,</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Testing the temperature. It twists.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">How can I come by all these names ?</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Never by trying.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The world’s too empty, I must make them up.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Naming’s not lying.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Don’t ask me why I do it : I was told.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">‘Look,’ he said, ‘lion, tiger, dog,</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Goat,’ he said, ‘spider, hog –‘</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">But those don’t count, he said them.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A name is what you find.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Outside ? or in your mind ?</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">(When Eve lies down</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Her breasts are flat,</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Her belly is a bowl.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">She has no breasts, but petals,</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Bruises of red, that’s all.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">She has geraniums.)</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">That’s it, that’s it,</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Geraniums.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Who bit those leaves ?</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Who scooped Eve’s silhouette, with one clear stroke ?</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It has three breasts, it is</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">An in and out of yellow green,</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It is a perfect curve, a woman leaf,</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It is an oak.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I know them now.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The world has come to life.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I name you : elephant.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">You needn’t pull your skin up, now.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">You needn’t blush, stop stamping, or look pale,</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Or dress in shadows :</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> I can see you now.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The darkness that the elephant let fall,</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Twisting among the grass, I see that too.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Slanting across a tree its colours break.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Striped tree, dividing grass, I see it all.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I understand the world now :</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> Eve ; and God ;</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And snake. I call you snake.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Laurence Lerner, <i>Selves</i> (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1969), no pagination.</span></div>
Marnie1591http://www.blogger.com/profile/15000995326786323810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4589631676042461387.post-15688123810730131622014-04-10T11:38:00.000+01:002015-11-19T02:40:33.798+00:00The merman by Laurence Lerner<div class="p1">
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> <span style="font-size: large;">The merman</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It was because I swam into their net</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Because the net was there</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The water thickened, there was no way out,</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It was because it tangled in my hair</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Because it caught the water it caught me,</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I left the wet and came to live in air.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I learned to stand on two legs in the dry.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I learned to look at day, at brown and red</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Till they went dark. And then I learned to die</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And wake when dark was dead.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I learned to change the place I was, with legs.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Learnt to drink the air, but never learnt their talk.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">They gave me hungry needing fish to eat</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And called it ‘fish’.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Then after needing nothing fish to put</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And called it ‘fish’. Fish, fish ; as if the same.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">That same, that difference, they call that a name.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I couldn’t talk like that. I couldn’t talk.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">When humans talk they split their say in bits</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And bit by bit they step on what they feel.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">They talk in bits, they never talk in all.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So live in wetness swimming they call ‘sea’ ;</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And stand in dry and watch the wet waves call</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">They still call ‘sea’.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> Only their waves don’t call.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Strange are their pleasures, living in the dry.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Build a long finger on an empty house</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And in it sing, four times a moon, and kneel,</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And talk sea talk at last, talk what they feel</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Not words, not names. I heard their holy song</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It said belong, belong.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So one day in the finger house I stood</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And sang of wet and swimming in the was,</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And happy sang of happy singing till</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">They came all running noise and sticks of wood</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And shouting devil kneel</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And devil and that day I found out hurt.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">That dark I did not die but ran away</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">To where the wet and swimming call and wait</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And joined myself to swimming. This was back,</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It did not hurt to change the way you lay,</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It did not hurt to breathe. Just swallowing hurt</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">At first, till water washed the words out. Yet</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I must have tasted too much dry up there</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I must have got a taste for words, or air,</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Or hurt, or something. Now</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I follow ships from afar,</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I climb on rocks and sit there till they see,</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Till they put off in boats to bring me words</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And nets, and hurt. Wait till they’re close and then</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Almost reluctant, slip back in the sea.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Laurence Lerner, <i>Selves</i> (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1969), no pagination.</span></div>
Marnie1591http://www.blogger.com/profile/15000995326786323810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4589631676042461387.post-60268528044074766552014-04-10T11:26:00.000+01:002015-11-19T02:51:59.709+00:00Hummingbird-Heart by John Moffitt<div class="p1">
<br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Hummingbird-Heart</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Greedy bird, you are not more exasperating</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Than a certain small person of preference—</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">You who have formed the alarming habit</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Of drinking only out of the Audubon Society’s</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Artfully camouflaged feeding-tube</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Sugar and water mixed in precise proportions.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Shy, fascinating creature—</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Shrilling to me impatiently to move away</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Whenever I loom too near for your electric</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Shape to dart down to flower level unafraid—</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">How was I to know you would prove</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So fond of refined cane sugar as to make me</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Fill your tube two and even three times a day?</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">How was I to know, amiable pest,</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">That you would take whatever I have to give—</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Importunate, insatiable—</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">With never a thought of sharing your exquisite small</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Self for more than the space contained</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Between the opening and shutting of an eye?</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">John Moffitt, <i>Escape of the Leopard</i> (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1974), 18.</span></div>
Marnie1591http://www.blogger.com/profile/15000995326786323810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4589631676042461387.post-49194204291388795872014-02-16T21:46:00.000+00:002015-11-19T02:52:12.109+00:00Riddle<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In Mornigan’s park there is a deer,</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Silver horns and golden ear,</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Neither fish, flesh, feather, nor bone,</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In Mornigan’s park she walks alone.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<i style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></i>
<i style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></i></div>
<div class="p1">
<i style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Faber Book of Popular Verse</i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">, ed. by Geoffrey Grigson (London: Faber and Faber, 1971), 39.</span></div>
Marnie1591http://www.blogger.com/profile/15000995326786323810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4589631676042461387.post-13052928960916450662014-02-10T18:20:00.000+00:002015-11-19T08:19:25.651+00:00[My true Love hath my heart,…] by Sir Philip Sidney<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">My true Love hath my heart, and I have his,</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> By just exchange, one for the other given:</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I hold his dear, and mine he cannot miss;</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> There never was a better bargain driven.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">His heart in me keeps me and him in one,</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> My heart in him his thoughts and senses guides:</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">He loves my heart, for once it was his own;</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> I cherish his because in me it bides.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">His heart his wound receivëd from my sight,</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> My heart was wounded, with his wounded heart;</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">For as from me, on him his hurt did light,</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> So still methought in me his hurt did smart.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> Both, equal hurt, in this change sought our bliss:</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> My true Love hath my heart, and I have his.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<br />
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>Everyman’s Book of English Love Poems</i>, ed. by John Hadfield (London, Melbourne, Toronto: J M Dent & Sons, 1980), 44.</span></div>
Marnie1591http://www.blogger.com/profile/15000995326786323810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4589631676042461387.post-56669313318448442442014-01-17T05:09:00.000+00:002015-11-19T02:52:39.613+00:00Bitter-sweet by George Herbert<div class="p1">
<br />
<b><i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Bitter-sweet</span></i></b></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">AH my deare angrie Lord</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Since thou dost love , yet strike ;</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Cast down , yet help afford ;</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Sure I will do the like.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I will complaine , yet praise ;</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I will bewail , approve :</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">And all my sowre-sweet days</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I will lament , and love.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<br />
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>The Works of George Herbert</i>, ed. by F. E. Hutchinson (Oxford: Clarendon, 1941), 171.</span></div>
Marnie1591http://www.blogger.com/profile/15000995326786323810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4589631676042461387.post-46534526571130134332013-12-14T12:09:00.000+00:002015-11-19T02:52:57.886+00:00Report on Arrival by Robin Skelton<div class="p1">
<br />
<i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Report on Arrival</span></i></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">They ask me where I was born.</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I have no history</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">but the length of my bones,</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">and my religion</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">is the tablet of stone in climbing grass.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">They ask me how much I am worth.</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In pounds or dollars?</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Dollars.</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I scrawl dollars upon the sky.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And will I settle here?</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Will I ever go back?</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The rubber stamp</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">rolls like a whale on the pad,</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">and silence waits like a heron.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I can’t go back.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">That is why I am here,</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">why I am breathing.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">II</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">At thirty-seven I make a new start with the sea</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">and the peeling arbutus by middens of clamshells humped</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">up near the Reservation. Officers hope</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I’m in work,</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> have a place to live,</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> won’t let Faith down</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">by raging through roads that are underseas to green</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">rag-hanging chestnuts and oaks with a bottle or woman</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">or setting a mountain ablaze.</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> I will fire a mountain</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">someday up-country where bears have the masks of people</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">and whales tunnel down through the seas, and I will call</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">back,</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> (They said “Call us back”),</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> spinning black charred fingers</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">round the numbering disk</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> “Yes, I have settled</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">nicely,</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> pretty well fixed,</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> yeah, doing fine,</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">protecting the fire from the green,</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">the blaze from the cold”.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">III</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Would you say I was</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> dangerous?</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Tell me</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">soberly under these trees that drag flat fingers</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">down on the English roses,</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> Would you answer</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I was a dangerous man?</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> I don’t lie down,</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">ever,</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> without recalling</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> a woman’s mouth,</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">a woman’s hands, a woman’s breasts, a woman</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">mocking the folded roses,</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> Would you say</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">now in your letter that I should be given papers,</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">rights, and freedoms?</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> Could you ever say</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">anything safe of this</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> here</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> where</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> grey quail</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">in wool skirts</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> walk in line</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> down the sidewalk,</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> on God Street?</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">IV</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">You would rather see photographs?</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> I have photographs</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> (taken against the light)</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> of my wife and children</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And of a big brown house upon McLaren</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> where you think</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> (quite reasonably),</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> that I live,</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Having written me there, and</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> getting this answer</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> on the right paper,</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> headed with the right name.</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The evidence all points that way.</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> There is even a mortgage</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> And an insurance policy</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> which is signed</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> (yes, I admit it)</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> with my name.</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> And you</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Want photographs of the trees?</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> of the porch?</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> of a sitting</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Family smiling?</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> Would rather have that than this</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">attempt at a genuine map</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> of an entirely</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> different country</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> where</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> we are all alone?</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p3">
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Robin Skelton, </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Hunting Dark</i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> (London: André Deutsch, 1971), 9-11.</span></div>
Marnie1591http://www.blogger.com/profile/15000995326786323810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4589631676042461387.post-69816164860391912362013-11-25T13:15:00.000+00:002015-11-19T02:53:16.311+00:00[I’d have you, quoth he] by Anonymous<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> I’d have you, quoth he.</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> Would you have me? quoth she.</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> O where, sir?</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> In my chamber, quoth he.</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> In your chamber? quoth she.</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> Why there, sir?</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> To kiss you, quoth he.</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> To kiss me? quoth she.</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> O why, sir?</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> ‘Cause I love it, quoth he.</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> Do you love it? quoth she.</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> So do I, sir.</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p3">
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Lovers, Rakes and Rogues: amatory, merry and bawdy verse from 1580 to 1830</i>, ed. by John Wardroper (London: Shelfmark Books, 1995), 134.</span></div>
Marnie1591http://www.blogger.com/profile/15000995326786323810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4589631676042461387.post-63546315095610915852013-11-21T11:04:00.000+00:002015-11-19T02:53:31.650+00:00The Machine by B. C. Leale<div class="p1">
<br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">THE MACHINE</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The room exists for the machine</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The machine is wheeled into the room</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The machine contains the poem</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The machine exists for the poem</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> which is plugged into light</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The rays of light converge on a blank</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> freighted with language</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">There are dense textures and tones</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">There are weightless phrases</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">There are solids floating on colours</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> as if rocks were the echoes of</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> their fires and their seas.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The machine exists for the room</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> it gives it meaning</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">When light wheels out of the machine</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> it suddenly breaks.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">B. C. Leale, </span><i style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Leviathan and other poems</i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> (London, New York: Allison & Busby, 1984), 66.</span></div>
Marnie1591http://www.blogger.com/profile/15000995326786323810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4589631676042461387.post-65008587785631271372013-11-17T13:48:00.002+00:002015-11-19T02:53:48.826+00:00‘in heavenly realms of hellas dwelt’ by e e cummings<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">in heavenly realms of hellas dwelt</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">two very different sons of zeus:</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">one,handsome strong and born to dare</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">—a fighter to his eyelashes—</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">the other,cunning ugly lame;</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">but as you’ll shortly comprehend</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">a marvellous artificer</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">now Ugly was the husband of</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">(as happens every now and then</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">upon a merely human plane)</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">someone completely beautiful;</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">and Beautiful,who(truth to sing)</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">could never quite tell right from wrong,</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">took brother Fearless by the eyes</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">and did the deed of joy with him</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">then Cunning forged a web so subtle</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">air is comparatively crude;</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">an indestructible occult</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">supersnare of resistless metal:</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">and(stealing toward the blissful pair)</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">skilfully wafted over them-</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">selves this implacable unthing</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">next,our illustrious scientist</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">petitions the celestial host</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">to scrutinize his handiwork:</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">they(summoned by that savage yell</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">from shining realms of regions dark)</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">laugh long at Beautiful and Brave</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">—wildly who rage,vainly who strive;</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">and being finally released</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">flee one another like the pest</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">thus did immortal jealousy</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">quell divine generosity,</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">thus reason vanquished instinct and</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">matter became the slave of mind;</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">thus virtue triumphed over vice</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">and beauty bowed to ugliness</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">and logic thwarted life:and thus—</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">but look around you,friendsand foes</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">my tragic tale concludes herewith:</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">soldier,beware of mrs smith</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<br />
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>The Oxford Book of Satirical Verse</i>, ed. by Geoffrey Grigson (Oxford, New York, Toronto, Melbourne: Oxford UP, 1980), 391-2.</span></div>
Marnie1591http://www.blogger.com/profile/15000995326786323810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4589631676042461387.post-77028930275106935332013-11-17T12:57:00.000+00:002015-11-19T02:54:19.269+00:00Exchange of Letters by Wendy Cope<div class="p1" style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
<i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> Exchange of Letters</span></i></div>
<div class="p2" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">‘Man who is a serious novel would like to hear from a woman who is a poem’ (classified advertisement, </span><i style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">New York Review of Books</i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">)</span></div>
<div class="p2" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p4" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">DEAR SERIOUS NOVEL,</span></div>
<div class="p4" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I am a terse, assured lyric with impeccable rhythmic flow, some apt and original metaphors, and a music that is all my own. Some people say I am beautiful.</span></div>
<div class="p4" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">My vital statistics are eighteen lines, divided into three-line stanzas, with an average of four words per line.</span></div>
<div class="p4" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">My first husband was a cheap romance; the second was <i>Wisden’s Cricketers’ Almanac</i>. Most of the men I meet nowadays are autobiographies, but a substantial minority are books about photography or trains.</span></div>
<div class="p4" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I have always hoped for a relationship with an upmarket work of fiction. Please write and tell me more about yourself.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p5" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> Yours intensely,</span></div>
<div class="p5" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> Song of the First Snowdrop</span></div>
<div class="p5" style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br />
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="p5" style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>The Oxford Book of Satirical Verse</i>, ed. by Geoffrey Grigson (Oxford, New York, Toronto, Melbourne: Oxford UP, 1980), 467.</span></div>
</div>
Marnie1591http://www.blogger.com/profile/15000995326786323810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4589631676042461387.post-40079570438424502762013-11-16T19:05:00.001+00:002015-11-19T02:54:39.418+00:00Ballade Tragique à Double Refrain by Sir Max Beerbohm<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> <span style="font-size: large;">Ballade Tragique à Double Refrain</span></span></i></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">SCENE: A Room in Windsor Castle TIME: The Present</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> Enter a Lady-in-Waiting and a Lord-in-Waiting</span></i></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">SHE: Slow pass the hours—ah, passing, slow!</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> My doom is worse than anything</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> Conceived by Edgar Allan Poe:</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> The Queen is duller than the King.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">HE: Lady, your mind is wandering;</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> You babble what you do not mean.</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> Remember, to your heartening,</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> The King is duller than the Queen.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">SHE: No, most emphatically No!</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> To one firm-rooted fact I cling</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> In my now chronic vertigo:</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> The Queen is duller than the King.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">HE: Lady, you lie. Last evening</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> I found him with a Rural Dean,</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> Talking of district-visiting . . .</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> The King is duller than the Queen.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">SHE: At any rate he doesn’t sew!</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> You don’t see him embellishing</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> Yard after yard of calico . . .</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> The Queen is duller than the King.</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> Oh to have been an underling</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> To (say) the Empress Josephine!</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">HE: Enough of your self-pitying!</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> The King is duller than the Queen.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">SHE (<i>firmly</i>): The Queen is duller than the King.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">HE: Death then for you shall have no sting.</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> [<i>Stabs her and, as she falls dead, produces phial</i></span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> <i>from breast-pocket of coat.</i>]</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> Nevertheless, sweet friend Strychnine,</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> [<i>Drinks.</i>]</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> The King—is—duller than—the Queen.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> [<i>Dies in terrible agony.</i>]</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p3">
<i style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The Oxford Book of Satirical Verse</i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">, ed. by Geoffrey Grigson (Oxford, New York, Toronto, Melbourne: Oxford UP, 1980), 371-2.</span></div>
Marnie1591http://www.blogger.com/profile/15000995326786323810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4589631676042461387.post-58234389312407521312013-11-14T22:08:00.000+00:002015-11-19T02:55:13.992+00:00Binary by Chris Wallace-Crabbe<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Binary</span><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">WHY does a cauliflower so much resemble a brain? All those
pale curved protuberances and hillocks tease the mind into activity . . .<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>at this point I randomly remember the
complicated architecture of a particularly gothic dream. But brains and
cauliflowers, ah yes, is this the same kind of parallelism as that which holds
between pine cones and pagodas? There we go again, seeking order or duplicity
in the stubborn universe. We ask ourselves whether the resemblance between a
rose and a cabbage is like that between a clipped hedge and a high tin loaf,
coming up with no answer at all. The brain and the cauliflower continue to rise
up on their cortices, bubbly fruits that they are. Moon goes around earth goes
around sun, et cetera, analogues active everywhere. Echo redeems Narcissus,
shadow is touching reflection. We ask ourselves what it all signifies.
Somewhere, in shadow, aged sages debate such questions on a lawn all day, over
their wine and bananas.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Oxford Book of
Comic Verse</i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">, ed. by John Gross (London, New York: Oxford UP, 1994),<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span>438.</span></div>
Marnie1591http://www.blogger.com/profile/15000995326786323810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4589631676042461387.post-29581327371700429232013-11-11T10:30:00.000+00:002015-11-19T02:55:49.448+00:00To paint a portrait of a bird by Jacques Prévert<div class="p1">
<i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div class="p1">
<i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">To paint a portrait of a bird</span></i></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">First paint a cage</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">with an open door</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">then paint</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">something pretty</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">something simple</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">something beautiful</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">something useful</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">for the bird</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">then place the canvas against a tree</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">in a garden</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">in a wood</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">or in a forest</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">hide behind the tree</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">without speaking</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">without moving . . .</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Sometimes the bird arrives quickly</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">but he might also wait long years</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">before deciding</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Do not be discouraged</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">wait</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">wait if necessary for years</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">the speed or slowness of the bird’s arrival</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">has absolutely no connection</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">with the success or failure of the picture</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">When the bird arrives</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">if he arrives</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">observe the most solemn silence</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">wait until the bird enters the cage</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">and when he enters</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">gently close the door with the brush</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">then erase the bars one by one</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">making sure not to touch the feathers of the bird</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Then paint a portrait of the tree</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">choosing the prettiest of its branches</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">for the bird</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">and then paint the green foliage and the freshness of the breeze</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">the dust of the sun</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">and the choice of the creatures in the grass in the summer heat</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">and then wait until the bird decides to sing</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If the bird does not sing</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">it is a bad sign</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">a sign the picture is bad</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">but if he sings it’s a good sign</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">a sign you can sign</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Now very gently pluck</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">one of the bird’s feathers</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">and write your name in the corner of the picture.</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p3">
<i style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Chatto Book of Nonsense Poetry</i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">, ed. by Hugh Haughton (London: Chatto & Windus, 1988), 409-10.</span></div>
Marnie1591http://www.blogger.com/profile/15000995326786323810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4589631676042461387.post-66347831526735231582013-11-06T23:02:00.001+00:002015-11-19T02:56:05.134+00:00Confounded Nonsense by Thomas Hood the Younger<div class="p1">
<i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div class="p1">
<i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Confounded Nonsense</span></i></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Alpaca pictures of the previous past,</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> Droop on the hovering confines of a snore,</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And yet one further bloom, conversely vast,</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> Springs bright in the perspective of the shore,</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Where porphyry wings bear up an ardent pride,</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> And rainbows drip from evanescent crags,</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Where peaceful popinjays smile side by side,</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> And immemorial franchise furls its flags.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So let it be: imperious tumbrils howl,</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> And palpitating fixtures utter screeds;</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Afar the murmurous aspens hoarsely scowl,</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> And purple pageants echo frantic deeds.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Farewell! I see life’s periphrastic orb</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> Shiver to scantlings with a latent sound,</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Dark ether pours, while shrinking minds absorb,</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> And blatant wilderness close around.</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p3">
<br />
<i style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Chatto Book of Nonsense Poetry</i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">, ed. by Hugh Haughton (London: Chatto & Windus, 1988), 324-5.</span></div>
Marnie1591http://www.blogger.com/profile/15000995326786323810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4589631676042461387.post-48944866493389731402013-11-06T23:00:00.000+00:002015-11-19T02:56:22.283+00:00Incantation by Laughter by Velimir Khlebnikov<div class="p1">
<i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div class="p1">
<i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Incantation by Laughter</span></i></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> O laugh it out, you laughsters!</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> O laugh it up, you laughters!</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So they laugh with laughters, so they laugherize delaughly.</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> O laugh it up belaughably!</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">O the laughingstock of the laughed-upon – the laugh of belaughed laughsters!</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">O laugh it out roundlaughingly, the laugh of laughed-at laughians!</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> Laugherino, laugherino,</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> Laughify, laughicate, laugholets, laugholets,</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> Laughikins, laughikins,</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> O laugh it out, you laughsters!</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> O laugh it up, you laughters!</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p4">
<i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> translated from the Russian by Gary Kern</span></i></div>
<div class="p4">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p4">
<br />
<i style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Chatto Book of Nonsense Poetry</i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">, ed. by Hugh Haughton (London: Chatto & Windus, 1988), 371.</span></div>
Marnie1591http://www.blogger.com/profile/15000995326786323810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4589631676042461387.post-67397350933238460812013-11-03T07:48:00.000+00:002015-11-19T02:56:41.718+00:00heart (w)rap by Shamshad Khan<div class="p1">
<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="p1">
<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">heart (w)rap</span></b></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">i strap my heart</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">tightly</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">bind it strong</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">tough</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">was how i presented it to you</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">how you questioned me</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">on what was in this strange parcel</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">first tentatively</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">and then held it in your hands</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">and feeling the warmth</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">and faint beat</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">you guessed</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">and since</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">have tugged at the string</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">i so carefully bound</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">in protection</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">how you teased open</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">layer after layer</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">unravelled it all</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">until it lay open before you</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">how you were repulsed</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">when you saw</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">the pale blood drained flesh</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">i too drew back</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">hardly recognising the half healed mass</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">before us</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">disgusted by the scars</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">you did not ask</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">in what battle they were won</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">but fled</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">“the faint hearted”</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">i whispered to myself</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">“won’t inherit”</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">and began again</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">to bind.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<br />
<i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Fire People: A Collection of Contemporary Black British Poets</i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">, ed. by Lemn Sissay (Edinburgh: Paperback Press, 1998), 59-60.</span></div>
Marnie1591http://www.blogger.com/profile/15000995326786323810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4589631676042461387.post-49707684301001394422013-11-03T07:43:00.000+00:002015-11-19T02:56:58.478+00:00Spider Woman by Shamshad Khan<div class="p1">
<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="p1">
<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Spider Woman</span></b></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">She spun the argument</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">with a thread</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">he could not follow</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">perfecting</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">the delicate construction</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">until he</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">unsuspecting</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">fell</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">entangled</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">to</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">his</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">gentle destruction.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<br />
<i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Fire People: A Collection of Contemporary Black British Poets</i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">, ed. by Lemn Sissay (Edinburgh: Paperback Press, 1998), 58.</span></div>
Marnie1591http://www.blogger.com/profile/15000995326786323810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4589631676042461387.post-34236868404629551372013-10-20T12:15:00.001+01:002015-11-19T02:57:15.768+00:00Minerva by C. H. Sisson<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Minerva</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If silence were enough</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I might well have it here,</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And yet the word will puff</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And blow until I hear</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As it climbs the vast hill</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">From the dark pit where none</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Can apprehend it till</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It sees the distant sun.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In the pit only sleep;</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In the sun only death:</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">One moment on the steep</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It draws a waking breath.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I go to meet it where</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It touches life at full:</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">‘Salut, <i>mon fils</i>,<i> mon frère</i>,</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Touch hands, but do no pull.’</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">You pull, and I go down</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Where silence holds me fast.</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I pull, and with a frown</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">You mutter and push past.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Only a moment’s poise</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Gives us a common mind,</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Mere silence and mere noise</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Shown up as being blind,</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As when, before a form</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Containing all I seek,</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I recognise a norm</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And do not try to speak.</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p3">
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">C. H. Sisson, </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Antidotes</i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> (Manchester: Carcanet, 1991), 36.</span></div>
Marnie1591http://www.blogger.com/profile/15000995326786323810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4589631676042461387.post-64102494986082570332013-10-20T12:14:00.000+01:002015-11-19T02:57:40.603+00:00Looking by C. H. Sisson<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Looking</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Look, looker, if you will,</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">But what you see,</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">That shape, that colour, still</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Is no-wise me.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So beauty is a dream</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And ugliness the same:</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">To seem, to seem, to seem</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Is all that’s in a name.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">C. H. Sisson, </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Antidotes</i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> (Manchester: Carcanet, 1991), 40.</span></div>
Marnie1591http://www.blogger.com/profile/15000995326786323810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4589631676042461387.post-5376231191552499622013-10-20T12:12:00.000+01:002015-11-19T02:58:37.577+00:00The Birth of Venus by C. H. Sisson<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The Birth of Venus</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So she stepped naked on to the shore and broke</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Into a thousand pieces as she awoke</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">To life in sunlight, and forgot the sea.</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The spray blinded all to her symmetry.</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Imagination saw a pearly flesh;</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The hand that touched it found it cool and fresh,</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And moulded it, complete from top to toe.</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A liar then asserted that it was so.</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p3">
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">C. H. Sisson, </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Antidotes</i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> (Manchester: Carcanet, 1991), 28.</span></div>
Marnie1591http://www.blogger.com/profile/15000995326786323810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4589631676042461387.post-30746243595924589242013-10-11T07:39:00.000+01:002015-11-19T02:59:12.235+00:00Evolution by Edwin Brock<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">EVOLUTION</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">One wave</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">sucking the shingle</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">and three birds</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">in a white sky</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">one man</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">and one idea</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">two workmen</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">and a concrete mixer</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">one wave</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">shingle</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">white walls</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">bird and sky</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">two workmen</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">and a concrete mixer</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">white walls</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">wave and windows</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">bird and sky</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">wave and white rooms</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">walls and windows</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">lights and sky</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">five hundred men</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">and a computer</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">desks and days</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">white walls</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">lights and</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">one computer</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">rooms and men</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">lights</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">one computer</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">desks and days</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">rooms and windows</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">desks and lights</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">lights and days</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">and days and rooms</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">desks and rooms</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">days and lights</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">daylight in</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">dayrooms</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">and days</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">in desks</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">and days</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">in days</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">and one man</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">mad</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">dreaming of</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">one wave</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">sucking the shingle</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">and three birds</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">in a wide sky</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Edwin Brock, </span><i style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A Cold Day at the Zoo</i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> (London: Rapp and Whiting, 1970), 16-7.</span></div>
Marnie1591http://www.blogger.com/profile/15000995326786323810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4589631676042461387.post-80238697339370392362013-10-11T07:36:00.000+01:002015-11-19T02:59:32.025+00:00Autobiography by Edwin Brock<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">AUTOBIOGRAPHY</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Draw three sides</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">of a square</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">cap it with</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">an inverted vee</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">call it a house</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">imagine the house</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">inhabited</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">call it a home</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">pin this picture</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">to a wall</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">travel by the sea</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">throw stones</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">for dogs</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">eat sleep</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">arrange things</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">until</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">quietly by the sea</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">the dogs</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">die</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">and the stones</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">have gone</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">then travel</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">inland</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">to three sides</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">of a square</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">capped with</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">an inverted vee</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">imagine it</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">inhabited</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">and arrive</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Edwin Brock, </span><i style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A Cold Day at the Zoo</i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> (London: Rapp and Whiting, 1970), 11.</span></div>
Marnie1591http://www.blogger.com/profile/15000995326786323810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4589631676042461387.post-27524856535673163482013-10-03T05:24:00.000+01:002015-11-19T02:59:54.245+00:00Fragment of a Greek Tragedy by A. E. Housman<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p3">
<i><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> Fragment of a Greek Tragedy</span></i></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<i><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> Alcmaeon, Chorus</span></i></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">CHO. O SUITABLY-attired-in-leather-boots</span></div>
<div class="p4">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> Head of a traveller, wherefore seeking whom</span></div>
<div class="p4">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> Whence by what way how purposed art thou come</span></div>
<div class="p4">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> To this well-nightingaled vicinity?</span></div>
<div class="p4">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> My object in inquiring is to know.</span></div>
<div class="p4">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> But if you happen to be deaf and dumb</span></div>
<div class="p4">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> And do not understand a word I say,</span></div>
<div class="p4">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> Then wave your hand, to signify as much.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">ALC. <span style="font-size: xx-small;"> </span>I journeyed hither a Bœtian road.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">CHO. Sailing on horseback, or with feet for oars?</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">ALC. <span style="font-size: xx-small;"> </span>Plying with speed my partnership of legs.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">CHO. Beneath a shining or a rainy Zeus?</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">ALC. <span style="font-size: xx-small;"> </span>Mud's sister, not himself, adorns my shoes.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">CHO. To learn your name would not displease me much.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">ALC. <span style="font-size: xx-small;"> </span>Not all that men desire do they obtain.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">CHO. Might I then hear at what thy presence shoots?</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">ALC. <span style="font-size: xx-small;"> </span>A shepherd's questioned mouth informed me that—</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">CHO. What? for I know not yet what you will say—</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">ALC. <span style="font-size: xx-small;"> </span>Nor will you ever, if you interrupt.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">CHO. Proceed, and I will hold my speechless tongue.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">ALC. <span style="font-size: xx-small;"> </span>—This house was Eriphyla's, no one’s else.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">CHO. Nor did he shame his throat with hateful lies.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">ALC. <span style="font-size: xx-small;"> </span>May I then enter, passing through the door?</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">CHO. Go, chase into the house a lucky foot,</span></div>
<div class="p4">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> And, O my son, be, on the one hand, good,</span></div>
<div class="p4">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> And do not, on the other hand, be bad;</span></div>
<div class="p4">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> For that is very much the safest plan.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">ALC. <span style="font-size: xx-small;"> </span>I go into the house with heels and speed.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<i><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> Chorus</span></i></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p5">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> In speculation <i>Strophe</i></span></div>
<div class="p5">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> I would not willingly acquire a name</span></div>
<div class="p5">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> For ill-digested thought;</span></div>
<div class="p5">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> But after pondering much</span></div>
<div class="p5">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> To this conclusion I at last have come:</span></div>
<div class="p5">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> <i>Life is uncertain.</i></span></div>
<div class="p5">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> This truth I have written deep</span></div>
<div class="p5">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> In my reflective midriff</span></div>
<div class="p5">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> On tablets not of wax,</span></div>
<div class="p5">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> Nor with a pen did I inscribe it there,</span></div>
<div class="p5">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> For many reasons: <i>Life, I say, is not</i></span></div>
<div class="p5">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> <i>A stranger to uncertainty.</i></span></div>
<div class="p5">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> Not from the flight of omen-yelling fowls</span></div>
<div class="p5">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> This fact did I discover,</span></div>
<div class="p5">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> Nor did the Delphic tripod bark it out,</span></div>
<div class="p5">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> Nor yet Dodona.</span></div>
<div class="p5">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> Its native ingenuity sufficed</span></div>
<div class="p5">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> My self-taught diaphragm.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p5">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> Why should I mention<span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span> <i>Antistrophe</i></span></div>
<div class="p5">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> The Inachean daughter, loved of Zeus?</span></div>
<div class="p5">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> Her whom of old the gods,</span></div>
<div class="p5">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> More provident than kind,</span></div>
<div class="p5">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> Provided with four hoofs, two horns, one tail,</span></div>
<div class="p5">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> A gift not asked for,</span></div>
<div class="p5">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> And sent her forth to learn</span></div>
<div class="p5">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> The unfamiliar science</span></div>
<div class="p5">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> Of how to chew the cud.</span></div>
<div class="p5">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> She therefore, all about the Argive fields,</span></div>
<div class="p5">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> Went cropping pale green grass and nettle-tops,</span></div>
<div class="p5">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> Nor did they disagree with her.</span></div>
<div class="p5">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> But yet, howe'er nutritious, such repasts</span></div>
<div class="p5">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> I do not hanker after:</span></div>
<div class="p5">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> Never may Cypris for her seat select</span></div>
<div class="p5">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> My dappled liver!</span></div>
<div class="p5">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> Why should I mention Io? Why indeed?</span></div>
<div class="p5">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> I have no notion why.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p5">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> But now does my boding heart,<span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span> <i>Epode</i></span></div>
<div class="p5">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> Unhired, unaccompanied, sing</span></div>
<div class="p5">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> A strain not meet for the dance.</span></div>
<div class="p5">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> Yea even the palace appears</span></div>
<div class="p5">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> To my yoke of circular eyes</span></div>
<div class="p5">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> (The right, nor omit I the left)</span></div>
<div class="p5">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> Like a slaughterhouse, so to speak,</span></div>
<div class="p5">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> Garnished with woolly deaths</span></div>
<div class="p5">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> And many shipwrecks of cows.</span></div>
<div class="p5">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> I therefore in a Cissian strain lament;</span></div>
<div class="p5">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> And to the rapid,</span></div>
<div class="p5">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> Loud, linen-tattering thumps upon my chest</span></div>
<div class="p5">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> Resounds in concert</span></div>
<div class="p5">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> The battering of my unlucky head.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p4">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> ERIPHYLA (<i>within</i>). O, I am smitten with a hatchet's jaw;</span></div>
<div class="p5">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> And that in deed and not in word alone.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">CHO. I thought I heard a sound within the house</span></div>
<div class="p5">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> Unlike the voice of one that jumps for joy.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">ERI. <span style="font-size: xx-small;"> </span>He splits my skull, not in a friendly way,</span></div>
<div class="p4">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> Once more: he purposes to kill me dead.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">CHO. I would not be reputed rash, but yet</span></div>
<div class="p4">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> I doubt if all be gay within the house.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">ERI. <span style="font-size: xx-small;"> </span>O! O! another stroke! that makes the third.</span></div>
<div class="p4">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> He stabs me to the heart against my wish.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">CHO. If that be so, thy state of health is poor;</span></div>
<div class="p4">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> But thine arithmetic is quite correct.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<br />
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>The New Oxford Book of Light Verse</i>, ed. by Kingsley Amis (Oxford, London, New York: Oxford University Press, 1978), 176-9.</span></div>
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