What is your favorite poem? The one that moves you to the depth of your soul? This happens to be my favorite: I was 12 at the time I learned it and it has stayed with me to this day.....
Xanadu by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
In Xanadu did Kubla Khan A stately pleasure-dome decree: Where Alph, the sacred river, ran Through caverns measureless to man Down to a sunless sea.
So twice five miles of fertile ground With walls and towers were girdled round: And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills, Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree; And here were forests ancient as the hills, Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.
But oh! that deep romantic chasm which slanted Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover! A savage place! as holy and enchanted As e'er beneath a waning moon was haunted By woman wailing for her demon-lover! And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething, As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing, A mighty fountain momently was forced: Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail, Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher's flail: And 'mid these dancing rocks at once and ever It flung up momently the sacred river. Five miles meandering with a mazy motion Through wood and dale the sacred river ran, Then reached the caverns measureless to man, And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean: And 'mid this tumult Kubla heard from far Ancestral voices prophesying war!
The shadow of the dome of pleasure Floated midway on the waves; Where was heard the mingled measure From the fountain and the caves. It was a miracle of rare device, A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice!
A damsel with a dulcimer In a vision once I saw: It was an Abyssinian maid, And on her dulcimer she played, Singing of Mount Abora. Could I revive within me Her symphony and song, To such a deep delight 'twould win me That with music loud and long I would build that dome in air, That sunny dome! those caves of ice! And all who heard should see them there, And all should cry, Beware! Beware! His flashing eyes, his floating hair! Weave a circle round him thrice, And close your eyes with holy dread, For he on honey-dew hath fed And drunk the milk of Paradise.
You're always there to help no matter what life brings; to laugh with me,be proud of me, and the happy things. But even more importantly,you're there when plans go wrong; to help me work things out when disappointments come along. And so,I want to thank you,Mum,and tell you lovingly,you're very special in my life to me...
This was written on a plaque my lass bought for me many years ago..
amahlala: What is your favorite poem? The one that moves you to the depth of your soul? This happens to be my favorite: I was 12 at the time I learned it and it has stayed with me to this day.....
Xanadu by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
In Xanadu did Kubla Khan A stately pleasure-dome decree: Where Alph, the sacred river, ran Through caverns measureless to man Down to a sunless sea.
So twice five miles of fertile ground With walls and towers were girdled round: And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills, Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree; And here were forests ancient as the hills, Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.
But oh! that deep romantic chasm which slanted Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover! A savage place! as holy and enchanted As e'er beneath a waning moon was haunted By woman wailing for her demon-lover! And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething, As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing, A mighty fountain momently was forced: Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail, Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher's flail: And 'mid these dancing rocks at once and ever It flung up momently the sacred river. Five miles meandering with a mazy motion Through wood and dale the sacred river ran, Then reached the caverns measureless to man, And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean: And 'mid this tumult Kubla heard from far Ancestral voices prophesying war!
The shadow of the dome of pleasure Floated midway on the waves; Where was heard the mingled measure From the fountain and the caves. It was a miracle of rare device, A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice!
A damsel with a dulcimer In a vision once I saw: It was an Abyssinian maid, And on her dulcimer she played, Singing of Mount Abora. Could I revive within me Her symphony and song, To such a deep delight 'twould win me That with music loud and long I would build that dome in air, That sunny dome! those caves of ice! And all who heard should see them there, And all should cry, Beware! Beware! His flashing eyes, his floating hair! Weave a circle round him thrice, And close your eyes with holy dread, For he on honey-dew hath fed And drunk the milk of Paradise.
scottyburd: You're always there to help no matter what life brings; to laugh with me,be proud of me, and the happy things. But even more importantly,you're there when plans go wrong; to help me work things out when disappointments come along. And so,I want to thank you,Mum,and tell you lovingly,you're very special in my life to me...
This was written on a plaque my lass bought for me many years ago..
Don't matter if the road is long Don't matter if it's steep Don't matter if the moon is gone And the darkness is complete Don't matter if we lose our way It's written that we'll meet At least, that's what I heard you say A thousand kisses deep
I loved you when you opened Like a lily to the heat You see, I'm just another snowman Standing in the rain and sleet Who loved you with his frozen love His second hand physique With all he is and all he was A thousand kisses deep
I know you had to lie to me I know you had to cheat You learned it on your father's knee And at your mother's feet But did you have to fight your way Across the burning street When all our vital interests lay A thousand kisses deep
I'm turning tricks I'm getting fixed I'm back on boogie street I'd like to quit the business But I'm in it, so to speak The thought of you is peaceful And the file on you complete Except what I forgot to do A thousand kisses deep
Don't matter if you're rich and strong Don't matter if you're weak Don't matter if you write a song The nightingales repeat Don't matter if it's nine to five Or timeless and unique You ditch your life to stay alive A thousand kisses deep
The ponies run The girls are young The odds are there to beat You win a while, and then it's done Your little winning streak And summon now to deal with your invincible defeat You live your life as if it's real A thousand kisses deep
I hear their voices in the wine That sometimes did me seek The band is playing Auld Lang Syne But the heart will not retreat There's no forsaking what you love No existential leap As witnessed here in time and blood A thousand kisses deep
kcuc0574Ho Chi Minh, Southeast Vietnam Vietnam2,003 posts
Laura25: Leonard Cohen - A Thousand kisses deepDon't matter if the road is long Don't matter if it's steep Don't matter if the moon is gone And the darkness is complete Don't matter if we lose our way It's written that we'll meet At least, that's what I heard you say A thousand kisses deep
I loved you when you opened Like a lily to the heat You see, I'm just another snowman Standing in the rain and sleet Who loved you with his frozen love His second hand physique With all he is and all he was A thousand kisses deep
I know you had to lie to me I know you had to cheat You learned it on your father's knee And at your mother's feet But did you have to fight your way Across the burning street When all our vital interests lay A thousand kisses deep
I'm turning tricks I'm getting fixed I'm back on boogie street I'd like to quit the business But I'm in it, so to speak The thought of you is peaceful And the file on you complete Except what I forgot to do A thousand kisses deep
Don't matter if you're rich and strong Don't matter if you're weak Don't matter if you write a song The nightingales repeat Don't matter if it's nine to five Or timeless and unique You ditch your life to stay alive A thousand kisses deep
The ponies run The girls are young The odds are there to beat You win a while, and then it's done Your little winning streak And summon now to deal with your invincible defeat You live your life as if it's real A thousand kisses deep
I hear their voices in the wine That sometimes did me seek The band is playing Auld Lang Syne But the heart will not retreat There's no forsaking what you love No existential leap As witnessed here in time and blood A thousand kisses deephttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXaRT8CXmGE&feature=related
thank you Laura, i like your poem although i dont understand the meaning of some new english words, i will read it thoroughly tomorrow.
Laura25: Leonard Cohen - A Thousand kisses deepDon't matter if the road is long Don't matter if it's steep Don't matter if the moon is gone And the darkness is complete Don't matter if we lose our way It's written that we'll meet At least, that's what I heard you say A thousand kisses deep
I loved you when you opened Like a lily to the heat You see, I'm just another snowman Standing in the rain and sleet Who loved you with his frozen love His second hand physique With all he is and all he was A thousand kisses deep
I know you had to lie to me I know you had to cheat You learned it on your father's knee And at your mother's feet But did you have to fight your way Across the burning street When all our vital interests lay A thousand kisses deep
I'm turning tricks I'm getting fixed I'm back on boogie street I'd like to quit the business But I'm in it, so to speak The thought of you is peaceful And the file on you complete Except what I forgot to do A thousand kisses deep
Don't matter if you're rich and strong Don't matter if you're weak Don't matter if you write a song The nightingales repeat Don't matter if it's nine to five Or timeless and unique You ditch your life to stay alive A thousand kisses deep
The ponies run The girls are young The odds are there to beat You win a while, and then it's done Your little winning streak And summon now to deal with your invincible defeat You live your life as if it's real A thousand kisses deep
I hear their voices in the wine That sometimes did me seek The band is playing Auld Lang Syne But the heart will not retreat There's no forsaking what you love No existential leap As witnessed here in time and blood A thousand kisses deephttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXaRT8CXmGE&feature=related
Absolutely beautiful. Thankyou.
I went to see Leonard Cohen in Nantes last year. What a poet !!!
Can anybody find me somebody to love? Each morning I get up I die a little Can barely stand on my feet Take a look in the mirror and cry Lord what you're doing to me I have spent all my years in believing you But I just can't get no relief, Lord! Somebody, somebody Can anybody find me somebody to love?
I work hard every day of my life I work till I ache my bones At the end I take home my hard earned pay all on my own - I get down on my knees And I start to pray Till the tears run down from my eyes Lord - somebody - somebody Can anybody find me - somebody to love?
(He works hard)
Everyday - I try and I try and I try - But everybody wants to put me down They say I'm goin' crazy They say I got a lot of water in my brain Got no common sense I got nobody left to believe Yeah - yeah yeah yeah
Oh Lord Somebody - somebody Can anybody find me somebody to love?
Got no feel, I got no rhythm I just keep losing my beat I'm ok, I'm alright Ain't gonna face no defeat I just gotta get out of this prison cell Someday I'm gonna be free, Lord!
Find me somebody to love Can anybody find me somebody to love?
Okay, so it's a Queen song. But it's still poetry to me
leostartingoverSandton, Gauteng South Africa1,685 posts
That's a very emotive poem.... thanks for sharing it!
I love Shakespeare's sonnets. Here are a couple of my favourites:
XVIII Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May And summer's lease hath all too short a date Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines And often is his gold complexion dimmed And every fair from fair sometime declines By chance, or nature's changing course, untrimmed But thy eternal summer shall not fade Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest Nor shall Death brag thou wanderest in his shade When in eternal lines to time thou growest So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see So long lives this, and this gives life to thee
XCIV They that have power to hurt and will do none That do not do the thing they most do show Who, moving others, are themselves as stone Unmoved, cold, and to temptation slow They rightly do inherit Heaven's graces And husband nature's riches from expense They are the lords and owners of their faces Others but stewards of their excellence The summer's flower is to the summer sweet Though to itself it only live and die But if that flower with base infection meet The basest weed outbraves his dignity For sweetest things turn sourest by their deeds Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds
XXIX When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes I all alone beweep my outcast state And trouble deaf Heaven with my bootless cries And look upon myself, and curse my fate Wishing me like to one more rich in hope Featured like him, like him with friends possessed Desiring this man's art, and that man's scope With what I most enjoy contented least; Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising Haply I think on thee, and then my state (Like to the lark at break of day arising From sullen earth) sings hymns at heaven's gate For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings That then I scorn to change my state with kings
CXVI Let me not to the marriage of true minds Admit impediuments. Love is not love Which alters when it alteration finds Or bends with the remover to remove: Oh no, it is an ever-fixed mark That looks on tempests, and is never shaken It is the star to every wandering bark Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks Within his bending sickle's compass come Love alterns not with his brief hours and weeks But bears it out even to the edge of doom If this be error, and upon me proved I never writ, nor no man ever loved
If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you; If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too; If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies, Or, being hated, don't give way to hating, And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;
If you can dream - and not make dreams your master; If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim; If you can meet with triumph and disaster And treat those two imposters just the same; If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, Or watch the things you gave your life to broken, And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;
If you can make one heap of all your winnings And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, And lose, and start again at your beginnings And never breath a word about your loss; If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew To serve your turn long after they are gone, And so hold on when there is nothing in you Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch; If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you; If all men count with you, but none too much; If you can fill the unforgiving minute With sixty seconds' worth of distance run - Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it, And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!
Report threads that break rules, are offensive, or contain fighting. Staff may not be aware of the forum abuse, and cannot do anything about it unless you tell us about it. click to report forum abuse »
If one of the comments is offensive, please report the comment instead (there is a link in each comment to report it).
Xanadu by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree:
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.
So twice five miles of fertile ground
With walls and towers were girdled round:
And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,
Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree;
And here were forests ancient as the hills,
Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.
But oh! that deep romantic chasm which slanted
Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover!
A savage place! as holy and enchanted
As e'er beneath a waning moon was haunted
By woman wailing for her demon-lover!
And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething,
As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing,
A mighty fountain momently was forced:
Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst
Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,
Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher's flail:
And 'mid these dancing rocks at once and ever
It flung up momently the sacred river.
Five miles meandering with a mazy motion
Through wood and dale the sacred river ran,
Then reached the caverns measureless to man,
And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean:
And 'mid this tumult Kubla heard from far
Ancestral voices prophesying war!
The shadow of the dome of pleasure
Floated midway on the waves;
Where was heard the mingled measure
From the fountain and the caves.
It was a miracle of rare device,
A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice!
A damsel with a dulcimer
In a vision once I saw:
It was an Abyssinian maid,
And on her dulcimer she played,
Singing of Mount Abora.
Could I revive within me
Her symphony and song,
To such a deep delight 'twould win me
That with music loud and long
I would build that dome in air,
That sunny dome! those caves of ice!
And all who heard should see them there,
And all should cry, Beware! Beware!
His flashing eyes, his floating hair!
Weave a circle round him thrice,
And close your eyes with holy dread,
For he on honey-dew hath fed
And drunk the milk of Paradise.