As some of you know, I teach high school English. I require the students to memorize and recite one poem (or excerpt from a play/novel/speech) a month. So if you know of any poems that are not considered British or American (yes, I teach World Literature), then please let me know. I have a few but need some more. So far, there is:
Excerpt from The Odyssey
St. Augustine's "O Beauty, Ever Ancient, Ever New"
Petrarch
Dante
Leopardi
and an excerpt from the windmill scene from Don Quixote.
I have some others but am not sure if I want to use them: opening lines of Aeneid, Paz (which is his best or most appropriate for high school students? and the same for Verlaine, Rilke, Baudelaire, Adonis, Gabriela Mistral, Milosz), St. John of the Cross, Pericles' Funeral Oration, and something (which?) from Cicero.
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Milosz's "A Song on the End of the World"
You need some Rabindranath Tagore in there. And I've got a few others. Ironically, some from our World Lit course in the SII with McDevitt. Will send you more.
Rabindranath Tagore? Which poem(s) do you suggest?
What other poets?
How about An die Freude (the Ode to Joy) by Schiller, or at least a stanza or two? Once your young charges have learned it, you could surprise and delight them by playing a recording of the last movement of Beethoven's Ninth and invite them to sing along with one of the best known tunes in the world.
Bovina Bloviator,
Thanks. I will add it to the list.
Just about anything by Tagore is great. He's very lyrical, very beautiful, tugs at the heart and the memory. He writes in English but it feels completely different. I think he's an official poet of India.
One of my old favorites of his is about babies, but I don't think that kids would want to memorize that. :-) He writes on politics, religion, culture and just about anything else important.
can you find that poem by Juliusz Slowacki in which he prophesied of a Slavic Pope? "During Unrest the Lord will strike"? I've never been able to find it.
"The Slavic Pope" by Juliusz Slowacki
Amid discord God strikes
At a bell immense,
For the Slavic Pope,
Open is the Throne.
This Pope will not--Italian-like--take fright
At saber-thrust
But brave as God Himself stand and give fight.
For him, the world is dust ...
Love he dispenses as great powers today
Distribute arms.
With sacramental power, his sole array,
The world he charms.
So behold, here comes the Slavic Pope,
A brother of the people.
Or
Amid the discord God strikes
At a bell immense,
For a Slavic Pope.
He opened the throne of Peter at last.
Beloved, a Slavic Pope is coming,
A brother of the people.
And if anyone can translate it, here it is:
Pośród niesnaków - Pan Bóg uderza
W ogromny dzwon ,
Dla Słowiańskiego oto Papieża
Otwarty tron.
Ten przed mieczami tak nie uciecze
Jako ten Włoch,
On śmiało jak Bóg pójdzie na miecze;
Świat mu - to proch.
Twarz jego, słońcem rozpromieniona ,
Lampą dla sług,
Za nim rosnące pojdą plemiona
W światło - gdzie Bóg.
Na jego pacierz i rozkazanie
Nie tylko lud -
Jeśli rozkaże - to słońce stanie,
Bo moc - to cud.
On się już zbliża - rozdawca nowy
Globowych sił,
Cofnie się w żtłach pod jego słowy
Krew naszych żył;
W sercach się zacznie światłości Bożej
Strumianny ruch,
Co myśl pomyśli przezeń ,to stworzy,
Bo moc - to duch.
A trzebaż mocy, byśmy ten Pański
Dzwignęli świat...
Więc o to idzie - Papierz Słowiański ,
Ludowy brat...
Oto już leje balsamy świata
Do naszych łon ,
Hufiec aniołów - kwiatem umiata
Dla niego tron.
On rozda miłość, jak dziś mocarze
Rozdają broń ,
Sakramentalną moc on pokaże,
Świat wziąwszy w dłoń.
Gołąb nu słowa - słowem wyleci,
Poniesie wieść,
Nowinę słodką , że Duch już świeci
I ma swą cześć;
Niebo się nad nim - pięknie otworzy
Z obojgu stron ,
Bo on na tronie stanął i twirzy
I świat - i tron.
On przez narody uczyni bratne,
Wydawszy głos,
Że duchy pójdą w cele ostatnie
Przez ofiar stos.
Moc mu pomoże sakramentalna
Narodów stu,
Że praca duchów - będzie widzialna
Przed trumną tu.
Wszelką z ran świata wyrzuci zgniłość,
Robactwo - gad ,
Zdrowie przyniesie - rozpali miłość
I zbawi świat.
Wnętrza kościołów on powymiata ,
Oczyści sień ,
Boga pokaże w twórczości świata ,
Jasno jak dzień.
Ok, I finally found it. The good Dominican Nuns of Summit, New Jersey have provided this translation:
Amid discord the Lord God strikes
An immense bell,
Behold, for a Slavic pope
He opens a throne.
This one does not flee before swords
Like that Italian.
He is daring, like God, he goes to the sword:
The world to him is powder!
His face is radiant with the Word,
A lamp for the servant,
Because of him the advancing race goes
Into the light, where God is.
At his prayers and commands
Not only men—
If he commands, the sun stops,
For power—this is a wonder!
Now he draws near—the new dispenser
Of vigor to the globe:
The blood of our veins goes back into our veins
Under his word;
In our hearts the movement begins of floods
Of divine light,
What thought thinks through him, this is created,
For power—this is Spirit.
And power is needed, that we may raise
This lordly world:
Thus here comes a Slavic pope,
A brother of the people;–
Behold, he already pours the world's balm
On our breasts
And the angel-choir sweeps flowers
Toward his throne.
He distributes love, as lords today
Distributes arms.
He displays sacramental power,
The world held in his palm;
To him a dove wings words in hymns,
Bears a report,
Sweet news, that now the Spirit shines
And has His honor;
Above him the beautiful sky is opened
From either side,
For his is grounded in the world and thus are renewed
Both world and throne.
Across nations he acts as brother,
The voice sent forth,
That spirits come to their final end
Through mounds of sacrifices;
Sacramental power avails him for the care
Of the nations,
Power which will be seen through the Spirit
Before the coffin here.
In Spirit thus you soon perceive
A phantom, then a face:
From the world's wound he casts out all corruption,
Vermin, reptiles.
He brings health, enkindles love
And saves the world;
He sweeps out the interior of the Churches,
Clears out the entrance,
He shows forth God in the world of creativity,
Bright as day.
Juliusz Slowacki
(1809 - 1849)
Translation: Copyright by The Dominican Nuns of Summit, New Jersey, 1980
Rilke, Duino Elegies.
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