Well then... A search of the general chit-chat forum did not produce any extant thread similar to the one I am about to begin. If there is one, and I happened to miss it by accident, I do apologize. Anyhow, here goes.

Do you have a favourite poem, or some favourite line or verse from a poem? Song lyrics count too.

I enjoy reading poetry, and over the course of my perusals have discovered various lines, verses, and entire poems that I really like. Many were written by John Keats, Alexander Pope, and Percy Bysshe Shelley. A complete litany of my favourites would be somewhat taxing on both my fingers and the reader's eyes, and so I'll just give a sample.

From Keats, I love 'Lamia', and 'Ode to A Nightingale' - the first tells an excellent story that hinges on a creature from mythology, I believe, and the imagery and description in the second is enrapturing; near deliciously tangible. From Shelley, I love the poem 'Alastor'. My favourite verse:

There was a Poet whose untimely tomb
No human hands with pious reverence reared,
But the charmed eddies of autumnal winds
Built o'er his mouldering bones a pyramid
Of mouldering leaves in the waste wilderness:--
A lovely youth,--no mourning maiden decked
With weeping flowers, or votive cypress wreath,
The lone couch of his everlasting sleep:--
Gentle, and brave, and generous,--no lorn bard
Breathed o'er his dark fate one melodious sigh:
He lives, he died, he sung, in solitude.
Strangers have wept to hear his passionate notes,
And virgins, as unknown he passed, have pined
And wasted for fond love of his wild eyes.
And fire of those soft orbs have ceased to burn,
And Silence, too enamoured of that voice,
Locks its mute music in her rugged cell.

(50-65)

I also put several favourite lines from 'Alastor' in my Twilight Princess signature picture. As for Pope, my selection comes from canto II of his 'The Rape of the Lock':

Some to the sun their insect-wings unfold,
Wafr of the breeze, or sink in clouds of gold;
Transparent forms, too fine for mortal sight,
Their fluid bodies half dissolv'd in light.
Loose to the wind their airy garments flew,
Thin glitt'ring textures of the filmy dew,
Dipt in the richest tincture of the skies,
Where light disports in ever mingling dyes,
While ev'ry beam new translucent colour flings,
Colours that change whene'er they wave their wings.

(59-68)

Though I'm not overly fond of rhyming poetry, I liked this last selection because of the description: I love vivid imagery in poetry.

Another favourite poem of mine is from Edmund Spenser's 'The Faerie Queene', called 'The Garden of Adonis'.

Concerning song lyrics, most of my favourites come from Sixpence None the Richer's album Divine Discontent: I like the lyrics of 'Don't Dream it's Over', because I find them very inspirational (the chorus and first verse, at least); 'Melody of You' (the lyrics here are very, very beautiful); and 'Eyes Wide Open' (the song is rather melancholy, O.o). I also like 'Never Alone', by BarlowGirl, because they're very relevant to me.

So, to reiterate: do you have any favourite poems or lyrics? Post them here, and give a sentence or two on why you like them. I hope you hear from you all. ^^

- Selah