Twelve Classic Poems Rewritten by Twelve Classic Video Games
Matthew Burnside
“Two rows diverged in a black and blue grid,
And sorry I could not travel both
And being chased, not long I stood
And chomped down dots as far as I could
To where a cherry waited in the corner
And then I gulped a lot of ghosts”
“Had I the heavens’ master sword,
Embossed with golden and silver light
The boomerang and the bomb and the hero’s cloths
Of Hyrulean lore and green and the half green
I would hold up the Triforce above my head:
But I, being new, have only this lantern
And this rupee I found in a bush
Tread softly because I only have three hearts“
“Water, water, everywhere
And the Big Daddy did clink
Water, water, everywhere,
Nor any tonic to drink”
“i carry your ink ribbon with me(i carry it in
my case)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear;and whatever the t-virus does
is all your doing, Umbrella)”
“The woods are lovely, dark and deep
But I have miners yet to creep
And tiles to go before they weep
And tiles to go before they weep”
“I wander’d lonely as a cloud
And then dropped spiny eggs on everybody below”
“How do I beat thee? Let me count the ways:
Up-Up-Down-Down-Left-Right-Left-Right-B-A-Start”
“To fatality or not to fatality: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _”
“This is the way the level ends
This is the way the level ends
This is the way the level ends
Not with a p-wing but your princess in another castle”
“We have lingered on the roof with rolling barrels
By a hostage dressed in pink and crowned
Till little plumbers wake us, and we pound”
“Go gentle into that empty gap
Pieces should twist and turn at the top of the screen
Rotate, rotate against the dying of the lines!”
“I have released
the red shell
which I was saving
this whole race
and which
you will never
outrun
Forgive me
you were winning
and I was not”