The Best Poem - What do you Think?

[Njorl]

I can't believe I haven't added Jabberwocky to the list

JABBERWOCKY
by Lewis Carroll

’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

“Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!”

He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought—
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.

And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.

“And, hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!”
He chortled in his joy.

’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

 

[marcus]

One could have a thread just for sonnets. this is my second response to the Edna St.V.M. sonnet that Tiger posted earlier

Brennen, in this thread, put some tercets of Dante and then translated them. I liked this. It is good to see a formal poem in two languages.

So I will do that with the Borges sonnet---first try to recall Richard Wilbur's english from memory and then go find a link to the original

One thing does not exist. Oblivion.
god saves the metal and he saves the dross
and his prophetic memory guards from loss
the moons to come and those of evenings gone
everything IS--the shadows in the glass
which in between the days two twilights, you
have scattered by the thousands, or shall strew
henceforward in the mirror as you pass.

And everything is part of that diverse
crystalline memory, the universe
Whoever through its endless mazes wanders
hears door on door click shut, behind his stride,
and only from the sunset's farther side
shall view at last the Archetypes and Splendors.

yeeeee hahhhh!

I think of this sonnet as being about the 4D universe--- about a spacetime
which is a crystalline memory of all that has happened and will happen

Here is a link to the spanish original (and the English properly punctuated, not from memory)
Thanks to Letralia.com for posting the poem
http://www.letralia.com/58/en02-058.htm
https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?p=247183#post247183



A sonnet is like a Law of Nature, I mean, a really good sonnet, like the one
that tiger posted by Edna StVM

This one is nice in some quite casual way
"If I should learn, in some quite casual way" by Edna St. Vincent Millay

If I should learn, in some quite casual way,
That you were gone, not to return again--
Read from the back-page of a paper, say,
Held by a neighbor in a subway train,
How at the corner of this avenue
And such a street (so are the papers filled)
A hurrying man--who happened to be you--
At noon to-day had happened to be killed,
I should not cry aloud--I could not cry
Aloud, or wring my hands in such a place--
I should but watch the station lights rush by
With a more careful interest on my face,
Or raise my eyes and read with greater care
Where to store furs and how to treat the hair.

 

[meteor]

This poem of Whitman has always given me the chills:
"WHEN I heard the learn’d astronomer;
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me;
When I was shown the charts and the diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them;
When I, sitting, heard the astronomer, where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room,
How soon, unaccountable, I became tired and sick;
Till rising and gliding out, I wander’d off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars."

 

[Gokul43201]

That Whitman poem reminded me of the following (not a poem, so I don't know if it's okay to post it here) :

Metallica's Lyrics - Wherever I May Roam

...and the road becomes my bride
I have stripped of all but pride
So in her I do confide
And she keeps me satisfied
Gives me all I need

...and with dust in throat I crave
Only knowledge will I save
To the game you stay a slave
Rover wanderer
Nomad vagabond
Call me what you will

But I’ll take my time anywhere
Free to speak my mind anywhere
And I’ll redefine anywhere
Anywhere I may roam
Where I lay my head is home

...and the Earth becomes my throne
I adapt to the unknown
Under wandering stars I’ve grown
By myself but not alone
I ask no one

...and my ties are severed clean
The less I have the more I gain
Off the beaten path I reign
Rover wanderer
Nomad vagabond
Call me what you will

But I’ll take my time anywhere
I’m free to speak my mind anywhere
And I’ll never mind anywhere
Anywhere I may roam
Where I lay my head is home

But I’ll take my time anywhere
Free to speak my mind
And I’ll take my find anywhere
Anywhere I may roam
Where I lay my head is home

Carved upon my stone
My body lies, but still I roam
Wherever I may roam

 

[sandinmyears]

My favorite poem as a spoonerism

Wopping by Stoods on an Owing Stevening
Woose hoods ease thare; I knink i thoe.
His vouse is in; The thillage hoe.
We hill sot nee me hopping stere;
Woo hotch his foods will up snith woe.

My hittle lorse must quink it theer;
To wop stithout a narmhouse fear.
Wetween the boods and lozen frake;
The arkest deevening of yuh dear.

He hives his garness shells a bake;
To thask if air is mum sistake.
The unly oather swounds the seep;
of weasy ind and flowny dake.

The doods are dovely, wark, and leep;
Hut I bav kromises to peep.
And giles to mow sefore I bleep;
And giles to mow sefore I bleep.

~Frobert Rost

 

[Gokul43201]

Hey, you really have sand in yor ears, don't you ?