THE WORLD by Lord Francis Bacon of Verulam The World’s a bubble, and the Life of Man Less than a span: In his conception wretched, from the womb, So to the tomb; Curst from his cradle, and brought up to years With cares and fears. Who then to frail mortality shall trust, But limns on […]
Upon A Spider Catching A Fly by Edward Taylor
Upon A Spider Catching A Fly by Edward Taylor (1642-1729) Thou sorrow, venom Elfe: Is this thy play, To spin a web out of thyselfe To Catch a Fly? For Why? I saw a pettish wasp Fall foule therein: Whom yet thy Whorle pins did not clasp Lest he should fling His sting. But as […]
Fragment by Edwin Arlington Robinson
About Edwin Robinson: Born at Head Tide, Maine, Dec. 22, 1869. Educated at Harvard University. Mr. Robinson is a psychological poet of great subtlety; his poems are usually studies of types and he has given us a remarkable series of portraits. He is recognized as one of the finest and most distinguished poets of our time. He won three Pulitzer Prizes for his work.
PORTRAIT OF A MACHINE by Louis Untermeyer
PORTRAIT OF A MACHINE by Louis Untermeyer What nudity is beautiful as this Obedient monster purring at its toil; These naked iron muscles dripping oil And the sure-fingered rods that never miss. This long and shining flank of metal is Magic that greasy labor cannot spoil; While this vast engine that could rend the soil […]
The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T.S. Eliot
Simply, one of the greatest poets of all time. T. S. Eliot (1888-1965)
WHEN I WAS ONE-AND-TWENTY by Alfred Edward Housman
A. E. Housman was born March 26, 1859, and, after a classical education, he was, for ten years, a Higher Division Clerk in H. M. Patent Office. Later in life, he became a teacher.
PRIME by Amy Lowell
PRIME by Amy Lowell Your voice is like bells over roofs at dawn When a bird flies And the sky changes to a fresher color. Speak, speak, Beloved. Say little things For my ears to catch And run with them to my heart. Amy Lowell (1874-1925)
HOLY SATYR by HD
Hilda Doolittle (1886-1961) HOLY SATYR by HD Most holy Satyr, like a goat, with horns and hooves to match thy coat of russet brown, I make leaf-circlets and a crown of honey-flowers for thy throat; where the amber petals drip to ivory, I cut and slip each stiffened petal in the rift of carven petal: […]
WINDFLOWER LEAF by Carl Sandburg
Carl Sandburg (1878-1967) WINDFLOWER LEAF by Carl Sandburg This flower is repeated out of old winds, out of old times. The wind repeats these, it must have these, over and over again. Oh, windflowers so fresh, Oh, beautiful leaves, here now again. The domes over fall to pieces. The stones under fall to pieces. Rain […]
THE MOON by William H. Davies
According to his own biography, William H. Davies was born in a public-house called Church House at Newport, in the County of Monmouthshire, April 20, 1870, of Welsh parents. He was, until Bernard Shaw “discovered” him, a cattleman, a berry-picker, a panhandler?in short, a vagabond. In a preface to Davies’ second book, The Autobiography of a Super-Tramp (1906)
Mental Cases by Wilfred Owen
Wilfred Owen was born at Oswestry on 18th March 1893
INVICTUS by William Ernest Henley
William Ernest Henley (1849-1903)
Columbus by Joaquin Miller
Joaquin Miller (1841-1913)
THE GIFT by Oliver Goldsmith
Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774) THE GIFT by Oliver Goldsmith TO IRIS, IN BOW STREET, CONVENT GARDEN SAY, cruel IRIS, pretty rake, Dear mercenary beauty, What annual offering shall I make, Expressive of my duty? My heart, a victim to thine eyes, Should I at once deliver, Say, would the angry fair one prize The gift, who […]
SEED-TIME AND HARVEST by John Greenleaf Whittier
John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892)