Poem of the day
Categories
Poetry Hubs
Explore
You can also search poems by theme, metrics, form
and more.
Poems
Poets
Page 528 of 739
Previous
Next
A Jolly Beggar.
Aw'm as rich as a Jew, tho aw havn't a meg,But awm free as a burd, an aw shak a loise leg;Aw've noa haase, an noa barns, soa aw nivver pay rent,But still aw feel rich, for awm bless'd wi content,Aw live, an awm jolly,An if it is folly,Let others be wise, but aw'l follow mi bent.Mi kitchen aw find amang th' rocks up oth moor,An at neet under th' edge ov a haystack aw snoor,An a wide spreeadin branch keeps th' cold rain off mi nop,Wol aw listen to th' stormcock at pipes up oth top;Aw live, an awm jolly, &c.Aw nivver fear thieves, for aw've nowt they can tak,Unless it's thease tatters at hing o' mi back;An if they prig them, they'll get suck'd do yo see,They'll be noa use to them, for they're little to me.Aw live, an awm jolly, &am...
John Hartley
Hon. Miss Mercer. - Hopner (Sketches In The Exhibition, 1805)
Oh! hide those tempting eyes, that faultless form,Those looks with feeling and with nature warm;The neck, the softly-swelling bosom hide,Nor, wanton gales, blow the light vest aside;For who, when beauties more than life exciteSilent applause, can gaze without delight!But innocence, enchanting maid, is thine;Thine eyes in liquid light unconscious shine;And may thy breast no other feelings prove,Than those of sympathy and mutual love!
William Lisle Bowles
Fair Days: Or, Dawns Deceitful.
Fair was the dawn, and but e'en now the skiesShow'd like to cream inspir'd with strawberries,But on a sudden all was chang'd and goneThat smil'd in that first sweet complexion.Then thunder-claps and lightning did conspireTo tear the world, or set it all on fire.What trust to things below, whenas we see,As men, the heavens have their hypocrisy?
Robert Herrick
Shrift.
I am not true, but you would pardon this If you could see the tortured spirit take Its place beside you in the dark, and break Your daily food of love and kindliness. You'd guess the bitter thing that treachery is, Furtive and on its guard, asleep, awake, Fearing to sin, yet fearing to forsake, And daily giving Christ the Judas kiss. But piteous amends I make each day To recompense the evil with the good; With double pang I play the double part Of all you trust and all that I betray. What long atonement makes my penitent blood, To what sad tryst goes my unfaithful heart!
Muriel Stuart
With Drake In The Tropics
South and far south below the Line,Our Admiral leads us on,Above, undreamed-of planets shine,The stars we know are gone.Around, our clustered seamen markThe silent deep ablazeWith fires, through which the far-down sharkShoots glimmering on his ways.The sultry tropic breezes failThat plagued us all day through;Like molten silver hangs our sail,Our decks are dark with dew.Now the rank moon commands the sky.Ho! Bid the watch bewareAnd rouse all sleeping men that lieUnsheltered in her glare.How long the time 'twixt bell and bell!How still our lanthorns burn!How strange our whispered words that tellOf England and return!Old towns, old streets, old friends, old loves,We name them each to each,While the ...
Rudyard
A Prayer
Just as I shape the purport of my thought,Lord of the Universe, shape Thou my lot.Let each ill thought that in my heart may be,Mould circumstance and bring ill luck to me.Until I weed the garden of my mindFrom all that is unworthy and unkind,Am I not master of my mind, dear Lord?Then as I THINK, so must be my reward.Who sows in weakness, cannot reap in strength,That which we plant, we gather in at length.Great God of Justice, be Thou just to me,And as my thoughts, so let my future be.
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
After A Lecture On Moore
Shine soft, ye trembling tears of lightThat strew the mourning skies;Hushed in the silent dews of nightThe harp of Erin lies.What though her thousand years have pastOf poets, saints, and kings, -Her echoes only hear the lastThat swept those golden strings.Fling o'er his mound, ye star-lit bowers,The balmiest wreaths ye wear,Whose breath has lent your earth-born flowersHeaven's own ambrosial air.Breathe, bird of night, thy softest tone,By shadowy grove and rill;Thy song will soothe us while we ownThat his was sweeter still.Stay, pitying Time, thy foot for himWho gave thee swifter wings,Nor let thine envious shadow dimThe light his glory flings.If in his cheek unholy bloodBurned for one ...
Oliver Wendell Holmes
Worthy The Name Of 'Sir Knight'
Sir Knight of the world's oldest order, Sir Knight of the Army of God,You have crossed the strange mystical border, The ground-floor of truth you have trod;You stand on the typical threshold Which leads to the temple above;Where you come as a stone, and a Christ-chosen one, In the Kingdom of Friendship and Love.As you stand in this new realm of beauty, Where each man you meet is your friend,Think not that your promise of duty In hall, or asylum, shall end.Outside, in the great world of pleasure. Beyond in the clamour of trade,In the battle of life and its coarse daily strife, Remember the vows you have made.Your service, majestic and solemn, Your symbols, suggestive and sweet,Your uniform phala...
Ruth
When Ruth was left half desolate,Her Father took another Mate;And Ruth, not seven years old,A slighted child, at her own willWent wandering over dale and hill,In thoughtless freedom, bold.And she had made a pipe of straw,And music from that pipe could drawLike sounds of winds and floods;Had built a bower upon the green,As if she from her birth had beenAn infant of the woods.Beneath her father's roof, aloneShe seemed to live; her thoughts her own;Herself her own delight;Pleased with herself, nor sad, nor gay;And, passing thus the live-long day,She grew to woman's height.There came a Youth from Georgia's shoreA military casque he wore,With splendid feathers drest;He brought them from the Cherokees;<...
William Wordsworth
The Divine Comedy by Dante: The Vision of Hell, Or The Inferno: Canto V
From the first circle I descended thusDown to the second, which, a lesser spaceEmbracing, so much more of grief containsProvoking bitter moans. There, Minos standsGrinning with ghastly feature: he, of allWho enter, strict examining the crimes,Gives sentence, and dismisses them beneath,According as he foldeth him around:For when before him comes th' ill fated soul,It all confesses; and that judge severeOf sins, considering what place in hellSuits the transgression, with his tail so oftHimself encircles, as degrees beneathHe dooms it to descend. Before him standAlways a num'rous throng; and in his turnEach one to judgment passing, speaks, and hearsHis fate, thence downward to his dwelling hurl'd."O thou! who to this reside...
Dante Alighieri
The Rhemese
NO city I to Rheims would e'er prefer:Of France the pride and honour I aver;The Holy Ampoule * and delicious wine,Which ev'ry one regards as most divine,We'll set apart, and other objects take:The beauties round a paradise might make!I mean not tow'rs nor churches, gates, nor streets;But charming belles with soft enchanting sweets:Such oft among the fair Rhemese we view:Kings might be proud those graces to pursue.ONE 'mong these belles had to the altar led,A painter, much esteemed, and who had bread.What more was requisite! - he lived at ease,And by his occupation sought to please.A happy woman all believed his wife;The husband's talents pleased her to the life:For gallantry howe'er he was renowned,And many am'rous dames, who dwelle...
Jean de La Fontaine
To Lina.
Should these songs, love, as they fleet,Chance again to reach thy hand,At the piano take thy seat,Where thy friend was wont to stand!Sweep with finger bold the string,Then the book one moment see:But read not! do nought but sing!And each page thine own will be!Ah, what grief the song impartsWith its letters, black on white,That, when breath'd by thee, our heartsNow can break and now delight!
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Bag Your Game
Two men, well versed in use of arms,Set out, 'tis said, in search of game.Each felt that hunting had its charms,Yet widely differed they in aim.Both felt their need of wholesome foodFor present use and winter's store;But one was of a careless mood--Than the day's sport he asked no more.No game he bagged from morn till night,Content to show his master skillIn hitting every bird at sight,And shooting down the deer at will.Grand sport he deemed it, day by day,As in the tangled forest brakeHe brought the bounding stag to bay,Or shot the wood-duck in the lake.As he each night to home returnedHe sang the pleasure of the chase;But had not yet the lesson learnedThat he was loser in the race.Yet, when sat in the winte...
Joseph Horatio Chant
Values
Since there is excitementIn suffering for a woman,Let him burn on.The dust in a wolf's eyesIs balm of flowers to the wolfWhen a flock of sheep has raised it.From the Arabic.
Edward Powys Mathers
A Gooid Kursmiss Day.
It wor Kursmiss day, - we wor ready for fun,Th' puddin wor boil'd an th' rooast beef wor done;Th' ale wor i'th' cellar, an th' spice-cake i'th' bin,An th' cheese wor just lively enuff to walk in.Th' lads wor all donned i' ther hallidy clooas,An th' lasses, - they each luckt as sweet as a rooas;An th' old wife an me, set at each end o'th' hob,An th' foir wor splutterin raand a big cob,An aw sed, "Nah, old lass,Tho we havn't mich brass,We shall celebrate Kursmiss to-day."Th' young fowk couldn't rest, they kept lukkin at th' clock,Yo'd a thowt 'twor a wick sin they'd had any jock,But we winkt one at tother as mich as to say,They mun wait for th' reight time, for ther mother has th' kay.Then they all went to th' weshus at stood just aghtside,...
Psal. LXXXIII.
Be not thou silent now at lengthO God hold not thy peace,Sit not thou still O God of strengthWe cry and do not cease.For lo thy furious foes now *1swellAnd *1storm outrageously,And they that hate thee proud and fillExalt their heads full hie.Against thy people they *2contrive*3Their Plots and Counsels deep,*4Them to ensnare they chiefly strive*5Whom thou dost hide and keep.Come let us cut them off say they,Till they no Nation beThat Israels name for ever mayBe lost in memory.For they consult *6with all their might,And all as one in mindThemselves against thee they uniteAnd in firm union bind.The tents of Edom, and the broodOf scornful Ishm...
John Milton
Student-Song.
When Youth's warm heart beats high, my friend, And Youth's blue sky is bright,And shines in Youth's clear eye, my friend, Love's early dawning light,Let the free soul spurn care's control, And while the glad days shine,We'll use their beams for Youth's gay dreams Of Love and Song and Wine.Let not the bigot's frown, my friend, O'ercast thy brow with gloom,For Autumn's sober brown, my friend, Shall follow Summer's bloom.Let smiles and sighs and loving eyes In changeful beauty shine,And shed their beams on Youth's gay dreams Of Love and Song and Wine.For in the weary years, my friend, That stretched before us lie,There'll be enough of tears, my friend, To dim the brightest eye.So le...
John Hay
The Re-Enactment
Between the folding sea-downs, In the gloom Of a wailful wintry nightfall, When the boomOf the ocean, like a hammering in a hollow tomb, Throbbed up the copse-clothed valley From the shore To the chamber where I darkled, Sunk and soreWith gray ponderings why my Loved one had not come before To salute me in the dwelling That of late I had hired to waste a while in - Vague of date,Quaint, and remote wherein I now expectant sate; On the solitude, unsignalled, Broke a man Who, in air as if at home there, Seemed to scanEvery fire-flecked nook of the apartment span by span. A stranger's and no lover's Eyes were these, Eyes of a man wh...
Thomas Hardy