IF

[ChezMorgan]

If by Rudyard kipling ( my favorite poem ) Dedicated to The Forum by Me :wink:


IF you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
' Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,
if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!

 

[hanadr]

It was voted Britai's favourite poem in a Radio 4 poll a couple of years ago. However, when you discuss it with students, turns out not many actually understand it. I love it too

 

[tubolard]

My favourite poem is This be the verse by Larkin. I heard it for the first time when they broadcast "Philip Larkin: Love and Death in Hull". It literally had me on the floor rolling with laughter, I won't quote it here, the opening line doncha know.

Regards, Tubs.

 

[hanadr]

I am a believer and Chesterton's "The Donkey" makes the hairs on my arms stand up.

 

[Thirsty]

Another vote for Larkin. His gloomy cynicism entertains me enormously.

 

[suzi]

I love anything by Roald Dahl,
must be the big kid in me! i especially like the poems where he has taken old fairytales and completely twisted them, Jack and the Beanstalk being one of my favourites.

 

[VBee]

My favourite poem "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" by Robert Frost:

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

I also like the lovesong of J Alfred Prufrock by T.S. Elliot, which is too long to quote so here is the link.

And finally, this is a nonsense poem by perhaps Spike Milligan or Roger McGough. Can't remember...

The Sausage is a funny bird
With feathers long and wavy
It swims around in a frying pan
And makes its nest in gravy

 

[sugarless sue]

IF you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

Think I might adopt that as the moderator's motto!! :lol: :lol:

 

[Jem]

my favourite poem:

Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley


I met a traveller from an antique land

Who said: `Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,

Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,

And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.

And on the pedestal these words appear --

"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:

Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"


Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare

The lone and level sands stretch far away.'

 

[wiflib]

And my favourite that never fails to make me smile

The Symptoms of Love
by William Cowper

Would my Delia know if I love, let her take
My last thought at night, and the first when I wake;
With my prayers and best wishes preferred for her sake.

Let her guess what I muse on, when rambling alone
I stride o'er the stubble each day with my gun,
Never ready to shoot till the covey is flown.

Let her think what odd whimsies I have in my brain,
When I read one page over and over again,
And discover at last that I read it in vain.

Let her say why so fixed and so steady my look,
Without ever regarding the person who spoke,
Still affecting to laugh, without hearing the joke.

Or why when the pleasure her praises I hear,
(That sweetest of melody sure to my ear),
I attend, and at once inattentive appear.

And lastly, when summoned to drink to my flame,
Let her guess why I never once mention her name,
Though herself and the woman I love are the same.

 

[999sugarbabe]

The highwayman rode across the moor,
a pistol in his breeches;
He gave a cough, the gun went off,
and he needed 15 stiches!

 

[sugarless sue]

A little poem for all my cyber friends.


CYBERSPACE

Cyber space can't see your face,
Cyber space can't see your race,
Fat or thin,
Ugly as sin,
Cyber space makes us free,
Simply to be who we want to be.

 

[Bubsy Malone]

I can't remember who wrote an "alternative" Little Red Riding Hood but one line I particularly remember is:
The small girl smiles, an eyelid flickers, she whips a pistol from her knickers!

You can guess the general tone of the poem from that!

 

[jallsop]

As you can see from my signature, this is my favourite poem ...

Jackie

 

[tubolard]

Bubsy, It was Roald Dahl himself what writ that.

Here's one for the naturists:

Celia, Celia by Adrian Mitchell

When I am sad and weary,
When I think all hope has gone,
When I walk along High Holborn
I think of you with nothing on

Regards,

 

[suzi]

A taste of Roald Dahl,
Jack and the beanstalk ;
You crazy boy! D'you really mean
You sold our Daisy for a bean?
She snatched the bean. She yelled, "You chump!"
And flung it on the rubbish-dump.
Then summoned up all her power,
She beat the boy for half an hour,
Using(and nothing could be meaner)
The handle of a vacuum-cleaner.

The Emperors New Clothes
Some ladies blushed and hid their eyes
And uttered plaintive cries.
But some, it seemed, enjoyed the pleasures
Of looking at the royal treasures.
A brazen wrench, cried "Oh my hat!
Hey girls, just take a look at that!"
The Queen, who'd seen it all before,
Made swiftly for the nearest door.
Just a few i'd thought i'd share a few of my favourite, now for a coffee and the rest of the book.
Suzi x