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Don't suppose there are many poetry fans here.

Started by Seb0 REPLIES201 VIEWS· 23 Apr 2020, 08:06
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SebPro2,680 posts
23 Apr 2020, 08:06
#1
23 Apr 2020, 08:06#1

There might be one or two???... but the bulk here lack any refinery and "smaak it a little rough" and they think such things are for softies but it is different in different families, schools and cultures.


The same applies to music and in particular proper and highbrow classics.


One of my favourite poems is by Dylan Thomas, a genius in verse but a wild bastard heavy drinking Welshman that died remarkably young.


Poem in October is a piece of art and the way he uses words to bring out vivid pictures blows my mind.



POEM IN OCTOBER

 

(Dylan Thomas)

 

 

It was my thirtieth year to heaven

     Woke to my hearing from harbour and neighbour wood

        And the mussel pooled and the heron

                Priested shore

           The morning beckon

     With water praying and call of seagull and rook

     And the knock of sailing boats on the webbed wall

           Myself to set foot

                That second

        In the still sleeping town and set forth.

 

        My birthday began with the water-

     Birds and the birds of the winged trees flying my name

        Above the farms and the white horses

                And I rose

            In a rainy autumn

     And walked abroad in shower of all my days

     High tide and the heron dived when I took the road

            Over the border

                And the gates

        Of the town closed as the town awoke.

 

        A springful of larks in a rolling

     Cloud and the roadside bushes brimming with whistling

        Blackbirds and the sun of October

                Summery

            On the hill's shoulder,

     Here were fond climates and sweet singers suddenly

     Come in the morning where I wandered and listened

            To the rain wringing

                Wind blow cold

        In the wood faraway under me.

 

        Pale rain over the dwindling harbour

     And over the sea wet church the size of a snail

        With its horns through mist and the castle

                Brown as owls

             But all the gardens

     Of spring and summer were blooming in the tall tales

     Beyond the border and under the lark full cloud.

             There could I marvel

                My birthday

        Away but the weather turned around.

 

        It turned away from the blithe country

     And down the other air and the blue altered sky

        Streamed again a wonder of summer

                With apples

             Pears and red currants

     And I saw in the turning so clearly a child's

     Forgotten mornings when he walked with his mother

             Through the parables

                Of sunlight

        And the legends of the green chapels

 

        And the twice told fields of infancy

     That his tears burned my cheeks and his heart moved in mine.

        These were the woods the river and the sea

                Where a boy

             In the listening

     Summertime of the dead whispered the truth of his joy

     To the trees and the stones and the fish in the tide.

             And the mystery

                Sang alive

        Still in the water and singing birds.

 

        And there could I marvel my birthday

     Away but the weather turned around. And the true

        Joy of the long dead child sang burning

                In the sun.

             It was my thirtieth

        Year to heaven stood there then in the summer noon

        Though the town below lay leaved with October blood.

             O may my heart's truth

                Still be sung

        On this high hill in a year's turning.

 


— END OF THREAD —

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