Bonus:
Official Poem of Night Elf Mohawks!
Summary: Diana comes out when the sun is down.
Commentary: Other than being a great choice for your Night Elf WoW character...
7 feet, 6 lines, ABABCC
It's fine? I wonder what the context within the larger play is. Otherwise, I think this is an interesting poem if you're into the theme, pretty skippable if not.
Bonus:
Summary:
Commentary: OH MY GOD THIS DIDN'T POST WHY IS EVERYTHING SO ETTERIBLE
P: “Poets, like Disputants…” by John Dryden (from All for Love, 1677)
Bonus:
No one would call these poets fops.
Summary: Poets get mad if you don't like their poems. Authors think they're all hat and no cattle.
Commentary: AA... rhyme scheme. 10 feet per line.
Since the goal this month is for me (a prose writer) to better appreciate poetry, this one seemed appropriate. It's not really doing much for me. Functional, but nothing really jumps out. I like: "Fop, Coxcomb, Fool, are thunder’d through the Pit," but nothing here is blowing me away with imagery, or profundity, or anything.
“O Captain! My Captain!” By Walt Whitman (1865)
Bonus:
Summary: Abe Lincoln died.
Commentary: This was in the original 15MAD set two years ago, but I think it was sandwiched with a few others. For today, just the famous poem by itself.
Syllable count is all over the place, but there is a fixed rhyme scheme: AABBCDEC
I think the thing that stands out about this poem the most is the historical context. It's cool to have this first hand artistic account of a famous historical event. I don't want to say there aren't any about more modern events like 9/11, the fall of the Berlin Wall, etc., but this is certainly the most famous. I'd argue they're valuable as a window into how people felt at/about the time.
Second, the face that there was a famous poet who cared enough about the president to write a popular poem about his death. No one would bother for Biden. Trump might get some, but they'll probably fade. Maybe Obama could've gotten one. Probably not Bush.
4/5, I hate slant rhymes.
Summary: Sometimes it's nice to just sit in your room.
Commentary:
1. This is a sonnet.
2. It has the word "sonnet" in it!
"Within the Sonnet’s scanty plot of ground;"
3. I agree that it's nice to have a small room to sit in. I've told my wife I would live in our shed if I could. I remember my dorm/first apartments, and it was kind of nice that all of "your" space was one room. Made it easier to keep things organized.
M: “My peace is gone/ My heart is heavy” from Goethe’s Faust, translated by Richard Stokes (2005)
Got hacked today. Will finish later.
L: “Let us begin and carry up this corpse,” (A Grammarian’s Funeral) by Robert Browning (1855)
A to Z 2026: "Katherina say..." from Goethe's Faust (1790)
Bonus:
Summary: The devil to sing a sexy song to help the guy whose soul he bought get laid.
Commentary: Another short one, let's just have the whole thing:
Kathrina say,
Why lingering stay
At dawn of day
Before your lover's door?
Maiden, beware,
Nor enter there,
Lest forth you fare,
A maiden never more.
Maiden take heed!
Reck well my rede!
Is't done, the deed?
Good night, you poor, poor thing!
The spoiler's lies, His arts despise,
Nor yield your prize,
Without the marriage ring!
(The previous line indicates that this is Mephistopheles singing while he plays guitar. I fucking love Faust.)
Bonus:
Summary: Hey, remember these?
Commentary:
118-120: Just be chill with people you meet.
119: Apologize, don't make excuses. (Someday, people will learn all the stuff in these 400+year old books. Until then, we'll recycle the same 12 things for self help books.)
128: Don't waste your time talking to people if you don't have a reason.
131: "If thou thinkest twice, before thou speakest once, thou wilt speak twice the better for it." We got a regular Ben Franklin over here.
142: Even if you're right, you just make your cause look bad if you're a hot head.
145: Don't believe, or spread, rumors.
“Jamie, come try me” by Robert Burns (1791?)
Bonus:
Summary: COME AT ME, BRO! (But with kisses.)
Commentary: Uhoh, drunkish blogging. This is a fun one. And very readable for Burns.
6/5 feet per line. Most of them rhyme we "E" except the loves.
So much BURNS! The other options were mostly Jehova...
3/5
“I put my hat…” by Samuel Johnson
Bonus:
Summary: He puts on a hat.
Commentary: It's so short, I'll just paste the whole thing in:
I put my hat upon my head
And walked into the Strand,
And there I met another man
Whose hat was in his hand.
Bonus:
Summary: I was feeling indecisive and so we're doing three poems today.
Commentary:
1. "Charge of the Light Brigade" by Alfred Tennyson (1854)
Speaking of famous historical things...
There is, apparently, not a Sabaton song for this yet, which is surprising.
6ish (bounces with 5 and 7, unless we're doing some creative slurring) feet per line. Inconsistent rhyme scheme (usually 2 or 3 in the middle of a stanza).
Always go half a league more. Half is a good amount. A whole league is too much, but just a half a step further than people expect is usually manageable, practical, and impressive.
Tonight's "classics phrase" is: "Theirs not to reason why,/Theirs but to do and die."
4/5 pretty good poem.
2. "Ode on Solitude" by Alexander Pope (~1700)
8 feet, except the final line of each stanza (4). ABAB (with some aggressive slanting.
My only real comment on this one (pretty short) is how it's interesting that this dream is still widespread over 300 years later (and had been for over 1000 years before that). Man just wants a little farm and to farm and study. 3/5
3. "Hard Nuts" by John Bunyan (1678)
A poem about reading hard stuff! That's what this blog is about! 11 feet, AAAA scheme.
It's fine. I'd skip it if it wasn't thematic. 2/5
A to Z 2026: “Get up, get up for shame” by Robert Herrick (~1616)
Bonus:
Summary: MOVE YOUR BUTT!
Commentary:
Not quite May yet, but we're about two weeks into spring. Always good to have a reminder to get up and do something. (That was a large percentage of the choices. "Gather ye rosebuds..." was also an option.)
10 feet, AABBCCDDEEFFGG. I think that's a sonnet?
I like the first verse the best. Some nice imagery or whatever, but the first one does well enough for the imagery and also gets the message across. "Above an hour since, yet you not drest;/Nay! not so much as out of bed?" Get off your phone and do stuff! 4/5
Bonus:
Summary: Since days gone by...
Commentary: No meter scheme that I see, B always rhymes with Syne.
One of the things I've most enjoyed with this blog is finding the origins of common sayings, references, etc. Next year you know what's up for new years. (Or when you cry during It's a Wonderful Life.)
It's a fun little ditty. Not really a lot to say about it. 3/5
"Ethereal minstrel! pilgrim of the sky!" (To the Skylark) by William Wordsworth (~1800)
Bonus:
Summary: Do birds like the ground, or not? They sure are pretty.
Content:
10 feet, ABABCC. (It's a sestain?)
I guess it's fine? Verse one kind of raises a question, but verse two opens with the (seemingly ever popular) "whatever bird vs the nightingale" theme that seems to pop up a lot. 2/5
Bonus:
What shall I, frail man, be pleading?Who for me be interceding,When the just are mercy needing?
Quid sum miser tunc dicturus?
Quem patronum rogaturus,
Cum vix iustus sit securus?
There are plenty of first person hymns and salvation/judgement ones ("Amazing Grace" is both), but none with this level of desperation. 5/5 if you do the Verdi, other scores depending on accompaniment, or lack there of.
"Cheer up, my mates, the wind does fairly blow"
Bonus:
Summary: Drinking in a historically significant chair.
Commentary:
It's possible I'm just changing the theme to drinking songs...
I like the opening where he explains where the poem would be said. It's like when someone writes POV: You're... today.
Mostly rhyming AABB... etc. The number of lines per stanza is inconsistent. Mostly 10 foot lines. I think it'd benefit from a refrain.
I'm just impressed someone managed a page and a half all about a chair. 3/5
Bonus:
Bonus:
Summary: I may be a bad guy, but at least I'm not oppressing all of society.
Commentary: (Long ramble on organization at the bottom.)
Returning readers from two years ago may remember my unending hatred of Robert Burns (Eliot's favorite, or at least most featured, poet). The irony of picking one of his poems to start the month is vaguely amusing.
Someone could make a play at turning this into an 18th century villain song, I think. "Sure, I murdered and stole more than anyone else... EXCEPT THE REAL VILLAIN, THE KING!" We'll have Simon Templeman do it. Or Tim Curry.
The lines are mostly (depending on how you over/under pronounce certain parts) 10 syllables. You can read it in Iambic Pentameter (unstressed-STRESSED x5) I guess, but it doesn't seem to flow that well for me. I don't think there's any particular rhyme scheme.
There's not a ton of flowery poetic language here. I don't think that children is necessarily literal in, "I view the helpless children of distress," but invoking children is effective.
Similarly, "Ev'n you, ye hapless crew! I pity you;/Ye, whom the seeming good think sin to pity" is more general than a crew of sailors, but it gives some imagery.
The social commentary is pretty straight forward, God/society harms more people than even the worst individual villain. It's a fair message, and communicated well enough.
All in all: Fun, readable, and reasonable social commentary. 4/5 on the poem scale (much less judgy than the traditional classics scale.
Plan for this run is fairly simple:
1. Grab the first line index and pick a poem.
2. Read it, and try not to be a hater.
3. Attempt to do poetry analysis both technically (meter and rhyme and stuff) and artistically (imagery, theme, etc.)
4. Mini Review
One thing that's nice about this round is I can find most of the poems just by searching the titles online. Normally, I have to cross reference different PDFs and stuff.
I think I'm going to focus on one poem a day, so that I actually have to look at/think about it, rather than speed running 3 or 4 like I normally would for short pieces.
I'm pleased by the relatively loose definition of "poem" the index uses, including things like poetic monologues in the plays.
I'm not checking authors or anything before I grab the poems, so we'll have to see if there are any interesting trends.
A to Z 2026 Poetry Q: “Queen and Huntress Chaste and Fair” (From Cynthia's Revels by Ben Johnson, 1600) Bonus: Official Poem of Night ...
