When I was little I used to love reading poetry, and I've just realised how little I now read. So I decided that this month I am going to read a new poem every day.
The problem is, where do I start?! There is so much poetry out there and yet it's such a personal and difficult genre to really get to grips with. Of course I know of all the "greats", the ones you learnt at school, such as Walt Whitman, John Keats, Lord Byron, Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sasson etc. But I wanted something completely new. Not necessarily modern. Just new.
So I popped over to Waterstones during a lunch break (the massive one in Piccadilly) and was overwhelmed by the number of poetry books and underwhelmed by the lack of advice of where a poetry novice should start. Therefore, thanks to a trusty bit of Googling, I discovered some classic, yet to me, unknown, poets. One of whom was Conrad Aiken and his collection, Selected Poems, and I have fallen in love. His poems are immensely musical and are about identity and psychoanalysis, subjects I have always been interested in myself - it's a common subject in my photography.
So for today's poem I give you All Lovely Things by Conrad Aiken. Although slightly morbid, I hope you enjoy it's beautiful lyricism as much as I do.
All lovely things will have an ending,
All lovely things will fade and die,
And youth, that's now so bravely spending,
Will beg a penny by and by.
Fine ladies soon are all forgotten,
And goldenrod is dust when dead,
The sweetest flesh and flowers are rotten
And cobwebs tent the brightest head.
Come back, true love! Sweet youth, return!--
But time goes on, and will, unheeding,
Though hands will reach, and eyes will yearn,
And the wild days set true hearts bleeding.
Come back, true love! Sweet youth, remain!--
But goldenrod and daisies wither,
And over them blows autumn rain,
They pass, they pass, and know not whither.
P.S. I'll keep you all updated on my poetry quest, but in the meantime any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
