Death poems

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The Quaker Graveyard in Nantucket

© Robert Lowell

(For Warren Winslow, Dead At Sea)
Let man have dominion over the fishes of the sea and
the fowls of the air and the beasts and the whole earth,
and every creeping creature that moveth upon the earth.

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History

© Robert Lowell

History has to live with what was here,
clutching and close to fumbling all we had--
it is so dull and gruesome how we die,
unlike writing, life never finishes.

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For the Union Dead

© Robert Lowell

The old South Boston Aquarium stands
in a Sahara of snow now. Its broken windows are boarded.
The bronze weathervane cod has lost half its scales.
The airy tanks are dry.

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Rock of Ages

© Augustus Montague Toplady

Rock of Ages, cleft for me,

  Let me hide myself in Thee!

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The Prophecy Of St. Oran: Part I

© Mathilde Blind

"Earth, earth on the mouth of Oran, that he may blab no more." Gaelic Proverb.


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False Poets And True (To Wordsworth)

© Thomas Hood

Look how the lark soars upward and is gone,
Turning a spirit as he nears the sky!
His voice is heard, but body there is none
To fix the vague excursions of the eye.

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Knight-Errant

© Madison Julius Cawein

Onward he gallops through enchanted gloom.

  The spectres of the forest, dark and dim,

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The Night-Fire

© Claude McKay

No engines shrieking rescue storm the night,
And hose and hydrant cannot here avail;
The flames laugh high and fling their challenging light,
And clouds turn gray and black from silver-pale.

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Poetry

© Claude McKay

Sometimes I tremble like a storm-swept flower,
And seek to hide my tortured soul from thee.
Bowing my head in deep humility
Before the silent thunder of thy power.

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The Dancer Of The Daughters Of Herodias

© Arthur Symons

Is it the petals falling from the rose?

For in the silence I can hear a sound

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S I W

© Wilfred Owen

I will to the King,
And offer him consolation in his trouble,
For that man there has set his teeth to die,
And being one that hates obedience,
Discipline, and orderliness of life,
I cannot mourn him.

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Third Sunday In Advent

© John Keble

What went ye out to see
  O'er the rude sandy lea,
Where stately Jordan flows by many a palm,
  Or where Gennesaret's wave
  Delights the flowers to lave,
That o'er her western slope breathe airs of balm.

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Sonnets Of The Blood VII

© Allen Tate

This message hastens lest we both go down

Scattered, with no character, to death;

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Orlando Furioso Canto 24

© Ludovico Ariosto

ARGUMENT

Odorico's and Gabrina's guilt repaid,

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If We Must Die

© Claude McKay

If we must die, let it not be like hogs
Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot,
While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs,
Making their mock at our accursèd lot.

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Fifth Sunday After Epiphany

© John Keble

"Wake, arm Divine! awake,
 Eye of the only Wise!
  Now for Thy glory's sake,
 Saviour and God, arise,
And may Thine ear, that sealed seems,
In pity mark our mournful themes!"

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Confirmation

© John Keble

The shadow of th' Almighty's cloud
  Calm on this tents of Israel lay,
While drooping paused twelve banners proud,
  Till He arise and lead this way.

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French Leave

© Claude McKay

No servile little fear shall daunt my will
This morning. I have courage steeled to say
I will be lazy, conqueringly still,
I will not lose the hours in toil this day.

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Sniper

© Bernard Gutteridge

I saw the sniper in the afternoon. The rifle
Lay there beside him neatly like his shooting,
The grass twined all about his cap.
He had killed neatly but we had set
Ten men about him to write death in jags
Cutting and spoiling on his face and broken body.

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To my dead friend Ben Johnson

© Henry King

I see that wreath which doth the wearer arm
'Gainst the quick strokes of thunder, is no charm
To keep off deaths pale dart. For, Johnson then
Thou hadst been number'd still with living men.