Smile poems
/ page 129 of 369 /
A Scrawl
© James Whitcomb Riley
I want to sing something-- but this is all--
I try and I try, but the rhymes are dull
As though they were damp, and the echoes fall
Limp and unlovable.
Understanding
© Edgar Albert Guest
When I was young and frivolous and never stopped to think,
When I was always doing wrong, or just upon the brink;
When I was just a lad of seven and eight and nine and ten,
It seemed to me that every day I got in trouble then,
And strangers used to shake their heads and say I was no good,
But father always stuck to me it seems he understood.
A Discouraging Model
© James Whitcomb Riley
Just the airiest, fairiest slip of a thing,
With a Gainsborough hat, like a butterfly's wing,
Tilted up at one side with the jauntiest air,
And a knot of red roses sown in under there
Where the shadows are lost in her hair.
In The Cup
© Wilcox Ella Wheeler
There is grief in the cup!
I saw a proud mother set wine on the board;
Sonnet XVIII
© Caroline Norton
ON HEARING OF THE DEATH OF THE COUNTESS OF BURLINGTON.
[Inscribed, with deep and earnest sympathy, to her Mother, The Countess of Carlisle.]
SINCE in the pleasant time of opening flowers
That flow'r, Her life, was doom'd to fade away,--
The Calculation Of Life
© Jean Antoine de Baif
Thou art aged; but recount,
Since thy early life began,
A Royal Home-Coming
© Alfred Austin
Welcome, right welcome home, to these blest Isles,
Where, unforgotten, loved Victoria sleeps,
But now with happy pride your Father smiles,
Your Mother weeps.
My Lady's Grave
© Emily Jane Brontë
THE linnet in the rocky dells,
The moor-lark in the air,
The bee among the heather bells
That hide my lady fair:
To the Moon [Earlier Version]
© Charles Harpur
WITH silent step behold her steal
Over those envious clouds that hid
Idyll VII. Harvest-Home
© Theocritus
He spake and paused; and thereupon spake I.
"I too, friend Lycid, as I ranged the fells,
Have learned much lore and pleasant from the Nymphs,
Whose fame mayhap hath reached the throne of Zeus.
But this wherewith I'll grace thee ranks the first:
Thou listen, since the Muses like thee well.
To The Germans
© Tadeusz Borowski
Don't walk in the street,don't eat, don't live,
backbreaking work is all you're allowed,
and beware the sign that bares its teeth:
"Only for Germans, others keep out."
The Pantomime Super to His Mask
© William Schwenck Gilbert
Vast empty shell!
Impertinent, preposterous abortion!
To His Royal Highness The Prince Of Wales
© James Thomson
While secret-leaguing nations frown around,
Ready to pour the long-expected storm;
While she, who wont the restless Gaul to bound,
Britannia, drooping, grows an empty form;
While on our vitals selfish parties prey,
And deep corruption eats our soul away;
To The Queen Of England
© Edith Nesbit
COME forth! the world's aflame with flags and flowers,
The shout of bells fills full the shattered air,
Ariadne Waking
© James Henry Leigh Hunt
The moist and quiet morn was scarcely breaking,
When Ariadne in her bower was waking;
