Life poems
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Loraine
© George Essex Evans
In her dark-ringed eyes shone the sad unrest
That spoke in the heave of her troubled breast,
And her face was white as the chiselled stone,
And her lips pressed madly against my own,
And her heart beat wildly against my heart,
And we strove to go, but we could not part.
The Gods Of Greece
© John Kenyon
Ye Gods of Greece! Bright Fictions! when
Ye ruled, of old, a happier race,
Hurry by Marie Howe : American Life in Poetry #218 Ted Kooser, U.S. Poet Laureate 2004-2006
© Ted Kooser
Here is one of my favorite mother-daughter poems, by Marie Howe, who lives in New York City and who has a charming little girl.
Hurry
We stop at the dry cleaners and the grocery store
Gratitude
© Edgar Albert Guest
Be grateful for the kindly friends that walk along your way;
Be grateful for the skies of blue that smile from day to day;
Be grateful for the health you own, the work you find to do,
For round about you there are men less fortunate than you.
Elegy XIII. To a Friend, On Some Slight Occasion Estranged From Him
© William Shenstone
Health to my friend, and many a cheerful day!
Around his seat may peaceful shades abide!
Smooth flow the minutes, fraught with smiles, away,
And, till they crown our union, gently glide!
Rencontre
© Henry Van Dyke
Oh, was I born too soon, my dear, or were you born too late,
That I am going out the door while you come in the gate?
The White Maiden And The Indian Girl
© Rosanna Eleanor Leprohon
Child of the Woods, bred in leafy dell,
See the palace home in which I dwell,
With its lofty walls and casements wide,
And objects of beauty on every side;
Now, tell me, dost thou not think it bliss
To dwell in a home as bright as this?
What I Learned From My Mother by Julia Kasdorf: American Life in Poetry #60 Ted Kooser, U.S. Poet La
© Ted Kooser
Most of us have taken at least a moment or two to reflect upon what we have learned from our mothers. Through a catalog of meaningful actions that range from spiritual to domestic, Pennsylvanian Julia Kasdorf evokes the imprint of her mother's life on her own. As the poem closes, the speaker invites us to learn these actions of compassion.
On The Proposal To Erect A Monument In England To Lord Byron
© Emma Lazarus
The grass of fifty Aprils hath waved green
Above the spent heart, the Olympian head,
Amais
© Robert Laurence Binyon
I
``O King Amasis, hail!
News from thy friend, the King Polycrates!
My oars have never rested on the seas
Enlisted Today
© Anonymous
I know the sun shines, and the lilacs are blowing,
And the summer sends kisses by beautiful May -
The Vow Of Washington
© John Greenleaf Whittier
The sword was sheathed: in April's sun
Lay green the fields by Freedom won;
And severed sections, weary of debates,
Joined hands at last and were United States.
A Man Perishing in the Snow: From Whence Reflections are Raised on the Miseries of Life.
© James Thomson
As thus the snows arise; and foul and fierce,
All winter drives along the darken'd air;
In his own loose-revolving fields, the swain
Disaster'd stands; sees other hills ascend,
While I Listen to Thy Voice
© Edmund Waller
While I listen to thy voice,
Chloris, I feel my life decay;
That powerful noise
Calls my flitting soul away.
Oh! suppress that magic sound,
Which destroys without a wound.
On Happiness
© James Thomson
Warm'd by the summer sun's meridian ray,
As underneath a spreading oak I lay
Contemplating the mighty load of woe,
In search of bliss that mortals undergo,
Sonnet XV: The Photograph
© Christopher Pearse Cranch
Phoebus Apollo, from Olympus driven,
Lived at Admetus, tending herds and flocks:
Of The Nature Of Things: Book IV - Part 05 - The Passion Of Love
© Lucretius
This craving 'tis that's Venus unto us:
From this, engender all the lures of love,
Elegiac Stanzas
© William Lisle Bowles
When I lie musing on my bed alone,
And listen to the wintry waterfall;
And many moments that are past and gone,
Moments of sunshine and of joy, recall;
Bryant On His Birthday
© John Greenleaf Whittier
We praise not now the poet's art,
The rounded beauty of his song;
Who weighs him from his life apart
Must do his nobler nature wrong.
