Life poems
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The Pilgrim of Life.
© Caroline Norton
PILGRIM, who toilest up life's weary steep,
To reach the summit still with pleasure crowned;
The Polar Quest
© Richard Francis Burton
UNCONQUERABLY, men venture on the quest
And seek an ocean amplitude unsailed,
Lines on the Death of Julia
© Thomas Love Peacock
Accept, bright spirit, reft in life's best bloom
This votive wreath to thy untimely tomb.
The Banquet
© George Herbert
Welcome sweet and sacred cheer,
Welcome deare;
With me, in me, live and dwell:
For thy neatnesse passeth sight,
Thy delight
Passeth tongue to taste or tell.
Italy : 14. Venice
© Samuel Rogers
There is a glorious City in the Sea.
The Sea is in the broad, the narrow streets,
Ebbing and flowing; and the salt sea-weed
Clings to the marble of her palaces.
My Love
© James Russell Lowell
Not as all other women are
Is she that to my soul is dear;
Her glorious fancies come from far,
Beneath the silver evening-star,
And yet her heart is ever near.
The Bumboat Woman's Story
© William Schwenck Gilbert
I'm old, my dears, and shrivelled with age, and work, and grief,
My eyes are gone, and my teeth have been drawn by Time, the Thief!
For terrible sights I've seen, and dangers great I've run -
I'm nearly seventy now, and my work is almost done!
The Day Of The Daughter Of Hades
© George Meredith
He tells it, who knew the law
Upon mortals: he stood alive
Declaring that this he saw:
He could see, and survive.
In 1969
© Larry Levis
Some called it the Summer of Love, & although the clustered,
Motionless leaves that overhung the streets looked the same
As ever, the same as they did every summer, in 1967,
Anybody with three dollars could have a vision.
St. George
© Emile Verhaeren
Opening the mists on a sudden through,
An Avenue!
Then, all one ferment of varied gold,
With foam of plumes where the chamfrom bends
Round his horse's head, that no bit doth hold,
St. George descends!
Trust by Thomas R. Smith: American Life in Poetry #141 Ted Kooser, U.S. Poet Laureate 2004-2006
© Ted Kooser
Life becomes more complicated every day, and each of us can control only so much of what happens. As for the rest? Poet Thomas R. Smith of Wisconsin offers some practical advice.
Trust
It's like so many other things in life
to which you must say no or yes.
So you take your car to the new mechanic.
Sometimes the best thing to do is trust.
PARADOX. That it is best for a Young Maid to marry an Old Man
© Henry King
Fair one, why cannot you an old man love?
He may as useful, and more constant prove.
Experience shews you that maturer years
Are a security against those fears
A Poem Dedicated To The Memory Of The Late Learned And Eminent Mr. William Law, Professor Of Philoso
© Robert Blair
In silence to suppress my griefs I've tried,
And kept within its banks the swelling tide!
But all in vain: unbidden numbers flow;
Spite of myself my sorrows vocal grow.
The Sailor Boy to His Lass
© William Schwenck Gilbert
I go away this blessed day,
To sail across the sea, MATILDA!
Breitmann In Holland. Leyden.
© Charles Godfrey Leland
TIS shveet to valk in Holland towns
Apout de twilicht tide,
Vhen all ish shdill on proad canals,
Safe vhere a poat may clide.
The Child Of The Islands - Opening
© Caroline Norton
I.
OF all the joys that brighten suffering earth,
What joy is welcomed like a new-born child?
What life so wretched, but that, at its birth,
The Convocation: A Poem
© Richard Savage
The Pagan prey on slaughter'd Wretches Fates,
The Romish fatten on the best Estates,
The British stain what Heav'n has right confest,
And Sectaries the Scriptures falsly wrest.
