Poems from fans of Ralph
Fiennes Poems from fans of Ralph
Fiennes
Poems published on this page were written by fans of Ralph Fiennes, or are poems chosen by fans which represent their feelings about his work, or about one of his characters or films.
Read poems submitted by other fans: Rinat, "A
Sonnet To My Love", "Gigi, "Yevgeny"
and "Actor",
Maxine, JoJo, Bigeorge "Pascals Daughter" ,"Oscar's
Sonnet"(work in progress), "Oscar to Lucinda", and
"Goodbye", Bos "Price of Your Eyes", Emery who contributed lovely poems from Sylvia Plath, W.H. Auden,
and Louise Gluck, Laurel's poem, "Longing", JAF 's poem, "Sensationess", Lori's poem to RF. , Julieta from Argentina's contribution,
and Katie's original poetry.Click on their names to jump
to their poetry submissions. When you're through reading, if you have a favorite
poem that reminds you of RF's films, etc. just send me an email, or post it
to the forum, and I'll add it to this page.
Yevgeny
Tatya'na will duly keep her word
to serve her husband 'til he dies;
and, as her mother had observed,
will find, with time, there joy abides.
But what of our forlorned Yevgen'y;
does he deserve our sympathy?
Will he reseek the dissolute;
or, cloistered, seek the absolute?
Is his the fate of morbid madness,
pursued to death by Lensky's shade,
or by the love to him forbade?
Perhaps, though in this state so hopeless
there may be sown a seed of grace
that makes his heart a fertile place.
*****************************************
This other poem is about my relation to Ralph as a fan:
Actor
I watch you
on the screen
and I fall in love
with your eyes,
your gestures and
what I see
as your soul;
and yet,
each time you return
a different person
I begin to wonder
what it is I love,
and
eventually
I no longer yearn
for the mirror that you are,
but
to be a life
that you would desire
to reflect.
Gigi H.
This is for the poetry page. Like
other fans on this page I am
inspired to write it just thinking about Ralph
I knew the first time i saw you
i can't explain why or how
i just knew that you would affect me
I saw your eyes and they shined
they spoke volumes without saying a word
they are beautiful and kind
i have never met you and maybe never will
but i know that if i did
you would be normal and your eyes would melt me
Your voice can move me to tears
your face makes me skip a beat
but i know you are only normal but that makes you special.
Thankyou for these feelings
i am only normal but
i am a better person for seeing your eyes.
Maxine xx
This is for your poetry page. Like other fans on this page i am
inspired to write it just thinking about Ralph
I knew the first time i saw you
i can't explain why or how
i just knew that you would affect me
I saw your eyes and they shined
they spoke volumes without saying a word
they are beautiful and kind
i have never met you and maybe never will
but i know that if i did
you would be normal and your eyes would melt me
Your voice can move me to tears
your face makes me skip a beat
but i know you are only normal but that makes you special.
Thankyou for these feelings
i am only normal but
i am a better person for seeing your eyes.
Maxine xx
These poems contributed by JoJo:
"I found them in a college poetry
magazine. They are not about RF, but they seem kind of
appropriate. The first one, especially. I see the second one as
something about a person's fantasies about another person. Enjoy:
"
Swimming in a hazy blue sea hanging onto black stones for
life.
The milky white sky is drained by the ocean.
I could swim in your eyes.
(New Poem)
I am the empress of your mind
I am the pilot of your soul
With your eyes your blue gemstones look at me
Let me take control.
I pull the strings your puppet heart breaks
I tickle the voodoo doll you laugh till you cry.
I am the empress in my mind.
Here are two poems by Bigeorge, inspired by the film, Oscar and Lucinda:
Pascal's Daughter
My every breath is a wager.
But I will not wait for the death prize.
I cannot comtemplate a pay out as great as salvation.
I do not gamble on eternity,
When life holds Chance however, small.
I stake on kindness, on good, on love.
On the greatness of Life, I place my bet.
Call me a fool. Call me a sinner.
I am a fool, a sinner.
Yet, I win a smile from a dying girl.
Your Lord is the King of Hearts.
My God is only a Spade.
I rejoice,
Knowing how lucky I am to breathe.
Oscar's Sonnet (work in
progress)
Gambler's tempt of fate cannot be a sin.
Because in this I saw my life begin.
I live for the next bet, with guilt and hope.
Wanting not to see my dangerous slope,
I lament but justify with reason,
My travel into this evil season.
Father fears my soul shall burn in hell,
But Pascal's words comfort me ever well.
God compels us to gamble on his grace.
Being a Christian is to win a place.
So I wait for the card flip, horse to run.
My gift, the rush of anticipation,
Is a thrill, hope, my earthly salvation.
I pray to quit and win every time.
Even as I sink to bet when church bells chime.
Another sonnet:
Oscar to Lucinda
A gambler's tempt of fate is not my vice.
Nor yours. God must not judge us for our risk.
How can it be, that we must bet on death,
But not life? Dear lady, God makes us bet.
We stake by command for mercy and grace.
Pascal has written this divine wager.
I apply the same reason to life's pleasure.
And trust no wrath will come because I am
Unbleminshed by my earthly wait to win.
Where is the sin? I do not find it here.
Not in you or me is there selish fault.
We have not gained nor cheated others.
But only to my heart do I inquire,
Why does this said wrong so greatly inspire?
Goodbye
Nothing is urgent to you.
Not love. Not money. Not sex.
Nothing warrants swift action
In your small paradise.
I think you live in a
Dull hell. Quite without desperation.
I could get no confessions get from your lips.
You gave only comfort when I wanted
Passion.
Lips that profess love.
But do not tremble.
Your cloak of calm is now without rival.
I cannot keep you warm and dry.
I do not want to remain temperate.
I was inspired to write this after waking in the night from a dream, Bos:
The Price of Your Eyes
I looked through everyone
But when I looked at you
I stopped.
They mirrored my gaze
An ancient English maze
The walls of time and my mortality
Melted in the face of such
A knowing look.
There were echoes there
Within your eyes
Of some time past
A time that preceeded every last
Year and century.
I shook inside as if chilled and
My heart so raw stood bare.
I don't know what to say
I am not mad
But when our eyes meet
In some future unfamiliar street
I'll know the depths I've known before
In another time, another place, another day.
MK 1997
These
poems were submitted by Emery. They are truly inspired choices.
Thanks, Emery, so much for your contributions.
"I've been rediscovering poetry and my love for lyrical
writing lately, thanks in part to Ralph's influence and passion.
Anyway, here are some of my fav poems that also remind me of
Ralph's characters. Most of them pertain to Almasy in the TEP
because that and "Schindler's List" are the only RF
films I own."
Sylvia Plath , Excerpt
from "Daddy"
"In the German tongue, in the Polish town
Scraped flat by the roller
Of wars, wars, wars.
But the name of the town is common.
My Polack friend
Says there are a dozen or two.
So I never could tell where you
Put your foot, your root,
I never could talk to you.
The tongue stuck in my jaw.
It stuck in a barb wire snare.
Ich, ich, ich, ich,
I could hardly speak.
I thought every German was you.
And the language obscene
An engine, an engine
Chuffing me off like a Jew.
A Jew to Dachau, Auschwitz, Belsen.
I began to talk like a Jew.
I think I may well be a Jew....
I have always been scared of you,
With your Luftwaffe, your gobbledygoo.
And your neat moustache
And your Aryan eye, bright blue.
Panzer-man, panzer-man, O You----
Not God but a swastika
So black no sky could squeak through.
Every woman adores a Fascist,
The boot in the face, the brute
Brute heart of a brute like you."
This poem strikes me for obvious reasons--it makes use of the
Nazi/Jewish struggle, for instance. On a deeper level, though,
Plath harnesses and beautifully represents the love/hate,
repulsion/desire all
Ralph Fiennes fans must feel towards the beastly, tortured Amon
Goeth. Although Plath is refering to her relationship with her
father, the diseased connection between them echoes a deeper
twisted relationship between humanity's attempts to be essential
good and civilized and the sick but seductive power of Nazi
fascism, a devil's deal depicted well by RF and Liam Neason in
"Schindler's List" and even better in the film
"Mother Night" based on the Vonnegat (sp?) novel.
The next two are by W. H. Auden
and remind me of "The English Patient".
"Lay your sleeping head, my love,
Human on my faithless arm;
Time and fevers burn away
Individual beauty from
Thoughtful children, and the grave
Proves the child ephemeral:
But in my arms till break of day
Let the living creature lie,
Mortal, guilty, but to me
The entirely beautiful.
Soul and body have no bounds:
To lovers as they lie upon
Her tolerant enchanted slope
In their ordinary swoon,
Grave the vision Venus sends
Of supernatural sympathy,
Universal love and hope;
While an abstract insight wakes
Among the glaciers and the rocks
The hermit's sensual ecstasy.
Certainty, fidelity
On the stroke of midnight pass
Like vibrations of a bell,
And fashionable madmen raise
Their pedantic boring cry:
Every farthing of the cost,
All the dreaded cards foretell,
Shall be paid, but from this night
Not a whisper, not a thought,
Not a kiss nor look be lost.
Beauty, midnight, vision dies:
Let the winds of dawn that blow
Softly round your dreaming head
Such a day of sweetness show
Eye and knocking heart may bless,
Find the mortal world enough;
Noons of dryness see you fed
By the involuntary powers,
Nights of insult let you pass
Watched by every human love."
The final scene between Almasy and Katherine in which he returns
to her body in the Cave of Swimmers, gently marks her skin and
lies one last time next to her as Kristin-Scott Thomas reads her
dying words in a voice-over...just gets me every time. This poem
evokes the same feelings for me as I read it silently while
playing those final scenes in my head. Katherine could have
spoken Auden's words in her final moment, the sentiments are so
similar. Almasy lays his "sleeping head" on her
"faithless arm" , exquisite in his
suffering--"Mortal, guilty, but to me/The entirely
beautiful." As the "vision dies," he must face the
'real' world of "fashionable madmen" and pointless
wars; pointless because, as Katherine says, "We are the real
countries, not the boundaries drawn on maps, the names of
powerful men."
"Two Songs for Hedli
Anderson"
"Stop all the clocks, cut off the
telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.
Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message [S]He Is Dead,
Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.
[S]He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last for ever: I was wrong.
The stars are not wanted now: put out every one;
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood.
For nothing now can ever come to any good."
That's how I feel as I watch Almasy bundle Katherine up and carry
her "out into the Palace of Winds." It could also be
Almasy's answering verse to Katherine's "Lullaby" if he
cared about urban civilities like "black cotton gloves"
or were given to uttering lyric verse. I don't think his feelings
can be put into words, so deep, confused, and passionate they
are....maybe a gutteral groan would be more fitting.
Louise Gluck
"The Mirror"
"Watching you in the mirror I
wonder
what it is like to be so beautiful
and why you do not love
but cut yourself, shaving
like a blind man. I think you let me stare
so you can turn against yourself
with greater violence,
needing to show me how you scrape the flesh away
scornfully and without hesitation
until I see you correctly,
as a man bleeding, not
the reflection I desire."
To me, this depicts the strange, loving, sadomasochistic
relationship Almasy and Katherine have. They need their love,
their passion, like a desert wanderer needs water (pardon the
pun), but they punish themselvesand each other, flailing their
own backs (metaphorically) and hurling barbs at one another.
Perhaps it's also how we, fans, feel about RF sometimes. We think
he's a nice guy, but he's portrayed some screwed up characters! I
love his suffering heroes!
If you would like to email Emery to discuss these poems, click
here,
manders3@mailhost.tcs.tulane.edu
This poem was contributed by Laurel, and was inspired by "Oscar and Lucinda".
LONGING
On this earthly path I've found
That many aches and joys abound
And when we ache, then that is fine
On Sorrow's seeds we all must dine
But too much joy and we begin
To wonder if too much is sin
And so we strive for angel wings
While angels long for earthly things
Laurel
This poem was contributed by J.A.F.:
Sensesationess’
You have that sense, a caring…
Loving which shows in your bearing.
Wherefore you go all heads do turn
and as you pass – a waft
sweetly dissipates
Down,
around,
s
w
i
r
l
i
n
g
senseless
Lingering longest, burning
intenseness.
Hearts flutter to capture the breath of the sun
until
letting loose all holds
You fly farther still
Inflamed, overwhelmed, incensed…
Away, away –-
You!
whose eons have shone before
never to catch but a glimpse
of your inner sense.
JAF
*Due to some of the limitations of HTML formatting, JAF's poem is a little differently arranged than what was sent to me. I tried my best to maintain a the form as much as possible.
Another original poem from JAF, inspired by Sunshine:
Mary: This poem is for your poetry page. This one inspired me to write it just by thinking of him….
Sitting
on the ocean shore
I wonder where you are
Thinking of your charming ways
Admiring from afar
You
captivate my very soul
And this you’ll never see
For we shall never chance to meet
As we are divided by the sea
I long
for the day
The chance and the place
To gaze in your eyes
To look at your face
Until
that day comes
I shall come to the shore
To nourish the hope
And ponder once more…
~Lori~
***************************************************
To my favourite actor. Ralph Fiennes. I saw all his movies. I´m from Argentina and In fact the only fan of RF in Buenos Aires,Capital Federal, Devoto.
Well, Ralph., I knew Amon first,
something in his eyes made me scream.
Then I saw a different person in Quiz Show
I felt in love with you.
Your voice is so warm, warm and tender
Your eyes can see everything
You are such a nice person
You could be perfect,
My dream is meet you some time
Travel to UK to see you acting
Well, now there is nothing I can do for you
except loving you
So far away , but so deep in my mind and in my heart.
Ralph, there you are.
-Julieta Colombo( the girl from Argentina)
***********************************************************
Oscar and Lucinda is my most favored of all of Ralph's films. I feel in many ways he reveals his true nature, his boyish uncertainty when it comes to love. (Although he definetly posses that strong, dominering, take me now side as well, as demonstraited in TEP.) This poem could reflect what Oscars character is battling with mentally during Lucinda and his first embrace.
IDLE THOUGHTS
new lovers trembling
with much awaited anticipation
at first nights kiss
to embrace is to sin
to partake, eternal hellfire
alas she loves another
for that, i must win her trust
hands shake with ferver
one must not let emotion take hold
bodies swell into motion
break with silence
although my heart screams for more
leave with innocence
bear only in mind, these things i must
katie* 12/2000
*********************************************************************
Although this wasn't written directly for Ralph (actually it was intended to express my feeling for a high school history teacher) I feel that expresses what most people feel like when they're in love with an illusion.
CRUSH
tis a burning desire,
a bitter disatisfaction
never to show, to express
deep unresolved feelings within me.
your voice. your eyes.
your mouth, your taste.
an overwhelming presence surrounds,
surrounds,
surrounds my innermost being.
feelings of discontent.
feelings of disbelief.
an uneasyness...
i feel like a leaf in the wind
surrounded by your unknowing innocence
lifting me up higher, higher,
towards the sun.
almasy bosphorus*
*******************************************************************************************************
"A Sonnet To My Love" by Rinat
i jumped across the
moon
in the meantime
nightbirds
pecking
my
soul
softly
&
brutal
and you
just stand
there
watching
gaze
with your gray-blue eyes of yours
don't do a bloody thing
your soul
is already pecked
not by me
not by the bloody birds
by you
the moon...
half smiling
half crying
your warm smile
drift away
your gentle voice
keep quite
too early
too soon
your deep complex eyes of yours
shut down
you so far, far away
only appearing in my dreams
your the first thing i think of in the dawn
your the last thing i think of when the darkness come
along..."I'm In love You Know"
If you would like to submit a poem to the Ralph Fiennes Fans Poetry Page, please send me your poem with a brief comment about why you think it reminds you of RF, etc. Here's my email: fiennesite@yahoo.com
If you don't have email access, feel free to post your poem to the forum, and I will transfer it to the poetry page.