this is the first poem i was really exposed to... my friend, diana,copied this poem for me, and i used to chant it over and over again, as i walked along the A block corridors in hua zhong, thinking depressing,suicidal thoughts in sec 2. it was a really tough year with lots ofdepression, when i was trying to figure out my direction in life. it's a great 'suicide poem' i think. but i've just discovered that the following two stanzas is just two stanzas out of a long poem --
Before I see another day,
Oh let my body die away!
In sleep I heard the northern gleams;
The stars, they were among my dreams;
In rustling conflict through the skies,
I heard, I saw the flashes drive,
And yet they are upon my eyes,
And yet I am alive;
Before I see another day,
Oh let my body die away!My fire is dead: it knew no pain;
Yet it is dead, and i remain:
All stiff with ice the ashes lie;
And they are dead, and I will die.
When I was well, I wished to live,
For clothes, for warmth, for food, and fire;
But they to me no joy can give,
No pleasure now, and no desire.
Then here contented will I lie!
Alone, I cannot fear to die.
'Miles Away' by Carol Ann Duffy is one of my favourite poems. my lit teacher, Mrs Perry, introduced it to us by asking us to do it for PC (a comparison with another poem). and i spent about 10 hours (including lunch and all that lah) in total on it.. cos i really love it and it speaks to me.
Miles Away
I want you and you are not here. I pause
in this garden, breathing the colour thought is
before language into still air. Even your name
is a pale ghost and, though I exhale it again
and again, it will not stay with me. Tonight
I make you up, imagine you, your movements clearer
than the words I have you say you said before.
Wherever you are now, inside my head you fix me
with a look, standing here whilst cool late light
dissolves into the earth. I have got your mouth wrong,
but still it smiles. I hold your closer, miles away,
inventing love, until the calls of nightjars
interrupt and turn what was to come, was certain,
into memory. The stars are filming us for no one.-CAROL ANN DUFFY
I discovered the following three poems in J1. I was studying for my promos and got bored, so i anyhow, opened a poetry anthology in our RJ library and i chanced upon these three poems, which i fell in love with..
This first one is by Lord Byron, and its really poignant...
Fare Thee Well
FARE thee well! and if for ever,
� � Still for ever, fare thee well:
Even though unforgiving, never
� � 'Gainst thee shall my heart rebel.
Would that breast were bared before thee
� � Where thy head so oft hath lain,
While that placid sleep came o'er thee
� � Which thou ne'er canst know again:
Would that breast, by thee glanced over,
� � Every inmost thought could show!
Then thou wouldst at last discover
� � 'Twas not well to spurn it so.
Though the world for this commend thee-
� � Though it smile upon the blow,
Even its praises must offend thee,
� � Founded on another's woe:
Though my many faults defaced me,
� � Could no other arm be found,
Than the one which once embraced me,
� �To inflict a cureless wound?
Yet, oh yet, thyself deceive not;
� � Love may sink by slow decay,
But by sudden wrench, believe not
� � Hearts can thus be torn away:
Still thine own its life retaineth,
� � Still must mine, though bleeding, beat;
And the undying thought which paineth
� � Is-that we no more may meet.
These are words of deeper sorrow
� � Than the wail above the dead;
Both shall live, but every morrow
� � Wake us from a widow'd bed.
And when thou wouldst solace gather,
� � When our child's first accents flow,
Wilt thou teach her to say 'Father!'
� � Though his care she must forego?
When her little hands shall press thee,
� � When her lip to thine is press'd,
Think of him whose prayer shall bless thee,
� � Think of him thy love had bless'd!
Should her lineaments resemble
� � Those thou never more may'st see,
Then thy heart will softly tremble
� � With a pulse yet true to me.
All my faults perchance thou knowest,
� � All my madness none can know;
All my hopes, where'er thou goest,
� � Wither, yet with thee they go.
Every feeling hath been shaken;
� � Pride, which not a world could bow,
Bows to thee-by thee forsaken,
� � Even my soul forsakes me now:
But 'tis done-all words are idle-
� � Words from me are vainer still;
But the thoughts we cannot bridle
� � Force their way without the will.
Fare thee well! thus disunited,
� � Torn from every nearer tie,
Sear'd in heart, and lone, and blighted,
� � More than this I scarce can die.~ LORD BYRON
This second one is funny. i find it amusing and hilarious at the way a pretty girl turns a man's head...
The Time I've Lost In Wooing
The time I've lost in wooing,
In watching and pursuing
The light, that lies
In woman's eyes,
Has been my heart's undoing.
Though Wisdom oft has sought me,
I scorn'd the lore she brought me,
My only books
Were woman's looks,
And folly's all they've taught me.
Her smile when Beauty granted,
I hung with gaze enchanted,
Like him, the sprite,
Whom maids by night
Oft meet in glen that's haunted.
Like him, too, Beauty won me,
But while her eyes were on me,
If once their ray
Was turn'd away,
Oh! winds could not outrun me.
And are those follies going?
And is my proud heart growing
Too cold or wise
For brilliant eyes
Again to set it glowing?
No, vain, alas! th' endeavour
From bonds so sweet to sever;
Poor Wisdom's chance
Against a glance
Is now as weak as ever.~ THOMAS MOORE