Favourite Poem

Whilst wwe're on the Death in the Clouds theme I'd like to give an honourable mention to William Butler Yeats. As it so happens I ain't got me poetry book with me right now - amongst my circle of friends it doesn't do to carry poetry stuff down the Dog and Donut - so here it is from memory. All WBY afficionados please forgive the errors. I know that I shall meet my fate Somewhere among the clouds above Those that I fight I do not hate Those that I guard I do not love My country is Kiltartan Cross My countrymen Kiltartan's poor No likely end could bring them loss Nor leave them happier than before Nor law, nor duty bade me fight Nor public men, nor cheering crowds A lonely impulse of delight Drove to this tumult in the clouds I balanced all, brought all to mind The years to come seemed waste of breath A waste of breath the years behind In balance with this life, this death. Good old William Butler Yeats - a bloke who could not only dash out the odd top-drawer poem but you wouldn't mind having a Guinness with down the Pig and Piecrust. Not an easy tightrope to walk, that.

Dylan Thomas's The Hunchback In The Park, - I had heard and read poems before but that struck me like a thunderbolt - I couldn't get enough poetry in me after that, though it would be 20 years on before I actually tried writing the stuff myself www.arthurchappell,clara.net/contents.htm(link is external)

Agreed John. I've had his "heavens embroidered" in a frame in my bedroom for years....it's sweet and evocative.

Don't know this one Liana. My poetry knowledge is v. limited although I do know what I like. Will go and look it up forthwith. If it's good enough for your bedroom wall, it's good enough for me although I must admit to being more than a little worried about the close proximity of the words 'embroidered' and 'sweet'. Have a macho image to think of, ya know. The only 'poem' most of my mates know starts 'Twas on the good ship Venus' so I try to keep the poetry thing a closely-guarded secret or I'm gonna end up in my own private little corner of The Flute and Firkin reading a leather-bound copy of The Rubber Yacht of Omar Khayyam' and sipping absinthe through a pastel-coloured straw. Big Boys Don't Cry. As it's you Liana thought I'd best end with a song lyric - well, almost.

I'm sure that the Sex Pistols must have done a version of 'Heavens Embroidered'. Just tell your mates that, if they ask John.

for such a macho bloke, john l, it's interesting you chose one of 10cc's more effete anthems to close your last message :O)