Monday, June 18, 2007

The Post Where I Reveal My Favorite. Poem. Ever. Today, Anyway.

This was really, really hard because I like so many different poems for so many different reasons.

I looked through everything: Neruda, Auden, Burns, Teasdale, Browning, Keats, Dickinson, cummings, Frost - and more and more. I remembered poems I had forgotten and saw my tastes change throughout my life.

Finally, I remembered it. And this is my favorite poem. Today, anyway.



The Lake Isle of Innisfree
by William Butler Yeats

I WILL arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made;
Nine bean rows will I have there, a hive for the honey bee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight's all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet's wings.

I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements gray,
I hear it in the deep heart's core.

3 comments:

Heather New said...

My second favorite is W.H. Auden's The More Loving One .

The More Loving One
by W. H. Auden


Looking up at the stars, I know quite well
That, for all they care, I can go to hell,
But on earth indifference is the least
We have to dread from man or beast.

How should we like it were stars to burn
With a passion for us we could not return?
If equal affection cannot be,
Let the more loving one be me.

Admirer as I think I am
Of stars that do not give a damn,
I cannot, now I see them, say
I missed one terribly all day.

Were all stars to disappear or die,
I should learn to look at an empty sky
And feel its total dark sublime,
Though this might take me a little time.

Christy said...

OMG! You want to be a hermit! I think it's interesting to consider that happiness = simplicity. Thanks for posting it.

Katie Alender said...

Beautiful, Heather, both of them!

If you are a hermit, I'll come visit you. ;-)