Jump to content

Poetic Wanderings


Recommended Posts

On 20/10/2021 at 10:47 AM, poppy said:

The wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees.  The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas.  The road was a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor,   
And the highwayman came riding—
         Riding—riding—
The highwayman came riding, up to the old inn-door.

 

The Highwayman by Alfred Noyes

 

I remember hearing someone recite this from memory, many years ago now, and the "The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas" line has always stuck with me.

 

(How can wind be a "torrent of darkness," though?)

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 56
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

5 hours ago, Chrissy said:

(It was reading The Highwayman when I was very young that taught me how alive poetry could be. I found it in 'The Golden Treasury of Poetry'  - selected by Louis Untermeyer, and filled throughout with the wonderful illustrations of Joan Walsh Anglund. A true book treasure. :))

That's really lovely :).

 

 

“Hope” is the thing with feathers -

That perches in the soul -

And sings the tune without the words -

And never stops - at all -

 

And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard -

And sore must be the storm -

That could abash the little Bird

That kept so many warm -

 

I’ve heard it in the chillest land -

And on the strangest Sea -

Yet - never - in Extremity,

It asked a crumb - of me.

 

Hope is the Thing with Feathers by Emily Dickinson

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 10/26/2021 at 10:22 PM, Chrissy said:

(It was reading The Highwayman when I was very young that taught me how alive poetry could be. I found it in 'The Golden Treasury of Poetry'  - selected by Louis Untermeyer, and filled throughout with the wonderful illustrations of Joan Walsh Anglund. A true book treasure. :))

 

Beautiful books like that can have such a profound effect on you, especially when you're young. My Dad used to get a farmer's magazine and there was a section which included NZ poetry. Looking back, I realise it was ahead of it's time. I really looked forward to it arriving. 

We learnt The Highwayman at primary school :)

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 10/27/2021 at 1:08 AM, Raven said:

 

I remember hearing someone recite this from memory, many years ago now, and the "The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas" line has always stuck with me.

 

(How can wind be a "torrent of darkness," though?)

 

 

Every time I see the moon ducking in and out of clouds at night, I recite that line to myself :blush:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sea Glass

 

This weathered jewel began as normal shards
of shattered glass, but given enough time

 

and natural persistence from the seaboards,
that sharp, translucent, brittle crystalline

 

material, just so much composite sand, is ground
from broken bottles or even distant shipwrecks

 

until sharp edges become smoothed and round.
This cocktail of colour, found among the rocks,

 

crafted by the patient ocean’s constant dance,
leads this same glass to lose its former lustre.

 

But whilst it loses this, it gains a gloss
of frost slow-formed that shapes a stronger matter,

 

a shell as tough as nature can command,
and fragile glass becomes as hard as diamond.

 

by Oliver Tearle

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
 
Louder than gulls the little children scream 
Whom fathers haul into the jovial foam; 
But others fearlessly rush in, breast high, 
Laughing the salty water from their mouthes-- 
Heroes of the nursery. 

The horny boatman, who has seen whales 
And flying fishes, who has sailed as far 
As Demerara and the Ivory Coast, 
Will warn them, when they crowd to hear his tales, 
That every ocean smells of tar. 
 
The Beach - Robert Graves
 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.


×
×
  • Create New...