tilly_stratford | Words on a string (Reply)

I've heard that April is National Poetry Month in the US, so hey - why not make it international I thought.

Lovely people on my flist have been posting their favourite poems and I've read so many nice things I wouldn't have come across otherwise.

I can foresee that this might get a bit angsty, so let's start with some short nonsense:

Lion
by Spike Milligan

If you are attacked by a lion
Find fresh underpants to try on
Lay on the ground very still
Pretend you are very ill
Keep like that day after day
Perhaps the lion will go away

Have another one by Milligan, not quite as cheerful:

Values '67
by Spike Milligan

Pass by citizen
don’t look left or right
Keep those drip dry eyes straight ahead
A tree? Chop it down – it’s a danger
to lightning!
Pansies calling for water,
Let ‘em die – queer bastards –
Seek comfort in the scarlet, labour
saving plastic rose
Fresh with the fragrance of Daz!
Sunday! Pray citizen;
Pray no rain will fall
On your newly polished
Four wheeled
God

Envoi

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder
Get it out with Optrex

I'm currently studying Norse sagas, and a couple of days ago I came across the song of Helgi Hundingsbane and was quite touched.

The story goes that Helgi fell in love with the valkyrie Sigrun, and as he was mortal and she wasn't, their story ended sadly. Then, when he died, she entered his tomb and they spent a final night together (because yes, he can talk and move about even though he's dead) before he had to head on to Valhalla.

Excerpt from Helgakviða Hundingsbana II

Sigrun spake:
"First will I kiss the lifeless king,
Ere off the bloody byrnie thou cast;
With frost thy hair is heavy, Helgi,
And damp thou art with the dew of death."

Helgi spake:
"Thou alone, Sigrun of Sevafjoll,
Art cause that Helgi with dew is heavy;
Gold-decked maid, thy tears are grievous,
Each falls like blood on the hero's breast."

Sigrun made ready a bed in the hill.
"Here a bed I have made for thee, Helgi,
To rest thee from care, thou kin of the Ylfings;
I will make thee sink to sleep in my arms,
As once I lay with the living king."

Helgi spake:
"Now do I say that in Sevafjoll
Aught may happen, early or late,
Since thou sleepest clasped in a corpse's arms,
So fair in the hill, the daughter of Hogni!

"Now must I ride the reddened ways,
And my bay steed set to tread the sky;
Westward I go to wind-helm's bridges,
Ere Salgofnir wakes the warrior throng."

"Dew of death" is the vikings' awesome way of saying "blood" by the way.

I realize this post is rather random since I've lost the huge Word file where I had all my favourite poetry. At least I could remember the title of the following one and find it again:

The More Loving One
by W.H. Auden

Looking up at the stars, I know quite well
That, for all they care, I can go to hell,
But on earth indifference is the least
We have to dread from man or beast.

How should we like it were stars to burn
With a passion for us we could not return?
If equal affection cannot be,
Let the more loving one be me.

Admirer as I think I am
Of stars that do not give a damn,
I cannot, now I see them, say
I missed one terribly all day.

Were all stars to disappear or die,
I should learn to look at an empty sky
And feel its total dark sublime,
Though this might take me a little time