Life poems

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A Letter From Italy

© Joseph Addison

Salve magna parens frugum Saturnia tellus,

Magna virûm! tibi res antiquæ laudis et artis

"Thou Ship of Earth, with Death, and Birth, and Life, and Sex aboard,
And fires of Desires burning hotly in the hold,
I fear thee, O! I fear thee, for I hear the tongue and sword
At battle on the deck, and the wild mutineers are bold!

The Slavery Of Greece

© George Canning

Unrivall'd Greece! thou ever honor'd name,
Thou nurse of heroes dear to deathless fame!
Though now to worth, to honor all unknown,
Thy lustre faded, and thy glories flown;
Yet still shall Memory, with reverted eye,
Trace thy past worth, and view thee with a sigh.

The Vanity of Human Wishes: The Tenth Satire of Juvenal, Imitated by Samuel Johnson

© Samuel Johnson

Yet still the gen'ral Cry the Skies assails
And Gain and Grandeur load the tainted Gales;
Few know the toiling Statesman's Fear or Care,
Th' insidious Rival and the gaping Heir.

Daphne to Apollo. Imitated From The First Book Of Ovid's Metamorphosis

© Matthew Prior

Daphne aside]
This care is for himself as pure as death;
One mile has put the fellow out of breath:
He'll never go, I'll lead him th' other round;
Washy he is, perhaps not over sound.

Answers In A Game Of Questions.

© Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

THE LADY.IN the small and great world too,What most charms a woman's heart?
It is doubtless what is new,For its blossoms joy impart;
Nobler far is what is true,For fresh blossoms it can shootEven in the time of fruit.THE YOUNG GENTLEMAN.With the Nymphs in wood and caveParis was acquainted well,
Till Zeus sent, to make him rave,Three of those in Heav'n who dwell;

To My Sister

© Forough Farrokhzad

Sister, rise up after your freedom,
why are you quiet?
rise up because henceforth
you have to imbibe the blood of tyrannical men.

The Spirit's Salute.

© Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

THE hero's noble shade stands highOn yonder turret grey;
And as the ship is sailing by,He speeds it on his way."See with what strength these sinews thrill'd!This heart, how firm and wild!
These bones, what knightly marrow fill'd!This cup, how bright it smil'd!"Half of my life I strove and fought,And half I calmly pass'd;
And thou, oh ship with beings fraught,Sail safely to the last!"1774.

A Summer Ramble

© William Cullen Bryant

The quiet August noon has come,
A slumberous silence fills the sky,
The fields are still, the woods are dumb,
In glassy sleep the waters lie.

Living Remembrance.

© Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

HALF vex'd, half pleased, thy love will feel,
Shouldst thou her knot or ribbon steal;
To thee they're much--I won't conceal;

Looking Back

© Edgar Albert Guest

LOOKIN' back, I think I see,

Folks who thought a heap of me,

At Midnight Hour.

© Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

[Goethe relates that a remarkable situation
he was in one bright moonlight night led to the composition of this
sweet song, which was "the dearer to him because he could not say
whence it came and whither it would."]

The Happy Couple.

© Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

AFTER these vernal rainsThat we so warmly sought,
Dear wife, see how our plainsWith blessings sweet are fraught!
We cast our distant gazeFar in the misty blue;
Here gentle love still strays,Here dwells still rapture true.Thou seest whither goYon pair of pigeons white,

The Garlands.

KLOPSTOCK would lead us away from Pindus; no longer
for laurel
May we be eager--the homely acorn alone must content us;
Yet he himself his more-than-epic crusade is conducting

Killed In Action

MY father lived his three-score years; my son lived twenty-two;
One looked long back on work well done, and one had all to do--
Yet which the better served his world, I know not, nor do you!

Living

If through the years we're not to do

Much finer deeds than we have done;

A Confession

You did not know, - how could you, dear, -

How much you stood for? Life in you

Part of a Legacy by Frank Steele: American Life in Poetry #158 Ted Kooser, U.S. Poet Laureate 2004-2

© Ted Kooser

Putting bed pillows onto the grass to freshen, it's a pretty humble subject for a poem, but look how Kentucky poet, Frank Steele, deftly uses a sun-warmed pillow to bring back the comfort and security of childhood.

Part of a Legacy