The one thing that possibly came to mind for this boy as I read on, and only then when he's had more than a years worth of beer in one evening and it's 1am in an empty living room, was Johnny Cash's Hurt, but only the video version, and the visual recognition that his extraordinary and complex life is drawing to its close. A song and artist that wouldn't ordinarily cross my path but during a virtual YouTube based party during Lockdown, one of my friends played it in amidst several hours of 90s era hip hop glorifying masculinity and materialism and it brought us all to a quiet. What a video.
I lost a dear friend to suicide and one of the songs played at his funeral was The Beatles' "In My Life". I can no longer listen to it without tears.
I surprisingly found myself in tears years ago at the English National Ballet's performance of Romeo and Juliet (Nuryev's choreography) when Romeo was dancing with his dead Juliet. Unbearably poignant.
This one makes me sob: Jacques Brel's 'Ne me quitte pas' which is completely heartbreaking when you see him singing it, wreathed in Gauloise smoke (maybe not!) via Youtube.
When She Loved Me by Sarah McLachlan, from Toy Story 2 has me on the verge of tears every single time.
That feeling of growing up and leaving childhood behind, losing those memories and connections. Pixar have nailed this in several instances, but this is the one that gets me most.
The two songs that most readily spring to mind for making me cry are " My Love, My Life" by Abba, and " The Deer's Cry" by Shaun Davey, sung by Rita Connolly.
While the first is an Abba song, it's the version at the end of the film,' ''Mama Mia, Here We Go Again', sung by some of the cast as the spirit of Donna is briefly reunited with her daughter Sophie, that always gets me! It reminds me both of my late mum, and how dear the relationship with both of my parents was.
The Shaun Davey song I heard for the first time on a compilation cd of Celtic music; Rita Connolly has the most wonderful voice, clear and strong, to enunciate the beautiful words of faith and prayer.
The poem I choose was the one written by Carol Ann Duffy backnin 2015 for the reburial of Richard III. Whatever one thinks of the king, the story of his remains being found in a Leicester car park is extraordinary,and on the back of this I find the poem moving in it's clever blend of medieval belief and modern reality:
A song that says more in 4 minutes about how we live with the unmentionable and carry on despite the evidence, than I could say in a lifetime.
Friend of ours by Elbow.
The instruments speak, sigh and are grief struck, but a little bit of piano twinkles and somehow you know it's going to be alright.
Everyone needs a gentle shoulder charge people.
Shallows Live orchestral version by Daughter.
Beautiful, moving and full of empathy. Like most Daughter songs, I don't know how she gets through them. I want to tell Elena Tonra it's OK but then realise she is telling me.
The first song that comes to mind and always brings tears is "Green Fields of France" I once found the chords to try to play in on the Ukulele and was unable to do that without tears. I would count it as both poem and song.
Funny thing about crying, it can be catching, as I found while watching last year’s Cambridge captain talking after the race. I found myself welling up in sympathy, as also when Luca was consoling the chap who had been excluded from the race by Oxford’s petty gamesmanship. It was a great result for Cambridge, obvious from very early in the race, and the best kind of response. The poem you offered is very special and must mean a great deal to you. Thank you for sharing it.
This made me cry long before I had a son. And since, well…
Farewell, thou child of my right hand, and joy;
My sin was too much hope of thee, lov'd boy.
Seven years thou wert lent to me, and I thee pay,
Exacted by thy fate, on the just day.
O, could I lose all father now! For why
Will man lament the state he should envy?
To have so soon 'scap'd world's and flesh's rage,
And if no other misery, yet age?
Rest in soft peace, and, ask'd, say, "Here doth lie
Ben Jonson his best piece of poetry."
For whose sake henceforth all his vows be such,
As what he loves may never like too much.
The one thing that possibly came to mind for this boy as I read on, and only then when he's had more than a years worth of beer in one evening and it's 1am in an empty living room, was Johnny Cash's Hurt, but only the video version, and the visual recognition that his extraordinary and complex life is drawing to its close. A song and artist that wouldn't ordinarily cross my path but during a virtual YouTube based party during Lockdown, one of my friends played it in amidst several hours of 90s era hip hop glorifying masculinity and materialism and it brought us all to a quiet. What a video.
I lost a dear friend to suicide and one of the songs played at his funeral was The Beatles' "In My Life". I can no longer listen to it without tears.
I surprisingly found myself in tears years ago at the English National Ballet's performance of Romeo and Juliet (Nuryev's choreography) when Romeo was dancing with his dead Juliet. Unbearably poignant.
Ballet, yes. I once 'saw' Sylvie Guillem dance Marguerite and Armand, in fact seeing almost none of it because I had completely dissolved...
Also Yeats. And Shakespeare espec Antony and Cleopatra.
It's a great question!
This one makes me sob: Jacques Brel's 'Ne me quitte pas' which is completely heartbreaking when you see him singing it, wreathed in Gauloise smoke (maybe not!) via Youtube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_bq5mStroM
When She Loved Me by Sarah McLachlan, from Toy Story 2 has me on the verge of tears every single time.
That feeling of growing up and leaving childhood behind, losing those memories and connections. Pixar have nailed this in several instances, but this is the one that gets me most.
I cry every time I read the short story “The Boat” by Alistair MacLeod and also the poem “One Art” by Elizabeth Bishop.
The two songs that most readily spring to mind for making me cry are " My Love, My Life" by Abba, and " The Deer's Cry" by Shaun Davey, sung by Rita Connolly.
While the first is an Abba song, it's the version at the end of the film,' ''Mama Mia, Here We Go Again', sung by some of the cast as the spirit of Donna is briefly reunited with her daughter Sophie, that always gets me! It reminds me both of my late mum, and how dear the relationship with both of my parents was.
The Shaun Davey song I heard for the first time on a compilation cd of Celtic music; Rita Connolly has the most wonderful voice, clear and strong, to enunciate the beautiful words of faith and prayer.
The poem I choose was the one written by Carol Ann Duffy backnin 2015 for the reburial of Richard III. Whatever one thinks of the king, the story of his remains being found in a Leicester car park is extraordinary,and on the back of this I find the poem moving in it's clever blend of medieval belief and modern reality:
' My bones, scripted in light, upon cold soil,
a human braille. My skull, scarred by a crown,
emptied of history. Describe my soul
as incense, votive, vanishing; your own
the same. Grant me the carving of my name.
These relics, bless. Imagine you re-tie
a broken string and on it thread a cross,
the symbol severed from me when I died.
The end of time-an unknown, unfelt loss-
unless the Resurrection of the Dead...
or I once dreamed of this, your future breath
in prayer for me, lost long, forever found;
or sensed you from the backstage of my death,
as kings glimpse shadows on a battleground.'
“Do not go gentle into that good night” by Dylan Thomas, will do it for me. The gentleness behind the conviction gets me each time.
"...from the place where love meets the inexorable passing of time" - that made me cry. Very good.
Elephant by Jason Isbell.
A song that says more in 4 minutes about how we live with the unmentionable and carry on despite the evidence, than I could say in a lifetime.
Friend of ours by Elbow.
The instruments speak, sigh and are grief struck, but a little bit of piano twinkles and somehow you know it's going to be alright.
Everyone needs a gentle shoulder charge people.
Shallows Live orchestral version by Daughter.
Beautiful, moving and full of empathy. Like most Daughter songs, I don't know how she gets through them. I want to tell Elena Tonra it's OK but then realise she is telling me.
Poem is a hybrid. People's Faces by Kae Tempest.
The humanity in it is so simple and unadorned.
The first song that comes to mind and always brings tears is "Green Fields of France" I once found the chords to try to play in on the Ukulele and was unable to do that without tears. I would count it as both poem and song.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DXDyip7SIJkQ&ved=2ahUKEwjf_-bwueKMAxVJGFkFHYGvLqYQtwJ6BAgIEAI&usg=AOvVaw2wPxx_9Z5IvR66Rgz8MvEX
From the St Matthew Passion - surely this was the son of God
and I am a devout atheist
Song - The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face
Poems - The Lake Isle of Innisfree,
And Dolce Et Decorum Est.
Am tearful just typing the titles 😔
Funny thing about crying, it can be catching, as I found while watching last year’s Cambridge captain talking after the race. I found myself welling up in sympathy, as also when Luca was consoling the chap who had been excluded from the race by Oxford’s petty gamesmanship. It was a great result for Cambridge, obvious from very early in the race, and the best kind of response. The poem you offered is very special and must mean a great deal to you. Thank you for sharing it.
A piece of music that never fails to bring me to tears is the end of Bernstein's Candide, but it's the words too.
.. let us try,
Before we die,
To make some sense of life.
We're neither pure, nor wise, nor good
We'll do the best we know.
We'll build our house and chop our wood
And make our garden grow...