To Catullus
Would that you were alive today, Catullus!
Truth ’tis, there is a filthy skunk amongst us,
A rank musk-idiot, the filthiest skunk,
Of no least sorry use on earth, but only
Fit in fancy to justify the outlay
Of your most horrible vocabulary.
My Muse, all innocent as Eve in Eden,
Would yet wear any skins of old pollution
Rather than celebrate the name detested.
Ev’n now might he rejoice at our attention,
Guess'd he this little ode were aiming at him.
O! were you but alive again, Catullus!
For see, not one among the bards of our time
With their flimsy tackle was out to strike him;
Not those two pretty Laureates of England,
Not Alfred Tennyson nor Alfred Austin.
poem by Robert Seymour Bridges
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Related quotes
Hendecasyllabics
O you chorus of indolent reviewers,
Irresponsible, indolent reviewers,
Look, I come to the test, a tiny poem
All composed in a metre of Catullus,
All in quantity, careful of my motion,
Like the skater on ice that hardly bears him,
Lest I fall unawares before the people,
Waking laughter in indolent reviewers.
Should I flounder awhile without a tumble
Thro' this metrification of Catullus,
They should speak to me not without a welcome,
All that chorus of indolent reviewers.
Hard, hard, hard it is, only not to tumble,
So fantastical is the dainty meter.
Wherefore slight me not wholly, nor believe me
Too presumptuous, indolent reviewers.
O blatant Magazines, regard me rather -
Since I blush to belaud myself a moment -
As some rare little rose, a piece of inmost
Horticultural art, or half-coquette-like
Maiden, not to be greeted unbenignly.
poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Ah, what shall I be at fifty,
should nature keep me alive,
if I find the world so bitter
when I am but twenty-five?
quote by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
The Skunk In Two Parts
I.
An Animal
With a Whole Lot
Of Funk
Is
The Skunk.
II.
On a Carousel
Or in the Darkness
A Skunk Will Still Smell.
poem by M.L. Squier
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Advice: to himself
Sad Catullus, stop playing the fool,
and let what you know leads you to ruin, end.
Once, bright days shone for you,
when you came often drawn to the girl
loved as no other will be loved by you.
Then there were many pleasures with her,
that you wished, and the girl not unwilling,
truly the bright days shone for you.
And now she no longer wants you: and you
weak man, be unwilling to chase what flees,
or live in misery: be strong-minded, stand firm.
Goodbye girl, now Catullus is firm,
he doesn’t search for you, won’t ask unwillingly.
But you’ll grieve, when nobody asks.
Woe to you, wicked girl, what life’s left for you?
Who’ll submit to you now? Who’ll see your beauty?
Who now will you love? Whose will they say you’ll be?
Who will you kiss? Whose lips will you bite?
But you, Catullus, be resolved to be firm.
poem by Gaius Valerius Catullus
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
I Entreat You, Alfred Tennyson
I entreat you, Alfred Tennyson,
Come and share my haunch of venison.
I have too a bin of claret,
Good, but better when you share it.
Tho' 'tis only a small bin,
There's a stock of it within.
And as sure as I'm a rhymer,
Half a butt of Rudeheimer.
Come; among the sons of men is one
Welcomer than Alfred Tennyson?
poem by Walter Savage Landor
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Im Alive
Im alive - and the world shines for me today
Im alive - suddenly I am here today
Seems like forever (and a day), thought I could never (feel this way)
Is this really me? Im alive, Im alive
Im alive - and the dawn breaks across the sky
Im alive - and the sun rises up so high
Lost in another world (far away), never another word (till today)
But what can I say? Im alive, Im alive, Im alive
(instrumental break)
Suddenly came the dawn (from the night), suddenly I was born (into light)
How can it be real? Im alive, Im alive, Im alive
Im alive - and the world shines for me today
Im alive - suddenly I am here today
Seems like forever (and a day), thought I could never (feel this way)
Is this really me? Im alive, Im alive, Im alive
(instrumental break)
Im alive, Im alive, Im alive, Im alive
song performed by by Electric Light Orchestra
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
Invitation: to Fabullus
You’ll dine well, in a few days, with me,
if the gods are kind to you, my dear Fabullus,
and if you bring lots of good food with you,
and don’t come without a pretty girl
and wine and wit and all your laughter.
I say you’ll dine well, and charmingly,
if you bring all that: since your Catullus’s
purse alas is full of cobwebs.
But accept endearments in return for the wine
or whatever’s sweeter and finer:
since I’ll give you a perfume my girl
was given by the Loves and Cupids,
and when you’ve smelt it, you’ll ask the gods
to make you, Fabullus, all nose.
poem by Gaius Valerius Catullus
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
How Many Kisses: to Lesbia
Lesbia, you ask how many kisses of yours
would be enough and more to satisfy me.
As many as the grains of Libyan sand
that lie between hot Jupiter’s oracle,
at Ammon, in resin-producing Cyrene,
and old Battiades sacred tomb:
or as many as the stars, when night is still,
gazing down on secret human desires:
as many of your kisses kissed
are enough, and more, for mad Catullus,
as can’t be counted by spies
nor an evil tongue bewitch us.
poem by Gaius Valerius Catullus
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
A lie which is half a truth is ever the blackest of lies.
quote by Alfred Lord Tennyson
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
O earth, what changes hast thou seen!
quote by Alfred Lord Tennyson
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
Idiot
So I was an idiot
I was a goddamn idiot
Because I came here so violent
Because I came around here so violent
I said yes I was an idiot
I was a goddamn idiot
Because I made you think for it
Because I came round here to think for it
And sing it
Its a wonderful life
Never felt so alive
Never felt so alive
Its a wonderful life
Never felt so alive
Never felt so alive
My love, my love, where have you been?
My love, my love, where did you go?
My love, my love, what have you seen?
My love, youre such an idiot
Like an idiot
I run around like a chicken with its head cut off
Like an idiot
I run around like a chicken with its head cut off
Like an idiot
I run around like a chicken with its head cut off
Like an idiot
I was an idiot
I fell down like a goddamn idiot
Because I came here to bring them down
Because I came round here to fight them down
I said yes I felt like an idiot
I was a goddamn idiot
Sing it
Its a wonderful life
Never felt so alive
Never felt so alive
Its a wonderful life
Never felt so alive
Never felt so alive
My love, my love, where have you been?
My love, my love, where did you go?
My love, my love, what have you seen?
My love, youre such an idiot
Like an idiot
I run around like a chicken with its head cut off
Like an idiot
I run around like a chicken with its head cut off
Like an idiot
I run around like a chicken with its head cut off
Like an idiot
Listen now, its a wonderful life
Never felt so alive
Its a wonderful life
Never felt so alive
Its a wonderful life
Never felt so alive
Never felt so alive
Its a wonderful life -acapo
song performed by by Coldplay
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
The only difference between a dead skunk lying in the road and a dead lawyer lying in the road is that there are skid marks around the skunk.
quote by Patrick Murray
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
Words against Lesbia: to Furius and Aurelius
Furius and Aurelius, you friends of Catullus,
whether he penetrates farthest India,
where the Eastern waves strike the shore
with deep resonance,
or among the Hyrcanians and supple Arabs,
or Sacians and Parthian bowmen,
or where the seven-mouthed Nile
colours the waters,
or whether he’ll climb the high Alps,
viewing great Caesar’s monuments,
the waters of Gallic Rhine,
and the furthest fierce Britons,
whatever the will of the heavens
brings, ready now for anything,
tell my girl this in a few
ill-omened words.
Let her live and be happy with her adulterers,
hold all three-hundred in her embrace,
truly love-less, wearing them all down
again and again: let her not look for
my love as before,
she whose crime destroyed it, like the last
flower of the field, touched once
by the passing plough.
poem by Gaius Valerius Catullus
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
The Leviathan: Far, Far Down In The Freezing Deeps
(after Alfred Lord Tennyson)
Far, far down in the freezing deeps
where icy water continually over it sweeps
its arms twirls and its body is like a mass of rock
where it for centuries sleeps
and in the dark world below
it lies like a prehistoric monster as if in its grave
while the waves and hidden streams over it flows
and above it break wave upon wave
where it is silent since the devastating flood
hardly notices the waters rush,
while very slowly flows its lifeblood
and it lays waiting in ambush
until the day that Michael returns to earth
to erupt above the waters as if coming from new birth
as a gigantic monstrous thing
with multiple heads and fiery beaks that swing.
[Reference: “The Kraken” by Alfred Lord Tennyson.]
poem by Gert Strydom
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
No More 'Scha-nookie Dookie' Made
You say you married a skunk.
And I feel more like a monk on a donkey.
All I get to hear is junk.
With lots of lumps on me you dump.
You say you married a skunk.
And I feel more like a monk on a donkey.
No more quick done rabbit humps.
With less hops from a bed that jumped.
I hear our neighbors say,
How I treat you nasty everyday.
That's your way of mutilation.
I hear our neighbors say,
What I do and how I spend my pay.
You've been putting our business in their way.
And you will pay for that one day.
Your humiliation has decayed.
And your wicked stubbornness is sick.
No matter who you get to defend your...
Schanookie dookie that you make.
You say you married a skunk.
And I feel more like a monk on a donkey.
All I get to hear is junk.
With lots of lumps on me you dump.
You say you married a skunk.
And I feel more like a monk on a donkey.
No more quick done rabbit humps.
With less hops from a bed that jumped.
And no more 'scha-nookie dookie' made.
poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
What a Book! : to Calvus the Poet
If I didn’t love you more than my eyes,
most delightful Calvus, I’d dislike you
for this gift, with a true Vatinian dislike:
Now what did I do and what did I say,
to be so badly cursed with poets?
Let the gods send ill-luck to that client
who sent you so many wretches.
But if, as I guess, Sulla the grammarian
gave you this new and inventive gift,
that’s no harm to me, it’s good and fine
that your efforts aren’t all wasted.
Great gods, an amazing, immortal book!
That you sent, of course, to your Catullus,
so he might immediately die,
on the optimum day, in the Saturnalia!
No you won’t get away with this crime.
Now when it’s light enough I’ll run
to the copyists bookstalls, I’ll acquire
Caesius, Aquinus, Suffenus,
all of the poisonous ones.
And I’ll repay you for this suffering.
Meanwhile farewell take yourself off, there,
whence your unlucky feet brought you,
cursed ones of the age, worst of poets.
poem by Gaius Valerius Catullus
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
No. 51
To me that man seems like a god in heaven,
seems--may I say it?--greater than all gods are,
who sits by you & without interruption
watches you, listens
to your light laughter, which casts such confusion
onto my senses, Lesbia, that when I
gaze at you merely, all of my well-chosen
words are forgotten
as my tongue thickens & a subtle fire
runs through my body while my ears deafened
by their own ringing & at once my eyes are
covered in darkness!
Leisure, Catullus. More than just a nuisance,
leisure: you riot, overmuch enthusing.
Fabulous cities & their sometime kings have
died of such leisure.
poem by Gaius Valerius Catullus
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
If I had a single flower for every time I think about you, I could walk forever in my garden.
quote by Alfred Tennyson
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy! | In Spanish | In Romanian
I the heir of all the ages, in the foremost files of time.
quote by Alfred Lord Tennyson
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
The Smell of a Dog
I love the way a dog smells.
Ever since I was a boy,
I have loved the smell of a dog's paws,
leathery pads, edged with fur,
that absorb the rich, musty fragrances
of where the dog and I have been
in our adventures together.
I love the smell of the top of a dog's head,
where the fur is smoother than at any other
part of the animal
and is usually cleaner, too.
The top-of-the-head smell is fresher than the paw,
more like the smell of a little boy's hair
at the end of a summer's day in the sun.
I don't mind
the faint smell of skunk on a dog,
(but only if it's faint) .
Snuggling down for a nap
with my skunk flavored companion
lying next to me
puts me back in another time,
when the world was new,
waiting to be explored and discovered
by my friends and me and our dogs;
when the little lame balloon man
was simply another reason to wonder.