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Mark Antony

Whenas the nightingale chanted her vespers,
And the wild forester couched on the ground,
Venus invited me in th' evening whispers
Unto a fragrant field with roses crowned,
Where she before had sent
My wishes' complement;
Unto my heart's content
Played with me on the green.
Never Mark Antony
Dallied more wantonly
With the fair Egyptian Queen.

First on her cherry cheeks I mine eyes feasted,
Thence fear surfeiting made me retire;
Next on her warmer lips, which when I tasted
My duller spirits made active as fire.
Then we began to dart
Each at another's heart,
Arrows that knew no smart,
Sweet lips and smiles between.

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poem by John Cleveland
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Cleopatra’s glory

Cleopatra was the queen of Egypt;
Cleopatra was the queen of beauty.
She came to the throne at her eighteen
The first century BC witnessed it.

To get back her Egypt from her brother,
She sought the hand of Julius Caesar,
The mighty one Rome had ever seen,
And set to sell her asset of beauty.

While in exile, she was able to reach
Caesar when he chanced to visit Egypt,
By getting her smuggled in to his room,
Rolled up in a carpet sent as a gift

Cleopatra emerging from the roll,
Caesar was stunned and fell for her in love.
He made her queen of Egypt in no time
And made her his consort with all respects.

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poem by Rm. Shanmugam Chettiar
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The Vision Of Piers Plowman - Part 15

Ac after my wakynge it was wonder longe
Er I koude kyndely knowe what was Dowel.
And so my wit weex and wanyed til I a fool weere;
And some lakked my lif - allowed it fewe -
And leten me for a lorel and looth to reverencen
Lordes or ladies or any lif ellis -
As persons in pelure with pendaunts of silver;
To sergeaunts ne to swiche seide noght ones,
' God loke yow, lordes!' - ne loutede faire,
That folk helden me a fool; and in that folie I raved,
Til reson hadde ruthe on me and rokked me aslepe,
Til I seigh, as it sorcerie were, a sotil thyng withalle -
Oon withouten tonge and teeth, tolde me whider I sholde
And wherof I cam and of what kynde. I conjured hym at the laste,
If he were Cristes creature for Cristes love me to tellen.
' I am Cristes creature,' quod he, 'and Cristene in many a place,
In Cristes court yknowe wel, and of his kyn a party.
Is neither Peter the Porter, ne Poul with the fauchon,
That wole defende me the dore, dynge I never so late.
At mydnyght, at mydday, my vois is so yknowe

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poem by William Langland
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What Chance Have I With Love?

Love is beautiful, love is swell
Love is as sweet as a nut
Love is grander than tongue can tell
Love is remarkable, but
Look at what it did to Antony
It made a fool out of Antony
If love could do that to Antony
What chance have I with love?
Look at what it did to Romeo
It dealt poor Romey an awful blow
If love could do that to Romeo
What chance have I with love?
Look at what it did to Samson
'Til he lost his hair he was brave
If a haircut could weaken Samson
They could murder me with a shave
Look at what it did to Bonaparte
He lost his head when he lost his heart
If he kicked over the apple cart
What chance have I

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song performed by Irving Berlin
Added by Lucian Velea
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Antony: There’s beggary in the love that can be reckon’d.
Cleopatra: I’ll set a bourn how far to be beloved.

classic lines from the play Antony and Cleopatra, Act I, Scene 1, script by William Shakespeare (1606)
Added by Dan Costinaş
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Antony's Friend.

Bring me my robes and crown!
I must make a brave end,
Charmian, fitting the renown
Of Antony's friend.
Caesar shall find me so,
'Tired like a royal bride,
When he comes in, and the lights are low,
And I'm by Antony's side —
Wedded in Death's bright hall
Beyond the Egyptian air,
My crown and robes on me, and all
The love that made me fair.
My women! sooth to tell
Soft is the aspic's bite:
It would have pleased my Roman well
So to have said good-night.

poem by Robert Crawford
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Tiber, Nile, And Thames

THE head and hands of murdered Cicero,
Above his seat high in the Forum hung,
Drew jeers and burning tears. When on the rung
Of a swift-mounted ladder, all aglow,
Fluvia, Mark Antony's shameless wife, with show
Of foot firm-poised and gleaming arm upflung,
Bade her sharp needle pierce that god-like tongue
Whose speech fed Rome even as the Tiber's flow.
And thou, Cleopatra's Needle, that hadst thrid
Great skirts of Time ere she and Antony hid
Dead hope!—hast thou too reached, surviving death,
A city of sweet speech scorned,—on whose chill stone
Keats withered, Coleridge pined, and Chatterton,
Breadless, with poison froze the God-fired breath?

poem by Dante Gabriel Rossetti
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Anthony and Cleopatra

A wrinkle poked his sodding alchemy
Bereft of reason and the truth of ships
But nothing pirouettes in blank sausages
As Antony kisses Cleopatra on the lips.

They went out late last night, clubbing in Alexandria
And Cleopatra was wearing her fishnet tights,
Antony wanted to get her somewhere quiet,
He didn't want to get involved in any fights.

He's got this paranoid fear of Caesar
Because Julius wants to rule the earth,
But perhaps if Cleopatra helps him
He'll show his enemies what he's really worth.

Past ruined palaces of fevered brow
The carved spinach of his twisted dreams
Erupts like ivory in trembling snow
And catches tigers in their early schemes.

poem by John Thorkild Ellison
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In a Township of Asia Minor

The news about the outcome of the sea-battle at Actium
was of course unexpected.
But there's no need for us to draft a new proclamation.
The name's the only thing that has to be changed.
There, in the concluding lines, instead of: "Having freed the Romans
from Octavius, that disaster,
that parody of a Caesar,"
we'll substitute: "Having freed the Romans
from Antony, that disaster,..."
The whole text fits very nicely.

"To the most glorious victor,
matchless in his military ventures,
prodigious in his political operations,
on whose behalf the township ardently wished
for Antony's triumph,..."
here, as we said, the substitution: "for Octavius Caesar's triumph,
regarding it as Zeus' finest gift—
to this mighty protector of the Greeks,
who graciously honors Greek customs,

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poem by Constantine P. Cavafy
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Political Assassination Publically Justified

“Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears”
such emotionally charged rhetoric written in iambic
pentameter; reminds of times without hearing aids
when microphone television did not aid cause politic.

Yes Antony here plays mocking Brutus, saying that
maybe his speech was too 'cerebral' for the crowd.
Let us not beat around the bush in politics agendaed
politic proclaim “So are they all, all honourable men”.

A portion of the speech 'But Brutus was an honourable
man' is referenced in an opening scene of the West Wing;
which reminds of honourable times without hearing aids
when microphone television did not edit amplify a plot.

“O judgment! thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason. Bear with me; ”
recall words 'Enemies Foreign and Domestic'
remind in war on terror of threatening all abodes.

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poem by Terence George Craddock
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