Fins
Fins
By: jimmy buffett, deborah mccoll, barry chance, tom corcoran
1979
She came down from cincinnati
It took her three days on the train
Lookin' for some peace and quiet
Hoped to see the sun again
But now she lives down by the ocean
She's takin' care to look for sharks
They hang out in the local bars
And they feed right after dark
Chorus:
Can't you feel 'em circlin', honey
Can't you feel 'em swimmin' around
You got fins to the left, fins to the right
And you're the only bait in town
Oh oh
Oh oh
You got fins to the left, fins to the right
And you're the only girl in town
She's saving up all of her money
Wants to head it south in may
Maybe roll in the sand with a rock 'n' roll man
Somewhere down montserrat way
But the money's good in the season
Helps to lighten up her load
Boys keep her high as the months go by
She's getting postcards from the road
Chorus:
Can't you feel 'em closin' in, honey
Can't you feel 'em schoolin' around
You got fins to the left, fins to the right
And you're the only girl in town
Sailed off to antigua
It took her three days on a boat
Lookin' for some peace and quiet
Maybe keep her dreams afloat
But now she feels like a remora
'cause the school's still close at hand
Just behind the reef are the big white teeth
Of the sharks that can swim on the land
Chorus:
Can't you feel 'em circlin', honey
Can't you feel 'em schoolin' around
You got fins to the left, fins to the right
And you're the only bait in town
You got fins to the left, fins to the right
And you're the only girl in town
song performed by Jimmy Buffett
Added by Lucian Velea
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Related quotes
Susie Cincinati
Well susie cincinnati
Got a groovy little motor car
She lives for the night
And her husbands a security guard
Her looks arent exactly a plus
But it doesnt matter to us
Because she knows where its at
And she gets you there in seconds flat
She knows all the honkies
And the kids are all home in bed
(ooo ride susie cincinnati)
Shed rather do this
Than anything else instead
(ooo ride susie cincinnati)
She got the nicotine fit
And before she discovered it
(ooo ride susie cincinnati)
Everybody in the back seat suffocated
Susie cincinnati we thought you were a winner
Susie cincinnati citys number one sinner
Yeah
Susie cincinnati we thought you were a winner
Woah
Susie cincinnati citys number one sinner
Susie cincinnati we thought you were a winner
Susie cincinnati citys number one sinner
Yeah
Susie cincinnati we thought you were a winner
Susie cincinnati citys number one sinner
Woah yeah
Shell always pick you up
When the others go and leave you down
(to the ride to the ride susie cincinnati)
In her little red cab shes scootin all over town
(to the ride to the ride susie cincinnati)
Shes gotta mind the meter too
My pockets got some signs for you (? ? ? )
But its just one look
Because shell give the ride free to you
Susie cincinnati
Susie cincinnati
Susie cincinnati
Susie cincinnati
Susie cincinnati
Susie cincinnati
Susie cincinnati
song performed by Beach Boys
Added by Lucian Velea
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Susie Cincinnati
Susie cincinnati
Got a groovy little motor car
She lives for the night
And her husbands a security guard
Her looks arent exactly a plus
A-but it doesnt matter to us
Because she knows where its at
And she gets you there in seconds flat
She knows all the honkies
And the kids are all home in bed
(ooo ride susie cincinnati ride)
Shed rather do this
Than anything else instead
(ooo ride susie cincinnati)
She got the nicotine fit
And before she discovered it
Everybody in the back seat suffocated
Susie cincinnati we thought you were a winner
Susie cincinnati citys number one sinner
Yeah
Susie cincinnati we thought you were a winner
Woah
Susie cincinnati citys number one sinner
(get yourself together)
Susie cincinnati we thought you were a winner
Susie cincinnati citys number one sinner
Yeah
Susie cincinnati we thought you were a winner
Yeah
Susie cincinnati citys number one sinner
Woah yeah
Shell always pick you up
When the others go and let you down
(to the ride to the ride susie cincinnati)
In her little red cab shes scootin all over town
(to the ride to the ride susie cincinnati)
Shes gotta mind the meter too
All polished up it shines for you
But its just for looks
Because shell give the ride free to you
Yeah
Susie cincinnati
Susie cincinnati
Susie cincinnati
Oh baby what you do
Susie cincinnati
S-s-susie cincinnati
S-s-susie cincinnati
Susie
song performed by Beach Boys
Added by Lucian Velea
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Mind Train
Dub-dub, dub-dub,
Dub-dub, dub-dub,
Oh, ooh, oh, oh,
Dub-dub train,
Dub-dub train, dub train, dub train, dub.
Dub-dub, dub-dub,
Dub train, dub, dub-dub train passed through my mind,
Dub, dub-dub train passed through my mind,
Oh, oh, ah, ah.
I thought of killing that man,
Oh, oh, dub-dub train passed through my mind.
Oh, oh.
33 windows shining,
33 windows shining like, shining like, shining like a...
Dub-dub, dub-dub, oh, oh, oh,
Dub-dub, dub-dub, oh, oh, oh,...
Shining the clouds, shining the trees,
Shining empty buildings, shining empty buildings, shining my mind.
Dub-dub, dub-dub, passed many signs, passed many towns,
Ooh, ooh, ooh...
Dub-dub, dub-dub, dub train, oh, train, dub, oh, oh,...
Dub-dub, dub-dub, ooh, train, ooh, pain, train, oh.
I thought of killing that man,
I thought of killing that man.
Dub-dub, dub-dub,
Dub train passed through my mind,
Train passed through my mind, oh, ooh...
Dub-dub, dub-dub, oh train, oh, train.
33 windows shining through my mind,
Shining through my...ooh
Dub-dub, dub-dub, oh, dub-dub,
Ooh, ooh,
Dub-dub train passed through my mind,
Oh, the dub-dub train passed through my mind,
Passed through my mind, ooh, ooh....
Oh, train, dub train,
Dub-dub, oh, dub-dub, oh.
Oh, oh,...
I thought of killing, i thought of killing that man.
A-dub-dub train, oh, oh, train, train, train, train,
Oh, oh, oh...
Train, train, dub-dub-dub-dub train, dub-dub.
Shining the clouds, shining the trees,
Shining empty buildings, shine, shine, shine, shine, shine -
33 windows, 33 windows shining like a...
Shine, shine, shine.
Dub-dub, dub-dub, ooh, oh...
Passed many signs, passed many signs,
Oh, yes, yes, dub-dub, oh, yes,
Dub-dub, dub-dub, oh, oh,...
[...] Read more
song performed by Yoko Ono
Added by Lucian Velea
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Mind Train
Dub-dub, dub-dub,
Dub-dub, dub-dub,
Oh, ooh, oh, oh,
Dub-dub train,
Dub-dub train, dub train, dub train, dub.
Dub-dub, dub-dub,
Dub train, dub, dub-dub train passed through my mind,
Dub, dub-dub train passed through my mind,
Oh, oh, ah, ah.
I thought of killing that man,
Oh, oh, dub-dub train passed through my mind.
Oh, oh.
33 windows shining,
33 windows shining like, shining like, shining like a...
Dub-dub, dub-dub, oh, oh, oh,
Dub-dub, dub-dub, oh, oh, oh,...
Shining the clouds, shining the trees,
Shining empty buildings, shining empty buildings, shining my mind.
Dub-dub, dub-dub, passed many signs, passed many towns,
Ooh, ooh, ooh...
Dub-dub, dub-dub, dub train, oh, train, dub, oh, oh,...
Dub-dub, dub-dub, ooh, train, ooh, pain, train, oh.
I thought of killing that man,
I thought of killing that man.
Dub-dub, dub-dub,
Dub train passed through my mind,
Train passed through my mind, oh, ooh...
Dub-dub, dub-dub, oh train, oh, train.
33 windows shining through my mind,
Shining through my...ooh
Dub-dub, dub-dub, oh, dub-dub,
Ooh, ooh,
Dub-dub train passed through my mind,
Oh, the dub-dub train passed through my mind,
Passed through my mind, ooh, ooh....
Oh, train, dub train,
Dub-dub, oh, dub-dub, oh.
Oh, oh,...
I thought of killing, i thought of killing that man.
A-dub-dub train, oh, oh, train, train, train, train,
Oh, oh, oh...
Train, train, dub-dub-dub-dub train, dub-dub.
Shining the clouds, shining the trees,
Shining empty buildings, shine, shine, shine, shine, shine -
33 windows, 33 windows shining like a...
Shine, shine, shine.
Dub-dub, dub-dub, ooh, oh...
Passed many signs, passed many signs,
Oh, yes, yes, dub-dub, oh, yes,
Dub-dub, dub-dub, oh, oh,...
[...] Read more
song performed by Yoko Ono
Added by Lucian Velea
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Peace
Peace (it's what I prayer for)
Peace (oh my)
Peace
Peace (all around the world)
Peace (it's what I pray for)
Peace (oh my)
Peace
Peace (hurry)
Come on in this house children
The war has started
Light the candles right now
It's about to be darkness, oh yeah
There's no telling when the sun will shine again, no
When it's over there's a question asked
Who wins? Who wins?
Spirit (ooh)
Through the land (ooh)
Spirit of peace (ooh)
Oh yeah (ooh)
Spirit move (ooh)
Oh move (ooh)
Oh yeah (ooh)
Heaven send down (ooh)
Peace (it's what I prayer for)
Peace (oh my)
Peace
Peace (all around the world)
Peace (it's what I pray for)
Peace (oh my)
Peace
Peace (hurry)
Turn your head, close your eyes
There's people out there dying, oh
With so much wealth in the land
Why is this thing staving? Oh
As I look over this place
There's so much hatred
If I could I'd pack my bags
And hitch hike to heaven, yeah
Spirit move (ooh)
Oh move (ooh)
Spirit move (ooh)
All through the land (ooh)
Won't you move (ooh)
Oh move, oh move, oh move (ooh)
Oh move, yeah (ooh)
This is what I prayer for (ooh)
Peace (for peace)
Peace (all around the world)
Peace (whoa)
[...] Read more
song performed by R. Kelly
Added by Lucian Velea
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It's Five O'clock Somewhere
The sun is hot and that old clock is movin' slow,
An' so am I.
Work day passes like molasses in wintertime,
But it's July.
I'm gettin' paid by the hour, an' older by the minute.
My boss just pushed me over the limit.
I'd like to call him somethin',
I think I'll just call it a day.
Pour me somethin' tall an' strong,
Make it a "Hurricane" before I go insane.
It's only half-past twelve but I don't care.
It's five o'clock somewhere.
Oh, this lunch break is gonna take all afternoon,
An' half the night.
Tomorrow mornin', I know there'll be hell to pay,
Hey, but that's all right.
I ain't had a day off now in over a year.
Our Jamaican vacation's gonna start right here.
if the 'phones for me,
You can tell 'em I just sailed away.
An' pour me somethin' tall an' strong,
Make it a "Hurricane" before I go insane.
It's only half-past twelve but I don't care.
It's five o'clock somewhere.
I could pay off my tab, pour myself in a cab,
An' be back to work before two.
At a moment like this, I can't help but wonder,
What would Jimmy Buffett do?
JIMMY BUFFETT:
Funny you should ask Alan,
I'd say:
Pour me somethin' tall an' strong,
Make it a "Hurricane" before I go insane.
It's only half-past twelve but I don't care.
ALAN JACKSON & JIMMY BUFFETT:
Pour me somethin' tall an' strong,
Make it a "Hurricane" before I go insane.
It's only half-past twelve but I don't care.
He don't care.
I don't care.
It's five o'clock somewhere.
JIMMY BUFFETT:
What time zone am I on? What country am I in?
ALAN JACKSON:
It doesn't matter, it's five o'clock somewhere.
JIMMY BUFFETT:
It's always on five in Margaritaville, come to think of it.
ALAN JACKSON:
Yeah, I heard that.
JIMMY BUFFETT:
[...] Read more
song performed by Alan Jackson
Added by Lucian Velea
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Vision of Columbus – Book 3
Now, twice twelve years, the children of the skies
Beheld in peace their growing empire rise;
O'er happy realms, display'd their generous care,
Diffused their arts and soothd the rage of war;
Bade yon tall temple grace the favourite isle.
The gardens bloom, the cultured valleys smile,
The aspiring hills their spacious mines unfold.
Fair structures blaze, and altars burn, in gold,
Those broad foundations bend their arches high,
And heave imperial Cusco to the sky;
From that fair stream that mark'd their northern sway,
Where Apurimac leads his lucid way,
To yon far glimmering lake, the southern bound,
The growing tribes their peaceful dwellings found;
While wealth and grandeur bless'd the extended reign,
From the bold Andes to the western main.
When, fierce from eastern wilds, the savage bands
Lead war and slaughter o'er the happy lands;
Thro' fertile fields the paths of culture trace,
And vow destruction to the Incan race.
While various fortune strow'd the embattled plain,
And baffled thousands still the strife maintain,
The unconquer'd Inca wakes the lingering war,
Drives back their host and speeds their flight afar;
Till, fired with rage, they range the wonted wood,
And feast their souls on future scenes of blood.
Where yon blue summits hang their cliffs on high;
Frown o'er the plains and lengthen round the sky;
Where vales exalted thro' the breaches run;
And drink the nearer splendors of the sun,
From south to north, the tribes innumerous wind,
By hills of ice and mountain streams confined;
Rouse neighbouring hosts, and meditate the blow,
To blend their force and whelm the world below.
Capac, with caution, views the dark design,
From countless wilds what hostile myriads join;
And greatly strives to bid the discord cease,
By profferd compacts of perpetual peace.
His eldest hope, young Rocha, at his call,
Leaves the deep confines of the temple wall;
In whose fair form, in lucid garments drest,
Began the sacred function of the priest.
In early youth, ere yet the genial sun
Had twice six changes o'er his childhood run,
The blooming prince, beneath his parents' hand,
Learn'd all the laws that sway'd the sacred land;
With rites mysterious served the Power divine,
Prepared the altar and adorn'd the shrine,
Responsive hail'd, with still returning praise,
Each circling season that the God displays,
[...] Read more
poem by Joel Barlow
Added by Poetry Lover
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The Columbiad: Book III
The Argument
Actions of the Inca Capac. A general invasion of his dominions threatened by the mountain savages. Rocha, the Inca's son, sent with a few companions to offer terms of peace. His embassy. His adventure with the worshippers of the volcano. With those of the storm, on the Andes. Falls in with the savage armies. Character and speech of Zamor, their chief. Capture of Rocha and his companions. Sacrifice of the latter. Death song of Azonto. War dance. March of the savage armies down the mountains to Peru. Incan army meets them. Battle joins. Peruvians terrified by an eclipse of the sun, and routed. They fly to Cusco. Grief of Oella, supposing the darkness to be occasioned by the death of Rocha. Sun appears. Peruvians from the city wall discover Roch an altar in the savage camp. They march in haste out of the city and engage the savages. Exploits of Capac. Death of Zamor. Recovery of Rocha, and submission of the enemy.
Now twenty years these children of the skies
Beheld their gradual growing empire rise.
They ruled with rigid but with generous care,
Diffused their arts and sooth'd the rage of war,
Bade yon tall temple grace their favorite isle,
The mines unfold, the cultured valleys smile,
Those broad foundations bend their arches high,
And rear imperial Cusco to the sky;
Wealth, wisdom, force consolidate the reign
From the rude Andes to the western main.
But frequent inroads from the savage bands
Lead fire and slaughter o'er the labor'd lands;
They sack the temples, the gay fields deface,
And vow destruction to the Incan race.
The king, undaunted in defensive war,
Repels their hordes, and speeds their flight afar;
Stung with defeat, they range a wider wood,
And rouse fresh tribes for future fields of blood.
Where yon blue ridges hang their cliffs on high,
And suns infulminate the stormful sky,
The nations, temper'd to the turbid air,
Breathe deadly strife, and sigh for battle's blare;
Tis here they meditate, with one vast blow,
To crush the race that rules the plains below.
Capac with caution views the dark design,
Learns from all points what hostile myriads join.
And seeks in time by proffer'd leagues to gain
A bloodless victory, and enlarge his reign.
His eldest hope, young Rocha, at his call,
Resigns his charge within the temple wall;
In whom began, with reverend forms of awe,
The functions grave of priesthood and of law,
In early youth, ere yet the ripening sun
Had three short lustres o'er his childhood run,
The prince had learnt, beneath his father's hand,
The well-framed code that sway'd the sacred land;
With rites mysterious served the Power divine,
Prepared the altar and adorn'd the shrine,
Responsive hail'd, with still returning praise,
Each circling season that the God displays,
[...] Read more
poem by Joel Barlow
Added by Poetry Lover
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Canto the Second
I
Oh ye! who teach the ingenuous youth of nations,
Holland, France, England, Germany, or Spain,
I pray ye flog them upon all occasions,
It mends their morals, never mind the pain:
The best of mothers and of educations
In Juan's case were but employ'd in vain,
Since, in a way that's rather of the oddest, he
Became divested of his native modesty.
II
Had he but been placed at a public school,
In the third form, or even in the fourth,
His daily task had kept his fancy cool,
At least, had he been nurtured in the north;
Spain may prove an exception to the rule,
But then exceptions always prove its worth -—
A lad of sixteen causing a divorce
Puzzled his tutors very much, of course.
III
I can't say that it puzzles me at all,
If all things be consider'd: first, there was
His lady-mother, mathematical,
A—never mind; his tutor, an old ass;
A pretty woman (that's quite natural,
Or else the thing had hardly come to pass);
A husband rather old, not much in unity
With his young wife—a time, and opportunity.
IV
Well—well, the world must turn upon its axis,
And all mankind turn with it, heads or tails,
And live and die, make love and pay our taxes,
And as the veering wind shifts, shift our sails;
The king commands us, and the doctor quacks us,
The priest instructs, and so our life exhales,
A little breath, love, wine, ambition, fame,
Fighting, devotion, dust,—perhaps a name.
V
I said that Juan had been sent to Cadiz -—
A pretty town, I recollect it well -—
'T is there the mart of the colonial trade is
(Or was, before Peru learn'd to rebel),
And such sweet girls—I mean, such graceful ladies,
Their very walk would make your bosom swell;
I can't describe it, though so much it strike,
Nor liken it—I never saw the like:
[...] Read more
poem by Byron from Don Juan (1824)
Added by Veronica Serbanoiu
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Meet Me At The Station
(brother williams memphis sanctified singers)
Well if I get to heaven before you do
I will meet you at the station when your train comes along
Ill be watching and waiting, mother dear, for you
I will meet you at the station when your train comes along
Father, when the train
Father, when the train
Meet me at the station when the train comes along
When the train
Father, when the train comes along
I will meet you at the station when your train comes along
Well if my eyes see the glory, before yours do
I will meet you at the station when your train comes along
Ill be watching and waiting, father, for you
I will meet you at the station whe your train comes along
Father, when the train
Father, when the train
Meet me at the station when the train comes along
Father, when the train
Father, when the train comes along
I will meet you at the station when your train comes along
Now if my feet touch the homeline before yours do
I will meet you at the station when the train comes along
Ill be watching and waiting, my brother, for you
I will meet you at the station when the train comes along
When the train
When the train
Meet me at the station when the train comes along
When the train
When the train comes along
Meet me at the station when the train comes along
When the train
When the train
Meet me at the station when the train comes along
When the train
When the train comes along
Meet me at the station when the train comes along
Now if you see gods country before I do
Will you meet me at the station when my train comes along
Will you be there watching, sister, for me
Will you meet me at the station when my train comes along
When my train
When my train
Meet me at the station when my train comes along
When my train
Sister, when my train comes along
Will you meet me at the station when my train comes along
When the train
When the train
Meet me at the station when my train comes along
[...] Read more
song performed by Waterboys
Added by Lucian Velea
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The Undying One- Canto III
'THERE is a sound the autumn wind doth make
Howling and moaning, listlessly and low:
Methinks that to a heart that ought to break
All the earth's voices seem to murmur so.
The visions that crost
Our path in light--
The things that we lost
In the dim dark night--
The faces for which we vainly yearn--
The voices whose tones will not return--
That low sad wailing breeze doth bring
Borne on its swift and rushing wing.
Have ye sat alone when that wind was loud,
And the moon shone dim from the wintry cloud?
When the fire was quench'd on your lonely hearth,
And the voices were still which spoke of mirth?
If such an evening, tho' but one,
It hath been yours to spend alone--
Never,--though years may roll along
Cheer'd by the merry dance and song;
Though you mark'd not that bleak wind's sound before,
When louder perchance it used to roar--
Never shall sound of that wintry gale
Be aught to you but a voice of wail!
So o'er the careless heart and eye
The storms of the world go sweeping by;
But oh! when once we have learn'd to weep,
Well doth sorrow his stern watch keep.
Let one of our airy joys decay--
Let one of our blossoms fade away--
And all the griefs that others share
Seem ours, as well as theirs, to bear:
And the sound of wail, like that rushing wind
Shall bring all our own deep woe to mind!
'I went through the world, but I paused not now
At the gladsome heart and the joyous brow:
I went through the world, and I stay'd to mark
Where the heart was sore, and the spirit dark:
And the grief of others, though sad to see,
Was fraught with a demon's joy to me!
'I saw the inconstant lover come to take
Farewell of her he loved in better days,
And, coldly careless, watch the heart-strings break--
Which beat so fondly at his words of praise.
She was a faded, painted, guilt-bow'd thing,
Seeking to mock the hues of early spring,
When misery and years had done their worst
[...] Read more
poem by Caroline Elizabeth Sarah Norton
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Sing It
SING IT
This is actually strictly dialogue between Barry and his grandfather, Joe, made circa 1951 or right around that time. They were at a "Record Your Own Voice" booth, and this is approximately how the conversation went.
JOE: All right! "A Happy Birthday", come on, go ahead, sing.
BARRY: What? What?
JOE: Sing. I have the words for you, sing it. Sing it. Sing to me! "A happy birthday to you"
BARRY: N-no, I can't! I have to go to the bathroom.
JOE: All right, go ahead, Barry, sing it, sing it! Sing it! Go ahead.
BARRY: When?
JOE: I said now. Go ahead, sing it. "Happy" Go ahead, come on. Come on, sing it! Come on, go ahead.
BARRY: How?
JOE: Like this, "Happy" Come on, go ahead. All right, my dear grandson, "A Happy Birthday". Barry's gonna sing to you a nice song. Go ahead, Barry, sing it! Go ahead, sing it! Come oncome on, Barry, sing it! Sing "A Happy Birthday". Barry, don't you want to sing it? Come on, Barry, sing itWell, I'm sorry, my dear grandson, Barry, don't want to sing for you. OK, what do you want to sing? Do you want to sing a rhumba? All right, sing the rhumba. Go ahead, Barry, sing it! Go ahead, Barry, sing it! Go ahead, Barry. Come on, sing it. Come on, Barry! You gotta talk to make a record. Don't you want to make a record? Don't you want to make a record? You want to make a record, Barry? Huh? Go ahead!
song performed by Barry Manilow
Added by Lucian Velea
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XI. Guido
You are the Cardinal Acciaiuoli, and you,
Abate Panciatichi—two good Tuscan names:
Acciaiuoli—ah, your ancestor it was
Built the huge battlemented convent-block
Over the little forky flashing Greve
That takes the quick turn at the foot o' the hill
Just as one first sees Florence: oh those days!
'T is Ema, though, the other rivulet,
The one-arched brown brick bridge yawns over,—yes,
Gallop and go five minutes, and you gain
The Roman Gate from where the Ema's bridged:
Kingfishers fly there: how I see the bend
O'erturreted by Certosa which he built,
That Senescal (we styled him) of your House!
I do adjure you, help me, Sirs! My blood
Comes from as far a source: ought it to end
This way, by leakage through their scaffold-planks
Into Rome's sink where her red refuse runs?
Sirs, I beseech you by blood-sympathy,
If there be any vile experiment
In the air,—if this your visit simply prove,
When all's done, just a well-intentioned trick,
That tries for truth truer than truth itself,
By startling up a man, ere break of day,
To tell him he must die at sunset,—pshaw!
That man's a Franceschini; feel his pulse,
Laugh at your folly, and let's all go sleep!
You have my last word,—innocent am I
As Innocent my Pope and murderer,
Innocent as a babe, as Mary's own,
As Mary's self,—I said, say and repeat,—
And why, then, should I die twelve hours hence? I—
Whom, not twelve hours ago, the gaoler bade
Turn to my straw-truss, settle and sleep sound
That I might wake the sooner, promptlier pay
His due of meat-and-drink-indulgence, cross
His palm with fee of the good-hand, beside,
As gallants use who go at large again!
For why? All honest Rome approved my part;
Whoever owned wife, sister, daughter,—nay,
Mistress,—had any shadow of any right
That looks like right, and, all the more resolved,
Held it with tooth and nail,—these manly men
Approved! I being for Rome, Rome was for me.
Then, there's the point reserved, the subterfuge
My lawyers held by, kept for last resource,
Firm should all else,—the impossible fancy!—fail,
And sneaking burgess-spirit win the day.
The knaves! One plea at least would hold,—they laughed,—
One grappling-iron scratch the bottom-rock
[...] Read more
poem by Robert Browning from The Ring and the Book
Added by Veronica Serbanoiu
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Grandfather Bridgeman
I
'Heigh, boys!' cried Grandfather Bridgeman, 'it's time before dinner to-day.'
He lifted the crumpled letter, and thumped a surprising 'Hurrah!'
Up jumped all the echoing young ones, but John, with the starch in his throat,
Said, 'Father, before we make noises, let's see the contents of the note.'
The old man glared at him harshly, and twinkling made answer: 'Too bad!
John Bridgeman, I'm always the whisky, and you are the water, my lad!'
II
But soon it was known thro' the house, and the house ran over for joy,
That news, good news, great marvels, had come from the soldier boy;
Young Tom, the luckless scapegrace, offshoot of Methodist John;
His grandfather's evening tale, whom the old man hailed as his son.
And the old man's shout of pride was a shout of his victory, too;
For he called his affection a method: the neighbours' opinions he knew.
III
Meantime, from the morning table removing the stout breakfast cheer,
The drink of the three generations, the milk, the tea, and the beer
(Alone in its generous reading of pints stood the Grandfather's jug),
The women for sight of the missive came pressing to coax and to hug.
He scattered them quick, with a buss and a smack; thereupon he began
Diversions with John's little Sarah: on Sunday, the naughty old man!
IV
Then messengers sped to the maltster, the auctioneer, miller, and all
The seven sons of the farmer who housed in the range of his call.
Likewise the married daughters, three plentiful ladies, prime cooks,
Who bowed to him while they condemned, in meek hope to stand high in his books.
'John's wife is a fool at a pudding,' they said, and the light carts up hill
Went merrily, flouting the Sabbath: for puddings well made mend a will.
V
The day was a van-bird of summer: the robin still piped, but the blue,
As a warm and dreamy palace with voices of larks ringing thro',
Looked down as if wistfully eyeing the blossoms that fell from its lap:
A day to sweeten the juices: a day to quicken the sap.
All round the shadowy orchard sloped meadows in gold, and the dear
Shy violets breathed their hearts out: the maiden breath of the year!
VI
Full time there was before dinner to bring fifteen of his blood,
To sit at the old man's table: they found that the dinner was good.
But who was she by the lilacs and pouring laburnums concealed,
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poem by George Meredith
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OBIIT MDCCCXXXIII (Entire)
Strong Son of God, immortal Love,
Whom we, that have not seen thy face,
By faith, and faith alone, embrace,
Believing where we cannot prove;
Thine are these orbs of light and shade;
Thou madest Life in man and brute;
Thou madest Death; and lo, thy foot
Is on the skull which thou hast made.
Thou wilt not leave us in the dust:
Thou madest man, he knows not why,
He thinks he was not made to die;
And thou hast made him: thou art just.
Thou seemest human and divine,
The highest, holiest manhood, thou:
Our wills are ours, we know not how;
Our wills are ours, to make them thine.
Our little systems have their day;
They have their day and cease to be:
They are but broken lights of thee,
And thou, O Lord, art more than they.
We have but faith: we cannot know;
For knowledge is of things we see;
And yet we trust it comes from thee,
A beam in darkness: let it grow.
Let knowledge grow from more to more,
But more of reverence in us dwell;
That mind and soul, according well,
May make one music as before,
But vaster. We are fools and slight;
We mock thee when we do not fear:
But help thy foolish ones to bear;
Help thy vain worlds to bear thy light.
Forgive what seem’d my sin in me;
What seem’d my worth since I began;
For merit lives from man to man,
And not from man, O Lord, to thee.
Forgive my grief for one removed,
Thy creature, whom I found so fair.
I trust he lives in thee, and there
I find him worthier to be loved.
Forgive these wild and wandering cries,
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poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson
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The Life And Death Of Tom Thumb
In Arthur's court Tom Thumb did live,
A man of mickle might ;
The best of all the table round,
And eke a doughty knight.
His stature but an inch in height,
Or quarter of a span :
Then think you not this little knight
Was proved a valiant man ?
His father was a ploughman plain,
His mother milk'd the cow,
Yet how that they might have a son
They knew not what to do :
Until such time this good old man
To learned Merlin goes,
And there to him his deep desires
In secret manner shows.
How in his heart he wish'd to have
A child, in time to come,
To be his heir, though it might be
No bigger than his thumb.
Of which old Merlin thus foretold,
That he his wish should have,
And so this son of statue small
The charmer to him gave.
No blood nor bones in him should be,
In shape, and being such
That men should hear him speak, but not
His wandering shadow touch.
But so unseen to go or come,—
Whereas it pleas'd him still ;
Begot and born in half and hour,
To fit his father's will.
And in four minutes grew so fast
That he became so tall
As was the ploughman's thumb in height,
And so they did him call—
TOM THUMB, the which the fairy queen
There gave him to his name,
Who, with her train of goblins grim,
Unto his christening came.
Whereas she cloth'd him richly brave,
In garments fine and fair,
Which lasted him for many years
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poem by Anonymous Olde English
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Jimmy
Jimmy
It started out with a few misfortunes
His daddy ran off with some broad from the motown
When momma said we're leavin tomorrow
Jimmy already had his things together
So many days of thinking of the past
The girl he left behind and hangin out in the
free streets
Somehow Jimmy had survived his reflections
The broken glass in his hands, a noose before him
Said he did it before
He's gonna do it again
Give him a fix and a bottle and he won't complain
Until he's blue in the face
Jimmy's the leader of a losin' race
Hey Jimmy did you learn your lesson
You always know what you were missin'
Hey Jimmy did you solve the problem
Just a kid with no direction
Some people say it was fright that drove him
But Jimmy knows who's really scared of difference
The whipping boy won't take his beating
It only left them alone to their thinking
Of how he knew what they could never know
And he would live and learn to be himself
through his mistakes
Watch and laugh, pretend they were okay
Waiting for things to change is just another day
Said he did it before
He's gonna do it again
Give him a fix or a bottle and he won't complain
Until he's blue in the face
Jimmy's the leader of a losing race
Hey Jimmy did you learn your lesson
You always knew what you were missin'
Hey Jimmy did you solve the problem
Just a kid with no direction
Hey Jimmy don't you walk away
We'll look at life according to me
You're my life support auto biography
Hey Jimmy take a look inside
Let's take a chance, enjoy the ride
Impressions don't die
No one knew your story
Hey Jimmy did you learn you lesson
You always knew what you were missin' (Jimmy)
Hey Jimmy did you solve the problem
Just a kid with no direction (Jimmy)
Hey Jimmy did you learn your lesson
You always knew what you were missin' (Jimmy)
[...] Read more
song performed by 1208
Added by Lucian Velea
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Prince Hohenstiel-Schwangau, Saviour of Society
Epigraph
Υδραν φονεύσας, μυρίων τ᾽ ἄλλων πόνων
διῆλθον ἀγέλας . . .
τὸ λοίσθιον δὲ τόνδ᾽ ἔτλην τάλας πόνον,
. . . δῶμα θριγκῶσαι κακοῖς.
I slew the Hydra, and from labour pass'd
To labour — tribes of labours! Till, at last,
Attempting one more labour, in a trice,
Alack, with ills I crowned the edifice.
You have seen better days, dear? So have I —
And worse too, for they brought no such bud-mouth
As yours to lisp "You wish you knew me!" Well,
Wise men, 't is said, have sometimes wished the same,
And wished and had their trouble for their pains.
Suppose my Œdipus should lurk at last
Under a pork-pie hat and crinoline,
And, latish, pounce on Sphynx in Leicester Square?
Or likelier, what if Sphynx in wise old age,
Grown sick of snapping foolish people's heads,
And jealous for her riddle's proper rede, —
Jealous that the good trick which served the turn
Have justice rendered it, nor class one day
With friend Home's stilts and tongs and medium-ware,—
What if the once redoubted Sphynx, I say,
(Because night draws on, and the sands increase,
And desert-whispers grow a prophecy)
Tell all to Corinth of her own accord.
Bright Corinth, not dull Thebes, for Lais' sake,
Who finds me hardly grey, and likes my nose,
And thinks a man of sixty at the prime?
Good! It shall be! Revealment of myself!
But listen, for we must co-operate;
I don't drink tea: permit me the cigar!
First, how to make the matter plain, of course —
What was the law by which I lived. Let 's see:
Ay, we must take one instant of my life
Spent sitting by your side in this neat room:
Watch well the way I use it, and don't laugh!
Here's paper on the table, pen and ink:
Give me the soiled bit — not the pretty rose!
See! having sat an hour, I'm rested now,
Therefore want work: and spy no better work
For eye and hand and mind that guides them both,
During this instant, than to draw my pen
From blot One — thus — up, up to blot Two — thus —
Which I at last reach, thus, and here's my line
Five inches long and tolerably straight:
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poem by Robert Browning (1871)
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The House Of Dust: Complete
I.
The sun goes down in a cold pale flare of light.
The trees grow dark: the shadows lean to the east:
And lights wink out through the windows, one by one.
A clamor of frosty sirens mourns at the night.
Pale slate-grey clouds whirl up from the sunken sun.
And the wandering one, the inquisitive dreamer of dreams,
The eternal asker of answers, stands in the street,
And lifts his palms for the first cold ghost of rain.
The purple lights leap down the hill before him.
The gorgeous night has begun again.
'I will ask them all, I will ask them all their dreams,
I will hold my light above them and seek their faces.
I will hear them whisper, invisible in their veins . . .'
The eternal asker of answers becomes as the darkness,
Or as a wind blown over a myriad forest,
Or as the numberless voices of long-drawn rains.
We hear him and take him among us, like a wind of music,
Like the ghost of a music we have somewhere heard;
We crowd through the streets in a dazzle of pallid lamplight,
We pour in a sinister wave, ascend a stair,
With laughter and cry, and word upon murmured word;
We flow, we descend, we turn . . . and the eternal dreamer
Moves among us like light, like evening air . . .
Good-night! Good-night! Good-night! We go our ways,
The rain runs over the pavement before our feet,
The cold rain falls, the rain sings.
We walk, we run, we ride. We turn our faces
To what the eternal evening brings.
Our hands are hot and raw with the stones we have laid,
We have built a tower of stone high into the sky,
We have built a city of towers.
Our hands are light, they are singing with emptiness.
Our souls are light; they have shaken a burden of hours . . .
What did we build it for? Was it all a dream? . . .
Ghostly above us in lamplight the towers gleam . . .
And after a while they will fall to dust and rain;
Or else we will tear them down with impatient hands;
And hew rock out of the earth, and build them again.
II.
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poem by Conrad Potter Aiken
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Tamar
I
A night the half-moon was like a dancing-girl,
No, like a drunkard's last half-dollar
Shoved on the polished bar of the eastern hill-range,
Young Cauldwell rode his pony along the sea-cliff;
When she stopped, spurred; when she trembled, drove
The teeth of the little jagged wheels so deep
They tasted blood; the mare with four slim hooves
On a foot of ground pivoted like a top,
Jumped from the crumble of sod, went down, caught, slipped;
Then, the quick frenzy finished, stiffening herself
Slid with her drunken rider down the ledges,
Shot from sheer rock and broke
Her life out on the rounded tidal boulders.
The night you know accepted with no show of emotion the little
accident; grave Orion
Moved northwest from the naked shore, the moon moved to
meridian, the slow pulse of the ocean
Beat, the slow tide came in across the slippery stones; it drowned
the dead mare's muzzle and sluggishly
Felt for the rider; Cauldwell’s sleepy soul came back from the
blind course curious to know
What sea-cold fingers tapped the walls of its deserted ruin.
Pain, pain and faintness, crushing
Weights, and a vain desire to vomit, and soon again
die icy fingers, they had crept over the loose hand and lay in the
hair now. He rolled sidewise
Against mountains of weight and for another half-hour lay still.
With a gush of liquid noises
The wave covered him head and all, his body
Crawled without consciousness and like a creature with no bones,
a seaworm, lifted its face
Above the sea-wrack of a stone; then a white twilight grew about
the moon, and above
The ancient water, the everlasting repetition of the dawn. You
shipwrecked horseman
So many and still so many and now for you the last. But when it
grew daylight
He grew quite conscious; broken ends of bone ground on each
other among the working fibers
While by half-inches he was drawing himself out of the seawrack
up to sandy granite,
Out of the tide's path. Where the thin ledge tailed into flat cliff
he fell asleep. . . .
Far seaward
The daylight moon hung like a slip of cloud against the horizon.
The tide was ebbing
From the dead horse and the black belt of sea-growth. Cauldwell
seemed to have felt her crying beside him,
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poem by Robinson Jeffers
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