Business poems
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Laughter
© Edgar Albert Guest
Laughter sort o' settles breakfast better than digestive pills;
Found it, somehow in my travels, cure for every sort of ills;
When the hired help have riled me with their slipshod, careless ways,
An' I'm bilin' mad an' cussin' an' my temper's all ablaze,
If the calf gets me to laughin' while they're teachin' him to feed
Pretty soon I'm feelin' better, 'cause I've found the cure I need.
The Angel In The House. Book I. Canto VI.
© Coventry Kersey Dighton Patmore
IV A Riddle Solved
Kind souls, you wonder why, love you,
When you, you wonder why, love none.
We love, Fool, for the good we do,
Not that which unto us is done!
Parliament Hill Fields
© Sylvia Plath
On this bald hill the new year hones its edge.
Faceless and pale as china
The round sky goes on minding its business.
Your absence is inconspicuous;
Nobody can tell what I lack.
Little Breeches
© John Hay
And here all hope soured on me,
Of my fellow-critter's aid,--
I jest flopped down on my marrow-bones,
Crotch-deep in the snow, and prayed.
The Progress Of Refinement. Part II.
© Henry James Pye
CONTENTS OF PART II. Introduction.Sketch of the Northern barbarians.Feudal system.Origin of Chivalry.Superstition.Crusades. Hence the enfranchisement of Vassals, and Commerce encouraged. The Northern and Western Europeans, struck with the splendor of Constantinople, and the superior elegance of the Saracens.Origin of Romance. The remains of Science confined to the monasteries, and in an unknown language.Hence the distinction of learning.Discovery of the Roman Jurisprudence, and it's effects.Classic writers begin to be admiredArts revive in Italy.Greek learning introduced there, on the taking of Constantinople by the Turks.That event lamented.Learning encouraged by Leo X.Invention of Printing.The Reformation.It's effects, even on those countries that retained their old Religion. It's establishment in Britain.Age of Elizabeth. Arts and Literature flourish.Spenser.Shakespear. Milton.Dryden.The Progress of the Arts checked by the Civil War.Patronized in France. Age of Lewis XIV.Taste hurt in England during the profligate reign of Charles II.Short and turbulent reign of his Successor.King William no encourager of the Arts.Age of Queen Anne.Manners.Science and Literature flourish.Neglected by the first Princes of the House of Brunswick.Patronage of Arts by his present Majesty.Poetry not encouraged.Address to the King.General view of the present state of Refinement. Among the European Nations.France. Britain.Italy.Spain.Holland and Germany. Increasing Influence of French manners. Russia.Greece.Asia.China.Africa. America.Newly discovered islands.European Colonies.
A Business Deal
© George Ade
An ancient joker, grizzled and half-bald,
With the outward seeming and the attire
The Ocean
© Felicia Dorothea Hemans
HE that in venturous barks hath been
A wanderer on the deep,
Can tell of many an awful scene,
Where storms for ever sweep.
Ironing After Midnight by Marsha Truman Cooper: American Life in Poetry #69 Ted Kooser, U.S. Poet La
© Ted Kooser
This marvelous poem by the California poet Marsha Truman Cooper perfectly captures the world of ironing, complete with its intimacy. At the end, doing a job to perfection, pressing the perfect edge, establishes a reassuring order to an otherwise mundane and slightly tawdry world.
Ironing After Midnight
Man
© Henry Vaughan
Weighing the steadfastness and state
Of some mean things which here below reside,
The Borough. Letter VI: Professions--Law
© George Crabbe
"TRADES and Professions"--these are themes the Muse,
Left to her freedom, would forbear to choose;
Family Album by Diane Thiel: American Life in Poetry #41 Ted Kooser, U.S. Poet Laureate 2004-2006
© Ted Kooser
Those photos in family albums, what do they show us about the lives of people, and what don't they tell? What are they holding back? Here Diane Thiel, who teaches in New Mexico, peers into one of those pictures.
Family Album
I like old photographs of relatives
in black and white, their faces set like stone.
They knew this was serious business.
My favorite album is the one that's filled
with people none of us can even name.
Thespis: Act II
© William Schwenck Gilbert
Jupiter, Aged Diety
Apollo, Aged Diety
Mars, Aged Diety
Diana, Aged Diety
Mercury
Alsace-Lorraine
© George Meredith
Yet the like aerial growths may chance be the delicate sprays,
Infant of Earth's most urgent in sap, her fierier zeal
For entry on Life's upper fields: and soul thus flourishing pays
The martyr's penance, mark for brutish in man to heel.
Booth's Drum [1]
© Henry Lawson
They have long used army rank-terms, and oh, say what it shall be,
When a few come back the real thing, and when one comes back V.C.!
They will bang the drum at Crows Nest, they will bang it on the Shore,
They will bang the drum in Kent-street as they never banged before.
And At Last theyll frighten Satan from the Mansion and the Slum
Hell have never heard till that time such a Banging of the Drum.
The Waggoner - Canto Third
© William Wordsworth
RIGHT gladly had the horses stirred,
When they the wished-for greeting heard,
The whip's loud notice from the door,
That they were free to move once more.
Epilogue Intended To Have Been Spoken For 'She Stoops To Conquer'
© Oliver Goldsmith
'Enter' MRS. BULKLEY,
'who curtsies very low as beginning to speak.
Then enter' MISS CATLEY,
'who stands full before her, and curtsies to the audience'.
Nathan The Wise - Act II
© Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
But out of my dilemma
'Tis not so easy to escape unhurt.
Well, you must have the knight.
Bitter Strawberries
© Sylvia Plath
All morning in the strawberry field
They talked about the Russians.
Squatted down between the rows
We listened.
We heard the head woman say,
'Bomb them off the map.'
