Lithe Lyrics

With sounds that gather round the ocean’s shore,
the whimsied muse her lithesome being girds
in utterances from unfathomed store.

Akin to Alice dwelling in absurds
the words go round and round in Cheshire grin
when off I go on romp of rhyming thirds

in artless manner, thus to just begin
meandering without foregone design,
so lines will somehow write themselves therein

while lyric phrases choose to intertwine
in threes, as Dante Alighieri’s do
for epic opus ‘Comedy Divine’.

I turn to Chaucer as the first who drew
upon the terza rima for his scheme
in English, joining poets in the queue,

then on to Shelley, later in the stream,
who famously composed his ‘West Wind Ode’
which lifts his voice o’er earth as if in dream

throughout rhapsodic stanzas onward flowed
across the universe as ‘dead thoughts’ tossed
like withered leaves, in his romantic mode. 

And yet my impetus derived from Frost
whose tercet rhyme “Acquainted with the Night”
delves into darkness when the daytime’s lost.

For oft I raise my gaze to starry height
when melancholy dims the worldly light.


~ Harley White


* * * * * * * * *


The form of the poem is Terza Rima, and inspiration derived from the literary works referred to in the poem as well as some others…

Copyright © | Year Posted 2019



Post Comments

Poetrysoup is an environment of encouragement and growth so only provide specific positive comments that indicate what you appreciate about the poem. Negative comments will result your account being banned.

Please Login to post a comment

Date: 5/17/2020 11:16:00 AM
A wonderfully written Terza Rima as well, Harley, I am enjoying your poetry this morning. John
Login to Reply
White Avatar
Harley White
Date: 5/17/2020 5:13:00 PM
I'm delighted that you have been exploring my poems! I truly appreciate it!
Date: 5/22/2019 6:39:00 AM
Hm, PoemHunter again. I must overcome my laziness and take a look. Yes, long texts are a problem here. That's why I had to buy a premium account. Still nobody reads them, though)
Login to Reply
White Avatar
Harley White
Date: 5/23/2019 9:15:00 AM
What I don't like, though, is when they put their own robot-generated audios or videos with music to my poems.
White Avatar
Harley White
Date: 5/23/2019 8:32:00 AM
Just take a look at their site. There are a few things I don't like, but at least I didn't have to pay to post long poems and images on Poem Hunter, sometimes even audio readings, when that function is working.
Date: 5/20/2019 9:18:00 AM
By the way, I find this a bit strange. So many wonderful, profound, technically flawless poetry, and so few comments in a here. As they say, a man is not a prophet in his own country. It doesn't matter, though. Everything I care is my personal reader's pleasure)
Login to Reply
White Avatar
Harley White
Date: 5/21/2019 6:14:00 AM
Again, thank you! I suspect that one is expected to be more social on these blogs than I am. Although I like posting here, I am a bit more active on Poem Hunter, which you might want to check out. For instance, I can’t post my longer poems here, since Poetry Soup has limits of length. Nor does this blog permit free posting of images which I need with many of my astro-poems which are ekphrastic.
Date: 5/19/2019 9:30:00 AM
I'm not sure my accolades are important to you. And rightly so. They're important to me, though. The words, that's all what a reader has to express his pleasure)
Login to Reply
White Avatar
Harley White
Date: 5/20/2019 6:06:00 AM
Don’t think for a moment that they are not important to me (my double negative makes a positive). To receive such a response to my poetry is tremendously encouraging to me, particularly since my works are not widely read. So thank you very much for noticing and for caring enough to react!
Date: 5/15/2019 4:36:00 PM
A perfect example of metapoetry as it should be: allusions, references, self-reflection. It's a brilliant terza, Harley.
Login to Reply
White Avatar
Harley White
Date: 5/16/2019 6:43:00 AM
Okay, if you say so. I hadn’t thought of the category of metapoetry, since I just write where inspiration leads. And thank you very much for the accolade!
Get a Premium Membership
Get more exposure for your poetry and more features with a Premium Membership.
Book: Reflection on the Important Things

Member Area

My Admin
Profile and Settings
Edit My Poems
Edit My Quotes
Edit My Short Stories
Edit My Articles
My Comments Inboxes
My Comments Outboxes
Soup Mail
Poetry Contests
Contest Results/Status
Followers
Poems of Poets I Follow
Friend Builder

Soup Social

Poetry Forum
New/Upcoming Features
The Wall
Soup Facebook Page
Who is Online
Link to Us

Member Poems

Poems - Top 100 New
Poems - Top 100 All-Time
Poems - Best
Poems - by Topic
Poems - New (All)
Poems - New (PM)
Poems - New by Poet
Poems - Read
Poems - Unread

Member Poets

Poets - Best New
Poets - New
Poets - Top 100 Most Poems
Poets - Top 100 Most Poems Recent
Poets - Top 100 Community
Poets - Top 100 Contest

Famous Poems

Famous Poems - African American
Famous Poems - Best
Famous Poems - Classical
Famous Poems - English
Famous Poems - Haiku
Famous Poems - Love
Famous Poems - Short
Famous Poems - Top 100

Famous Poets

Famous Poets - Living
Famous Poets - Most Popular
Famous Poets - Top 100
Famous Poets - Best
Famous Poets - Women
Famous Poets - African American
Famous Poets - Beat
Famous Poets - Cinquain
Famous Poets - Classical
Famous Poets - English
Famous Poets - Haiku
Famous Poets - Hindi
Famous Poets - Jewish
Famous Poets - Love
Famous Poets - Metaphysical
Famous Poets - Modern
Famous Poets - Punjabi
Famous Poets - Romantic
Famous Poets - Spanish
Famous Poets - Suicidal
Famous Poets - Urdu
Famous Poets - War

Poetry Resources

Anagrams
Bible
Book Store
Character Counter
Cliché Finder
Poetry Clichés
Common Words
Copyright Information
Grammar
Grammar Checker
Homonym
Homophones
How to Write a Poem
Lyrics
Love Poem Generator
New Poetic Forms
Plagiarism Checker
Poetry Art
Publishing
Random Word Generator
Spell Checker
Store
What is Good Poetry?
Word Counter