Life poems
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Hymn XIII. Open thine eyes, my soul, and see
© John Austin
Open thine eyes, my soul, and see
Once more the light returns to thee:
The Strength Of Fields
© James Dickey
What field-forms can be,
Outlying the small civic light-decisions over
A man walking near home?
Men are not where he is
Exactly now, but they are around him around him like the strength
The Trees Of Life
© Jones Very
For those who worship Thee there is no death,
For all they do is but with Thee to dwell;
To The Memory Of Heber
© Felicia Dorothea Hemans
If it be sad to speak of treasures gone,
Of sainted genius call'd too soon away,
Of light, from this world taken, while it shone
Yet kindling onward to the perfect day;
How shall our grief, if mournful these things be,
Flow forth, oh, Thou of many gifts! for thee?
Epilogue: Songs Before Sunrise
© Algernon Charles Swinburne
Between the wave-ridge and the strand
I let you forth in sight of land,
Sonnet 68: Stella, The Only Planet
© Sir Philip Sidney
Stella, the only planet of my light,
Light of my life, and life of my desire,
Chief good, whereto my hope doth only aspire,
World of my wealth, and heav'n of my delight:
Lifeis what we make of it
© Emily Dickinson
Lifeis what we make of it
Deathwe do not know
Christ's acquaintance with Him
Justify Himthough
Sonnet I.
© Samuel Taylor Coleridge
My heart has thanked thee, Bowles! for those soft strains
Whose sadness soothes me, like the murmuring
Of wild bees in the sunny showers of spring!
For hence not callous to the mourner's pains
The Crossing by Ruth Moose: American Life in Poetry #135 Ted Kooser, U.S. Poet Laureate 2004-2006
© Ted Kooser
The road is wide
but he is called
by something
that knows him
on the other side.
American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation (www.poetryfoundation.org), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright �© 2004 by Ruth Moose, whose most recent book of poetry is âThe Sleepwalker,â? Main Street Rag, 2007. Reprinted from â75 Poems on Retirement,â? edited by Robin Chapman and Judith Strasser, published by University of Iowa Press, 2007, by permission of the author and publisher. Introduction copyright © 2009 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction's author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006. We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.
Easter
© Edgar Albert Guest
OUT of the darkness and shadow of death,
Out of the anguish that wells from the tomb,
Translation From Alfred De Mussets Ode To Malibran
© Frances Anne Kemble
O Maria Felicia! the Painter and Bard,
Behind them in dying leave undying heirs,
Gaspara Stampa
© William Rose Benet
I burned, I wept, I sang: I burn, sing, weep again,
And I shall weep and sing, I shall forever burn
Until or death or time or fortunes turn
Shall still my eye and heart, still fire and pain.
The Countess
© John Greenleaf Whittier
Over the wooded northern ridge,
Between its houses brown,
To the dark tunnel of the bridge
The street comes straggling down.
Reflections
© George Crabbe
Beware then, Age, that what was won,
If life's past labours, studies, views,
Be lost not, now the labour's done,
When all thy part is,--not to lose:
When thou canst toil or gain no more,
Destroy not what was gain'd before.
Summer Job by Richard Hoffman: American Life in Poetry #162 Ted Kooser, U.S. Poet Laureate 2004-2006
© Ted Kooser
Though at the time it may not occur to us to call it âmentoring,â? there's likely to be a good deal of that sort of thing going on, wanted or unwanted, whenever a young person works for someone older. Richard Hoffman of Massachusetts does a good job of portraying one of those teaching moments in this poem.
Summer Job
Paralytic
© Sylvia Plath
It happens. Will it go on? --
My mind a rock,
No fingers to grip, no tongue,
My god the iron lung
A Scrap of Paper
© Henry Van Dyke
"Will you go to war just for a scrap of paper?" - Question
of the German Chancellor to the British Ambassador,
August 5, 1914.
A Ballad Of Sweethearts
© Madison Julius Cawein
How _can_ my heart of my hand dispose?
When Ruth and Clara, and Kate and May,
In form and feature no flaw disclose--
But who is the fairest it's hard to say.
