Monday, April 14, 2008

I have had a great deal of luck using the Dorothy Parker method of taking a line or two of poetry I like and beginning a poem with it myself. Here are some quotes that have served me well:

Is there anybody going to listen to my story?

-John Lennon, "Girl"

But O, the thorns we stand upon!

-Shakespeare as Florizel, The Winter's Tale

All goes onward and outward, nothing collapses,
And to die is different from what any one supposed, and luckier.

- Walt Whitman, "Leaves of Grass"

They sicken of the calm, who knew the storm.

- Dorothy Parker, "Fair Weather"

Comment with your favorite quotes; I would love to hear and maybe use them.

2 comments:

stu said...

Three single lines for you then. They're not necessarily my absolute favourites, but they might work as starting points. I found that looking through Sophie Hannah's work for a good line raised an interesting point. She writes memorable poems, but that doesn't always mean quotable individual lines.

'We come between him and the hope of his heart' (WB Yeats, The hosting of the Sidhe)

'To see the World in a Grain of Sand' (Blake, Augeries of Innocence)

'My minimum is very bare indeed' (Sophie Hannah, Neither Home Nor Dry)

April said...

Thanks Stu!