Your Response/ Call & Reply/ Intertextual/ Dialogic Poems

[J.D. Sparks]

They go by different names, but what I'm getting at is those poems that were written as replies to other (often more famous) poems. One of the more well-known examples of this phenomena is Marlowe's "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love" and the many responses to it, including Raleigh's "The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd" et al.

I'm going to start off this thread with my own reply poem, and include a link to the poem it was written in response to. If you have written any response-type poems, I hope that you'll post them here too! I'd love to read them.

The poem I'm replying to is Richard Lovelace's "To Lucasta, Going to the Wars." (http://www.bartleby.com/101/343.html)

"From Lucasta, staying at home"

I’ll be alone when our babe is born,
because you seek Honour in the field.
I’ve not Her glory, but this I wield:
If you are lost, I alone shall mourn.

But go on, Richard, go to war.
Go to your mistress of bloodshot eyes,
of metal bones, and heroic lies.
Go to the one you most adore.

And let me tell you one thing more.
The best place to die, so it is said,
is in lover’s arms, in lover’s bed.
So go then, Richard, go to war!

May you perish in the arms of your paramour.

[PrinceMyshkin]

I don't have one ready at hand but it's a lovely, inviting proposition - and your own example is a marvellous poem all to its own. I will link to the one it's in response to. But here and in your blog poems and your posted ones, you've quickly become a valued participant in these forums.

[J.D. Sparks]

Gawww, you're going to make me blush. In any case I'm honoured to have been welcomed into such a distinguished set of forums as these!

[March Hare]

Fantastic, J.D.
13 lines is bad luck, though.

[J.D. Sparks]

Good thing I'm not superstitious.

[jenniferkaitlyn]

that's Good man :)