Poetry Not By You (Unless you're published + good)

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > Poetry Not By You (Unless you're published + good)

Hieronymous Alloy: Jan 30, 2009; Why! Why!! Why must you refuse to accept that Dr. Hieronymous Alloy's Genetically Enhanced Cream Corn Is Superior to the Leading Brand on the Market!?!; Morbid Hound

https://twitter.com/lake_scum/status/1127982075611578369

Anyway,

Franchescanado posted:

My dad read me this poem when I was a kid and I always enjoyed it. I'm interested in thoughts/criticisms about it.

It's opening verse is firmly etched in my memory, probably thanks the the sing-song rhythm, which was (apparently) inspired by Rudyard Kipling.

Any other poems I'd like?

Thanks for posting this, I hadn't seen before and yeah it's great. I think there's a specific kipling poem it's imitating but I'm not sure which one . Hrm.

maybe

https://www.poetryloverspage.com/poets/kipling/mandalay.html

maybe

https://www.bartleby.com/364/121.html

I also recommend Orwell's essay on Kipling every time Kipling's mentioned: https://www.george-orwell.org/Rudyard_Kipling/0.html

quote:

One can, perhaps, place
Kipling more satisfactorily than by juggling with the words 'verse' and
'poetry', if one describes him simply as a good bad poet. He is as a poet
what Harriet Beecher Stowe was as a novelist. And the mere existence of
work of this kind, which is perceived by generation after generation to
be vulgar and yet goes on being read, tells one something about the age
we live in.

. . . .

The merit of a poem like 'When all the world
is young, lad' is that, however sentimental it may be, its sentiment is
'true' sentiment in the sense that you are bound to find yourself
thinking the thought it expresses sooner or later; and then, if you
happen to know the poem, it will come back into your mind and seem better
than it did before. Such poems are a kind of rhyming proverb, and it is a
fact that definitely popular poetry is usually gnomic or sententious. One
example from Kipling will do:

White hands cling to the bridle rein,
Slipping the spur from the booted heel;
Tenderest voices cry 'Turn again!'
Red lips tarnish the scabbarded steel:
Down to Gehenna or up to the Throne,
He travels the fastest who travels alone.

There is a vulgar thought vigorously expressed. It may not be true, but
at any rate it is a thought that everyone thinks. Sooner or later you
will have occasion to feel that he travels the fastest who travels alone,
and there the thought is, ready made and, as it were, waiting for you. So
the chances are that, having once heard this line, you will remember it.

Hieronymous Alloy fucked around with this message at 15:36 on May 15, 2019

# ¿ May 15, 2019 15:23

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# ¿ May 16, 2024 20:24

Hieronymous Alloy: Jan 30, 2009; Why! Why!! Why must you refuse to accept that Dr. Hieronymous Alloy's Genetically Enhanced Cream Corn Is Superior to the Leading Brand on the Market!?!; Morbid Hound

My favorite Irish poet is probably Seamus Heaney

quote:

Scaffolding

Masons, when they start upon a building,
Are careful to test out the scaffolding;

Make sure that planks won’t slip at busy points,
Secure all ladders, tighten bolted joints.

And yet all this comes down when the job’s done
Showing off walls of sure and solid stone.

So if, my dear, there sometimes seem to be
Old bridges breaking between you and me

Never fear. We may let the scaffolds fall
Confident that we have built our wall

quote:

The Guttural Muse

Late summer, and at midnight
I smelt the heat of the day:
At my window over the hotel car park
I breathed the muddied night airs off the lake
And watched a young crowd leave the discotheque.

Their voices rose up thick and comforting
As oily bubbles the feeding tench sent up
That evening at dusk � the slimy tench
Once called the �doctor fish� because his slime
Was said to heal the wounds of fish that touched it.

A girl in a white dress
Was being courted out among the cars:
As her voice swarmed and puddled into laughs
I felt like some old pike all badged with sores
Wanting to swim in touch with soft-mouthed life.

Hieronymous Alloy fucked around with this message at 23:25 on Aug 31, 2019

# ¿ Aug 31, 2019 23:15

Hieronymous Alloy: Jan 30, 2009; Why! Why!! Why must you refuse to accept that Dr. Hieronymous Alloy's Genetically Enhanced Cream Corn Is Superior to the Leading Brand on the Market!?!; Morbid Hound

Eat The Rich posted:

Hi. I'm new to poetry. What is everyone's favorite poetry books(collection??) ?

https://twitter.com/peterbourgon/status/807757490310025216

Also the Edna St. Vincent Millay translations of Baudelaire's Fleurs du Mal

basically though skim the thread above it's full of good poo poo

Hieronymous Alloy fucked around with this message at 05:21 on Sep 7, 2019

# ¿ Sep 7, 2019 05:18

Hieronymous Alloy: Jan 30, 2009; Why! Why!! Why must you refuse to accept that Dr. Hieronymous Alloy's Genetically Enhanced Cream Corn Is Superior to the Leading Brand on the Market!?!; Morbid Hound

chernobyl kinsman posted:

let's have some good proper british poems that every red-blooded man and boy ought to appreciate

Me, in real life, just now

me and some folks walking out of a bar
friend of mine, his shoe's untied
i say "hey man, your shoe's untied"
he says "I'm fine with it"
I say "ok, so long as you're master of your sole"

# ¿ Jun 25, 2021 01:27

Hieronymous Alloy: Jan 30, 2009; Why! Why!! Why must you refuse to accept that Dr. Hieronymous Alloy's Genetically Enhanced Cream Corn Is Superior to the Leading Brand on the Market!?!; Morbid Hound

wode posted:

That's good to hear! I'm insecure about liking her

She's one of those where you think she' neat at first, then you read her more and start thinking she's trite, then you read her more and realize she's far better than you'd been willing to accept.

It takes a lot of skill to make it look that easy.

# ¿ Jan 5, 2023 19:17

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# ¿ May 16, 2024 20:24

Hieronymous Alloy: Jan 30, 2009; Why! Why!! Why must you refuse to accept that Dr. Hieronymous Alloy's Genetically Enhanced Cream Corn Is Superior to the Leading Brand on the Market!?!; Morbid Hound

It's fuckin' brilliant and I I wish I knew more ways to publicize it.

# ¿ Jul 7, 2023 12:40

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