What is your favourite poem, and why? - eviltoast
  • EndOfLine@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    Invictus by William Ernst Henley

    When I was younger I clung to it’s message of perseverance. It ended up being the first poem that I ever memorized.

    Out of the night that covers me
    Black as the pit from pole to pole,
    I thank whatever gods may be
    For my unconquerable soul.
    
    In the fell clutch of circumstance,
    I have not winced nor cried aloud.
    Under the bludgeonings of chance
    My head is bloody, but unbowed.
    
    Beyond this place of wrath and tears
    Looms but the Horror of the shade,
    And yet the menace of the years
    Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.
    
    It matters not how strait the gate,
    How charged with punishments the scroll,
    I am the master of my fate
    I am the captain of my soul.
    
    • young_broccoli@fedia.io
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      5 months ago

      I really like all of Wlfred Owen’s work. So fucking sad. And I dont mean just the poetry but his life. When I found about him I read his biography and it made me cry a little. You probably already know this but not only did he fought and wrote his poetry in the first WW but he also died there with only 25 years. Just writing this Im starting to tear up, trully heartbreaking.

  • khannie@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    Subh Milis (Sweet jam). It’s a short and powerful Irish poem reminding parents to be kind to their kids.

    English translation below. Can’t seem to get the formatting correct on mobile…

    Bhí subh milis ar bháscrann an doras

    ach mhúch mé an corraí

    ionaim a d’éirigh

    mar smaoinigh mé ar an lá

    a bheadh an bháscrann glan

    agus an lámh beag – ar iarraidh…”

    There was jam on the door handle

    But I quelled the anger

    That rose inside me

    Because I thought of the day

    That the handle would be clean

    And the little hand - longed for

  • SanguinePar@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    I really like the Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Coleridge. I first encountered it as a result of reading Douglas Adams’ Dirk Gently novels, but one day I saw the original in the library and just read it from start to finish. It’s fantastic, so weird, so compelling.

    I also like his Kubla Khan, the imagery of the “caverns measureless to man” and the “sunless sea” have always stuck with me.

  • toothpaste_sandwich@feddit.nl
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    5 months ago

    I’m partial to To make a prairie by Emily Dickinson:

    To make a prairie it takes a clover 
          and one bee,
    One clover, and a bee.
    And revery.
    The revery alone will do,
    If bees are few.
    

    I enjoy the simplicity. Also, there’s a great choir setting by Rudolf Escher which I really enjoy.

  • robolemmy@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    This Bread I Break by Dylan Thomas

    It’s a short, beautiful poem that laments man’s destructive relationship with nature.

  • reversebananimals@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    Li Bai - Quiet Night Thought

    床前明月光
    疑是地上霜
    举头望明月
    低头思故乡

    Before my bed bright moonlight pools
    Almost like frost on the ground
    Raising my head I see the shining moon
    Bowing my head I think of home

  • dragontamer@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    Richard Cory

    A surprising poem on a dark subject matter. Perhaps one of the best poems that demonstrate how mysterious other people are and how hard it is to truly connect with strangers.