Work poems
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What The Poet Was Telling Himself In 1848
© Victor Marie Hugo
You mustn't seek out power, mustn't grab the helm
Your work lies elsewhere, spirit of another realm,
Amoris Finis
© George Frederick Cameron
AND now I go with the departing sun:
My day is dead and all my work is done.
The Earl Of Shaou's Work
© Confucius
As the young millet, by the genial rain
Enriched, shoots up luxuriant and tall,
So, when we southward marched with toil and pain,
The Earl of Shaou cheered and inspired us all.
An After-Dinner Poem
© Oliver Wendell Holmes
IN narrowest girdle, O reluctant Muse,
In closest frock and Cinderella shoes,
Bound to the foot-lights for thy brief display,
One zephyr step, and then dissolve away!
A Reading Of Life--The Test Of Manhood
© George Meredith
That quiet dawn was Reverence; whereof sprang
Ethereal Beauty in full morningtide.
Another sun had risen to clasp his bride:
It was another earth unto him sang.
Er Commercio Libbero (The Free Trade)
© Giuseppe Gioacchino Belli
Be'? So' pputtana, venno la mi' pelle:
Fo la miggnotta, si, sto ar cancelletto:
Lo pijo in quello largo e in quello stretto:
C'è gnent'antro da dì? Che cose belle!
A Cloud In Trousers - part III
© Vladimir Mayakovsky
Ah, wherefrom this,
how explain this
brandishing of dirty fists
at bright joy!
In Memoriam
© Ada Cambridge
Life-length of days-the time to work and strive
In his Lord's vineyard; to bring heavenly light
Into the drear, dark places of the earth,
And make them fair and fruitful in His sight.
Late Ripeness
© Czeslaw Milosz
Not soon, as late as the approach of my ninetieth year,
I felt a door opening in me and I entered
the clarity of early morning.
A Vine-Arbour In The Far West
© Jean Ingelow
Laura, my Laura! 'Yes, mother!' 'I want you, Laura; come down.'
'What is it, mother-what, dearest? O your loved face how it pales!
You tremble, alas and alas-you heard bad news from the town?'
'Only one short half hour to tell it. My poor courage fails-
The Roman Centurion's Song
© Rudyard Kipling
Legate, I had the news last night -my cohort ordered home
By ships to Portus Itius and thence by road to Rome.
I've marched the companies aboard, the arms are stowed below:
Now let another take my sword. Command me not to go!
Love And Discipline
© Henry Vaughan
Since in a land not barren still
(Because Thou dost Thy grace distill)
My lot is fallen, blest be Thy will!
Sonnet 93: "So shall I live, supposing thou art true,..."
© William Shakespeare
So shall I live, supposing thou art true,
Like a deceived husband; so love's face
Creation
© Wilcox Ella Wheeler
The impulse of all love is to create.
God was so full of love, in his embrace
The Airy Christ
© Stevie Smith
Who is this that comes in splendour, coming from the blazing East?
This is he we had not thought of, this is he the airy Christ.
On Lending a Punch-Bowl
© Oliver Wendell Holmes
This ancient silver bowl of mine, it tells of good old times,
Of joyous days and jolly nights, and merry Christmas times;
They were a free and jovial race, but honest, brave, and true,
Who dipped their ladle in the punch when this old bowl was new.
Verses on the Death of Dr. Swift, D.S.P.D.
© Jonathan Swift
Dear honest Ned is in the gout,
Lies rack'd with pain, and you without:
How patiently you hear him groan!
How glad the case is not your own!
Dream Song 324
© John Berryman
Henry in Ireland to Bill underground:
Rest well, who worked so hard, who made a good sound
constantly, for so many years:
your high-jinks delighted the continents & our ears:
you had so many girls your life was a triumph
and you loved your one wife.
Book Ninth [Residence in France]
© William Wordsworth
EVEN as a river,--partly (it might seem)
Yielding to old remembrances, and swayed
