William Blake's "Earth's Answer" Poem

[loseyourname]

Post something you like here. We need something besides news and science. I'm posting Earth's Answer by William Blake.

Earth raised up her head,
From the darkness dread and drear,
Her light fled:
Stony dread!
And her locks cover'd with grey despair,

Prison'd on watry shore
Starry Jealousy does keep my den
Cold and hoar
Weeping o'er
I hear the Father of the ancient men

Selfish father of men
Cruel jealous selfish fear
Can delight
Chain'd in night
The virgins of youth and morning bear.

Does spring hide its joy
When buds and blossoms grow?
Does the sower?
Sow at night?
Or the plowman in darkness plow?

Break this heavy chain,
that does freeze my bones around
Selfish! Vain!
Eternal bane!
That free Love with bondage bound.

 

[hypnagogue]

He Had His Dream by Paul Laurence Dunbar

He had his dream, and all through life,
Worked up to it through toil and strife.
Afloat fore'er before his eyes,
It colored for him all his skies:
The storm-cloud dark
Above his bark,
The calm and listless vault of blue
Took on its hopeful hue,
It tinctured every passing beam --
He had his dream.

He labored hard and failed at last,
His sails too weak to bear the blast,
The raging tempests tore away
And sent his beating bark astray.
But what cared he
For wind or sea!
He said, "The tempest will be short,
My bark will come to port."
He saw through every cloud a gleam --
He had his dream.

 

[loseyourname]

A friend of mine is dying of multiple sclerosis at the age of 19. This is her favorite:

On the Eve of His Execution

by Chidiock Tichbourne

My prime of youth is but a frost of cares,
My feast of joy is but a dish of pain,
My crop of corn is but a field of tares,
And all my good is but vain hope of gain;
The day is past, and yet I saw no sun,
And now I live, and now my life is done.

My tale was heard and yet it was not told,
My fruit is fallen, yet my leaves are green,
My youth is spent and yet I am not old,
I saw the world and yet I was not seen;
My thread is cut and yet it is not spun,
And now I live and now my life is done.

I sought my death and found it in my womb,
I looked for life and found it was a shade,
I trod the Earth and knew it was my tomb,
And now I die, and now I was but made;
My glass is full, and now my glass is run,
And now I live, and now my life is done.

 

[zoobyshoe]

I had to memorize this in 1st year German in college and for some reason I've never forgotten it:

Herbsttag

Herr, es ist Zeit.
Der Sommer war sehr gross.
Leg deinen schatten auf die Sonnenuhren
Und auf den fluren, lass die winde los.

Befiel den letzten Fruchten voll zu sein.
Gib ihnen noch zwei sudlicherer Tage.
Drange sie zur vollendung hin
Und jage die letzte susse in den schweren wein.

Wer jetzt kein haus hat baut sich keines mehr.
Wer jetzt allein ist wird es lange bleiben.
Wird waschen, lesen, lange briefe schreiben,
Und wird in den allein hin und her unruhig wandern
Wenn die blatte treiben.

 

[Jason]

Baisés volés
Outside the snow was falling
One by one, pas de deux, then a corp in relay
Inside, sweltering shudders had shrouded the window panes
Adagio spent, now softly in linen
I wrap her in my flesh, warm, still moist, hours on the wane
Baisé volé
Everywhere it was still falling
Flakes silver and dark, floating, still as night, naught for day
Inside still touching, twinning the basking bodies' flow
Murmurs, from the cries of Making Love
Came then, our dreams upon dreams, like the drifts of snow
And before sleep, lasting sweet stolen kisses to stay
Ours by hours
Comme baisés volés

 

[loseyourname]

Time to go old school with some Publius Ovidius Naso (aka Ovid). Not to be confused with Erich Fromm's The Art of Loving, here is

The Art of Love: Book Two

...Short partings do best, though: time wears out affections,
The absent love fades, a new one takes its place.
With Menelaus away, Helen's disinclination for sleeping
Alone led her into her guest's
Warm bed at night. Were you crazy, Menelaus?
Why go off leaving your wife
With a stranger in the house? Do you trust doves to falcons,
Full sheepfolds to mountain wolves?
Here Helen's not at fault, the adulterer's blameless -
He did no more than you, or any man else,
Would do yourself. By providing place and occasion
You precipitated the act. What else did she do
But act on your clear advice? Husband gone; this stylish stranger
Here on the spot; too scared to sleep alone -
Oh, Helen wins my acquittal, the blame's her husband's:
All she did was take advantage of a man's
Human complaisance. And yet, more savage than the tawny
Boar in his rage, as he tosses the maddened dogs
On lightning tusks, or a lioness suckling her unweaned
Cubs, or the tiny adder crushed
By some careless foot, is a woman's wrath, when some rival
Is caught in the bed she shares. Her feelings show
On her face. Decorum's flung to the wind, a maenadic
Frenzy grips her, she rushes headlong off
After fire and steel...

 

[Jason]

Chère Adagio Douce et Tendre:

As I lie down,
the room has
but a bit and
hint of
an autumnal chill.
Soon, too,
my eyes will flicker
and I will succumb
to a lullaby of a far
away place, passing,
and chime.
But what would
the distances that
have you here and
keep you there?
For in that terrain
between those two
and you and I,
is every minute,
every moment,
that the mystery
of you is for me
to wonder,
as you are
now to me,
everywhere.
So, when you slip
away
to sleep sweetly
and dream things
of far away and
here and now,
know well,
ma chère adagio,
that when I close my eyes,
you will be still here,
and there...
places near and far...
and everywhere...

Mes tendres embraces, et baisés volé

Jason

 

[JamesU]

I had to write this down some time ago and I still haven't forgotten it:

Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.

Her early leaf's a flower,
But only so an hour.

Then leaf subsides to leaf,
So eden sank to grief.

So dawn goes down to day,
Nothing gold can stay.

-Robert frost