Many of my favourites are lamenting the shortness of our time on Earth.
So, we'll go no more a roving
So late into the night,
Though the heart be still as loving,
And the moon be still as bright.
For the sword outwears its sheath,
And the soul wears out the breast,
And the heart must pause to breathe,
And love itself have rest.
Though the night was made for loving,
And the day returns too soon,
Yet we'll go no more a roving
By the light of the moon.
Byron
Had we but World enough, and Time
Marvell
Rage, rage, against the dying of the Light.
Thomas
And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow
Yeats
"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
Shelley
Others:
Your sons and your daughters are beyond your command
Dylan
My love, she speaks like silence
Without ideals or violence
She doesn't have to say she's faithful,
Yet she's true, like ice, like fire
Dylan
Like one who, on a lonely road,
Doth walk in fear and dread,
And, having once turned round, walks on,
And turns no more his head;
Because he knows a frightful fiend
Doth close behind him tread
Coleridge
Things fall apart, the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world
...
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last
Slouches toward Bethlehem to be born
Yeats
There are holes in the sky,
Where the rain gets in.
But they're ever so small;
That's why rain is thin
Milligan
Roman Wall Blues
Over the heather the wet wind blows,
I've lice in my tunic and a cold in my nose.
The rain comes pattering out of the sky,
I'm a Wall soldier, I don't know why.
The mist creeps over the hard grey stone,
My girl's in Tungria; I sleep alone.
Aulus goes hanging around her place,
I don't like his manners, I don't like his face.
Piso's a Christian, he worships a fish;
There'd be no kissing if he had his wish.
She gave me a ring but I diced it away;
I want my girl and I want my pay.
When I'm a veteran with only one eye
I shall do nothing but look at the sky.
WH Auden
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I am Goya by Andrey Voznesensky (1933 - June 1, 2010
I am Goya
of the bare field, by the enemys beak gouged
till the craters of my eyes gape
I am grief
I am the tongue
of war, the embers of cities
on the snows of the year 1941
I am hunger
I am the gullet
of a woman hanged whose body like a bell
tolled over a blank square
I am Goya
O grapes of wrath!
I have hurled westward
the ashes of the uninvited guest!
and hammered stars into the unforgetting sky like nails
I am Goya
(translated from the Russian by Stanley Kunitz)
I thought this was amazing, mega-good.
Combat Medic's Countdown
10 minutes until help arrives,
To assess, treat and keep alive.
9-Liner tells the HQ where
To send the chopper and with what gear.
8 The eyes that scan each move;
The medic's skills to them must prove.
7 inches wide, the ragged wound,
He packs with gauze and shrimp shells ground.
6 ribs he carefully counts down,
(The drain's landmark for lung that's blown).
5 hundred mils saline ensures,
The boost to falling blood pressure.
4 attempts to find a vein,
To give the drugs to relieve pain.
[3 too many in my view;
I.O.'s easy to push fluids through.]
2 tourniquets applied each side,
To stop the bleeding from both thighs.
1 medic to do all of this.
You may agree - it takes the ****.
9-Liner the standard format to request a medical helicopter evacuation.
I.O.'s - Intraosseous infusion- injecting directly into bone marrow.
Don't want to offend anyone here, far from it. But most (not all) of the stuff posted seems to be eulogies, laments or requiems for the dead.
All very worthy but pretty depressing.
I wouldn't mind seeing examples what you've found uplifting, inspiring or even humorous data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7
So get posting then.
Eldorado
By Edgar Alan Poe
Gaily bedight,
A gallant knight,
In sunshine and in shadow,
Had journeyed long,
Singing a song,
In search of Eldorado.
But he grew old-
This knight so bold-
And o'er his heart a shadow
Fell as he found
No spot of ground
That looked like Eldorado.
And, as his strength
Failed him at length,
He met a pilgrim shadow-
"Shadow," said he,
"Where can it be-
This land of Eldorado?"
"Over the Mountains
Of the Moon,
Down the Valley of the Shadow,
Ride, boldly ride,"
The shade replied-
"If you seek for Eldorado!"
Mary had a metal cow
She milked it with a spanner
The milk came out in shilling cans
The small ones were a tanner!
Here's one that's a little different, got this from a RSM (retired) in a bar one night:
Mary had a little lamb
The thing kept on gruntin'
So she took it round the corner
And kicked it's ******* **** in
Army humour - hope it doesn't offend. data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7
She Walks in Beauty
by Lord Byron
She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies,
And all that's best of dark and bright
Meets in her aspect and her eyes;
Thus mellow'd to that tender light
Which Heaven to gaudy day denies.
One shade the more, one ray the less,
Had half impair'd the nameless grace
Which waves in every raven tress
Or softly lightens o'er her face,
Where thoughts serenely sweet express
How pure, how dear their dwelling-place.
And on that cheek and o'er that brow
So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,
The smiles that win, the tints that glow,
But tell of days in goodness spent,
A mind at peace with all below,
A heart whose love is innocent.