An Oldie But A Goodie

JCA has one of my favorite poems up, that I stumbled over trying to recite from memory at Eastover dinner. She neglects to include the title: Ulysses (or at least that's what I learned was the title; perhaps I misremember).

I don't read nearly enough poetry, and I don't ever read a poem over and over again enough times to commit it to memory anymore. But it's so nice to know poems by heart, to be able to carry them around with you. I'd like to try to memorize a poem a month, maybe. I'll start with the ones I already mostly know, and then branch into new ones.

Send me suggestions, if you like.

Comments

[Amy]

RECUERDO
by: Edna St. Vincent Millay

We were very tired, we were very merry --
We had gone back and forth all night upon the ferry.
It was bare and bright, and smelled like a stable --
But we looked into a fire, we leaned across a table,
We lay on the hill-top underneath the moon;
And the whistles kept blowing, and the dawn came soon.
 
We were very tired, we were very merry --
We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry;
And you ate an apple, and I ate a pear,
From a dozen of each we had bought somewhere;
And the sky went wan, and the wind came cold,
And the sun rose dripping, a bucketful of gold.
 
We were very tired, we were very merry,
We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry.
We hailed, "Good morrow, mother!" to a shawl-covered head,
And bought a morning paper, which neither of us read;
And she wept, "God bless you!" for the apples and the pears,
And we gave her all our money but our subway fares.

[Bluerabbit]

One of my personal favorites:

"Sea-Fever"

I must down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by,
And the wheel's kick and the wind's song and the white sail's shaking,
And a grey mist on the sea's face, and a grey dawn breaking.

I must down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;
And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.

I must down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,
To the gull's way and the whale's way where the wind's like a whetted knife;
And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover
And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick's over.

By John Masefield (1878-1967).

http://www.blupete.com/Literature/Poetry/MasefieldSeaFever.htm

[cmc]

I tend not to read poetry either. I think poetry can be tough for certain types of overly goal-oriented people like me. If I read a novel or other type of book,I get a sense of making progress whereas a poem to be savored slowly. I read books and not poetry for the same reason I run instead of doing yoga.

That having been said, I would highly recommend a book called How to Read a Poem and Fall in Love with Poetry by Edward Hirsch. I was absolutely entranced and I actually did re-read and savor his selected poems.

[ML]

thank you Bluerabbit for posting this wonderful poem. And thank you also to Amy, because I'm getting newly acquainted with Vincent Millay via her biography "Savage Beauty." Unput-downable.

[Scipio]

Anything by Wallace Stevens, the great American poet of the 20th century, and a lawyer and VP of an insurance company.