Comment here by Monday 19 July and you could win a copy of Fremantle Poets 1: New Poets. Edited by Tracy Ryan, this collection brings together work from emerging poets Scott-Patrick Mitchell, Emma Rooksby and J.P. Quinton.
Wednesday, 14 July 2010
GIVEAWAY: Shipwrecked with a poem
Imagine: you've been shipwrecked on a desert island, and although you've found food, fresh water and shelter, you have to keep your mind sharp. You decide to recite a poem, to stay sane - which poem is it?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I think I'd have to go with Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner - Coleridge.
ReplyDeleteIt's long enough that I wouldn't bore.
It's appropriate to my condition; I've never liked albatross either.
And it'd be fun to palm off as my own story upon my rescue.
All that and it is actually very beautiful...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteYou'd need something epic with a strong oral structure which would make it easy to recall. I was going to say Homer's Odyssey as it features shipwrecks and it's about trying to get home but on second thoughts I think I'll go with Green Eggs and Ham by Seuss
ReplyDeleteJabberwocky! by Lewis Carroll
ReplyDeleteI would be a slithy tove who gyres and gimbles on the deserted beach. (I have a great chance to improve my gyre!) Then I would stalk some wild jabberwock (native fauna) with my vorpal blade (bamboo stick). After I have caught and cooked it I would feel very beamish indeed.
I'd recite Edmund Spenser's 'The Faerie Queene'! All of it!
ReplyDeleteTS Eliot's The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock
ReplyDelete- dealing with spiritually exhausted people who exist in the impersonal modern city. - Maybe I would think how lucky I was to be alone with my thoughts and away from city life!!!
"I grow old … I grow old …
I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.
Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach?
I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach.
I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.
I do not think that they will sing to me."
Hi Chaps
ReplyDeleteThese are great choices. We're not sure about what's out of copyright but any quoting of the living or dead needs to be approached with caution.
Many thanks! Claire
I've thought about this and if I was marooned or my ship sunk, perhaps I would like to see the abbott of Aberthock put a bell to warn me of dangers, so I would recite Robert Southey's Inchcape Rock
ReplyDeleteI'd recite a villanelle for the mental exercise and facial work out. Even better, I'd write one myself and enter in the villanelle competition starting soon.
ReplyDeleteLet's see:
Do not go mental writing that villanelle
or tear your hair or loudly beat your breast;
think of it as a pleasure out of hell...
Hmmmnow... now what rhymes wuith breast?
The names went into the hat, and this week's winner is Jeremy Balius! Congrats!
ReplyDelete