Great poems
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What We Need
© Edgar Albert Guest
We were settin' there an' smokin' of our pipes, discussin' things,
Like licker, votes for wimmin, an' the totterin'thrones o' kings,
When he ups an' strokes his whiskers with his hand an' says t'me:
"Changin' laws an' legislatures ain't, as fur as I can see,
Goin' to make this world much better, unless somehow we can
Find a way to make a better an' a finer sort o' man.
Maha-Bharata, The Epic Of Ancient India - Book X - Karna-Badha - (Fall Of Karna)
© Romesh Chunder Dutt
After the death of Karna, Salya led the Kuru troops on the eighteenth
and last day of the war, and fell. A midnight slaughter in the Pandav
camp, perpetrated by the vengeful son of Drona, concludes the war.
Duryodhan, left wounded by Bhima, heard of the slaughter and died
happy.
The Parsonage Improved
© Henry James Pye
Where gentle Deva's lucid waters glide
In slow meanders thro' the winding vale,
The Three Kings of Chickeraboo
© William Schwenck Gilbert
There were three niggers of Chickeraboo -
PACIFICO, BANG-BANG, POPCHOP - who
Exclaimed, one terribly sultry day,
"Oh, let's be kings in a humble way."
The Life of Ovid
© George Sandys
A Snake; a snake-like Stone. Cycnus, a Swan:
Caenis the maid, now Caeneus and a man,
Becomes a Fowle. Neleius varies shapes
At last an Eagle; nor Alcides scapes.
AN ELEGY Upon the immature loss of the most vertuous Lady Anne Rich
© Henry King
I envy not thy mortal triumphs, Death,
(Thou enemy to Vertue as to Breath)
Nor do I wonder much, nor yet complain
The weekly numbers by thy arrow slain.
Hy-Brasil
© Henry Kendall
"Daughter," said the ancient father, pausing by the evening sea,
"Turn thy face towards the sunset - turn thy face and kneel with me!
Shakespeare
© Charles Harpur
How oft, in Austral woods, the parting day
Has gone through western golden gates away
While sweetest Shakespeare, fancys darling child,
Warbled for me his native woodnotes wild.
The Things That Make A Soldier Great
© Edgar Albert Guest
The things that make a soldier great and send him out to die,
To face the flaming cannon's mouth, nor ever question why,
Are lilacs by a little porch, the row of tulips red,
The peonies and pansies, too, the old petunia bed,
The grass plot where his children play, the roses on the wall:
'Tis these that make a soldier great. He's fighting for them all.
Pheidippides
© Robert Browning
First I salute this soil of the blessed, river and rock!
Gods of my birthplace, daemons and heroes, honour to all!
Then I name thee, claim thee for our patron, co-equal in praise
--Ay, with Zeus the Defender, with Her of the aegis and spear!
Also, ye of the bow and the buskin, praised be your peer,
XII: Epistle To Elizabeth Countesse Of Rutland
© Benjamin Jonson
Madame,
VVhil'st that, for which all vertue now is sold,
The New Exodus
© John Greenleaf Whittier
BY fire and cloud, across the desert sand,
And through the parted waves,
From their long bondage, with an outstretched hand,
God led the Hebrew slaves!
Chant Before Battle
© Madison Julius Cawein
EVER since man was man a Fiend has stood
Outside his House of Good,
War, with his terrible toys, that win men's hearts
To follow murderous arts.
The Shepheardes Calender: November
© Edmund Spenser
November: Ægloga vndecima. Thenot & Colin.
Thenot.
Colin my deare, when shall it please thee sing,
As thou were
To the Moonflower
© Craven Langstroth Betts
PALE, climbing disk, who dost lone vigil keep
When all the flower-heads droop in drowsy swoon;
About Troy
© Zbigniew Herbert
Troy O Troy
an archeologist
will sift your ashes through his fingers
yet a fire occurred greater than that of the Iliad
for seven strings-
The Sonnets To Orpheus: Book 2: XIII
© Rainer Maria Rilke
Be ahead of all parting, as though it already were
behind you, like the winter that has just gone by.
For among these winters there is one so endlessly winter
that only by wintering through it all will your heart survive.
Lines (With A Volume Of The Author's Poems Sent To M.R.C.)
© William Watson
Go, Verse, nor let the grass of tarrying grow
Beneath thy feet iambic. Southward go
