Death poems
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To Hilaire Belloc
© Gilbert Keith Chesterton
For every tiny town or place
God made the stars especially;
Gitanjali
© Rabindranath Tagore
1.
Thou hast made me endless, such is thy pleasure. This frail vessel thou emptiest again and again, and fillest it ever with fresh life.
Things
© Aline Murray Kilmer
SOMETIMES when I am at tea with you
I catch my breath
At a thought that is old as the world is old
And more bitter than death.
Lines For An Album
© Weldon Kees
Over the river and through the woods
To grandmothers house we go ...
Sonnet II: Bridal Birth
© Dante Gabriel Rossetti
As when desire, long darkling, dawns, and first
The mother looks upon the newborn child,
Two Love-Songs
© Arthur Symons
I do not know if your eyes are green or grey
Or if there are other eyes brighter than they;
They have looked in my eyes; when they look in my eyes I can see
One thing, and a thing to be surely the death of me.
The Rebel
© Caroline Norton
WITH none to heed or mark
The prisoner in his cell,
In a dungeon, lone and dark,
He tuned his wild farewell.
Three Friends Of Mine
© Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
When I remember them, those friends of mine,
Who are no longer here, the noble three,
The Fairy Of The Fountains
© Letitia Elizabeth Landon
And a youthful warrior stands
Gazing not upon those bands,
Not upon the lovely scene,
But upon its lovelier queen,
Who with gentle word and smile
Courteous prays his stay awhile.
Saint Peter
© George MacDonald
O Peter, wherefore didst thou doubt?
Indeed the spray flew fast about,
Envy
© Adelaide Anne Procter
He was the first always: Fortune
Shone bright in his face.
I fought for years; with no effort
He conquered the place:
We ran; my feet were all beeding,
But he won the race.
Adultery
© James Dickey
We have all been in rooms
We cannot die in, and they are odd places, and sad.
Often Indians are standing eagle-armed on hills
The Voices Of The Death Chamber
© Rosanna Eleanor Leprohon
The night lamp is faintly gleaming
Within my chamber still,
Meditation Before Sacrament
© Thomas Parnell
Arise my soul & hast away
Thy god doth call & canst thou stay
The Surgeon's Warning
© Robert Southey
The Doctor whispered to the Nurse
And the Surgeon knew what he said,
And he grew pale at the Doctor's tale
And trembled in his sick bed.
Thoughts On Death (From The Swedish Of C. Lohman)
© George Borrow
Perhaps t is folly, but still I feel
My heart-strings quiver, my senses reel,
Thinking how like a fast stream we range
Nearer and nearer to yon dread change,
When soul and spirit filter away,
And leave nothing better than senseless clay.
A Lament
© Charles Harpur
Ah! what can be flowers in their gladness to me,
Or the voices that people the green forest tree,
Or the full joy of streamssince my soul sighs, ah me!
Oer the grave of my Mary.
The Stealing Of The Mare - II
© Wilfrid Scawen Blunt
Said the Narrator:
And when Abu Zeyd had made an end of speaking, and the Kadi Diab and the Sultan and Rih, and all had happened as hath been said, then the Emir Abu Zeyd mounted his running camel and bade farewell to the Arabs and was gone; and all they who remained behind were in fear thinking of his journey. But Abu Zeyd went on alone, nor stayed he before he came to the pastures of the Agheylat. And behold, in the first of their vallies as he journeyed onward the slaves of the Agheylat saw him and came upon him, threatening him with their spears, and they said to him, ``O Sheykh, who and what art thou, and what is thy story, and the reason of thy coming?'' And he said to them, ``O worthy men of the Arabs, I am a poet, of them that sing the praise of the generous and the blame of the niggardly.'' And they answered him, ``A thousand welcomes, O poet.'' And they made him alight and treated him with honour until night came upon their feasting, nor did he depart from among them until the night had advanced to a third, but remained with them, singing songs of praise, and reciting lettered phrases, until they were stirred by his words and astonished at his eloquence. And at the end of all he arrived at the praise of the Agheyli Jaber. Then stopped they him and said: ``He of whom thou speakest is the chieftain of our people, and he is a prince of the generous. Go thou, therefore, to him, and he shall give thee all, even thy heart's desire.'' And he answered them, ``Take ye care of my camel and keep her for me while I go forward to recite his praises, and on my return we will divide the gifts.'' And he left them. And as he went he set himself to devise a plan by which he might enter into the camp and entrap the Agheyli Jaber.
And the Narrator singeth of Abu Zeyd and of the herdsmen thus:
