Life poems
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A Child's Hair
© William Watson
A letter from abroad. I tear
Its sheathing open, unaware
What treasure gleams within; and there-
Like bird from cage-
Flutters a curl of golden hair
Out of the page.
A Tragi-Comedy
© Dora Sigerson Shorter
'Twas on a gloomy afternoon
When all the world was out of tune,
The Heroic Enthusiasts - Part The First =Second Dialogue.=
© Giordano Bruno
Now begins the enthusiast to display the affections and uncover the
wounds which are for a sign in his body, and in substance or essence in
his soul, and he says thus:
The Brook Leaps Riotous
© Augusta Davies Webster
And love, whatever love, sure, makes small boast:
'Tis the new lovers tell, in wonder yet.
Oh happy need! Enriched stream's jubilant gush!
But who being spouses well have learned love's most,
Being child and mother learned not nor forget,
These in their joyfulness feel the tarn's strong hush.
Metamorphoses: Book The Twelfth
© Ovid
The End of the Twelfth Book.
Translated into English verse under the direction of
Sir Samuel Garth by John Dryden, Alexander Pope, Joseph Addison,
William Congreve and other eminent hands
Out of Your Love
© Mewlana Jalaluddin Rumi
Out of your love the fire of youth will rise.
In the chest, visions of the soul will rise.
If you are going to kill me, kill me, it is alright.
When the friend kills, a new life will rise.
The City (2)
© Archibald Lampman
Canst thou not rest, O city,
That liest so wide and fair;
Shall never an hour bring pity,
Nor end be found for care?
The Substitute
© Paul Hamilton Hayne
How say'st, thou? die to-morrrow? Oh! my friend!
The bitter, bitter doom!
What hast thou done to tempt this ghastly end--
This death of shame and gloom?
The Columbine
© Jones Very
Still, still my eye will gaze long fixed on thee,
Till I forget that I am called a man,
The Rose And The Fern
© Oliver Wendell Holmes
LADY, life's sweetest lesson wouldst thou learn,
Come thou with me to Love's enchanted bower
High overhead the trellised roses burn;
Beneath thy feet behold the feathery fern,--
A leaf without a flower.
My Religion
© Edgar Albert Guest
My religion's lovin' God, who made us, one and all,
Who marks, no matter where it be, the humble sparrow's fall;
An' my religion's servin' Him the very best I can
By not despisin' anything He made, especially man!
It's lovin' sky an' earth an' sun an' birds an' flowers an' trees,
But lovin' human beings more than any one of these.
The Dreamboat
© Sri Aurobindo
Who was it that came to me in a boat made of dream-fire,
With his flame brow and his sun-gold body?
Melted was the silence into a sweet secret murmur,
"Do you come now? Is the heart's fire ready?"
Non Dolet!
© Edith Wharton
So weary a world it lies, forlorn of day,
And yet not wholly dark,
Since evermore some soul that missed the mark
Calls back to those agrope
In the mad maze of hope,
Courage, my brothersI have found the way!
Sappho to Phaon (Ovid Heroid XV)
© Alexander Pope
Say, lovely youth, that dost my heart command,
Can Phaon's eyes forget his Sappho's hand?
Washing the Dishes
© Christopher Morley
WHEN we on simple rations sup
How easy is the washing up!
But heavy feeding complicates
The task by soiling many plates.
On The Road
© Dante Gabriel Rossetti
October, and eleven after dark:
Both mist and night. Among us in the coach
Gold
© Isabel Ecclestone Mackay
WHEN life wakened in the Spring
All the world was gold and green!
Sunlight lay on everything,
Sailing cloud and soaring wing,
Emerald banks where snow had been,
Drifts of daffodils between.
