Littlestone
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Matthew Arnold: Stanzas Composed at Carnac
Dec 11, 2008, 21:39
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FAR on its rocky knoll descried
Saint Michael’s chapel cuts the sky.
I climb’d;—beneath me, bright and wide,
Lay the lone coast of Brittany.
Bright in the sunset, weird and still,
It lay beside the Atlantic wave,
As if the wizard Merlin’s will
Yet charm’d it from his forest grave.
Behind me on their grassy sweep,
Bearded with lichen, scrawl’d and grey,
The giant stones of Carnac sleep,
In the mild evening of the May.
No priestly stern procession now
Streams through their rows of pillars old;
No victims bleed, no Druids bow;
Sheep make the furze-grown aisles their fold.
From bush to bush the cuckoo flies,
The orchis red gleams everywhere;
Gold broom with furze in blossom vies,
The blue-bells perfume all the air.
And o’er the glistening, lonely land,
Rise up, all round, the Christian spires.
The church of Carnac, by the strand,
Catches the westering sun’s last fires.
And there across the watery way,
See, low above the tide at flood,
The sickle-sweep of Quiberon bay
Whose beach once ran with loyal blood!
And beyond that, the Atlantic wide!—
All round, no soul, no boat, no hail!
But, on the horizon’s verge descried,
Hangs, touch’d with light, one snowy sail!
Ah, where is he, who should have come
Where that far sail is passing now,
Past the Loire’s mouth, and by the foam
Of Finistère’s unquiet brow,
Home, round into the English wave?—
He tarries where the Rock of Spain
Mediterranean waters lave;
He enters not the Atlantic main.
Oh, could he once have reach’d this air
Freshen’d by plunging tides, by showers!
Have felt this breath he loved, of fair
Cool northern fields, and grass, and flowers!
He long’d for it—press’d on!—In vain.
At the Straits fail’d that spirit brave.
The South was parent of his pain,
The South is mistress of his grave.
Matthew Arnold (1822-1888)
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Littlestone
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Anon: Silbury
Jan 04, 2009, 13:15
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Softly through the air caressing
Spirits moving through the land
Ancient mound lies there before them
Honouring a time long gone
Timeless symbol of the past
Anon
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Denisdoc
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Re: The Great Leader
Jan 14, 2009, 17:42
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Hi
Greetings from a little north of the Real Capital.
Are you the author/poet of The Great Leader?
If so can we discuss my including same in an anthology that I am putting together?
If not can you direct me to the author?
Denisdoc
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gjrk
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Re: The Great Leader
Jan 15, 2009, 00:06
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Sure, thanks very much Denis, though I'd be slow to pull either author or poet around me ;). My email is there, under the profile, if you click on my initials/picture on the side of this message. ...though you may have spotted that already.
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tiompan
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Re: Megalithic Poems
Feb 03, 2009, 14:26
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Dunno if this has been noted previously .
From archaeology
One moral , at least , may be drawn.
By standing stones the blind can feel their way ,
And even madmen manage to convey
Unwelcome truths in lonely gibberish
W.H. Auden
"Archaeology , The useful "
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Littlestone
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Re: Megalithic Poems
Feb 03, 2009, 16:03
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tiompan wrote: Dunno if this has been noted previously .
From archaeology
One moral , at least , may be drawn.
By standing stones the blind can feel their way ,
And even madmen manage to convey
Unwelcome truths in lonely gibberish
W.H. Auden
"Archaeology , The useful "
Many thanks for that Mr t - it's a new one on me and duly added to the stack.
Our very own gjrk is probably too modest to mention it himself but there's a flippin' good poem of his now up on - http://megalithicpoems.blogspot.com/ Though Mr g's poem is inspired by the Knockawaddra alignment in County Cork it fits well with the pic of Stonehenge by Gideon Fidler that precedes it.
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Littlestone
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Beowulf: The Ravager of the night
Feb 05, 2009, 23:26
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Perhaps the earliest megalithic poem of them all -
The Ravager of the night,
the burner who has sought out barrows from old,
then found this hoard of undefended joy.
The smooth evil dragon swims through the gloom
enfolded in flame; the folk of that country
hold him in dread.*
* Beowulf. Translated from the Old English by Michael Alexander. Penguin Classics. ISBN 0-14-044268-5. pp122.
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Littlestone
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Just a thank you
Feb 06, 2009, 20:52
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Just a thank you, to everyone who has added something constructive to this thread.
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thesweetcheat
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Re: F.W. Harvey - Megalithic Poems
Feb 08, 2009, 17:53
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Just come across this in "Companion into Gloucestershire" - R.P. Beckinsale (1947 5th edition Methuen), it's a quote from a poem called "Gloucestershire Men" by F.W. Harvey (can't find the whole text):
"The men in yonder humped-up barrow
Crouched with their mortal joys and sorrow;
The Roman soldiers sound asleep
By walls where English weeds slow creep
(A thousand years are but a span ...)
Each dead man was a Gloucestershire Man!"
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Littlestone
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Re: F.W. Harvey - Megalithic Poems
Feb 10, 2009, 10:03
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Many thanks for that - will dig around to see if I can find the rest of the text.
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