Favourite poem?
 

Hello all,
Does anyone have a favourite poem from which they have drawn inspiration? For me personally, "If" by Rudyard Kipling has provided just that. Though written at the height of the British Empire, I think its message is valuable for every generation of aspiring young men. If I ever have a son, I will see to it that he memorizes it by heart as I have done!

"The Wood's are Lovely, Dark and Deep."
 

The Poem written by Robert Frost, " Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening."
composed in June, 1922 at his house in Shaftsbury, VT. Robert Frost died on Jan. 29, 1963...He was 89 years old. Tom Kelly
The 4th & Last Stanza of the Poem:

The Woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep
And miles to go before I sleep.

April will come, with fresh green days
Rain, rain follows in beautiful May
Fish jump in June
Shade in July
Harvest in August-September; oh my!

October will come, but I'll hardly notice
'Cause the very next month will mean a new POTUS

.

These first four lines from William Blake's "Auguries of Innocence".


To see a world in a grain of sand
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And eternity in an hour.

Inspirational Poems....."Trees" by SGT. Joyce Kilmer........;) "The Charge of the Light Brigade" Rudyard Kipling.......;) "Concord Hymn" by Ralph Waldo Emerson.........;) "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost".........;)

Big Teddy

Tom beat me with his post that was also my favorite by Frost........;)
More info on Frost: Frost was 86 when he spoke and performed a reading of his poetry at the inauguration of President John F. Kennedy on January 20, 1961. He died in Boston two years later, of complications from prostate surgery. He was buried at the Old Bennington Cemetery in Bennington, Vermont. His epitaph quotes a line from one of his poems: "I had a lover's quarrel with the world." ...........;)

Big Teddy :munchin

A lot of Robert Frost fans here I guess:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference


Other poem that I like is:

Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon behind them
Volley'd and thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
While horse and hero fell,
They that had fought so well
Came thro' the jaws of Death
Back from the mouth of Hell,
All that was left of them,
Left of six hundred.

Lay me down in the cold cold ground,
where before many more have gone.

Lay me down in the cold cold ground,
where before many more have gone.

When they come I'll stand my ground,
stand my ground I'll not be afraid.

Thoughts of home take away my fears,
sweat and blood hide my veil of tears.

Once a year say a prayer for me,
close your eyes and remember me.

Never more shall I see the sun,
for I fell to a German gun.

Lay me down in the cold cold ground,
where before many more have gone.

Lay me down n the cold cold ground,
where before many more have gone.

Eerily well sung in the movie "We were soldiers once and young".

A word is dead
when it is said
some say.
I say it just
begins to live
that day.

a good one for anybody who says what he means and means what he says.

(and Emily Dickinson never hurts with the ladies.)

This is among'st the ones I like but my favorite would be the stanza inscribed on the Clock Tower at Stirling Lines,Hereford the home of the British SAS,the stanza is from the poem "The Golden Journey to Samarkand" by James Elroy Fleckner this is how it goes-


We are the Pilgrims, master; we shall go
Always a little further: it may be
Beyond the last blue mountain barred with snow,
Across that angry or that glimmering sea,
White on a throne or guarded in a cave
There lives a prophet who can understand
Why men were born: but surely we are brave,
Who make the Golden Journey to Samarkand.

This stanza is probably among'st the best things I have read as far as poetry is concerned.

This poem never fails to comfort
 

Do not stand at my grave and weep,
I am not there; I do not sleep.
I am a thousand 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 circling flight.
I am the soft starlight at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry,
I am not there; I did not die.

Ulysses by Tennyson
 

Great lines throughout, if you're patient enough to "unpack" it

"I cannot rest from travel: I will drink
Life to the lees: all times I have enjoyed
Greatly, have suffered greatly, both with those
That loved me, and alone"

"I am become a name;
For always roaming with a hungry heart
Much have I seen and known; cities of men
And manners, climates, councils, governments,
Myself not least, but honoured of them all;
And drunk delight of battle with my peers"

"Death closes all: but something ere the end,
Some work of noble note, may yet be done,
Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods."

"Though much is taken, much abides; and though
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield."

Favorite Poem
 

Most of my bludgeonings have been self inflicted in one way or another. :D

Invictus
William Ernest Henley


Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.