Life poems
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Awake!
© George MacDonald
The stars are all watching;
God's angel is catching
At thy skirts in the darkness deep!
Gold hinges grating,
The mighty dead waiting,
Why dost thou sleep?
A Brand Plucked Out Of The Fire
© John Newton
With Satan, my accuser, near
My spirit trembled when I saw
The Lord in majesty appear,
And heart the language of the law.
The Sphinx
© Mathilde Blind
The heart grows hushed before it. Nay, methinks
That Man, and all on which Man wastes his breath,
The World, and all the World inheriteth,
With infinite, inexorable links
Grappling the soul; that love, hate, birth and death
Dwindle to nothingness before thee-Sphinx.
Maha-Bharata, The Epic Of Ancient India - Book X - Karna-Badha - (Fall Of Karna)
© Romesh Chunder Dutt
After the death of Karna, Salya led the Kuru troops on the eighteenth
and last day of the war, and fell. A midnight slaughter in the Pandav
camp, perpetrated by the vengeful son of Drona, concludes the war.
Duryodhan, left wounded by Bhima, heard of the slaughter and died
happy.
The Life of Ovid
© George Sandys
A Snake; a snake-like Stone. Cycnus, a Swan:
Caenis the maid, now Caeneus and a man,
Becomes a Fowle. Neleius varies shapes
At last an Eagle; nor Alcides scapes.
AN ELEGY Upon the immature loss of the most vertuous Lady Anne Rich
© Henry King
I envy not thy mortal triumphs, Death,
(Thou enemy to Vertue as to Breath)
Nor do I wonder much, nor yet complain
The weekly numbers by thy arrow slain.
Sappho III
© Sara Teasdale
The twilight's inner flame grows blue and deep,
And in my Lesbos, over leagues of sea,
The temples glimmer moon-wise in the trees.
Twilight has veiled the little flower-face
long conversations
© Matsuo Basho
Long conversations
beside blooming irises
joys of life on the road
The Lonely Sparrow
© Giacomo Leopardi
Thou from the top of yonder antique tower,
O lonely sparrow, wandering, hast gone,
Hy-Brasil
© Henry Kendall
"Daughter," said the ancient father, pausing by the evening sea,
"Turn thy face towards the sunset - turn thy face and kneel with me!
Amor Vitae
© Archibald Lampman
I love the warm bare earth and all
That works and dreams thereon:
I love the seasons yet to fall:
I love the ages gone,
A Wayfaring Song
© Henry Van Dyke
0 who will walk a mile with me
Along life's merry way?
A comrade blithe and full of glee,
Who dares to laugh out loud and free
The Traveller
© George Moses Horton
When from my native clime,
Mid lonely vallies pensive far I roam,
Mid rocks and hills where waters roll sublime,
'Tis sweet to think of home.
Wherefore
© Madison Julius Cawein
I would not see, yet must behold
The truth they preach in church and hall;
And question so,--Is death then all,
And life an idle tale that's told?
White Night
© Anna Akhmatova
That life is a cursed hell:
I've got drunk
On your voice in the doorway.
I was sure you'd come back.
Pheidippides
© Robert Browning
First I salute this soil of the blessed, river and rock!
Gods of my birthplace, daemons and heroes, honour to all!
Then I name thee, claim thee for our patron, co-equal in praise
--Ay, with Zeus the Defender, with Her of the aegis and spear!
Also, ye of the bow and the buskin, praised be your peer,
XII: Epistle To Elizabeth Countesse Of Rutland
© Benjamin Jonson
Madame,
VVhil'st that, for which all vertue now is sold,
On The Palatine
© Arthur Symons
I have lived, loved, and lost; I crave
Nothing again of all life gave;
I only crave to find
Oblivion for the mind.
To Dr. Mead, On His Cape Wine.
© Mary Barber
Your Wine, by Southern Suns refin'd,
Is a just Emblem of your Mind:
Like You, the gen'rous Juice displays
Its Influence a thousand Ways;
