Life poems
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Faces
© Lola Ridge
A late snow beats
With cold white fists upon the tenements -
Hurriedly drawing blinds and shutters,
Like tall old slatterns
Pulling aprons about their heads.
Restless Love.
© Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
THROUGH rain, through snow,
Through tempest go!
'Mongst streaming caves,
O'er misty waves,
On, on! still on!
Peace, rest have flown!
Billys 'Square Affair'
© Henry Lawson
He wanted clothes, a masher suit, he wanted boots and hat;
His girl had earned a quid or twohe wouldnt part with that;
And so he went to Brickfield Hill, and from a draper there
He shook the proper kind of togs to fetch a square affair.
Dusk
© Gabriela Mistral
I feel my heart melting
in the mildness like candles:
my veins are slow oil
and not wine,
and I feel my life fleeing
hushed and gentle like the gazelle.
Seeking
© Mathilde Blind
In many a shape and fleeting apparition,
Sublime in age or with clear morning eyes,
Ever I seek thee, tantalising Vision,
Which beckoning flies.
New Love, New Life.
© Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
I acknowledge thee no more.
Fled is all that gave thee gladness,
Fled the cause of all thy sadness,
A Symbol.
© Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
(This fine poem is given by Goethe amongst a
small collection of what he calls Loge (Lodge), meaning thereby
Masonic pieces.)
Comfort In Tears.
© Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
How happens it that thou art sad,While happy all appear?
Thine eye proclaims too well that thouHast wept full many a tear."If I have wept in solitude,None other shares my grief,
And tears to me sweet balsam are,And give my heart relief."Thy happy friends invite thee now,--Oh come, then, to our breast!
And let the loss thou hast sustain'dBe there to us confess'd!"Ye shout, torment me, knowing notWhat 'tis afflicteth me;
Song Of Fellowship.
© Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
[Written and sung in honour of the birthday
of the Pastor Ewald at the time of Goethe's happy connection with
Lily.]
An Autumn Garden
© Bliss William Carman
For the ancient and virile nurture
Of the teeming primordial ground,
For the splendid gospel of color,
Rollicking Hans.
© Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
If I depart from this sad sphere,
And leave a will behind me here,
A suit at law will be preferr'd,
But as for thanks,--the deuce a word!
So ere I die, I squander all,
And that a proper will I call.
Requirement
© John Greenleaf Whittier
We live by Faith; but Faith is not the slave
Of text and legend. Reason's voice and God's,
The Bride Of Corinth.
© Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
[First published in Schiller's Horen, in connection
with a
friendly contest in the art of ballad-writing between the two
great poets, to which many of their finest works are owing.]
The Wanderer.
© Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
[Published in the Gottingen Musen Almanach,
having been written "to express his feelings and caprices" after
his separation from Frederica.]
Fairy Tale
© Boris Pasternak
Once, in times forgotten,
In a fairy place,
Through the steppe, a rider
Made his way apace.
Departed Days
© Oliver Wendell Holmes
Yes, dear departed, cherished days,
Could Memory's hand restore
Different Emotions On The Same Spot.
© Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Oh heavenly sight!
He's coming to meet me;
Perplex'd, I retreat me,
Richard And Kate: Or, Fair-Day
© Robert Bloomfield
'Come, Goody, stop your humdrum wheel,
Sweep up your orts, and get your Hat;
Old joys reviv'd once more I feel,
'Tis Fair-day;--ay, _and more than that._
After Many Days
© Robert Fuller Murray
The mist hangs round the College tower,
The ghostly street
Is silent at this midnight hour,
Save for my feet.
The Boundaries Of Humanity.
© Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Small is the ring
Enclosing our life,
And whole generations
Link themselves firmly
On to existence's
Chain never-ending.
