Sad poems
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The Old School
© Tsiriotakis Helen
But to say what you want to say you must createanother language and nourish it for yearsand years with what you have loved
To Virgil, Written at the Request of the Mantuans for the Nineteenth Centenary of Virgil's Death
© Alfred Tennyson
Roman Virgil, thou that singest Ilion's lofty temples robed in fire,Ilion falling, Rome arising, wars, and filial faith, and Dido's pyre;
In Memoriam A. H. H. OBIIT MDCCCXXXIII [all 133 poems]
© Alfred Tennyson
[Preface] Whom we, that have not seen thy face, By faith, and faith alone, embrace,Believing where we cannot prove;
Atalanta in Calydon: A Tragedy (complete text)
© Algernon Charles Swinburne
Tous zontas eu dran. katthanon de pas anerGe kai skia. to meden eis ouden repei
Astrophel and Stella: 96
© Sir Philip Sidney
Thought with good cause thou likest so well the night,Since kind or chance giues both one liuerie,Both sadly black, both blackly darkned be,Night bard from Sun, thou from thy owne Sun light;Silence in both displaies his sullen might,Slow heauinesse in both holds one degree,That full of doubts, thou of perplexitie;Thy teares expresse nights natiue moisture right
Astrophel and Stella: 87
© Sir Philip Sidney
When I was forst from Stella euer deere,Stella food of my thoughts, hart of my heart,Stella whose eyes make all my tempests cleere,By yron lawes of dutie to depart:Alas I found, that she with me did smart,I saw that teares did in her eyes appeare;I saw that sighs her sweetest lips did part,And her sad words my saddest sence did heare
Astrophel and Stella: 55
© Sir Philip Sidney
Muses, I oft invoked your holie ayde,With choisest flowers my speech to engarland so;That it despis'de in true but naked shew,Might winne some grace in your sweet grace arraid
Astrophel and Stella: 49
© Sir Philip Sidney
I on my horse, and Loue on me doth trieOur horsemanships, while by strange worke I proueA horseman to my horse, a horse to Loue;And now mans wrongs in me poore beast descrie
A Year and a Day
© Siddall Elizabeth
Slow days have passed that make a year, Slow hours that make a day,Since I could take my first dear love And kiss him the old way;Yet the green leaves touch me on the cheek, Dear Christ, this month of May
Letter from a Friend
© Shields Carol
What do you mean you don'tunderstand me these days?Can't you see I'msewn up with sadness?Stitched through and through with grief that won'tbe comforted or identified.
Shakespeare's Sonnets: Music to hear, why hear'st thou music sadly?
© William Shakespeare
Music to hear, why hear'st thou music sadly?Sweets with sweets war not, joy delights in joy:Why lov'st thou that which thou receiv'st not gladly,Or else receiv'st with pleasure thine annoy?If the true concord of well-tunèd sounds,By unions married do offend thine ear,They do but sweetly chide thee, who confoundsIn singleness the parts that thou should'st bear:Mark how one string, sweet husband to an other,Strikes each in each by mutual ordering,Resembling sire, and child, and happy mother,Who all-in-one one pleasing note do sing Whose speechless song being many, seeming one, Sings this to thee, "thou single wilt prove none
Marmion: Canto 6
© Sir Walter Scott
Next morn the Baron climb'd the tower,To view afar the Scottish power, Encamp'd on Flodden edge:The white pavilions made a show,Like remnants of the winter snow, Along the dusky ridge
Marmion: Canto 5
© Sir Walter Scott
O, young Lochinvar is come out of the west,Through all the wide Border his steed was the best;And save his good broadsword, he weapons had none,He rode all unarm'd, and he rode all alone
When I am Old --
© Margaret Elizabeth Sangster
When I am old and drenched in worlds of sadness, And wear a lacy cap upon my head;When, looking past the future's singing gladness, I linger, wistful, in the years long dead
