General Chat

Two Roads diverged in a Yellow Wood ....


Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there,
Had worn them really about the same

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference !

-- Robert Frost (1874–1963)

No man is an island, entire of itself;
every man is a piece of the continent,
a part of the main;
if a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less...
any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind...

John Donne

Do not stand at my grave and weep;
I am not there. I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow.
I am the diamond glints on snow.
I am the sunlight on ripened grain.
I am the gentle autumn rain.
When you awaken in the morning's hush
I am the swift uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circled flight.
I am the soft stars that shine at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry;
I am not there. I did not die.

Poss Mary Eliz Frye

and finally

"Entreat me not to leave thee,
or to return from following after thee:
for whither thou goest, I will go;
and where thou lodgest, I will lodge:
thy people shall be my people,
and thy God my God:

Ruth 1:16

Hope you enjoyed these

Sue

Thanks for those Sue...especially the last one as I was trying to remember it a few days ago

xx

beautiful, isn't it Rose?

How about this one (from Lord of the Rings):

"The road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began;
Now far ahead the road has gone,
And I must follow if I can
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet;
And whither then? I cannot say!"

Lol Sue

Sue...I love LOTR...but the poem that makes me cry is Bilbo's


I sit beside the fire and think
of all that I have seen,
of meadow-flowers and butterflies
in summers that have been;

Of yellow leaves and gossamer
in autumns that there were,
with morning mist and silver sun
and wind upon my hair.

I sit beside the fire and think
of how the world will be
when winter comes without a spring
that I shall ever see.

For still there are so many things
that I have never seen:
in every wood in every spring
there is a different green.

I sit beside the fire and think
of people long ago,
and people who will see a world
that I shall never know.

But all the while I sit and think
of times there were before,
I listen for returning feet
and voices at the door.

"when winter comes ...." lines
remind me of my mum

Me too Rose - one of my very favourites - it comes out every couple of years.

That and Pride and Prejudice, Lorna Doone and Wuthering Heights.


I'd temporarily forgotten Bilbo's poem - how lovely to hear it again.

PS - watched the director's cut of part 3 of the LOTR film over Christmas. Soooo much better than the cinema version. Have you seen it?

Lol Sue

Sue...Read the books so many times they have fallen apart lol

treated myself to the directors cut LOTR for Christmas but haven't watched yet!

Will wait till I have time to really sit and appreciate it .

Rosexx

I've read LOTR 22 times........lol
Spent my youth totally obsessed with all things Tolkien.......even had the quiz books.
Amanda

Amanda...have never actually counted the number of times I have read it...

came to it late on lol was 27 ish...and a boyfriend leant me his copy of the fellowhip...hooked for life lol

xx

My friend bought me "the Delux"edition for my 21st but I have never actually read that copy.....prefur my tattered beaten paperbacks......I read the Hobbit when I was 12 and started LOTR at 13.......lol
Have you read "the Silmarillion" ?
It's a bit hard going in places but well worth having a go.
Amanda

I've got the Silmarrillion Amanda, but haven't got through it as yet...will give it another go...read everything else though

xx

"If" by Rudyard Kipling and that one that featured in Four Weddings and a Funeral - W H Auden? Stop all the clocks.......

Love 'em

The Silmarillion is worth persevering with.

I first read LOTR to my daughter when she was just 8 - we had a couple of hours with it every night and she became as much a fan as I am. Indeed, for her A level English exam she chose to write on "Lord of the Rings - Allegory or Analogy" which explored the myth that LOTR was an allegory for east-west wars, (which JRRT always heavily disputed) or was it an analogy for the war between good and bad. the latter of course. And she got an A* for it. I was never academic, but I'm proud that I could influence her this way.

For me, it's just a rollicking good tail.

And Aragorn, son of Arathorn, what a hero! Don't know who I would have cast to play him, but Vigor Mortensen was a definite find. Just as I imagined him.

Lol sue

Thought all the major casting in the film was good...Aragorn especially...and the Hobbits...and.....

lol don't start me off or will be here all night on this one!

xx

Ann, here it is

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.

Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message He Is Dead,
Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.

He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last for ever: I was wrong.

The stars are not wanted now: put out every one;
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood.
For nothing now can ever come to any good.

thanks Anne

I didn't see the film, so took the opportunity to look the poem up. For anyone who hasn't read it, here it is. It's lovely......

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.

Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message He Is Dead,
Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.

He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last for ever: I was wrong.

The stars are not wanted now: put out every one;
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood.
For nothing now can ever come to any good.

Oooh, let's get started Rose!

Aragorn because he's the ultimate hero of literature. But Gollum - how wonderful was that casting?

sad we didn't see Tom Bombadill - Tom Bombadillo, though

And they didn't do justice to the Ents in my view.

But the hobbits (especially the dirty, bitten fingernails) and the scenery - superb.

I saw the first attempt at the film of LOTR - that cartoon stuff. And from then on, I didn't think it was possible to do this book justice on film, but wrong again, Sue!

Anyway, daughter and I went to Nerja in spain earlier in the year and went into the caves there - simultaneously said Drums from the Deep. Magic!

Lol Sue

Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night


Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on that sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Dylan Thomas


ann
Glos

So glad I lived long enough for CGI to be developed enough to make the film! (saw the cartoon version too).

Gollum was brilliant, missed Tom Bombadil and Goldberry...pity because that part of the book is so 'visual'...

Thought that Theoden and Denethor were ok but characters not quite as in book because of the time limitations...

Orcs were great, Ents I agree with what you say...difficult to do justice to...

Paths of the dead ,cleverly done..

lol 'Sam' was so good...made me cry...
have I missed anything? lol

Rosexx