Long Poems:

[Anonymous No.9784651]

Post a passage from your favorite Long/Epic poem. Discuss others posts.

Mine is H.D.'s Trilogy. This is the sixth canto of the third book (The Flowering of the Rod)

So I would rather drown, remembering--
than bask on tropic atolls

in the coral-seas; I would rather drown,
remembering--than rest on pine or fir-branch

where great stars pour down
their generating strength, Arcturus

or the sapphires of the Northern Crown;
I would rather beat in the wind, crying to these others:

yours is the more foolish circling,
yours is the senseless wheeling

round and round--yours has no reason--
I am seeking heaven;

yours has no vision,
I see what is beneath me, what is above me,

what men say is-not--I remember,
I remember, I remember--you have forgot:

you think, even before it is half-over,
that you cycle is at an end,

but you repeat your foolish circling--again, again, again;
again, the steel sharpened on the stone;

again, the pyramid of skulls;
I gave pity to the dead,

O blasphemy, pity is a stone for bread,
only love is holy and love's ecstasy

that turns and turns and turns about one centre,
reckless, regardless, blind to reality,

that knows the Islands of the Blest are there,
*for many waters can not quench love's fire.*