Great poems
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A Hymn in Praise of Neptune
© Thomas Campion
OF Neptune's empire let us sing,
At whose command the waves obey;
Sonnet IV: Unthrifty Loveliness, Why Dost Thou Spend
© William Shakespeare
Unthrifty loveliness, why dost thou spend
Upon thy self thy beauty's legacy?
Nature's bequest gives nothing, but doth lend,
And being frank she lends to those are free:
Sonnet IV
© William Shakespeare
Unthrifty loveliness, why dost thou spend
Upon thyself thy beauty's legacy?
Nature's bequest gives nothing but doth lend,
And being frank she lends to those are free.
Sonnet CXXXVI
© William Shakespeare
If thy soul cheque thee that I come so near,
Swear to thy blind soul that I was thy 'Will,'
And will, thy soul knows, is admitted there;
Thus far for love my love-suit, sweet, fulfil.
Sunday In The Country
© Edgar Albert Guest
SUNDAY in the country that's how we spent the day,
Drinking in the perfume of the fragrant breath of May;
Gazing at the splendors of the meadows and the hills,
Laughing with the babbling brooks and singing with the rills,
Dancing with the sunbeams and smiling with the skies,
And worshiping the Master with our hearts and minds and eyes.
The Ghost - Book II
© Charles Churchill
A sacred standard rule we find,
By poets held time out of mind,
Sonnet CXXV
© William Shakespeare
Were 't aught to me I bore the canopy,
With my extern the outward honouring,
Or laid great bases for eternity,
Which prove more short than waste or ruining?
The Epic Of The Lion
© Victor Marie Hugo
A Lion in his jaws caught up a child--
Not harming it--and to the woodland, wild
Sonnet CXVII
© William Shakespeare
Accuse me thus: that I have scanted all
Wherein I should your great deserts repay,
Forgot upon your dearest love to call,
Whereto all bonds do tie me day by day;
On Dante's Monument, 1818
© Giacomo Leopardi
Though all the nations now
Peace gathers under her white wings,
Sonnet CXIX
© William Shakespeare
What potions have I drunk of Siren tears,
Distill'd from limbecks foul as hell within,
Applying fears to hopes and hopes to fears,
Still losing when I saw myself to win!
Sonnet CXIV
© William Shakespeare
Or whether doth my mind, being crown'd with you,
Drink up the monarch's plague, this flattery?
Or whether shall I say, mine eye saith true,
And that your love taught it this alchemy,
Milton
© Robert Laurence Binyon
An Ode
Soul of England, dost thou sleep,
Lulled or dulled, thy mighty youth forgotten?
Of the world's wine hast thou drunk too deep?
Lovely Mary Donnelly
© William Allingham
Oh, lovely Mary Donnelly, my joy, my only best
If fifty girls were round you, Id hardly see the rest;
Be what it may the time o day, the place be where it will
Sweet looks o Mary Donnelly, they bloom before me still.
Manhood's Greeting
© Edgar Albert Guest
I've' felt some little thrills of pride, I've inwardly rejoiced
Along the pleasant lanes of life to hear my praises voiced;
No great distinction have I claimed, but in a humble way
Some satisfactions sweet have come to brighten many a day;
But of the joyous thrills of life the finest that could be
Was mine upon that day when first a stranger "mistered" me.
A Grammarian's Funeral Shortly After The Revival Of Learning
© Robert Browning
Let us begin and carry up this corpse,
Singing together.
The Funeral Tree of the Sokokis. 1756
© John Greenleaf Whittier
Around Sebago's lonely lake
There lingers not a breeze to break
The mirror which its waters make.
Sonnet 87: Farewell! Thou art too dear for my possessing
© William Shakespeare
Farewell! Thou art too dear for my possessing,
And like enough thou know'st thy estimate,
The charter of thy worth gives thee releasing;
My bonds in thee are all determinate.
