Chosen Poems and Quotes

Watching the river - Laura Kayne     


The sun shines down
Lights it's calming waves
And I am truly spellbound,
Watching in a watery daze.


Awash with colours
Green, blue, dark and light.
I peer into it's coolness
Till there is nothing else in sight.


How would it feel to slip
Beneath the murky ripples, bidden?
Sheeted like glass, tinted with depth,
Danger like an iceberg, hidden.


To fall upon it's watery bed,
And sleep forever more.
would there be rest, and peace
Far from the living shore?

• This poem is the poets perception of the thames, it's very descriptive making the thames seem picturesque and almost dream like?
• more descriptive on the actually water rather than the history or any activity happening on the thames which leaves me to able to make this contemporary as no particular date or event has happened.
• Good to be positioned facing the thames as whilst reading you can either imagine it, or admire the thames and relate to the poem while watching it.
• Almost day dreaming, I initially thought of the poet or a women sitting on a bench opposite the thames watching the day go by and having a sense of envy that the river is so calming yet the life around her is hectic and busy.
• Escape?

Short poem/quote - Sir John Denham and later Matthew Prior

Serene yet strong,

Majestic yet sedate,

Swift without violence

Without terror great

• Ideally I want to concentrate on the contrasts used in these comparisons, they are so strong and contradicting that they should be highlighted.
• Beauty of the Thames is contradicted by dangers and negatives of it.
• Uncertain view of the thames, wanting to accept it as beauty and nature yet it has elements that are strong.

What I like most about London is the fog - Daphine Schillers

From the sixth floor of the Savoy

He strokes the fog like restless smoke

Across the Thames. An orange sun

Brushes the haze, turns the water coral.

A blue spume moistens the canvas

Sliding the hours before sunset

Into a shimmering dream. Light,

Clouds and river billow past,

Vapour rolls in the air, obscures

Our boundaries. In a hundred paintings

The artist shifts his visions

Before us. Paint feathers the surface

Like a meniscus. You could walk

On the buildings, float on the sky.

In the foreground

The luminous river courses like blood.

• Early morning scene in London and Thames (rise of the morning, or morning activities.)
• The poem references 'he' on the second line, who is 'he'? is it God? is it a spiritual reference, or this a process of a painting as later on it says about artists and painting? could be a painted, painting the view from his room in the savoy?
• Lots of descriptions i could use to edit text to reference these such as the colours and words such as 'shimmering,' 'vapour' and 'moistens.' I instantly connote a week day wet morning in london like any other but making it more exciting and appealing for a fresh and dewy morning.