![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tarotgalGacked from Hermione: When you see this poem in my lj, post one in yours.
Well, Hermione took Jabberwalky, which is what I would have posted :-) And everyone and their mother is probably sick of my most favorite poem (Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Eve) and even though I know those by heart and wouldn't have to pull one of my books off the shelf for this, I'm going to pick one I have to do that for.
I'm half tempted to post When We Two Parted by Byron because I adore that one and memorized it back when I was 16. And even though I know the story behind it and the women he refers to in the poem, I've always believed it was about a secret gay love affair. LOL! Sorry, he and Percy Shelly and Methos are all too cute together not to think slashy thoughts about them, even back before I knew what slash was! LOL! look at me being all RPSy!
But, instead, my absolute favorite Lord Byron poem. *snuggles Byron* I know he was insane, but I still love him to death :-) And I admire how very much he loved and was inspired by the Greek myths.
Prometheus
1.
Titan! To whose immortal eyes
The sufferings of mortality,
Seen in their sad reality,
Were not as things that gods despise;
What was thy pity's recompense?
A silent suffering, and intense;
The rock, the vulture, and the chain,
All that the proud can feel of pain,
The agony they do not show,
The suffocating sense of woe,
Which speaks but in its loneliness,
And then is jealous lest the sky
Should have a listener, nor will sigh
Until its voice is echoless.
2.
Titan! to thee the strife was given
Between the suffering and the will,
Which torture where they cannot kill;
And the inexorable Heaven,
And the deaf tyranny of Fate,
The ruling principle of Hate,
Which for its pleasure doth create
The things it may annihilate,
Refus'd thee even the boon to die:
The wretched gift Eternity
Was thine--and thou hast borne it well.
All that the Thunderer wrung from thee
Was but the menace which flung back
On him the torments of thy rack;
The fate thou didst so well foresee,
But would not to appease him tell;
And in thy Silence was his Sentence,
And in his Soul a vain repentance,
And evil dread so ill dissembled,
That in his hand the lightnings trembled.
3.
Thy Godlike crime was to be kind,
To render with thy precepts less
The sum of human wretchedness,
And strengthen Man with his own mind;
But baffled as thou wert from high,
Still in thy patient energy,
In the endurance, and repulse
Of thine impenetrable Spirit,
Which Earth and Heaven could not convulse,
A mighty lesson we inherit:
Thou art a symbol and a sign
To Mortals of their fate and force;
Like thee, Man is in part divine,
A troubled stream from a pure source;
And Man in portions can foresee
His own funereal destiny;
His wretchedness, and his resistance,
And his sad unallied existence:
To which his Spirit may oppose
Itself--an equal to all woes,
And a firm will, and a deep sense,
Which even in torture can descry
Its own concenter'd recompense,
Triumphant where it dares defy,
And making Death a Victory.
*deep, happy sigh* Just be glad I didn't pick his Don Juan! LOL!
EDIT: Yes, that's Lord Byron and Methos and Mary Shelly in bed together in my mood picture *BEG* I really am jealous of George's poetry skills, but I couldn't resit pointing them out there!
Well, Hermione took Jabberwalky, which is what I would have posted :-) And everyone and their mother is probably sick of my most favorite poem (Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Eve) and even though I know those by heart and wouldn't have to pull one of my books off the shelf for this, I'm going to pick one I have to do that for.
I'm half tempted to post When We Two Parted by Byron because I adore that one and memorized it back when I was 16. And even though I know the story behind it and the women he refers to in the poem, I've always believed it was about a secret gay love affair. LOL! Sorry, he and Percy Shelly and Methos are all too cute together not to think slashy thoughts about them, even back before I knew what slash was! LOL! look at me being all RPSy!
But, instead, my absolute favorite Lord Byron poem. *snuggles Byron* I know he was insane, but I still love him to death :-) And I admire how very much he loved and was inspired by the Greek myths.
Prometheus
1.
Titan! To whose immortal eyes
The sufferings of mortality,
Seen in their sad reality,
Were not as things that gods despise;
What was thy pity's recompense?
A silent suffering, and intense;
The rock, the vulture, and the chain,
All that the proud can feel of pain,
The agony they do not show,
The suffocating sense of woe,
Which speaks but in its loneliness,
And then is jealous lest the sky
Should have a listener, nor will sigh
Until its voice is echoless.
2.
Titan! to thee the strife was given
Between the suffering and the will,
Which torture where they cannot kill;
And the inexorable Heaven,
And the deaf tyranny of Fate,
The ruling principle of Hate,
Which for its pleasure doth create
The things it may annihilate,
Refus'd thee even the boon to die:
The wretched gift Eternity
Was thine--and thou hast borne it well.
All that the Thunderer wrung from thee
Was but the menace which flung back
On him the torments of thy rack;
The fate thou didst so well foresee,
But would not to appease him tell;
And in thy Silence was his Sentence,
And in his Soul a vain repentance,
And evil dread so ill dissembled,
That in his hand the lightnings trembled.
3.
Thy Godlike crime was to be kind,
To render with thy precepts less
The sum of human wretchedness,
And strengthen Man with his own mind;
But baffled as thou wert from high,
Still in thy patient energy,
In the endurance, and repulse
Of thine impenetrable Spirit,
Which Earth and Heaven could not convulse,
A mighty lesson we inherit:
Thou art a symbol and a sign
To Mortals of their fate and force;
Like thee, Man is in part divine,
A troubled stream from a pure source;
And Man in portions can foresee
His own funereal destiny;
His wretchedness, and his resistance,
And his sad unallied existence:
To which his Spirit may oppose
Itself--an equal to all woes,
And a firm will, and a deep sense,
Which even in torture can descry
Its own concenter'd recompense,
Triumphant where it dares defy,
And making Death a Victory.
*deep, happy sigh* Just be glad I didn't pick his Don Juan! LOL!
EDIT: Yes, that's Lord Byron and Methos and Mary Shelly in bed together in my mood picture *BEG* I really am jealous of George's poetry skills, but I couldn't resit pointing them out there!
no subject
Date: 2004-10-21 04:20 pm (UTC)So much insane love do I have for him. Every art project, every place where it's appropriate for a quote to be placed, I manage to weasel him in somehow :D Hell, even my dragon on a Dragonriders of Pern game I'm on is based loosely on him.
I do love this poem. I think my favorites are, of course, "She Walks in Beauty" and "The Destruction of Sennacherib".
Though I'm afraid I don't subscribe to the idea that he was secretly teh gay /:)
P.S. Bloodlust. Watched it yet?
no subject
Date: 2004-10-26 01:35 am (UTC)Ooh, good choice. Lord Byron has to be my absolute favorite writer/poet. Ever.
So much insane love do I have for him. Every art project, every place where it's appropriate for a quote to be placed, I manage to weasel him in somehow :D Hell, even my dragon on a Dragonriders of Pern game I'm on is based loosely on him.
I do love this poem. I think my favorites are, of course, "She Walks in Beauty" and "The Destruction of Sennacherib".
I love both of those. Sometimes I feel 'She Walks' is far too overused... but the rhythm and meter are sooo gorgeous that I fall right in love again every time I hear it. There's something about the sound of the words 'aspect' and 'eyes' together at the end of a stanza that just get me every time no matter what.
Ooh, good choice. Lord Byron has to be my absolute favorite writer/poet. Ever.
Oohhhh go YOU!
So much insane love do I have for him. Every art project, every place where it's appropriate for a quote to be placed, I manage to weasel him in somehow :D Hell, even my dragon on a Dragonriders of Pern game I'm on is based loosely on him.
You're too great! :-) heehee That's just fantastic :-)
Though I'm afraid I don't subscribe to the idea that he was secretly teh gay /:)
I definitely wouldn't say gay. No, there's FAR too much evidence that he loved the ladies. But I like to think of him- and perhaps it's the poet part- as open and unrestricted. I can see him embracing emotions very enthusiastically and willingly, with no boundaries when it comes to love and passion and thrills. Whether it's loving a married woman or anyone else he "shouldn't" have, I can see him not caring about such things and letting himself feel that love, though it makes him a bit crazy.
Point is, I wouldn't say gay. Bisexual if anything, in my mind. But I can't really put a label on it and wouldn't want to try. I just see him as open to many different sorts of experiences and loves and not wanting to deny those loves even when he knows he must at times. Anyhoo... I still like him with Percy *G*
no subject
Date: 2004-10-26 01:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-10-26 03:52 pm (UTC)YES. I love that paaart. Hell, the first four lines just about make me swoon right then and there. I agree that the poem is a bit overrused, but...at least it's justified in that the poem is beautiful.
Lalala, happy little Byron bubble ^_^;