Poetic wisdom..

[ironglow]

  I truly enjoy poetry..and write some.  I find there are certain snippets of poetry that contain great pearls of wisdom; and I am sure my children and grandchildren could recite them to you also, since they have heard them so often from myself..
 
  Here, from "To a Louse", by Robert Burns:
''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
   "wad some Pow'r the giftie gie us
To see oursels as ithers see us!
It wad frae mony a blunder free us,
An' foolish notion:"
 '''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
  ..And from Sir Walter Scott's "Marmion" just one line:
 ''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
  " Oh! what a tangled web we weave
When first we practice to deceive!"..
 '''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
 
  Surely, some here must have some favorite lines of poetic wisdom they refer to..care to pass it on ?

[ironglow]

  What?  No literati here?

[magooch]

If at first you don't succeed,
suck and suck and suck
until you do succeed.
 
Slim Giles

[ironglow]

If at first you don't succeed,
suck and suck and suck
until you do succeed.
 
Slim Giles

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  Was Slim Giles a politician?  He sure sounds like one...    

[PKnTX]

...Be'in born is going blind
Bow'in down a thousand times
To echoes strung
On pure temptation.
Sorrow and Solitude
These are the precious things
And the only words
That are worth remember'in.

Noth'in
Townes van Zandt

[ironglow]

Thanks PKnTX..
   Shows wisdom, that's what I was looking for..jewels to pass on.

[PKnTX]

ironglow,
  I'm no authority on the subject
but seems to me that for several
generations some of our best poets
have lent their craft to song lyrics.
Most likely for financial reasons but
not always I'm sure.  Many are talented
musicians as well.
Another:

"It's the fearless who love
And the loveless who fear".
     
BORDERLESS LOVE
The Flatlandsrs

[Doublebass73]

Being a native New Englandah I've always been a fan of Robert Frost. His poems take me back in time to the days when most people farmed in New England and the rest of the country. I used to drive by his homestead in Derry, NH almost every day for work and wonder what it was like back in his time. Here is one of my favorites:

Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening

Whose woods these are I think I know.
 His house is in the village though;
 He will not see me stopping here
 To watch his woods fill up with snow.

 My little horse must think it queer
 To stop without a farmhouse near
 Between the woods and frozen lake
 The darkest evening of the year.

 He gives his harness bells a shake
 To ask if there is some mistake.
 The only other sound's the sweep
 Of easy wind and downy flake.

 The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
 But I have promises to keep,
 And miles to go before I sleep,
 And miles to go before I sleep.

Robert Frost
 New Hampshire
 1923

[ironglow]

  Being both a blacksmith and a Biblical Christian, I have enjoyed this short rhyme for years..
 
 
   
     The Anvil of God's Word
 
  “Last eve I paused beside the blacksmith’s door,
And heard the anvil ring the vesper chime;
Then looking in, I saw upon the floor,
Old hammers, worn with beating years of time.

“‘How many anvils have you had,’ said I,
‘To wear and batter all these hammers so?’
‘Just one,’ said he, and then with twinkling eye,
‘The anvil wears the hammers out, you know.’

“And so, I thought, the Anvil of God’s Word
For ages skeptic blows have beat upon;
Yet, though the noise of falling blows was heard,
The Anvil is unharmed, the hammers gone.”
 
—Attributed to John Clifford

[LONGTOM]

My Grand Father use to write lines of wisdom and even had them published in a small booklet at one time.
Don't know the name of it but sure wish I could have had a copy.
These are not poems, just words to live by.
anyway here are a couple:
 
When sliding down the banister of success, don't let a splinter fly up your career.
 
If you place yourself upon a pedestal by wrong dealing & lies you may think you will go far,
but it won't take the people very long to come to know you for what you really are.
 
It's what you learn after you know it all that really counts.
 
It's not bad to not know.
What bad is when you don't know that you don't know.
 
Life is what you make of it
it can be harsh or it can be tame.
Life is also what you gain from it
and the wisdom you retain!
 
 
 
LONGTOM

[ironglow]

Keep them coming guy..like 'em all.
   Edgar Guest had some great, rustic style poems, mostly concerning home and children; here are the opening lines of his poem entitled "Home"..
 
                     HOME   
It takes a heap o' livin' in a house t' make it home,
A heap o' sun an' shadder, an' ye sometimes have t' roam
Afore ye really 'preciate the things ye lef' behind,
An' hunger fer 'em somehow, with 'em allus on yer mind
 
 
 
 
 ..Then there's "The House by the side of the road"  by Sam Walter Foss:
 
     
   THE HOUSE BY THE SIDE OF THE ROAD
 
 
Let me live in a house by the side of the road,
Where the race of men go by -
The men who are good and the men who are bad,
As good and as bad as I.
I would not sit in the scorner's seat,
Or hurl the cynic's ban;
Let me live in a house by the side of the road
And be a friend to man.