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...s. As before about Sigemund and Heremod, so now, though at greater length, about Finn and his feud, a lay is chanted or recited; and the epic poet, counting on his readers’ familiarity with the story, -- a fragment of it still exists, -- simply gives the headings.

{16e} The exact story to which this episode refers in summary is not to be determined, but the following account of it is reasonable and has good support among scholars. Finn, a Frisian chieftain, who nevertheles...Read more of this...

...Fear too dim to me
That I could spell the Prayer
I knew so perfect -- yesterday --
That Scalding One -- Sabachthani --
Recited fluent -- here --

Earth would have been too much -- I see --
And Heaven -- not enough for me --
I should have had the Joy
Without the Fear -- to justify --
The Palm -- without the Calvary --
So Savior -- Crucify --
Defeat -- whets Victory -- they say --
The Reefs -- in old Gethsemane --
Endear the Coast -- beyond!
'Tis Beggars -- Banquets -- can def...Read more of this...

...cere, and in controverse mute, 
She showed she knew better to live than dispute. 

Some parts of the Bible by heart she recited, 
And much in historical chapters delighted, 
But in points about Faith she was something short sighted; 

So notions and modes she refer'd to the schools, 
And in matters of conscience adher'd to two rules, 
To advise with no bigots, and jest with no fools. 

And scrupling but little, enough she believ'd, 
By charity ample small sins she retriev'd, ...Read more of this...

...e drank it all in, rugged and dusky.
I think I know what he was thinking. 
He held his automatic to my little head 
and recited a poem about my many weaknesses, 
for which I loved him so....Read more of this...

...e drank it all in, rugged and dusky.
I think I know what he was thinking. 
He held his automatic to my little head 
and recited a poem about my many weaknesses, 
for which I loved him so....Read more of this...

...s worse.
I would not have known any of this but for my reluctance to eat oatmeal 
 alone.
When breakfast was over, John recited "To Autumn."
He recited it slowly, with much feeling, and he articulated the words 
 lovingly, and his odd accent sounded sweet.
He didn't offer the story of writing "To Autumn," I doubt if there 
 is much of one.
But he did say the sight of a just-harvested oat field go thim started 
 on it, and two of the lines, "For Summer has o'er-brimmed their 
...Read more of this...

..." I said. "You're right there. "

 I cast out again and continued talking about Great Falls.

 Then in correct order I recited the twelve least important

things ever said about Great Falls, Montana. For the twelfth

and least important thing of all, I said, "Yeah, the telephone

would ring in the morning. I'd get out of bed. I didn't have to

answer the telephone. That had all been taken care of, years

in advance.

 "It would still be dark outside and the yellow wallpaper ...Read more of this...

...(Newdigate prize poem recited in the Sheldonian Theatre Oxford 
June
26th, 1878.

To my friend George Fleming author of 'The Nile Novel' and
'Mirage')


I.


A year ago I breathed the Italian air, -
And yet, methinks this northern Spring is fair,-
These fields made golden with the flower of March,
The throstle singing on the feathered larch,
The cawing rooks, the wood-doves flutt...Read more of this...

...the lectern, rocking it, searching
the faces for the souls, for signs of heartfelt
mindfulness at work, I thought, as I recited
words I wrote in tears: instead of tears,
if I had understood my father's business,
I could be selling men's clothes. I could be
kneeling, complimenting someone at the bay
of mirrors, mumblingly, with pinpoints pressed
between my lips. That was the life I held
in scorn while young, because I thought to live
without distraction, using words. Yet, look...Read more of this...

...ul; parents and neighbours too;
Right in the forefront, Millie, close to the Christmas Tree.
While Billie, her brother, recited "The Shooting of Dan McGrew."

I reckon you've heard the opus, a ballad of guts and gore;
Of a Yukon frail and a frozen trail and a fight in a dringing dive,
It's on a par, I figger, with "The Face on the Bar-Room Floor,"
And the boys who wrote them pieces ought to be skinned alive.

Picture that scene of gladness; the honest faces aglow;
The kiddies...Read more of this...

...ns blowing and plucking their instruments, mourning the departed. Then the leaders came forward one after the other and recited their eulogies with fine choice of words. 

At last the multitude departed, leaving the dead resting in a most spacious and beautiful vault, expertly designed in stone and iron, and surrounded by the most expensively-entwined wreaths of flowers. 

The farewell-bidders returned to the city and I remained, watching them from a distance and speaking sof...Read more of this...

...the court chaplain, Dr. Kogel,
Which touched the hearts of his hearers, as from his lips it fell,
And in conclusion he recited the Lord's Prayer
In the presence of kings, princes, dukes, and counts assembled there. 

And at the end of the service the infantry outside fired volley after volley,
While the people inside the cathedral felt melancholy,
As the sound of the musketry smote upon the ear,
In honour of the illustrous William, whom they loved most dear. 

Then there was...Read more of this...

...to hide
the shambles of his old age, his mind turns
to the share in youth that still belongs to him.

His verse is now recited by young men.
His visions come before their lively eyes.
Their healthy sensual minds,
their shapely taut bodies
stir to his perception of the beautiful.


Trans. by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard...Read more of this...

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