pixel39: (map)
pixel39 ([personal profile] pixel39) wrote2004-01-07 10:00 pm

Poetry, #1b.

And now, behind the cut to be nice to those folks who haven't had their chance yet,

1. Pink Dominos, Rudyard Kipling. My absolute favorite Kipling poem ever. It has two punch lines.
2. The Battle of Maldon, anonymous. This is the most famous passage--I will admit that this is the only passage I can identify without resorting to translation, which is why I used it.
3. The Destruction of Sennacherib, George Gordon, Lord Byron. One of the most beautiful examples of anapaest I know.
4. The Highwayman, Alfred Noyes. Another favorite. I love ballads, especially romantic ones. I have heard that the highwayman in the poem is meant to be Dick Turpin, who did not steal lupines.
5. The Gift Outright, Robert Frost. The poem he read at JFK's inauguration. The wind was blowing too hard for him to read the poem he'd written for the occasion--the paper wouldn't lie still.
6. Paul Revere's Ride, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Overachiever that I am, I memorized this in 8th grade for extra credit.

Yes, I recite poetry to myself on long drives. :-)

[identity profile] stefka.livejournal.com 2004-01-07 09:22 pm (UTC)(link)
Mostly I'm impressed that your keyboard allows for the middle-English characters.

[identity profile] pixel39.livejournal.com 2004-01-08 09:44 am (UTC)(link)
Character map is your friend. :-)

Actually in this case I just cut and pasted from somewhere else, because it was faster than typing it out again.

Overachievers

[identity profile] caoilfhionn.livejournal.com 2004-01-08 07:30 am (UTC)(link)
Someone in my Lit to 1650 class (for which we had to memorize poems) told the story of the junior-high class for which *he* had to memorize a poem. Being an overachiever, he settled on "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner," because geeky kids do that. (Or maybe he played bassoon.) He stood before his class and recited his poem with pride.

Unfazed, the next student took his place in front of the class. He recited "The Red Wheelbarrow," by William Carlos Williams, thus giving all of us another good reason to hate pretentius contemporary poetry.

Re: Overachievers

[identity profile] elliesam.livejournal.com 2004-01-08 07:56 am (UTC)(link)
Oh that's disgusting. I knew what "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" was, but I had to look up "The Red Wheelbarrow". Truly pathetic.

Re: Overachievers

[identity profile] caoilfhionn.livejournal.com 2004-01-08 10:32 am (UTC)(link)
Thanks to that student, and to my college roommate's desperate loathing of WCW, I have "The Red Wheelbarrow" memorized. Forever. Argh.

Re: Overachievers

[identity profile] pixel39.livejournal.com 2004-01-09 07:44 am (UTC)(link)
We had to memorize it in a HS freshman English class. Thankfully I was transferred to another class second semester.