poetry

[laffite]

To continue the Hardy connection, at the top of The Return of the Native, Hardy quotes this poem by Keats, which is an excerpt from Endymion:

“To Sorrow I bade good-morrow,
And thought to leave her far away behind;
But cheerly, cheerly,
She loves me dearly;
She is so constant to me, and so kind:
I would deceive her
And so leave her,
But ah! she is so constant and so kind."

Constance and kindness wins out. It's almost quaint in our own days. Thanks.

And to return to Hardy, for one of favorite poems ever, I was going to do this one later, but why not now, being in the vein:

To Louisa in the Lane

by Thomas Hardy

Meet me again as at that time
In the hollow of the lane;
I will not pass as in my prime
I passed at each day's wane.
— Ah, I remember!
To do it you will have to see
Anew this sorry scene wherein you have ceased to be!

But I will welcome your aspen form
As you gaze wondering round
And say with spectral frail alarm,
" Why am I still here found?
— Ah, I remember!
It is through him with blitheful brow
Who did not love me then but loves and draws me now!"

And I shall answer: " Sweet of eyes,
Carry me with you, Dear,
To where you donned this spirit-guise;
It's better there than here!"
— Till I remember
Such is a deed you cannot do:
Wait must I, till with flung-off flesh I follow you.

///

[laffite]

Swithin, did you delete a poem here? I read it last night and was going to follow up today because I did not understand it fully with first reading. I still liked it even without full comprehension.

[Swithin]

Swithin, did you delete a poem here? I read it last night and was going to follow up today because I did not understand it fully with first reading. I still liked it even without full comprehension.

I quoted a John Donne poem for you, but it was in the horror film discussion in another thread. It's in the "Really..." thread, as part of the horror film conversation there.

viewtopic.php?p=175028#p175028

[laffite]

Swithin, did you delete a poem here? I read it last night and was going to follow up today because I did not understand it fully with first reading. I still liked it even without full comprehension.

I quoted a John Donne poem for you, but it was in the horror film discussion in another thread. It's in the "Really..." thread, as part of the horror film conversation there.

viewtopic.php?p=175028#p175028

This has to be one of the twenty threads Poetry on the new SSO format. Classical music we'll have to keep for Laffite and his fellow long hairs, maybe I should be in charge of this forum.

[LostHorizons]

Love the Mastroianni avatar, Laffite!

[LostHorizons]

Love the Mastroianni avatar, Laffite!

[Detective Jim McLeod]

In 1988, I went to a Dark Shadows convention where Jonathan Frid (he played Barnabas the vampire) and Lara Parker (Angelique the witch) did a reading of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Bells". It was a very memorable moment, here is an excerpt-



Keeping time, time, time,
In a sort of Runic rhyme,
To the throbbing of the bells—
Of the bells, bells, bells—
To the sobbing of the bells;
Keeping time, time, time,
As he knells, knells, knells,
In a happy Runic rhyme,
To the rolling of the bells—
Of the bells, bells, bells—
To the tolling of the bells,
Of the bells, bells, bells, bells—
Bells, bells, bells—
To the moaning and the groaning of the bells.

[EP Millstone]

In 1988, I went to a Dark Shadows convention where Jonathan Frid (he played Barnabas the vampire) and Lara Parker (Angelique the witch) did a reading of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Bells". . .

I saw Frid onstage twice. Once in a traveling production of Arsenic and Old Lace and once in one of his "readers' theatre" one-man shows. During his one-man performance, two chattering magpies in the audience were gabbing to one another. Frid stopped reading, removed his glasses, and silently stared at the women . . . who instantly shut up. He then resumed his reading.

I saw Lara Parker and Kathryn Leigh Scott (Maggie Evans) at a showing of House of Dark Shadows and Night of Dark Shadows. After the show, Parker and Scott were in the theatre lobby. A friend of mine, who accompanied me, boldly approached them to chat. I would never have dared. Pointing to me, she informed Parker, "He's got a crush on you."

I was mortified and could have strangled her.

Parker said, "Oh, really!" smiled, then softly touched my face with one of her hands. A Memorable Moment courtesy of my friend's chutzpah.

[Detective Jim McLeod]

I saw Frid onstage twice. Once in a traveling production of Arsenic and Old Lace and once in one of his "readers' theatre" one-man shows. During his one-man performance, two chattering magpies in the audience were gabbing to one another. Frid stopped reading, removed his glasses, and silently stared at the women . . . who instantly shut up. He then resumed his reading.

I saw Lara Parker and Katherine Leigh Scott (Maggie Evans) at a showing of House of Dark Shadows and Night of Dark Shadows. After the show, Parker and Scott were in the theatre lobby. A friend of mine, who accompanied me, boldly approached them to chat. I would never have dared. Pointing to me, she informed Parker, "He's got a crush on you."

I was mortified and could have strangled her.

Parker said, "Oh, really!" smiled, then softly touched my face with one of her hands. A Memorable Moment courtesy of my friend's chutzpah.

Great story, I got autographs from Frid, Parker and Roger Davis (Jeff Clark) at that same show. I was afraid to look Parker in the eyes, thinking she might put a spell on me! But I always thought she was really sexy. There were other attractive women on the show. I had a crush on Nancy Barrett, who played cute blonde Carolyn. Kathryn Leigh Scott was very pretty too.

[EP Millstone]

Great story, I got autographs from Frid, Parker and Roger Davis (Jeff Clark) at that same show . . .

Detective Jim McLeod,

At the Shock IT to Me event in San Francisco that I attended, only Lara Parker and Kathyrn Leigh Scott were the guests. I would have loved to seen the lineup that you saw.

[Swithin]

I quoted a John Donne poem for you, but it was in the horror film discussion in another thread. It's in the "Really..." thread, as part of the horror film conversation there.

viewtopic.php?p=175028#p175028

This has to be one of the twenty threads Poetry on the new SSO format. Classical music we'll have to keep for Laffite and his fellow long hairs, maybe I should be in charge of this forum.

Greetings from London, Laffite. I love your new avatar, and the movie it celebrates. One of Marcello's best.

[laffite]

Cheerio, mate! I salute your great taste in liking that one. Top Five all time for me.

FYI to others in case you don't know it already : La Nuit de Varennes (1982)

[LostHorizons]

The Emperor Hadrian's dying words-
Animula vagula blandula
Hospes comesque corporis
Quae nunc abibis in loca?
Pallidula rigida nudula
Nec ut soles dabis iocos
Poor little, wandering, charming soul
Guest and companion of my body,
What place will you go to now?
Pale, stiff, naked little thing,
Nor will you be making jokes as you always do.

[Masha]

The Weldor's Weld
by Sonia Balcer 8/21/82

Wherefore must I wear a mask when
I hold in my hand, the pen
wherewith I write poetry with fire?

How I long to discover the secrets that are hidden
in the theater before me;
to behold the movement of tiny, metal
particles, as they waltz and interlock
in a world within a world;
as they pirouette between the boundaries set
by the fire which frees them to move.

Oh, Lord in heaven! Why are not human eyes made
to see this wonder directly?
Must I always hold this dark glass before me?

Hark! He causes my heart, to see the mystery!
The metals are assaulted, by electric energy,
carried by heaving, heavy wires. In a molten flash,
I see the crystals breaking, and sighing;
the silent order of the solid surface, giving way
to rushing, hotly-radiant tides
that crash together like waves at a beach.

It swirls before me, an intricate dance
which I cannot see, but yet feel inside.

I delight to caress the molten piece
in my heart.
It is inside of me, and I am inside of it.
I slowly feel over and underneath
the hot liquid surfaces.
I move into its every contour, and through
the whole of it.

Bodies of metal, which once were separate;
the boundaries are fading.
It swirls and whirlpools within me-
It is all blurred now, caught
Into a quickly-freezing body of what once
was separate, but now is together,

a single piece.

[jimimac71]

Thompson.....You are very entertaining!!!