December 14, 2006

• Five First Verses

  Back when I was making up my list of first sentences (below), I was
  forced to pass over several works because they are poetry rather than
  prose.

  Here are the first lines (first few lines, actually) of five fave poems.

  Remember:
  - Glory will elude you if you Google!
  - Peek not into the comments of thy neighbours, lest ye shall say, DOH!

  Guess the title, or even just the poet. Number five is the real kicker again.

  1.
  A bunch of the boys were whooping it up in the Malamute saloon;
  
  The kid that handles the music-box was hitting a jag-time tune;

  2.
  There was a time when meadow, grove, and stream,
  
  The earth, and every common sight
  
          To me did seem
  
      Apparell’d in celestial light,
  
  The glory and the freshness of a dream.

  3.
  Of Man’s First Disobedience, and the Fruit
  
  Of that Forbidden Tree, whose mortal taste
  
  Brought Death into the World, and all our woe…

  4.
  My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun;
  
  Coral is far more red than her lips’ red:
  
  If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
  
  If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.

  5.
  Sleep, my favourite flannel shirt, wears thin, and shreds, and birdsong happens in the holes.

  6. BONUS:
  
  
  He stood, a point
  
  on a sheet of green paper
  
  proclaiming himself the centre,
  
  
  
  with no walls, no borders
  
  anywhere; the sky no height
  
  above him, totally un-
  
  enclosed
  
  and shouted:
  
  
  
  Let me out!
  

  • 9:10 pm
  • 12 Comments