Great poems

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The Animals

© Edwin Muir

They do not live in the world,
Are not in time and space.
From birth to death hurled
No word do they have, not one
To plant a foot upon,
Were never in any place.

Scotland 1941

© Edwin Muir

We were a tribe, a family, a people.
Wallace and Bruce guard now a painted field,
And all may read the folio of our fable,
Peruse the sword, the sceptre and the shield.

Abraham

© Edwin Muir

The rivulet-loving wanderer Abraham
Through waterless wastes tracing his fields of pasture
Led his Chaldean herds and fattening flocks
With the meandering art of wavering water

One Of Their Gods

© Constantine Cavafy

When one of them passed through the market place
of Seleucia, toward the hour that night falls
as a tall and perfectly handsome youth,
with the joy of immortality in his eyes,

The Satrapy

© Constantine Cavafy

What a misfortune, although you are made
for fine and great works
this unjust fate of yours always
denies you encouragement and success;

Thus, except the Lacedaemonians at Granicus;
and then at Issus; and in the final
battle, where the formidable army was swept away
that the Persians had massed at Arbela:
which had set out from Arbela for victory, and was swept away.

Addition

© Constantine Cavafy

I do not question whether I am happy or unhappy.
Yet there is one thing that I keep gladly in mind --
that in the great addition (their addition that I abhor)
that has so many numbers, I am not one
of the many units there. In the final sum
I have not been calculated. And this joy suffices me.

Anna Comnena

© Constantine Cavafy

Her soul is dizzy. "And with rivers
of tears," she tells us "I wet
my eyes... Alas for the waves" in her life,
"alas for the revolts." Pain burns her
"to the the bones and the marrow and the cleaving of the soul."

Trojans

© Constantine Cavafy

Our efforts are those of the unfortunate;
our efforts are like those of the Trojans.
Somewhat we succeed; somewhat
we regain confidence; and we start
to have courage and high hopes.

On An Italian Shore

© Constantine Cavafy

Kimos, son of Menedoros, a young Greek-Italian,
devotes his life to amusing himself,
like most young men in Greater Greece
brought up in the lap of luxury.

Che Fece ... Il Gran Rifiuto

© Constantine Cavafy

For some people the day comes
when they have to declare the great Yes
or the great No. It's clear at once who has the Yes
ready within him; and saying it,

Walls

© Constantine Cavafy

Without consideration, without pity, without shame
they have built great and high walls around me.And now I sit here and despair.
I think of nothing else: this fate gnaws at my mind;for I had many things to do outside.
Ah why did I not pay attention when they were building the walls.But I never heard any noise or sound of builders.

In Church

© Constantine Cavafy

I love the church: its labara,
its silver vessels, its candleholders,
the lights, the ikons, the pulpit.

Soulstrong;/breakaway

© Siddharth Anand

Abandon the past
Throw away the baggage
Suffer no more. avast(stop now)

The Summons

© Ezra Pound

I can not bow to woo thee
With honey words and flower kisses
And the dew of sweet half-truths
Fallen on the grass of old quaint love-tales

Historion

© Ezra Pound

No man hath dared to write this thing as yet,
And yet I know, how that the souls of all men great
At times pass athrough us,
And we are melted into them, and are not

Sestina: Altaforte

© Ezra Pound

LOQUITUR: En Bertans de Born. Dante Alighieri put this man in hell
for that he was a stirrer up of strife. Eccovi! Judge ye! Have I dug
him up again? The scene is at his castle, Altaforte. "Papiols" is his
jongleur. "The Leopard," the device of Richard Coeur de Lion.

Portrait d'Une Femme

© Ezra Pound

Your mind and you are our Sargasso Sea,
London has swept about you this score years
And bright ships left you this or that in fee:
Ideas, old gossip, oddments of all things,

The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Volume 1: 1931-1934

© Anais Nin

"Am I, at bottom, that fervent little Spanish Catholic child who chastised herself for loving toys, who forbade herself the enjoyment of sweet foods, who practiced silence, who humiliated her pride, who adored symbols, statues, burning candles, incense, the caress of nuns, organ music, for whom Communion was a great event? I was so exalted by the idea of eating Jesus's flesh and drinking His blood that I couldn't swallow the host well, and I dreaded harming the it