Category: Poetry

Hyperion by John Keats

Featured ~ Raven ~ Leave a comment

Deep in the shady sadness of a vale Far sunken from the healthy breath of morn, Far from the fiery noon, and eve's one star, Sat gray-hair'd Saturn, quiet as a stone, Still as the silence round about his lair; Forest on forest hung about his head Like cloud on cloud. No stir of air was there, Not so much life as on a summer's day Robs not one light seed from the feather'd grass, But where the dead leaf fell, there did it rest. A stream went voiceless by, still deadened more By reason of his fallen divinity Spreading a shade: the Naiad 'mid her reeds Press'd her cold finger closer to her lips...

Ode to the Cat by Pablo Neruda

Featured ~ Raven ~ Leave a comment

The animals were imperfect, long-tailed, unfortunate in their heads. Little by little they put themselves together, making themselves a landscape, acquiring spots, grace, flight. The cat, only the cat appeared complete and proud: he was born completely finished, walking alone and knowing what he wanted...

Renascence by Edna St Vincent Millay

Featured ~ Raven ~ Leave a comment

ALL I could see from where I stood Was three long mountains and a wood; I turned and looked the other way, And saw three islands in a bay. So with my eyes I traced the line Of the horizon, thin and fine, Straight around till I was come Back to where I’d started from; And all I saw from where I stood Was three long mountains and a wood. Over these things I could not see: These were the things that bounded me...

Twatwaffling on Love

Featured ~ Raven ~ 2 Comments

I could use my pencils to draw how I feel, but I’m not good at faces and limbs dangling here and there, and I am no Lowry with match stick people and their dogs

Sestet Couplets Notes

Featured ~ Raven ~ 1 Comment

The grouping of couplets is well documented in poetry, and, if using them, Heroic couplets are written in iambic pentameter. However there is no set meter for Sestet couplets. The rhyme scheme isAabbcc ddeeff and so on Example A Celtic Prayer Divina Collins Deep in the heart of the Welsh mountainsA chapel of worship that … Continue reading Sestet Couplets Notes

The Amen Stone by Yehuda Amichai

Featured ~ Raven ~ Leave a comment

On my desk there is a stone with the word “Amen” on it, a triangular fragment of stone from a Jewish graveyard destroyed many generations ago. The other fragments, hundreds upon hundreds, were scattered helter-skelter, and a great yearning, a longing without end, fills them all: first name in search of family name, date of death seeks...

Septilla Notes

~ Raven ~ 1 Comment

A seven-line form the Septilla originally consisted of octosyllabic line, however tetrameter and pentameter are now equally acceptable. There is a degree of flexibility for the poet in that there is a choice of rhyme schema.aabccba Example Scars by Leny Roovers Behind mantilla's black lace shieldher wounds lay open, near revealed.Her body, tall and straight, … Continue reading Septilla Notes

Mazeppa by George Gordon Byron

~ Raven ~ Leave a comment

'Twas after dread Pultowa's day, When fortune left the royal Swede-- Around a slaughtered army lay, No more to combat and to bleed. The power and glory of the war, Faithless as their vain votaries, men, Had passed to the triumphant Czar, And Moscow’s walls were safe again-- Until a day more dark and drear, And a more memorable year, Should give to slaughter and to shame A mightier host and haughtier name; A greater wreck, a deeper fall, A shock to one--a thunderbolt to all...

Behind the Scenes by Banjo Paterson

~ Raven ~ 2 Comments

The actor struts his little hour, Between the limelight and the band; The public feel the actor's power, Yet nothing do they understand Of all the touches here and there That make or mar the actor's part, They never see, beneath the glare, The artist striving after art. To them it seems a labour slight Where nought of study intervenes; You see it in another light When once you've been behind the scenes...

Motherland

~ Raven ~ 3 Comments

Across the bay where beauty waits for me, beneath the sun-kissed mountain waterfalls, enchanting eyes shall tame the wild and free, my heart is bound by love as Cymru calls. The cloudy blue of railway smoke dissolved...