People who know me well know that I used to write poetry ALL of the time. At any given moment, at any time of day, something would draw my attention away to a place where I'd have to communicate and because I was too shy to really speak my mind and express all the craziness of my thinking I'd spue it out in several lines of verse.
In highschool english class I dreaded the period of time when we'd have to learn about the complex ways that poets composed their poetry. Honestly, I could fathom that someone who was so moved to express their feelings thru verse would highly complicate the process and be all technical about it. So, I was bored by it, all of it.. ... well the technical aspect of it anyway. I can't to this day even pretend to try to break down one of Poe's poems or tell you what form of what Byron used to articulate feelings. Forget it.
Don't let that last paragraph mislead you though, cause in reality, despite the fact that Mrs. Huff had us disecting poetry, I really loved it, all of it. Classic poetry: Emily Dickinson, Edgar Allen Poe, Elizabeth Barrett Browing, Robert Browing, John Keats even some of Mark Twain (though he's my least favorite). It was Emily Dickinson that influenced me the most so I did my own thing and wrote, wrote and wrote some more. That's what I loved to do, second to painting or drawing. I loved it so much that I entered local contests, even went "BIG" time and got published in the Sunday paper in Jackson, KY of all places.
So I'm thinking about poetry tonight because Valentines Day is right around the corner. I'll never admit it in person nor will the words ever escape my lips, I'm a sucker for a good love poem and the way my heart pitter patters at the oooie gooie romantisism of it all.
Sonnet 14
If thou must love me, let it be for nought
Except for love's sake only. Do not say
'I love her for her smile—her look—her way
Of speaking gently,—for a trick of thought
That falls in well with mine, and certes brought
A sense of pleasant ease on such a day'—
For these things in themselves, Beloved, may
Be changed, or change for thee,—and love, so wrought,
May be unwrought so. Neither love me for
Thine own dear pity's wiping my cheeks dry,—
A creature might forget to weep, who bore
Thy comfort long, and lose thy love thereby!
But love me for love's sake, that evermore
Thou mayst love on, through love's eternity.
~ Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Thank goodness it's Friday. :)
In highschool english class I dreaded the period of time when we'd have to learn about the complex ways that poets composed their poetry. Honestly, I could fathom that someone who was so moved to express their feelings thru verse would highly complicate the process and be all technical about it. So, I was bored by it, all of it.. ... well the technical aspect of it anyway. I can't to this day even pretend to try to break down one of Poe's poems or tell you what form of what Byron used to articulate feelings. Forget it.
Don't let that last paragraph mislead you though, cause in reality, despite the fact that Mrs. Huff had us disecting poetry, I really loved it, all of it. Classic poetry: Emily Dickinson, Edgar Allen Poe, Elizabeth Barrett Browing, Robert Browing, John Keats even some of Mark Twain (though he's my least favorite). It was Emily Dickinson that influenced me the most so I did my own thing and wrote, wrote and wrote some more. That's what I loved to do, second to painting or drawing. I loved it so much that I entered local contests, even went "BIG" time and got published in the Sunday paper in Jackson, KY of all places.
So I'm thinking about poetry tonight because Valentines Day is right around the corner. I'll never admit it in person nor will the words ever escape my lips, I'm a sucker for a good love poem and the way my heart pitter patters at the oooie gooie romantisism of it all.
Sonnet 14
If thou must love me, let it be for nought
Except for love's sake only. Do not say
'I love her for her smile—her look—her way
Of speaking gently,—for a trick of thought
That falls in well with mine, and certes brought
A sense of pleasant ease on such a day'—
For these things in themselves, Beloved, may
Be changed, or change for thee,—and love, so wrought,
May be unwrought so. Neither love me for
Thine own dear pity's wiping my cheeks dry,—
A creature might forget to weep, who bore
Thy comfort long, and lose thy love thereby!
But love me for love's sake, that evermore
Thou mayst love on, through love's eternity.
~ Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Thank goodness it's Friday. :)
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