Ah! little thought I of the blasting wind,
The thirst or pinching hunger that I find!
Bethink thee, Hassan, where shall thirst assuage,
When fails this cruise, his unrelenting rage?
Soon shall this scrip its precious load resign;
Then what but tears and hunger shall be thine?

The Stream's Secret

© Dante Gabriel Rossetti

What thing unto mine ear
Wouldst thou convey,what secret thing,
O wandering water ever whispering?
Surely thy speech shall be of her.
Thou water, O thou whispering wanderer,
What message dost thou bring?

Philosopher Orders Crispy Pork

© Heather McHugh

I love him so, this creature I do pray
was treated kindly. I will pay
as much as pig-lovers see fit

Monody

© Arvind Krishna Mehrotra

To have known him, to have loved him

After loneness long;

Satire III

© John Donne

Kind pity chokes my spleen; brave scorn forbids

Those tears to issue which swell my eyelids;

Paradise Lost: Book X

© Patrick Kavanagh

So having said, he thus to Eve in few:
"Say, Woman, what is this which thou hast done?"
To whom sad Eve, with shame nigh overwhelm'd,
Confessing soon, yet not before her Judge
Bold or loquacious, thus abash'd replied,
"The Serpent me beguil'd, and I did eat."

Penumbra

© Amy Lowell

The old house will guard you,
As I have done.
Its walls and rooms will hold you,
And I shall whisper my thoughts and fancies
As always,
From the pages of my books.

Evening Angelus

I have forgotten the words,

and therefore I shall not conceive

Beowulf (modern English translation)

LO, praise of the prowess of people-kings

of spear-armed Danes, in days long sped,

Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence

I'm waiting for the Light Beings
to remove my roof.
Our bedroom is lousy with clothes
spelling out greetings if anyone's up there
who can read English.