Fear poems
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God
© Isaac Rosenberg
In his malodorous brain what slugs and mire,
Lanthorned in his oblique eyes, guttering burned!
The Grownup
© Rainer Maria Rilke
All this stood upon her and was the world
and stood upon her with all its fear and grace
as trees stand, growing straight up, imageless
yet wholly image, like the Ark of God,
and solemn, as if imposed upon a race.
Victory
© Adrienne Rich
Suddenly instead of art we're eyeing
organisms traced and stained on cathedral transparencies
cruel blues embroidered purples succinct yellows
a beautiful tumor
For the Record
© Adrienne Rich
The clouds and the stars didn't wage this war
the brooks gave no information
if the mountain spewed stones of fire into the river
it was not taking sides
the raindrop faintly swaying under the leaf
had no political opinions
The Earthly Paradise: Apology
© William Morris
Of Heaven or Hell I have no power to sing,
I cannot ease the burden of your fears,
Inheritance-His
© Audre Lorde
Does an image of return
wealthy and triumphant
warm your chilblained fingers
as you count coins in the Manhattan snow
or is it only Linda
who dreams of home?
Sir Humphrey Gilbert
© Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Eastward from Campobello
Sir Humphrey Gilbert sailed;
Three days or more seaward he bore,
Then, alas! the land-wind failed.
Paul Revere's Ride
© Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Listen, my children, and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-Five:
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year.
Song of the Indian Maid
© John Keats
O SORROW!
Why dost borrow
The natural hue of health, from vermeil lips?¡ª
To give maiden blushes
To the white rose bushes? 5
Or is it thy dewy hand the daisy tips?
Crow Sickene
© Ted Hughes
Decided to get death, but whatever
Walked into his ambush
Was always his own body.
Low Tide on Grand Pré
© Bliss William Carman
A grievous stream, that to and fro
Athrough the fields of Acadie
Goes wandering, as if to know
Why one beloved face should be
So long from home and Acadie.
4. Song-In the Character of a Ruined Farmer
© Robert Burns
THE SUN he is sunk in the west,
All creatures retir?d to rest,
While here I sit, all sore beset,
With sorrow, grief, and woe:
And it’s O, fickle Fortune, O!
397. Song-Wandering Willie (Revised Version)
© Robert Burns
HERE awa, there awa, wandering Willie,
Here awa, there awa, haud awa hame;
390. Song-A Health to them that’s awa
© Robert Burns
Note 1. Charles James Fox. [back]
Note 2. Hon. Thos. Erskine, afterwards Lord Erskine. [back]
383. Song-My Wife’s a winsome wee thing
© Robert Burns
Chorus.—She is a winsome wee thing,
She is a handsome wee thing,
She is a lo’esome wee thing,
This dear wee wife o’ mine.
373. Song-The Slave’s Lament
© Robert Burns
IT was in sweet Senegal that my foes did me enthral,
For the lands of Virginia,—ginia, O:
Torn from that lovely shore, and must never see it more;
And alas! I am weary, weary O:
Torn from that lovely shore, and must never see it more;
And alas! I am weary, weary O.
