Today's poet

[Alf]

TO THE UNATTAINABLE

Oh, that my blood were water, thou athirst,
And thou and I in some far Desert land,
How would I shed it gladly, if but first
It touched thy lips, before it reached the sand.


Once, -- Ah, the Gods were good to me, -- I threw
Myself upon a poison snake, that crept
Where my Beloved -- a lesser love we knew
Than this which now consumes me wholly -- slept.


But thou; Alas, what can I do for thee?
By Fate, and thine own beauty, set above
The need of all or any aid from me,
Too high for service, as too far for love.


Translated into English by: Laurence Hope (1865-1904)

[stevefoster]

7 posts short of the 10,000 on this thread!
A foolish idea Freckle, that was never going to catch on.

Can't understand why it's more popular than the 'bollock scratching' thread

[freckle]

I am reading this at the moment freckle http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2003...uardianreview5 and its very good (£7 paperback new free delivery Amazon)


He is buried in Helpston churchyard near Peterborough and the inscription on his gravestone reads:
"A Poet is born not made"

Thanks for this Alf...i loved the idea of a whole John Clare book devoted to flowers (that will be on my wish list for Xmas) and liked this commentry on the subject...

Why are poets drawn to flowers? They can be symbols of religious truth or sexual myth, emblems of fable or folk-tale. In the gardens of Milton or Marvell, flowers flourish by being tended or restrained. But wild flowers signify unconsidered beauty - a joy of nature stumbled on or luckily discovered.
Clare is delighted by "The little flower clumps by nothing nursed / But dews and sunshine and impartial rain". Being a labourer, flowers were what he relished when he was wandering or resting. They were at the edges of where what he called "culture" happened. Wild flowers were "sent to gladden hearts so mean as mine".

[freckle]

Can't understand why it's more popular than the 'bollock scratching' thread

I know, who would have thought eh? anyhoo old whippett isn't about time you wrote some original work again (no pressure), I thought you were rather good!

[freckle]

This is a very touching, heartfelt poem Hes. Your dilemma reminded me of this Larkin poem:

Philip Larkin - Love, We Must Part Now

Love, we must part now: do not let it be
Calamitious and bitter. In the past
There has been too much moonlight and self-pity:
Let us have done with it: for now at last
Never has sun more boldly paced the sky,
Never were hearts more eager to be free,
To kick down worlds, lash forests; you and I
No longer hold them; we are husks, that see
The grain going forward to a different use.

There is regret. Always, there is regret.
But it is better that our lives unloose,
As two tall ships, wind-mastered, wet with light,
Break from an estuary with their courses set,
And waving part, and waving drop from sight.

This is just so beautiful mossy, so poignant :-)

[dominion]

I know, who would have thought eh?
anyhoo old whippett
isn't about time you wrote some original work again
(no pressure),
I thought you were rather good!

It's difficult for us mere mortals to maintain the standards that you set Freckle...

[freckle]

It's difficult for us mere mortals to maintain the standards that you set Freckle...

i hope your not taking the michael Dom...the problem with this medium is I can't see your face to check! but I will give you the benefit of the doubt and take that as a compliment! :closed:

Anyhow...I can't believe it...10,000 posts...and to mark it this rather lovely poem by Clare...i think the content and the tone of this poem is something that surely all fell runners can relate to? there is just that sense, is there not, when your hills, that there is something much bigger than us....

The eternity of nature

All nature has a feeling: woods, fields, brooks
Are life eternal; and in silence they
Speak happiness beyond the reach of books;
There's nothing mortal in them; their decay
Is the green life of change; to pass away
And come again in blooms revivified.
Its birth was heaven, eternal is its stay,
And with the sun and moon shall still abide
Beneath their day and night and heaven wide.

ps Alftser -love the "unattainable poem"

[Alf]

i hope your not taking the michael Dom...the problem with this medium is I can't see your face to check! but I will give you the benefit of the doubt and take that as a compliment! :closed:

Anyhow...I can't believe it...10,000 posts...and to mark it this rather lovely poem by Clare...i think the content and the tone of this poem is something that surely all fell runners can relate to? there is just that sense, is there not, when your hills, that there is something much bigger than us....

The eternity of nature

All nature has a feeling: woods, fields, brooks
Are life eternal; and in silence they
Speak happiness beyond the reach of books;
There's nothing mortal in them; their decay
Is the green life of change; to pass away
And come again in blooms revivified.
Its birth was heaven, eternal is its stay,
And with the sun and moon shall still abide
Beneath their day and night and heaven wide.

ps Alftser -love the "unattainable poem"

10000 WoooHoooo !!


Great choice for the 10,000th post freckle, If this was the "bollock scratching" thread there would be some very sore blokes walking about by now :w00t:

[Stolly]

I blurted out this in the age grading thread earlier which Alf (albeit only Alf) thought was poetical. What d'yer think?

I like to think that I will eventually turn into some wizened, most probably hairy bearded and more than slightly bonkers mountain man that chooses to stay in the hills all the time, rarely bothering with civilisation. People walking in the hills will spot me flitting between the crags from time to time, although I'll become an increasingly rare sighting.....until one day I will, like Wainright, end up 'staying forever' in some remote tarn or other

[stevefoster]

10000 WoooHoooo !!


Great choice for the 10,000th post freckle, If this was the "bollock scratching" thread there would be some very sore blokes walking about by now :w00t:

It had to be freckle making that 10000th post
Doubt them blokes would be doing much walking Alf