I really like Tolkien's poetry,Emily Bronte's 'Last Lines', anything by Longfellow, a few of Frost's, and two called 'Beauty as a Shield' by Elsie Robinson, and 'The Old Astronomer to his Pupil' by Sarah Williams. Here is one of my own poems, a sort of prayer
The Champion of God: A Prayer
I have thrown down my gauntlet to the world-
And it has hurled me down to the dust
I believed that I had great strength
But now I see that it is nothing
Compared to the strength of my foe
And I have made the deadly mistake, O Lord
Of supposing this to be my fight
It is yours. Ages ago you won the victory
That was based on your challenge, not mine
Yet even your triumph first seemed defeat
Thou are the leader, I am but a follower, my King
Though I have been thrown down, I will rise
From the darkness to the light
For thou wilt renew me
And make me strong in thy power
The dark enemy still pounds at the gate
Awaiting the renewal of my challenge
But only for thy challenge, O Lord
Will I encounter him
May I learn the lessons of hardship well
And may I never venture from thy white walls again
Without the protection of the Champion of God
Amen

Lady Haleth your poem is beautiful

Like I said earlier I am now stuyding the Elizabethean period of English literature, here is one of me favorite sonnets that I have read so far

From Edmund Spenser's Amoretti
Sonnet 68
Most glorious Lord of life! that on this day
Didst make thy triumph over death and sin,
And, having harrowed hell, didst bring away
Captivity thence captive, us to win,
This joyous day, dear Lord, with joy begin;
And grant that we, for whom thou diddest dy,
Being with thy dear blood clean washed from sin,
May live for ever in felicity;
And that thy love we weighing worthily,
May likewise love thee for the same again,
And for thy sake, that all like dear didst buy.
With love may one another entertain!
So let us love, dear Love, like as we ought:
Love is the lesson which the Lord us taught.

I like that. That is very beautiful--and true.

I write a little poetry, but I am too shy to share it. Here's a poem by William Butler Yeats (my hero ) instead.

A Friend's Illness

Sickness brought me this
Thought, in that scale of his:
Why should I be dismayed
Though flame had burned the whole
World, as it were a coal,
Now I have seen it weighed
Against a soul?

Yeehaw!! Someone else on this forum appreciates Yeats.

Here is Fergus and the Druid, one of my favorites.

Fergus

This whole day have I followed in the rocks,
And you have changed and flowed from shape to shape,
First as a raven on whose ancient wings
Scarcely a feather lingered, then you seemed
A weasel moving on from stone to stone,
And now at last you wear a human shape,
A thin grey man half lost in gathering night.

Druid

What would you, king of the proud Red Branch kings?

Fergus

This would I say, most wise of living souls:
Young subtle Conchubar sat close by me
When I gave judgment, and his words were wise,
And what to me was burden without end,
To him seemed easy, so I laid the crown
Upon his head to cast away my sorrow.

Druid

What would you, king of the proud Red Branch kings?

Fergus

A king and proud! and that is my despair.
I feast amid my people on the hill,
And pace the woods, and drive my chariot-wheels
In the white border of the murmuring sea;
And still I feel the crown upon my head

Druid

What would you, Fergus?

Fergus

Be no more a king
But learn the dreaming wisdom that is yours.

Druid

Look on my thin grey hair and hollow cheeks
And on these hands that may not lift the sword,
This body trembling like a wind-blown reed.
No woman's loved me, no man sought my help.

Fergus

A king is but a foolish labourer
Who wastes his blood to be another's dream.

Druid

Take, if you must, this little bag of dreams;
Unloose the cord, and they will wrap you round.

Fergus

I see my life go drifting like a river
From change to change; I have been many things -
A green drop in the surge, a gleam of light
Upon a sword, a fir-tree on a hill,
An old slave grinding at a heavy quern,
A king sitting upon a chair of gold -
And all these things were wonderful and great;
But now I have grown nothing, knowing all.
Ah! Druid, Druid, how great webs of sorrow
Lay hidden in the small slate-coloured thing!

@wild rose: Spenser's Amoretti! Sonnet #68! Weeeee! Thanks for posting!

@wild rose: Spenser's Amoretti! Sonnet #68! Weeeee! Thanks for posting!

I'm glad you like it , it's one of my favorites. Here is another of my favorite poems written by metaphysical poet George Herbert

The Altar

A broken ALTAR, Lord, Thy servant rears
Made of a heart, and cemented with tears:
Whose part are as They hand did frame
No workman's tool hath touched the same
A HEART alone
Is such a stone,
As nothing but
Thy power doth cut
Wherefore each part
Of my hard heart
Meets in this frame,
To praise thy name
That, if I chance to hold my peace
These stones to praise thee may not cease
Oh let Thy blessed SACRIFICE be mine
And sanctify this ALTAR to be Thine

@wild rose: Herbert's "The Altar"?! Great minds think alike!!!

I took a graduate course in English Renaissance poetry [5 years ago this spring]. My 25-page paper (and course project) was on three poems in Herbert's The Temple: "The Altar," "The Sacrifice," and "Easter Wings." And one of two class presentations was on Spenser's Sonnet #68. ... My favorite poet? George Herbert. I own the Everyman copy of The Temple.

George Herbert, "Redemption"

HAVING been tenant long to a rich Lord,
Not thriving, I resolved to be bold,
And make a suit unto him, to afford
A new small-rented lease, and cancell th’ old.

In heaven at his manour I him sought :
They told me there, that he was lately gone
About some land, which he had dearly bought
Long since on earth, to take possession.

I straight return’d, and knowing his great birth,
Sought him accordingly in great resorts ;
In cities, theatres, gardens, parks, and courts :
At length I heard a ragged noise and mirth

Of theeves and murderers : there I him espied,
Who straight, Your suit is granted, said, and died.

220chrisTian I LOVE "Redemption" by George Herbert, read it recently in my school, it also falls into the category of my favorite poems. I'm working on memorizing it but it is taking some time (I have a terrible memory). When I first read "Redemption" for some reason I started crying I don't know why, but it made a deep impact on me

here's one of my favorite poems by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow A Psalm of Life. I also love Paul Revere's Ride...but I think that one would be to long to post so I went with this one

A PSALM OF LIFE.
Tell me not, in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream!
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.

Life is real! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.

Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
Is our destined end or way;
But to act, that each to-morrow
Find us farther than to-day.

Art is long, and Time is fleeting,
And our hearts, though stout and brave,
Still, like muffled drums, are beating
Funeral marches to the grave.

In the world's broad field of battle,
In the bivouac of Life,
Be not like dumb, driven cattle!
Be a hero in the strife!

Trust no Future, howe'er pleasant!
Let the dead Past bury its dead!
Act,--act in the living Present!
Heart within, and God o'erhead!

Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time;--

Footprints, that perhaps another,
Sailing o'er life's solemn main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
Seeing, shall take heart again.

Let us, then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.

@wild rose: "A Psalm of Life"? It's also a Longfellow favorite for me! I wrote an essay about the poem in an undergrad English course.

Spring 1999, I visited Longfellow's house in Cambridge, Massachusetts. My classmates and I spent a lovely afternoon there.

A Psalm of Life is one of my favorite poems too. I memorized it, and also this other poem by Emily Bronte, 'Last Lines':
No coward soul is mine
No trembler in the world's storm-troubled sphere
I see Heaven's glories shine
And faith shines equal, arming me from fear

Oh God, within my breast,
Almighty, ever-present Deity!
Life--that in me has rest,
As I--undying Life--have power in Thee!

Vain are the thousand creeds
That move men's hearts: unutterably vain
Worthless as withered weeds,
Or idlest froth amid the boundless main

To waken doubt in one
Holding so fast by thine infinity;
So surely anchored on
The steadfast rock of immortality.

With wide-embracing love
Thy Spirit animates eternal years,
Pervades and broods above,
Changes, sustains, dissolves, creates, and rears

Though earth and man were gone,
And suns and universes cease to be,
And Thou wert left alone,
Every existence would exist in Thee

There is no room for Death
Nor atom that his might could render void
Thou--Thou art Being and Breath,
And what Thou art may never be destroyed.

Are we allowed to post our own poetry here? Just wondering, I write alot and I like to get feedback (:

Yes, Andrew, you are allowed to post your own poetry. The request is that you post no poems longer than 25 lines. If you have a longer one you'd like to share, feel free to link to it.

I've been enjoying reading everyones compositions and favorite poems. I haven't written any poetry myself for a few years, but I really enjoy it when I do. I've hunted back through my files and found one I wrote probably 3 years ago. My style has always been the more metered style, and my poetry could certainly be considered "stiff". Anyway, here's my poem.

For far too long lethargy's weight
Has stifled me with burning heat,
And nothingness has grown to be
Repulsive in the heart of me.
For when I try to rise and thrust
The smoth'ring wave away from me,
The dust doth settle back again,
And with a laugh asphyxiates.

From indolence's slow arising,
All the things that brought this on,
From unawareness of my doom,
That creeps upon me hour by hour,
The years of useless idleness,
When I was young and let things slide,
Have now caught up and stifle me
With lethargy and endless dust.

Okay thanks (= I like your poem by the way, colorful vocab!

This is more of a song, but it still rhymes, I wrote it a couple weeks ago. The title is "Yourself on Fire," let me know what you think:

Rythmically, so cryptically, you speak to me with your sympathy,
And I,
Can’t help but just see thought all that stuff you said, it wasn’t really you,
But who cares?
Here we are, looks like we made it, gotta sing to it, sing just like they say it!

Come on now! You gotta set yourself on fire,
Let’s go now! The need here is getting’ dire,
Do your thing! Don’t ever just sing with the choir,
All you got is yourself to be the glory pyre!

This kid’s doin’ such great things, he’s young with no rings, but dang he sure can sing,
I got nothin’ left but these lyrics now, I got no one left even just to hear ‘em now,
You should look, at the man I’ve become, a mind so unstring, a great hero unsung,
But still I, I’m gonna make it to the top, nobody’s gonna stop me as I make the walk!

Come on now! You gotta set yourself on fire,
Let’s go now! The need here is getting’ dire,
Do your thing! Don’t ever just sing with the choir,
All you got is yourself to be the glory pyre!

I heard it all, you’ll never make it to stand tall, why don’t you just quit now, give up and fall,
But I looked to the stars in the spotlight, not out in the night, they said here’s some foresight.
Do yourself the way that you see best, cut out all the rest, this is not a test,
The real thing is now, don’t even wonder how, just get on the stage before the next guy takes a bow!

Come on now! You gotta set yourself on fire,
Let’s go now! The need here is getting’ dire,
Do your thing! Don’t ever just sing with the choir,
All you got is yourself to be the glory pyre!
Come on now! You gotta set yourself on fire,
Let’s go now! The need here is getting’ dire,
Do your thing! Don’t ever just sing with the choir,
All you got is yourself to be the glory pyre!