Death poems

 / page 84 of 560 /
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The Summons

© Katharine Tynan

Straight to his death he went,
  A smile on his lips,
All his life's joy unspent,
  Into eclipse.

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The Horkey

© Robert Bloomfield

What gossips prattled in the sun,
  Who talk'd him fairly down,
Up, memory! tell; 'tis Suffolk fun,
  And lingo of their own.

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Griselda: A Society Novel In Verse - Chapter I

© Wilfrid Scawen Blunt

And thus I first beheld her, standing calm
In the swayed crowd upon her husband's arm,
One opera night, the centre of all eyes,
So proud she seemed, so fair, so sweet, so wise.
Some one behind me whispered ``Lady L.!
His Lordship too! and thereby hangs a tale.''

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By The Fireside : Tegner's Death (Tegner's Drapa)

© Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

I heard a voice, that cried,
"Balder the Beautiful
Is dead, is dead!"
And through the misty air
Passed like the mournful cry
Of sunward sailing cranes.

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The Aeneid of Virgil: Book 1

© Publius Vergilius Maro

ARMS, and the man I sing, who, forc’d by fate,  

And haughty Juno’s unrelenting hate,  

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..But a short time to live"

© Leslie Coulson

Our little hour,—how swift it flies  

 When poppies flare and lilies smile;  

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America

© Edgar Lee Masters

Glorious daughter of time! Thou of the mild blue eye --
Thou of the virginal forehead --pallid, unfurrowed of tears--
Thou of the strong white hands with fingers dipped in the dye
Of the blood that quickened the fathers of thee, in the ancient years,

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The Mourner

© George Crabbe

He had his wish, had more; I will not paint
The lovers' meeting: she beheld him faint, -
With tender fears, she took a nearer view,
Her terrors doubling as her hopes withdrew;
He tried to smile, and, half succeeding, said,
"Yes! I must die," and hope for ever fled.

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The Prayer Of Agassiz

© John Greenleaf Whittier

On the isle of Penikese,

Ringed about by sapphire seas,

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On The Death of A Certain Journal

© Charles Kingsley

So die, thou child of stormy dawn,
Thou winter flower, forlorn of nurse;
Chilled early by the bigot's curse,
The pedant's frown, the worldling's yawn.

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At Tarragona

© Arthur Symons

If I could know but when and why

This piece of thoughtless dust begins

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On The Death Of Mr. Viner

© Thomas Parnell

The liquid Harmony, a tuneful Tide,
Now seem'd to rage, anon wou'd gently glide;
By Turns would ebb and flow, would rise and fall,
Be loudly daring, or be softly small:
While all was blended in one common Name,
Wave push'd on Wave, and all compos'd a Stream.

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A Word to Texas Jack

© Henry Lawson

You may talk about your ridin’ in the city, bold an’ free,
Talk o’ ridin’ in the city, Texas Jack, but where’d yer be
When the stock horse snorts an’ bunches all ’is quarters in a hump,
And the saddle climbs a sapling, an’ the horse-shoes split a stump?

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The Grave Of A Poetess

© Felicia Dorothea Hemans

I stood beside thy lowly grave;
  Spring-odours breath'd around,
And music, in the river-wave,
  Pass'd with a lulling sound.

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Lilith

© Henry Kendall

Father, whose years have been many and weary—
 Elder, whose life is as lovely as light
Shining in ways that are sterile and dreary—
Tell me the name of this beautiful peri,
 Flashing on me like the wonderful white
 Star, at the meeting of morning and night.

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The Mariner

© Gilbert Keith Chesterton

The violet scent is sacred
  Like dreams of angels bright;
The hawthorn smells of passion
  Told in a moonless night.

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The Parting Soul And Her Guardian Angel

© Rosanna Eleanor Leprohon

Soul—
  Oh! say must I leave this world of light
  With its sparkling streams and sunshine bright,
  Its budding flowers, its glorious sky?
  Vain ’tis to ask me—I cannot die!

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The Head Of Bran The Blest

© George Meredith

When the Head of Bran
Was firm on British shoulders,
God made a man!
Cried all beholders.

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Sonnet 18:

© William Shakespeare



Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?

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Ballad

© Frances Anne Kemble

The Lord's son stood at the clear spring head,

  The May on the other side,