The Revolution!

[Kafka's Crow]

The Revolution!

If Clio granted,
And we were transported
To the times of change and strife
I’d make you the Queen
Of Brave Britannia
(My own Gloriana)
Or wear the noose
And be quartered trying!
My beating heart would burn slowly
And sing the songs of your glory
Black and burnt, washed away in old Thames
Dreaming of the radiant age to come.
When your golden hair would adorn that trinket,
The crown, when your eyes would dazzle all its gems
When your gaze would make the hell-fire cold
And beauty, finally, would save the world.

[ctalerico]

Brilliant! Written with great verve!

With allusions to the muse of history and Spenser, I was awash in the nobility of your vision and the epic power of your poem! Reading its last line enveloped me in a delight of grandeur reminiscent of the first time I read long ago Keats' lines: "Beauty is truth, truth beauty" -- that is all all/ Ye know on earth, and all ye need know.

Thanks for a most enjoyable, up-lifting reading experience.

[Kafka's Crow]

Brilliant! Written with great verve!

With allusions to the muse of history and Spenser, I was awash in the nobility of your vision and the epic power of your poem! Reading its last line enveloped me in a delight of grandeur reminiscent of the first time I read long ago Keats' lines: "Beauty is truth, truth beauty" -- that is all all/ Ye know on earth, and all ye need know.

Thanks for a most enjoyable, up-lifting reading experience.

Thanks a lot. This theme was brewing in my head for a couple of days. It has come out so good that it makes me cry each time I re-read. Oh the joys of surprising yourself! I changed the insignificant 'river' to the specific "old" Thames (Times/ History) thus the dream of the burnt-out heart has become one with the dream of history (the syntax does not clarify whether it is the river dreaming or the 'burnt-out heart'). Our age awaits redemption, only beauty can save us.

My internet connection is very erratic and unreliable today, hence the delay in this response. I deeply appreciate your comments.

[PrinceMyshkin]

The Revolution!

If Clio granted,
And we were transported
To the times of change and strife
I’d make you the Queen
Of Brave Britannia
(My own Gloriana)
Or wear the noose
And be quartered trying!
My beating heart would burn slowly
And sing the songs of your glory
Black and burnt, washed away in old Thames
Dreaming of the radiant age to come.
When your golden hair would adorn that trinket,
The crown, when your eyes would dazzle all its gems
When your gaze would make the hell-fire cold
And beauty, finally, would save the world.

Nothing less than the Götterdämerung - or in this case, the reverse of it - will content you for a last line, I see. Marvellous!

[Kafka's Crow]

Nothing less than the Götterdämerung - or in this case, the reverse of it - will content you for a last line, I see. Marvellous!

Oh my God Prince, you humble me again. This is only my second poem and this time I am sure that it is a 'poem' and I like what I see on the page. It is an idea but one day I might expand it into a very modern opera about high-treason in the 21st century.

I like the three lines in your signature. So true!

I can swear I remember having dropped out of Dostoevsky's novel, where did you come from?

[PrinceMyshkin]

I can swear I remember having dropped out of Dostoevsky's novel, where did you come from?

The novel my pseudonym comes from is indeed Dostoievski's The Idiot which points to Myshkin himself. Along with Alyosha (my pseudonym elsewhere), the youngest of the three Karamazov brothers, Myshkin is a type dear to Dostoievski, a type critics call "holy idiots," in that they are too naive, too trusting or idealistic to perceive when others mock or try to deceive them. In my own A Russian Novel I created a character, Ratin, who was meant as my tribute to those other two.

Neither of those characters or their attributes correctly describes myself but they are markers I aim at in the distance.

Drop me a line, won't you and tell me whatever about yourself.

[Dori]

The novel my pseudonym comes from is indeed Dostoievski's The Idiot which points to Myshkin himself. Along with Alyosha (my pseudonym elsewhere), the youngest of the three Karamazov brothers, Myshkin is a type dear to Dostoievski, a type critics call "holy idiots," in that they are too naive, too trusting or idealistic to perceive when others mock or try to deceive them. In my own A Russian Novel I created a character, Ratin, who was meant as my tribute to those other two.

Neither of those characters or their attributes correctly describes myself but they are markers I aim at in the distance.

Drop me a line, won't you and tell me whatever about yourself.

Didn't Prince Myshkin recite the last line of this poem (slightly different though, something like "Beauty will save the world") in the book The Idiot? How strange!

[Kafka's Crow]

Didn't Prince Myshkin recite the last line of this poem (slightly different though, something like "Beauty will save the world") in the book The Idiot? How strange!

"Beauty can save the world!"

Sorry, I shouldn't be helping you folks. It is your poem now! Anyway, good one Dori, well done.

[goldenrod]

Enjoyed the poem a lot.

I see you quote Harold Pinter. We were class-mates in the Fifth-Form in grammar school. We both belong to the "Clove Club"started in 1884...the old boys club of HDS..

goldenrod.

[Kafka's Crow]

Enjoyed the poem a lot.

I see you quote Harold Pinter. We were class-mates in the Fifth-Form in grammar school. We both belong to the "Clove Club"started in 1884...the old boys club of HDS..

goldenrod.

Thanks Rod, I also enjoyed this one.

You went to school with Pinter, that's amazing. I finished my school in 1985! I turned 39 today, still thanks for making me feel so young!

[Kafka's Crow]

The Revolution that Failed

Now my heart flows smoldering and burnt
Along the waves of sweet old Thames
Now your face is turned and forgotten
Beauty lives and so does the world!