Sad poems

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by Richard Barnfield">

© Richard Barnfield

Sighing, and sadly sitting by my love,


He asked the cause of my heart's sorrowing,

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The Old Manor House

© Ada Cambridge

An old house, crumbling half away, all barnacled and lichen-grown,
Of saddest, mellowest, softest grey,-with a grand history of its own-
Grand with the work and strife and tears of more than half a thousand years.

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Elegy Written At Hotwells, Bristol

© William Lisle Bowles

  The morning wakes in shadowy mantle gray, 
  The darksome woods their glimmering skirts unfold,
  Prone from the cliff the falcon wheels her way,
  And long and loud the bell's slow chime is tolled.

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The Violet-Gatherer (From The Danish Of Oehlenslaeger)

© George Borrow

Pale the moon her light was shedding
  O’er the landscape far and wide;
Calmly bright, all ills undreading,
  Emma wander’d by my side.

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Sonnet I. Written at Tinemouth, Northumberland, after a Tempestuous Voyage.

© William Lisle Bowles

As slow I climb the cliff's ascending side,

Much musing on the track of terror past

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A Sea Dream

© John Greenleaf Whittier

We saw the slow tides go and come,
The curving surf-lines lightly drawn,
The gray rocks touched with tender bloom
Beneath the fresh-blown rose of dawn.

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MacDonald’s Raid.—A.D. 1780.

© Paul Hamilton Hayne

I REMEMBER it well; 'twas a morn dull and gray,
And the legion lay idle and listless that day,
A thin drizzle of rain piercing chill to the soul,
And with not a spare bumper to brighten the bowl,

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Ode To The Setting Sun - Prelude

© Francis Thompson

The wailful sweetness of the violin
  Floats down the hush-ed waters of the wind,
The heart-strings of the throbbing harp begin
  To long in aching music.  Spirit-pined,

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Sonnet 87: When I Was Forc'd From Stella

© Sir Philip Sidney

When I was forc'd from Stella, ever dear
Stella, food of my thoughts, heart of my heart;
Stella, whose eyes make all my tempests clear,
By iron laws of duty to depart:

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To the Moon [Late Version]

© Charles Harpur

With musing mind I watch thee steal

  Above those envious clouds that hid

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To A Poet

© Alice Meynell

Thou who singest through the earth,
  All the earth's wild creatures fly thee,
Everywhere thou marrest mirth.
  Dumbly they defy thee.
There is something they deny thee.

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Nemesis

© Henry Lawson

It is night-time when the saddest and the darkest memories haunt,
When outside the printing office the most glaring posters flaunt,
When the love-wrong is accomplished. And I think of things and mark
That the blackest lies are written, told, and printed after dark.
’Tis the time of “late editions”. It is night when, as of old,
Foulest things are done for hatred, for ambition, love and gold.

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The Four Wishes

© Rosanna Eleanor Leprohon

“Father!” a youthful hero said, bending his lofty brow
“On the world wide I must go forth—then bless me, bless me, now!
And, ere I shall return oh say, what goal must I have won—
What is the aim, the prize, that most thou wishest for thy son?”

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Imitation Of Lines

© Helen Maria Williams

ADDRESSED BY M. D----, A YOUNG MAN OF TWENTY-
FOUR YEARS OF AGE, THE NIGHT BEFORE HIS
EXECUTION, TO A YOUNG LADY TO WHOM
HE WAS ENGAGED.--1794.

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Ode:Inscribed to W.H. Channing

© Ralph Waldo Emerson

Though loath to grieve
The evil time's sole patriot,
I cannot leave
My honeyed thought
For the priest's cant,
Or statesman's rant.

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Making Feet And Hands

© Benjamin Péret

Eye standing up eye lying down eye sitting

Why wander about between two hedges made of stair-rails while the ladders become soft

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The Lay of the Last Minstrel: Canto III.

© Sir Walter Scott

I.

And said I that my limbs were old,

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A Sketch

© Fitz-Greene Halleck

HER Leghorn hat was of the bright gold tint
The setting sunbeams give to autumn clouds;
The ribband that encircled it as blue
As spots of sky upon a moonless night,

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The Tasmanian Aborigine's Lament

© Anonymous

Fair island of my birth, thy distant rocks
Call forth the tenderest feelings of my heart;
Although the sight of thee my yearning mocks,
For cruel waves thee from my children part.
Ah! White man, why---Oh! Why thy childhood's home
Did'st thou abandon, to drive us from ours?

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The Stealing Of The Mare - VIII

© Wilfrid Scawen Blunt

Said the Narrator:
And when the Emir Abu Zeyd desired to depart, then said to him the Emir Jaber, ``Was it for the mare then that thou camest to our country, or for what else?'' And Abu Zeyd related to him the whole story of the ancient dame and of all that had happened. And the Emir Fadel cried to the grooms, ``Lead forth the mare, the Hamameh.'' And they led her forth and brought her to the Emir Abu Zeyd. And he departed with her after that he had bidden them farewell. And he went back to those shepherds, and took from them his riding camel, and ceased not until he had returned unto his own Arabs. And when they saw him they saluted him, and came around him and rejoiced exceedingly, and they made feastings, and the tribe rejoiced. And Abu Zeyd related to them all that had happened to him, and they wondered greatly and all the tribe with them. Then sent he to the ancient dame Ghanimeh and begged of her that she might come, and when she came he delivered to her the mare and the gifts and bade her depart to her own people. But she said to him, ``Nay, but send with me one who shall charge himself with my affairs.'' And he sent with her Abul Komsan. And Abul Komsan went with Ghanimeh. And they had not journeyed seven days when they met with the tribe of En Naaman. And Abul Komsan went unto Naaman and said to him: ``Saith my lord Abu Zeyd to thee, let Amer espouse thy daughter, for behold, the mare thou didst require of him my lord hath obtained her for thee.'' But when Naaman heard that, he said, ``Take the mare and return to thy Lord and say he will not listen to thy words, neither will he follow thy counsel.'' But he said to him, ``If thou wilt not do this thing then will I slay thee in the midst of thy Arabs, and destroy thee utterly.'' But when Naaman heard this he leaped upon his mare and rushed upon Abul Komsan. But Abul Komsan struck him with his spear upon his breast and pierced him through, so that the spear shone beyond him. And he called out to all the men of the tribe, and defied them, saying, ``I am your peer, and better than your peer.'' But they said to him, ``Nay, but thou hast done us a service, for this one refused to do according to our counsels.'' So Abul Komsan bade them bury him. And they buried him. Then he bade them to bring Amer before him, and Abul Komsan made rejoicings for him and placed him upon the seat of authority in the room of his uncle Naaman. And they brought to him also Betina, the daughter of Naaman, and he ordered their marriage. And when he had done all these things he desired to leave them. But they brought him gifts and they led forth for him the mare, and he took her and his leave of them and departed, and returned to his master and told him all the story. And Abu Zeyd rejoiced and gave thanks.
And the Narrator once more began his singing and he said: