Silent Poetry

[intertext]

Via sartorias comes word that this is Silent Poetry Reading day. Not that any poetry is silent :)

Here's an old favourite of mine, that I hadn't read for a while. I love the rich imagery

Song From "Paracelsus"

I.

Heap cassia, sandal-buds and stripes
Of labdanum, and aloe-balls,
Smeared with dull nard an Indian wipes
From out her hair: such balsam falls
Down sea-side mountain pedestals,
From tree-tops where tired winds are fain,
Spent with the vast and howling main,
To treasure half their island gain.

II.

And strew faint sweetness from some old
Egyptian's fine worm-eaten shroud
Which breaks to dust when once unrolled;
Or shredded perfume, like a cloud
From closet long to quiet vowed,
With mothed and dropping arras hung,
Mouldering her lute and books among,
As when a queen, long dead, was young.

Robert Browning.

Comments

[brisingamen.livejournal.com]

Most days seem to be Silent Poetry Reading Day for me at the moment, which I'm glad of. I may have come to my love of rather than vague general pleasure in poetry very late, but I'm glad I got there.

[intertext.livejournal.com]

I was so lucky that my mother loved poetry and read it out loud to me when I was very young. In fact, we used to read it to each other. It instilled in me a love for it that I've never lost.

[intertext.livejournal.com]

PS - how are you doing? Hope you and PK are okay... I'm thinking about you.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Oh, I haven't revisited that one in far too long. Thank you!

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's just beautiful, especially the second stanza--that's quite gripped me. Must go read the rest of that poem. Thank you!

And I agree. The concrete images, they make it come so alive.

faint sweetness from some old Egyptian's fine worm-eaten shroud/Which breaks to dust when once unrolled ... sigh!

[intertext.livejournal.com]

I love the "mothed and dropping arras" - makes me think of "Eve of St Agnes"

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

YES! I was going to say Eve of St. Agnes to you! And I LOVE that poem.

[egretplume.livejournal.com]

That was fantastic!

[dsgood.livejournal.com]

"Not that any poetry is silent :)"

Sign language poetry?

[intertext.livejournal.com]

But even then, it speaks :)