Poem trouble.....(help me)?

Question

i have a recitation competition on the 11 of august......i have been trying to get selected for the past three years.

this is my last chance....

i would apprieciate it if you could give me any Inspirational,Touching,Motivational poems, etc, etc u get the picture!

i need a poem which the judges and the audience wont forget easily.

a poem which will make you think...........

thanks a lot for your help.

Answer 1

try gitanjali of Rabindra nath tagore a noble prize winner poet

ref-http://www.intratext.com/X/ENG0230.htm

Answer 2

I will suggest to you two passages :

1) one is from the drama of Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare :

Caesar is going to the capitol because senators have called him. His wife Calphurnia has had a dream where she sees Caesar being killed. So she does not want Gaius to go. Even the Nature is in  a sanguine andbloody mood and she cites that as an ill-omen and she says :

Calphurnia - When beggars die there are no comets seen,

               The heavens themselves blaze-forth the death of princes.

Caesar - Cowards die many times before their death,

          The valiant never taste of death but once.

Caesar goes and is assassinated .This whole passage may be taken and read after due paractice.

2)    However I would suggest for a change you read another passage of a similar nature by  a poet whom  Rabindranath Tagore has praised a lot . He was educated at Cambridge. Whole of Sri Aurobindo's  poetry is for a future generation to come.

He has written an epic poem by the name of Ilion in quantitative classical Hexameter like Homer did. No English poet before him has succeeded in composing English poems in this dactylic flow  --  --   U. This flow gives us the rhythm of horses running on  a battlefield.

Achilles is to go for his battle, but here his slave-girl and lover Briseis has had a dream that he is being slain . We will take up both Briseis and Achilles ' poetic speeches :

"Tarry awhile, Achilles; not yet have the war-horns clamoured.

Nor have the scouts streamed yet from Xanthus fierily running.

Lose a moment for her who has only thee under heaven.

Nay, had war sounded, thou yet wouldst squander that moment, Achilles,

Hearkening a woman's fears and the voice of a dream in the midnight.

Art thou not gentle, even as terrible, lion of Hellas ?

Others have whispered the deeds of thy wrath; we have heard, but not seen it;

Marvelling much at their pallor and awe we have listened and wondered.

Never with thrall or slave-girl or captive saw I thee angered,

Hero, nor any humble heart ever trembled to near thee.

Pardoning rather our many faults and our failures in service

Lightly thou layest thy yoke on us, kind as the clasp of a lover

Sparing the weak as thou breakest the mighty, O godlike Achilles.

Only thy equals have felt all the dread of the death-god Within thee;  

We have presumed and played with the strength at which nations have trembled.

Lo, thou hast leaned thy mane to the clutch of the boys and the maidens."

But to Briseis white-armed made answer smiling Achilles:

"Something surely, thou needst, for thou flatterest long, O. Briseis.

Tell me, O woman, thy fear or thy dream that my touch may dispel it,

White-armed net of bliss slipped down from the gold Aphrodite."

And to Achilles answered the captive white Briseis:

"Long have they vexed my soul in the tents of the Greeks, O Achilles,

Telling of Thetis thy mother who bore thee in caves of the Ocean

.........................................

Quivering into thy heel. I awoke and found myself trembling,

Held thee safe in my arms, yet hardly believed that thou livest.

Lo, in the night came this dream; on the morn thou arisest for battle."

But to Briseis white-armed made answer the golden Achilles:

"This was a dream indeed, O princess, daughter of Brises!

Will it restrain Achilles from fight, the lion from preying?

Come, thou hast heard of my prowess and knowest what man is Achilles.

Deemst thou so near my end? "

.........................................

Passionate, vexed Briseis, smiting his arm with her fingers,

Yet with a smile half-pleased made answer to mighty Achilles:

"Thinkst thou I fear thee at all? I am brave and will chide thee and threaten.

See that thou recklessly throw not, Achilles, thy life into battle

Hurting this body, my world, nor venture sole midst thy foemen,

Leaving thy shielders behind as oft thou art wont in thy war-rage

.........................................

Dost thou not know all the terrible void and cold desolation

Once again my life must become if I lose thee, Achilles?

Twice then thus wilt thou smite me, O hero, a desolate woman?

I will not stay behind on an earth that is empty and kingless.

Into the grave I will leap, through the fire I will burn, I will follow

Down into Hades' depths or wherever thy footsteps go clanging,

Hunting thee always, - didst thou not seize me here for thy pleasure? -

But to Briseis answered the hero, mighty Pelides,

Holding her delicate hands like gathered flowers in his bosom,

Pressing her passionate mouth like a rose that trembles with beauty:

"There then follow me even as I would have drawn thee, O woman,

Voice that chimes with my soul and hands that are eager for service,

Beautiful spoil beloved of my foemen, perfect Briseis.

But for the dreams that come to us mortals sleeping or waking,

Shadows are these from our souls and who shall discern what they figure?

.........................................

Shapeless the gyre of the sun? For dream or for oracle adverse

Why should man swerve from the path of his feet? The gods have invented

Only one way for a man through the world, O my slave-girl Briseis,

Valiant to be and noble and truthful and just to the humble.

Only one way for a woman, to love and serve and be faithful.

This observe, thy task in thy destiny noble or fallen;

Time and result are the gods'; with these things be not thou troubled."

So he spoke and kissed her lips and released her and parted.

Out from the tent he strode and into his chariot leaping

Seized the reins and shouted his cry and drove with a far-borne

Sound of wheels mid the clamour of hooves and neigh of the war-steeds

Swift through the line of the tents and forth from the heart the leaguer.

Over the causeway Troyward thundered the wheels of Achilles.

             ---------   Sri Aurobindo .