Of course I'd like to get beyond the concrete. But it's really difficult. Very difficult.
quote by Krzysztof Kieslowski
Added by Lucian Velea
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
Related quotes
Concrete Girl
Bleeding thoughts.
Cracking boulder.
Don't fall over.
Fake your laughter.
Burn the tear.
Sing it louder.
Twist and shout.
Way up here,
We stand on shoulders,
Growing colder.
Laugh or cry.
I won't mind.
Sing it louder.
Twist and shout.
Immovable shadows.
The concrete girl.
They'll rock your world to nothing.
And they're swimming around again, again.
And they're swimming around
The concrete girl.
Catch your breath like a four-leaf clover.
Hand it over.
Scream to no one.
Take your time.
Sing it louder.
Twist and shout.
Nothing to run from is worse than something,
And all your fears of nothing.
And they're swimming around again, again.
And they're swimming around
The concrete girl.
Concrete girl, don't fall down
In this broken world around you.
Concrete girl, don't fall down.
Don't fall down, my concrete girl.
Don't stop thinking.
Don't stop feeling now.
One step away from where we were,
And one step back to nothing.
And we're standing on top of our hopes and fears,
And we're fighting for words now, concrete girl.
And we're swimming around again, again.
And we're swimming around now,
Concrete girl.
Concrete girl, don't fall down in this broken world around you.
Concrete girl, don't fall down.
Don't fall down, my concrete girl.
Concrete girl, don't fall down in this concrete world around you.
Concrete girl, don't fall down.
Don't break down, my concrete girl.
song performed by Switchfoot
Added by Lucian Velea
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
A Place To Sit
Smoochers and snoggers, and resting joggers
all seem to stop at this concrete bench.
Ramblers and walkers, and street hawkers
all seem to stop at this concrete bench.
Mini’s and Roller’s, and lady strollers
all seem to stop at this concrete bench.
Old folk and young folk, and dogs with no folk
all seem to stop at this concrete bench.
Market traders and cavers, and money savers
all seem to stop at this concrete bench.
Children that play who meet everyday
all seem to stop at this concrete bench.
Students and teachers, and lay preachers
all seem to stop at this concrete bench.
Loose women and boys the ‘for sale’ toys
all seem to stop at this concrete bench.
Addicts and dealers, and police squealers
all seem to stop at this concrete bench.
Dogs out for a pee who can’t find a tree
all seem to stop at this concrete bench.
Drunks in the night who like to fight
all seem to stop at this concrete bench.
Spray painters and doodlers, and bench abusers
all seem to stop at this concrete bench.
Vandals and hooligans, and booted ruffians
all seem to stop at this concrete bench.
Demolishers and breakers, and obliterators
never stopped until they destroyed this concrete bench.
poem by Orlando Belo
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
Concrete Mind
Can I get a pass, from my wrongs?
Will you make me not forget?
Are you like a concrete mind,
That's permanently set?
Concrete mind won't wear out.
For when she has a crack.
She only fills in where it's split.
Your wrongs she'll always track.
I thought I would be honest
Lead a new way of life
To concrete mind this is a weapon
She'll use just like a knife
She'll just use it against you
You'll never live it down
Her life is like a circus
And you're the lonely clown
And when you try to fix
The things that have been broken
Concrete mind will take your wrongs
And use them like a token
Where did I go wrong you'll ask
In each and every way
So if you trip and stumble
Concrete mind will say:
“Go straight to jail,
Do not pass go
Be ashamed
You are so low
Just like scum,
You always rise
All of your truths
To me their lies
You past is now
You'll never change
Forgiveness a word
I find so strange
I will forgive
But not forget
My heart is hard
My mind is set
Show you mercy?
Show you grace?
Go find those things
Another place.
[...] Read more
poem by Ryan Lee Morris
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
Easy and Difficult
Easy and Difficult
Easy to get a place in someone’s address book
Difficult is to get a place in someone’s heart
Easy is to judge the mistakes of others
Difficult is to recognize our own mistakes
Easy is to talk without thinking
Difficult is to control the tongue
Easy is to hurt someone who loves us
Difficult is to heal the wound
Easy is to forgive others
Difficult is to ask for forgiveness
Easy is to set rules
Difficult is to follow them
Easy is to dream every night
Difficult is to fight for a dream
Easy is to show victory
Difficult is to accommodate defeat with dignity
Easy is to admire a full moon
Difficult is to see the other side
Easy is to stumble on a stone
Difficult is to get up
Easy is to enjoy life every day
Difficult is to give its real value
Easy is to pray every night
Difficult is to find God in small things
Easy is to promise something to someone
Difficult is to fulfill the promise
Easy is to say we love
Difficult is to show it every day
Easy is to criticize others
Difficult is to improve oneself
Easy is to make mistakes
Difficult is to learn from them
Easy is to weep for lost love
Difficult is to take care of it so as not to lose it
Easy is to think about improving
Difficult is to stop thinking and putting it into action
Easy is to think bad of others
Difficult is to give them the benefit of doubt
Easy is to receive
Difficult is to give
poem by Bashyam Narayanan
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
Concrete Kingdom
I hear cries tonight
I hear cries tonight
Aint no love
Aint no life
I hear cries tonight
I hear cries tonight
I hear cries tonight
I hear, I hear
I hear cries tonight
I hear cries tonight
I hear cries tonight
I hear, I hear
Like all of the best, weve been taken
Like all of the lost, weve been had
Pray god, kingdom come, deliver us,
Amen
All life, is it lost, have they won
Aint no love in a concrete kingdom,
Aint much life
Aint no life in a concrete kingdom,
I hear cries tonight
Aint no love
Aint no life
Aint no right,
Whats for my son
When all of the good,
Have been taken
Where all of the lost,
Have gone
Ravaged, then raped, annihilation-amen
All life, is it lost, have they won
Aint no love in a concrete kingdom
Aint much light
Aint no life in a concrete kingdom
I hear the cries tonight
Aint no love
Aint no light
Aint no right
Aint much love in a concrete kingdom,
Aint much light
Whats for my son
I - I wanna know why
I wanna know why,
Were shrinking from the sun
I said now i, I wanna know why
I wanna know why, theres poison - everyone
There aint no love, in a concrete kingdom
Aint much light
Aint no life in a concrete kingdom
I hear the cries tonight - I hear, I hear
[...] Read more
song performed by Billy Idol
Added by Lucian Velea
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
Concrete Forest
Gang banging
Street banging
Concrete Forest—
People dying
Children crying
Bullets flying
No remorse for the fallen—
Crack smoking
Prostitute selling
Cops stinging
Benefactors of trouble times—
Blood
Guts—inside body parts
Cultivate the Concrete Forest—
I see a mother kneeling
A priest praying
A child victimize—a father convicted
All within the Concrete Forest—
Sirens blowing
Lights flashing
Someone else dying
In the Concrete Forest—
Mercy on us
Compassion for us
Deliver us
From the Concrete Forest—
Restore our hope
Destroy the trepidation
Breathe life back into Concrete Forest—
It is time to go
My time is gone
My nightmares—relinquished
Within the Concrete Forest—
No more worrisome days
No more stressful nights
Freedom has come to me
In the Concrete Forest—
My freedom is now
Your comes later
[...] Read more
poem by Gregory Upshaw
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
Plastic & Concrete
Plastic & concrete, baby
These are the facts of life
I 'm a nightmare child
Stuck on my own knife
I' m glad my mother loved me
I' m sick & paranoid
The hotel generater
Hums into the void
Of plastic & concrete
Plastic & concrete, baby
I gotta learn to slow down
Somethin new from chemistry
Is jackin my brain around
I have got the plastic
And i have got the stone
Out there in the suburbs
I learned to be alone
In plastic & concrete
Plastic & concrete sandwich
You 'd like to eat me, but
Later you 'll reiect me
I' m too much to bite off
The salad on my outside
Is made of suicide
The guy who squirts my mayonnaise
Is on a one-way ride
In plastic & concrete
Plastic & concrete
song performed by Iggy Pop
Added by Lucian Velea
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
Plastic Concrete
Plastic & concrete, baby
These are the facts of life
I m a nightmare child
Stuck on my own knife
I m glad my mother loved me
I m sick & paranoid
The hotel generater
Hums into the void
Of plastic & concrete
Plastic & concrete, baby
I gotta learn to slow down
Somethin new from chemistry
Is jackin my brain around
I have got the plastic
And I have got the stone
Out there in the suburbs
I learned to be alone
In plastic & concrete
Plastic & concrete sandwich
You d like to eat me, but
Later you ll reiect me
I m too much to bite off
The salad on my outside
Is made of suicide
The guy who squirts my mayonnaise
Is on a one-way ride
In plastic & concrete
Plastic & concrete
song performed by Iggy Pop
Added by Lucian Velea
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
The Columbiad: Book I
The Argument
Natives of America appear in vision. Their manners and characters. Columbus demands the cause of the dissimilarity of men in different countries, Hesper replies, That the human body is composed of a due proportion of the elements suited to the place of its first formation; that these elements, differently proportioned, produce all the changes of health, sickness, growth and decay; and may likewise produce any other changes which occasion the diversity of men; that these elemental proportions are varied, not more by climate than temperature and other local circumstances; that the mind is likewise in a state of change, and will take its physical character from the body and from external objects: examples. Inquiry concerning the first peopling of America. View of Mexico. Its destruction by Cortez. View of Cusco and Quito, cities of Peru. Tradition of Capac and Oella, founders of the Peruvian empire. Columbus inquires into their real history. Hesper gives an account of their origin, and relates the stratagems they used in establishing that empire.
I sing the Mariner who first unfurl'd
An eastern banner o'er the western world,
And taught mankind where future empires lay
In these fair confines of descending day;
Who sway'd a moment, with vicarious power,
Iberia's sceptre on the new found shore,
Then saw the paths his virtuous steps had trod
Pursued by avarice and defiled with blood,
The tribes he foster'd with paternal toil
Snatch'd from his hand, and slaughter'd for their spoil.
Slaves, kings, adventurers, envious of his name,
Enjoy'd his labours and purloin'd his fame,
And gave the Viceroy, from his high seat hurl'd.
Chains for a crown, a prison for a world
Long overwhelm'd in woes, and sickening there,
He met the slow still march of black despair,
Sought the last refuge from his hopeless doom,
And wish'd from thankless men a peaceful tomb:
Till vision'd ages, opening on his eyes,
Cheer'd his sad soul, and bade new nations rise;
He saw the Atlantic heaven with light o'ercast,
And Freedom crown his glorious work at last.
Almighty Freedom! give my venturous song
The force, the charm that to thy voice belong;
Tis thine to shape my course, to light my way,
To nerve my country with the patriot lay,
To teach all men where all their interest lies,
How rulers may be just and nations wise:
Strong in thy strength I bend no suppliant knee,
Invoke no miracle, no Muse but thee.
Night held on old Castile her silent reign,
Her half orb'd moon declining to the main;
O'er Valladolid's regal turrets hazed
The drizzly fogs from dull Pisuerga raised;
Whose hovering sheets, along the welkin driven,
Thinn'd the pale stars, and shut the eye from heaven.
Cold-hearted Ferdinand his pillow prest,
Nor dream'd of those his mandates robb'd of rest,
Of him who gemm'd his crown, who stretch'd his reign
To realms that weigh'd the tenfold poise of Spain;
Who now beneath his tower indungeon'd lies,
Sweats the chill sod and breathes inclement skies.
[...] Read more
poem by Joel Barlow
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
Concrete & Steel
Hard and cold, like a street of gold,
Its easy to find but so hard to hold.
Smooth and strong but it wont last long,
When the rust sets in, shell be good as gone!
Concrete, concrete and steel.
Its like concrete.
Hey baby, whats the deal?
A heart of stone make you feel alone,
But what can you do when your hand is blown?
Hard as ice, its like tumblin dice,
Before you fall for her boy, you better think twice.
Concrete, concrete and steel.
Its like concrete.
Hey baby, whats the deal?
Dark as night, diamond bright,
Never seen such a strange delight.
Slick as glass, and just as fast,
Youll feel the pain, but it wont last.
song performed by ZZ Top
Added by Lucian Velea
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
Fitration Bags
2.5 gallon shopvac bags
1995 ktm 400 rxc hard bags
2006 black leather prada bags list
24 x 36 shrink bags
18 x 9 padded bag
3m printscape personalized gift bag
20lb bag parrot food
40 inch round duffle bag
2001 explorer air bag light flashes
3rd street sissy bar bag
1997 nissan air bag sensor
12x18 carry bag
1001 grab bag ideas
2000 explorer air bag light flashing
15,000 cfm used bag dustcollector
12 lb turkey recipies in bag
14.1 laptop messenger bags
3306 plan tackle bag
10 pound bag of endives yield
4 mil zip bags
$2 grab bag nsd
1970s bean bag
18th century shooting bags
48 superman bop bag
2006 kawasaki ninja 250r bags
1976 electra glide saddle bags
1940 s english aoutomobiles gas bags
40 lb bag of cement
07 cr-v safety bag plastic pillar
2 gauge ear plug grab bag
1998 saturn sl2 air bag module
40 degree helix sleeping bag
3x4 organza gift bags
3 bags full consignment
2000 mercedes air bag problem
2ply snap handle bag
1987 bmw k75s saddle bags
2003 bozo desktop bop bag
135 approved electronic flight bag
2005 toyota matrix side air bags
2006 bag gucci spring
3 insulated sleeping bags
4in bag ice one
2008 street bob hard bags
45 micron bag
250 ninja nelson-rigg saddle bag
24 wheeled garment bag
1996 lincoln continental air bag suspension
2006 aka boule bag
400d horn bag
[...] Read more
poem by Rwetewrt Erwtwer
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
The Concrete and the Abstract
The concrete is visible,
the abstract is invisible.
The concrete is the outside,
the abstract is the inside.
The concrete is objective,
the abstract is subjective.
People go on searching for
God in the concrete.
'We would like to see God'
-they say.
But only the concrete can be seen;
the abstract has to be felt.
The concrete can be seen-
with the eyes open,
the abstract has to be seen-
with eyes closed.
God is inside you, as you.
You cannot stand outside God
and see Him;
you can see Him
only from the inside-
by being Him.
If you see a flower,
you can look at it scientifically.
You look at the chemistry of it,
You dissect it and
you come to know
about the components of it.
But something is missed
in that very analysis.
The beauty is missed,
because beauty is not a component.
If you ask the scientist -
'Where is the beauty that was in the flower? ’ he will say-
'That was not there,
it was just an illusion.'
'I have dissected it-
all and all,
and these are the things
that I have found.
These chemicals were there,
this matter was there,
these atoms, these molecules....
but there was no beauty.'
[...] Read more
poem by Nazmul Haque
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
The Rose That Grew From Concrete (credits to Tupac)
The Rose that grew from concrete
Still beautiful in every form
Its stem is strong and sturdy
Although some petals have been torn
The petals could be tears
As it struggled to get through
The fight was rough and fierce
The weight was something new
For no other rose
Had ever gone through this road
It was given a path less traveled
It was given a tremendous load
But the rose began to grow
To everybody’s surprise
Nobody ever thought
From the concrete it would rise
Through the concrete it continued
Getting roughed up as it grew
Gaining valuable experience
Learning things it never knew
Its perseverance led to strength
As it broke through the cracks
It knew it had come this far
Why bother to look back
But the dues paid to get here
Are sometimes to be admired
It shows the character and heart
And the strength of its desire
After fighting for so long
It finally reached the light of day
It was then it knew
It didn’t want it any other way
For all of the characteristics of this rose
Have led it to persevere
The journey was dark and troublesome
But the effort was sincere
Along the way there were moments
What its mind was full of doubt
Times it had to dig deep
If it ever wanted to sprout
[...] Read more
poem by Jose Chavez
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
Thru These Architects Eyes
Stomping along on this big philips johnson
Is delay just wasting my time
Looking across at richard rogers
Scheming dreams to blow both their minds
Its difficult you see
To give up baby
To leave a job
When you know the moneys from day to day
All the majesty of a city landscape
All the soaring days of our lives
All the concrete dreams in my minds eye
All the joy I see thru these architects eyes
Cold winter bleeds on the girders of babel
This stone boy watching the crawling land
Rings of flesh and the towers of iron
The steaming caves and rocks and the sand
Stomping along on this big philips johnson
Is delay just wasting my time
Its difficult you see
To give up baby
These summer scumholes
This goddamned starving life
All the majesty of a city landscape
All the soaring days of our lives
All the concrete dreams in my minds eye
All the joy I see thru these architects eyes
Its difficult you see
Its difficult you see
All the majesty of a city landscape
All the soaring days in our lives
All the concrete dreams in my minds eye
All the joy I see thru these architects eyes
song performed by David Bowie
Added by Lucian Velea
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
This concrete city
infects the sky...turning it
into concrete too.
Concrete sun and concrete rain.
Concrete humans... cry...real tears
tanka by Dónall Dempsey
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
Clint Eastwood
Clint Eastwood (Phi Life Cypher [Si Phili]
Yo. Yo.
'Cause I'm this, Gorillaz from the mist lyricist and my thoughts be twisted
I spit the wickedest rhymes from a time that's never existed
My futuristic linguistics turn fools into statistics
I'm a lyrical misfit with the sadistic characteristics
I perform murderous acts on my tracks with a single breath
and if a boy wanna test, then I be stampin' upon his chest
Done makin' a mess - Not a man could concieve the weed I'm consumin'
and I transform from my cartoon pseudonym, turn to a human
I spit words from my mouth that be turnin' you inside out
and I tie knots in intestines just like I'm a boy scout
that's workin' 'em out - Now rearrangin' your whole skeletal structure
then I find some nine inch nails to perform some accupuncture
When I punch ya, I rupture one of your rib cage in a rage
and I turn you into a cartoon toon and erase the page
I take you back to the Stone Age with Barney and Fred Flinstone
Got Dino to take a machinos and then forage in a live home
[Life]
I'ma take off like a jet pack with the get back, rather step back
I'ma make the crowd react and nod they heads until they neck snap
Life conflict rap while riding a skateboard and doin' a tic-tac
and leave your head in a spin like servin' on turn table skid mats
I'm a concrete lion, big cat - These are real talk, not big-chat
Did ya get that 'cause I ain't no small timer - I rhyme on big tracks
Now feel the vise I create - This heavyweight, I'm a rap to detonate
and demonstrate how I generate lyrics that supernaturally levitate
to the top - My lyrics are skeletons - Accelerate and leave you panicin'
Take the ground from beneath your feet, leave you Skywalk-in' like Anakin
I'm sharper than the tips of Zulu spears and Olympic javelins
My style is totally buck wild and most definitely happenin'
To your brains I be tappin' in, to computers I be hackin' in
To me, I be out of this world like aliens who were time travelin'
I'm babblin' in the Fists of Fury technique when I speak
Forget Karate Kid and these wooden blocks, I chop from concrete
Concrete, concrete, concrete!
Wha-wha-wha-wha-wha-wha!
[Si Phili]
I been stoned; ever since the days of creation, I've been red
I'm a mad dred, causin' so much havoc in Russel's head
My lyricism is just like an aneurysm inside his brain
He plays the beat in a trance and he's never feeling no pain
I could never be a racist because I posess so many faces
I'm one of those beat-up bad wit' bags and a pair of braces
with lines longer than laces - I'm gracin' you with my presence
The lyrics went flippin', makin' ya bubble like effervescence
I pulverize and bamboozle, shake numb skulls like a boodle
I smashed the top of your head with a guitar I borrowed from Noodle
I'm as animated as Japanese animes causin' callamities
Some serious savory from my roarous rhymes of reality
[...] Read more
song performed by Gorillaz
Added by Lucian Velea
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
Skeletons
Between yellow cranes groaning and bended
I saw people small as ants,
I saw people gather at skeletons of steel and concrete,
lost between ovens that cook glowing,
between hell-hot fires of iron and metal
I saw people struggle in the dusk
and this morning I came
past huge, long pipes that hiss like snakes
between yellow cranes groaning and bended.
Where white smoke are stoked through round chimneys
people were trapped and caged
between hell-hot fires of iron and metal
busy with their work as if dumb,
as if only machines with their humanity missing
I saw people gather at skeletons of steel and concrete,
through walls, doors and roofs that block off
lost in the circles that the city draws,
people were trapped and caged
with crying, screaming, gnashing machines everywhere
without any natural refreshment or relief
between yellow cranes groaning and bended
with tiredness, disconcert, alienation on every feature
they kept building
lost in the circles that the city draws.
Like beings coming from another planet,
ghosts just waiting for a coffin,
I saw people gather at skeletons of steel and concrete,
while some were clinging to black pipes
and children were laughing without concern
they kept building
on terrains with danger signs on the outside
without worrying, with there destiny determined.
Between yellow cranes groaning and bended
I saw people gather at skeletons of steel and concrete,
with their lives tinned, day and night
lost between ovens that cook glowing
and children were laughing without concern,
I saw people struggle in the dusk.
[...] Read more
poem by Gert Strydom
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
The Task: Book VI. -- The Winter Walk at Noon
There is in souls a sympathy with sounds;
And as the mind is pitch’d the ear is pleased
With melting airs, or martial, brisk, or grave:
Some chord in unison with what we hear
Is touch’d within us, and the heart replies.
How soft the music of those village bells,
Falling at intervals upon the ear
In cadence sweet, now dying all away,
Now pealing loud again, and louder still,
Clear and sonorous, as the gale comes on!
With easy force it opens all the cells
Where Memory slept. Wherever I have heard
A kindred melody, the scene recurs,
And with it all its pleasures and its pains.
Such comprehensive views the spirit takes,
That in a few short moments I retrace
(As in a map the voyager his course)
The windings of my way through many years.
Short as in retrospect the journey seems,
It seem’d not always short; the rugged path,
And prospect oft so dreary and forlorn,
Moved many a sigh at its disheartening length.
Yet, feeling present evils, while the past
Faintly impress the mind, or not at all,
How readily we wish time spent revoked,
That we might try the ground again, where once
(Through inexperience, as we now perceive)
We miss’d that happiness we might have found!
Some friend is gone, perhaps his son’s best friend,
A father, whose authority, in show
When most severe, and mustering all its force,
Was but the graver countenance of love:
Whose favour, like the clouds of spring, might lower,
And utter now and then an awful voice,
But had a blessing in its darkest frown,
Threatening at once and nourishing the plant.
We loved, but not enough, the gentle hand
That rear’d us. At a thoughtless age, allured
By every gilded folly, we renounced
His sheltering side, and wilfully forewent
That converse, which we now in vain regret.
How gladly would the man recall to life
The boy’s neglected sire! a mother too,
That softer friend, perhaps more gladly still,
Might he demand them at the gates of death.
Sorrow has, since they went, subdued and tamed
The playful humour; he could now endure
(Himself grown sober in the vale of tears)
And feel a parent’s presence no restraint.
But not to understand a treasure’s worth
[...] Read more
poem by William Cowper
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
Amours de Voyage, Canto II
Is it illusion? or does there a spirit from perfecter ages,
Here, even yet, amid loss, change, and corruption abide?
Does there a spirit we know not, though seek, though we find, comprehend not,
Here to entice and confuse, tempt and evade us, abide?
Lives in the exquisite grace of the column disjointed and single,
Haunts the rude masses of brick garlanded gaily with vine,
E'en in the turret fantastic surviving that springs from the ruin,
E'en in the people itself? is it illusion or not?
Is it illusion or not that attracteth the pilgrim transalpine,
Brings him a dullard and dunce hither to pry and to stare?
Is it illusion or not that allures the barbarian stranger,
Brings him with gold to the shrine, brings him in arms to the gate?
I. Claude to Eustace.
What do the people say, and what does the government do?--you
Ask, and I know not at all. Yet fortune will favour your hopes; and
I, who avoided it all, am fated, it seems, to describe it.
I, who nor meddle nor make in politics,--I who sincerely
Put not my trust in leagues nor any suffrage by ballot,
Never predicted Parisian millenniums, never beheld a
New Jerusalem coming down dressed like a bride out of heaven
Right on the Place de la Concorde,--I, nevertheless, let me say it,
Could in my soul of souls, this day, with the Gaul at the gates shed
One true tear for thee, thou poor little Roman Republic;
What, with the German restored, with Sicily safe to the Bourbon,
Not leave one poor corner for native Italian exertion?
France, it is foully done! and you, poor foolish England,--
You, who a twelvemonth ago said nations must choose for themselves, you
Could not, of course, interfere,--you, now, when a nation has chosen----
Pardon this folly! The Times will, of course, have announced the occasion,
Told you the news of to-day; and although it was slightly in error
When it proclaimed as a fact the Apollo was sold to a Yankee,
You may believe when it tells you the French are at Civita Vecchia.
II. Claude to Eustace.
Dulce it is, and decorum, no doubt, for the country to fall,--to
Offer one's blood an oblation to Freedom, and die for the Cause; yet
Still, individual culture is also something, and no man
Finds quite distinct the assurance that he of all others is called on,
Or would be justified even, in taking away from the world that
Precious creature, himself. Nature sent him here to abide here;
Else why send him at all? Nature wants him still, it is likely;
On the whole, we are meant to look after ourselves; it is certain
Each has to eat for himself, digest for himself, and in general
[...] Read more
poem by Arthur Hugh Clough
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
III. The Other Half-Rome
Another day that finds her living yet,
Little Pompilia, with the patient brow
And lamentable smile on those poor lips,
And, under the white hospital-array,
A flower-like body, to frighten at a bruise
You'd think, yet now, stabbed through and through again,
Alive i' the ruins. 'T is a miracle.
It seems that, when her husband struck her first,
She prayed Madonna just that she might live
So long as to confess and be absolved;
And whether it was that, all her sad life long
Never before successful in a prayer,
This prayer rose with authority too dread,—
Or whether, because earth was hell to her,
By compensation, when the blackness broke
She got one glimpse of quiet and the cool blue,
To show her for a moment such things were,—
Or else,—as the Augustinian Brother thinks,
The friar who took confession from her lip,—
When a probationary soul that moved
From nobleness to nobleness, as she,
Over the rough way of the world, succumbs,
Bloodies its last thorn with unflinching foot,
The angels love to do their work betimes,
Staunch some wounds here nor leave so much for God.
Who knows? However it be, confessed, absolved,
She lies, with overplus of life beside
To speak and right herself from first to last,
Right the friend also, lamb-pure, lion-brave,
Care for the boy's concerns, to save the son
From the sire, her two-weeks' infant orphaned thus,
And—with best smile of all reserved for him—
Pardon that sire and husband from the heart.
A miracle, so tell your Molinists!
There she lies in the long white lazar-house.
Rome has besieged, these two days, never doubt,
Saint Anna's where she waits her death, to hear
Though but the chink o' the bell, turn o' the hinge
When the reluctant wicket opes at last,
Lets in, on now this and now that pretence,
Too many by half,—complain the men of art,—
For a patient in such plight. The lawyers first
Paid the due visit—justice must be done;
They took her witness, why the murder was.
Then the priests followed properly,—a soul
To shrive; 't was Brother Celestine's own right,
The same who noises thus her gifts abroad.
But many more, who found they were old friends,
Pushed in to have their stare and take their talk
[...] Read more
poem by Robert Browning from The Ring and the Book
Added by Veronica Serbanoiu
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!