To the Star of Ithaka I love

To the Star of Ithaka I love

I dreamed a dream in time gone by,
When hope was high and life worth living,
I dreamed that love would never die,
I dreamed that God would be forgiving.

Nothing in this world is single,
All things by a law divine,
In one spirit meet and mingle,
Why not I with thine?

If all hope should fade away-
The wonder ebb in scars of light,
Shall once free love still flourish,
In the words wistful poets write?

For the soul’s need to mingle,
Is a potent, yet subtle notion,
Shifting us as the salty sea’s winds
Move ships across the open ocean.

For Love, thou art Ithaka’s bright star,
A fragile beauty cast in summer’s light,
To lead me from this restless ocean,
To thine embrace and my respite.

Yet like the river who must yield its flow,
And stay its course for winter’s frost,
So too must I wait, yet gaze for my star,
For without your light, I am lost.

Here I found innocence in a child’s note
And like a candle, I set it aglow,
Laid it rest upon the frozen waters,
To shine, yet never further go.

Waiting now, I yet believe in us,
The zeal two spirits hold,
A love this wistful poet lost,
Could never have foretold.

Oh, he whispers to them as they fall,
In words as silent as the sky,
A prayer for poets and lost lovers-
An elegy to celestials as they die.

PaperMoon wrote:To the Star of Ithaka I love

#BF0000 ">I dreamed a dream in time gone by,
When hope was high and life worth living,
I dreamed that love would never die,
I dreamed that God would be forgiving.

Nothing in this world is single,
All things by a law divine,
In one spirit meet and mingle,
Why not I with thine?

If all hope should fade away-
The wonder ebb in scars of light,
Shall once free love still flourish,
In the words wistful poets write?

For the soul’s need to mingle,
Is a potent, yet subtle notion,
Shifting us as the salty sea’s winds
Move ships across the open ocean.

For Love, thou art Ithaka’s bright star,
A fragile beauty cast in summer’s light,
To lead me from this restless ocean,
To thine embrace and my respite.

Yet like the river who must yield its flow,
And stay its course for winter’s frost,
So too must I wait, yet gaze for my star,
For without your light, I am lost.

Here I found innocence in a child’s note
And like a candle, I set it aglow,
Laid it rest upon the frozen waters,
To shine, yet never further go.

Waiting now, I yet believe in us,
The zeal two spirits hold,
A love this wistful poet lost,
Could never have foretold.

Oh, he whispers to them as they fall,
In words as silent as the sky,
A prayer for poets and lost lovers-
An elegy to celestials as they die.

Okay, first, what I highlighed in red.... this is quite reminiscent of "I Dreamed a Dream" from Les Miserables. Have you heard of that play? In fact, now that I look it up, here are the words from the second stanza of the lyrics.... this is a copy and paste... "I dreamed a dream in time gone by
When hope was high
And life worth living
I dreamed that love would never die
I dreamed that God would be forgiving"

Paper Moon, these are not your own creation. These were written by someone else. Now if you were following their pattern, that is okay, but to put them in your poem as your own work is not OK at all. You need to change this. It's called plagarism.

In fact, there is a piece in "writing gooder" about plagarism. I strongly suggest you should read it. go to "blogs" and click on "writing gooder" on the drop down.

This isn't your work. This was written by someone else.

If it inspired you, that's great, but passing it off as your own is plain wrong.

Change it.

Vox Nihili,

Don't speak down to me, lecturing on the intricacies of plagiarism. Any schoolchild is well aware of what plagiarism is. Apparently though, not all are familiar with what an epigraph is. Look it up:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epigraph_(literature)

T.S. Elliot is famous for it, Donne uses it as reference. I've simply done the same, keeping the referenced work italicized and set at the beginning, as an epigraph should be.

The only crime here is an ignorant middle schooler's self-rightous review.

Change yourself. Hasty accusations lead nowhere.

Paper

That was obviously the use of an epigraph you dumb s***. Don't talk down to people if you don't know what you're talking about.

Hey, cool it guys!

Anyway, as far as your poem... I was a bit confused by the reference of "Ithaka." To me, your epigraph seemed out of place and I kind of hated it. I would have rather you have borrowed from the Odyssey epic itself, as that seems more relevant to your poem than the selection you selected from Les Miserables. That is to say, I loved your imagery of being lost, of the salty air, of true love, and of poetry, but to combine that with Les Miserables? Now that seems a bit of a stretch. But to combine that with Homer's poetry... now that would create an additional depth which epigraphs need to give to the poem, in order for their relevance.

Good luck with this poem!

Snoink, Haha, good point. I'll find a suitable epigraph involving our dear wily Odysseus and waiting Penelopeia. I think the Les Mis connection was one of those things that made sense to me, but in practice was maybe not too apt. Haha, anyway, I'll find something.

-Paper

When you pick another epigraph, make it obivous to the reader that its an epigraph, so imcompitant people wont run and scream plagerism. For example, you can italize it so it stands out from the rest of the poem.
Godd luck
~aestar~