Life poems
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The Miller's Maid
© Robert Bloomfield
Near the high road upon a winding stream
An honest Miller rose to Wealth and Fame:
The noblest Virtues cheer'd his lengthen'd days,
And all the Country echo'd with his praise:
His Wife, the Doctress of the neighb'ring Poor,
Drew constant pray'rs and blessings round his door.
Madonna With Two Angels
© Duncan Campbell Scott
Under the sky without a stain
The long, ripe, rippling of the grain;
Close To Greatness
© Charles Bukowski
at one stage in my life
I met a man who claimed to have
visited Pound at St. Elizabeth's.
Work Shy by Alex Phillips: American Life in Poetry #79 Ted Kooser, U.S. Poet Laureate 2004-2006
© Ted Kooser
The news coverage of Hurricane Katrina gave America a vivid look at our poor and powerless neighbors. Here Alex Phillips of Massachusetts condenses his observations of our country's underclass into a wise, tough little poem.
The Aged Patriarch
© Felicia Dorothea Hemans
Of life's past woes, the fading trace
Hath given that aged patriarch's face
Expression, holy, deep, resign'd,
The calm sublimity of mind.
Sonnet XXI. To Cyriac Skinner
© John Milton
Cyriac, whose grandsire on the royal bench
Of British Themis, with no mean applause
Pronounc'd and in his volumes taught our laws
Which others at their bar so often wrench;
The Hill.
© Robert Crawford
The holy lamps of Evening shine
Sheer in the West the air is still
As I sit with this heart of mine
At the foot of Parnassus' hill.
Human Life
© Samuel Rogers
An hour like this is worth a thousand passed
In pomp or ease - 'Tis present to the last!
Years glide away untold - 'Tis still the same!
As fresh, as fair as on the day it came!
Blithe Dreams Arise To Greet Us
© William Ernest Henley
Blithe dreams arise to greet us,
And life feels clean and new,
A Song In Three Parts
© Jean Ingelow
The white broom flatt'ring her flowers in calm June weather,
'O most sweet wear;
Forty-eight weeks of my life do none desire me,
Four am I fair,'
Thespis: Act II
© William Schwenck Gilbert
Jupiter, Aged Diety
Apollo, Aged Diety
Mars, Aged Diety
Diana, Aged Diety
Mercury
Fulfilment
© James Brunton Stephens
We cried, " How long ! " We sighed, " Not yet; "
And still with faces dawnward set
" Prepare the way," said each to each,
Earbud by Bill Holm : American Life in Poetry #213 Ted Kooser, U.S. Poet Laureate 2004-2006
© Ted Kooser
Bill Holm, one of the most intelligent and engaging writers of our northern plains, died on February 25th. He will be greatly missed. He and I were of the same generation and we shared the same sense of wonder, amusement, and skepticism about the course of technology. I don't yet own an Earbud, but I won't need to, now that we have Bill's poem.
Earbud
The Ultimate Trust
© Paul Hamilton Hayne
THOUGH in the wine-press of thy wrath divine,
My crushed hopes droop, like crude and worthless must,
That love and mercy, Father! still are thine,
With reverent soul, I trust!
The Living God
© Swami Vivekananda
He who is in you and outside you,
Who works through all hands,
Who walks on all feet,
Whose body are all ye,
Him worship, and break all other idols!
The Great Misgiving
© William Watson
'NOT ours,' say some, 'the thought of death to dread;
Asking no heaven, we fear no fabled hell:
Life is a feast, and we have banqueted-
Shall not the worms as well?
Omar
© James Weldon Johnson
Old Omar, jolly sceptic, it may be
That, after all, you found the magic key
To life and all its mystery, and I
Must own you have almost persuaded me.
The Rose has flushed Red
© Shams al-Din Hafiz
But to thee, oh Hafiz, to thee, oh Tongue
That speaks through the mouth of the slender reed,
What thanks to thee when thy verses speed
From lip to lip, and the song thou hast sung?
Pictures On Enamel
© Wilfrid Scawen Blunt
When Astraled was lying, like to die
Of love's green sickness, all his bed was strown
With buds of crocus and anemone,
For other flowers yet were barely none,
