Happy poems
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The Poet at Seventeen
© Larry Levis
My youth? I hear it mostly in the long, volleying
Echoes of billiards in the pool halls where
I spent it all, extravagantly, believing
My delicate touch on a cue would last for years.
Adam’s Curse
© William Butler Yeats
We sat grown quiet at the name of love;
We saw the last embers of daylight die,
And in the trembling blue-green of the sky
A moon, worn as if it had been a shell
Washed by time’s waters as they rose and fell
About the stars and broke in days and years.
Basil Moss
© Henry Kendall
SING, mountain-wind, thy strong, superior song
Thy haughty alpine anthem, over tracts
To The Moon Of The South
© Richard Monckton Milnes
Let him go down,--the gallant Sun!
His work is nobly done;
Well may He now absorb
Within his solid orb
The Child on the Cliffs
© Edward Thomas
Mother, the root of this little yellow flower
Among the stones has the taste of quinine.
Things are strange to-day on the cliff. The sun shines so bright,
And the grasshopper works at his sewing-machine
So hard. Here’s one on my hand, mother, look;
I lie so still. There’s one on your book.
To the Immortal Memory and Friendship of That Noble Pair, Sir Lucius Cary and Sir Henry Morison
© Benjamin Jonson
The Turn
Brave infant of Saguntum, clear
A Monumental Column : A Funeral Elegy
© John Webster
To The Right Honourable Sir Robert Carr, Viscount Rochester, Knight of the Most Noble Order of the Garter, and One Of His Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council.
The greatest of the kingly race is gone,
The West Wind
© William Cullen Bryant
Beneath the forest's skirts I rest,
Whose branching pines rise dark and high,
And hear the breezes of the West
Among the threaded foliage sigh.
The Sorcerer: Act II
© William Schwenck Gilbert
Scene-Exterior of Sir Marmaduke's mansion by moonlight. All the
peasantry are discovered asleep on the ground, as at the end
of Act I.
The Wheel
© Vinda Karandikar
Someone is about to come but doesn't. Is about
to turn on the stairs but doesn't.
A Dream
© Thomas Parnell
& then With raptures in her mouth she fled
the Cloud (for on a cloud she seemd to tread)
its curles unfolded & around her spread
My downy rest the warmth of fancy broke
& when my thoughts grew settled thus I spoke
Idylls of the King: The Passing of Arthur
© Alfred Tennyson
That story which the bold Sir Bedivere,
First made and latest left of all the knights,
Told, when the man was no more than a voice
In the white winter of his age, to those
With whom he dwelt, new faces, other minds.
The Thirteenth Olympic Ode Of Pindar
© Henry James Pye
To Xenophon of Corinth, on his Victory in the Stadic Course, and Pentathlon, at Olympia. ARGUMENT. The Poet begins his Ode, by complimenting the family of Xenophon, on their successes in the Olympic Games, and their hospitality; and then celebrates their country, Corinth, for it's good government, and for the quick genius of it's inhabitants, in the invention of many useful and ornamental Arts. He then implores Jupiter to continue his blessings on them, and to remain propitious to Xenophon; whose exploits he enumerates, together with those of Thessalus and Ptodorus, his father and grandfather. He then launches out again in praise of Corinth and her Citizens, and relates the story of Bellerophon. He then, checking himself for digressing so far, returns to his Hero, relates his various success in the inferior Games of Greece, and concludes with a Prayer to Jupiter.
STROPHE I.
A Display of Mackerel
© Mark Doty
They lie in parallel rows,
on ice, head to tail,
each a foot of luminosity
The Tenth Olympic Ode Of Pindar
© Henry James Pye
To Agesidamus, son of Archestratus, an Epizephyrian Locrian, on his Victory obtained by the Cæstus. ARGUMENT. The Poet begins the Ode by apologising to Agesidamus, for having so long delayed composing it, after promising to do it. He then compliments him upon his country, and consoles him for being worsted at the beginning of the contest, till encouraged by Ilias, by relating the same circumstance of Hercules and Patroclus. He then describes the institution of the Olympic Games, by Hercules, after the victory he obtained over Augeas, and the sons of Neptune and Molione; and enumerates those who won the first Prizes in the Athletic Exercises. He then, returning to Agesidamus, and congratulating him on having a Poet to sing his exploits, though after some delay, concludes with praising him for his strength and beauty.
STROPHE I.
A Pastoral Ballad. In Four Parts
© William Shenstone
Arbusta humilesque myrciae. ~ Virg.
Explanation.
Groves and lovely shrubs.
