Weekly/Fortnightly Poetry Suggestions

Short Poetry Collections, Short Story Collections, and our Weekly Poetry Project
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msfry
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Post by msfry »

aradlaw wrote: April 19th, 2018, 3:59 pm Thanks for the suggestion Michele, would you like to BC this one starting this Sunday (22nd) or in two weeks (May 6th) ?
I have one pressing project to attend to next week, so let me pick May 6th. Thanks. Is there a difference between the weekly and fortnightly collections? I'd like to give as many readers as possible the chance to connect with this theme, and two weeks sounds longer than one. :lol:
Algy Pug
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Post by Algy Pug »

Another suggestion for the Weekly Poetry:

[Text URL: http://www.archive.org/details/poemsofarthurhug00clourich - Page 441]

Over Every Hill
by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Translated by Arthur Hugh Clough

Over every hill
All is still;
In no leaf of any tree
Can you see
The motion of a breath.
Every bird has ceased its song,
Wait; and thou too, ere long,
Shall be quiet in death.


Cheers
Algy Pug

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Algy Pug
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Post by Algy Pug »

Here's another one I would like to suggest:

[Text URL: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/50954/50954-h/50954-h.htm#Page_830]

WANTING IS - WHAT?
By Robert Browning

Wanting is—what?
Summer redundant,
Blueness abundant,
—Where is the blot?
Beamy the world, yet a blank all the same,
—Framework which waits for a picture to frame:
What of the leafage, what of the flower?
Roses embowering with naught they embower!
Come then, complete incompletion, O comer,
Pant through the blueness, perfect the summer!
Breathe but one breath
Rose-beauty above,
And all that was death
Grows life, grows love,
Grows love!
Algy Pug

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msfry
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Post by msfry »

Almost finished with my first experience BC'ing a Fortnightly Poem, Southey's Stanzas Written In His Library. It's sooooo interesting to hear all the different interpretations, and exciting!!!!.... sort of like dangling a fishing line in the water, waiting impatiently for the cork to bob under, then reeling in the line to see what you caught! So I'm psyched to do another!

Here's one I'd like to BC at the next opportunity:

Lines, On Hearing That Lady Byron Was Ill, by George Gordon, Lord Byron
http://www.online-literature.com/byron/690/

Intro: For those who enjoy expressing rancor, here's some intense sarcasm by one of the best English poets. Herein, Lord Byron spits out his distain for his estranged wife, Lady Byron. A little background: they were only together 2 years before she quitted the marriage due to his debauchery, cruelty, profligate spending of her money, and violence, fleeing with their infant daughter to live with her parents and refusing to see him henceforth, yet protecting his reputation by never breathing a word to the public about why. But the word got out, and Lord Byron was run out of Parliament and fled England for his erratic behavior, and especially for maintaining an incestuous affair with his half-sister (with whom he had another daughter). He always blamed Lady Byron's high morals for his downfall -- but he was wild and considered societal rules and especially marriage far too confining for his free spirit. The very prolific Byron left a huge collection of "world's best" poetry, so some don't realize he died at age 36.

And thou wert sad—yet I was not with thee!
And thou wert sick, and yet I was not near;
Methought that joy and health alone could be
Where I was not—and pain and sorrow here.
And is it thus?—it is as I foretold,
And shall be more so; for the mind recoils
Upon itself, and the wrecked heart lies cold,
While heaviness collects the shattered spoils.
It is not in the storm nor in the strife
We feel benumbed, and wish to be no more,
But in the after-silence on the shore,
When all is lost, except a little life.

I am too well avenged!—but 'twas my right;
Whate'er my sins might be, thou wert not sent
To be the Nemesis who should requite—
Nor did heaven choose so near an instrument.
Mercy is for the merciful!—if thou
Hast been of such, 'twill be accorded now.
Thy nights are banished from the realms of sleep!—
Yes! they may flatter thee, but thou shalt feel
A hollow agony which will not heal,
For thou art pillowed on a curse too deep;
Thou hast sown in my sorrow, and must reap
The bitter harvest in a woe as real!
I have had many foes, but none like thee;
For 'gainst the rest myself I could defend,
And be avenged, or turn them into friend;
But thou in safe implacability
Hadst nought to dread—in thy own weakness shielded,
And in my love which hath but too much yielded,
And spared, for thy sake, some I should not spare—
And thus upon the world—trust in thy truth—
And the wild fame of my ungoverned youth—
On things that were not, and on things that are—
Even upon such a basis hast thou built
A monument whose cement hath been guilt!
The moral Clytemnestra of thy lord,
And hewed down, with an unsuspected sword,
Fame, peace, and hope—and all the better life
Which, but for this cold treason of thy heart,
Might still have risen from out the grave of strife,
And found a nobler duty than to part.
But of thy virtues didst thou make a vice,
Trafficking with them in a purpose cold,
For present anger, and for future gold—
And buying other's grief at any price.
And thus once entered into crooked ways,
The early truth, which was thy proper praise,
Did not still walk beside thee—but at times,
And with a breast unknowing its own crimes,
Deceit, averments incompatible,
Equivocations, and the thoughts which dwell
In Janus-spirits—the significant eye
Which learns to lie with silence—the pretext
Of Prudence, with advantages annexed—
The acquiescence in all things which tend,
No matter how, to the desired end—
All found a place in thy philosophy.
The means were worthy, and the end is won—
I would not do by thee as thou hast done!
Last edited by msfry on May 12th, 2018, 1:40 pm, edited 2 times in total.
msfry
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Post by msfry »

Is there anywhere I can find a list of all the Fortnightly/Weekly Poetry projects completed on Librivox to date. I can't find a search term that produces any results.
commonsparrow3
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Post by commonsparrow3 »

msfry wrote: May 12th, 2018, 10:29 am Is there anywhere I can find a list of all the Fortnightly/Weekly Poetry projects completed on Librivox to date. I can't find a search term that produces any results.
I went to Advanced Search, and from the "Genre" drop-down menu, I selected "Poetry > Multi Version (Weekly and Fortnightly Poetry)"
That brings up this set of results:
https://librivox.org/search?title=&author=&reader=&keywords=&genre_id=71&status=all&project_type=either&recorded_language=&sort_order=catalog_date&search_page=1&search_form=advanced
They seem to be listed in order of cataloging, beginning with the most recent. I don't see any way to arrange them in alphabetical order, either by title or author. So if you're wondering whether a particular poem has been done before, you might have to just look up that one individually.
msfry
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Post by msfry »

Good sleuthing, Maria. I'll check it out. No, I was just interested in perusing the list. Near as I can figure:
32 full pages of titles x 25 titles per page, + 17 on the latest page, that's 817 titles so far!!!!!!!
aradlaw
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Post by aradlaw »

That's not counting the various Poetry Collections that we have!
There are surely over 5000 titles in those.
David Lawrence

* Weekly & Fortnightly Poetry - Check out the Short Works forum for the latest projects!
Algy Pug
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Post by Algy Pug »

I think that this one would be great for a Weekly Poetry Project:

Text URL: https://archive.org/details/modernversebrit00forb - Page 27


PRAYERS OF STEEL

by Carl Sandburg

Lay me on an anvil, God.
Beat me and hammer me into a crowbar.
Let me pry loose old walls.
Let me lift and loosen old foundations.

Lay me on an anvil, God.
Beat me and hammer me into a steel spike.
Drive me into the girders that hold a skyscraper together.
Take red-hot rivets and fasten me into the central girders.
Let me be the great nail holding a skyscraper through blue
nights into white stars.


Cheers
Algy Pug

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aradlaw
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Post by aradlaw »

Algy Pug wrote: May 16th, 2018, 4:20 am I think that this one would be great for a Weekly Poetry Project:

Text URL: https://archive.org/details/modernversebrit00forb - Page 27


PRAYERS OF STEEL

by Carl Sandburg


Cheers
Thanks for that suggestion Algy, unfortunately Carl Sandburg died in 1967, he would not be PD for life +70 countries. We try to keep the Weekly Poetry PD for everyone.
David Lawrence

* Weekly & Fortnightly Poetry - Check out the Short Works forum for the latest projects!
Algy Pug
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Post by Algy Pug »

OK - how about this gem from Gerard Manley Hopkins:

[Text URL: http://www.archive.org/details/ananthologyofmod00methuoft - Page 116]

I HAVE DESIRED TO GO

I HAVE desired to go
Where springs not fail,
To fields where flies no sharp and sided hail,
And a few lilies blow.

And I have asked to be
Where no storms come,
Where the green swell is in the havens dumb,
And out of the swing of the sea.


Cheers
Algy Pug

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adonis
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Post by adonis »

This doesn't seem to have been done in this format.

Pied Beauty

GLORY be to God for dappled things—

For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;

For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;

Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings;

Landscape plotted and pieced—fold, fallow, and plough;
5
And áll trádes, their gear and tackle and trim.


All things counter, original, spare, strange;

Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)

With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;

He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:
10
Praise him.


www.bartleby.com/122/13.html

Tony A.
Algy Pug
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Post by Algy Pug »

A couple of suggestions from the poems of James Elroy Flecker:

http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924013611953
Page 240

The True Paradise

Lord, is the Poet to destruction vowed,
Like the dawn-feather of an April cloud,
Which signs in russet character or grey
The name of Beauty on the book of Day?
We poets crave no heav'n but what is ours —
These trees beside these rivers ; these same flowers
Shaped and enfragranced to the English field
Where Thy best florist-craft is full revealed.
Trees by the river, birds upon the bough
My soul shall ask for, whose flesh enjoys them now
Through both the pale-blue vidndows of quick Mind;
Grant me earth's treats in Paradise to find.
Nor listen to that island-bound St. John
Who'd have no Sea in Heaven, no Sea to sail upon!
Remake this World less Man's and Nature's Pain
Save such dear torment as the chill of Rain
When the sun flouts us like a maid her man
Drowned in long meshes of a silver Fan.
Nor, Lord, the good fatigue of labouring breath
Destroy, but only Sickness, Age and Death.
Let old Plays teach Despair's sad grandeur still
And legends trumpet War's last Hero-thrill.
So I and all my friends, still young, still wise,
Will shout along thy streets—" Paradise!
But if prepared for me new Mansions are,
Chill and unknown, in some bright windy Star,
Mid strange-shaped Souls from all the Planets seven.
Lord, I fear deep, and would not go to Heaven.
Rather in feather-mist I'd fade away
Like the Dawn-writing of an April day.

*************************

Page 175

A Ship, an Isle, a Sickle Moon

A ship, an isle, a sickle moon —
With few but with how splendid stars
The mirrors of the sea are strewn
Between their silver bars !

************

An isle beside an isle she lay.
The pale ship anchored in the bay,
While in the young moon's port of gold
A star-ship—as the mirrors told —
Put forth its great and lonely light
To the unreflecting Ocean, Night.
And still, a ship upon her seas.
The isle and the island cypresses
Went sailing on without the gale :
And still there moved the moon so pale,
A crescent ship without a sail!


Cheers
Algy Pug

My Librivox page



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msfry
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Post by msfry »

I think this would make a great Fortnightly or Weekly Poem, and I'd like to BC it whenever the chance comes up. Alas I know it's PD but I can't find it on Gutenberg or IA. Also, I don't see any of Channing's material on LV, but he was a prolific author, a famous Unitarian Minister.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Ellery_Channing

My Symphony

To live content with small means,
to seek elegance
rather than luxury,
and refinement
rather than fashion;
to be worthy not respectable,
and wealthy not rich;
to study hard, think quietly,
talk gently, act frankly;
to listen to stars, and birds,
to babes, and sages
with an open heart;
to bear all cheerfully,
do all bravely,
await occasions, hurry never.
In a word, to let the
spiritual, unbidden and
unconscious, grow up
through the commonplace.
This is to be
my symphony
.

William Ellery Channing
Boston-born William Ellery Channing (1818 - 1901) attended Harvard, and was a prominent member of the group of Transcendentalists that included Ralph Waldo Emerson. Channing was a close friend of Henry David Thoreau, and possibly a key inspiration for Thoreau's hut-in-the-woods experiment, having lived himself in isolation for some months in a log hut. William's writing included poetry, articles, criticism, and a biography of Thoreau.
aradlaw
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Post by aradlaw »

Good suggestion Michele, but unless we have a PD text source, we cannot use this poem.
I could not find any poetry reference, well just one, which basically said, he did write some poetry. :roll:
David Lawrence

* Weekly & Fortnightly Poetry - Check out the Short Works forum for the latest projects!
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