The Three Kings by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Three Kings came riding from far away, Melchior and Gaspar and Baltasar; Three Wise Men out of the East were they, And they traveled by night and they slept by day, For their guide was a beautiful, wonderful star. The star was so beautiful, large and clear, That […]
Poems in History
A Christmas Carol by James Russell Lowell
A Christmas Carol by James Russell Lowell “What means this glory round our feet,” The Magi mused, “more bright than morn?” And voices chanted clear and sweet, “To-day the Prince of Peace is born!” “What means that star,” the Shepherds said, “That brightens through the rocky glen?” And angels, answering overhead, Sang, “Peace on earth, […]
The Death of Robin Hood by Eugene Field
The Death of Robin Hood ?by Eugene Field “Give me my bow,” said Robin Hood, “An arrow give to me; And where ‘t is shot mark thou that spot, For there my grave shall be.” Then Little John did make no sign, And not a word he spake; But he smiled, altho’ with mickle woe […]
Christmas in the Olden Time by Walter Scott
Christmas in the Olden Time by Walter Scott On Christmas-eve the bells were rung; The damsel donned her kirtle sheen; The hall was dressed with holly green; Forth to the wood did merry men go, To gather in the mistletoe. Thus opened wide the baron’s hall To vassal, tenant, serf and all; Power laid […]
Ballade of Christmas by Andrew Lang
Ballade of Christmas by Andrew Lang Between the moonlight and the fire In winter twilights long ago, What ghosts we raised for your desire, To make your merry blood run slow! How old, how grave, how wise we grow! No Christmas ghost can make us chill, Save those that troop in mournful row, The ghosts […]
A Christmas Carol by Christina G. Rossetti
A Christmas Carol by Christina G. Rossetti In the bleak mid-winter Frosty wind made moan, Earth stood hard as iron, Water like a stone; Snow had fallen, snow on snow, Snow on snow, In the bleak mid-winter Long ago. Our God, Heaven cannot hold him Nor earth sustain; Heaven and earth shall flee away, When […]
Song of the Holly by William Shakespeare
? Song of the Holly by William Shakespeare Blow, blow thou winter wind? Thou art not so unkind As man’s ingratitude! Thy tooth is not so keen, Because thou art not seen, Although thy breath be rude. Heigh ho! sing heigh ho! unto the green holly: Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly. Then […]
CHRISTMAS BELLS by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
CHRISTMAS BELLS by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow I heard the bells on Christmas Day Their old, familiar carols play, And wild and sweet The words repeat Of peace on earth, good-will to men! And thought how, as the day had come, The belfries of all Christendom Had rolled along The unbroken song Of peace on […]
Each and All By Ralph Waldo Emerson
Each and All ?By Ralph Waldo Emerson Little thinks, in the field, yon red-cloaked clown Of thee from the hill-top looking down; The heifer that lows in the upland farm, Far-heard, lows not thine ear to charm; The sexton, tolling his bell at noon, Deems not that great Napoleon Stops his horse, and lists with […]
Storm by H.D.
Storm ?by H.D. You crash over the trees, you crack the live branch? the branch is white, the green crushed, each leaf is rent like split wood. You burden the trees with black drops, you swirl and crash? you have broken off a weighted leaf in the wind, it is hurled out, whirls up and […]
Ode to a Nightingale by John Keats
? Ode to a Nightingale ?by John Keats 1. My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk, Or emptied some dull opiate to the drains One minute past, and Lethe-wards had sunk: ‘Tis not through envy of thy happy lot, But being too happy in thine […]
WIRERS by Siegfried Sassoon
WIRERS by Siegfried Sassoon “Pass it along, the wiring party’s going out”? And yawning sentries mumble, “Wirers going out.” Unravelling; twisting; hammering stakes with muffled thud, They toil with stealthy haste and anger in their blood. The Boche sends up a flare. Black forms stand rigid there, Stock-still like posts; then darkness, and the clumsy […]
City of Ships by Walt Whitman
City of Ships ?by Walt Whitman ? City of ships! (O the black ships! O the fierce ships! O the beautiful, sharp-bowed steam-ships and sail-ships!) City of the world! (for all races are here; All the lands of the earth make contributions here;) City of the sea! city of hurried and glittering tides! City whose […]
COUNTER-ATTACK by Siegfried Sassoon
COUNTER-ATTACK by Siegfried Sassoon ? We’d gained our first objective hours before While dawn broke like a face with blinking eyes, Pallid, unshaved and thirsty, blind with smoke. Things seemed all right at first. We held their line, With bombers posted, Lewis guns well placed, And clink of shovels deepening the shallow trench. The place […]
Vespers by Amy Lowell
? Vespers by Amy Lowell Last night, at sunset, The foxgloves were like tall altar candles. Could I have lifted you to the roof of the greenhouse, my Dear, I should have understood their burning.