Life poems
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Master Of Music
© Henry Van Dyke
Glory of architect, glory of painter, and sculptor, and bard,
Living forever in temple and picture and statue and song, -
Look how the world with the lights that they lit is illumined and starred,
Brief was the flame of their life, but the lamps of their art burn long!
Sonnet XLIX: Thou Leaden Brain
© Michael Drayton
Thou leaden brain, which censur'st what I write,
And say'st my lines be dull and do not move,
I marvel not thou feel'st not my delight,
Which never felt'st my fiery touch of love.
Sonnet XLVII: In Pride of Wit
© Michael Drayton
In pride of wit when high desire of fame
Gave life and courage to my laboring pen,
And first the sound and virtue of my name
Won grace and credit in the ears of men,
Summer By The Lakeside: Lake Winnipesaukee
© John Greenleaf Whittier
I. NOON.
White clouds, whose shadows haunt the deep,
Light mists, whose soft embraces keep
The sunshine on the hills asleep!
Andromeda Unfettered
© Muriel Stuart
Nay, what do you seek?
If of men we be chained,
Our chains be of gold,
If the fetters we break
What conquest is gained?
Shall a hill-top out-spread a pavilion more safe than our palace hold?
Carol Of Occupations
© Walt Whitman
COME closer to me;
Push close, my lovers, and take the best I possess;
Yield closer and closer, and give me the best you possess.
Sonnet LX: Define My Weal
© Michael Drayton
Define my weal, and tell the joys of Heav'n;
Express my woes, and show the pains of Hell;
Declare what fate unlucky stars have giv'n,
And ask a world upon my life to dwell;
Duty
© Edgar Albert Guest
We know not where the path may lead nor what the end may be,
The clouds are dark above us now, the future none can see,
And yet when all the storms have passed, and cannons cease to roar,
We shall be prouder of our flag than we have been before.
Nymphidia, The Court Of Fairy (excerpts)
© Michael Drayton
But let us leave Queen Mab a while,
Through many a gate, o'er many a stile,
That now had gotten by this wile,
Her dear Pigwiggen kissing;
Sonnet XIV: If He From Heav'n
© Michael Drayton
If he from Heav'n that filch'd that living fire
Condemn'd by Jove to endless torment be,
I greatly marvel how you still go free
That far beyond Prometheus did aspire.
The Yerl O' Waterydeck
© George MacDonald
The wind it blew, and the ship it flew,
And it was "Hey for hame!"
But up an' cried the skipper til his crew,
"Haud her oot ower the saut sea faem."
Kathaleen Ny-Houlahan
© James Clarence Mangan
LONG they pine in weary woe - the nobles of our land -
Long they wander to and fro, proscribed, alas! and banned;
Feastless, houseless, altarless, they bear the exie's brand,
But their hope is in the coming-to of Kathaleen Ny-Houlahan.
Noah's Flood (excerpts)
© Michael Drayton
Eternal and all-working God, which wast
Before the world, whose frame by Thee was cast,
And beautified with beamful lamps above,
By thy great wisdom set how they should move
To guide the seasons, equally to all,
Which come and go as they do rise and fall.
Tones
© Madison Julius Cawein
A woman, fair to look upon,
Where waters whiten with the moon;
While down the glimmer of the lawn
The white moths swoon.
Vidrik Verlandson (From The Old Danish)
© George Borrow
King Diderik sits in the halls of Bern,
And he boasts of his deeds of might;
So many a swain in battle hes felld,
And taken so many a knight.
Wordsworth's Grave
© William Watson
The old rude church, with bare, bald tower, is here;
Beneath its shadow high-born Rotha flows;
Rotha, remembering well who slumbers near,
And with cool murmur lulling his repose
The Parting
© Michael Drayton
SINCE there 's no help, come let us kiss and part--
Nay, I have done, you get no more of me;
And I am glad, yea, glad with all my heart,
That thus so cleanly I myself can free.
For One Who Went In Spring
© Isabel Ecclestone Mackay
SHE did not go, as others do,
With backward look and beckoning;
With no farewell for anything
She passed the open doorway through.
Debtor
© Sara Teasdale
SO long as my spirit still
Is glad of breath
And lifts its plumes of pride
In the dark face of death;
Astrophel And Stella-Tenth Song
© Sir Philip Sidney
Oh dear life, when shall it be
That mine eyes thine eyes may see?
And in them thy mind discover,
Whether absence have had force
Thy remembrance to divorce
From the image of thy lover?
