A Shakespeare Memorial
Why should we lodge in marble or in bronze
Spirits more vast than earth, or sea, or sky?
Wiser the silent worshipper that cons
Their words for wisdom that will never die.
Unto the favourite of the passing hour
Erect the statue and parade the bust;
Whereon decisive Time will slowly shower
Oblivion's refuse and disdainful dust.
The Monarchs of the Mind, self-sceptred Kings,
Need no memento to transmit their name:
Throned on their thoughts and high imaginings,
They are the Lords, not sycophants of Fame.
Raise pedestals to perishable stuff:
Gods for themselves are monuments enough.
poem by Alfred Austin
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Related quotes
Monuments
In our lands are monuments
for the dear and departed.
Some are for some daring deeds;
others are put in someone’s favourite place,
hoping someone else will enjoy
all the beauty that they gazed upon.
Some monuments serve as a warning,
erected about some evil deed
to remember all that perished.
So the next time you pass a monument
read the inscription there,
learn a little of its presentation.
Become a little wiser to its stature
and the one it is dedicated to,
for you never know in the future
someone may erect a monument to honour you.
24 September 2008
poem by David Harris
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Act One Scene One: A Wood near Athens
Spring sunlight filters through new leaves
in this wood near Athens;
the ozone of the sea not far away
livens the nostrils of the hopeful student
pausing in front of the marble columns.
The pause is a departure and an arrival:
there’s dust on his sandals;
he’s come from far away;
who knows how far?
How many times has his spirit
been washed by Lethe’s oblivion?
That forgetting which by grace
may lead to a remembering?
The student and the columns of the portico
shining white in their new marble in the sunlight,
both for a moment still; yet
in another world, the spirit of the student
and the spirit of the Academy itself
fly to meet each other;
the goddess, bare arms open,
greets her worshipper of truth.
We the Chorus, witnessing the beauty of this scene
indescribable; immortal; full of truth,
speak of the gods who watch eternally;
recall in measured words
Odysseus, returning to his homeland;
his mind, like his faithful dog,
waking to its long awaited master.
poem by Michael Shepherd
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Exit
I don't wish to have to think anymore,
I want to completely clear my mind,
So please close me down, that's for sure,
Switch me off, if you would be so inclined.
Let me have a clearance sale,
Everything in my head, must go,
Whatever the buyers want to nail,
Give it too them, I don't want to know.
My mind could be swept clean by a sudden gale,
Perhaps washed away in the river's flow,
Or my thoughts lashed flat by a shower of hail,
Then thrown high into an arched rainbow.
Let me in oblivion float,
Dulled and slowly lulled,
Until I couldn't care a groat, *
About my mind being finally annulled.
Dissolve, disband or abolish,
Any of those, I could prefer,
Or my mind just simply demolish,
So, to whom do I refer?
poem by Ernestine Northover
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
National Monuments
Count not the cost of honour to the dead!
The tribute that a mighty nation pays
To those who loved her well in former days
Means more than gratitude for glories fled;
For every noble man that she hath bred,
Lives in the bronze and marble that we raise,
Immortalized by art's immortal praise,
To lead our sons as he our fathers led.
These monuments of manhood strong and high
Do more than forts or battle-ships to keep
Our dear-bought liberty. They fortify
The heart of youth with valour wise and deep;
They build eternal bulwarks, and command
Eternal strength to guard our native land.
poem by Henry Van Dyke
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
God-Worship
Statues in competitions allover the world!
With one higher than the other from country to country;
But this act is god-worship.
22m High Statue in 'Maratea' (Italy) ,
25m High Statue in 'Cusco' (Peru) ,
27m High Statue in 'Dili' (East Timor) ,
28m High Statue in 'Lissabon' (Portugal) ,
30m High Statue in 'Cochabanba' (Bolivia) ,
And 38m High Statue in 'Swiebodzin' (Poland) ,
All in the name of competition around this world;
But this act is god-worship.
poem by Edward Kofi Louis
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
The Burns Statue
This Statue, I must confess, is magnificent to see,
And I hope will long be appreciated by the people of Dundee;
It has been beautifully made by Sir John Steell,
And I hope the pangs of hunger he will never feel.
This statue is most elegant in its design,
And I hope will defy all weathers for a very long time;
And I hope strangers from afar with admiration will stare
On this beautiful statue of thee, Immortal Bard of Ayr.
Fellow-citizens, this Statue seems most beautiful to the eye,
Which would cause Kings and Queens for such a one to sigh,
And make them feel envious while passing by
In fear of not getting such a beautiful Statue after they die.
poem by William Topaz McGonagall
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Prime Primitive Modernly
Distorted lenses post-
Through the time prime
‘tis hour memento mori bloom
Wedded in colours down the black earth
Black earth unearthed we cried
A glimpse we cried through a brothel hole
Taboo totem supposedly void of
Sort of free – still
In different chains idolatric
Distorted lenses we held
Against the time prime
Memento
poem by Miroslava Odalovic
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
The Statue Got Me High
The statue got me high
The statue got me high
The monument of granite sent a beam into my eye
The statue made me die
The statue made me die
It took my hand it killed me and it turned me to the sky
The stone it called to me
(and now I see the things the stone has shown to me)
A rock that spoke a word
(an animated mineral it can be heard)
And though I once preferred a human beings company
They pale before the monolith that towers over me
The statue got me high
The statue got me high
The truth is where the sculptors chisel chipped away the lie
The statue made me fry
The statue made me fry
My coat contained a furnace where there used to be a guy
The stone it called to me
(and now I see the things the stone has shown to me)
A rock that spoke a word
(an animated mineral it can be heard)
And as the screaming fire engine siren filled the air
The evidence had vanished from my charred and smoking chair
And what they found was just a statue
Standing where the statue got me high
And what they found was just a statue
Standing where the statue got me high
And now it is your turn
(your turn to hear the stone and then your turn to burn)
The stone it calls to you
(you cant refuse to do the things it tells you to)
And as the screaming fire engine siren fills the air
The evidence will vanish from your charred and smoking chair
And what they found was just a statue
Standing where the statue got me high
And what theyll find is just a statue
Standing where the statue got you high
song performed by by They Might Be Giants
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
Marbles IV
(HogarthKellyMosleyRotheryTrewavas)
[Marbles I-IV]
Did anyone see my last marble
As it rolled out and over the floor?
It fell through a hole in the corner
Of a room in a town on a tour
It's lonely without your last marble
I miss it not rattling around
As I lie in my bed there's a space in my head
Where there used to be colours and sound..
When I was a child I had marbles
They brought admiration and fame
They were pretty to look at and marbles
Was always my favourite game
We played all the summer days
In the stony alleyways
In the playground after class
We would trade the coloured glass
More valuable than diamonds
More magical than diamonds
Did anyone see..
Did anyone see..
Does anyone see?
There were almost four hundred until the black day
I discovered how high they would fly to the sky
If you used them for tennis instead of a ball..
Zinging glass satellites crueller than fate
Whacked with a racket up into the blue
I'd smashed all the greenhouses on the estate
And a crowd formed a queue at the gate..
That was almost the end of my marbles
Confiscated, I choked back the tears
I hung onto a handful of favourites
That disappeared over the years
Did anyone see my last marble
I swear that I had it before
Sometimes I think I should go see a shrink
In case he can find me some more
Did anyone see my last marble?
I'd saved it to give it away
Since I was a youth
Now I don't have no proof
Only words
Only words
Only words.
song performed by by Marillion
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
Marbles I
(HogarthKellyMosleyRotheryTrewavas)
[Marbles I-IV]
Did anyone see my last marble
As it rolled out and over the floor?
It fell through a hole in the corner
Of a room in a town on a tour
It's lonely without your last marble
I miss it not rattling around
As I lie in my bed there's a space in my head
Where there used to be colours and sound..
When I was a child I had marbles
They brought admiration and fame
They were pretty to look at and marbles
Was always my favourite game
We played all the summer days
In the stony alleyways
In the playground after class
We would trade the coloured glass
More valuable than diamonds
More magical than diamonds
Did anyone see..
Did anyone see..
Does anyone see?
There were almost four hundred until the black day
I discovered how high they would fly to the sky
If you used them for tennis instead of a ball..
Zinging glass satellites crueller than fate
Whacked with a racket up into the blue
I'd smashed all the greenhouses on the estate
And a crowd formed a queue at the gate..
That was almost the end of my marbles
Confiscated, I choked back the tears
I hung onto a handful of favourites
That disappeared over the years
Did anyone see my last marble
I swear that I had it before
Sometimes I think I should go see a shrink
In case he can find me some more
Did anyone see my last marble?
I'd saved it to give it away
Since I was a youth
Now I don't have no proof
Only words
Only words
Only words.
song performed by by Marillion
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
Oh Thief
Oh thief, the wise lords do commit a decent treason
For you and me. Sorry are your colleagues that see gods
As mighty as the whole sun and the whole moon.
Oh you thief, it stole only when required, on a dead day
Such as this one - Can I tell your mothers and fathers?
Much I do for their feet and hands, that meet,
That meet in the night and the very last hour of this world,
Do they not be vast in their wisdom, in their precious learning
Of how and how not?
You are a thief and I am not a great big one, for I am not blood and bones.
poem by Naveed Akram
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Madness Your Name Oblivion Your Fame
You’re the king of the tribes asleep in the tomb
Plethora of darkness and lights of the womb
Your memory will cast but cast to whom
Madness your name oblivion your fame
Until the dawns rise up to the sky
All unheard of nameless painfully cry
In flames of passion that peacefully die
Madness your name oblivion your fame
The mountain peaks into mountains crash
Cracking rocks roll and bottom smash
Black earth devoured black earth ash
Madness your name oblivion your fame
Till you become heart piercing flash
poem by Miroslava Odalovic
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Statue Got Me High
The statue got me high
The statue got me high
A monument of granite sent a beam into my eye
The statue made me die
The statue made me die
It took my hand it killed me and it threw me to the sky
The stone it called to me
(and now I see the things the stone has shown to me)
A rock that spoke a word
(an animated mineral it can be heard)
And though I once preferred a human being's company
they pale before the monolith that towers over me
The statue got me high
The statue got me high
The truth is where the sculptor's chisel chipped away the lie
The statue made me fry
The statue made me fry
My coat contained a furnace where there used to be a guy
The stone it called to me
(and now I see the things the stone has shown to me)
A rock that spoke a word
(an animated mineral it can be heard)
And as the screaming fire engine siren filled the air
the evidence had vanished from my charred and smoking chair
and what they found was just a statue
standing where the statue got me high
And now it is your turn
(your turn to hear the stone and then your turn to burn)
The stone it calls to you
(you can't refuse to do the things it tells you to)
And as the screaming fire engine siren fills the air
the evidence will vanish from your charred and smoking chair
and what they found was just a statue
standing where the statue got me high
and what they'll find is just a statue
standing where the statue got you high
song performed by by They Might Be Giants
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
Bronzes
I
The bronze General Grant riding a bronze horse in Linc-
oln Park
Shrivels in the sun by day when the motor cars whirr
by in long processions going somewhere to keep ap-
pointment for dinner and matineés and buying and
selling
Though in the dusk and nightfall when high waves are
piling
On the slabs of the promenade along the lake shore near
by
I have seen the general dare the combers come closer
And make to ride his bronze horse out into the hoofs
and guns of the storm.
II
I cross Lincoln Park on a winter night when the snow
is falling.
Lincoln in bronze stands among the white lines of snow,
his bronze forehead meeting soft echoes of the new-
sies crying forty thousand men are dead along the
Yser, his bronze ears listening to the mumbled roar
of the city at his bronze feet.
A lithe Indian on a bronze pony, Shakespeare seated with
long legs in bronze, Garibaldi in a bronze cape, they
hold places in the cold, lonely snow to-night on their
pedestals and so they will hold them past midnight
and into the dawn.
poem by Carl Sandburg
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Mozart’s Grave
Where lies Mozart? Tradition shows
A likely spot: so much, no more:
No words of his own time disclose
When crossed He to the Further Shore,
Though later ages, roused to shame,
On tardy tomb have carved his name.
The sexton asked, ``What may this be?''
``A Kapellmeister.'' ``Pass it in:
This common grave to all is free,
And for one more is room within.
It fills the fosse. Now tread it down,
With pauper, lunatic, and clown.''
Yet had he wizarded with sound
Electors, Cardinals, and Kings,
While there welled forth from source profound
The flow of silvery-sounding springs,
Music of tenderness and mirth,
One with his very soul at birth.
And they? Where are they now? The bust,
The elaborately carven tomb,
Whose scrolls, begrimed by age and dust,
None care to stoop and scan for whom,
Are all remaining to express
Their monumental nothingness.
Mitre, and coronet, and Crown,
Gaze into space that heeds them not,
Unmeaning pomp of dead renown,
Medley of Monarchs long forgot,
Who from the nations' ghastly strife
Won immortality-for life.
Once, on Nile's bank an artist raised
A temple at the King's command,
And on it name august emblazed.
But when a flood submerged the land,
His name was washed away, and lo!
The artist's own stood out below.
Thus vanish ostentatious lives,
But, through all time, belov'd Mozart,
Your magic memory survives,
Part of the universal heart:
In joy a sympathetic strain,
In sorrow, soother of our pain.
The Potentates on whom men gaze,
When once their Rule hath reached its goal,
Die into darkness with their days;
But Monarchs of the mind and soul
With light unfailing and unspent
Illuminate Fame's firmament.
poem by Alfred Austin
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Nothing feebler than a man does the earth raise up, of all the things which breathe and move on the earth, for he believes that he will never suffer evil in the future, as long as the gods give him success and he flourishes in his strength; but when the blessed gods bring sorrows too to pass, even these he bears, against his will, with steadfast spirit, for the thoughts of earthly men are like the day which the father of gods and men brings upon them.
Stop Breakin Down Blues
(Robert Johnson)
Everytime I'm walkin', down the streets, some pretty mama start breakin' down with me
Stop breakin' down, yes stop breakin' down
The stuff I got'll bust your brains out, baby, hoo hoo, it'll make you lose your mind.
I can't walk the streets now con, consolate my mind,
some no-good woman she starts breakin' down
Stop breakin' down, please stop breakin' down
The stuff I got it gon' bust your brains out, baby, hoo hoo, it'll make you lose your mind
Now, you Saturday night women's, you love to ape and clown,
you won't do nothin' but tear a good man reputation down
Stop breakin' down, please stop breakin' down
The stuff I got'll bust your brains out, baby, hoo hoo, it'll make you lose your mind
Now, I give my baby, now, the ninety-nine degree,
she jumped up and throwed a pistol down on me
Stop breakin' down, please stop breakin' down
Stuff I got'll bust your brains out, baby, hoo hoo, it'll make you lose your mind
I can't start walkin' down the streets, but some pretty mama don't start breakin' down with me
Stop breakin' down, yeah stop breakin' down
The stuff I got'll bust your brains out, baby, hoo hoo, it'll make you lose your mind
song performed by by Eric Clapton
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
Our Waltz
Our Waltz
Your face, conceived upon my path,
time counts my solitude and scath,
invites my thoughts cold oblivion,
larval thorned crowned, dominion.
Comely, I wonder on empty street,
my calls abound; an echo to repeat,
decisive my mind to extend above,
augments my solitude, a past love.
Dominion of demised cries, secant,
empty of culprit, consensual descant,
an emptiness of smiles, to conflate,
to immortalize mist, sun to waste.
Embellish your appearance, I wait;
outside a conceived feast to oblate
and lead the first dance; fugacious
from foggy distance, high cumulus..
I gallivant tho', knock on lone door,
spirits dance on marble white floor,
excited with hope - a gage sweet,
dancing on stars, for their entreat..
Evanescent light, a fetching waltz,
dreamy commencement, and faux,
fictitious calls, glamour foudroyant,
'Ceremonie serment, debut gallant.'
Skies entangle with images to sway
up in the clouds we expand to meet
winds are faithful our song to play,
as all the time I walk on lone street.
Copyright © - G. V.- 11.24.2011 /
PoemH.28940074
poem by Giorgio Veneto
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Thoughts in a library
Speak low---tread softly through these halls;
Here genius lives enshrined,---
Here reign, in silent majesty,
The monarchs of the mind.
A mighty spirit-host they come,
From every age and clime;
Above the buried wrecks of years,
They breast the tide of Time.
And in their presence-chamber here,
They hold their regal state,
And round them throng a noble train,
The gifted and the great.
Oh, child of Earth! when round thy path
The storms of life arise,
And when thy brothers pass thee by,
With stern, unloving eyes,---
Here shall the Poets chant for thee
Their sweetest, loftiest lays;
And Prophets wait to guide thy steps
In wisdom's pleasant ways.
Come, with these God-anointed kings,
Be thou companion here;
And in the mighty realm of mind,
Thou shalt go forth a peer!
poem by Anne Lynch Botta from Poems (1848)
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
Vote! | Copy!
Stop Breakin' Down
Everytime I'm walkin', down the streets,
some pretty mama she starts breakin' down
Stop breakin' down, yes stop breakin' down
The stuff I got'll bust your brains out, baby, hoo hoo,
it'll make you lose your mind.
Now, you Saturday night women's, you love to ape and clown,
you won't do nothin' but tear good man (i.e Jack White) reputation down
Stop breakin' down, please stop breakin' down
The stuff I got'll bust your brains out, baby, hoo hoo,
it'll make you lose your mind
Now, I give my baby, now, the ninety-nine degree,
she jumped up and throwed a pistol down on me
Stop breakin' down, please stop breakin' down
Stuff I got'll bust your brains out, if you think you lose your mind
song performed by by White Stripes
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!