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Geek Culture / Favorite poems?

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Neuro Fuzzy
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Joined: 11th Jun 2007
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Posted: 6th Apr 2011 13:10
So... A while ago, I decided to set "The Raven" as my desktop. Whenever my computer started up, I would read it again, and I ended up memorizing it! It's 15 or 18 verses or something, and my memorizing it wasn't wholly intentional - I was reading the poem because I liked to read it - but I definitely didn't put much effort into it. I then decided to do the same thing to other poems by Poe.

So now I have "The Raven", "Dream within a dream", "Annabelle Lee", and "Eldorado" in my head. Now, I know that there are other magnificent poems out there, but I'm having a bit of trouble finding them.

The only other poem I can think of that is as good as "The Raven" is "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner".

Code eater
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Location: Behind You!
Posted: 6th Apr 2011 14:03
I am a big fan of "The Raven" and actually based some of my english coursework on it last year

My favourite is probably this:

When I was born, I was black.
When I grew up, I was black.
When I get hot, I am black.
When I get cold, I am black.
When I am sick, I am black.
When I die, I am black.

When you were born, You were pink.
When you grew up, You were white.
When you get hot, You go red.
When you get cold, You go blue.
When you are sick, You go green.
When you die, You go purple.

and yet you call me coloured...

If pots and pans were "if"s and "and"s there would be no work for programmer's hands...
Darth Kiwi
20
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Location: On the brink of insanity.
Posted: 6th Apr 2011 14:33
All those poems you listed are gothic poems, so maybe you'd like other things in that genre?

My favourite gothic novel is "Vathek", by William Beckford. It's absolutely fantastic: Vathek is the exotic and wilful ruler of a huge empire but all he's interested in is pleasure and gaining even more power, and he really doesn't care if he does terrible things to his loyal citizens to get them. It's also only 100 pages long, so it's very dense and readable. I'd really advise reading the first ten pages or so just to see if you like it. This version seems readable and free, so you might want to take a peek.

The big gothic novels are The Castle of Otranto, The Mysteries of Udolpho and The Monk. I've not read any of them so it might be worth taking a look at the first few pages just to see if you like them. They are pretty long, however.

Also, if you like The Raven and Annabel Lee, you'll love most of what Poe's written. Poe is actually a weirdly flexible writer: he can write spine-chilling horror but he also has a go at satire and detective fiction. (In fact, he basically invented the detective story.) So not everything he writes is like The Raven - but you might want to check out the well-known ones like The Telltale Heart, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Black Cat, Berenice, Ligeia, Morella and The Cask of Amontillado.

As for poems... hm... Well, I have always loved Keats:

When I have fears that I may cease to be
Before my pen has glean'd my teeming brain,
Before high-piled books, in charactery,
Hold like rich garners the full ripen'd grain;
When I behold, upon the night's starr'd face,
Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance,
And think that I may never live to trace
Their shadows, with the magic hand of chance;
And when I feel, fair creature of an hour,
That I shall never look upon thee more,
Never have relish in the faery power
Of unreflecting love;--then on the shore
Of the wide world I stand alone, and think
Till love and fame to nothingness do sink.

Secretary of Unknowable Knowledge for the Rock/Dink administration '08
Fallout
22
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Location: Basingstoke, England
Posted: 6th Apr 2011 17:16
I love the Rime of the Ancient Mariner. I also love the Iron Maiden version which tales the tale in an easily digestible 13 minutes, with numerous quote from the original poem.

Neuro Fuzzy
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Posted: 6th Apr 2011 17:27 Edited at: 6th Apr 2011 17:30
Iron maiden version? I might just have to check that out...

These are my favorite lines:
Quote: "Oh sleep! it is a gentle thing,
Beloved from pole to pole!
To Mary-Queen the praise be given!
...She sent the gentle sleep from heaven,
That slid into my soul.

The silly buckets on the deck,
That had so long remained,
I dreamt that they were filled with dew;
And when I awoke, it rained."

which is amazing! This verse is around the middle of the poem (I think), and saying whether or not there's water available means life or death for the narrator. With the last to words of that excerpt, the rhyme scheme, set up, and implications all are tied together!

Ahh, and I love The Cask of Amontillado! I was playing minecraft, and my friend was AFK in a cave, so I re-enacted the final scenes using half blocks

I don't know that it's the melancholy themes of poe's works that I like. I definitely love the rhyme schemes, and the rhythm when read aloud has some great crescendos and transitions. One of the reasons I like "The Raven" so much, is that this guy completely loses his head over a bird that is saying one word. The bird isn't hardly saying anything, and the narrator seems to take his own thoughts and feelings, and pretend it was the bird who said it!

Fallout
22
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Joined: 1st Sep 2002
Location: Basingstoke, England
Posted: 6th Apr 2011 17:30
Full version is on YouTube, thanks to their new 10+ minute policy ...



Van B
Moderator
22
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Joined: 8th Oct 2002
Location: Sunnyvale
Posted: 6th Apr 2011 18:04
I like One Fine Day. It reminds me of all those funny scottish poems, but it's just classic.

Quote: "
One fine day in the middle of the night,
Two dead boys got up to fight,
Back to back they faced each other,
Drew their swords and shot each other,

One was blind and the other couldn't, see
So they chose a dummy for a referee.
A blind man went to see fair play,
A dumb man went to shout "hooray!"
A paralysed donkey passing by,
Kicked the blind man in the eye,
Knocked him through a nine inch wall,
Into a dry ditch and drowned them all,

A deaf policeman heard the noise,
And came to arrest the two dead boys, If you don't believe this story’s true,
Ask the blind man he saw it too!
"


Health, Ammo, and bacon and eggs!
budokaiman
FPSC Tool Maker
15
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Joined: 24th Jun 2009
Playing: Hard to get
Posted: 7th Apr 2011 15:39
Death Be Not Proud:

Quote: "DEATH be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadfull, for, thou art not so,
For, those, whom thou think'st, thou dost overthrow,
Die not, poore death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
From rest and sleepe, which but thy pictures bee,
Much pleasure, then from thee, much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee doe goe,
Rest of their bones, and soules deliverie.
Thou art slave to Fate, Chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poyson, warre, and sicknesse dwell,
And poppie, or charmes can make us sleepe as well,
And better then thy stroake; why swell'st thou then;
One short sleepe past, wee wake eternally,
And death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die."


C0wbox
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Location: 0,50,-150
Posted: 7th Apr 2011 16:11
My favourite poem is Leisure by William Henry Davies.

Zotoaster
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Joined: 20th Dec 2004
Location: Scotland
Posted: 7th Apr 2011 21:16
'A man's a man for a' that' by Robert Burns
'My block' by Tupac Shakur

"everyone forgets a semi-colon sometimes." - Phaelax

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