#the poems i gave you

[mournfulroses]

Anne Sexton, from The Complete Poems of Anne Sexton; “The Poems I Gave You,”

[demigod-of-the-agni]

kurunthokai, 168 — “what the hero said to his heart”

[her-biness]

Witnessing her 💙

[alackofghosts]

look how many small / but so sweet

[cerise-on-top]

hi<3 if you can, can you do valeria and laswell with a gothic s/o? like someone who likes darker/morbid things and things like that! love your blog by the way! it’s definitely my favorite blog to come look at after a long ass day <333

Hey there! Sorry, but I couldn't really find too much on what counts as dark and morbid in the goth scene, so I wrote more general HCs, I hope that's alright still ^^;

Valeria and Laswell with a Gothic!S/O

Valeria: She’d most definitely be intrigued, but not too much. In all honesty, she doesn’t know too much about the subculture, she’s never really met a goth who was clearly one. However, if it makes you happy, that’s all that matters to her. While she won’t really know too many bands, or any at all, she’d be more than happy to listen to a few if you want her to. Yes, she won’t always have the time, but when she isn’t too busy she could put on some songs by Joy Division or The Cure, she really doesn’t mind. She can vibe to that sort of music, even if it isn’t her favorite. You’re more than welcome to discuss the literature with her, though. She’s probably never read a single gothic literature book, but she can buy you some. Anything from poetry to a regular novel, it’s quite alright. While she won’t be the best person to go to when it comes to discussing those, she’ll support you either way. However, something she could definitely enjoy would be going clothes shopping with you. The fashion is kind of nice, she has to admit, so she’d be more than happy to buy you whatever garments you desire. Will go out of her way to find something you might like as well. I can’t see her being too much into the history of goth culture, though. It’s nice that you are a goth, if you want to tell her about it, then you can and she’ll listen to you, but she likely doesn’t have the time to research everything by herself. Tell her about its roots and she can definitely appreciate you going against what’s mainstream and how it all came to be. She’s a very defiant and rebellious woman herself, so she definitely gets it.

Laswell: She knows so many people, I wouldn’t be surprised if she has worked with goths before. And even if she hasn’t directly, she’s likely seen quite a few walking around the city. She usually grows worried for them in summer since their attire is black, which makes it quite hot. However, she’d be very intrigued by you and your subculture. It’s something very near and dear to you, so she would put in the effort to learn about your history. Will give some classic bands a listen as well. She just really wants to have something to talk about with you. Besides, she gets to learn more about you. While she may not be the biggest fan of your interest in death, considering she’s surrounded by it more often than not, she’d be more than happy to indulge anything else it has to offer. Laswell spent a good chunk of life left alone with her thoughts, so she definitely knows a thing or two about melancholy, the state of the world and introspection. Maybe not in the same way you do, but she can definitely keep up in a conversation. She’s likely also unintentionally read some of the more popular gothic novels out there and liked them, so she’d make for a good discussion partner as well. While she doesn’t particularly understand the need to make your face completely white, she doesn’t mind. In fact, she thinks it looks quite cool, even if it’s not for her. However, the fashion in and of itself looks really good to her. Again, she wouldn’t want to wear it, but something about Victorian and Edwardian fashion has a certain something to it that she can’t quite place. Like Valeria, she’ll definitely buy you things she thinks you might like. Anything from a suit or a corset to a book about poetry. Beware, though, she will read the books before you can.

[sephospaganplace]

Stop trying to read the Iliad and the Odyssey.

You're struggling to understand them, to focus on them, because you're going about it all wrong.

They're not books . They're epic poems.

They're oraccular tales. They're meant to be told. They're meant to be performed. They always were. Stop trying to read them.

Listen to the audiobooks instead. Find them on your local library app, listen to them while you're walking, find the cds at your local library, listen to them while you're driving, download them, shove them on your phone and listen to them in the night, staring up at the stars.

They're meant to be heard, to be experienced, not read.

[sysig]

Hey, hey! RnR not requested! (Patreon)

[nanaba]

We draw closer. In tears, in smiles, I don’t know. Just one step more and we’ll listen to your shell together, to the roar of a thousand orchestras, to the roar of our wedding march.

Dream by Wisława Szymborska, trans. Clare Cavanagh

[coffeeandcalligraphy]

is it so much to ask that I want to write the most profound thing I’ve ever written in my entire life without putting any effort into it anyway here’s this line from hallowed bodies:

He shaved Saturday mornings and gave himself to the Lord the next day and what an observation is that? Men devote themselves to men and call it religion.

[decarabiandivorce]

Doodle for the adoption au snippet bc i CANNOT stop thinking about it

Giving you the biggest hug for this! This makes me smile so much <3<3<3

Yeah yeah yeah Deca is :) at all this. He has a son bot lad hes going to treat like a little doll. The outside world was so mean to this little guy... LOVE his expression in this. Love both their expressions <3 also love how your deca design is so floffy.

Meanwhile the Bard is just... tired. I've been thinking about ways for him to exhaust himself in fighting/yelling and oh my god your doodle of him makes him look so deflated. The floof and love and joy in his hair is gone 😔 braidless and thus stripped of his identity. Given a purpose he didn't want...

[girldewar]

thinkin about the deweys . as always

[mellblogss]

When is it the right time to give up on them?

[fictionadventurer]

NaPoWriMo #19: A poem recounting a historical event

To a Man Commenting Upon Lincoln's Homely Features

Abraham Lincoln knew quite well He had never been beauty-graced. When Douglas met him in debate And told him he was quite two-faced, Old Lincoln made a quick reply With his usual sense of fun: "If I'd another face to wear, Do you think I would wear this one?"

[smiff-spike]

i tell my sister, Smiff-Spike Danger

[waitingforthesunrise]

I got a gf today and I'm feeling like I'm about to explode...

Love, I think we're stories

or maybe songs. I think we've crossed paths

in symphonies and similes.

and oh, the fire in my chest...

know I'd bleed for you. know

I'd cross the mountains and lie, with my back to the earth.

all the stars would have your name

and they would be honored by the likeness.

I think

the page is new and the melody beginning, dearest

and the only thing sweeter than the future is your smile.

I've dreamed no grander dream than you.

[lesamis]

Do you have any poems or POC poets you'd recommend that aren't Capital R romantic but very well could be ?

hi anon! sorry for a much longer and less helpful answer than you were likely hoping for: i think this is a pretty difficult question.

if we tried to list all the reasons we think of the romantics as a Movement, as a Moment of Literary History, we might just end up with a lot of cultural markers that are inseperable from, well, from them being white, and often english, and often male individuals who lived in the metropole of the world's most rapidly expanding empire. they wrote about liberty and about the sublime they saw in a gust of wind and about the darker depths of the human soul. i think they did this from a place of genuine curiosity and emotion, but also from a very deep-seated (and, i think, often subliminal) belief in their own superiority - as white men; as englishmen; as men. so it wouldn't be an entirely neutral thing for me to sort poets of colour into this tradition in an uncomplicated way, because it skirts close to erasing the facets of white supremacy that shaped romanticism as we think of it now. but they're important to acknowledge: romantic poetry would not be romantic poetry if it didn't frame the british countryside as the most civilized space in the world, or didn't argue in deeply paternalistic and racist terms for the abolition of slavery.

none of this is to say that there were no writers of colour then (of course there were!) or that there are no writers of colour now who consider romantic poetry an important reference for their own work (of course there are!). of the latter category there are probably an endless number, because british romantic poetry is so overblown in syllabi across the world thanks to colonialism. it's the first kind of poetry in english many of us run into. its influence gets everywhere, which makes it even harder to distill any recommendations for you because it's hard to say where a, like, standard Education Conducted In English ends and a Romantic Influence begins.

sorry for all of the above, anon, this question honestly disjointed me a bit. i'm sorry the answer is such a cop-out. the most recent poem by a poet of colour that made me think of the romantics is Morning Prayer With Rat King by kaveh akbar. it's incredible. i hope you'll like it a lot. whether there's actually romanticism in it or not is for smarter people than me to figure out.