Public domain poem with two speakers/pov

July 10, 2011 2:14 PM

Publicdomainpoetryfilter: I'm trying to find a poem (any poem, not a specific poem) that is:

• in the public domain
• written in two "voices" or contains two perspectives
• (less important) one of the voices is prevented from doing something for some sort of reason

For example, the obvious scenario of Lover 1 saying, "Come, lover 2, let us frolic in the fields." And lover 2 says "I would love to, BUT [unfortunately my grandmother's gout is acting up and she needs me to change the cat's litterbox]." etc.

But it doesn't necessarily need to about love. Any public domain poem with two speakers will work.

I've found some public domain poetry archives on the web, but haven't been able to find anything quite to my requirements.

Planning to set it to music for two voices, FWIW.

posted by audiodidactic to Writing & Language (8 answers total)

Gerard Manley Hopkins, The Leaden Echo and the Golden Echo
posted by scody at 2:20 PM on July 10, 2011

Marvell's 'Dialogue Between The Soul And The Body' isn't a precise fit -- it's sort of a seventeenth-century metaphysical version of 'Let's Call The Whole Thing Off' -- but it's definitely public domain.
posted by holgate at 2:23 PM on July 10, 2011

How do you feel about this sort of situation that is already in music? This traditional arrangement was set to music [the version I heard was by Steeleye Span] in the song Royal Forrester which you can listen to here. Not quite what you were looking for possibly. Here's another traditional arrangement that the Bothy Band does 16 Come Next Sunday (lyrics, song)

If this isn't what you are looking for, you might have some luck with Open Library and searching for poetry from the 1800s and looking for ballads or other similar stuff. A few you might like

- We Are Seven - funny math poem Wordsworth/Coleridge
- Horace and Lydia Reconciled - by Eugene Field
- Fanny and John - by William Barnes

Not all exactly the right thing, but you might have more luck there than searching stuff that is specifically public domain.
posted by jessamyn at 2:41 PM on July 10, 2011

Henry Reed wrote a number of poems about his experiences as a British soldier in WWII. They are not so much a dialogue as the two voices of the blowhard drill instructor and the distracted soldier, neither of whom is paying much real attention to the other.
posted by Multicellular Exothermic at 2:47 PM on July 10, 2011

I'm having trouble verifying that it's in the public domain, but Robert Frost's Home Burial might work.

bartleby.com's defense of their publication of Frost poems here.
posted by felix grundy at 2:49 PM on July 10, 2011

The Ancient Egyptian "Dispute Between A Man and His Ba [soul, sort of]" is probably too long for a song, but it does have some wonderful lyrical passages that could make for an excellent (if a bit grim) piece of music. It was first translated in the late 19th Century, so there must be public domain translations. The most famous, Miriam Lichtheim's (scroll down), probably isn't one of them, unfortunately.
posted by dersins at 3:00 PM on July 10, 2011

I was thinking of Two Tramps at Mudtime by Frost but the back and forth is pretty limited.
posted by sully75 at 8:06 AM on July 11, 2011

This is two linked poems, but might be worth a look: The Passionate Shepherd to his Love (Marlowe) and The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd. Quick Googling suggests it / they may already have been set to music, don't know if that's an issue for you.
posted by paduasoy at 11:06 AM on July 11, 2011