Food poems
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Paradise Regain'd : Book IV.
© John Milton
Perplexed and troubled at his bad success
The Tempter stood, nor had what to reply,
Discovered in his fraud, thrown from his hope
So oft, and the persuasive rhetoric
The King Goes To War
© Confucius
The wild geese fly the bushy oaks around,
With clamor loud. _Suh-suh_ their wings resound,
Enceladus
© Alfred Noyes
And hungered, yet no comrade of the wolf,
And cold, but with no power upon the sun,
A master of this world that mastered him!
Invitation: to Fabullus
© Gaius Valerius Catullus
Youll dine well, in a few days, with me,
if the gods are kind to you, my dear Fabullus,
Fireflies
© Rabindranath Tagore
My fancies are fireflies,
Specks of living light
twinkling in the dark.
The Stealing Of The Mare - IV
© Wilfrid Scawen Blunt
Said the Narrator:
Now when the Princess Alia had made her petition to the Maker of the Heavens, and her deliverance had been wrought by Abu Zeyd with the slaying of her enemies, and he had said to her, ``Return and say no word of this to thy friends,'' she besought him, saying: ``Nay, but by Him who commandeth all power, I will not return home until thou hast told me of thyself, who thou art and of what tribe and nation of the Arabs.'' But he said to her, ``Know, O Lady, that I am of the race of the Jinns and that our people are indeed Muslims obeying the Lord of the Universe, and I was sent to thee from the land of Syria to deliver thee from that traitor, who was of the children of crime.'' But she answered him, ``Yet are not the Jinns of thy quality. Rather tell me the truth. I adjure thee by Him who created thee and in whose shadow thou didst grow up, and who hath wrought blessings through thy hand.'' And being thus adjured he said, ``O Alia, there were peril for me if I told thee truly all.'' But she answered, ``Be not afraid. Though thou wert the Prince Abu Zeyd himself, the Helali, yet shouldst thou have security, ay, even he that great horseman.'' Then said he to her, ``Stretch forth thy hand that we may make a covenant together, so shall God be our witness.'' And she said, ``As thou wilt.'' Then they made them a covenant together in the name of God the Almighty, and their souls were loosed of their burden. And Abu Zeyd spoke to her and told her all, and said, ``It was indeed none other than I that slew thy uncle, nor came I with a better purpose than to steal away that mare.'' And she said, ``Now is my heart light and my trouble ended, and as for the mare, look for her at my hand and not through another road; for my uncle and my people, are they not at thy disposal? And if there hath been evil how shall we take vengeance now, for I and my wealth and my kindred, all that is mine is thine. And thou shalt not find us niggardly of our kindness to thee, nor shall we refuse thee aught, inasmuch as all that I might do for thee, whether I fast or whether I pray, whether I give or whether I bestow, never might I make up to thee for what I have received at thy hand. Therefore shall there evermore be kindness between us. Ay, and if thou be willing, come thou now to our camp.'' But he said to her, ``O Alia, O fairest lady, know that this I cannot do, this I desire not.'' And when Alia heard this word, it deepened her regard for him, and she praised God who had ordered it that she should meet with one so honourable. And she perceived that to one such as was this brave knight she could entrust her soul and all that was hers. And she entreated him, ``Come with me to the tribe.'' But he, ``Never can I come with thee.'' And still she besought him, saying, ``Know this, O Hejazi Salameh, that I will not leave thee here nor depart from thee. And as to the mare, her will I deliver to thee and whatsoever else thou demandest. Nay, though it were my soul I would not deny it.'' But he answered her, ``My mind is changed about the mare, nor would I now take her, for I fear lest they seeking and not finding her should suspect thee, O Alia, and trouble should come to thee of thy father. And have we not the grey mare of Diab with us, the Shohba, whom we may give to the lady, nor run this great risk for her sake?'' But Alia insisting said, ``Nay, that shall not be, nor care I what may come, not though I should taste of the cup of evil things. But if thou wilt not take the mare, then will I kill her and myself with her, and on thy head be it for her and for me.'' And Abu Zeyd consented, saying: ``I will do what thee seemeth good. So may God prosper thy designing.''
And the Narrator returned to his singing of that which happened between the Princess Alia and the Prince Abu Zeyd.
A Shower In War-Time
© Sydney Thompson Dobell
Rain, rain, sweet warm rain,
On the wood and on the plain,
And round me like a dropping well,
The great round drops they fell and fell.
Fanscomb Barn
© Anne Kingsmill Finch
In Fanscomb Barn (who knows not Fanscomb Barn?)
Seated between the sides of rising Hills,
Lines Written At Norwich On The First News Of Peace
© Amelia Opie
What means that wild and joyful cry?
Why do yon crowds in mean attire
Throw thus their ragged arms on high?
In want what can such joy inspire?
The Question
© Dora Sigerson Shorter
Now here is where I fail to understand,
And put my question in all reverence,
On bended knee with head most lowly bent,
To the All-High, All-Knowing Providence.
The Wanderer: A Vision: Canto IV
© Richard Savage
Still o'er my mind wild Fancy holds her sway,
Still on strange visionary land I stray.
Now scenes crowd thick! now indistinct appear!
Swift glide the months, and turn the varying year!
To The Countess Of Bedford I
© John Donne
Therefore I study you first in your saints,
Those friends whom your election glorifies ;
Then in your deeds, accesses and restraints,
And what you read, and what yourself devise.
The Farmer's Ingle
© Robert Fergusson
Et multo in primis hilarans conviuia Baccho
Ante focum, si frigus erit, (si messis, in umbra,
Vina novum fundam calathis Ariusia nectar)
The Song of Hiawatha X: Hiawatha's Wooing
© Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
"As unto the bow the cord is,
So unto the man is woman,
Though she bends him, she obeys him,
Though she draws him, yet she follows,
Useless each without the other!"
The Devil's Walk. A Ballad
© Percy Bysshe Shelley
I.
Once, early in the morning, Beelzebub arose,
With care his sweet person adorning,
He put on his Sunday clothes.
On Sanazar's Being Honoured With Six hundred Duckets By The
© Richard Lovelace
Twas a blith prince exchang'd five hundred crowns
For a fair turnip. Dig, dig on, O clowns
But how this comes about, Fates, can you tell,
This more then Maid of Meurs, this miracle?
France--December 1870
© George Meredith
Henceforth of her the Gods are known,
Open to them her breast is laid.
Inveterate of brain, heart-valiant,
Never did fairer creature pant
Before the altar and the blade!
Nebuchadnezzar's Fall
© Robert Graves
Frowning over the riddle that Daniel told,
Down through the mist hung garden, below a feeble sun,
The King of Persia walked: oh, the chilling cold!
His mind was webbed with a grey shroud vapour-spun.
Songs In A Cornfield
© Christina Georgina Rossetti
Where is he gone to
And why does he stay?
He came across the green sea
But for a day,
Across the deep green sea
To help with the hay.
