[hector]

Another one, unusual for this poet:

NAPOLEON

What is the world, O soldiers?
It is I.
I, this incessant snow,
This Northern sky.
Soldiers, this solitide through which we go
Is I.


which is by de la Mare

[robert mezey]

Having recently edited a large anthology of epigrams and
other short poems, I thought I might type in a few of my
favorites.
One little-known one by Larkin:

None of the books have time
To say how being selfless feels.
They make it sound a superior way
Of getting what you want. It isn't at all.

Selflessness is like waiting in a hospital
In a badly-fitting suit on a cold wet morning.
Selfishness is like listening to good jazz
With drinks for further orders and a huge fire.


An anonymous medieval one:

Omnes gentes plaudite!
I saw many birds sitten on a tree;
They tooken their flight and flowen away
With Ego dixi, have a good day!
Many white feathers hath the pie--
I may no more singen, my lips are so dry.
Many white feathers hath the swan--
The more that I drink, the less good I can.
Lay sticks on the fire, well may it brenne!
Give us one drink ere we go henne.


And Pope's famous but still gorgeous thing:

When other Ladies to the Groves go down,
Corinna still, and Fulvia, stay in town;
Those Ghosts of Beauty lingering here reside,
And haunt the Places where their Honour died.


One of Kipling's Epitaphs of the War (all of which
are wonderful):

The Sleepy Sentinel

Faithless the watch that I kept: now I have none to keep.
I was slain because I slept: now I am slain I sleep.
Let no man reproach me again, whatever watch is unkept--
I sleep because I am slain. They slew me because I slept.


Not many short poems more touching or tender than
this one by Donald Justice:

On the Death of Friends in Childhood

We shall not ever meet them bearded in heaven,
Nor sunning themselves among the bald of hell;
If anywhere, in the deserted schoolyard at twilight,
Forming a ring, perhaps, or joining hands
In games whose very names we have forgotten.
Come, memory, let us seek them there in the shadows.


Henri Coulette:

Petition

Lord of the Tenth Life,
Welcome my Jerome,
A fierce, gold tabby.
Make him feel at home.

He loves bird and mouse.
He loves a man's lap,
And in winter light,
Paws tucked in, a nap.


and his epigram on Ginsberg:

Sixteen thousand lines, give or take sixteen,
And no two lines that you can read between.


And this:

Eurydice dies! The loneliness is grand.
Yet were she to come back, dust rag in hand...


And this by our own master, Tim Murphy--"Dies Irae":

At the field's edge a feather
clings briefly to a bough
before a change of weather
offers it to the plough,
much as it did my father.

(The single comma, the half rhyme--heartbreaking.)


Landor (who has many others as good or better):

How soon, alas, the hours are over,
Counted us out to play the lover!
And how much narrower is the stage,
Allotted us to play the sage!
But when we play the fool, how wide
The theatre expands; beside,
How long the audience sits before us!
How many prompters! what a chorus!


Ralph Hodgson's "The Bells of Heaven":

'Twould ring the bells of Heaven
Their wildest peal in years,
If Parson lost his senses
And people came to theirs,
And he and they together
Knelt down with angry prayers
For tamed and shabby tigers,
And dancing dogs and bears,
And wretched, blind pit ponies,
And little hunted hares.


Walter de la Mare:

Here lies, but seven years old, our little maid,
Once of the darkness Oh, so sore afraid!
Light of the World---remember that small fear
And when nor moon nor stars do shine, draw near.


My favorite Housman:

Crossing alone the nighted ferry
With the one coin for fee,
Whom, on the wharf of Lethe waiting,
Count you to find? Not me.

The brisk fond lackey to fetch and carry,
The true, sick-hearted slave,
Expect him not in the just city
And free land of the grave.


And (sometimes, I think, my favorite poem), anonymous,
from the 20s or 30s:

Carnation Milk is the best in the land;
I've got a can of it here in my hand--
No teats to pull, no hay to pitch,
You just punch a hole in the sonofabitch.


Enough.

[David Anthony]

Fine selection, Prof Mezey.
Here's one not a lot of people know:

He that supper for is dight,
He lyes full cold, I trow, this night!
Yestreen to chamber I him led,
This night Grey-steel has made his bed!

(Sir Eger, Sir Grahame and Sir Gray-Steel)

[peter richards]

(from memory):

Sometimes i feel
like a priest
in a fish and chip queue,
quietly wondering
as the vinegar runs through,
what must it be like
to buy supper for two.

Roger McGough

Song For a Beautiful Girl Petrol Pump Attendant on the Motorway

I wanted your soft verges
but you gave me the hard shoulder.

Adrian Henri


though it has to be said that all the best ones are mine.

modesty <u>as well</u> as bad taste

Peter

Actually for (another) ps, there's a poem in one of those 'how-to-write-poetry' books - possibly Tennyson - about an eagle.

Found it:

The Eagle

He clasps the crag with crooked hands;
Close to the sun in lonely lands,
Ringed with the azure world, he stands.

The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;
He watches from his mountain walls,
And like a thunderbolt he falls.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson


[This message has been edited by peter richards (edited September 04, 2002).]

[Clive Watkins]

Dear Peter

Each to his or her own! But I have always thought Tennyson’s "The Eagle" a poor poem. Surely, the bird clasps the crag with its feet? To compound the problem, two lines further on, he tells us that the bird is standing, "Ringed with the azure world" - on its hands presumably.

I think this is a good example of verse which is driven by the need to rhyme and of what can happen when a poet, even a fine one such as Tennyson, fails to keep his eye on the object.

The Adrian Henri and Roger McGough pieces are very funny. I knew Henri slightly in my student days; we even shared a platform once. (In those distant times I occasionally found the courage to inflict my verses on the public in person.)

Best wishes!

Clive Watkins

[Roger Slater]

My favorite short poem, though hardly an original choice, is Frost's "Fire and Ice." Hard to beat. At least three dozen Dickinson poems would also be in the running.

Though not a "poem" unto itself, I've always thought of these lines from Shelley's "Adonais" as being able to stand on their own quite beautifully:

Life, like a dome of many-colour'd glass,
Stains the white radiance of Eternity

[wendy v]

I'm a huge lover of the short poem, and have really been enjoying this thread. Is twelve lines (in IP, no less) really considered short ? I write almost exclusively short poems then. "Fire and Ice", "The Eagle" (annoying ??!!) and the Coulettecat are three of my favorites, already mentioned above. Some other really good ones in this thread. Love the Hodgson and the Graves. Thanks for starting this one, Carl, I hope more shorties will be posted here. Here are a few more I love:


The Question Answered

What is it men in women do require ?
The lineaments of gratified desire.
What is it women do in men require ?
The lineaments of gratified desire.

-Blake

```````

A Short History

Corn planted us; tamed cattle made us tame,
Thence hut and citadel and kingdom came.

-R Wilbur


``````````


yes is a pleasant country,
if's wintry
(my lovely)
let's open the year

both is the very weather
(not either)
my treasure,
when violets appear

love is a deeper season
than reason;
my sweet one
(and april's where we're)

- cummings

``````````

Theology

There is a heaven, for ever, day by day,
The upward longing of my soul doth tell me so,
There is a hell, I'm quite as sure; for pray,
If there were not, where would my neighbors go ?

-Paul Dunbar

````````````

The Wanderer

There is no end
to a wanderer’s sorrow.
The wisdom of Erda
queried by Wotan,
the counsel of Ragna
sung in a saga
I’ll follow tomorrow—
tomorrow if ever—
for I am no friend
of Volsung or Vala.

-Tim Murphy

```````

After Long Silence

Speech after long silence; it is right,
All other lovers being estranged or dead,
Unfriendly lamplight hid under its shade,
The curtains drawwn upon unfriendly night,
That we descant and yet again descant
Upon the supreme theme of Art and Song:
Bodily decrepitude is wisdom; young
We loved each other and were ignorant.

-Yeats


``````````

Watermelons

Green Buddhas
On the fruit stand.
We eat the smile
And spit out the teeth.

-Charles Simic

```````

Going to Extremes

Shake and shake
the catsup bottle,
None'll come --
and then a lot'll.

-Richard Armour

[Clive Watkins]

Dear Wendy

I have taken to heart your implied reproof for my rather puerile way of expressing my view of Tennyson’s "The Eagle" ("really, really annoying") and edited my observations into more sober form.

I still think it’s a poor poem, however! But as Tom remarked elsewhere a day or so ago, "De gustibus…."

Apart from the Tennyson, I love all your choices!

Best wishes!

Clive Watkins

[Tim Murphy]

I have to go with Roger on Fire and Ice, though Spring Pools and Nothing Gold Can Stay are close contenders. Francis, whom we have discussed at great length twice, wrote many perfect short poems. Those who have no Francis can read a good deal of him at Caleb's site: www.poemtree.com. And Yeats wrote a pile of great ones. Here's a favorite:

A Toast

Wine comes in at the mouth.
Love comes in at the eye.
That's all we shall know for truth
Before we grow old and die.
I lift the glass to my mouth,
I look at you, and I sigh.

And Another: To A Squirrel At Kyle-na-No

Come play with me.
Why should you run
Through the shaking tree
As though I'd a gun
To strike you dead,
When all I would do
Is to scratch your head
And let you go?

Many thanks to Wendy V and our Master of Memory for including a couple of mine in such august company.

[wendy v]

Clive, not to worry. I'd already forgiven you.


So long as I'm here, I'd forgotten to include one of Herrick's Julia poems:

When as in silks my Julia goes
Then, then, methinks how sweetly flows
The liquefaction of her clothes !

Next, when I cast my eyes and see
That brave vibration each way free,
- O how that glittering taketh me.

And one other I can't resist, in spite of its proseyprosiness:

True or False

Real emeralds are worth more than synthetics
but the only way to tell one from the other
is to heat them to a stated temperature,
then tap. When it's done properly
the real one shatters.
I have no emeralds.
I was told this about them by a woman
who said someone had told her. True or false,
I have held my own palmful of bright breakage
from a truth too late. I know the principle.

-John Ciardi



[This message has been edited by wendy v (edited September 05, 2002).]