A quick entry today, yet one keeping with the Persian connection and the aforementioned quote by one of the old masters summarizing the classical verse of Iran: “The poetry is in the rhyme.” So a list of some memorable, and at times favorite, rhymes. There are some from poetry, but I’ve tried to explore further territory. I’m also going to qualify these as I don’t offer them as the all time best. Some I merely adore for how they work in context of the greater work, theme, etc. Again, I’m selfishly setting something in motion in hopes of reading a score of favorites from others:
I leant upon a coppice gate
When Frost was spectre-grey,
And Winter's dregs made desolate
The weakening eye of day.
The tangled bine-stems scored the sky
Like strings of broken lyres,
And all mankind that haunted nigh
Had sought their household fires.
–Thomas Hardy ("The Darkling Thrush")
“Grab your dancin’ shoes/We’ll go and end them blues
‘Cause I ain’t got, nothin’ but time.”
–Hank Williams (Ain’t Got Nothin’ But Time)
“Oh mighty warrior of great fighting stock,
Might I inquire to ask, eh…What’s up doc?”
–Bugs Bunny (from parody of Wagner’s Ring Cycle)
“I got the cleanest, meanest, penis
You never seen this stroke of genius”
–Notorious BIG (One More Chance)
“Me/We”
–Mohammad Ali
“And when I feel, fair creature of an hour!
That I shall never look upon thee more,
Never have relish in the feary power
Of unreflecting love, then on the shore
Of the wide world, I stand alone and think,
Till Love and Fame to nothingness do sink.”
–John Keats (“When I Have Fears…”
“So if you are out there waitin’
I hope you show up soon
‘Cause my head needs relatin’
Not solitude.”
–Neil Young (“Lotta Love”)
“Livin’ life without fear
Puttin’ five carrots in my baby’s girl ear.”
–Notorious BIG (“Juicy”)
“Has the light gone out for you
‘Cause the light’s gone out for me.
It is the 21st century.”
–Radiohead (“Jigsaw Falling into Place”)
Since then – 'tis Centuries – and yet
Feels shorter than the Day
I first surmised the Horses' Heads
Were toward Eternity –
–Emily Dickinson
“Don't ever fix your lips like collagen
Say something where you gonna’ end up apologin’.”
–Kanye West, “Can’t Tell me Nothing”
“This heavy historical sail
Through the mustiest blue of the lake
In a really vertiginous boat
Is wholly the vapidest fake.”
–Wallace Stevens (“Sailing After Lunch”)