There is a grand tradition in poetry of stealing (some might say ‘borrowing’) lines or phrases from other poets long gone. There are three motives for this: (1) the boastful: to prove to the world that the poet knows a thing or two about the great poems of the past; (2) the deferential: to honor the poet or the poem from which the line originated; or (3) the reference: to reference another relevant poem and draw it into the conversation and meaning of the one currently being read or written.
We always knew that we wanted to have some sort of poetic work written by Gabriel Alexander, Remy’s father and the Poet Laureate of the Okarian Sector, that would represent the spirit of each of the three books in our trilogy. However, none of us are poets, and we didn’t quite feel up to the task of writing something that would adequately represent the work of a “poet laureate.” So we decided to take the tradition of “borrowing” from other poets to a high art. While some of the lines are our own, we borrowed heavily from the works of other poets – everything from T.S. Elliot to the Psalms of the Bible. To give credit where credit is due, here is a more detailed analysis of the lines that we borrowed or paraphrased – and the lines that we stole directly from other poets.
Let us practice resurrection – Wendell Berry, Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front
Let us sow our shadowed recollections – Wordsworth, Ode
Let us breathe life into these broken images – Eliot, The Waste Land
For there is glory in the flowering – Wordsworth, Ode
And we will dream a dream of spring. – Coleridge, Work Without Hope
In the Sowing is our memory
Of the dim vast vale of tears, the visionary gleam – Shelley, Hymn to Intellectual Beauty; Wordsworth, Ode
Of unremembered seasons, so solemn and serene. – Wordsworth, Ode; Shelley, Hymn to Intellectual Beauty
We are the way and the wayfarers – Gibran, The Prophet
As the lone and level sands stretch far away – Shelley, Ozymandias
But here at home we till and toil
Here we heed the song of the soil.
And so we collect our wingéd seeds – Shelley, Ode to the West Wind
With all the works and days of hands – Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
Scattered fragments of our spirit – Gibran, The Prophet
And like some distant ancient anointing – McCarthy, The Road
We are poured out like water – Psalms, 22.
We are sown throughout the land.
More information about borrowing from the works of other poets can be found here.