Poems

Poems List

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Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde

Theocritus - A Villanelle

O singer of Persephone!
In the dim meadows desolate
Dost thou remember Sicily?

Still through the ivy flits the bee
Where Amaryllis …

643
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde

Like burnt-out torches by a sick man's bed

We caught the tread of dancing feet,
We loitered down the moonlit street,
And stopped beneath the harlot's house.

Inside, above the din and …

832
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde

The Dole Of The King's Daughter (Breton)

Seven stars in the still water,
And seven in the sky;
Seven sins on the King's daughter,
Deep in her soul to lie.

Red roses are at …

693
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde

The Grave Of Shelley

Like burnt-out torches by a sick man's bed
Gaunt cypress-trees stand round the sun-bleached stone;
Here doth the little night-owl make her throne,
And…

836
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde

Symphony in Yellow

An omnibus across the bridge
Crawls like a yellow butterfly
And, here and there, a passer-by
Shows like a little restless midge.

Bi…

763
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde

Taedium Vitae

To stab my youth with desperate knives, to wear
This paltry age's gaudy livery,
To let each base hand filch my treasury,
To mesh my soul within a woma…

810
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde

Sonnet On Hearing The Dies Irae Sung In The Sistine Chapel

Nay, Lord, not thus! white lilies in the spring,
Sad olive-groves, or silver-breasted dove,
Teach me more clearly of Thy life and love
Than terrors of…

652
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde

Sonnet On Approaching Italy

I reached the Alps: the soul within me burned,
Italia, my Italia, at thy name:
And when from out the mountain's heart I came
And saw the land for whic…

666
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde

Serenade (For Music)

The western wind is blowing fair
Across the dark AEgean sea,
And at the secret marble stair
My Tyrian galley waits for thee.
Come down! the p…

1,604
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde

Silentium Amoris

As often-times the too resplendent sun
Hurries the pallid and reluctant moon
Back to her sombre cave, ere she hath won
A single ballad from the nighti…

763
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde

San Miniato

See, I have climbed the mountain side
Up to this holy house of God,
Where once that Angel-Painter trod
Who saw the heavens opened wide,

628
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde

Santa Decca

The Gods are dead: no longer do we bring
To grey-eyed Pallas crowns of olive-leaves!
Demeter's child no more hath tithe of sheaves,
And in the noon th…

753
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde

Roses And Rue

(To L. L.)

Could we dig up this long-buried treasure,
Were it worth the pleasure,
We never could learn love's song,
We are parted t…

755
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde

Requiescat

Tread lightly, she is near
Under the snow,
Speak gently, she can hear
The daisies grow.

All her bright golden hair
Tarnish…

913
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde

Quantum Mutata

There was a time in Europe long ago
When no man died for freedom anywhere,
But England's lion leaping from its lair
Laid hands on the oppressor! it wa…

619
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde

Quia Multum Amavi

Dear Heart, I think the young impassioned priest
When first he takes from out the hidden shrine
His God imprisoned in the Eucharist,
And eats the brea…

756
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde

My Voice

Within this restless, hurried, modern world
We took our hearts' full pleasure - You and I,
And now the white sails of our ship are furled,
And spent t…

672
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde

Pan - Double Villanelle

I.

O goat-foot God of Arcady!
This modern world is grey and old,
And what remains to us of thee?

No more the shepherd lad…

752
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde

Magdalen Walks

The little white clouds are racing over the sky,
And the fields are strewn with the gold of the flower of March,
The daffodil breaks under foot, and the tassel…

672
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde

Louis Napoleon

Eagle of Austerlitz! where were thy wings
When far away upon a barbarous strand,
In fight unequal, by an obscure hand,
Fell the last scion of thy broo…

692
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde

Les Silhouettes

The sea is flecked with bars of grey,
The dull dead wind is out of tune,
And like a withered leaf the moon
Is blown across the stormy bay.

664
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde

Libertatis Sacra Fames

Albeit nurtured in democracy,
And liking best that state republican
Where every man is Kinglike and no man
Is crowned above his fellows, yet I see,

759
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde

Le Panneau

Under the rose-tree's dancing shade
There stands a little ivory girl,
Pulling the leaves of pink and pearl
With pale green nails of polished jade.

1,437
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde

Les Ballons

Against these turbid turquoise skies
The light and luminous balloons
Dip and drift like satin moons
Drift like silken butterflies;

673