Far Off-Shore by Herman Melville Look, the raft, a signal flying, Thin a shred; None upon the lashed spars lying, Quick or dead. Cries the sea-fowl, hovering over, “Crew, the crew?” And the billow, reckless, rover, Sweeps anew!
Poems in History
Preludes by T. S. Eliot
Preludes by T. S. Eliot I The winter evening settles down With smell of steaks in passageways. Six o’clock. The burnt-out ends of smoky days. And now a gusty shower wraps The grimy scraps Of withered leaves about your feet And newspapers from vacant lots; The showers beat On broken blinds and chimney-pots, And at […]
A Dream by Matthew Aronold
A Dream by Matthew Aronold Was it a dream? We sail’d, I thought we sail’d, Martin and I, down the green Alpine stream, Border’d, each bank, with pines; the morning sun, On the wet umbrage of their glossy tops, 5On the red pinings of their forest-floor, Drew a warm scent abroad; behind the pines The […]
“LUCY” by Oliver Wendell Holmes
“LUCY” by Oliver Wendell Holmes “Lucy.” The old familiar name Is now, as always, pleasant, Its liquid melody the same Alike in past or present; Let others call you what they will, I know you’ll let me use it; To me your name is Lucy still, I cannot bear to lose it. What visions […]
The Dream by Edna St. Vincent Millay
The Dream by Edna St. Vincent Millay Love, if I weep it will not matter, And if you laugh I shall not care; Foolish am I to think about it, But it is good to feel you there. Love, in my sleep I dreamed of waking, White and awful the moonlight reached Over the floor, […]
Beauty and Beauty by Rupert Brooke
Beauty and Beauty by Rupert Brooke When Beauty and Beauty meet All naked, fair to fair, The earth is crying-sweet, And scattering-bright the air, Eddying, dizzying, closing round, With soft and drunken laughter; Veiling all that may befall After after Where Beauty and Beauty met, Earth’s still a-tremble there, And winds are scented yet, […]
In Flanders Fields by John McCrae
In Flanders Fields by John McCrae In Flanders fields the poppies blow Between the crosses, row on row, That mark our place; and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard amid the guns below. We are the Dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved and were […]
A Valentine by Lewis Carroll
A Valentine by Lewis Carroll And cannot pleasures, while they last, Be actual unless, when past, They leave us shuddering and aghast, With anguish smarting And cannot friends be firm and fast, And yet bear parting And must I then, at Friendship’s call, Calmly resign the little all (Trifling, I grant, it is and small) […]
The Night March by Herman Melville
The Night March by Herman Melville With banners furled and clarions mute, An army passes in the night; And beaming spears and helms salute The dark with bright. In silence deep the legions stream, With open ranks, in order true; Over boundless plains they stream and gleam No chief in view! Afar, in twinkling […]
Friends by W. B. Yeats
Friends by W. B. Yeats Now must I these three praise Three women that have wrought What joy is in my days; One that no passing thought, Nor those unpassing cares, No, not in these fifteen Many times troubled years, Could ever come between Heart and delighted heart; And one because her hand Had […]
Love’s Lantern by Joyce Kilmer
Love’s Lantern by Joyce Kilmer (For Aline) Because the road was steep and long And through a dark and lonely land, God set upon my lips a song And put a lantern in my hand. Through miles on weary miles of night That stretch relentless in my way My lantern burns serene and white, An […]
To Milton by Oscar Wilde
To Milton by Oscar Wilde Milton! I think thy spirit hath passed away From these white cliffs and high-embattled towers; This gorgeous fiery-coloured world of ours Seems fallen into ashes dull and grey, And the age changed unto a mimic play Wherein we waste our else too-crowded hours: For all our pomp and pageantry […]
The Moods by W. B. Yeats
The Moods by W. B. Yeats Time drops in decay, Like a candle burnt out, And the mountains and woods Have their day, have their day; What one in the rout Of the fire-born moods, Has fallen away?
Chinese Poet Among Barbarians by Louis Untermeyer
Chinese Poet Among Barbarians by Louis Untermeyer The rain drives, drives endlessly, Heavy threads of rain; The wind beats at the shutters, The surf drums on the shore; Drunken telegraph poles lean sideways; Dank summer cottages gloom hopelessly; Bleak factory-chimneys are etched on the filmy distance, Tepid with rain. It seems I have lived for […]
Anticipation by Amy Lowell
Anticipation by Amy Lowell I have been temperate always, But I am like to be very drunk With your coming. There have been times I feared to walk down the street Lest I should reel with the wine of you, And jerk against my neighbours As they go by. I am parched now, and my […]