NationStates Jolt Archive

What piece of writing sends shivers through your soul?

Here's my nomination ...


But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate -- we cannot consecrate -- we cannot hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.


That's right. It's the latter part of the Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln. reading the last line, especially, makes all my hair stand on end. Powerful, powerful stuff.

What's your nomination?

I've always been rather partial to Churchill's speech about the defence of our island.

But that's just the pompous, patriotic, British snob in me.

I've always been rather partial to Churchill's speech about the defence of our island.


definatly.... went to the cabient war rooms musuem in london last week..... well worth the visit
never in the field of human conflict have so many owed so much to so few. all written while pissed in the bath ......

Alexandr Solzhenitsyn is hard to beat among the modern ones, but Jean-Paul Sartre and Gabriel García Márquez are close. Not to mention Albert Camus.

Funnily, I can think of no Anglophone author who affects me all that significantly. English being such an ugly language probably has to do with it.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and "nullification" -- one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today!


Click here (http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/Ihaveadream.htm) for full text + audio file.

May Dr. King live long in the memory of those who love justice and equality.

Click here (http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/Ihaveadream.htm) for full text + audio file.

May Dr. King live long in the memory of those who love justice and equality.

I find that one a bit repetitive…

TS Eliot's the Wasteland.

My Favourite Passage:
'"You gave me hyacinths first a year ago;
"They called me the hyacinth girl."
—Yet when we came back, late, from the Hyacinth garden,
Your arms full, and your hair wet, I could not
Speak, and my eyes failed, I was neither
Living nor dead, and I knew nothing,
Looking into the heart of light, the silence.'

I've always been rather partial to Churchill's speech about the defence of our island.

But that's just the pompous, patriotic, British snob in me.

Not my vote, but just so it could be read...

"I have, myself, full confidence that if all do their duty, if nothing is neglected, and if the best arrangements are made, as they are being made, we shall prove ourselves once again able to defend our Island home, to ride out the storm of war, and to outlive the menace of tyranny, if necessary for years, if necessary alone.

At any rate, that is what we are going to try to do. That is the resolve of His Majesty's Government-every man of them. That is the will of Parliament and the nation.

The British Empire and the French Republic, linked together in their cause and in their need, will defend to the death their native soil, aiding each other like good comrades to the utmost of their strength.

Even though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous States have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of Nazi rule, we shall not flag or fail.

We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this Island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God's good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old."

Jethro Tull lyrics. Velvet Green especially.

Alexandr Solzhenitsyn is hard to beat among the modern ones, but Jean-Paul Sartre and Gabriel García Márquez are close. Not to mention Albert Camus.

Funnily, I can think of no Anglophone author who affects me all that significantly. English being such an ugly language probably has to do with it.
We could translate nice, English sayings into evil, foreign languages. :eek: (obviously only foreign to people who live in countries in which English is the official or de facto language)

I find that one a bit repetitive…
I've heard an original recording of that, and there's a power behind his voice you don't often hear.

As for my choice, maybe the 'Band of Brothers' speech from Henry V?

I've heard an original recording of that, and there's a power behind his voice you don't often hear.

As for my choice, maybe the 'Band of Brothers' speech from Henry V?

Not my vote again but its a good speech

From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered-
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in England now-a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.

Not my vote again but its a good speech
Lets hear yours then?

Winston Churchill again for my speech:

We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. We have before us many, many long months of struggle and of suffering. You ask, what is our policy? I can say: It is to wage war, by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us; to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our policy. You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word: It is victory, victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival. Let that be realised; no survival for the British Empire, no survival for all that the British Empire has stood for, no survival for the urge and impulse of the ages, that mankind will move forward towards its goal. But I take up my task with buoyancy and hope. I feel sure that our cause will not be suffered to fail among men. At this time I feel entitled to claim the aid of all, and I say, "come then, let us go forward together with our united strength."

He Wishes For Cloths of Heaven

By W B Yeats

Had I the heavens’ embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.


No reason why, it just gives me the chills when I read it.

and the oft quoted Goethe

Er kann mich im Arsche lecken.

Er kann mich im Arsche lecken.
Why did your mention of anilingus kill the thread?

Why did your mention of anilingus kill the thread?

Hey, I'm quoting a great man, not in English either so Fass can be pleased...

Hey, I'm quoting a great man, not in English either so Fass can be pleased...

I was just puzzled. I wasn't objecting.

There are so many i could think of, but here are a few:

William Faulkner's Nobel Prize acceptance speech in 1950

http://www.rjgeib.com/thoughts/faulkner/faulkner.html

Elie Wiesel's Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech in 1986

http://www.pbs.org/eliewiesel/nobel/index.html

Charlie Chaplin's final speech in The Great Dictator

http://www.clown-ministry.com/index_1.php?/site/articles/text_of_charlie_chaplins_speech_from_the_great_dictator_aka_look_up_hannah/

Meditation 17 by John Donne

http://www.online-literature.com/donne/409/

I was just puzzled. I wasn't objecting.

Fair enough :D

There are so many i could think of, but here are a few:

William Faulkner's Nobel Prize acceptance speech in 1950

http://www.rjgeib.com/thoughts/faulkner/faulkner.html




Excellent choice! It gives me the chills when I read it. In a similar vein I heartily recommend Bertrand Russells' "Shall we choose death?"

I cannot believe that this is to be the end. I would have men forget their quarrels for a moment and reflect that, if they will allow themselves to survive, there is every reason to expect the triumphs of the future to exceed immeasurably the triumphs of the past. There lies before us, if we choose, continual progress in happiness, knowledge, and wisdom. Shall we, instead, choose death, because we cannot forget our quarrels? I appeal, as a human being to human beings: remember your humanity, and forget the rest. If you can do so, the way lies open to a new Paradise; if you cannot, nothing lies before you but universal death.

Full text at http://www.cycnet.com/englishcorner/speech/death.htm

This is quite groovy ...

http://irl.cs.ucla.edu/papers/right-size.html


Note the political statements at the end!

I like Russell's too, that was great.

I've been a fan of Edward R. Murrow ever since I saw Good Night and Good Luck. True, he's no writer, but that doesn't make his words any less powerful.


"We will not walk in fear, of one another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason if we dig deep in our history and doctrine and remember that we are not descended from fearful men, not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate and to defend causes which were for the moment unpopular. We can deny our heritage and our history, but we cannot escape responsibility for the result. There is no way for a citizen of the Republic to abdicate his responsibility."

"If we confuse dissent with disloyalty — if we deny the right of the individual to be wrong, unpopular, eccentric or unorthodox — if we deny the essence of racial equality then hundreds of millions in Asia and Africa who are shopping about for a new allegiance will conclude that we are concerned to defend a myth and our present privileged status. Every act that denies or limits the freedom of the individual in this country costs us the . . . confidence of men and women who aspire to that freedom and independence of which we speak and for which our ancestors fought."

"This instrument [television] can teach, it can illuminate; yes, and it can even inspire. But it can do so only to the extent that humans are determined to use it to those ends. Otherwise it is merely wires and lights in a box."

"Most truths are so naked that people feel sorry for them and cover them up, at least a little bit."

Yeah, i watched Goodnight and Goodluck a couple of weeks ago, that was a really good speech.

I need to find some good speeches....

Hmm, thought of something, I'll have to type it from memory

To A Poet a Thousand Years Hence by Jame Elroy Fletcher

I who am dead a thousand years
And wrote this sweet, archiac song
Send you my word, For messengers
The way I shall not pass along

I care not if you bridge the sea
Or ride secure the cruel sky
Or build consummate palaces
Of metal or of masonry

But have you wine and music still
And statues, and a bright eyed love?
And foolish thoughts of good and ill,
And prayers to those who sit above?

How shall we conquer? Like a wind at eve are fancies blow?
As old Maenides the blind said it three thousand years ago?

Oh friend, unseen, unborn, unknown
Student of our sweet English tongue
Read out my words, at night alone
I was a poet, I was young

Since I can never see your face
Or shake you by the hand
I send my soul through time and space
To greet you
You will understand

barmaid: what do you want?

Me: Mine's a pint of waggledance and my mate wants a pint of guiness. Two packs of mini-cheddars


Really - nothing beats that speech for bringing true, blissful, uber-happiness :D (especially if you repeat it 10 times before passing out much the financially worse-off!) :p

Hmm, thought of something, I'll have to type it from memory

To A Poet a Thousand Years Hence by Jame Elroy Fletcher

I who am dead a thousand years

*snip*




Beautiful, beautiful stuff.

First two stanzas from ...

The Raven

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
`'Tis some visitor,' I muttered, `tapping at my chamber door -
Only this, and nothing more.'

Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December,
And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.
Eagerly I wished the morrow; - vainly I had sought to borrow
From my books surcease of sorrow - sorrow for the lost Lenore -
For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels named Lenore -
Nameless here for evermore.


Read the full text at http://www.heise.de/ix/raven/Literature/Lore/TheRaven.html

on death/war:

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

rest of poem (http://website.lineone.net/~nusquam/forfalln.htm)



and on the same theme, a classic learned and studied in school, but with good reason:


Dulce Et Decorum Est


Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of disappointed shells that dropped behind.

GAS! Gas! Quick, boys!- An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And floundering like a man in fire or lime.
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.


In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.


If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues, -
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.



quite possibly "awe-inspiring" in quite a different way though (sends shivers down my spine...)

I love Dylan Thomas' villanelle "Do not go gentle into that good night:

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Beautiful poem, moreso when you know he wrote it about his dying father.

That and pretty much anything by TS Elliot.

My first pick: Eisenhower's farewell address. The language isn't quite one of a poet, but it's certainly striking and fearless. I wish they made politicians like this today. Note how well it fits todays world! The guy was a nostradamus in disguise.

This is what the supreme commander of allied forces has to say:

"Down the long lane of the history yet to be written America knows that this world of ours, ever growing smaller, must avoid becoming a community of dreadful fear and hate, and be instead, a proud confederation of mutual trust and respect.

Such a confederation must be one of equals. The weakest must come to the conference table with the same confidence as do we, protected as we are by our moral, economic, and military strength. That table, though scarred by many past frustrations, cannot be abandoned for the certain agony of the battlefield.

Disarmament, with mutual honor and confidence, is a continuing imperative. Together we must learn how to compose differences, not with arms, but with intellect and decent purpose. Because this need is so sharp and apparent I confess that I lay down my official responsibilities in this field with a definite sense of disappointment. As one who has witnessed the horror and the lingering sadness of war -- as one who knows that another war could utterly destroy this civilization which has been so slowly and painfully built over thousands of years -- I wish I could say tonight that a lasting peace is in sight. "

The creepiest part:

"Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry. American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But now we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense; we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. Added to this, three and a half million men and women are directly engaged in the defense establishment. We annually spend on military security more than the net income of all United States corporations.

This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence -- economic, political, even spiritual -- is felt in every city, every State house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the militaryindustrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. "

I've always been rather partial to Churchill's speech about the defence of our island.

But that's just the pompous, patriotic, British snob in me.


A treat just for you.

http://www.freeinfosociety.com/sounds/winstonchurchill-finesthour.mp3

My second pick: Wings for Marie part 2: 10,000 days

The story: Judith Marie Garrison, the writer's mother, suffered a stroke in 1976, and was left in a wheelchair for the rest of her life. She died 27 years later (about 10,000 days), at the age of 59. Wings for Marie is his eulogy to her.

Here's part of it:

"Listen to the tales and romanticize,
How we follow the path of the hero.
Boast about the day when the rivers overrun.
How we rise to the height of our halo.

Listen to the tales as we all rationalize
Our way into the arms of the savior,
Feigning all the trials and the tribulations;
None of us have actually been there.
Not like you."
...
"High as a wave,
but I'll rise on up off the ground.
You were the light and the way
they'll only read about.
I only pray
Heaven knows when to lift you out.
Ten thousand days in the fire is long enough,
you're going home.

You're the only one who can hold your head up high,
Shake your fists at the gates saying:
"I have come home now!
Fetch me the spirit, the son, and the father.
Tell them their pillar of faith has ascended.
It's time now!
My time now!
Give me my wings!"

Give me my wings!"

"What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason! how infinite in faculties! in form and moving, how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension, how like a god! the beauty of the world! the paragon of animals! And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust? Man delights not me"

Hamlet. Shakespeare. Love it!

Not to mention Albert Camus.

Camus' got to be my vote, yeah.

"What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason! how infinite in faculties! in form and moving, how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension, how like a god! the beauty of the world! the paragon of animals! And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust? Man delights not me"

Hamlet. Shakespeare. Love it!
That one always makes me laugh.

barmaid: what do you want?

Me: Mine's a pint of waggledance


Now thats a good choice of beer!!! :D

So we start for New Orleans past iridescent lakes and orange gas flares...and swamps and garbage heaps... alligators crawling around in broken bottles and tin cans... neon arabesques of motels... marooned pimps scream obscenities at passing cars from islands of rubbish.... New Orleans is a dead museum.

From Naked Lunch by William S Burroughs.

<Snip>The writings of your heir, are prolly some of the most awe-inspiring I've read. I think. If I understand them, that is.. Actually, maybe they're not.
Fnord!

Hail Eris! All hail Discordia!

I've always been rather partial to Churchill's speech about the defence of our island.

But that's just the pompous, patriotic, British snob in me.

I'm right with you on that one

Beautiful, beautiful stuff.
Thanks, though I spelled his last name wrong. It's Flecker, not Fletcher.

Now thats a good choice of beer!!! :D


Glad to see we share taste in beer. MMmmm. Beer.

I got stinkin' drunk on that stuff the other day. It tastes delicious :cool: but it don't half give you a hangover :D

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, nor our darkness that frightens us. We as ourselves: "who am I to be so beautiful, talented, gorgeous, fabulous?" Actually, who are you NOT to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the word ... as we let our light shine, we unconciously give other people the permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our fears, our presence automatically liberates others."

- Nelson Mandela, 1997.


They are truly awe-inspiring words. Sends a shiver through my scalp and down my spine

Glad to see we share taste in beer. MMmmm. Beer.

I got stinkin' drunk on that stuff the other day. It tastes delicious :cool: but it don't half give you a hangover :D

Yeah, I was on Newkie Brown last night, Waggledance wasn't available... :(

And:

Go tell the Spartans, stranger passing by,
that here, obedient to their laws, we lie

Yeah, I was on Newkie Brown last night, Waggledance wasn't available... :(

And:


Newkie Brown. Bleeeeeugh. I used to drink gallons o' that stuff in my younger days. When I first started going out and getting drunk on a regular basis ** smiles wistfully at the nostalgia ** I went to teh 'Krazy House' in Liverpool. A seedy dive of a heavy metal bar. It really was the pits :D

And they did two-for-one on all bottles. So me and my mates naturally bought the big bottles of Newkie Brown.

Fuck me but did I always feel like death for about two days after ** smiles wistfully at the nostalgia (again) **

CDA

Newkie Brown. Bleeeeeugh. I used to drink gallons o' that stuff in my younger days. When I first started going out and getting drunk on a regular basis ** smiles wistfully at the nostalgia ** I went to teh 'Krazy House' in Liverpool. A seedy dive of a heavy metal bar. It really was the pits :D

And they did two-for-one on all bottles. So me and my mates naturally bought the big bottles of Newkie Brown.

Fuck me but did I always feel like death for about two days after ** smiles wistfully at the nostalgia (again) **

CDA

Krazy House! :D

I've been there numerous times when visiting friends in Liverpool. Granted its a pit, but its a good pit :D

Like Jilly's Rockworld in Manchester, it's a hole, but it's a good hole :D

But yeah, Newkie Brown does kill you on hangovers, but I'm not a big drinker, so two or three and thats my lot...otherwise I can't play pool with any accuracy anymore :(

As for keeping this thread on topic:

Force has no place where there is need of skill.