Famous Quoted Line Poetry Contest

Har! Two good ones to start us off, very much in the spirit of the original! Keep 'em coming!:smilielol5::smilielol5::smilielol5:

Any other poems? The deadline is September 15th.

He thought he saw a banker's clerk
descending from the bus.
He looked again and saw it was
a fat rhinoceros.
'You're quite well rounded sir' he said,
'without being pointless!'

He thought he saw an eagle scout
preparing for a game.
He looked again and saw it was
an empty picture frame.
'If you won't do your job' he said
'I shall not take the blame!'

He thought he saw a devil dance
upon a poor pinhead.
He looked again and saw it was
whatever Sarah said.
'But why Ben Bellingham' he cried,
'must all love end up dead?'

He thought he saw a falling star
beneath the blushing moon.
He looked again and saw it was
the jolly month of June.
'Were I to pocket you' he said
'your heat should not leave soon!'

He thought he saw a plagiarist
getting his forum kicks.
He looked again and saw it was
graffiti upon bricks.
'The writing's on the wall' he said,
'of all the dirty tricks!'

Well the time has come. Small turnout but excellent poems. I will say right up front that I was very pleased with all the poems. All of you must have read Lewis Carroll's original poem, for you all kept faith with the original intent.

jajdude Liked the closing couplet best:

Quote:

---

for now there isn't any chance
anyone knows where the money went.

---

YesNo

That final line is priceless! So that's what hallucinations are, alien induced! It explains so much!

Quote:

---

He should have told them bankers' clerks
Had landed over there.
They might have seen those ray guns raised.
Perhaps then they would care.
But as he lifts another glass:
"There's aliens everywhere!"

---

But the winner has to be krymsonkyng for the lines:

Quote:

---

He thought he saw a plagiarist
getting his forum kicks.

---

Congrads, kyng! You are up next! :hurray::hurray::hurray:

Woops! Sorry all! I must have missed this Friday :/

Thanks a million, and great work to everyone who entered!
(YesNo, yours got me to belly-laugh. Jajdude, My favorite stanza was the "unnoticed" second that set up for the big reveal at the end. Fun stuff)
:drool5:
So, let me find a line and we'll get this contest back in business...

And now for something completely different:
"That I am weak, and she has horns" from T.S. Eliot's unpublished "Cows" which may be found at the below link.

http://entertainment.timesonline.co....cle6439548.ece

Judging shall commence upon the 30th.

No Excuse Accepted

She knows that I am weak, and she has horns.
Her lips drip foam. From them she scorns
Whatever I might do to rectify
Whatever I have done, except to die.

That I am weak and she has horns
Is a fact I cannot deny
She flaunts her power and she scorns
My every feeble try
Her eyes burn bright with an eerie glow
They watch me in the night
I try hard to leave her but I know
I'll never escape her sight
She purrs with pleasure and snuggles close
But I shrink away in fear
She's about as warm as an ice-cold ghost
I cannot bear her being near
Doom awaits the both of us
I'm haunted by a succubus

Pendragon
9/21/2011

Indian Summer

In the sweltering heat
beneath the angry sun
I lie among blood stained
sweat drenched sheets,
still I would half believe
it was only a fever dream.

She knows that I am weak
and she has horns, while
once more she is on the
rampage, she would tear
my life apart.

I hide behind cynicism,
cloudy eyes, and tobacco
colored fingertips, a ready
wit dangling from parched lips.

But she charges through
these defenses like a bull
with red in its eyes and a
one track mind, she is taut
full of electric physical energy.

I always manage to laugh
just at the wrong time
with a smile that betrays me
in a sneer, and she reads
all of my lies.

I know it is only a matter
of time before she aims her
knife right for my heart
and even I could not
lay blame.

Helpless, caught between
the unyielding glare of Summer
sun and her smoldering inferno
I no longer keep track of the
countless things I have done
to turn the temper of her moods.

High champion and Alabaster warden, YesNo- Short, sweet, to the point (horn humor anyone?), I enjoyed your poem for its quick rhyme and ambiguity: It brought thoughts of my ex.

Pendragon the Great- Fun, creepy, and I could relate (again with the ex, heh). The rhyme scheme and the breaks in meter were effective. My favorite lines were:
She purrs with pleasure and snuggles close
But I shrink away in fear

Oh Darkest of Muses- For an epic post I should have talked about your poem first, but I'm sure you'll forgive me seeing as I liked yours best. Here's why:
I hide behind cynicism,
cloudy eyes, and tobacco
colored fingertips, a ready
wit dangling from parched lips.

Well done to all and you've each more than earned the titles I offer, but I must volunteer Dark Muse as this contest's latest master.

I thank you very much

Congrads, DarkMuse! :yesnod::yesnod::yesnod:

Yes, I must agree with your praise for each of these entries and a salutation to you for having found & posted those opening lines!

It is my favorite time of year. Halloween time! Becasue for me the whole month of October is all about Halloween in honor of the ocassion I present you with your next line:

For the soul is dead that slumbers,~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow- A Psalm of Life

A puzzle piece snugly fit
within the mind of the quibbling jester
crafting a clever reprise
a universal truth set forth to the numbers
recited with great assurance
no one awake is safe
"for the soul is dead that slumbers"

Winter Hibernation

For the soul is dead that slumbers,
But winter soon is here
And darkness makes me sleepy.
The silence wraps my fear.

The sun gets bright in springtime,
But maybe not next year.
Alone my dreams will blanket
My mind and hold me dear.

Don't find yourself sleeping on the road of life
Because what happens depends on your choices
For the soul is dead that slumbers--
You've got to see where you're going to choose well
There will be times of glorious opportunity
There will be obstacles to dodge
Bridges to burn and bridges to build
The choice remains truly yours, and yours alone
Life sometimes is a shaky tightrope
Across the gap between heaven and hell
The soul that dozes will slip and fall
The soul awake seizes each moment
If the soul is dead that slumbers
The soul awake shall never die...

Pendragon

She writes sadder poetry
than anyone would want read
and writes "She'd be better dead"
and forces herself to cry.

What is there that she lives for?
The soul is dead that slumbers
but dreams feign life! She wonders
what is past death's brambled door

She joined a scene for allies
in her self waged pity war
but became a fashion whore
and learned to live for parties.

Now it's happy ending's all around!
She drinks to sleep on, not in, the ground.

Thank you everyone so far for your entires. I am going to set the deadline of Oct 25.

So please keep them coming!

Soul and body are the same
So guess the meaning of the game
Confuse the two and you are proven dead
For well before you can do that
You have to split it; gone like mad
And soon ask your living hell
A soul that slumbers's a body's wealth?

Thank you to all who have entered so far. If you have not posted yet there are 5 days left for the deadline!

I am going to be flying out tomorrow so I haven't really been able to think about judging today, so I figured I will just give you a few more days while I am gone.

You have until the 31st.

Thank you everyone who entered, I enjoyed reading all of your entries, it was a touch choice, but here are the results.

Fozzie Funk: I really enjoyed the imagery of your poem and the playful way in which you approach the theme. I think you were able to invoke the macabre but at the same time there is a humor to it that I appreciate. It puts me in the mind of a carnival which often does join the morbid with the comic.

Pendragon: You have created a very profound poem and I enjoyed the way in which you were able to take the line and give it an inspirational message. I liked how that did take things in a rather unexpected direction and was an original take. I also enjoyed your word play with the line and how you reversed the meaning. Wonderful work as usual

krymsonkyng: I really liked the way in which the ending of the poem took me by surprise. I was not expecting it to take the sudden cynical turn and I thought it did provide a rather interesting twist. While on the one hand she managed to save her life, but in a way it seems as if she is still dead inside to achieve the goal.

cafolini: Though you did not directly quote the line within your poem I do think you found a creative way to allude to it. I liked the humorous touch within your poem and I really liked the line "You have to split it; gone like mad." I think you did have a very unique approach.

And the winner is...................

YesNo: I love the imagery of your poem and found it to be captivating and enchanting. It was elegantly written and of all the entries this one most spoke to my own soul. It captured the beauty in darkness. In particular I loved these lines:

"And darkness makes me sleepy.
The silence wraps my fear."

Congrads, Yesno! :smile5:

Thanks, Dark Muse! And Pendragon!

I was walking on a wooded trail last weekend in a park that I had not been to before and came to a division in the path. I suddenly recalled Robert Frost's poem, The Road Not Taken: http://www.bartleby.com/119/1.html, and wondered what I should do. So here is the line for the next contest:

"I took the one less traveled by"

In my case, both paths looked equally well-traveled, but I realized I had to turn around because it was getting dark.

Deadline: Saturday, November 25th.

Life is a long, one-way street
that, often as not, takes the long way around.

Frost spoke of “The Road Less-Traveled By”.
I’ve been on it all my life. What’s the difference?

Then again, how could you tell any difference
when there is really nothing to compare it to?

Nothing. Something. Are they really the same?
“I think, therefore I am.” Or is it. “I am, therefore I think?”

But in choice of roads I, I took the one less traveled by—
They all reach your final destination—that’s fate…

Existence is like a soap bubble:
it’s pretty, but it doesn’t take much to burst it.

One thing about a less-traveled road:
there are fewer rest areas.

Oh, and don’t break down along the way.
“Less-traveled by”, remember? So who’s going to fix your car?

Pendragon
(I wrote this one all the way back in 1996...)

Ask a Local



He has a lot to answer for, does Frost.
Who knows how many fences have been trashed,
Walls pulled down, and vital boundaries lost
Because of one quite catchy opening line?

And who can count the earnest undergrads
Who’ve justified a dumb, though novel, choice
By citing Robert’s quandary in the woods
As if his verse were GoogleMap, in rhyme?

But - hey - the grassy, pristine path Bob chose
Might well have been untrod simply because
It had been tried, and rightly shunned, by those
Who’d come upon this clearing many times.

Perhaps they’d found it led to a dead-end
Or ran the long way round, did one but know it.
I’d trust those guys – and so you should you, my friend.
I took the one less-travelled by the poet.

A Heart Divided

My heart was torn in two
for twice taken it was
between two loves
as much the same as
night and day.

There was the ever
enchanting Gwendelon,
a fair Aphrodite was she,
for she walked in a halo
of golden sensuality,
for with each upturn of her
sanguine lips I felt my death
come near as my heart stopped
beating.

Her skin was soft as silk
and in her wake she left
the lingering aroma of jasmine
and rose oil, truly she tasted
divine, but alas who has not
thrown their hearts at her feet,
for what man lived did not breathe
the name of Gwendelon, and who
left had not her taste upon their
lips.

No rival in beauty I must confess
but still far from uncomely, for
what mortal maid could compare
to the Goddess born?

There was my second love
Eleanor, so tender of heart
with sweet shy looks, a pale moon
beside amorous Gwendelon
she made up much in singular
devotion.

For never an ill word had I heard
bespoken against my Eleanore,
and I knew her love for me to be
true, though so gentle and soft
a love it was, but still I knew
what more could I be to Gwendelon
but yet another trophy and my heart
to her a cheap token.

But in the eyes of my little
Eleanor I knew there was me
and me alone, and so in the end
I took the one less traveled by
thus Eleanor may forever become
my own true and only love.

Thanks for all the entries. They all deserved to win, but I have to make a choice.

Pendragon: I liked the practical advice of not going down the road less traveled by. There will likely be fewer repair stations for the car and both paths ultimately lead to the same end.

MarkBastable: This is a similar argument to the one Pendragon presented with additional criticism of Frost's influence. I liked the last line.

Dark Muse: This was a very nice comparison between the well-traveled Gwendelon and the faithful Elenor. I think the narrator made the right choice in picking Elenor.

I enjoyed all of these.

The winner, the one to pick the next line for us, is MarkBastable because of the way he incorporated the quoted line in the last line of his poem.

Thank you.

Here you go - a line from Eliot. The deadline will be December 13th.


I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker

I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker
Just a candle in the wind, blown out before its time
Fame is so fleeting, heartache travels quicker
Life sometimes seems to have no rhythm or rhyme

I lived for the days when the sun shone so brightly
Now shadows, fog, and rain are all I can see
Where I once announced myself, now I creep away quietly
This hall of lost memories I'm forced to call me

Will the darkness never lift, nor shadows pass away?
Will the pain deep inside me grow still?
Will I ever again rejoice in the breaking of day?
Do my dreams still have a chance of becoming real ?

While my two natures like Jekyll and Hyde ever bicker
I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker

Pendragon

Queen Warrior

I watched my world begin to crumble,
the land became soaked with blood,
while the screams would echo on
never ceasing.

Standing on the eve of the end,
in one last rally cry, we would not
go on bended knee in submission,
but let us die fighting tooth and nail,
for the spirit of this land they desecrate
beats in our hearts.

Let me become Morrigan incarnate,
mother protector of my people,
warrior queen to lead us into victory,
this is our final hour and through the
fear reflected in the eyes of our enemy
I have seen the moment of my greatness
flicker.

Take heart, and know even if we loose
this day, I will live forever and through
the ages they will speak my name,
remember, never surrender and you
will die not in vain.

Tough choice, because for me - taking the purely subjective view - there were pros and cons to each of the entries.

I'm not sure it'd be fascinating to detail the thought processes in-thread, so I'll cut to the chase and say that the winner is Pendragon.

Ah, I've been missing this thread, haven't been on the site much these days. I would have entered on this one. Good to see Mark participating. I'll try to get back into it when I can. Find a good quote pen.

Thanks, Mark. The new line is from Emily Dickinson: "Hope is the thing with feathers, that perches in the soul."

Deadline: January 15

Hope

Hope is the thing with feathers,
That perches in the soul
Patiently wondering whether
There's love to make it whole.

Two days to deadline and only one entry? Where all my poets at? :confused::confused::confused::confused:

Alright, alright...as I had ten minutes.... [Edit: I say ten minutes, but I've been fiddling with this all weekend...]


---------------------------------------------------------------

For reasons too complex to go into here
These four Scandinavians, named after tribes,
Go to a jeweller's in animal gear,
For gifts for their girlfriends and wives.

They figure that watches will be just the thing,
So Blackfoot, from Sweden, disguised as an ibex
Plumps for Omega, while, dressed as a chimp,
Norwegian Apache buys Timex.

A Dane wearing moleskin and known as Mohican
Picks Diesel to give to the Queen of his Soul.
Which leaves only Hopi, who’s come as a toucan.

Yep.

Hopi’s the Finn with feathers, that purchased Ingersoll.

Well only two...

Mark, I thought your highly inventive, would have won a comedy poem contest hands down. Unfortunately, this was not a comedy contest.

So, YesNo, your neat little poem wins sorry if it seems to be by default.

You pick next line...

I'm crushed. I demand a recount.