Parnassus

E.E. Cummings

2006-01-14T14:08:00.000+08:00

somewhere I have never travelled, gladly beyond
any experience, your eyes have their silence:
in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me,
or which I cannot touch because they are too near

your slightest look will easily unclose me
though I have closed myself as fingers,
you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens
(touching skillfully, mysteriously) her first rose

or if your wish be to close me, I and
my life wills hut very beautifully, suddenly,
as when the heart of this flower imagines
the snow carefully everywhere descending;
nothing which are to be percieved in this world equals
the power of your intense fragility; whose texture
compels me with the color of its countries,
renderind death and forever with each breathing

(I do not know what it is about you that closes
and opens; only something in me understands
the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses)
nobody, not even the rain, has such small hands

~lovely poem don't you think?

The first time I'd heard part of it was in this song:

The First Time I loved Forever
(Lisa Angelle, fr. Beauty and the Beast)

somewhere I have never travelled, gladly beyond
any experience, your eyes have their silence:
in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me,
or which I cannot touch because they are too near

The first time I loved forever
Was when you whispered my name
And I knew at once you loved me
For the me of who I am

The first time I loved forever
I cast all else aside
And I bid my heart to follow
Be there no more need to hide

And if wishes and dreams are merely for children
And if love's a tale for fools
I'll live the dream with you

or if your wish be to close me, I and
my life wills hut very beautifully, suddenly,
as when the heart of this flower imagines
the snow carefully everywhere descending;

For all my life and forever
There's a truth I will always know
When my world divides and shatters
Your love is where I'll go

(I do not know what it is about you that closes
and opens; only something in me understands
the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses)
nobody, not even the rain, has such small hands

Edgar Allan Poe

2005-12-01T20:31:00.000+08:00

Asked for a favourite poem, none came to mind.
I then thought, why not settle with Poe since he's a favourite of mine.
And so here are a few I'm sharing. The one I chose is the last one posted. At least, for now, it will be my "favourite".

***

Hymn

At morn- at noon- at twilight dim-
Maria! thou hast heard my hymn!
In joy and woe- in good and ill-
Mother of God, be with me still!
When the hours flew brightly by,
And not a cloud obscured the sky,
My soul, lest it should truant be,
Thy grace did guide to thine and thee;
Now, when storms of Fate o'ercast
Darkly my Present and my Past,
Let my Future radiant shine
With sweet hopes of thee and thine!

***

Evening Star

'Twas noontide of summer,
And mid-time of night;
And stars, in their orbits,
Shone pale, thro' the light
Of the brighter, cold moon,
'Mid planets her slaves,
Herself in the Heavens,
Her beam on the waves.
I gazed awhile
On her cold smile;
Too cold- too cold for me-
There pass'd, as a shroud,
A fleecy cloud,
And I turned away to thee,
Proud Evening Star,
In thy glory afar,
And dearer thy beam shall be;
For joy to my heart
Is the proud part
Thou bearest in Heaven at night,
And more I admire
Thy distant fire,
Than that colder, lowly light.

***

To One Departed

Seraph! thy memory is to me
Like some enchanted far-off isle
In some tumultuous sea -
Some ocean vexed as it may be
With storms; but where, meanwhile,
Serenest skies continually
Just o'er that one bright island smile.
For 'mid the earnest cares and woes
That crowd around my earthly path,
(Sad path, alas, where grows
Not even one lonely rose!)
My soul at least a solace hath
In dreams of thee; and therein knows
An Eden of bland repose.

***

The Valley of Unrest

Once it smiled a silent dell
Where the people did not dwell;
They had gone unto the wars,
Trusting to the mild-eyed stars,
Nightly, from their azure towers,
To keep watch above the flowers,
In the midst of which all day
The red sunlight lazily lay.
Now each visitor shall confess
The sad valley's restlessness.
Nothing there is motionless-
Nothing save the airs that brood
Over the magic solitude.
Ah, by no wind are stirred those trees
That palpitate like the chill seas
Around the misty Hebrides!
Ah, by no wind those clouds are driven
That rustle through the unquiet Heaven
Uneasily, from morn till even,
Over the violets there that lie
In myriad types of the human eye-
Over the lilies there that wave
And weep above a nameless grave!
They wave:- from out their fragrant tops
Eternal dews come down in drops.
They weep:- from off their delicate stems
Perennial tears descend in gems.

***

A Dream Within a Dream

Take this kiss upon the brow!
And, in parting from you now,
Thus much let me avow-
You are not wrong, who deem
That my days have been a dream;
Yet if hope has flown away
In a night, or in a day,
In a vision, or in none,
Is it therefore the less gone?
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.
I stand amid the roar
Of a surf-tormented shore,
And I hold within my hand
Grains of the golden sand-
How few! yet how they creep
Through my fingers to the deep,
While I weep- while I weep!
O God! can I not grasp
Them with a tighter clasp?
O God! can I not save
One from the pitiless wave?
Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream

***
"Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream"

~now that's something to ponder about, eh? :)

If you're wondering...

2005-11-22T18:02:00.000+08:00

What is Parnassus?
Parnassus, from the Greek Parnassos, a mountain in central Greece that is sacred to the god of music, poetry, etc., Apollo and the Muses (protectors of the arts, from Latin Musa, from Greek Mousa, literally, "muse, music, song,"

***side notes:
Muses
-daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne (Titan goddess of memory and the inventor of words)
-their specialties and names are traditionally;

Calliope (epic poetry)
Clio (history)
Erato (love poetry, lyric art)
Euterpe (music, especially flute)
Melpomene (tragedy)
Polymnia (hymns)
Terpsichore (dance)
Thalia (comedy)
Urania (astronomy)

Why Parnassus?
Because when I learned of the title of a dictionary of prosody used in English public schools for centuries as a guide to Roman poetry -"A Step to Parnassus" (or Gradus ad Parnassum)

**note: Parnassus wasn't originally going to be my blog's site. It was to be Thetis (name of a sea nymph or Nerid, mother of Achiles), sometimes in poetry (which I take to be "meaning"), "the sea personified". But when I read the tidbit of Parnassus that was in the same page, I decided to forego it and chose Parnassus instead.

__
Well, I hope you enjoyed this little tidbit. :)