A centa is a poem composed, in whole or in majority part, of lines from other poems. For a class I'm taking, I was to compose a centa using only poetry from the 10th-18th centuries. English language only. Couldn't use a poem more than once. I thought I'd take a humorous aproach.
A Ladys Elegy
Making dead wood more blest than living lips (1)
Is but a loss of labor and of rest. (2)
Pained her to counterfeit cheer (3)
For she was wild and young, and he was old, (4)
Poor in that which makes a lover, (5)
And none of his kinsmen favored him either. (6)
Fate is inflexible: (7)
Time doth dull each lively wit and dries all wantonness with it. (8)
The blood forsook the hinder place. (9)
(All human things are subject to decay.) (10)
Is there no more? she cries. (11)
Now Betty from her masters bed has flown. (12)
Not louder shrieks to Heaven are cast (13)
[than] to speak woe that is marriage. (14)
Citation by line order:
1. Sonnet 128, William Shakespeare, line 12
2. The 21st and Last Book of the Ocean to Cynthia, Sir Walter Raleigh, line 153
3. General Prologue, Geoffrey Chaucer, line 139
4. The Millers Tale, Geoffrey Chaucer, line 117
5. To the Queen, Sir Walter Raleigh, line 6
6. Lanval, Marie de France, line 20
7. The Wanderer, line 5
8. Nature That Washed Her Hands in Milk, Sir Walter Raleigh, lines 29-30
9. The Disappointment, Aphra Behn, line 116
10. Mac Flecknoe, John Dryden, line 1
11. An Imperfect Enjoyment, John Milmot, lines 22-23
12. A Description of the Morning, Jonathon Swift, line 3
13. The Rape of the Lock, Alexander Pope, line 157
14. The Wife of Baths Prologue, Geoffrey Chaucer, line 3
My cat wants to play and it's really starting to bug me. . .
A Ladys Elegy
Making dead wood more blest than living lips (1)
Is but a loss of labor and of rest. (2)
Pained her to counterfeit cheer (3)
For she was wild and young, and he was old, (4)
Poor in that which makes a lover, (5)
And none of his kinsmen favored him either. (6)
Fate is inflexible: (7)
Time doth dull each lively wit and dries all wantonness with it. (8)
The blood forsook the hinder place. (9)
(All human things are subject to decay.) (10)
Is there no more? she cries. (11)
Now Betty from her masters bed has flown. (12)
Not louder shrieks to Heaven are cast (13)
[than] to speak woe that is marriage. (14)
Citation by line order:
1. Sonnet 128, William Shakespeare, line 12
2. The 21st and Last Book of the Ocean to Cynthia, Sir Walter Raleigh, line 153
3. General Prologue, Geoffrey Chaucer, line 139
4. The Millers Tale, Geoffrey Chaucer, line 117
5. To the Queen, Sir Walter Raleigh, line 6
6. Lanval, Marie de France, line 20
7. The Wanderer, line 5
8. Nature That Washed Her Hands in Milk, Sir Walter Raleigh, lines 29-30
9. The Disappointment, Aphra Behn, line 116
10. Mac Flecknoe, John Dryden, line 1
11. An Imperfect Enjoyment, John Milmot, lines 22-23
12. A Description of the Morning, Jonathon Swift, line 3
13. The Rape of the Lock, Alexander Pope, line 157
14. The Wife of Baths Prologue, Geoffrey Chaucer, line 3
My cat wants to play and it's really starting to bug me. . .
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References to Mosaic Composition in S.T. Coleridge
In retrospect, maybe I am swayed by the particular critic: I took a graduate seminar with Thomas McFarland, and what was his thesis I may have transferred to Coleridge himself. However, as an extenuating point, McFarland thought he himself was Coleridge!