Name That Poem

[woofwoof]

I feel I've been awarded this honour on false premises (not having guessed the title of the poem). Oh well...

 

 

I long for scenes where man has never trod;

A place where woman never smil'd or wept;

[chuntzy]

I know this but would like to hold back for a bit.

[woofwoof]

Here are a few more lines:

 

I long for scenes where man has never trod;

A place where woman never smil'd or wept;

There to abide with my creator, God,

And sleep as I in childhood sweetly slept:

[woofwoof]

A further clue: the author wrote this in a mental asylum

[Claire]

Sylvia Plath?

 

It doesn't sound like her style at all, much more Victorian I would have thought, but I do know she spent time in an Asylum, so it could be!

[woofwoof]

You're right, it is Victorian!

 

Chuntzy, why don't you go for it...

[chuntzy]

It's John Clare's Written in Northampton County Asylum

 

(Reminds me I must catch up on Iain Sinclair's book on Clare's journey)

 

OK. New one here -

 

Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife

Their sober wishes never learned to stray;

Along the cool sequestered vale of life

They kept the noiseless tenor of their way.

 

(that won't take you long)

[woofwoof]

Well done, Chuntzy. Here's this saddest of all poems in full:

 

I AM! yet what I am who cares, or knows?

My friends forsake me like a memory lost.

I am the self-consumer of my woes;

They rise and vanish, an oblivious host,

Shadows of life, whose very soul is lost.

And yet I am -- I live -- though I am toss'd

 

Into the nothingness of scorn and noise,

Into the living sea of waking dream,

Where there is neither sense of life, nor joys,

But the huge shipwreck of my own esteem

And all that's dear. Even those I loved the best

Are strange -- nay, they are stranger than the rest.

 

I long for scenes where man has never trod--

For scenes where woman never smiled or wept--

There to abide with my Creator, God,

And sleep as I in childhood sweetly slept,

Full of high thoughts, unborn. So let me lie,--

The grass below; above, the vaulted sky.

[David]

Chuntzy's is Thomas Gray's 'Elegy Written in a Country Church-Yard'.

[chuntzy]

Certainly is. Your turn David.

[David]

The Sea of Faith

Was once, too, at the full, and round earth's shore

Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled.

But now I only hear

Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,

Retreating, to the breath

Of the night wind, down the vast edges drear

And naked shingles of the world.

 

 

(One that wider members of BGO, not usually poetry readers, might be able to get, depending on what they've read in recent years...)

[David]

(One that wider members of BGO, not usually poetry readers, might be able to get, depending on what they've read in recent years...)

Today is exactly the right day for those wider members to get it...

 

[angel]

Today is exactly the right day for those wider members to get it...

 

Dover Beach - by Matthew Arnold

 

Hi David, I recognised the poem immediately but I didn't post then, as I did not understand what it was that people may have read recently to bring this to mind. I thought I'd wait and find out, but no-one else has come forward yet.

 

Has it been read or quoted recently?

 

I guessed that you were relating it to "the turbid ebb and flow /Of human misery" in relation to the Slave Trade or to our war-torn world, "Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight, /Where ignorant armies clash by night."

 

I'm intrigued by your clues and decided to wait no longer.

[David]

I'm intrigued by your clues and decided to wait no longer.

Yes, of course you're quite right, Angel - well done!

 

My post was made on Saturday, the clue being Ian McEwan's novel of the same name, in which 'Dover Beach' plays an important part - it's actually printed in full at the very end of the book - though I love your linking it to the issue of slavery! It wasn't such a recent read, but was one of the chosen books for the monthly discussions. Another BGOer posting about his recent reading of it prompted me to post my own thoughts and so it came to the front of my mind.

 

Unfortunately, I don't think any non-poetry reading Saturday readers have looked in here!

 

Over to you, then.

[angel]

the clue being Ian McEwan's novel of the same name, in which 'Dover Beach' plays an important part

Thank you David. As you can guess, I haven't read the novel recently (in fact not at all - but I did listen to the audio-tape on the way to work once). It must have been a BGO read during the months when when I was hospital visiting so I missed it completely.

 

Enticing the 'wider members' was a good idea and, of course, I can now see how you meant it.... and yes, now I come to think of it, quite a few members post more during the week that at weekend. I wish I'd left it a little longer. I'm slowly beginning to realise that I come to BGO at different times from many other posters. I do the weekend and night shifts, as work-days are just too full; for others the day shift fits better.

 

 

 

Here's the next one (posted mid-week - I'll have to remember to check!)

 

And the hip! hop! hap!

Of the clap

Of the hands to the swirl and the twirl

Of the girl gone chancing,

Glancing,

Dancing,

Backing and advancing,

Snapping of the clapper to the spin

Out and in

[megustaleer]

At last! One I recognise at first sight...Tarantella, by Hillaire Belloc

[angel]

Yes, well done Meg.

[megustaleer]

The Queen of Castile has a daughter

Who won't come home again

She lies in the grey cathedral

Under the arms of Spain.

O the Queen of Castile has a daughter

Torn out by the roots

Her lovely breast in a stone cold chest

Under the farmers' boots.

[megustaleer]

This poet has a very distinctive voice, as well as a distinctive 'voice'

[megustaleer]

This poet has a very distinctive voice, as well as a distinctive 'voice'

Should say "This poet had a very distinctive voice"

[chuntzy]

Any clues?

 

Dylan Thomas had a distinctive voice but this isn't Dylan-esque.

[megustaleer]

Not Dylan Thomas, but, coincidentally, they were born in the same year.

[megustaleer]

This poet outlived Dylan Thomas by 50 years.

[chuntzy]

I've even checked Wikipedia for famous deaths in 2003 and still none the wiser.

[megustaleer]

No, they missed him off the list, which is strange considering that:

Both Philip Larkin and John Betjeman were admirers of his work. In fact, one of Larkin's final poems ******* is directly addressed to him. After Betjeman's death many British poets were in favour of this poet becoming the next Poet Laureate.