Results 1 to 30 of 45

Thread: Best lines of Poetry or Literature

Hybrid View

Previous Post Previous Post   Next Post Next Post
  1. #1

    Default Re: Best lines of Poetry or Literature

    Mother died today.
    Last edited by Craterus; 12-09-2009 at 01:32.

  2. #2
    One of the Undutchables Member The Stranger's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2004
    Location
    Nowhere...
    Posts
    11,757

    Default Re: Best lines of Poetry or Literature

    my my crate-boy also lives :P

    who wrote that piece? you?

    We do not sow.

  3. #3

    Default Re: Best lines of Poetry or Literature

    Too tough to die

    And, are you joking?
    Last edited by Craterus; 12-09-2009 at 02:24.

  4. #4
    One of the Undutchables Member The Stranger's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2004
    Location
    Nowhere...
    Posts
    11,757

    Default Re: Best lines of Poetry or Literature

    Quote Originally Posted by Craterus View Post
    Too tough to die

    And, are you joking?
    i know now, I read the book myself aswell... but I read it in french, your translation didnt ring a bell. it was the opening line if i recall correct? it is very good, like poetry. i like it.

    We do not sow.

  5. #5
    Senior Member Senior Member naut's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2005
    Posts
    9,103

    Default Re: Best lines of Poetry or Literature

    Quote Originally Posted by Craterus View Post
    Mother died today.
    Quote Originally Posted by The Stranger View Post
    my my crate-boy also lives :P

    who wrote that piece? you?
    L’Étranger, Camus --- magnifique.



    They are not long, the days of wine and roses:
    Out of a misty dream
    Our path emerges for a while, then closes
    Within a dream.


    Ernest Dowson.
    Last edited by naut; 12-09-2009 at 02:33.
    #Hillary4prism

    BD:TW

    Some piously affirm: "The truth is such and such. I know! I see!"
    And hold that everything depends upon having the “right” religion.
    But when one really knows, one has no need of religion. - Mahavyuha Sutra

    Freedom necessarily involves risk. - Alan Watts

  6. #6
    Philologist Senior Member ajaxfetish's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2005
    Location
    Indiana
    Posts
    2,132

    Default Re: Best lines of Poetry or Literature

    Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble. He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down; he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not.

    And I said, Oh that I had wings like a dove! for then would I fly away, and be at rest.

    A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.

    To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.

    Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm: for love is strong as death . . . Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it.

    And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

    I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.
    Here's a few favorites from one text.

    Ajax

    "I do not yet know how chivalry will fare in these calamitous times of ours." --- Don Quixote
    "I have no words, my voice is in my sword." --- Shakespeare
    "I can picture in my mind a world without war, a world without hate. And I can picture us attacking that world, because they'd never expect it." --- Jack Handey

  7. #7
    Senior Member Senior Member naut's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2005
    Posts
    9,103

    Default Re: Best lines of Poetry or Literature

    So it goes.

    Kurt Vonnegut.
    Last edited by naut; 12-09-2009 at 05:13.
    #Hillary4prism

    BD:TW

    Some piously affirm: "The truth is such and such. I know! I see!"
    And hold that everything depends upon having the “right” religion.
    But when one really knows, one has no need of religion. - Mahavyuha Sutra

    Freedom necessarily involves risk. - Alan Watts

  8. #8
    Just another Member rajpoot's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Location
    Neverland
    Posts
    2,810

    Default Re: Best lines of Poetry or Literature

    One is in my sig.

    Another favourite is by Byron -
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

    She walks in beauty, like the night
    Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
    And all that's best of dark and bright,
    Meet in her aspect and her eyes;


    And a third one from a translation of Omar Khayyam, can't rightly remember who translation it was;
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

    Morning when dawn's left hand was in the sky,
    I heard a voice within the tavern cry,
    Awake my little ones and fill the cup,
    Before life's liquor in its cup be dry....


    And a fourth one which I nearly forgot...don't even remember who it is by.....read it in a RD book of Wit and Wisdom ages back;
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

    I praise the Frenchman, his remark was shrewd,
    How sweet, how passing sweet, is solitude!
    But grant me still a friend in my retreat
    Whom I may whisper, solitude is sweet.


    Great thread by the way.....lots of potential.
    Last edited by rajpoot; 12-09-2009 at 06:44.


    The horizon is nothing save the limit of our sight.

  9. #9
    Member Member Sevis's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2009
    Location
    Netherlands
    Posts
    165

    Default Re: Best lines of Poetry or Literature

    I am considering learning this bit by heart:
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 
    The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.

    H. P. Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu


    And, a poem:
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 
    "Wretches! ye loved her for her wealth and hated her for her pride,
    And when she fell in feeble health, ye blessed her- that she died!
    How shall the ritual, then, be read? — the requiem how be sung
    By you — by yours, the evil eye, — by yours, the slanderous tongue
    That did to death the innocence that died, and died so young?"

    E. A. Poe, Lenore


    EDIT: Oh, and almost forgot a recent jewel I discovered (non-English, I hope you don't mind):
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 
    Daar waren eens drie studentjes
    Drie vrienden in lust en in nood;
    Ze sprongen zoo moedig de wereld in,
    En de wereld - trapte ze dood.

    P. Paaltjens, Drie Studentjes
    P. Paaltjens, Three Little Students
    Last edited by Sevis; 12-09-2009 at 07:06.

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •  
Single Sign On provided by vBSSO