12.01 : those lines

Do you have a favourite poem, or song, or whatever, that can still give you chills and inspire you even after years and years?

Mine is Dover Beach, by Matthew Arnold.
(the quintessential atheist/existentialist love poem)

The Sea of Faith
Was once, too, at the full, and round earth’s shore
Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled.
But now I only hear
Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,
Retreating, to the breath
Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear
And naked shingles of the world.

(excerpt)

~ by snarled on 12.01.07.