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Couplets on Wit
Couplets on Wit I But our Great Turks in wit must reign alone And ill can bear a Brother on the Throne. II Wit is like faith by such warm Fools profest Who to be saved by on…
Time And Love
Time And Love Time flies. The swift hours hurry by And speed us on to untried ways; New seasons ripen, perish, die, And yet love stays. The old, old love – like sweet at firs…
Mauberley
Mauberley I Turned from the 'eau-forte Par Jaquemart' To the strait head Of Messalina: 'His true Penelope Was Flaubert,' And his tool The engraver's. Firmness, Not the full s…
Leaves Compared with Flowers
Leaves Compared with Flowers A tree's leaves may be ever so good, So may its bar, so may its wood; But unless you put the right thing to its root It never will show much flower…
Despairing Cries
Despairing Cries DESPAIRING cries float ceaselessly toward me, day and night, The sad voice of Death--the call of my nearest lover, putting forth, alarmed, uncertain, This s…
To A Historian
To A Historian YOU who celebrate bygones! Who have explored the outward, the surfaces of the races--the life that has exhibited itself; Who have treated of man as the creature…
Old Age. (Sonnet IV.)
Old Age. (Sonnet IV.) The course of my long life hath reached at last, In fragile bark o'er a tempestuous sea, The common harbor, where must rendered be Account of all the acti…
I Can Still See You
I Can Still See You I can still see you: an Echo, to be touched with Feeler- Words, on the Parting- Ridge. Your face softly shies away, when all at once there is lamp-like bri…
Outsong in the Jungle
Outsong in the Jungle Baloo For the sake of him who showed One wise Frog the Jungle-Road, Keep the Law the Man-Pack make For thy blind old Baloo's sake! Clean or tainted, hot or…
The Secret Sits
The Secret Sits We dance round in a ring and suppose, But the Secret sits in the middle and knows.
Two Kopjes
Two Kopjes (Made Yeomanry towards End of Boer War) Only two African kopjes, Only the cart-tracks that wind Empty and open between 'em, Only the Transvaal behind; Only an Aldersh…
Sonnet IV
Sonnet IV Thou hast thy calling to some palace-floor, Most gracious singer of high poems ! where The dancers will break footing, from the care Of watching up thy pregnant lips…
Whoever You Are, Holding Me Now In Hand
Whoever You Are, Holding Me Now In Hand WHOEVER you are, holding me now in hand, Without one thing, all will be useless, I give you fair warning, before you attempt me further,…
Les Millwin
Les Millwin The little Millwins attend the Russian Ballet. The mauve and greenish souls of the little Millwins Were seen lying along the upper seats Like so many unused boas.…
Mesalliance
Mesalliance I am troubled to-night with a curious pain; It is not of the flesh, it is not of the brain, Nor yet of a heart that is breaking: But down still deeper, and out of s…
Universal Prayer
Universal Prayer Father of all! In every age, In ev'ry clime ador'd, By saint, by savage, and by sage, Jehovah, Jove, or Lord! Thou Great First Cause, least understood, Who a…
Coda
Coda There's little in taking or giving, There's little in water or wine; This living, this living, this living Was never a project of mine. Oh, hard is the struggle, and spar…
Under Saturn
Under Saturn DO not because this day I have grown saturnine Imagine that lost love, inseparable from my thought Because I have no other youth, can make me pine; For how should…
A bee
A bee A bee staggers out of the peony. Translated by Robert Hass
His Phoenix
His Phoenix THERE is a queen in China, or maybe it's in Spain, And birthdays and holidays such praises can be heard Of her unblemished lineaments, a whiteness with no stain, Th…
Meeting And Passing
Meeting And Passing As I went down the hill along the wall There was a gate I had leaned at for the view And had just turned from when I first saw you As you came up the hill. W…
The Bridegroom
The Bridegroom I SLEPT,--'twas midnight,--in my bosom woke, As though 'twere day, my love-o'erflowing heart; To me it seemed like night, when day first broke; What is't to me,…
President Lincoln's Burial Hymn
President Lincoln's Burial Hymn When Lilacs Last in the Door-yard Bloom'd WHEN lilacs last in the door-yard bloom'd, And the great star early droop'd in the western sky in the…
Courtship of Miles Standish, The
Courtship of Miles Standish, The I MILES STANDISH In the Old Colony days, in Plymouth the land of the Pilgrims To and fro in a room of his simple and primitive dwelling, Clad…