Thomas Trevelyan
Reading in Ovid the sorrowful story of Itys,
Son of the love of Tereus and Procne, slain
For the guilty passion of Tereus for Philomela,
The flesh of him served to Tereus by Procne,
And the wrath of Tereus, the murderess pursuing
Till the gods made Philomela a nightingale,
Lute of the rising moon, and Procne a swallow!
Oh livers and artists of Hellas centuries gone,
Sealing in little thuribles dreams and wisdom,
Incense beyond all price, forever fragrant,
A breath whereof makes clear the eyes of the soul!
How I inhaled its sweetness here in Spoon River!
The thurible opening when I had lived and learned
How all of us kill the children of love, and all of us,
Knowing not what we do, devour their flesh;
And all of us change to singers, although it be
But once in our lives, or change -- alas! -- to swallows,
To twitter amid cold winds and falling leaves!
poem by Edgar Lee Masters
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Philomela
The Nightingale, as soon as April bringeth
Unto her rested sense a perfect waking,
While late-bare Earth, proud of new clothing, springeth,
Sings out her woes, a thorn her song-book making;
And mournfully bewailing,
Her throat in tunes expresseth
What grief her breast oppresseth,
For Tereus' force on her chaste will prevailing.
O Philomela fair, O take some gladness
That here is juster cause of plaintful sadness!
Thine earth now springs, mine fadeth;
Thy thorn without, my thorn my heart invadeth.
Alas! she hath no other cause of anguish
But Tereus' love, on her by strong hand wroken;
Wherein she suffering, all her spirits languish,
Full womanlike complains her will was broken
But I, who, daily craving,
Cannot have to content me,
Have more cause to lament me,
Since wanting is more woe than too much having.
O Philomela fair, O take some gladness
That here is juster cause of plaintful sadness!
Thine earth now springs, mine fadeth;
Thy thorn without, my thorn my heart invadeth.
poem by Philip Sidney
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An American Addresses Philomela
Procne, Philomela, and Itylus,
Your names are liquid, your improbable tale
Is recited in the classic numbers of the nightingale.
Ah, but our numbers are not felicitous,
It goes not liquidly for us!
Perched on a Roman ilex and duly apostrophised,
The nightingale descanted unto Ovid;
She has even appeared to the Teutons, the swilled and gravid;
At Fontainebleau it may be the bird was gallicised;
Never was she baptised.
To England came Philomela with her strain,
Fleeing the hawk her husband ; querulous ghost,
She wanders when he sits heavy on his roost,
Utters herself in the original again,
The untranslatable refrain.
Not to these shores she came, this other Thrace,
Environ barbarous to the royal Attic;
How could her delicate dirge run democratic,
Delivered in a cloudless boundless public place
To a hypermuscular race?
I pernoctated with the Oxford students once,
And in the quadrangles, in the cloisters, on the Cher,
Precociously knocked at antique doors ajar,
Fatuously touched the hems of the Hierophants,
Sick of my dissonance;
I went out to Bagley Wood, I climbed the hill,
Even the moon had slanted off in a twinkling,
I heard the sepulchral owl and a few bells tinkling,
There was no more villainous day to unfulfill,
The diuturnity was still;
Up from the darkest wood where Philomela sat,
Her fairy numbers issued; what then ailed me?
My ears are called capacious, but they failed me,
Her classics registered a little flat!
I rose, and venomously spat.
Philomela, Philomela, lover of song,
I have despaired of thee and am unworthy,
My scene is prose, this people and I are earthy;
Unto more beautiful, persistently more young
Thy fabulous provinces belong.
poem by John Crowe Ransom
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Philomel
At times a nightingale or swallow
visited me
singing sweetly
and with all the reckoning
that I did posses,
I tried to catch the words of it
and sorrowful was that gentle ode
telling about lovely Philomel
who did disappear
and how once she was young and beautiful,
so full of life, until her brother in law Tereus,
did his dirty deed
and then silenced her with a knife
and in the visiting bird there was something,
something lovely and sweet
while at times it pecked insects at my feet
as if Philomel, was coming back to life in it.
[Reference: "The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd" by Sir Walter Raleigh.]
poem by Gert Strydom
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An Die Schwalbe
Die 12te Ode Anakreons.
Schwatzhafteste der Schwalben, sprich,
Was tu ich dir? wie straf ich dich?
Soll ich dich um die Schwingen
Mit meiner Schere bringen?
Soll ich, zu deiner Pein,
Ein andrer Tereus sein?
Und willst du gern der Progne gleichen?
Musst du, zu fruehe Schwaetzerin,
Musst du von meiner Schaeferin
Mir meinen schoenen Traum verscheuchen?
poem by by unknown author
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Philomel in London
Not within a granite pass,
Dim with flowers and soft with grass--
Nay, but doubly, trebly sweet
In a poplared London street,
While below my windows go
Noiseless barges, to and fro,
Through the night's calm deep,
Ah! what breaks the bonds of sleep?
No steps on the pavement fall,
Soundless swings the dark canal;
From a church-tower out of sight
Clangs the central hour of night.
Hark! the Dorian nightingale!
Pan's voice melted to a wail!
Such another bird
Attic Tereus never heard.
Hung above the gloom and stain--
London's squalid cope of pain--
Pure as starlight, bold as love,
Honouring our scant poplar-grove,
That most heavenly voice of earth
Thrills in passion, grief or mirth,
Laves our poison'd air
Life's best song-bath crystal-fair.
While the starry minstrel sings
Little matters what he brings,
Be it sorrow, be it pain,
Let him sing and sing again,
Till, with dawn, poor souls rejoice,
Wakening, once to hear his voice,
Ere afar he flies,
Bound for purer woods and skies.
poem by Edmund William Gosse
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Destiny's Wisdom
....Once.......the winds
Of passion flowed
...Amongst the leaves
On vineyard's row
Touching the vines
With such desire
Fueling the flames
....Of a raging fire
*
*
*
Destiny's wisdom
....Then...rearranged
Those winds of passion
...To winds...of change
A frigid chill
Displaced the old
With angry gusts
....Of bitter cold
poem by James B. Earley
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A Coronal
WITH HIS SONGS AND HER DAYS TO HIS LADY AND TO LOVE
Violets and leaves of vine,
Into a frail, fair wreath
We gather and entwine:
A wreath for Love to wear,
Fragrant as his own breath,
To crown his brow divine,
All day till night is near.
Violets and leaves of vine
We gather and entwine.
Violets and leaves of vine
For Love that lives a day,
We gather and entwine.
All day till Love is dead,
Till eve falls, cold and gray,
These blossoms, yours and mine,
Love wears upon his head,
Violets and leaves of vine
We gather and entwine.
Violets and leaves of vine,
For Love when poor Love dies
We gather and entwine.
This wreath that lives a day
Over his pale, cold eyes,
Kissed shut by Proserpine,
At set of sun we lay:
Violets and leaves of vine
We gather and entwine.
poem by Ernest Christopher Dowson
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Guilty Of Love
(coverdale)
I believe my love for you
Is a love that will last forever,
An Im here to testify
Im a prisoner of your heart
Baby dont you believe
When I tell you I love you
That I really mean it,
Dont you walk away,
Dont you turn your back on me
Im guilty of love,
Its a crime of passion
Guilty of love,
An theres no doubt about it,
No doubt about it
Im guilty of love,
Im guilty of love,
Im guilty,
In the first degree
Guilty of love,
Im guilty of love,
Im guilty,
In the first degree
I can never forget the times
When I took what you gave me for granted
So I stand accused
An I plead guilty to the crime
You can lock me away if you want
Just as long as your arms are around me,
An I wont mind
If you just throw away the key
Im guilty of love,
Its a crime of passion
Guilty of love,
An theres no doubt about it,
No doubt about it
Guilty of love,
Im guilty of love,
Im guilty,
In the first degree
Guilty of love,
Im guilty of love,
Im guilty,
In the first degree
Guilty of love...
Im guilty of love,
Its a crime of passion
Guilty of love,
An theres no doubt about it,
No doubt about it
Guilty of love,
Im guilty of love,
Im guilty,
In the first degree
Guilty of love,
Im guilty of love,
Im guilty
Guilty of love,
Im guilty of love,
Im guilty,
In the first degree...
song performed by by Whitesnake
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Gods Children
Man made the buildings that reach for the sky
And man made the motorcar and learned how to fly
But he didnt make the flowers and he didnt make the trees
And he didnt make you and he didnt make me
And he got no right to turn us into machines
Hes got no right at all
cause we are all gods children
And he got no right to change us
Oh, we gotta go back the way the good lord made us all
Dont want this world to change me
I wanna go back the way the good lord made me
Same lungs that he gave me to breath with
Same eyes he gave me to see with
Oh, the rich man, the poor man, the saint and the sinner
The wise man, the simpleton, the loser and the winner
We are all the same to him
Stripped of our clothes and all the things we own
The day that we are born
We are all gods children
And they got no right to change us
Oh, we gotta go back the way the good lord made
Oh, the good lord made us all
And we are all his children
And they got no right to change us
Oh, we gotta go back the way the good lord made us all
Yeah, we gotta go back the way the good lord made us all
song performed by by Kinks
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Forever Yours
All that weve been through
It deepens the love that I feel for you
And with each passing day
The love that I feel makes me wanna say
When time passes no more
You can count on me to always be forever yours
Ill stay forever yours
Nothing can change my love
Nothing can change my love
(forever yours)
Just like the ancient winds
They started, but never had an end
Just think of my love that way
As one through the years were gonna stay
And oh, just one more thing
You can count on me to always be forever yours
Ill stay forever yours
No one can love you more
No one can love you more
Love, I have no fear
Just knowin that youre near
Our love has all the signs
That well endure time
Baby, I love you so
Just cant imagine letting go
Without you nothing can be
You are the breath inside of me
And if the ocean ran dry
Dont you know, baby
That you could count on me to
Always be forever yours
song performed by by Janet Jackson
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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River And Sea
Under the light of the silver moon
We two sat, when our hearts were young;
The night was warm with the breath of June,
And loud from the meadow the cricket sung,
And darker and deeper, oh, love, than the sea,
Were your dear eyes, as they beamed to me.
The moon hung clear, and the night was still:
The waters reflected the glittering skies;
The nightingale sang on the distant hill;
But sweeter than all was the light in your eyes -
Your dear, dark eyes, your eyes like the sea -
And up from the depths shone love for me.
My heart, like a river, was mad and wild -
And a river is not deep, like the sea;
But I said yout love was the love of a child,
Compared with the love that was felt by me;
A river leaps noisily, kissing the land,
But the sea is fathomless, deep and grand.
I vowed to love you, for ever and ever!
I called you cold, on that night in June,
But my fierce love, like a reckless river,
Dashed on, and away, and was spent too soon;
While yours - ah, yours was deep like the sea;
I cheated you, love, but you died for me!
poem by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
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Love Is The Price
RAP 1:
BABY'S IN THE PARLOUR
WAITING FOR THE RAIN
BEATING LIKE A HAMMER
WASHING OUT HER PAIN
CLEARING LIKE THE ONE
SEVEN YEARS AGO
WHEN HER FIRST BIG LOVE
MELTED LIKE SNOW
BACK THEN SHE DOUBET
IF SHE WOULD EVER FIND A MAN
WHO COULD LOVE HER THAT WAY
THE SAME WAY AGAIN
AND JUST WHEN SHE THOUGHT
SHE'S LIVING IN VAIN
THE MAN OF HER DREAMS
CAME LIKE THE RAIN
REFRAIN:
WHEN LOVE IS THE PRICE
FREEDOM IS THE COST
LOVE IS THE PRICE
FREEDOM IS THE COST
AND JUST WHEN YOU THINK
EVERYTHING IS LOST
LOVE WILL BE YOUR PRICE
AND I KNOW I WOULD NOT CHANGE A THING
YES I KNOW I WOULDN'T CHANGE A THING
RAP 2:
THEY SPOKE ABOUT HER DREAMS
THEY SPOKE ABOUT LOVE
THEY SPOKE ABOUT THE THINGS SHE WAS SO AFRAID OF
HE HAD THE KEY-WORD
FOR EVERYTHING SHE FELT
SO IT DIDN'T TAKE LONG
TILL HE GOT HER NAILED
PIN ONE'S HOPE ON SOMEONE ELSES LIFE
AND ALL YOUR DREAMS
WILL HURT YOU LIKE A KNIFE
SHE SOON GOT LOST
WHEN LOVE IS THE PRICE
FREEDOM IS THE COST
REFRAIN:
WHEN LOVE IS THE PRICE
FREEDOM IS THE COST
LOVE IS THE PRICE
FREEDOM IS THE COST
AND JUST WHEN YOU THINK
EVERYTHING IS LOST
LOVE WILL BE YOUR PRIZE
AND I KNOW I WOULD NOT CHANGE A THING
YES I KNOW I WOULDN'T CHANGE A THING
RAP 3:
SHE DIDN'T TRUST THAT VERY FIRST MAN
TO COME INTO HER LIFE TRYING TO UNDERSTAND
WHAT NOBODY EVER COULD BEFORE
HE ONLY MADE HER SEE
THERE IS SOMETHING MORE
TO LEARN ABOUT FREEDOM
TO LEARN ABOUT LOVE
TO HANDLE ALL THE THINGS SHE WAS SO AFRAID OF
TO ALWAYS FOLLOW WHAT SHE REALLY FELT INSIDE
EVERYTHING ELSE WAS A ROLLERCOASTER RIDE
song performed by by DJ Bobo
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Baby's Breath
“It’s not flesh and blood, but heart which makes us fathers and sons” Johann von Schiller
Caressing soft blanket
Warmth spreads
Beneath her breast
Baby’s breath
With tender touches
Rocking gently
Joy spills tears
Baby’s breath
Beneath her chest
Is heaven scent
Window lace drawn
Her eyes glitter
Baby’s breath
Against her neck
In rhyme with hearts together
Nightingale sings
Crescent moon shinning
Baby’s breath
Beneath her chest
In her arms asleep
It’s not flesh and blood, but heart which makes us mother & babe.
(June 2011)
poem by Jo Ann Zsilavetz
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And I Dreamt Of You
i see thy love in the distance
breathless gasping for air, for in thy dreams you where
awakening to the bleakness in my room
as my eyes begin to blear reality sets and starts the fear
for do dreams come true or do i die alone
waiting like the petals of a wilting flower fall off
until there is non and the once beautiful flowers dies naked
with no one to clothe it
will i hold you in the grave or will the grave hold me?
the numbing dreams never end the swallow's wings still amonsgt
the idle wind
my colored wold turns to grayscale
recollecting the memories eyes covered hazel
contradiction of thy thoughts standing calm love not lost
searching till i find my princess whose passionate eyes
cut right through me
for what is life if love only exists in thy thoughts?
what is romance if it is all fiction?
nothing but a portrait left empty, a passing cloud of hurt
by to meet ym love in the flesh is to find my whole heart
your heart breaks though me your love is the key
longing for my hearts door
to what day till i see sunrays shine upon your face
i dream of you the way you look
the beating of love in your heart
your wolds are like the flowing of a spring, knowing thy love
waits for me until eternity's end
is this poetry or is this love's sickness
engulfing my every being
take the heart from you and the blood ceases from me
i see what you hear
breathe taking the closest thing to me and my savior
falling in love to a person i have never met
but knowing she has salvation's fragrance
by God's grace this love will be free and able to fly away above
the earth to a point of exhaustion
but your breath will keep me alive
words are pointless for this love is speechless
preparing fro the cur
song performed by by Underoath
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Sweetness
Sweetness fills your mouth
as you bite down on the meat
Bliss overcomes your mind
as you swallow, the sweetness still remaining
Comfort flows through you
as you smell the flesh in your mouth
Wonder comes in to your eyes
as you bite into the flesh of your own kind.
poem by Bethany Maxwell
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Airs for the Lute
I
When the sobbing lute complains,
Grieving for an ancient sorrow,
This poor sorrow that remains
Fain would borrow,
To give pleading unto sorrow,
Those uncapturable strains.
All, that hands upon the lute
Helped the voices to declare,
Voices mute
But for this, might I not share,
If, alas, I could but suit
Hand and voice unto the lute?
II
If time so sweetly
On true according viols make
Her own completely
The lawless laws of turn and shake;
How should I doubt then
Love, being tuned unto your mood,
Should bring about then
True time and measure of your blood?
III
Why are you sorrowful in dreams?
I am sad in the night;
The hours till morning are white,
I hear the hours' flight
All night in dreams.
Why do you send me your dreams?
For an old love's sake;
I dream if I sleep or wake,
And shall but one heart ache,
For the sake of dreams?
Pray that we sleep without dreams!
Ah, love, the only way
To put sorrow away,
Night or day, night or day,
From the way of dreams!
IV
Strange, to remember tears!
Yet I know that I wept;
And those hopes and those fears,
Strange, were as real as tears!
What's this delicate pain,
Twilight-coloured and grey?
Odour-like through my brain
Steals a shadowy pain.
What's this joy in the air?
Musical as the leaves,
When the white winds are there,
Faint joy breathes in the air.
poem by Arthur Symons
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Your Flesh Is So Nice
(j.buckley)
I want to tell you a story
About a little cutey
She's ass-slappin' pretty
And voluptous fingers
Wanna let her lick me
Stick the thick of my pussy
From across the street
She looks good enough to eat me
Kitty! your flesh is so nice
Your flesh is so nice
Let me take a bite
Your flesh is so nice.
Oh, i take off my belt
Oh, i whip the staircase
(whip the staircase)
Kill all the men
Everything's dead to them
You're the only one i follow
Come on and let me give you that "o".
Your flesh is so nice
I wanna take you twice
Your flesh is so nice
Oooo your flesh is so nice
Your flesh is so nice
Wanna take a bite
Your flesh is so nice
Your flesh is so
Your flesh is so
Your flesh is so
Your flesh is so
Nice
(repeat)
song performed by by Jeff Buckley
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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To One Paradise
Lead vocal: terry sylvester
If I could see the sky above
And my mind could be set free
As wild white horses reached the shore
Id stand alone and oversee
And if the bush before me burns
Should I turn my eyes away
And still the voices I can hear
As clear to me as the light of day
I believed in my dreams
Nothing could change my mind
Now I know what they mean
How could I be so blind
Cold sands of time
(winds that blow as cold as ice
Sounds that come in the night)
Shall hide what is left of me
(come from paradise)
Ive been through times when no one cared
(words that were mine)
Ive clouds in empty skies
When one kind word meant more to me
(shall last as a memory)
Than all the love in paradise
I believed in my dreams
Nothing could change my mind
Till I found what they mean
Nothing can save me now
song performed by by Alan Parsons Project
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Lunar Bay
(gill/johnson/nash/otoole)
Walk right through my soul, keep out the cold
Make me lose control, fill me with love
My mind is blasing and were escaping, the real world
Swing and sway on lunar bay
On lunar bay, yeah
Touch my very soul, makes me lose control
My dreams unfold, you fill me with love
Feel me walking in the sun
Hear me talking to the moon
I wont change for anyone
Im just for you
Touch my very soul, makes me lose control
My dreams unfold, fill me with love
The train of faces are going places, get on board
Swing and sway on lunar bay
On lunar bay , yeah
Swing and sway, swing and sway
Feel me walking in the sun
Hear me talking to the moon
I wont change for anyone
Im just for you
When the wind rushes in
To hemald the king
Just stay in my heart
Forever more
Feel me walking in the sun
I wont change for anyone
When the wind rushes in
To hemald the king
Just stay in my heart
Forever more
In the sun
I wont change for anyone
In the common age of automation, where people might
Eventually work ten or twenty hours a week, man for
The first time will be forced to confront himself with
The true spiritual problems of living
song performed by by Frankie Goes To Hollywood
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Flos Lunae
I would not alter thy cold eyes,
Nor trouble the calm fount of speech
With aught of passion or surprise.
The heart of thee I cannot reach:
I would not alter thy cold eyes!
I would not alter thy cold eyes;
Nor have thee smile, nor make thee weep:
Though all my life droops down and dies,
Desiring thee, desiring sleep,
I would not alter thy cold eyes.
I would not alter thy cold eyes;
I would not change thee if I might,
To whom my prayers for incense rise,
Daughter of dreams! my moon of night!
I would not alter thy cold eyes.
I would not alter thy cold eyes,
With trouble of the human heart:
Within their glance my spirit lies,
A frozen thing, alone, apart;
I would not alter thy cold eyes.
poem by Ernest Christopher Dowson
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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