Poetry, Jingles, Doggerel and Song Lyrics

Which other authors do you enjoy? Discuss them here.
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Aurélien
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Re: Poetry, Jingles, Doggerel and Song Lyrics

Post by Aurélien »

Philip Mannering wrote:No, Aurelien, I understand your, as you say, "outrageous, elephantine sense of humour," but the thing is that I have a sense of humour too - that's why I said "Sir" and wrote a serious post (with a wink)! :lol:
Oh. :oops: *And I complain that others sometimes interpret my sense of humour as if old Aurélien had written in total seriousness.* :roll:
Philip Mannering wrote:Anyone heard of "The Brook" by Alfred Tennyson?
The creaky old retiree slips away into "haunts of coot and hern" to cool his red face....
  • So Small a Thing?
    by Matthew Arnold
  • Is it so small a thing
    To have enjoyed the sun,
    To have lived light in the spring,
    To have loved, to have thought,
    ...to have done?
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Kitty
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Re: Poetry, Jingles, Doggerel and Song Lyrics

Post by Kitty »

The thoughts that rain their steady glow
Like stars on life's cold sea,
Which others know, or say they know -
They never shone for me.
Thoughts light, like gleams, my spirit's sky,
But they will not remain.
They light me once, they hurry by,
And never come again.

I always liked these lines - I don't blame Anne Marie for feeling flattered when Miss Willcox compared her to Arnold! One of Enid's best school story plots - minimal and brutal.
Gwendoline lay down, angry. She determined to make herself miserable and cry.
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Moonraker
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Re: Poetry, Jingles, Doggerel and Song Lyrics

Post by Moonraker »

I am slipping away into unconsciousness...Image
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Aurélien
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Re: Poetry, Jingles, Doggerel and Song Lyrics

Post by Aurélien »

Don't slumber too long, Moonraker - remember :wink: the story of what
Washington Irving's 'Rip Van Winkle' woke up to!
Pondering *sigh* on the 'frost' showing in the [thinning] hair of us old codgers,
reminds one that in our younger days we never believed it could ever happen to us:
  • The Frost
    by Tzuh Yeh
  • Young man,
    Seize every minute
    Of your time.
    The days fly by;
    Ere long you too
    Will grow old
    .
  • If you believe me not,
    See there, in the courtyard,
    How the frost
    Glitters white and cold and cruel
    On the grass
    That once was green
    .
hope189
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Re: Poetry, Jingles, Doggerel and Song Lyrics

Post by hope189 »

Philip Mannering wrote:Anyone heard of "The Brook" by Alfred Tennyson?
"Men may come and men may go, But I go on forever."...............Amazing poem by an amazing poet!
I can't remember which poem I learnt first. But, The 'pomes' by Fatty are among the first ones I read!
"If winter comes, can spring be far behind?"-
P.B. Shelley, Ode to the West wind.
One of my favourite lines.
Though, I like all these poems, my favourite remains to be 'Binghen on the Rhine' by Caroline.E.Norton.
"Hope springs eternal in the human breast"
-Alexander Pope, An Essay on Man
hope189
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Re: Poetry, Jingles, Doggerel and Song Lyrics

Post by hope189 »

In my last post, I forgot to mention another favourite of mine.
"'Beauty is truth, truth beauty,'-that's all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.
"
-John Keats, Ode on a Grecian urn
"Hope springs eternal in the human breast"
-Alexander Pope, An Essay on Man
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Philip Mannering
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Re: Poetry, Jingles, Doggerel and Song Lyrics

Post by Philip Mannering »

I wish I could write a poem as good as any of these wonderful gifted people - I have tried, but only succeeded in creating more rubbish to delete. :(
"A holiday — a mystery — an adventure — and a happy ending for dear old Barney!" said Roger. "What more could anyone want?"
"An ice cream," said Snubby promptly. "Who's coming to buy one?" The Rubadub Mystery
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Anita Bensoussane
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Re: Poetry, Jingles, Doggerel and Song Lyrics

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

Thought of this thread yesterday when my children and I went to Greenwich, where we explored the park and visited the planetarium etc. We ate our picnic lunch on top of One Tree Hill, from which there are wonderful views of London. We sat on a bench encircling a plane tree but on another long, curved wooden bench nearby the following words were carved:

Here fair Eliza, Virgin Queen
From bus'ness free, enjoy'd the scene.
Here oft in pensive mood she stood
And kindly plan'd for Britain's good:
So record tells and this beside,
Sung ditties to the silver tide
Full worth such honours art thou still,
Belov'd of thousands, One Tree Hill.

T.N. One Tree Hill, the London Chronicle, May 25-27th 1784.


Another place to find poetry in London is on the Underground, where poems are pasted up on the walls of the underground trains for passengers to read. I only saw one yesterday but couldn't read it as it was obscured by a group of standing passengers.

Anita
"Heyho for a starry night and a heathery bed!" - Jack, The Secret Island.

"There is no bond like the bond of having read and liked the same books."
- E. Nesbit, The Wonderful Garden.


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Aurélien
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Re: Poetry, Jingles, Doggerel and Song Lyrics

Post by Aurélien »

There's a sad tale :cry: about Auckland's now vanished tree on our 'One Tree Hill'...it committed the heinous non-pc offence :shock: of not being a native tree, see [it was just a pine tree], and so a smirking Maori 'protester' came by with his chain-saw...
His excuse? "It was [smirk, leer, smirk] just a tree." :twisted:

Enough! This vile vandal's smarmy face will not gain a hallowed place in our histories. Understand that I'm not knocking Maoridom in general, or denying colonial grievances, but there are better ways of settling differences [ref. our unique Waitangi Tribunal], and having Maori ancestry is not :!: in itself a sufficient excuse for anti-social violence and vileness of any kind.
  • Above the Wrecks of Time
    by W. E. H. Lecky
  • All things perish, and the strongest
    Often do not last the longest.

    The stately ship is seen no more,
    The fragile skiff attains the shore;
    And while the great and wise decay,
    And all their trophies pass away,
    Some sudden thought, some careless rhyme,
    Still floats above the wrecks of time
    .
‘Aurélien Arkadiusz’
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Aurélien
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Re: Poetry, Jingles, Doggerel and Song Lyrics

Post by Aurélien »

Hmm... old Aurélien did say 'Song Lyrics' in the heading,
and welcomed fragments in his initial post, and so:
  • Opening verse of
    'Rock’nRoll Dreams Come Through'
    composed by Jim Steinman, and sung by a certain
    [outsize] 8) singer, Marvin Lee Aday, aka Meatloaf.
  • You can’t run away forever
    But there’s nothing wrong with getting a good head start
    You want to shut out the night, you want to shut down the sun
    You want to shut away the pieces of a broken heart
    :!:
Last edited by Aurélien on 22 Feb 2009, 06:38, edited 8 times in total.
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Philip Mannering
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Re: Poetry, Jingles, Doggerel and Song Lyrics

Post by Philip Mannering »

Anita Bensoussane wrote:I remember Kate Mary saying that some of her best friends were books! Books certainly are very loyal friends and can be a great comfort when life is difficult.
I would agree with Kate Mary - books are man's true friend and the greatest of wonders. They are much better than a real friend anyway!
I used to have a bookmark with the following quotation written on it:

Let your bookcases and your shelves
Be your gardens and your pleasure-grounds.
Pluck the fruit that grows therein,
Gather the roses, the spices, and the myrrh.


Anita
Excellent!! :D
"A holiday — a mystery — an adventure — and a happy ending for dear old Barney!" said Roger. "What more could anyone want?"
"An ice cream," said Snubby promptly. "Who's coming to buy one?" The Rubadub Mystery
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Aurélien
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Re: Poetry, Jingles, Doggerel and Song Lyrics

Post by Aurélien »

And :) for those big puddy-tats occasionally featured in Blyton tales:
  • The Greater Cats
    by Violet Sackville-West
  • The greater cats with golden eyes
    Stare out between the bars.
    Deserts are there,
    And different skies,
    And night with different stars
    .


‘Aurélien Arkadiusz’
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Aurélien
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Re: Poetry, Jingles, Doggerel and Song Lyrics

Post by Aurélien »

Some poems can be time capsules, reminding us of just how greatly our world has changed. Since the poem below was written, by a poet of my grandparents’ generation, there have been shifts both in the boundaries of acceptable behavior and in the meanings conveyed by certain words:
  • 1) Difficult to believe that there really was a time when young rapscallions actually thought it was ‘fun’ to tie cans to a dog’s tail. Not at all an approved amusement today. [Of course :P, tying a string of cans to the getaway car of a newly married couple is something else altogether…]
  • 2) And, how many modern parents would have anxiety attacks when reading of a man ‘gayly’ walking amongst children?
Old Aurélien not being a [pc-driven] fan of Bowdlerizing texts, you’ll have to make your own judgements [and comments] on this one.

Guess we’ve all known grumpy old men like the specimen here described…not me of course :shock: …well, not unless wakened too hastily and boisterously from one of my senior moments [ie naps] by visiting relations….
  • Forgotten Boyhood
    by Edgar A. Guest 1881 – 1959
  • He wears a long and solemn face
    And drives the children from his place;
    He doesn't like to hear them shout
    Or race and run and romp about,
    And if they chance to climb his tree,
    He is as ugly as can be.
    If in his yard they drive a ball,
    Which near his pretty flowers should fall,
    He hides the leather sphere away,
    Thus hoping to prevent their play
    .
  • The youngsters worry him a lot,
    This sorry man who has forgot
    That once upon a time, he too
    The self-same mischief used to do.
    The boyhood he has left behind
    Has strangely vanished from his mind,
    And he is old and gray and cross
    For having suffered such a loss.
    He thinks he never had the joy
    That is the birthright of a boy
    .
  • He has forgotten how he ran,
    Or to a dog's tail tied a can,
    Broke window panes, and loved to swipe
    Some neighbor's apples, red and ripe -
    He thinks that always, day or night,
    His conduct was exactly right.
    In boys to-day he cannot see
    The youngster that he used to be,
    Forgotten is that by-gone day,
    When he was mischievous as they
    .
  • Poor man! I'm sorry for your lot.
    The best of life you have forgot.
    Could you remember what you were,
    Unharnessed and untouched by spur,
    These youngsters that you drive away
    Would be your comrades here to-day.
    Among them you could gayly walk
    And share their laughter and their talk;
    You could be young and blithe as they,
    Could you recall your yesterday
    .
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Ming
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Re: Poetry, Jingles, Doggerel and Song Lyrics

Post by Ming »

I really like The Forgotten Boyhood, Aurelien. The first stanza reminded me of The Angry Pixie, but afterwards the poem became very beautiful. Thanks for sharing.
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Aurélien
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Re: Poetry, Jingles, Doggerel and Song Lyrics

Post by Aurélien »

Ming wrote:I really like The Forgotten Boyhood, Aurelien. The first stanza reminded me of The Angry Pixie, but afterwards the poem became very beautiful. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks, Ming. I've been most impressed by what others have posted here...think it's a likely to be a thread that will repay regular revisiting.

‘Aurélien Arkadiusz’
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