Poetry Meme
Sep. 20th, 2005 01:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
charliesmumGot this from ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
wolfma. Not sure exactly what one is supposed to do, but what I inferred from wolfma's post, I assume one picks a poem, says why one likes it, and then posts the poem.
Now I like many a poem, so this wasn't easy. I had to consider space and time constraints as well. I'm rather fond of The Wasteland, for example, but pasting it here would make this an insanely long post. So I thought about it and decided to pick "To Althea From Prison".
One of the things I looked forward to the most when I was in college was studying English Literature. With visions of Educating Rita dancing through my head, I could hardly wait to have the impassioned and intelligent arguments and discussions between myself, my fellow students and my professor about literary criticism.
Alas, my first English Literature professor was duller than ditch water and had the personality of a chair. He rambled on about dates and places like Professor Binns on a bad day, and never once engaged us in any kind of discourse. It was very disappointing.
One supremely dull day I decided to memorize To Althea during class. I forget why I picked this particular poem, but I do know it held some significance for me at the time. It's highly romantic, and, at 19, I suppose I was as well. At any rate, here it is.
When Love with unconfined wings
Hovers within my gates,
And my divine Althea brings
To whisper at the grates;
When I lie tangled in her hair
And fetter'd to her eye,
The birds that wanton in the air
Know no such liberty. -
When flowing cups run swiftly round
With no allaying Thames,
Our careless heads with roses bound,
Our hearts with loyal flames;
When thirsty grief in wine we steep,
When healths and draughts go free-
Fishes that tipple in the deep
Know no such liberty. -
When, like committed linnets, I
With shriller throat shall sing
The sweetness, mercy, majesty,
And glories of my King;
When I shall voice aloud how good
He is, how great should be,
Enlarged winds that curl the flood,
Know no such liberty. -
Stone walls do not a prison make,
Nor iron bars a cage;
Minds innocent and quiet take
That for an hermitage;
If I have freedom in my love
And in my soul am free,
Angels alone, that soar above,
Enjoy such liberty.
wolfma. Not sure exactly what one is supposed to do, but what I inferred from wolfma's post, I assume one picks a poem, says why one likes it, and then posts the poem.Now I like many a poem, so this wasn't easy. I had to consider space and time constraints as well. I'm rather fond of The Wasteland, for example, but pasting it here would make this an insanely long post. So I thought about it and decided to pick "To Althea From Prison".
One of the things I looked forward to the most when I was in college was studying English Literature. With visions of Educating Rita dancing through my head, I could hardly wait to have the impassioned and intelligent arguments and discussions between myself, my fellow students and my professor about literary criticism.
Alas, my first English Literature professor was duller than ditch water and had the personality of a chair. He rambled on about dates and places like Professor Binns on a bad day, and never once engaged us in any kind of discourse. It was very disappointing.
One supremely dull day I decided to memorize To Althea during class. I forget why I picked this particular poem, but I do know it held some significance for me at the time. It's highly romantic, and, at 19, I suppose I was as well. At any rate, here it is.
When Love with unconfined wings
Hovers within my gates,
And my divine Althea brings
To whisper at the grates;
When I lie tangled in her hair
And fetter'd to her eye,
The birds that wanton in the air
Know no such liberty. -
When flowing cups run swiftly round
With no allaying Thames,
Our careless heads with roses bound,
Our hearts with loyal flames;
When thirsty grief in wine we steep,
When healths and draughts go free-
Fishes that tipple in the deep
Know no such liberty. -
When, like committed linnets, I
With shriller throat shall sing
The sweetness, mercy, majesty,
And glories of my King;
When I shall voice aloud how good
He is, how great should be,
Enlarged winds that curl the flood,
Know no such liberty. -
Stone walls do not a prison make,
Nor iron bars a cage;
Minds innocent and quiet take
That for an hermitage;
If I have freedom in my love
And in my soul am free,
Angels alone, that soar above,
Enjoy such liberty.