Poems List
Explore poems from our collection
Work
Work
Let me but do my work from day to day,
In field or forest, at the desk or loom,
In roaring market-place or tranquil room;
Le…
So pitiful as these!
So pitiful as these!
Like a potter's vessel broke
The great ships of the line;
They were carried away as a smoke,
Or sank like le…
Without Disguise
Without Disguise
If I have erred in showing all my heart,
And lost your favour by a lack of pride;
If standing like a beggar at your side
…
Victor Hugo
Victor Hugo
Heart of France for a hundred years,
Passionate, sensitive, proud, and strong,
Quick to throb with her hopes and fears,
Fierc…
Twilight in the Alps
Twilight in the Alps
I love the hour that comes, with dusky hair
And dewy feet, along the Alpine dells
To lead the cattle forth. A thousand bells…
Undine
Undine
'T was far away and long ago,
When I was but a dreaming boy,
This fairy tale of love and woe
Entranced my heart with tearf…
To James Whitcomb Riley
To James Whitcomb Riley
On his "Book of Joyous Children"
Yours is a garden of old-fashioned flowers;
Joyous children delight to play ther…
Thomas Bailey Aldrich
Thomas Bailey Aldrich
I
BIRTHDAY VERSES
Dear Aldrich, now November's mellow days
Have brought another Festa round to you,…
The White Bees
The White Bees
I
LEGEND
Long ago Apollo called to Aristæus,
youngest of the shepherds,
Saying, "I will make you k…
The Window
The Window
All night long, by a distant bell,
The passing hours were notched
On the dark, while her breathing rose and fell,
And the spar…
The Vain King
The Vain King
In robes of Tyrian blue the King was drest,
A jewelled collar shone upon his breast,
A giant ruby glittered in his crown -----
The Statue of Sherman by St. Gaudens
The Statue of Sherman by St. Gaudens
This is the soldier brave enough to tell
The glory-dazzled world that `war is hell':
Lover of peace, he look…
The Proud Lady
The Proud Lady
When Stiivoren town was in its prime
And queened the Zuyder Zee,
Its ships went out to every clime
With costly merchantry.…
The Oxford Thrushes
The Oxford Thrushes
FEBRUARY, 1917
I never thought again to hear
The Oxford thrushes singing clear,
Amid the February rain,
The Hermit Thrush
The Hermit Thrush
O wonderful! How liquid clear
The molten gold of that ethereal tone,
Floating and falling through the wood alone,
A her…
The Mocking-Bird
The Mocking-Bird
In mirth he mocks the other birds at noon,
Catching the lilt of every easy tune;
But when the day departs he sings of love,--
The Foolish Fir-Tree
The Foolish Fir-Tree
A tale that the poet Rückert told
To German children, in days of old;
Disguised in a random, rollicking rhyme
Like …
The Glory of Ships
The Glory of Ships
The glory of ships is an old, old song,
since the days when the sea-rovers ran
In their open boats through the roaring surf, <…
The Black Birds
The Black Birds
I
Once, only once, I saw it clear, --
That Eden every human heart has dreamed
A hundred times, but always far away…
The Ancestral Dwelling
The Ancestral Dwelling
Dear to my heart are the ancestral dwellings of America,
Dearer than if they were haunted by ghosts of royal splendour;
Th…
Spring in the South
Spring in the South
Now in the oak the sap of life is welling,
Tho' to the bough the rusty leafage clings;
Now on the elm the misty buds are swel…
Stars and the Soul
Stars and the Soul
To Charles A. Young, Astronomer
"Two things," the wise man said, "fill me with awe:
The starry heavens and the moral…
Robert Browning
Robert Browning
How blind the toil that burrows like the mole,
In winding graveyard pathways underground,
For Browning's lineage! What if men hav…
Shelley
Shelley
Knight-errant of the Never-ending Quest,
And Minstrel of the Unfulfilled Desire;
For ever tuning thy frail earthly lyre
T…