Scourge of War Boards

Yeah. . . it's true. . . I loves me some good poetry. I read this poem when I was a pretty young dude, in my twenties for sure. It reminded me of going to Garner State Park every summer and the beautiful Frio River -- my childhood river. And sometime in my late thirties, the ending began to resonate. Now, in my fifties, the ending brings chills.

Sonnet: To The River Otter

Dear native Brook! wild Streamlet of the West!
How many various-fated years have past,
What happy and what mournful hours, since last
I skimm'd the smooth thin stone along thy breast,
Numbering its light leaps! yet so deep imprest
Sink the sweet scenes of childhood, that mine eyes
I never shut amid the sunny ray,
But straight with all their tints thy waters rise,
Thy crossing plank, thy marge with willows grey,
And bedded sand that vein'd with various dyes
Gleam'd through thy bright transparence! On my way,
Visions of Childhood! oft have ye beguil'd
Lone manhood's cares, yet waking fondest sighs:
Ah! that once more I were a careless Child!

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

I'm afraid like many things, compulsory participation in my school years lead to zero enjoyment, and I haven't been able to shake it yet.

I did read this poem once, when still in primary school, and thought it was cool.

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
`My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away".

Percy Bysshe Shelley

PS - Check out my latest post in NSD Music Corner to a see a great example of a brilliant poem put to music.