Life poems
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Willie's Ladye
© Andrew Lang
Willie has ta'en him o'er the faem,
He's wooed a wife, and brought her hame;
He's wooed her for her yellow hair,
But his mother wrought her meikle care;
The Song Of Hiawatha XII: The Son Of The Evening Star
© Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Can it be the sun descending
O'er the level plain of water?
More Than Enough by Marge Piercy: American Life in Poetry #10 Ted Kooser, U.S. Poet Laureate 2004-20
© Ted Kooser
The poet and novelist Marge Piercy has a gift for writing about nature. In this poem, springtime has a nearly overwhelming and contagious energy, capturing the action-filled drama of spring.
More Than Enough
The first lily of June opens its red mouth.
All over the sand road where we walk
multiflora rose climbs trees cascading
white or pink blossoms, simple, intense
the scene drifting like colored mist.
As In The Globe Embraced By Ocean
© Fyodor Ivanovich Tyutchev
As is the globe embraced by ocean, so
Embraced is earthly life by dreams and fancies.
Night comes unsought, and at the shore's defences
The breakers strike blow after blow.
What Is To Come
© William Ernest Henley
What is to come we know not. But we know
That what has been was good--was good to show,
Better to hide, and best of all to bear.
We are the masters of the days that were:
We have lived, we have loved, we have suffered . . . even so.
The Library
© John Greenleaf Whittier
"Let there be light!" God spake of old,
And over chaos dark and cold,
And through the dead and formless frame
Of nature, life and order came.
Is It Well?
© Wilcox Ella Wheeler
Saw you the youth, with the face like the morning,
Refilling the glass, that foamed white as the sea?
Composed on The Eve Of The Marriage Of A Friend In The Vale Of Grasmere
© William Wordsworth
WHAT need of clamorous bells, or ribands gay,
These humble nuptials to proclaim or grace?
Angels of love, look down upon the place;
Shed on the chosen vale a sun-bright day!
Prologue: The Pleasant Comedy Of Old Fortunatus
© Thomas Dekker
OF Love's sweet war our timorous Muse doth sing,
And to the bosom of each gentle dear,
The Vision of the Rock
© Charles Harpur
I SATE upon a lonely peak,
A backwood rivers course to view,
Sonnet XXV: Winged Hours
© Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Each hour until we meet is as a bird
That wings from far his gradual way along
Cordelia
© William Michael Rossetti
They turn on her and fix their eyes,
But cease not passing inward;--one
Sneering with lips still curled to lies,
Sinuous of body, serpent-wise;
Her footfall creeps, and her looks shun
The very thing on which they dwell.
The Journey Of Life
© William Cullen Bryant
Beneath the waning moon I walk at night,
And muse on human life--for all around
Are dim uncertain shapes that cheat the sight,
And pitfalls lurk in shade along the ground,
And broken gleams of brightness, here and there,
Glance through, and leave unwarmed the death-like air.
Wax Lips by Cynthia Rylant: American Life in Poetry #101 Ted Kooser, U.S. Poet Laureate 2004-2006
© Ted Kooser
Those big cherry flavored wax lips that my friends and I used to buy when I was a boy, well, how could I resist this poem by Cynthia Rylant of Oregon?
Lo gens temps de pascor
© Bernard de Ventadorn
Bel Vezer, si no fos
mos enans totz en vos
laissat agra chansos
per mal dels enoyos.
Ode On Lord Hay's BirthDay
© James Beattie
A Muse, unskill'd in venal praise,
Unstain'd with flattery's art;
Who loves simplicity of lays
Breathed ardent from the heart;
True Love
© William Barnes
As evenèn aïr, in green-treed Spring,
Do sheäke the new-sprung pa'sley bed,
Nocturne
© Rubén Dario
I want to express my anguish in verses that speak
of my vanished youth, a time of dreams and roses,
and the bitter defloration of my life
by many small cares and one vast aching sorrow.
The Passing Of Cadieux
© Isabel Ecclestone Mackay
'Fresh is love in May
When the Spring is yearning,
Life is but a lay,
Love is quick in learning.
The Dying Dragoman
© Mathilde Blind
Again the ring of swinging chimes
Calls all the pious folk to church,
With shining Sunday face, betimes,
Through rustling woods of beech and birch
