One meme lead to another...

[hellison]

Firstly the poetry meme, from mirrorshard,
Pick one of your favourite poems and post it, then tag others to do the same.
Enforced memeage is a bit of a pain, so no specific tags. Just go for it ;)

I was going to wait til I got home and check the pome books, but then tyrell informs us that it is LJ Rabbit Hole day. So really, this was the only choice - and is genuinely one of my favourite poems. I used to be able to recite the whole thing. These days, I can only manage snatches alas.


Jabberwocky, by Lewis Carroll

`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!"

He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought --
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.

And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.

"And, has thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!'
He chortled in his joy.

`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.


For those new to it, an explanation

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/_unhurt_/]

help. i have about fifty 'favourite' poems. this is HARD, hellison. :(

[hellison.livejournal.com]

Yep. I was totally stuck and going to have to wait til I was at home, til the Rabbit Hole day inspiration struck.

I could easily post about 5 more just off the top of my head (well, after a bit of google searching for full words ;p)

[mirrorshard.livejournal.com]

I was in an even worse state, I have my poetry library eighteen inches from my left knee. It was bad enough trying to work out which book to look in first, till I went for the lazy option and remembered I had a text file of one I was in the mood for favouriting anyway.

[kelemvor.livejournal.com]

*Thinks*
A mini-gen from (I believe) Spike Milligan:
'Tis due to pigeons
That alight
On Nelson's Column
And make it white

[http://users.livejournal.com/_unhurt_/]

party chosen because the text is online so i don't have to type away like mad.

Crossing the Border

I sit with my back to the engine, watching
the landscape pouring away out of my eyes.
I think I know where I'm going and have
some choice in the matter.

I think, too, that this was a country
of bog-trotters, moss-troopers,
fired ricks and roof-trees in the black night — glinting
on tossed horns and red blades.
I think of lives
bubbling into the harsh grass.

What difference now?
I sit with my back to the future, watching
time pouring away into the past. I sit, being helplessly
lugged backwards
through the Debatable Lands of history, listening
to the execrations, the scattered cries, the
falling of roof-trees
in the lamentable dark.

Norman MacCaig

[malvino.livejournal.com]

Good one, but surely everyone will know this :P

[hellison.livejournal.com]

Well it didn't say an obscure favourite, just a favourite ;) Plus it fitted a silly Friday mood.

It is however always good to be introduced to new pomes and authors, I shall try for something different later maybe.

[thesme-01.livejournal.com]

sounds like a lot of work though, doesn't it *sigh*

[malvino.livejournal.com]

Yeah, and I'm stuck in a library with nothing but procrastination on my mind. I shall join hellison in the quest for obscure favorite peoms!

[thesme-01.livejournal.com]

Bah! The only books I have here are on sheltered housing for older people. I shall have to wait til later.... keep me entertained though.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_unhurt_/]

Bah! The only books I have here are on sheltered housing for older people.

laughs at thesme. *g*

[thesme-01.livejournal.com]

BOOT up the depraved bum of _unhurt_

[http://users.livejournal.com/_unhurt_/]

protesting too much! give in to the porn.

meanwhile, have some of the sublime Ivor Cutler:

SPARE PARTS

I am a shallow insignificant man, a butterfly, living by licking and tasting surfaces. My mind has worn out and they no longer make replacements for my model. See the repressed giggles when I tell them the year of manufacture.

Ivor Cutler

[malvino.livejournal.com]

hellison's 'poem' here is entertaining, which you can now see in all its glory since I friended you, partly because I don't know why I hadn't already :P

[thesme-01.livejournal.com]

because i am ThesmaMort The Corrupter of Malvinos

[hellison.livejournal.com]

Oh I don't think he needs any help there ;p

[hellison.livejournal.com]

Hurrah, let us go forth on an obscure literary journey! I shall fetch my donkey (more on this anon). Palace?

[hellison.livejournal.com]

Dunno about work, but it's bloody HARD *stares at massed pome books*

How to pick just one??

[whit-merule.livejournal.com]

I can still recite it all by heart! :)

But then, once a thing is in my head, rhythm and all, it doesn't leave. I could probably still recite most of The Animals of Farthing Wood and the Penny Pollard books because we had them on cassettes when we were little.

Avevi un cane, Ilo di nome,
Che a vederlo su un prato in tondo correre
la sua felicita` chiamava lacrime.
Ti mori`, quella volta della Francia,
E fu un lutto domestico e del mondo.

Roughly:
You had a dog once, Ilo by name,
his joy in running around and around on the wide grass
would make you weep.
He died, that time in France,
And it was a loss for you and for the world.

(argh I hate translating poems, that sounds so bad.)

[hellison.livejournal.com]

Translation of poems are always going to be very difficult, the words and sound of the words are so much more part of the whole thing than in prose.

but yes, memorising things with a rhythm is much easier somehow. It's just the cider has eaten a lot of my branes ;p

Hope you're feeling better btw ;)

[whit-merule.livejournal.com]

I'm not thinking about that.

[hellison.livejournal.com]

Read more POMES then. Pomes are good :)

[repton-infinity.livejournal.com]

I never saw a purple cow /
I never hope to see one /
But I will tell you anyhow /
I'd rather see than be one.
— Gelett Burgess

[hellison.livejournal.com]

Heh, that managed to raise a smile on a Monday morning, which is quite impressive ;)