Comments on: Sonnet #404

Question: Sonnet #404

sonofslim — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 09:08:56 -0800

I'm looking for a few lines of poetry that would be appropriate for a 404 page, preferably from somewhat well-known authors. Any suggestions?

By: randomination

randomination — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 09:14:05 -0800

Superb idea.

There's got to be something appropriate by Emily Dickinson.

By: now i'm piste

now i'm piste — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 09:15:50 -0800

I like the minimalist pallindrome "404 Page gap 404".
Or when the expected page doesn't load throw up "It's dark and you are likely to be eaten by a grue."

By: ZenMasterThis

ZenMasterThis — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 09:17:13 -0800

"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I. I took the one less traveled by,. And that has made all the difference."

--Robert Frost

By: leapfrog

leapfrog — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 09:19:51 -0800

Back when I ran a web server, I used this:
"You step in the stream
But the water has moved on
URL not found"

Not famous, nor a well-known author. But it worked for me.

By: Chrischris

Chrischris — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 09:26:03 -0800

Apologies to WC Williams:

I have removed
the URLS
that were on
the Server

and which
you were probably
waiting
to render

Forgive me
they were /.ed
so 733t
and so pwned

By: weapons-grade pandemonium

weapons-grade pandemonium — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 09:29:24 -0800

What's gone and what's past help
Should be past grief.

Shakespeare--The Winter's Tale (III, ii, 223-224 )

By: Mister_A

Mister_A — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 09:34:05 -0800

THat is not dead which can forever lie,
and with strange aeons, even death may die.

-HP Lovecraft

By: The Michael The

The Michael The — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 09:35:33 -0800

"A different path from this one would be best
For you to find your way from this feral place,"

spoken by the poet Virgil in Dante's Inferno, Canto I, 70-71 (Pinsky translation)

By: klangklangston

klangklangston — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 09:42:01 -0800

Yesterday upon the stair, I met a page that wasn't there...

By: DevilsAdvocate

DevilsAdvocate — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 09:43:09 -0800

Thirty spokes are joined together in a wheel,
but it is the center hole
that allows the wheel to function.

We mold clay into a pot,
but it is the emptiness inside
that makes the vessel useful.

We fashion wood for a house,
but it is the emptiness inside
that makes it livable.

We work with the substantial,
but the emptiness is what we use.

-- Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, ch. 11, tr. J. H McDonald

By: sonofslim

sonofslim — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 09:51:29 -0800

to clarify, i'm looking for poetry that isn't doctored. (or in this case, mod_rewritten?)

although i totally love yours, chrischris. barnes & noble used that poem among others in a series of ads on the subway here in NY, it's always been a favorite of mine.

By: sephira

sephira — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 09:58:39 -0800

It is said, "To err is human,"
That quote from alt.times.lore,
Alas, you have made an error,
So I say, "404."

Double-check your URL,
As we all have heard before.
You ask for an invalid filename,
And I respond, "404."

Perhaps you made a typo --
Your fingers may be sore --
But until you type it right,
You'll only get 404.

Maybe you followed a bad link,
Surfing a foreign shore;
You'll just have to tell that author
About this 404.

I'm just a lowly server
Who likes to speak in metaphor,
So for a request that I don't know,
I must return 404.

Be glad I'm not an old mainframe
That might just dump its core,
Because then you'd get a ten-meg file
Instead of this 404.

I really would like to help you,
But I don't know what you're looking for,
And since I don't know what you want,
I give you 404.

Remember Poe, insane with longing
For his tragically lost Lenore.
Instead, you quest for files.
Quoth the Raven, "404!"

I'm unsure of the author, but I think you can feel free to make it well-known.

By: sephira

sephira — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 10:06:13 -0800

Sorry, sonofslim, didn't see your comment on preview. These come to mind...

In the middle of the journey of my life I came to myself within a dark wood where the straight way was lost.
- Dante, The Divine Comedy

Praising what is lost
Makes the remembrance dear.
- Wiliam Shakespeare

By: kc0dxh

kc0dxh — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 10:31:21 -0800

Just whipped this up. It's shorter and more in agreement with Poe's rhyme and rhythm in The Raven.

Ah, distinctly I remember.
It was on the older server
And each file was forever
On the disk the server bore.

The suddenly there was a tapping
As if someone gently rapping
Rapping on my keyboard yore
Now the file is 404.

By: sonofslim

sonofslim — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 10:33:14 -0800

no need for apologies, i thought it was great even if it's not quite what i'm looking for. your shakespeare quote is right on the money, though!

By: dances_with_sneetches

dances_with_sneetches — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 11:06:16 -0800

Listen; there's a hell of a good universe next door: let's go.
ee cummings

By: languagehat

languagehat — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 11:47:45 -0800

One of my very favorite bits of T.S. Eliot:

Go, go, go, said the bird: human kind
Cannot bear very much reality.

From "Burnt Norton."

By: hototogisu

hototogisu — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 12:17:31 -0800

This is maybe too ridiculous for your needs, but I like it anyway:

All I do is this:
I paint the sky every morning
While you are asleep
You get up and it's blue.

The sea is ripped occasionally.
You don't know who sews it back.
I do.

I fool around from time to time too.
This is also my job.
I think of a head in my head.
I think of a stomach in my stomach.
I think of a foot in my foot.
I don't know what the hell to do.

--"Mahmut, the Loafer" by Orhan Veli, translated by Murat Nemet-Nejat.

the last two lines dances_with_sneetches posted would be even better than just the last:

a hopeless case if--listen:there's a hell
of a good universe next door;let's go

By: senor biggles

senor biggles — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 12:30:19 -0800

For, O, for, O, the hobby-horse is forgot. (Hamlet, Act III scene II)

By: forrest

forrest — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 12:46:56 -0800

THE CURVE OF FORGOTTEN THINGS

Things slowly curve out of sight
Until they are gone. Afterwards
Only the curve
Remains.

-- Richard Brautigan

By: coevals

coevals — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 14:25:02 -0800

Whose URL this is, I think I know,
This page is not loading though...

By: mono blanco

mono blanco — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 14:37:51 -0800

"There is no there there."

- Gertrude Stein

By: Lanark

Lanark — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 15:50:00 -0800

404 -

For when the One Great Scorer comes
To write against your name,
He marks-not that you won or lost-
But how you played the game.

- Grantland Rice, Alumunus Football, Only the Brave and Other Poems.

By: paulsc

paulsc — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 17:40:42 -0800

I've used this:

"Home is where, when you have to go there, they have to take you."
-Robert Frost, Death of the Hired Man

Redirecting this 404 Page Not Found error in 10 seconds.

(And then redirect to your index page, or an error reporting page in 10 seconds.)

By: dances_with_sneetches

dances_with_sneetches — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 12:02:52 -0800

I don't suppose there's a way to randomize the poetry / 404 page you get? There's several good suggestions here. You might get people to go for the 404 page just to read a new quote.

By: Lanark

Lanark — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 13:37:39 -0800

More Haiku Error Messages from Salon Magazine

By: sonofslim

sonofslim — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 19:32:06 -0800

dances_with_sneetches: it was always my intent to collect enough to rotate a decent number; i'm off to a good start! i'll put a link on metaprojects when everything is up and running.... uh, so you can all look at my error pages. every web developer's dream.

here are two snippets i found that i really like:

And the gates of this Chapel were shut
And "Thou shalt not," writ over the door;
So I turned to the Garden of Love
That so many sweet flowers bore.
- Blake

Work without Hope draws nectar in a sieve,
And Hope without an object cannot live.
- Coleridge

By: whir

whir — Sat, 14 Oct 2006 20:56:07 -0800

I think sonnets 43 or 73 might work in this context.