And Now for Something Completely Different!

I have a sudden urge to update my poor blog, although due to schoolwork taking up so much of my mental strength I am not feeling up to writing anything profound at the moment. Therefore instead of posting my own writing I will post somebody else's! I have lately discovered my love for poetry, so here are a few beautiful poems:

"Oh! Snatched away in Beauty's Bloom!"

Oh! Snatched away in beauty's bloom,
On thee shall press no ponderous toom;
But on thy turf shall roses rear
Their leaves, the earliest of the year;
And the wild cypress wave in tender gloom.

And oft by yon blue gushing stream
Shall Sorrow lean her drooping head,
And feed deep thought with many a dream;
And lingering pause and lightly tread;
Fond wretch! As if her step disturbed the dead!

Away! ye know that tears are vain,
That death nor heeds nor hears distress:
Will this unteach us to complain?
Or make one mourner weep the less?
And thou- who tell'st me to forget,
Thou looks are wan, thine eyes are wet.
~Lord Byron

"To The Distant One"

And have I lost thee evermore,
Hast thou, oh fair one, from me flown?
Still in mine ear sounds, as of yore,
Thine every word, thine every tone.

As when at morn the wanderer's eye
Attempts to pierce the air in vain,
When, hidden in the azure sky,
The lark high o'er him chants his strain;

So do I cast my troubled gaze
Through bush, through forest, o'er the lea;
Thou art invoked by all my lays;
Oh, come then, loved one, back to me!
~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"To Celia"

Drink to me only with thine eyes and I will pledge with mine,
Or leave a kiss within the cup and I'll not ask for wine.
The thirst that from the soul doth rise doth ask a drink divine,
But might I of Jove's nectar sip, I would not change for thine.

I sent thee late a rosy wreath not so much honoring thee,
As giving it a hope that there it would not withered be.
But thou thereon didst only breath and sendst it back to me,
Since when it grows and smells, I swear, not of itself, but thee!
~Ben Johnson

And, of course, the famous "Bright Star"

Bright star, would I were steadfast as thou art-
Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night
And watching, with eternal lids apart,
Like nature's patient, sleepless Eremite,
The moving waters at their priestlike task
Of pure ablution round Earth's human shores
Or gazing on the new soft-fallen mask
Of snow upon the mountains and the moors-
No-yet still steadfast, still unchangeable.
Pillow'd upon my fair love's ripening breast,
To feel forever its soft fall and swell,
Awake forever in a sweet unrest,
Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath.
And so live ever- or else swoon to death.
~John Keats

I am simply awed by how people can string words together in such pretty combinations. I suppose I should say, "how people COULD string words together in such pretty combinations." Nobody writes that way anymore. For example, here's a typical modern poem I found online:

Rain, rain go away
Because of you the pain will stay
Slit my throat, cut out my heart
Leave me here, tear it apart.

Poison tears stream down my face,
My heart beats at a steady pace
As I try to stand again;
Alone and standing in the rain...(I don't feel like typing the whole thing.)

What could possibly inspire someone to write something so unorigonal and mediocre? Well, whatever it is, it is probably the same thing that inspires practically EVERY songwriter of today to write mediocre music, and practically EVERY author of today to write mediocre books, and practically EVERY artist of today to produce worthless, mediocre "art." Nobody pours out their heart the way Lord Byron and Goethe did. Today all we hear about in poetry is vampires and slitting wrists and spiraling abysses of doom. Listening to people talk, you'd think Twilight and Highschool Musical were on the same level with Don Quixote and Great Expectations, or that Taylor Swift's love songs were as heartwrenching as "Tannhauser." Anyway, here I was just making I nice, lighthearted post about my favorite poetry and somehow it's lead me into my favorite speech about how our society has no regard for beauty or excellence whatsoever. I had better stop before I get too carried away. This is undoubtedly the worst post I have ever done, but at least now my blog will know I am still alive.