Poem: Satan Speaks by C.S. Lewis

Satan Speaks

I am Nature, the Mighty Mother,

I am the law: ye have none other.
I am the flower and the dewdrop fresh,
I am the lust in your itching flesh.
I am the battle’s filth and strain,
I am the widow’s empty pain.
I am the sea to smother your breath,
I am the bomb, the falling death.
I am the fact and the crushing reason
To thwart your fantasy’s new-born treason.
I am the spider making her net,
I am the beast with jaws blood-wet.
I am a wolf that follows the sun
And I will catch him ere day be done.

This is the first poem I've read by C.S. Lewis. I like it. I think it's going to take quite a bit reading poetry before I have much more than that to say.

Poem: ’T is so much joy!

 ’T is so much joy! ’T is so much joy! If I should fail, what poverty! And yet, as poor as I Have ventured all upon a throw; Have gained! Yes! Hesitated so This side the victory!

Life is but life, and death but death!

Bliss is but bliss, and breath but breath! And if, indeed, I fail, At least to know the worst is sweet. Defeat means nothing but defeat, No drearier can prevail!

And if I gain, — oh, gun at sea, Oh, bells that in the steeples be, At first repeat it slow! For heaven is a different thing Conjectured, and waked sudden in,

And might o’erwhelm me so! 

Dickinson, Emily. Collected Poems (AmazonClassics Edition) (pg. 6). Kindle Edition.

So far, my least liked poem of hers. I'm just not getting anything from it.

Poem: Soul, wilt thou toss again?

 Soul, wilt thou toss again? 

By just such a hazard 

Hundreds have lost, indeed, 

But tens have won an all. 

Angels’ breathless ballot 

Lingers to record thee; 

Imps in eager caucus 

Raffle for my soul.

Dickinson, Emily. Collected Poems (AmazonClassics Edition) (pg. 6). Kindle Edition.

Thoughts:

She has a way with words. But the odds seem a bit long.

Poem: Our share of night to bear

 Our share of night to bear, Our share of morning, 

Our blank in bliss to fill, Our blank in scorning. 

Here a star, and there a star, Some lose their way. 

Here a mist, and there a mist, Afterwards — day!

Dickinson, Emily. Collected Poems (AmazonClassics Edition) (pp. 5-6). Kindle Edition. 

Thoughts:

So far, I have to say I enjoy Emily's poems, but I can't say I really understand them. On a nonverbal level there's some understanding, but not anything I can really put into words.

Poem: Success is counted sweetest

 Success is counted sweetest 

By those who ne’er succeed. 

To comprehend a nectar 

Requires sorest need. 

Not one of all the purple host 

Who took the flag to-day 

Can tell the definition, 

So clear, of victory, 

As he, defeated, dying, 

On whose forbidden ear 

The distant strains of triumph 

Break, agonized and clear!

This is from the Collected Poems of Emily Dickinson available through Amazon Kindle.

I like it, but not as much as the last one of hers I read. This may be true, but I'd still rather be the one that suceeds.

Poem: This is my letter to the world that never wrote to me

 "This is my letter to the world, That never wrote to me, — The simple news that Nature told, With tender majesty. Her message is committed To hands I cannot see; For love of her, sweet countrymen, Judge tenderly of me!"

This is from the Collected Poems of Emily Dickinson available through Amazon Kindle.

I haven't read a lot of poetry, so I am not practiced in picking up nuances in it. So I don't have a lot to say about it, accept reading it feels...lonely. But nonetheless I do like it.