Death poems
/ page 392 of 560 /
Distichs.
© Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
WHO is the happiest of men? He who values the merits
of others,
And in their pleasure takes joy, even as though 'twere his own.
Lamp Of Love
© Rabindranath Tagore
Misery knocks at thy door,
and her message is that thy lord is wakeful,
and he calls thee to the love-tryst through the darkness of night.
A Glass Of Wine
© Wilcox Ella Wheeler
"What's in a glass of wine?"
There, set the glass where I can look within.
Trilogy of Passion: I. TO WERTHER.
© Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
The farewell sunbeams bless'd our ravish'd view;
Fate bade thee go,--to linger here was mine,--
Going the first, the smaller loss was thine.
Time And The Lady
© Dora Sigerson Shorter
Haste, maiden, haste! the spray has come to budding,
The dawn creeps o'er the heavens gold and fair.
Evening.
© Robert Crawford
The light is drawn out of the leaves and grass,
And the sweet flowers grow pale in the gray air,
As if their beauty's essence e'en did pass
With the departing light from all things fair,
The God And The Bayadere.
© Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
[This very fine Ballad was also first given in the Horen.]
(MAHADEVA is one of the numerous names of Seeva, the destroyer,--
the great god of the Brahmins.)
Leopold, Duke Of Brunswick.
© Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
LEOPOLD, DUKE OF BRUNSWICK.[Written on the occasion of the death, by drowning,
of the Prince.]THOU wert forcibly seized by the hoary lord of the river,--Holding thee, ever he shares with thee his streaming domain,
Calmly sleepest thou near his urn as it silently trickles,Till thou to action art roused, waked by the swift-rolling flood.
Kindly be to the people, as when thou still wert a mortal,Perfecting that as a god, which thou didst fail in, as man. 1785.
A Child
© William Ernest Henley
A child,
Curious and innocent,
Slips from his Nurse, and rejoicing
Loses himself in the Fair.
Lines On Seeing Schiller's Skull.
© Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
[This curious imitation of the ternary metre
of Dante was written at the age of 77.]WITHIN a gloomy charnel-house one dayI view'd the countless skulls, so strangely mated,
And of old times I thought, that now were grey.Close pack'd they stand, that once so fiercely hated,
And hardy bones, that to the death contended,Are lying cross'd,--to lie for ever, fated.
My Sweetest Lesbia
© Thomas Campion
My sweetest Lesbia, let us live and love,
And though the sager sort our deeds reprove,
Let us not weigh them. Heaven's great lamps do dive
Into their west, and straight again revive,
But soon as once set is our little light,
Then must we sleep one ever-during night.
Be Not Dismayed
© Wilcox Ella Wheeler
Be not dismayed, be not dismayed when death
Sets its white seal upon some worshipped face.
The Spectral Attitudes
© André Breton
I attach no importance to life
I pin not the least of life's butterflies to importance
Seddon
© George Essex Evans
Nature, that builds great minds for mighty tasks,
Sculptured his frame to match the soul within;
Taught him how wisdom wields the power it asks;
For each new conquest set him more to win.
The German Parnassus.
© Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
With her modest pinions, see,
Philomel encircles me!
In these bushes, in yon grove,
The Death Of The Fly
© Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
WITH eagerness he drinks the treach'rous potion,Nor stops to rest, by the first taste misled;
Sweet is the draught, but soon all power of motionHe finds has from his tender members fled;
No longer has he strength to plume his wing,
No longer strength to raise his head, poor thing!
Trilogy of Passion: II. ELEGY.
© Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
WHAT hope of once more meeting is there now
In the still-closed blossoms of this day?
Both heaven and hell thrown open seest thou;
What wav'ring thoughts within the bosom play
No longer doubt! Descending from the sky,
She lifts thee in her arms to realms on high.
Niobe
© John Donne
By children's births, and death, I am become
So dry, that I am now mine own sad tomb.
