Comments on: Pestilence and Poetry

By: Becky

Becky — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 15:13:58 +0000

I know, Catriona, maybe people have gotten bored of waiting for us to post, or maybe they aren’t poetry lovers!

Eoin – what is her top trump? Or is she the top trum in general? Confused…

Dark Puss – I often forget about ancient poetry, but I like a lot of Catullus.

Rosie – I like the last stanza in particular…

By: Catriona

Catriona — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 09:47:11 +0000

I am disappointed Becky – I thought there would be lots of other people’s favourite poems that I could use as pleasurable work avoidance. Dark Puss did cheat but I am glad he added an extra cat hair. I tend to carry bits of poems around in my head rather than the whole thing.

By: Dark Puss

Dark Puss — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 09:43:01 +0000

I’ll cheat and give you two of mine, very short Sapphic fragments and both appropriate for today:

“The moon has set, and the Pleiades: middle night, the hour goes by, and I sleep alone.”

“You came, and I was mad for you. But you cooled my heart, burning with desire.”

Truly one of the greatest lyrical poets of the Western world and a tragedy that so little of her amazing work has survived. An epigram, ascribed to Plato, states “Some say the Muses are nine: how careless! Look, there’s Sappho too, from Lesbos, the tenth.” How can one not agree?

By: Rosie Hopkins

Rosie Hopkins — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 11:31:33 +0000

My favourite poem is G.K. Chesterton’s The Last Hero; it’s at http://plagiarist.com/poetry/7777/ if you’d like to read it. I love the rhythm of it and the way the words sound as well as what they actually say.

By: Eoin Purcell

Eoin Purcell — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 09:09:46 +0000

What an excellent idea.

Reminds me of the ToP Trumps for poets that Sourcebook’s DOminique Raccah has created to promote their new site (poetryspeaks.com) which is all about poetry!

I actually have emily dickensons top trump on my desk as I write!

All the best,
Eoin

By: Catriona

Catriona — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 00:42:39 +0000

Am I only allowed one Becky? Terribly difficult!

“This is my own, my native land”
Sir Walter Scott.
I can still see myself standing outside the railway station in Edinburgh on my very quick trip in and out of the country of my ancestors and remembering my grandfather reciting this to me. I desperately wanted to stay longer but could not – but I had to be able to tell him I had been too! (Thinking of it makes me ‘homesick’ for Scotland – if you can be for a place you have never lived in.)