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”)
