Need a little help from people who have a soft spot for poems...

[Arne]

Ok the sotry is this, in a couple of months I'm going on my end of school trip to Thassos, Greece.

There we'll start a big art project. It's some kind of a landscape art project in which we'll create new paths up a mountain called "Metamorphosis". This path willl lead to a church that goes by the name of "Metamorphosis" as well...

At the side of this path there will be some sculptures and stuff like that and, most importantly, there will be some polished steel-plates on which we're gonna engrave poems, little tales or whatever written thing we find about a certain topic. - The name of this topic is supposed to be, you may have guessed it already, "metamorphosis".

So right now I'm searching for poems that suit this topic and have already found two. - Hermann Hesse's "Stages" (look at my signature) and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's "The metamorphosis of the plant". The latter unfortunately only in German, which will do it as well, I think.

Eventually I'm searching for poems and would be very thankful for anything you guys could contribute.

Especially Erica should be able to help me, since she apparently studied these things.

Thanks.

[Drbio]

There once was a guy from Nantucket.......

[Captain Disaster]

"Ozymandias" by Percy Shelley

[chumdawg]

It's not a poem, but there's the Kafka novella...

[XERXES]

Thanatopsis

by William Cullen Bryant

[Murphy3]

The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain..

[sike]

My all time favorite poem

Isaac Watts
Come, Holy Spirit, heavenly Dove,
with all thy quickening powers;
kindle a flame of sacred love
in these cold hearts of ours.

See how we trifle here below,
fond of these earthly toys:
our souls, how heavily they go,
to reach eternal joys.

In vain we tune our formal songs,
in vain we strive to rise:
hosannas languish on our tongues,
and our devotion dies.

Come, Holy Spirit, heavenly Dove,
with all thy quickening powers;
come, shed abroad a Savior's love,
and that shall kindle ours.

[Arne]

Ok, thanks so far! Couldn't google them all yet, since it's 7.50 AM but at least I googled the one most worth googling... Doc's...

[Evilmav2]

Here's a nice Whitman poem that seems to me to keep well with your theme (perhaps, at least at the bottom of y'all's hill):

UNSEEN BUDS.

UNSEEN buds, infinite, hidden well,
Under the snow and ice, under the darkness, in every square or
cubic inch,
Germinal, exquisite, in delicate lace, microscopic, unborn,
Like babes in wombs, latent, folded, compact, sleeping;
Billions of billions, and trillions of trillions of them waiting,
(On earth and in the sea—the universe—the stars there in the heavens,)
Urging slowly, surely forward, forming endless,
And waiting ever more, forever more behind.

-Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass

And just because I had to dig through my beaten up old copy of Leaves of Grass to find a suitable verse, I figure I might as well post one of my old favorites as well:

TRUE CONQUERORS.

Old farmers, travelers, workmen (no matter how crippled or
bent,)
Old sailors, out of many a perilous voyage, storm and wreck,
Old soldiers from campaigns, with all their wounds, defeats and
scars;
Enough that they've survived at all—long life's unflinching ones!
Forth from their struggles, trials, fights, to have emerged at all
—in that alone,
True conquerors o'er all the rest.

[Usually Lurkin]

The Windhover
by my main man G.M. Hopkins

I caught this morning morning's minion,
Kingdom of daylight's dauphin,
Dapple-dawn-drawn falcon,
In his riding of the rolling level
Underneath him steady air, and striding
High there, how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing
In his ecstasy!

Then off, off forth on swing,
As a skate's heel sweeps smooth on a bowbend:
The hurl and gliding rebuffed the big wind.

My heart is hiding
Stirred for a bird, the achieve of, the mastery of the thing!

Brute beauty and valour and act, oh, air, pride, plume, here
Buckle! And the fire that breaks from thee then, a billion
Times told lovelier, more dangerous,
O my chevalier!

No wonder of it: sheer plod makes plough down sillion
Shine, and blue-bleak embers, my dear,
Fall, gall themselves, and gash gold vermillion

I caught this morning morning's minion,
Kingdom of daylight's dauphin

[Usually Lurkin]

Originally Posted by chumdawg

It's not a poem, but there's the Kafka novella...

- how big a plate are we talking about? Maybe a whole dinner set? There's always Ovid's Metamorphoses, which was inspired by Greek mythology.

[Arne]

Yeah, my father told me about Ovid as well. Don't know much about him, but I think he was a Roman. But than again his works sure were inspired by Greek mythology... Nevermind...

Ovid in any case is a bit to long but maybe the artist that will do this stuff with us is gonna take some parts of his works and put it onto a plate...

Kafka is going to be to long and there won't be a good enough AND small enough passage to pick out.

[Usually Lurkin]

It's been a while since I read Ovid, but it doesn't seem like it was the type of writing that would have some good, representative passages. Maybe if the artist can inscribe very tiny, tiny letters . . .

This sounds like a very cool project, Arne. Can you post some pics when it is all done?

[Arne]

Originally Posted by Usually Lurkin

The Windhover
by my main man G.M. Hopkins

I caught this morning morning's minion,
Kingdom of daylight's dauphin,
Dapple-dawn-drawn falcon,
In his riding of the rolling level
Underneath him steady air, and striding
High there, how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing
In his ecstasy!

Then off, off forth on swing,
As a skate's heel sweeps smooth on a bowbend:
The hurl and gliding rebuffed the big wind.

My heart is hiding
Stirred for a bird, the achieve of, the mastery of the thing!

Brute beauty and valour and act, oh, air, pride, plume, here
Buckle! And the fire that breaks from thee then, a billion
Times told lovelier, more dangerous,
O my chevalier!

No wonder of it: sheer plod makes plough down sillion
Shine, and blue-bleak embers, my dear,
Fall, gall themselves, and gash gold vermillion

I caught this morning morning's minion,
Kingdom of daylight's dauphin

Thanks for all of your poems, really, thanks a lot!

But I've got a couple of questions:

Can you give me another word for "bowbend". And could you explain the first two lines, and the last two lines, respectively in simple English to me?

Sike, yours is great and easy to understand, thanks.

Evilmav2, thanks, it's short, I've got my problems with understanding it, but I'm gonna reflect on it over and over again 'till I get it...

XERXES, Thanatopsis is a bit too long. But thanks, anyways!

[Arne]

Originally Posted by Captain Disaster

"Ozymandias" by Percy Shelley

Oh, nearly forgot about that one. Thanks, we recited this one during our English lessons and I had already forgotten about it. Thanks.

[Arne]

Originally Posted by Usually Lurkin

It's been a while since I read Ovid, but it doesn't seem like it was the type of writing that would have some good, representative passages. Maybe if the artist can inscribe very tiny, tiny letters . . .

This sounds like a very cool project, Arne. Can you post some pics when it is all done?

No problem. But we're only preparing right now, the project will be done in in June. And the actual work will only last for 12 days or so.

-Edit, sorry for the tripple post!

[Drbio]

Originally Posted by Arne

Ok, thanks so far! Couldn't google them all yet, since it's 7.50 AM but at least I googled the one most worth googling... Doc's...

LOL Arne....I can't help you with your real effort, but good luck. Poetry and I never found a common ground. I was doing good to remember the Nantucket one.....

[mary]

I haven't read any poetry in a long time, but when I was a little girl The Lockless Door was one of my favorites, by Robert Frost. Depending on how you interpret it, it could fit with your them pretty well.

Robert Frost
The Lockless Door

It went many years,
But at last came a knock,
And I thought of the door
With no lock to lock.

I blew out the light,
I tip-toed the floor,
And raised both hands
In prayer to the door.

But the knock came again
My window was wide;
I climbed on the sill
And descended outside.

Back over the sill
I bade a "Come in"
To whoever the knock
At the door may have been.

So at a knock
I emptied my cage
To hide in the world
And alter with age.

[Usually Lurkin]

Originally Posted by Arne

But I've got a couple of questions:

Can you give me another word for "bowbend". And could you explain the first two lines, and the last two lines, respectively in simple English to me?

bowbend might be a curve made by a skater (the imagery fits, anyway - bird flying a curve, skater cutting a curve)

1st and last two lines I'd say as:

This morning I saw the crown prince of morning, the prince of the kingdom of daylight (a metaphor for Christ).
Though I'm not sure that the first line is supposed to be repeated as the last.

This [real] last line: "No wonder of it: sheer plod makes plough down sillion
Shine, and blue-bleak embers, ah my dear,
Fall, gall themselves, and gash gold-vermillion. "

would in plain English be:
Running a plow over dirt will turn up shiny things, and dim embers will break open, revealing bright lights.

Here's a nice line by line reading:
http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/...hopkins10.html

and a discussion:
http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/35.html

[Drbio]

This thread makes me feel like I am struggling through English 1400 all over again.

[sike]

Originally Posted by Drbio

This thread makes me feel like I am struggling through English 1400 all over again.

comma or semicolon? comma or semicolon? comma or semicolon?

that was always the dagger in my heart

[Arne]

Originally Posted by Usually Lurkin

bowbend might be a curve made by a skater (the imagery fits, anyway - bird flying a curve, skater cutting a curve)

1st and last two lines I'd say as:

This morning I saw the crown prince of morning, the prince of the kingdom of daylight (a metaphor for Christ).
Though I'm not sure that the first line is supposed to be repeated as the last.

This [real] last line: "No wonder of it: sheer plod makes plough down sillion
Shine, and blue-bleak embers, ah my dear,
Fall, gall themselves, and gash gold-vermillion. "

would in plain English be:
Running a plow over dirt will turn up shiny things, and dim embers will break open, revealing bright lights.

Here's a nice line by line reading:
http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/...hopkins10.html

and a discussion:
http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/35.html

Wow, thanks a lot, this is really helping me right now!

Thanks to you, mary, as well, although I don't thing this will suit the other poems that I have so far. But thanks, anyways.

Hey, what about making this thread a poem thread in general? But please mark the poems that are not suited for my little research...

[Arne]

To Those Born After

I

Truly, I live in dark times!
The innocuous word is fatuous. A smooth brow
Denotes insensitivity. If someone is laughing
It only means, that he hasn’t yet
Heard the dreadful news.

What sort of times are these, when
To talk about trees is almost a crime,
Because it is simultaneously silence about so many atrocities!
Someone placidly crossing the street
Is certainly not available for his friend
Who is in need?

It is true : I do earn my living.
But believe me: that is the merest accident. Nothing
That I do gives me the right, to be stuffing myself full.
I have been spared by accident. (If my luck runs out, I'm finished.)

They say to me: eat and drink! Be happy that you have!
But how can I eat and drink, when
Every bite that I eat is ripped from the mouth of a starving man, and
My glass of water is being denied to one dying of thirst?
And yet I eat, and I drink.

I would love to be wise as well.
You can find what is wise in the old books:
To hold yourself aloof from the strife of the world, and to spend
Your brief time without fear;
Also, to get by without violence,
To repay evil with good,
To relinquish desires, rather than fulfilling them,
These are all considered wise.
Of all this I am incapable:
Truly, I live in dark times!

II

I came to the cities in the Age of Disorder
When hunger was rampant.
I came among mankind in the Age of Turmoil
And I railed against it.
That is how my days were spent
That were given to me on earth.

I ate my food between battles
I lied down to sleep among the murderers
I attended diffidently to love
And looked upon nature with impatience.
That is how my days were spent
That were given to me on earth.

In my day, the streets led to the swamp.
My language betrayed me to the butcher.
There was little I could do. But the powerful
Sat more comfortably without me, so I hoped.
That is how my days were spent
That were given to me on earth.

The forces were weak. The goal
Was distant, remote.
It was plainly visible, even if I
Could never reach it.
That is how my days were spent
That were given to me on earth.

III

You, who will spring up from the flood
In which we have drowned
Think,
When you speak of our shortcomings,
Also of the dark times
That you have been spared.

We, who had to change countries more often
Than our shoes, walked in despair amid the class struggle,
When we saw only injustice, but no indignation.

And yet we do know:
Even hatred of baseness
Contorts the features.
Even wrath against injustice
Makes the voice hoarse. Ah, we
Who wanted to prepare the ground for friendship
Were ourselves unable to be friendly.

But you, if the world has come so far
That each person is now a helper to his fellows
Think of us
With forbearance.

Bertold Brecht

-Edit: Found a better version of it.

[Arne]

Do not stand at my grave and weep
I am not there, I do not sleep
I am a 1,000 winds that blow
I am the diamond glints on snow
I am the sun on ripened grain
I am the gentle autumn rain
When you awaken in the morning's hush
I am the swift uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circled light
I am the soft star that shines at night
Do not stand at my grave and cry
I am not there; I did not die.

Anonymous

_______________

My Wish For You

As I hold you in my arms today
And rock you fast asleep
I close my eyes and tell the Lord
what I wish for you

May you always have a smile on your face
and sunshine in your life
may your heart always have a light that shines
as bright as the blue skies of summer

May you never know too many days
that are filled with pain
and if you do experience rainy days
may God chase the storm clouds away

May you never get lost or stumble and fall
when you walk down life's highway
but if you ever do may he help you up
and help you stand tall again

And when you become an adult
may you find that one true love
who will bring you happiness
when you walk down the aisle to be together for life


Donna Kirk

[Arne]

Ok, I've got to find some more poems about metamorphosis or related to it before Friday, since I've got to presentate some to the artist that does this little project with us...

My favorit one is still this one:

As every flower fades and as all youth
Departs, so life at every stage,
So every virtue, so our grasp of truth,
Blooms in its day and may not last forever.

Since life may summon us at every age
Be ready, heart, for parting, new endeavor,
Be ready bravely and without remorse
To find new light that old ties cannot give.
In all beginnings dwells a magic force
For guarding us and helping us to live.

Serenely let us move to distant places
And let no sentiments of home detain us.
The Cosmic Spirit seeks not to restrain us
But lifts us stage by stage to wider spaces.
If we accept a home of our own making,
Familiar habit makes for indolence.
We must prepare for parting and leave-taking
Or else remain the slaves of permanence.
Even the hour of our death may send
Us speeding on to fresh and newer spaces,
And life may summon us to newer races.
So be it, heart: bid farewell without end.


And, of course I picked some of the poems you guys proposed. "Oymandias"for example.

But I need some more, so if anyone knows about one, let me know as soon as you can.

[Big Boy Laroux]

Originally Posted by Arne

And let no sentiments of home detain us.
The Cosmic Spirit seeks not to restrain us

kudos for rhyming "us" with "us"!

[Arne]

Originally Posted by Big Boy Laroux

kudos for rhyming "us" with "us"!

That's only the translation...

The German original of these two lines:

"An keinem wie an einer Heimat hängen,
Der Weltgeist will nicht fesseln uns und engen,"

[Arne]

Ok, lets try this in another way:

Does anyone know a big poetry forum that could help me? I googled a bit but the forum I was most interessted in didn't let me register...

[jacktruth]

Autumn Tea

Some days, more than others
I like to have some tea.

Today is one such day
And something smells like pee.

[Arne]

To quote your very own sig: "Post something valuable and new or don't post at all."

[Arne]

Originally Posted by Usually Lurkin

It's been a while since I read Ovid, but it doesn't seem like it was the type of writing that would have some good, representative passages. Maybe if the artist can inscribe very tiny, tiny letters . . .

This sounds like a very cool project, Arne. Can you post some pics when it is all done?

Update:

Ok, we're gonna do this project in about 10 days. That means I'm gonna be in Greece from June 22 till July 9, so I'm gonna post some pics when I get back to Germany.

I'M SO EXCITED!

[Drbio]

I had a student from Greece one time. She always brought back pictures and Grecian candies. One warning...their candy sucks. However, Greece is perhaps the most beautiful country that I have ever seen (in pictures...never been there.....yet).

[Arne]

Originally Posted by Drbio

I had a student from Greece one time. She always brought back pictures and Grecian candies. One warning...their candy sucks. However, Greece is perhaps the most beautiful country that I have ever seen (in pictures...never been there.....yet).

Haha, the other day one of our teachers gave us some of the greek candies, as well.... Your're right...they suck big time...

But they've got cheap good booze, cheap good food and our communist cook cooks for free...

[Ninkobei]

Here's one by william blake, found it in the "Te of Piglet" book.

It is right it should be so;
Man was made for Joy and Woe;
And when this we rightly know,
Thro' the World we safely go.
Joy and Woe are woven fine,
A Clothing for the soul divine.

[bernardos70]

Do they have TNT in Greece? When are the NBA finals taking place? Those are the things I worry about

[Arne]

Originally Posted by bernardos70

Do they have TNT in Greece? When are the NBA finals taking place? Those are the things I worry about

Oh my...

You just reminded me of that one. Shit.

I HOPE there is a bar that gets some American channels, or maybe some Greek channel broadcasts them.

If that is not the case, could somebody give me a hint as to which American newspaper I should buy, that is available outside the USA?