Poems begining by L
/ page 86 of 128 /
La Bella Bona Roba. To My Lady H. Ode
© Richard Lovelace
I.
Tell me, ye subtill judges in loves treasury,
Inform me, which hath most inricht mine eye,
This diamonds greatnes, or its clarity?
Life Is Fine
© Langston Hughes
I went down to the river,
I set down on the bank.
I tried to think but couldn't,
So I jumped in and sank.
Let America Be America Again
© Langston Hughes
Let America be America again.
Let it be the dream it used to be.
Let it be the pioneer on the plain
Seeking a home where he himself is free.
Lines Written At Sea (I)
© Frances Anne Kemble
Dear, yet forbidden thoughts, that from my soul,
While shines the weary sun, with stern control
Love Of Life
© Alfred Austin
Why love life more, the less of it be left,
And what is left be little but the lees,
Limerick: There was an Old Man of New York
© Edward Lear
There was an Old Man of New York,
Who murdered himself with a fork;
But nobody cried
though he very soon died,-
For that silly Old Man of New York.
Le Mort Joyeux (The Joyful Corpse)
© Charles Baudelaire
Dans une terre grasse et pleine d'escargots
Je veux creuser moi-même une fosse profonde,
Où je puisse à loisir étaler mes vieux os
Et dormir dans l'oubli comme un requin dans l'onde.
Laws For Creations
© Walt Whitman
LAWS for Creations,
For strong artists and leaders-for fresh broods of teachers, and
perfect literats for America,
For noble savants, and coming musicians.
Lines Written During The Castlereagh Administration
© Percy Bysshe Shelley
I.
Corpses are cold in the tomb;
Stones on the pavement are dumb;
Abortions are dead in the womb,
And their mothers look palelike the death-white shore
Of Albion, free no more.
Late Afternoon: The Onslaught Of Love
© Anthony Evan Hecht
It was lovely and she was in love.
They had taken a covered boat to one of the islands.
The city sounds were faint in the distance:
Rattling of carriages, tumult of voices,
Yelping of dogs on the decks of barges.
Lot's Wife
© Anthony Evan Hecht
How simple the pleasures of those childhood days,
Simple but filled with exquisite satisfactions.
The iridescent labyrinth of the spider,
Its tethered tensor nest of polygons
Lizards And Snakes
© Anthony Evan Hecht
On the summer road that ran by our front porch
Lizards and snakes came out to sun.
It was hot as a stove out there, enough to scorch
A buzzard's foot. Still, it was fun
Lamp Of Love
© Rabindranath Tagore
Misery knocks at thy door,
and her message is that thy lord is wakeful,
and he calls thee to the love-tryst through the darkness of night.
Long Marriage by Gerald Fleming: American Life in Poetry #208 Ted Kooser, U.S. Poet Laureate 2004-20
© Ted Kooser
To have a helpful companion as you travel through life is a marvelous gift. This poem by Gerald Fleming, a long-time teacher in the San Francisco public schools, celebrates just such a relationship.
Long Marriage
Leopold, Duke Of Brunswick.
© Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
LEOPOLD, DUKE OF BRUNSWICK.[Written on the occasion of the death, by drowning,
of the Prince.]THOU wert forcibly seized by the hoary lord of the river,--Holding thee, ever he shares with thee his streaming domain,
Calmly sleepest thou near his urn as it silently trickles,Till thou to action art roused, waked by the swift-rolling flood.
Kindly be to the people, as when thou still wert a mortal,Perfecting that as a god, which thou didst fail in, as man. 1785.
Lines On Seeing Schiller's Skull.
© Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
[This curious imitation of the ternary metre
of Dante was written at the age of 77.]WITHIN a gloomy charnel-house one dayI view'd the countless skulls, so strangely mated,
And of old times I thought, that now were grey.Close pack'd they stand, that once so fiercely hated,
And hardy bones, that to the death contended,Are lying cross'd,--to lie for ever, fated.
Legend.
© Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
THERE lived in the desert a holy manTo whom a goat-footed Faun one day
Paid a visit, and thus beganTo his surprise: "I entreat thee to pray
That grace to me and my friends may be given,
That we may be able to mount to Heaven,
Louvain 19
© Robert Laurence Binyon
ii
But from that blood, those ashes there arose
Not hoped-for terror cowering as it ran,
But divine anger flaming upon those
Defamers of the very name of man,
Lines in Protest to the Dundee Magistrates
© William Topaz McGonagall
Fellow citizens of Bonnie Dundee
Are ye aware how the magistrates have treated me?
Nay, do not stare or make a fuss
When I tell ye they have boycotted me from appearing in Royal Circus,
Which in my opinion is a great shame,
And a dishonour to the city's name.
