h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Wherever I am? What does that mean?

You're not a lawyer by any chance?

St. Agnes' Eve - Ah, bitter chill it was!
The owl, for all his feathers, was a-cold;
The hare limp'd trembling through the frozen grass,
And silent was the flock in woolly fold:
Numb were the Beadsman's fingers, while he told
His rosary, and while his frosted breath,
Like pious incense from a censer old,
Seem'd taking flight for heaven, without a death,
Past the sweet Virgin's picture, while his prayer he saith.

Keats 'The Eve of St Agnes'

LadyC - you said you were hiding, that's why I didn't know where you were - and I was being strictly mock-legalistic

To Sorrow,
I bade good-morrow,
And thought to leave her far away behind;
But cheerly, cheerly,
She loves me dearly;
She is so constant to me, and so kind.

[Keats: Endymion]

GATHER ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old Time is still a-flying:
And this same flower that smiles to-day
To-morrow will be dying.

The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun,
The higher he 's a-getting,
The sooner will his race be run,
And nearer he 's to setting.

That age is best which is the first,
When youth and blood are warmer;
But being spent, the worse, and worst
Times still succeed the former.

Then be not coy, but use your time,
And while ye may, go marry:
For having lost but once your prime,
You may for ever tarry.

Robert Herrick 'To the Virgins, to make much of Time'

Can i see anothers woe,
And not be in sorrow too?
can i see anothers grief,
And seek for kind relief?

William Blake. On anothers sorrow.

Oops the last line should read...And NOT seek for kind relief.

Rather than a little pain, I would be thief
To the organ-chords of grief

[Mervyn Peake: Rather Than a Little Pain]

[Organ chords.]

Music has charms to sooth a savage breast,
To soften rocks, or bend a knotted oak.


[William Congreve: The Mourning Bride.]

If music be the food of love, play on;
Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting,
The appetite may sicken, and so die.

[Shakespeare: Twelfth Night]

Strings in the earth and air
Make music sweet;
Strings by the rivers where
The willows meet.



James Joyce(Strings in the earth and air)

[Playing on.]


Her ivory hands on the ivory keys
Strayed in a fitful fantasy.


[Oscar Wilde: In the Gold Room.]

[music: song]

What made sleep flutter his wings and part?
Only the song of a secret bird.

Swinburne: A Ballad of Dreamland]

Was I dreaming or was there some discussion about not using songs and not using Shakespeare? Have the rules changed again?

Was it a vision, or a waking dream?
Fled is that music:—Do I wake or sleep?

Keats 'Ode to a Nightingale'

Er - not using Shakespeare songs, (Post 268). I wouldn't use Shakespeare prose either, but the piece from Twelfth Night was in poetry form, as befitted the Duke of Orsino. And as was Snailrind's Congreve quotation. The rules haven't changed, but if you don't want me to include poetic forms from plays, I'll be quite happy personally to omit them. It's a demarcation decision. Whatever you think is best for the thread.

Nice double relevance in your quotation!

Jab

I am afraid, oh I am so afraid!
The cold black fear is clutching me to-night
As long ago when they would take the light
And leave the little child who would have prayed,
Frozen and sleepless at the thought of death.

[Sara Teasdale: Fear]

Being too strict about the song thing might cause problems: ballads and odes are technically songs. That's why I asked earlier if we could use songs to which the music no longer exists (or never did).

[Scared in the dark]


Your thwarted and convulsive thought
Is mere child's-play to me
These mental wanderings are nought
But biblic fantasy.


[Mervyn Peake: It Worries Me to Know.]

Thanks for your thoughts, Snails.

Plays : I don't see this as a problem yet, but it conceivably could be if we get overloaded with quotations from plays, especially from all that Shakespeare. Is there a case for not crossing the bridge until we come to it? - i.e. not to be strict about it unless there's a problem?

Ballads and odes might be technically songs, but we do know the difference in practice, so I'm still in favour of leaving out songs, especially as there's another thread for them.

As a personal choice, I think I'll also leave plays out of it from now on. What do other people think?

Oooh....strict

Jab

The song lyrics conversation game is currently at /F2137311?thread=293724&post=30440352#p30440352, having mutated from the original game. Volunteers needed please!

It's not kosher any more, but

Jab