Time poems
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Shakespeare's Sonnets: Where art thou, muse, that thou forget'st so long
© William Shakespeare
Where art thou, muse, that thou forget'st so longTo speak of that which gives thee all thy might?Spend'st thou thy fury on some worthless song,Dark'ning thy pow'r to lend base subjects light?Return, forgetful Muse, and straight redeem,In gentle numbers, time so idly spent,Sing to the ear that doth thy lays esteemAnd gives thy pen both skill and argument
Shakespeare's Sonnets: When to the sessions of sweet silent thought
© William Shakespeare
When to the sessions of sweet silent thoughtI summon up remembrance of things past,I sigh the lack of many a thing I soughtAnd with old woes new wail my dear time's waste:Then can I drown an eye (un-us'd to flow)For precious friends hid in death's dateless night,And weep afresh love's long-since cancell'd woe,And moan th'expense of many a vanish't sight
Shakespeare's Sonnets: When in the chronicle of wastèd time
© William Shakespeare
When in the chronicle of wastèd timeI see descriptions of the fairest wightsAnd beauty making beautiful old rhymeIn praise of ladies dead, and lovely knights,Then in the blazon of sweet beauty's best,Of hand, of foot, of lip, of eye, of brow,I see their antique pen would have express'tEv'n such a beauty as you master now
Shakespeare's Sonnets: When I have seen by time's fell hand defaced
© William Shakespeare
When I have seen by time's fell hand defacedThe rich proud cost of outworn buried age;When sometime lofty towers I see down razedAnd brass eternal slave to mortal rage;When I have seen the hungry ocean gainAdvantage on the kingdom of the shore,And the firm soil win of the watery main,Increasing store with loss, and loss with store;When I have seen such interchange of state,Or state it self confounded to decay,Ruin hath taught me thus to ruminateThat time will come and take my love away
Shakespeare's Sonnets: When I do count the clock that tells the time
© William Shakespeare
When I do count the clock that tells the time,And see the brave day sunk in hid'ous night,When I behold the violet past prime,And sable curls' or silver'd o'er with white:When lofty trees I see barren of leaves,Which erst from heat did canopy the herd,And summer's green all girded up in sheavesBorne on the bier with white and bristly beard:Then of thy beauty do I question makeThat thou among the wastes of time must go,Since sweets and beauties do them-selves forsake,And die as fast as they see others grow, And nothing 'gainst time's scythe can make defence Save breed to brave him, when he takes thee hence
Shakespeare's Sonnets: When I consider every thing that grows
© William Shakespeare
When I consider every thing that growsHolds in perfection but a little moment,That this huge stage presenteth nought but showsWhereon the stars in secret influence comment;When I perceive that men as plants increase,Cheered and check't even by the self-same sky,Vaunt in their youthful sap, at height decrease,And wear their brave state out of memory
Dream Song 134: Sick at 6 and sick again at 9
© John Berryman
Sick at 6 & sick again at 9
was Henry's gloomy Monday morning oh.
Still he had to lecture.
They waited, his little children, for stricken Henry
to rise up yet once more again and come oh.
They figured he was a fixture,
Shakespeare's Sonnets: What's in the brain that ink may character
© William Shakespeare
What's in the brain that ink may characterWhich hath not figur'd to thee my true spirit?What's new to speak, what now to register,That may express my love, or thy dear merit?Nothing, sweet boy, but yet like prayers divine,I must each day say o'er the very same,Counting no old thing old, thou mine, I thine,Ev'n as when first I hallowed thy fair name
Dream Song 119: Fresh-shaven, past months and a picture in New York
© John Berryman
Fresh-shaven, past months & a picture in New York
of Beard Two, I did have Three took off. Well. .
Shadow & act, shadow & act,
Better get white or you' get whacked,
or keep so-called black
& raise new hell.
Shakespeare's Sonnets: Those pretty wrongs that liberty commits
© William Shakespeare
Those pretty wrongs that liberty commitsWhen I am some-time absent from thy heart,Thy beauty and thy years full well befits,For still temptation follows where thou art
Shakespeare's Sonnets: Those lines that I before have writ do lie
© William Shakespeare
Those lines that I before have writ do lie,Ev'n those that said I could not love you dearer,Yet then my judgement knew no reason whyMy most full flame should afterwards burn clearer
Shakespeare's Sonnets: Those hours that with gentle work did frame
© William Shakespeare
Those hours that with gentle work did frameThe lovely gaze where every eye doth dwellWill play the tyrants to the very same,And that unfair which fairly doth excel,For never-resting time leads summer onTo hid'ous winter and confounds him there,Sap checkt with frost and lusty leaves quite gone,Beauty o'er-snow'd and bareness every where;Then were not summer's distillation leftA liquid pris'ner pent in walls of glass,Beauty's effect with beauty were bereft,Nor it nor no remembrance what it was
Dream Song 110: It was the blue and plain ones. I forget all that
© John Berryman
It was the blue & plain ones. I forget all that.
My own clouds darkening hung.
Besides, it wasn't serious.
They took them in different rooms & fed them lies.
'She admitted you wanted to get rid of it.'
'He told us he told you to.'
Shakespeare's Sonnets: Then let not winter's wragged hand deface
© William Shakespeare
Then let not winter's wragged hand defaceIn thee thy summer ere thou be distill'd:Make sweet some vial, treasure thou some place,With beauty's treasure ere it be self-kill'd
Shakespeare's Sonnets: That you were once unkind be-friends me now
© William Shakespeare
That you were once unkind be-friends me now,And for that sorrow which I then did feelNeeds must I under my transgression bow,Unless my nerves were brass or hammered steel
Shakespeare's Sonnets: That time of year thou may'st in me behold
© William Shakespeare
That time of year thou may'st in me beholdWhen yellow leaves, or none, or few do hangUpon those boughs which shake against the cold,Bare ruin'd quires where late the sweet birds sang
Shakespeare's Sonnets: That thou are blam'd shall not be thy defect
© William Shakespeare
That thou are blam'd shall not be thy defect,For slander's mark was ever yet the fair,The ornament of beauty is suspect,A crow that flies in heaven's sweetest air
Shakespeare's Sonnets: That God forbid that made me first your slave
© William Shakespeare
That God forbid that made me first your slaveI should in thought control your times of pleasure,Or at your hand th' account of hours to crave,Being your vassal bound to stay your leisure
Shakespeare's Sonnets: So are you to my thoughts as food to life
© William Shakespeare
So are you to my thoughts as food to lifeOr as sweet season'd show'rs are to the ground;And for the peace of you I hold such strifeAs 'twixt a miser and his wealth is found,Now proud as an enjoyer, and anonDoubting the filching age will steal his treasure,Now counting best to be with you alone,Then better'd that the world may see my pleasure,Some-time all full with feasting on your sight,And by and by clean starvèd for a look,Possessing or pursuing no delightSave what is had, or must from you be took
Shakespeare's Sonnets: So am I as the rich whose blessèd key
© William Shakespeare
So am I as the rich whose blessèd keyCan bring him to his sweet up-lockèd treasure,The which he will not ev'ry hour surveyFor blunting the fine point of seldom pleasure
