The Dust Of Timas
This dust was Timas; and they say
That almost on her wedding day
She found her bridal home to be
The dark house of Persephone.
And many maidens, knowing then
That she would not come back again,
Unbound their curls; and all in tears,
They cut them off with sharpened shears.
Related quotes
We put the urn abord ship
We put the urn aboard ship
with this inscription:
This is the dust of little
Timas who unmarried was led
into Persephone's dark bedroom
And she being far from home, girls
her age took new-edged blades
to cut, in mourning for her,
these curls of their soft hair
Variations of Greek Themes
I
A HAPPY MAN
(Carphyllides)
When these graven lines you see,
Traveler, do not pity me;
Though I be among the dead,
Let no mournful word be said.
Children that I leave behind,
And their children, all were kind;
Near to them and to my wife,
I was happy all my life.
My three sons I married right,
And their sons I rocked at night;
Death nor sorrow ever brought
Cause for one unhappy thought.
Now, and with no need of tears,
Here they leave me, full of years,—
Leave me to my quiet rest
In the region of the blest.
II
A MIGHTY RUNNER
(Nicarchus)
The day when Charmus ran with five
In Arcady, as I’m alive,
He came in seventh.—“Five and one
Make seven, you say? It can’t be done.”—
Well, if you think it needs a note,
A friend in a fur overcoat
Ran with him, crying all the while,
“You’ll beat ’em, Charmus, by a mile!”
And so he came in seventh.
Therefore, good Zoilus, you see
The thing is plain as plain can be;
And with four more for company,
He would have been eleventh.
III
THE RAVEN
(Nicarchus)
The gloom of death is on the raven’s wing,
The song of death is in the raven’s cries:
But when Demophilus begins to sing,
The raven dies.
IV
EUTYCHIDES
(Lucilius)
Eutychides, who wrote the songs,
Is going down where he belongs.
O you unhappy ones, beware:
Eutychides will soon be there!
For he is coming with twelve lyres,
And with more than twice twelve quires
Of the stuff that he has done
In the world from which he’s gone.
Ah, now must you know death indeed,
For he is coming with all speed;
And with Eutychides in Hell,
Where’s a poor tortured soul to dwell?
V
DORICHA
(Posidippus)
So now the very bones of you are gone
Where they were dust and ashes long ago;
And there was the last ribbon you tied on
To bind your hair, and that is dust also;
And somewhere there is dust that was of old
A soft and scented garment that you wore—
The same that once till dawn did closely fold
You in with fair Charaxus, fair no more.
But Sappho, and the white leaves of her song,
Will make your name a word for all to learn,
And all to love thereafter, even while
It’s but a name; and this will be as long
As there are distant ships that will return
Again to your Naucratis and the Nile.
VI
THE DUST OF TIMAS
(Sappho)
This dust was Timas; and they say
That almost on her wedding day
She found her bridal home to be
The dark house of Persephone.
And many maidens, knowing then
That she would not come back again,
Unbound their curls; and all in tears,
They cut them off with sharpened shears.
VII
ARETEMIAS
(Antipater of Sidon)
I’m sure I see it all now as it was,
When first you set your foot upon the shore
Where dim Cocytus flows for evermore,
And how it came to pass
That all those Dorian women who are there
In Hades, and still fair,
Came up to you, so young, and wept and smiled
When they beheld you and your little child.
And then, I’m sure, with tears upon your face
To be in that sad place,
You told of the two children you had borne,
And then of Euphron, whom you leave to mourn.
“One stays with him,” you said,
“And this one I bring with me to the dead.”
VIII
THE OLD STORY
(Marcus Argentarius)
Like many a one, when you had gold
Love met you smiling, we are told;
But now that all your gold is gone,
Love leaves you hungry and alone.
And women, who have called you more
Sweet names than ever were before,
Will ask another now to tell
What man you are and where you dwell.
Was ever anyone but you
So long in learning what is true?
Must you find only at the end
That who has nothing has no friend?
IX
TO-MORROW
(Macedonius)
To-morrow? Then your one word left is always now the same;
And that’s a word that names a day that has no more a name.
To-morrow, I have learned at last, is all you have to give:
The rest will be another’s now, as long as I may live.
You will see me in the evening?—And what evening has there been,
Since time began with women, but old age and wrinkled skin?
X
LAIS TO APHRODITE
(Plato)
When I, poor Lais, with my crown
Of beauty could laugh Hellas down,
Young lovers crowded at my door,
Where now my lovers come no more.
So, Goddess, you will not refuse
A mirror that has now no use;
For what I was I cannot be,
And what I am I will not see.
XI
AN INSCRIPTION BY THE SEA
(Glaucus)
No dust have I to cover me,
My grave no man may show;
My tomb is this unending sea,
And I lie far below.
My fate, O stranger, was to drown;
And where it was the ship went down
Is what the sea-birds know.
poem by Edwin Arlington Robinson
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Draw String
The curtains in my living room
lift and fall
gracefully
as I pull their strings each day;
marking the rise and fall of each
season
and each day in between-
punctuation
for the life between you and me.
Like my skirts
they lifted first
and fell
on our wedding bed
on our wedding night-
and now gracefully on special nights;
They rose to the realities
of married life-
fell during our dark times-
and ring during the good times
with loving making
and bedroom laughter.
I cannot
each time I draw
the strings
but marvel
at morning light;
folding away yet
another night
with you.
.
My curtains offer me regularity
which is comforting to me.
I dust them-
not often enough
worn with the years;
uplift them
for the view of the garden
and you coming home
over the back fence.
I draw them each time
anticipating
magically
in doing
so
you, too,
are drawn
home
to my bosom
each day.
Watch
as I draw
this string.
You'll see:
He'll be there
coming over
the back fence;
home to me.
poem by Lonnie Hicks
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For My Wedding
(larry john mcnally)
For my wedding, I will dress in black
And never again will I look back
Ah, my dark angels we must part
For Ive made a sanctuary of my heart
To want what I have
To take what Im given with grace
For this I pray
On my wedding day
For my wedding, I dont want violins
Or sentimental songs about thick and thin
I want a moment of silence and a moment of prayer
For the love well need to make it in the world out there
To want what I have
To take what Im given with grace
For this I pray
On my wedding day
On my wedding day
I dream, and my dreams are all glory and light
Thats what Ive wanted for my life
And if it hasnt always been that way
Well, I can dream and I can pray
On my wedding day
So what makes us any different from all the others
Who have tried and failed before us
Maybe nothing, maybe nothing at all
But I pray were the lucky ones; I pray we never fall
To want what we have
To take what were given with grace
For these things I pray
On my wedding day
On my wedding day
song performed by by Don Henley
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The Defector
Orbison/dees/angie morrow
It's the bonnie and clyde days
Where the girls wear curls and lace
And the boys can't stand the pace of war
It's not the war but the cause the country's fighting for
The seed of discontent is sown
They're burning card back home, back home
The old folks just can't ignore
The posters with ink anymore
I'm not sure what to think
Now i wonder why i'm on this foreign shore
To find peace of mind
For now i walk alone
Amd it's no better to leave than stay
And give more than i had to give
My life was not my own the wife i've never known
I may never know i may never go back home
To the land of the free, back home
To the land of the free back home
Would there be a place for me back home back home?
Well i always wonder why
Will they take me when i die back home
song performed by by Roy Orbison
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Angel
girl it's been so long
since i held you in my arms
so i picked up pen and paper
and decided to write you a song
things just ain't the same
since you took your love away
all i have is dark and lonely days
cause the sun don't shine my way
wish that i could find the words to say
to show you love is real
the words just can't express the way i feel
[chorus]
you're my angel
my sun up in the sky
we've been through hell and back together
why you wanna leave me now
only you can ease the pain i feel
and wipe my tears away
won't you fly back home and make me whole again
baby not a day goes bye
that i don't want to cry
when i think of what we had
how you walked out of my life
all i had was yours to take
till my heart you chose to break
still wish that i could make love to you
just one more time for old times sake
if only i could find the words to say
to show you love is real
the words just can't express the way i feel
[chorus]
you're my angel
my sun up in the sky
we've been through hell and back together
why you wanna leave me now
only you can ease the pain i feel
and wipe my tears away
won't you fly back home and make me feel whole again
come back home
come back home
cause without you here beside me
my house is not a home
only you can ease the pain i feel
and wipe my tears away
won't you fly back home and make me whole again
you're my angel
my sun up in the sky
we've been through hell and back together
why you wanna leave me now
only you can ease the pain i feel
and wipe my tears away
won't you fly back home and make me whole again
you're my angel
my sun up in the sky
we've been through hell and back together
why you wanna leave me now
only you can ease the pain i feel
and wipe my tears away
you've been gone too long so won't you come back home
song performed by by Dru Hill from Enter The Dru
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Love Hate Relationship
i see you, seated on the staircase, the old one
left by your parents long dead, and
you are crying there, some tears falling on the
carpeted floors, so your sorrow is invisible
to his eyes, when he comes home, you put on a smile,
like a light that you switch on when it is dark,
it has always been that everyday with you,
and him, and he tells you every instruction to keep that love
burning, you listen, but as soon as he goes
to another place, far, and you sit again on that old staircase
counting the rails and the chairs of the house
you begin to think honestly, that this affair is nothing but a
fraud. It is only him. But to him that should not be, as you he goes
away for days, and you keep on staying put
with all his instructions. You worry about the electricity of the house.
and the gas that keeps the oven hot for the bread
and the muffins
but for how long. The tank of gas will be empty soon.
and what he will find in this house, when you decide to end it all
is just the muffin that the ants of the house
are still eating. There is always a season to end what was started.
soon. It will be. You sit on the stair, looking out the door.
You will know how to make the dust. Soon, It will be.
He will never know.
poem by Ric S. Bastasa
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Back Home
(Dolly Parton)
Back home, back home
Yes, I'm going back home
Why I can't believe it's been this long
Since I've seen mom and dad
When I left my mountain home behind
I left them both so sad
My brothers and my sisters that were babies then are grown
Years have past and now at last, I'm on my way back home
Back home, back home
Yes I'm going back home
To the factory smoke and city life, I'm sayin' so long
I've shed a lot of tears through all the years that I've been gone
And I've spent a lot of time a' wishin' I could go back home
I got a letter from mama an'
Mama asked me if I'd come back home
She says it sure is lonesome now
Since all of us kids are all growed up and gone
I just can't hardly stand the thoughts of
Momma and daddy being left there all alone
That's really all I need to know
And now I'm on the road back home
Back home, back home
Yes, I'm going back home
To the smog an' smoke an' city life, I'm sayin' so long
I've shed a lot of tears through all the years that I've been gone
And I've spent a lot of time a' wishin' I could go back home
Back home, back home
Yes, I'm going back home
song performed by by Dolly Parton
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Our Wedding Bells
Our Wedding Night
In our wedding night
I saw the bright stars
Promising us happiness
Through the days to come
My bride I adore you
You have all my unbound love
Your shining beauty
Your gleaming eyes
Are the doors to paradise
Your cheerfulness
Your radiating delight
The candles that will light our way
In the journey of life
The wedding bells
The silver bell chimes
Announce the first steps
For joyful future
For a family
For love and romance
poem by Sherif Monem
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Bavarian Gentias
Not every man has gentians in his house
in soft September, at slow, sad Michaelmas.
Bavarian gentians, big and dark, only dark
darkening the daytime, torch-like, with the smoking blueness of Pluto's
gloom,
ribbed and torch-like, with their blaze of darkness spread blue
down flattening into points, flattened under the sweep of white day
torch-flower of the blue-smoking darkness, Pluto's dark-blue daze,
black lamps from the halls of Dis, burning dark blue,
giving off darkness, blue darkness, as Demeter's pale lamps give off blight, lead me then, lead the way.
Reach me a gentian, give me a torch!
let me guide myself with the blue, forked torch of this flower
down the darker and darker stairs, where blue is darkened on blueness even where Persephone goes, just now, from the frosted September
to the sightless realm where darkness is awake upon the dark
and Persephone herself is but a voice
or a darkness invisible enfolded in the deeper dark
of the arms Plutonic, and pierced with the passion of dense gloom, among the splendor of torches of darkness, shedding darkness on the lost bride and her groom.
poem by David McKee Wright
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Back Home
Yeah yeah yeah
Well Im going back this summer to ohio
Im gonna seek out all my friends Ive always known
Im goin back to that farm that I remember
Well Im goin to spend this summer back home
Back home (back home, back home, back home)
Ill spend my summer (back home)
Back home (back home)
Back home (back home, back home, back home)
Ill spend my summer (back home)
Back home (back home)
Im gonna get up every morning before the roosters
Ill run downstairs fix my breakfast all alone
Ill milk those cows feed the chickens and the horses
Well Im gonna spend this summer back home
Back home (back home, back home, back home)
Ill spend my summer (back home)
Back home (back home)
Back home (back home, back home, back home)
Ill spend my summer (back home)
Back home (back home)
Ill eat everything that ma puts on the table
When I get back you wont believe how Ive grown
Ill hit the sack early everynight thinkin bout tomorrow whoa oh
Well Im gonna spend this summer back home
Back home, back home, back home
Back home (back home, back home, back home)
Ill spend my summer (back home)
Thats what Im gonna do thats where Im gonna be, thats this summer
Back home (back home)
Back home (back home, back home, back home)
Ill spend my summer (back home)
Gonna get up, gonna get up, gonna get up every morning
Back home (back home)
Back home (back home, back home, back home)
Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah
Ill spend my summer (back home)
Hey woo feels okay back home
Back home (back home)
Back home (back home, back home, back home)
Ill spend my summer (back home)
Back home
song performed by by Beach Boys
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Prayer For His Lady’s Life
FROM PROPERTIUS, ELEGIAE, LIB. III, 26
Here let thy clemency, Persephone, hold firm,
Do thou, Pluto, bring here no greater harshness.
So many thousand beauties are gone down to Avernus,
Ye might let one remain above with us.
With you is lope, with you the white-gleaming Tyro,
With you is Europa and the shameless Pasiphae,
And all the fair from Troy and all from Achaia,
From the sundered realms, of Thebes and of aged Priamus;
And all the maidens of Rome, as many as they were,
They died and the greed of your flame consumes them.
Here let thy clemency, Persephone, hold firm.
Do thou, Pluto, bring here no greater harshness.
So many thousandfair are gone down to Avernus,
Ye might let one remain above with us.
poem by Ezra Pound
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Wedding Bells/lets Turn Back The Years
I got the invitation that you sent me,
You wanted me to see you change your name
I couldnt stand to see you wed another
But dear I hope youre happy just the same
I planned a little cottage in the valley,
I even bought that little band of gold
I thought some day Id place it on your finger,
But now the future looks so dark and cold
Wedding bells are ringing in the chapel
That should be ringing now for you and me
Down the aisle with someone else youre walking
Those wedding bells with never ring for me
Darling, lets turn back the years
And go back to yesterday
Lets pretend that time has stopped
And I didnt go away
We had our love to make us happy
Love wasnt meant to bring us tears
Love like ours should never die
So, darling, lets turn back the years
I fancy that I see a bunch of roses
A blossom from and orange tree in your hair
While the organ plays I love you truly,
Just let me pretend that I am there
Wedding bells are ringing in the chapel
That should be ringing now for you and me
Down the aisle with someone else youre walking
Those wedding bells with never ring for me
Those wedding bells with never ring for me
song performed by by John Prine
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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A wedding Invitation
Imagine if you woke up in the morning,
just from a dream about your wedding day,
and you found me,
like a gentleman kneeling on your front yard,
down on one knee,
With five carats of sapphire blue diamond ring,
To extend a cordial invitation to you,
asking you to be a part of my wedding....
Darling would you be the most important guest at my wedding...?
Imagine you with a TIARA on your head?
Imagine you in a cascade of white laces?
Imagine you in that perfect make-up?
Imagine you with the flowers in your hand?
Indeed being the queen you always have been,
So darling would you be the most important guest at my wedding....?
Ever thought of how that day would look like?
Daddy walking her little girl down the aisle,
and for one last time taking her home,
and handing her to the care of another man,
Tears on mummy's eyes having trouble letting go of her last baby,
You quitting the single ladies' club,
to become known as missus,
your friends dressed up in your favorite colors,
Dancing and giving you away to your best friend,
The guests sited in silent adoration of the moment,
some even with tears in their eyes,
as we exchange our vows,
promising to stay faithful to one another,
a lifetime of commitment to each other,
To have and to hold,
from this day forward,
Till death do us part,
So Darling would you be the most important guest at my WEDDING?
poem by Olunga Otieno
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The Wedding Day
Love has such a great way of growing,
Often by leaps and hounds the lovers say
loving hearts has a way of knowing,
With joy she heads to her wedding day..
She puts her wedding-gown away,
As tenderly as one might close,
With kissing lips and finger-tips,
And the petals of a red rose..
She puts her wedding-gown away,
The quiet place was all a stir
With vague perfume that filled the room,
Cedar and lavender and fragrant thoughts of her..
She puts her wedding- gown away,
Yet lingered with its whiteness gleamed
As one above a sleeping Love,
oh, thus it was so she seemed..
As she walked in beauty down the aisle in the room,
When it was time for her to kiss the groom
The wedding bells rang until she was out of sight,
The wind appeared and the white doves were in flight..
To enjoy the every moment that will come,
There's not really much more I need to say
Two hearts would rejoice at one home,
Having heart-picked their own 'wedding day'...
poem by Arijit Mandal
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Just Like That :
Until that day
My life had been a river
Following the same, pre-destinated course
Suddenly detouring so unexpectedly
With uncompromising forces
My strongholds broke down all too easily
I remember well
How it did embarrass me
I hung on to his every smile
Marveled at his style
Chorus
Just like that
He walked into my house
As smug as a cat
He was handsome and smart
Walked away with my heart
Just like that
He found a temporary home in my flat
Telling innocent lies
Throwing dust in my eyes
But I led him on
Knowing that someday soon hed be gone
Just like that
As though he only stopped awhile for a chat
But my secrets he learned
Leaving no stone unturned
And once again, the rivers flowing slowly
Following the same and uneventful course
Now the tears have dried
Its become a pleasant break
I recall without remorse
But now and then
I wonder where he is
And I will admit
He had something that I miss
I guess he was a rolling stone
The only one Ive known
Repeat chorus
song performed by by ABBA
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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A Birthday
THE three Fates sat in a house of birth,
Ah, well a day; ah, well a day;
Their eyes were bright, but not with mirth—
They have no love for the sons of earth—
And their lips were parched and gray.
5
Their gray locks hung from brow to chin,
Ah, well a day; ah, well a day;
One held the distaff, and one did spin,
And one held shears in her fingers thin;
Three silent hags were they.
10
We saw not the thread which the sisters spun,
Ah, well a day; ah, well a day;
Nor whether in white or in black begun,
But on her with the shears, that elder one,
Our eyes were fixed alway.
15
A thread, I ween, of tangled years,
Ah, well a day; ah, well a day;
God stay her hand that holds the shears;
Our hopes are stronger than our fears
For the bud upon life's spray.
20
poem by Frederick George Scott
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Wedding Cake-A Song
Now that the night is approaching the midnight
I hear the pounding sounds on the window panes
Not able to sleep I look out the windows to see
if you are there somewhere
but you are already long gone
only the wedding cake I see
Wonder who left the wedding cake...?
O I am going away, oh my sad love...!
After this night's over,
I am going to someone I don't want
With tears in my eyes,
I am going to someone who is not you
After this night's over,
I am going to someone I don't love
Please let me see your face one more time
for the last time, love!
I hear the merciless dawn church bell tolls from afar
that don't know my heart aches
Wondering if you are there somewhere
I look out the windows
but you are already long gone no where to be found.
I keep shedding my tears looking at the left wedding cake
I keep shedding my tears looking at the left wedding cake
OOOh- OOOh ~OOOh ~OOOh~ OOOh~ OOOh~ OOOh~
poem by Sangnam Nam
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Ophelia
Hades! I pray take me as thy lover!
Violets taken by the shadow of death
Whilst father lays in rosemary cover
Invite Persephone to leave Macbeth.
Shall not all ladies cry for dead and gone?
By faded age, 'tis true, the flowers wilt.
All gifts are poor when given with man's scorn
Despite honey with which the words are gilt.
Not better, yet worse, these words circle 'round,
How should true love be known from another?
Watch for perusal with doublet unbound,
Truer love shall be found on thy brother.
Rue for repentance of sins long forgot,
Pansies for thoughts of those rue covers not.
poem by Liam O'Brien
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Weddin' Bells
I have the invitation that you sent me
You wanted me to see you change your name
I couldn't stand to see you wed another
But dear I hope you're happy just the same
Wedding bells are ringing in the chapel
That should be ringing out for you and me
Down the aisle with someone else you're walking
Those wedding bell will never ring for me
I planned a little cottage in the valley
I even bought a little band of gold
I thought some day I'd place it on your finger
But now the future looks so dark and cold
Wedding bells are ringing in the chapel
I hear the children laughing out with glee
At home alone I hang my head in sorrow
Those wedding bells will never ring for me
I fancy that I see a bunch of roses
A blossom from an orange tree in your hair
And while the organ plays I love you truly
Please let me pretend that I am there
Wedding bells are ringing in the chapel
Ever since the day you set me free
I knew someday that you would wed another
But wedding bells will never ring for me
song performed by by Hank Williams
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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