Good poems
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A Banjo Song
© James Weldon Johnson
W'en de banjos wuz a-ringin',
An' de darkies wuz a-singin',
Oh, wuzen dem de good times sho!
All de ole folks would be chattin',
An' de pickaninnies pattin',
As dey heah'd de feet a-shufflin' 'cross de flo'.
Consider The Ravens
© George MacDonald
But I consider further, and find
A hungry bird has a free mind;
He is hungry to-day, not to-morrow,
Steals no comfort, no grief doth borrow;
This moment is his, thy will hath said it,
The next is nothing till thou hast made it.
Amours De Voyage, Canto III
© Arthur Hugh Clough
- domus Albuneae resonantis,
Et praeceps Anio, et Tibuni lucus, et uda
Mobilibus pomaria rivis
Insomniac
© Sylvia Plath
The night is only a sort of carbon paper,
Blueblack, with the much-poked periods of stars
Lieutenant-Colonel Flare
© William Schwenck Gilbert
The earth has armies plenty,
And semi-warlike bands,
The Library
© George Crabbe
When the sad soul, by care and grief oppress'd,
Looks round the world, but looks in vain for rest;
The Testament of John Lydgate - Excerpt
© John Lydgate
Beholde, o man! lyft up thyn eye and see
What mortall peyne I suffre for thi trespace.
Epitaph In Three Parts
© Sylvia Plath
Rocking across the lapis lazuli sea
comes a flock of bottle battleships
each with a telegram addressed to me.
The Resurrection
© Denis Florence MacCarthy
The day of wintry wrath is o'er,
The whirlwind and the storm have pass'd,
The whiten'd ashes of the snow
Enwrap the ruined world no more;
Nor keenly from the orient blow
The venom'd hissings of the blast.
Alcohol's Requiem Upon Prof. P. F. K., A Gifted Man, Who Died A Victim Of Strong Drink
© Wilcox Ella Wheeler
Ho! ho! Father Death! I have won you another!
Another grand soul I have ruined and taken;
I, who am licensed by good Christian people,
Eat and eat at their souls till by angels forsaken:
I spoil them, I soil them, and past all reclaiming
They fall, sick with sins that are too black for naming.
Quee, Quee!
© Louisa May Alcott
"Quee, quee!
Wait and see:
You were good to me;
So here I come,
From my little home,
To help you willingly,"
The Servant Girl Justified
© Jean de La Fontaine
LET us proceed, howe'er (our plan explained
A pretty servant-girl a man retain'd.
She pleas'd his eye, and presently he thought,
With ease she might to am'rous sports be brought;
He prov'd not wrong; the wench was blithe and gay,
A buxom lass, most able ev'ry way.
On The Death Of Damon. (Translated From Milton)
© William Cowper
Ye Nymphs of Himera (for ye have shed
Erewhile for Daphnis and for Hylas dead,
An Invective Written By Mr. George Chapman Against Mr. Ben Jonson
© George Chapman
Great, learned, witty Ben, be pleased to light
The world with that three-forked fire; nor fright
"I hate work so"
© Lesbia Harford
I hate work so
That I have found a way
Of making one small task outlast the day.
I will not leave
The Shut-Eye Sentry
© Rudyard Kipling
So it was "Rounds! What Rounds?" at two of a frosty night,
'E's 'oldin' on by the sergeant's sash, but, sentry, shut your eye.
An' it was "Pass! All's well!" Oh, ain't 'e drippin' tight!
'E'll need an affidavit pretty badly by-an'-by.
The King Of Brentford
© William Makepeace Thackeray
There was a king in Brentford,of whom no legends tell,
But who, without his glory,could eat and sleep right well.
His Polly's cotton nightcap,it was his crown of state,
He slept of evenings early,and rose of mornings late.
Upon the Fish in The Water
© John Bunyan
The water is the fish's element;
Take her from thence, none can her death prevent;
And some have said, who have transgressors been,
As good not be, as to be kept from sin.
