1
@T A Thunderstorm in Town
3
She wore a new "terra-cotta" dress,
4
And we stayed, because of the pelting storm,
5
Within the hansom's dry recess,
6
Though the horse had stopped; yea, motionless
7
We sat on, snug and warm.
9
Then the downpour ceased, to my sharp sad pain
10
And the glass that had screened our forms before
11
Flew up, and out she sprang to her door:
12
I should have kissed her if the rain
13
Had lasted a minute more.
17
They say my verse is sad: no wonder;
18
Its narrow measure spans
19
Tears of eternity, and sorrow,
22
This is for all ill-treated fellows
24
For them to read when they're in trouble
31
And long ere dinner-time I have
32
Full eight close pages wrote.
33
What, Duty, hast thou now to crave?
34
Well done, Sir Walter Scott!
40
And when he sang in choruses
41
His voice o'ertopped the rest,
42
Which is very inartistic,
43
But the public like that best.
52
As Johnny underground.
55
For Johnny-in-the-cloud;
57
For him in after years.
60
For Johnny-the-bright-star,
62
And see his children fed.
68
Out of the wood of thoughts that grows by night
69
To be cut down by the sharp axe of light, -
70
Out of the night, two cocks together crow,
71
Cleaving the darkness with a silver blow:
72
And bright before my eyes twin trumpeters stand,
73
Heralds of splendour, one at either hand,
74
Each facing each as in a coat of arms:
75
The milkers lace their boots up at the farms.
81
Speech after long silence; it is right,
82
All other lovers being estranged or dead,
83
Unfriendly lamplight hid under its shade,
84
The curtains drawn upon unfriendly night,
85
That we descant and yet again descant
86
Upon the supreme theme of Art and Song:
87
Bodily decrepitude is wisdom; young
88
We loved each other and were ignorant.
94
Down the blue night the unending columns press
95
In noiseless tumult, break and wave and flow,
96
Now tread the far South, or lift rounds of snow
97
Up to the white moon's hidden loveliness.
98
Some pause in their grave wandering comradeless,
99
And turn with profound gesture vague and slow,
100
As who would pray good for the world, but know
101
Their benediction empty as they bless.
103
They say that the Dead die not, but remain
104
Near to the rich heirs of their grief and mirth.
105
I think they ride the calm mid-heaven, as these,
106
In wise majestic melancholy train,
107
And watch the moon, and the still-raging seas,
108
And men coming and going on the earth.
112
@T If I should ever by Chance
114
If I should ever by chance grow rich
115
I'll buy Codham, Cockridden, and Childerditch,
116
Roses, Pyrgo, and Lapwater,
117
And let them all to my elder daughter.
118
The rent I shall ask of her will be only
119
Each year's violets, white and lonely,
120
The first primroses and orchises -
121
She must find them before I do, that is.
122
But if she finds a blossom on furze
123
Without rent they shall all for ever be hers,
124
Codham, Cockridden, and Childerditch,
125
Roses, Pyrgo, and Lapwater, -
126
I shall give them all to my elder daughter.
132
Yes, I remember Adlestrop -
133
The name, because one afternoon
134
Of heat the express-train drew up there
135
Unwontedly. It was late June.
137
The steam hissed. Someone cleared his throat.
138
No one left and no one came
139
On the bare platform. What I saw
140
Was Adlestrop - only the name
142
And willows, willow-herb, and grass,
143
And meadowsweet, and haycocks dry,
144
No whit less still and lonely fair
145
Than the high cloudlets in the sky.
147
And for that minute a blackbird sang
148
Close by, and round him, mistier,
149
Farther and farther, all the birds
150
Of Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire.
156
Tall nettles cover up, as they have done
157
These many springs, the rusty harrow, the plough
158
Long worn out, and the roller made of stone:
159
Only the elm butt tops the nettles now.
161
This corner of the farmyard I like most:
162
As well as any bloom upon a flower
163
I like the dust on the nettles, never lost
164
Except to prove the sweetness of a shower.
170
The cherry trees bend over and are shedding
171
On the old road where all that passed are dead,
172
Their petals, strewing the grass as for a wedding
173
This early May morn when there is none to wed.
177
@T What will they do?
179
What will they do when I am gone? It is plain
180
That they will do without me as the rain
181
Can do without the flowers and the grass
182
That profit by it and must perish without.
183
I have but seen them in the loud street pass;
184
And I was naught to them. I turned about
185
To see them disappearing carelessly.
186
But what if I in them as they in me
187
Nourished what has great value and no price?
188
Almost I thought that rain thirsts for a draught
189
Which only in the blossom's chalice lies,
190
Until that one turned back and lightly laughed.
196
Some day, I think, there will be people enough
197
In Froxfield to pick all the blackberries
198
Out of the hedges of Green Lane, the straight
199
Broad lane where now September hides herself
200
In bracken and blackberry, harebell and dwarf gorse.
201
Today, where yesterday a hundred sheep
202
Were nibbling, halcyon bells shake to the sway
203
Of waters that no vessel ever sailed...
204
It is a kind of spring: the chaffinch tries
205
His song. For heat it is like summer too.
206
This might be winter's quiet. While the glint
207
Of hollies dark in the swollen hedges lasts -
208
One mile - and those bells ring, little I know
209
Or heed if time be still the same, until
210
The lane ends and once more all is the same.
214
@T In Memoriam (Easter, 1915)
216
The flowers left thick at nightfall in the wood
217
This Eastertide call into mind the men,
218
Now far from home, who, with their sweethearts, should
219
Have gathered them and will do never again.
225
Because God put His adamantine fate
226
Between my sullen heart and its desire,
227
I swore that I would burst the Iron Gate,
228
Rise up, and curse Him on His throne of fire.
229
Earth shuddered at my crown of blasphemy,
230
But Love was as a flame about my feet;
231
Proud up the Golden Stair I strode; and beat
232
Thrice on the Gate, and entered with a cry -
234
All the great courts were quiet in the sun,
235
And full of vacant echoes: moss had grown
236
Over the glassy pavement, and begun
237
To creep within the dusty council-halls.
238
An idle wind blew round an empty throne
239
And stirred the heavy curtains on the walls.
245
I said I splendidly loved you; it's not true.
246
Such long swift tides stir not a land-locked sea.
247
On gods or fools the high risk falls - on you -
248
The clean clear bitter-sweet that's not for me.
249
Love soars from earth to ecstasies unwist.
250
Love is flung Lucifer-like from Heaven to Hell.
251
But - there are wanderers in the middle mist,
252
Who cry for shadows, clutch, and cannot tell
253
Whether they love at all, or, loving, whom:
254
An old song's lady, a fool in fancy dress,
255
Or phantoms, or their own face on the gloom;
256
For love of Love, or from heart's loneliness.
257
Pleasure's not theirs, nor pain. They doubt, and sigh,
258
And do not love at all. Of these am I.
264
Breathless, we flung us on the windy hill,
265
Laughed in the sun, and kissed the lovely grass.
266
You said, `Through glory and ecstasy we pass;
267
Wind, sun, and earth remain, the birds sing still,
268
When we are old, are old...' `And when we die
269
All's over that is ours; and life burns on
270
Through other lovers, other lips,' said I,
271
`Heart of my heart, our heaven is now, is won!'
273
`We are Earth's best, that learnt her lesson here.
274
Life is our cry. We have kept the faith!' we said;
275
`We shall go down with unreluctant tread
276
Rose-crowned into the darkness!' ...Proud we were,
277
And laughed, that had such brave true things to say,
278
- And then you suddenly cried, and turned away.
284
All suddenly the wind comes soft,
285
And Spring is here again;
286
And the hawthorn quickens with buds of green,
287
And my heart with buds of pain.
289
My heart all Winter lay so numb,
290
The earth so dead and frore,
291
That I never thought the Spring would come,
292
Or my heart wake any more.
294
But Winter's broken and earth has woken.
295
And the small birds cry again;
296
And the hawthorn hedge puts forth its buds,
297
And my heart puts forth its pain.
301
@T The Way that Lovers Use
303
The way that lovers use is this:
304
They bow, catch hands, with never a word,
305
And their lips meet, and they do kiss,
308
They queerly find some healing so,
309
And strange attainment in the touch;
310
There is a secret lovers know,
311
- I have read as much.
313
And theirs is no longer joy nor smart,
314
Changing or ending, night or day;
315
But mouth to mouth, and heart on heart,
322
The way of love was thus.
323
He was born one winter's morn
324
With hands delicious,
325
And it was well with us.
327
Love came our quiet way,
328
Lit pride in us, and died in us,
329
All in a winter's day.
330
There is no more to say.
336
Hand trembling towards hand; the amazing lights
337
Of heart and eye. They stood on supreme heights.
339
Ah, the delirious weeks of honeymoon!
340
Soon they returned, and after strange adventures,
341
Settled at Balham by the end of June.
342
Their money was in Can. Pasc. B. Debentures,
343
And in Antofagastas. Still he went
344
Cityward daily; still she did abide
345
At home. And both were really quite content
346
With work and social pleasures. Then they died.
347
They left three children (besides George, who drank):
348
The eldest Jane, who married Mr Bell,
349
William, the head-clerk in the County Bank,
350
And Henry, a stock-broker, doing well.
356
The red rose whispers of passion,
357
And the white rose breathes of love;
358
O, the red rose is a falcon,
359
And the white rose is a dove.
361
But I send you a cream-white rosebud
362
With a flush on its petal tips;
363
For the love that is purest and sweetest
364
Has a kiss of desire on the lips.
366
@A John Boyle O'Reilly
371
And it turn'd to a Sonnet.
372
It began 'a la mode',
374
But Rose cross'd the road
375
In her latest new bonnet;
377
And it turn'd to a Sonnet.
383
The year's at the spring,
384
And day's at the morn;
386
The hill-side's dew-pearl'd;
387
The lark's on the wing;
388
The snail's on the thorn;
389
God's in His heaven -
390
All's right with the world!
396
She is not fair to outward view
398
Her loveliness I never knew
399
Until she smiled on me;
400
O, then I saw her eye was bright,
401
A well of love, a spring of light!
403
But now her looks are coy and cold,
404
To mine they ne'er reply,
405
And yet I cease not to behold
406
The love-light in her eye:
407
Her very frowns are fairer far
408
Than smiles of other maidens are.
414
Jenny kiss'd me when we met,
415
Jumping from the chair she sat in;
416
Time, you thief, who love to get
417
Sweets into your list, put that in!
418
Say I'm weary, say I'm sad,
419
Say that health and wealth have miss'd me,
420
Say I'm growing old, but add,
427
Bacchus must now his power resign -
428
I am the only God of Wine!
429
It is not fit the wretch should be
430
In competition set with me,
431
Who can drink ten times more than he.
433
Make a new world, ye powers divine!
434
Stock'd with nothing else but Wine:
435
Let Wine its only product be,
436
Let Wine be earth, and air, and sea -
437
And let that Wine be all for me!
441
I never had a piece of toast
442
Particularly long and wide,
443
But fell upon the sanded floor
444
And always on the buttered side.
450
The frog, half fearful, jumps across the path,
451
And little mouse that leaves its hole at eve
452
Nimbles with timid dread beneath the swath;
453
My rustling steps awhile their joys deceive,
454
Till past - and then the cricket sings more strong,
455
And grasshoppers in merry mood still wear
456
The short night weary with their fretting song.
457
Up from behind the mole-hill jumps the hare,
458
Cheat of his chosen bed, and from the bank
459
The yellowhammer flutters in short fears
460
From off its nest hid in the grasses rank,
461
And drops again when no more noise it hears.
462
Thus nature's human link and endless thrall,
463
Proud man, still seems the enemy of all.
467
@T Diamond Cut Diamond
472
The cat up a tree is he
473
The cat under the tree is she
474
The tree is witch elm, just incidentally.
475
He takes no notice of she, she takes no notice of he.
476
He stares at the woolly clouds passing, she stares at the tree.
477
There's been a lot written about cats, by Old Possum, Yeats and
479
But not Alfred de Musset or Lord Tennyson or Poe or anybody
480
Wrote about one cat under, and one cat up, a tree.
481
God knows why this should be left for me
482
Except I like cats as cats be
483
Especially one cat up
492
When I have seen by Time's fell hand defaced
493
The rich proud cost of out-worn buried age;
494
When sometime lofty towers I see down-razed,
495
And brass eternal slave to mortal rage;
497
When I have seen the hungry ocean gain
498
Advantage on the kingdom of the shore,
499
And the firm soil win of the watery main,
500
Increasing store with loss, and loss with store;
502
When I have seen such interchange of state,
503
Or state itself confounded to decay,
504
Ruin hath taught me thus to ruminate -
505
That Time will come and take my Love away:
507
- This thought is as a death, which cannot choose
508
But weep to have that which it fears to lose.
510
@A William Shakespeare
512
Under the greenwood tree
513
Who loves to lie with me,
514
And turn his merry note
515
Unto the sweet bird's throat -
516
Come hither, come hither, come hither !
519
But winter and rough weather.
521
Who doth ambition shun
522
And loves to live i' the sun,
523
Seeking the food he eats
524
And pleased with what he gets -
525
Come hither, come hither, come hither!
528
But winter and rough weather.
530
@A William Shakespeare
534
Being your slave, what should I do but tend
535
Upon the hours and times of your desire?
536
I have no precious time at all to spend
537
Nor services to do, till you require:
539
Nor dare I chide the world-without-end hour
540
Whilst I, my sovereign, watch the clock for you,
541
Nor think the bitterness of absence sour
542
When you have bid your servant once adieu:
544
Nor dare I question with my jealous thought
545
Where you may be, or your affairs suppose,
546
But like a sad slave, stay and think of nought
547
Save, where you are, how happy you make those;-
549
So true a fool is love, that in your will,
550
Though you do anything, he thinks no ill.
552
@A William Shakespeare
554
To me, fair Friend, you never can be old,
555
For as you were when first your eye I eyed
556
Such seems your beauty still. Three winters cold
557
Have from the forests shook three summers' pride;
558
Three beauteous springs to yellow autumn turn'd
559
In process of the seasons have I seen,
560
Three April perfumes in three hot Junes burn'd,
561
Since first I saw you fresh, which yet are green.
563
Ah! yet doth beauty, like a dial-hand,
564
Steal from his figure, and no pace perceived;
565
So your sweet hue, which methinks still doth stand,
566
Hath motion, and mine eye may be deceived:
568
For fear of which, hear this, thou age unbred,-
569
Ere you were born, was beauty's summer dead.
571
@A William Shakespeare
575
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
576
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
577
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
578
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
580
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
581
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd:
582
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
583
By chance, or nature's changing course, untrimm'd.
585
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
586
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
587
Nor shall death brag thou wanderest in his shade,
588
When in eternal lines to time thou growest:
590
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
591
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
593
@A William Shakespeare
597
O Mistress, where are you roaming?
598
O stay and hear! your true-love's coming
599
That can sing both high and low;
600
Trip no further, pretty sweeting,
601
Journey's end in lovers' meeting -
602
Every wise man's son doth know.
604
What is love? 'tis not hereafter;
605
Present mirth hath present laughter;
606
What's to come is still unsure;
607
In delay there lies no plenty,-
608
Then come kiss me, Sweet-and-twenty,
609
Youth's a stuff will not endure.
611
@A William Shakespeare
615
Full fathom five thy father lies:
616
Of his bones are coral made;
617
Those are peals that were his eyes;
618
Nothing of him that doth fade
619
But doth suffer a sea-change
620
Into something rich and strange.
621
Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell;
622
Hark! now I hear them,-
625
@A William Shakespeare
627
@T On the Tombs in Westminster Abbey
629
Mortality, behold and fear,
630
What a change of flesh is here!
631
Think how many royal bones
632
Sleep within these heaps of stones;
633
Here they lie, had realms and lands,
634
Who now want strength to stir their hands,
635
Where from their pulpits seal'd with dust
636
They preach, `In greatness is no trust.'
637
Here's an acre sown indeed
638
With the richest royallest seed
639
That the earth did e'er suck in
640
Since the first man died for sin:
641
Here the bones of birth have cried
642
`Though gods they were, as men they died!'
643
Here are sands, ignoble things,
644
Dropt from the ruin'd sides of kings:
645
Here's a world of pomp and state
646
Buried in dust, once dead by fate.
650
@T The Terror of Death
652
When I have fears that I may cease to be
653
Before my pen has glean'd my teeming brain,
654
Before high-piled books, in charact'ry
655
Hold like rich garners the full-ripen'd grain;
657
When I behold, upon the night's starr'd face,
658
Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance,
659
And think that I may never live to trace
660
Their shadows, with the magic hand of chance;
662
And when I feel, fair creature of an hour!
663
That I shall never look upon thee more,
664
Never have relish in the fairy power
665
Of unreflecting love - then on the shore
667
Of the wide world I stand alone, and think
668
Till love and fame to nothingness do sink.
674
When all the world is young, lad,
675
And all the trees are green;
676
And every goose a swan, lad,
677
And every lass a queen;
678
Then hey for boot and horse, lad,
679
And round the world away;
680
Young blood must have its course, lad,
681
And every dog his day.
683
When all the world is old, lad,
684
And all the trees are brown;
685
And all the sport is stale, lad,
686
And all the wheels run down;
687
Creep home, and take your place there,
688
The spent and maimed among:
689
God grant you find one face there,
690
You loved when all was young.
696
Glory be to God for dappled things-
697
For skies of couple-colour as a brindled cow;
698
For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;
699
Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches' wings;
700
Landscape plotted and pieced - fold, fallow, and plough;
701
And all trades, their gear and tackle and trim.
703
All things counter, original, spare, strange;
704
Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)
705
With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;
706
He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:
709
@A Gerard Manley-Hopkins
711
@T The Lake Isle of Innisfree
713
I will arise, and go to Innisfree,
714
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made;
715
Nine bean rows will I have there, a hive for the hiney bee,
716
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.
718
And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,
719
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;
720
There midnight's all a-glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
721
And evening full of the linnet's wings.
723
I will arise and go now, for always night and day
724
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shores;
725
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements gray,
726
I hear it in the deep heart's core.
732
If I should die, think only this of me:
733
That there's some corner of a foreign field
734
That is for ever England. There shall be
735
In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;
736
A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,
737
Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam,
738
Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.
740
And think, this heart, all evil shed away,
741
A pulse in the eternal mind, no less
742
Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;
743
Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;
744
And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,
745
In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.
751
Protected from the gales, we,
752
By the line of trees along the bank
753
From storms that batter Fife
754
And life here through the changing seasons -
755
Unchanging, a lonely beauty,
756
No reason to look to the rush
757
Beyond the rustle of the bushes.
758
But through the curtain of our trees,
759
The distant towers like castle turrets
760
Gleam by day and shine by night,
762
Invisible souls within the shearing concrete height.
768
Tis true, 'tis day; what though it be?
769
O wilt thou therefore rise from me?
770
Why should we rise, because 'tis light?
771
Did we lie down, because 'twas night?
772
Love which in spite of darkness brought us hither,
773
Should in despite of light keep us together.
775
Light hath no tongue, but is all eye;
776
If it could speak as well as spy,
777
This were the worst, that it could say,
778
That being well, I fain would stay,
779
And that I loved my heart and honour so,
780
That I would not from him, that had them, go.
782
Must business thee from hence remove?
783
Oh, that's the worst disease of love,
784
The poor, the foul, the false, love can
785
Admit. but not the busied man.
786
He which hath business, and makes love, doth do
787
Such wrong, as when a married man doth woo.
793
For the first twenty years, since yesterday,
794
I scarce believed, thou could'st be gone away,
795
For forty more, I fed on favours past,
796
And forty on hopes, that thou would'st, they might last.
797
Tears drowned one hundred, and sighs blew out two,
798
A thousand, I did neither think, nor do,
799
Or not divide, all being one thought of you;
800
Or in a thousand more, forget that too.
801
Yet call not this long life; but think that I
802
Am, by being dead, immortal; can ghosts die?
808
O, my love's like a red, red rose,
809
That's newly sprung in June.
810
O, my love's like the melodie,
811
That's sweetly play'd in tune.
813
As fair art thou, my bonnie lass,
814
So deep in love am I,
815
And I will love thee still, my Dear,
816
Till a' the seas gang dry.
818
Till a' the seas gang dry, my Dear,
819
And the rocks melt wi' the sun!
820
O, I will love thee still, my Dear,
821
While the sands o' life shall run.
823
And fare thee weel, my only Love,
824
And fare thee weel a while!
825
And I will come again, my Love,
826
Tho' it were ten thousand mile!
832
Here lies our sovereign Lord the King,
833
Whose word no man relies on,
834
Who never said a foolish thing
835
Nor ever did a wise one.
841
George the First was always reckoned
842
Vile - but viler George the Second;
843
And what mortal ever heard
844
Any good of George the Third?
845
When from earth the Fourth descended,
846
God be praised, the Georges ended!
850
@T Frederick, Prince of Wales
853
Who was alive, and is dead,
854
Had it been his father,
856
Had it been his brother,
857
Still better than another.
858
Had it been his sister,
859
No one would have missed her.
860
Had it been the whole generation,
861
Still better for the nation.
862
But since 'tis only Fred,
863
Who was alive, and is dead,
864
There's no more to be said.
870
Mycilla dyes her locks, 'tis said,
871
But 'tis a foul aspersion;
872
She buys them black, they therefore need
873
No subsequent immersion.
877
@T An Epitaph on Sir John Vanbrugh (Architect)
879
Under this stone, reader, survey
880
Dead Sir John Vanbrugh's house of clay.
881
Lie heavy on him, earth! for he
882
Laid many heavy loads on thee.
886
@T True Joy in Possession
888
To have a thing is little,
889
If you're not allowed to show it,
890
And to know a thing is nothing
891
Unless others know you know it.
895
@T To His Mistress Going To Bed
897
Come, Madam, come, all rest my powers defy,
898
Until I labour, I in labour lie.
899
The foe oft-times having the foe in sight,
900
Is tired with standing though he never fight.
901
Off with that girdle, like heaven's zone glistering,
902
But a far fairer world encompassing.
903
Unpin that spangled breastplate which you wear,
904
That th'eyes of busy fools may be stopt there.
905
Unlace yourself, for that harmonious chime
906
Tells me from you, that now it is bed time.
907
Off with that happy busk, which I envy,
908
That still can be, and still can stand so nigh.
909
Your gown going off, such beauteous state reveals,
910
As when from flowry meads the hill's shadow steals.
912
Off with that wiry coronet and show
913
The hairy diadem which on you doth grow:
914
Now off with those shoes, and then safely tread
915
In this love's hallowed temple, this soft bed.
916
In such white robes, heaven's angels used to be
917
Received by men; thou angel bring'st with thee
918
A heaven like Mahomet's Paradise; and though
919
Ill spirits walk in white, we easily know,
920
By this these angels from an evil sprite,
921
Those set our hairs, but these our flesh upright.
923
Licence my roving hands, and let them go,
924
Before, behind, between, above, below.
925
O my America! my new-found-land,
926
My kingdom, safeliest when with one man manned,
927
My mine of precious stones, My empery,
928
How blest am I in this discovering thee!
929
To enter in these bonds, is to be free;
930
Then where my hand is set, my seal shall be.
932
Full nakedness! All joys are due to thee,
933
As souls unbodied, bodies unclothed must be,
934
To taste whole joys. Gems which you women use
935
Are like Atlanta's balls, cast in men's views,
936
That when a fool's eye lighteth on a gem,
937
His earthly soul may covet theirs, not them.
938
Like pictures, or like books' gay coverings made
939
For lay-men, are all women this arrayed;
940
Themselves are mystic books, which only we
941
(Whom their imputed grace will dignify)
942
Must see revealed. Then since that I may know,
943
As liberally, as to a midwife, show
944
Thyself: cast all, yea, this white linen hence,
945
There is no penance due to innocence.
947
To teach thee, I am naked first; why then
948
What needst thou have more covering than a man.
954
Here lie I and my four daughters,
955
Killed by drinking Cheltenham waters.
956
Had we but stuck to Epsom salts,
957
We wouldn't have been in these here vaults.
963
Hypocrisy will serve as well
964
To propagate a church as zeal;
965
As persecution and promotion
966
Do equally advance devotion:
967
So round white stones will serve, they say,
968
As well as eggs to make hens lay.
974
The Microbe is so very small
975
You cannot make him out at all,
976
But many sanguine people hope
977
To see him through a microscope.
978
His jointed tongue that lies beneath
979
A hundred curious rows of teeth;
980
His seven tufted tails with lots
981
Of lovely pink and purple spots,
982
On each of which a pattern stands,
983
Composed of forty separate bands;
984
His eyebrows of a tender green;
985
All of these have never yet been seen -
986
But Scientists, who ought to know,
987
Assures us that they must be so...
988
Oh! let us never, never doubt
989
What nobody is sure about!
995
Slugs, soft upon damp carpets of rich food,
996
Make sullen love with bubbles and with sighs,
997
Silvery flaccid. They consider lewd
1002
@T The Doctor Prescribes
1004
A lady lately, that was fully sped
1005
Of all the pleasures of the marriage-bed
1006
Ask'd a physician, whether were more fit
1007
For Venus' sports, the morning or the night?
1008
The good old man made answer, as 'twas meet,
1009
The morn more wholesome, but the night more sweet.
1010
Nay then, i'faith, quoth she, since we have leisure,
1011
We'll to't each morn for health, each night for pleasure.
1017
Mary Ann has gone to rest,
1018
Safe at last on Abraham's breast,
1019
Which may be nuts for Mary Ann,
1020
But is certainly rough on Abraham.
1024
@T Misfortunes never come Singly
1026
Making toast at the fireside,
1027
Nurse fell in the grate and died;
1028
And what makes it ten times worse,
1029
All the toast was burnt with nurse.
1033
@T Tender Heartedness
1035
Billy, in one of his nice new sashes,
1036
Fell in the fire and was burnt to ashes;
1037
Now, although the room grows chilly,
1038
I haven't the heart to poke poor Billy.
1044
Miss Twye was soaping her breasts in her bath
1045
When she heard behind her a meaning laugh
1046
And to her amazement she discovered
1047
A wicked man in the bathroom cupboard.
1051
@T The Old Loony of Lyme
1053
There was an old loony of Lyme,
1054
Whose candour was simply sublime;
1055
When they asked, 'Are you there?'
1056
'Yes,' he said, 'but take care,
1057
For I'm never "all there" at a time.'
1061
@T The Young Lady from Wantage
1063
There was a young lady from Wantage
1064
Of whom the town clerk took advantage.
1065
Said the borough surveyor:
1066
'Indeed you must pay `er.
1067
You've totally altered her frontage.'
1071
@T The Modern Hiawatha
1073
When he killed the Mudjokivis
1074
Of the skin he made him mittens,
1075
Made them with the fur side inside,
1076
Made them with the skin side outside,
1077
He, to get the warm side inside,
1078
Put the inside skin side outside;
1079
He, to get the cold side outside,
1080
Put the warm side fur side inside.
1081
That's why he put fur side inside,
1082
Why he put the skin side outside,
1083
Why he turned them inside outside.
1089
Is it a month since I and you
1090
In the starlight of Glen Dubh
1091
Stretched beneath a hazel bough
1092
Kissed from ear and throat to brow,
1093
Since your fingers, neck, and chin
1094
Made the bars that fence me in,
1095
Till Paradise seemed but a wreck
1096
Near your bosom, brow and neck
1097
And stars grew wilder, growing wise,
1098
In the splendour of your eyes!
1099
Since the weasel wandered near
1100
Whilst we kissed from ear to ear
1101
And the wet and withered leaves
1102
Blew about your cap and sleeves,
1103
Till the moon sank tired through the ledge
1104
Of the wet and windy hedge?
1105
And we took the starry lane
1106
Back to Dublin town again.
1111
@T The Lark in the Clear Air
1113
Dear thoughts are in my mind,
1114
And my soul soars enchanted,
1115
As I hear the sweet lark sing
1116
In the clear air of the day.
1117
For a tender beaming smile
1118
To my hope has been granted,
1119
And tomorrow she shall hear
1120
All my fond heart would say.
1122
I shall tell her all my love,
1123
All my soul's adoration;
1124
And I think she will hear me
1125
And will not say me nay.
1126
It is this that fills my soul
1127
With its joyous elation,
1128
As I hear the sweet lark sing
1129
In the clear air of the day.
1134
@T The Self-Unseeing
1136
Here is the ancient floor,
1137
Footworn and hollowed and thin,
1138
Here was the former door
1139
Where the dead feet walked in.
1141
She sat here in her chair,
1142
Smiling into the fire;
1143
He who played stood there,
1144
Bowing it higher and higher.
1146
Childlike, I danced in a dream;
1147
Blessings emblazoned that day;
1148
Everything glowed with a gleam;
1149
Yet we were looking away!
1153
@T Cean Dubh Deelish (Darling Black Head)
1155
Put your head, darling, darling, darling,
1156
Your darling black head my heart above;
1157
O mouth of honey, with thyme for fragrance,
1158
Who, with heart in breast, could deny you love?
1160
O many and many a young girl for me is pining,
1161
Letting her locks of gold to the cold wind free,
1162
For me, the foremost of our gay young fellows;
1163
But I'd leave a hundred, pure love, for thee!
1165
Put your head, darling, darling, darling,
1166
Your darling black head my heart above;
1167
O mouth of honey, with thyme for fragrance,
1168
Who, with heart in breast, could deny you love?
1173
@T From 'The Amores'
1175
Ring of mine, made to encircle my pretty mistress's finger,
1176
Valuable only in terms of the giver's love,
1177
Go, and good welcome! May she receive you with pleasure,
1178
Slip you over her knuckle there and then.
1179
May you fit her as well as she fits me, rub snugly
1180
Around her finger, precisely the right size!
1181
Lucky ring to be handled by my mistress! I'm developing
1182
A miserable jealousy of my own gift.
1183
But suppose I could be the ring, transformed in an instant
1184
By some famous magician's art -
1185
Then, when I felt like running my hand down Corinna's
1186
Dress, and exploring her breasts, I'd work
1187
Myself off her finger (tight squeeze or not) and by crafty
1188
Cunning drop into her cleavage. Let's say
1189
She was writing a private letter - I'd have to seal it,
1191
And a dry stone sticks on wax:
1192
She's moisten me with her tongue. Pure bliss - provided
1193
I didn't have to endorse any hostile remarks
1194
Against myself. If she wanted to put me away in her
1195
Jewel-box, I'd cling tighter, refuse to budge.
1196
(Don't worry, my sweet, I'd never cause you discomfort,
1198
Your slender finger with an unwelcome weight.)
1199
Wear me whenever you take a hot shower, don't worry
1200
If water runs under your gem -
1201
Though I fancy the sight of you naked would arise my
1203
A ring of visibly virile parts...
1204
Pure wishful thinking! On your way, then, little present,
1205
And show her you come with all my love.
1210
@T After an Interval
1212
After an interval, reading, here in the midnight,
1213
With the great stars looking on -- all the starts of Orion looking,
1214
And the silent Pleiades -- and the duo looking of Saturn and ruddy Mars;
1215
Pondering, reading my own songs, after a long interval,
1216
(sorrow and death familiar now)
1217
Ere Closing the book, what pride! what joy! to find them
1218
Standing so well the test of death and night,
1219
And the duo of Saturn and Mars!
1225
A last poem, and a last, and yet another --
1226
O, when can I give over?
1227
Must I drive the pen until the blood bursts from my nails
1228
And my breath fails and I shake with fever?
1229
Shall I never hear her whisper softly,
1230
"But this is one written by you only,
1231
And for me only; therefore, love, have done"?
1235
I have no pain, dear Mother, now,
1236
But, oh, I am so dry;
1237
So connect me to a brewery,
1238
And leave me there to die.
1242
@T Found Poem (from the Hound of the Baskervilles)
1244
I stooped, panting, and pressed my pistol
1245
To the dreaful, shimmering head,
1246
But it was useless to press the trigger,
1247
The giant hound was dead.
1251
@T Passing through the Carron Iron Works
1253
We cam na here to view your warks,
1254
In hopes to be mair wise,
1255
But only, lest we gang to Hell,
1256
It may be nae surprise.
1260
@T Imitation of Pope: A Compliment to the Ladies
1262
Wondrous the Gods, more wondrous are the Men,
1263
More Wondrous Wondrous still the Cock & Hen,
1264
More Wondrous still the Table, Stool & Chair;
1265
But Ah! More wondrous still the Charming Fair.
1269
@T Upon the Nipples of Julia's Breast
1271
Have ye beheld (with much delight)
1272
A red rose peeping through a white?
1273
Or else a cherry (double grac'd)
1274
Within a lily? Centre plac'd?
1275
Or ever mark'd the pretty beam,
1276
A strawberry shows half drown'd in cream?
1277
Or seen rich rubies blushing through
1278
A pure smooth pearl, and orient too?
1279
So like to this, nay all the rest,
1280
Is each neat niplet of her breast.
1286
When I consider life, 'tis all a cheat;
1287
Yet, fooled with hope, men favour the deceit;
1288
Trust on, and think tomorrow will repay:
1289
Tomorrow's falser than the former day;
1290
Lies worse; and while it says, we shall be blessed
1291
With some new joys, cut off what we possessed.
1292
Strange cozenage! None would live past years again,
1293
Yet all hope pleasure in what yet remain;
1294
And from the dregs of life think to receive
1295
What the first sprightly running could not give.
1299
@T To a Yellow Hammer
1301
Poor yellow-breasted little thing,
1302
I would thou had'st been on the wing,
1303
'Ere 'twas my fate on thee to bring
1305
Thou'lt never more be heard to sing
1308
Too late I saw thee 'mongst the dust,
1309
Gambling so gay in simple trust,
1310
I knew that with my wheel I must
1312
How cruel quick my rubber crushed
1328
@T Gather ye Rosebuds
1330
Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
1331
Old Time is still a-flying;
1332
And this same flower that smiles today
1333
Tomorrow will be dying.
1335
The glorious lamp of heaven, the Sun,
1336
The higher he's a-getting,
1337
The sooner will his race be run,
1338
And nearer he's to setting.
1340
That age is best, which is the first,
1341
When youth and blood are warmer
1342
But being spent, the worse, and worst
1343
Times still succeed the former.
1345
Then be not coy, but use your time,
1346
And while you may, go marry;
1347
For having lost but once your prime,
1348
You may for ever tarry.
1352
@T My Love's a Match
1354
My love's a match in beauty
1355
For every flower that blows,
1356
Her little ear's a lily,
1357
Her velvet cheek a rose;
1358
Her locks like gilly gowans
1359
Hang golden to her knww.
1360
If I were King of Ireland,
1361
My Queen she'd surely be.
1363
Her eyes are fond forget-me-nots,
1364
And no such snow is seen
1365
Upon the heaving hawthorn bush
1366
As crests her bodice green.
1367
The thrushes when she's talking
1368
Sit listening on the tree.
1369
If I were King of Ireland,
1370
My Queen she'd surely be.
1376
The moth's kiss, first!
1377
Kiss me as if you made believe
1378
You were not sure, this eve,
1379
How my face, your flower, had pursed
1380
Its petals up; so, here and there
1381
You brush it, till I grow aware
1382
Who wants me, and wide ope I burst.
1384
The bee's kiss, now!
1385
Kiss me as if you enter'd gay
1386
My heart at some noonday,
1387
A bud that dares not disallow
1388
The claim, so all is render'd up,
1389
And passively its shatter'd cup
1390
Over your head to sleep I bow.
1394
@T To his Coy Mistress
1396
Had we but worlds enough, and time,
1397
This coyness, Lady, were no crime.
1398
We would sit down and think which way
1399
To walk and pass our long love's day.
1400
Thou by the Indian Ganges' side
1401
Shouldst rubies find: I by the tide
1402
Of Humber would complain. I would
1403
Love you ten years before the Flood,
1404
And you should, if you please, refuse
1405
Till the conversion of the Jews.
1406
My vegetable love should grow
1407
Vaster than empires, and more slow;
1408
An hundred years should go to praise
1409
Thine eyes and on thy forehead gaze;
1410
Two hundred to adore each breast,
1411
But thirty thousand to the rest;
1412
An age at least to every part,
1413
And the last age should show your heart.
1414
For, Lady, you deserve this state,
1415
Nor would I love at a lower rate.
1417
But at my back I always hear
1418
Time's winged chariot hurrying near;
1419
And yonder all before us lie
1420
Deserts of vast eternity.
1421
Thy beauty shall no more be found,
1422
Nor, in thy marble vault, shall sound
1423
My echoing song: then worms shall try
1424
That long preserved virginity,
1425
And your quaint honour turn to dust,
1426
And into ashes all my lust:
1427
The grave's a fine and private place,
1428
But none, I think, do there embrace.
1430
Now therefore, while the youthful hue
1431
Sits on thy skin like morning dew,
1432
And while thy willing soul transpires
1433
At every port with instant fires,
1434
Now let us sport us while we may,
1435
And now, like amorous birds of prey,
1436
Rather at once our time devour
1437
Than languish in his slow-chapt power.
1438
Let us roll all our strength and all
1439
Our sweetness up into one ball,
1440
And tear our pleasures with rough strife
1441
Through the iron gates of life:
1442
Thus, though we cannot make our sun
1443
Stand still, yet we will make him run.
1449
Somewhere there waiteth in this world of ours
1450
For one lone soul another lonely soul,
1451
Each choosing each through all the weary hours
1452
And meeting strangely at one sudden goal.
1453
Then blend they, like green leaves with golden flowers,
1454
Into one beautiful and perfect whole;
1455
And life's long night is ended, and the way
1456
Lies open onward to eternal day.
1462
Now gentle sleep hath closed up those eyes
1463
Which, waking, kept my boldest thoughts in awe;
1464
And free access unto that sweet lip lies,
1465
From whence I long the rosy breath to draw.
1467
Methinks no wrong it were, if I should steal
1468
From those two melting rubies one poor kiss;
1469
None sees the theft that would the theft reveal,
1470
Nor rob I her of aught that she can miss;
1472
Nay, should I twenty kisses take away,
1473
There would be little sign I would do so;
1474
Why then should I this robbery delay?
1475
O, she may wake, and therewith angry grow!
1477
Well, if she do, I'll back restore that one,
1478
And twenty hundred thousand more for loan.
1482
@T How do I love thee?
1484
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
1485
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
1486
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
1487
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
1488
I love thee to the level of every day's
1489
Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight.
1490
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
1491
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
1492
I love thee with the passion put to use
1493
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
1494
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
1495
With my lost saints, -- I love thee with the breath,
1496
Smiles, tears, of all my life! -- and, if God choose,
1497
I shall but love thee better after death.
1499
@A Elizabeth Barrett Browning
1503
Old Man, or Lad's-love, -- in the name there's nothing
1504
To one that knows not Lad's-love, or Old Man,
1505
The hoar-green feathery herb, almost a tree,
1506
Growing with rosemary and lavendar.
1507
Even to one that knows it well, the names
1508
Hald decorate, half perplex, the thing it is:
1509
At least, what that is clings not to the names
1510
In spite of time. And yet I like the names.
1512
The herb itself I like not, but for certain
1513
I love it, as some day the child will love it
1514
Who plucks a feather from the door-side bush
1515
Whenever she goes in or out of the house.
1516
Often she waits there, snipping the tips and shrivelling
1517
The shreds at last on to the path, perhaps
1519
Thinking, perhaps of nothing, till she sniffs
1520
Her finger and runs off. The bush is still
1521
But half as tall as she, though it is as old;
1522
So well she clips it. Not a word she says;
1523
And I can only wonder hwo much hereafter
1524
She will remember, with that bitter scent,
1525
Of garden rows, and ancient damson-trees
1526
Topping a hedge, a bent path to a door,
1527
A low thick bush beside the door, and me
1528
Forbidding her to pick.
1531
Where first I met the bitter scent is lost.
1532
I, too, often shrivel the grey shreds,
1533
Sniff them and think and sniff again and try
1534
Once more to think what it is I am remembering,
1535
Always in vain. I cannot like the scent,
1536
Yet I would rather give up others more sweet,
1537
With no meaning, that this bitter one.
1539
I have mislaid the key. I sniff the spray
1540
And think of nothing; I see and I hear nothing;
1541
Yet seem, too, to be listening, lying in wait
1542
For what I should, yet never can, remember:
1543
No garden appears, no path, no hoar-green bush
1544
Of Lad's-love, or Old Man, no child beside,
1545
Neither father nor mother, nor any playmate;
1546
Only an avenue, dark and nameless, without end.
1552
The rock-like mud unfroze a little and rills
1553
Ran and sparkled down each side of the road
1554
Under the catkins wagging in the hedge.
1555
But earth would have her sleep out, spite of the sun;
1556
Nor did I value that thin gilding beam
1557
More than a pretty February thing
1558
Till I came down to the old Manor Farm,
1559
And church and yet-tree opposite, in age
1560
Its equal and in size. Small church, great yew,
1561
And farmhouse slept in a Sunday silentness.
1562
The air raised not a straw. The steep farm roof,
1563
With tiles duskily glowing, entertained
1564
The midday sun; and up and down the roof
1565
White pigeons nestled. There was no sound but one.
1566
Three cart-horses were looking over a gate
1567
Drowsily through their forelocks, swiching their tails
1568
Against a fly, a solitary fly.
1570
The Winter's cheek flushed as if he had drained
1571
Spring, Summer, and Autumn at a draught
1572
And smiled quietly. But 'twas not Winter --
1573
Rather a season of bliss unchangeable
1574
Awakened from farm and church where it had lain
1575
Safe under tile and thatch for ages since
1576
This England, Old already, was called Merry.
1582
Three lovely notes he whistled, too soft to be heard
1583
If others sang; but others never sang
1584
In the great beech-wood all that May and June.
1585
No one saw him: I alone could hear him
1586
Though many listened. Was it but four years
1587
Ago? or five? He never came again.
1588
Oftenest when I heard him I was alone,
1589
Nor could I ever make another hear.
1590
La-la-la! he called, seeming far-off --
1591
As if a cock crowed past the edge of the world,
1592
As if the bird or I were in a dream.
1593
Yet that he travelled through the trees and soometimes
1594
Neared me, was plain, though somehow distant still
1595
He sounded. All the proof is -- I told men
1598
I never knew a voice,
1599
Man, beast, or bird, better than this. I told
1600
The naturalists; but neither had they heard
1601
Anything like the notes that did so haunt me
1602
I had them clear by heart and have them still.
1603
Four years, or five, have made no difference. Then
1604
As now that La-la-la! was bodiless sweet:
1605
Sad more than joyful it was, if I must say
1606
'Twas sad only with joy too, too far off
1607
For me to taste it. But I cannot tell
1608
If truly never anything but fair
1609
The days were when he sang, as now they seem.
1610
This surely I know, that I who listened then,
1611
Happy sometimes, sometimes suffering
1612
A heavy body and a heavy heart,
1613
Now straightaway, if I think of it, become
1614
Light as that bird wandering beyond my shore.
1618
@T First known when lost
1620
I never had noticed it until
1621
'Twas gone, -- the narrow copse
1622
Where now the woodman lops
1623
The last of the willows with his bill.
1625
It was not more than a hedge o'ergrown.
1626
One meadow's breadth away
1627
I passed it day by day.
1628
Now the soil is bare as a bone,
1630
And black betwixt two meadows green,
1631
Though fresh-cut faggot ends
1632
Of hazel make some amends
1633
With a gleam as if flowers they had been.
1635
Strange it could have hidden so near!
1636
And now I see as I look
1637
That the small winding brook,
1638
A tributary's tributary rises there.
1644
Downhill I came, hungry, and yet not starved;
1645
Cold, yet had heat within me that was proof
1646
Against the North wind: tired, yet so that rest
1647
Had seemed the sweetest thing under a roof.
1649
Then at the inn I had food, fire, and rest,
1650
Knowing how hungry, cold and tired was I.
1651
All of the night was quite barred out except
1652
An owl's cry, a most melancholy cry
1654
Shaken out long and clear upon the hill,
1655
No merry note, nor cause of merriment,
1656
But one telling me plain what I escaped
1657
And others could not, that night, as in I went.
1659
And salted was my food, and my repose,
1660
Salted and sobered, too, by the bird's voice
1661
Speaking for all who lay under the stars,
1662
Soldiers and poor, unable to rejoice.
1666
@T But these things also
1668
But these things also are Spring's --
1669
On banks by the roadside the grass
1670
Long-dead that is greyer now
1671
Than all the Winter it was;
1673
The shell of a little snail bleached
1674
In the grass; chip of flint, and mite
1675
Of chalk; and the small bird's dung
1676
In splashes of purest white:
1678
All the white things a man mistakes
1679
For earliest violets
1680
Who seeks through Winter's ruins
1681
Something to pay Winter's debts,
1683
While the North blows, and starling flocks
1684
By chattering on and on
1685
Keeep their spirits up in the mist,
1686
And Spring's here, Winter's not gone.
1692
Now first, as I shut the door,
1694
In the new house; and the wind
1697
Old at once was the house,
1699
My ears were teased with the dread
1700
Of what was foretold,
1702
Nights of storm, days of mist, without end;
1703
Sad days when the sun
1704
Shone in vain: old griefs, and griefs
1707
All was foretold me; naught
1709
But I learnt how the wind would sound
1710
After these things should be.
1716
The two men in the road were taken aback.
1717
The lovers came out shading their eyes from the sun,
1718
And never was white so white, or black so black,
1719
As her cheeks and hair. 'There are more things than one
1720
A man might turn into a wood for, Jack,'
1721
Said George; Jack whispered: 'He has not got a gun.
1722
It's a bit too much of a good thing, I say.
1723
They are going the other road, look. And see her run.' --
1724
She ran -- 'What a thing it is, this picking may.'
1730
The rain and wind, the rain and wind, raved endlessly.
1731
On me the Summer storm, and fever, and melancholy
1732
Wrought magic, so that if I feared the solitude
1733
Far more I feared all company: too sharp, too rude,
1734
Had been the wisest or the dearest human voice.
1735
What I desired I knew not, but whate'er my choice
1736
Vain it must be, I knew. Yet naught did my despair
1737
But sweeten the strange sweetness, while through the wild air
1738
All day long I heard a distant cuckoo calling
1739
And, soft as dulcimers, sounds of near water falling,
1740
And, softer, and remote as if in history,
1741
Rumours of what had touched my friends, my foes, or me.
1747
The glory of the beauty of the morning, --
1748
The cuckoo crying over the untouched dew;
1749
The blackbird that has found it, and the dove
1750
That tempts me on to something sweeter than love;
1751
White clouds ranged even and fair as new-mown hay;
1752
The heat, the stir, the sublime vancancy
1753
Of sky meadow and forest and my own heart: --
1754
The glory invites me, yet it leaves me scorning
1755
All I can ever do, all I can be,
1756
Beside the lovely of motion, shape, and hue,
1757
The happiness I fancy fit to dwell
1758
In beauty's presence. Shall I now this day
1760
Begin to seek as far as heaven, as hell,
1761
Wisdom or strength to match this beauty, start
1762
And tread the pale dust pitted with small dark drops,
1763
In hope to find whatever it is I seek,
1764
Hearkening to short-lived happy-seeming things
1765
That we know naught of, in the hazel copse?
1766
Or must I be content with discontent
1767
As larks and swallows are perhaps with wings?
1768
And shall I ask at the day's end once more
1769
What beauty is, and what I can have meant
1770
By happiness? And shall I let all go,
1771
Glad, weary, or both? Or shall I perhaps know
1772
That I was happy oft and oft before,
1773
Awhile forgetting how I am fast pent,
1774
How dreary-swift, with naught to travel to,
1775
Is Time? I cannot bite the day to the core.
1781
Seated by a brook, watching a child
1782
Chiefly that paddled, I was this beguiled.
1783
Mellow the blackbird sang and sharp the thrush
1784
Not far off in the oak and hazel brush,
1785
Unseen. There was a scent like honeycomb
1786
From mugwort dull. And down upon the dome
1787
Of the stone the card-horse kicks against so oft
1788
A butterfly alighted. From aloft
1789
He took the heat of the sun, and from below,
1790
On the hot stone he perched contented so,
1791
As if never a cart would pass again
1792
That way; as if I were the last of men
1793
And he the first of insects to have earth
1794
And sun together and to know their worth.
1796
I was divided between him and the gleam,
1797
The motion, and the voices, of the stream,
1798
The waters running frizzled over gravel,
1799
Thaat never vanish and for ever travel.
1800
A grey flycatcher silent on a fence
1801
And I sat as if we had been there since
1802
The horseman and the horse lying beneath
1803
The fir-tree-covered barrow on the heath,
1804
The horseman and the horse with silver shoes,
1805
Galloped the downs last. All that I could lose
1806
I lost. And then the child's voice raised the dead.
1807
'No one's been here before' was what she said
1808
And what I felt, yet never should have found
1809
A word for, while I gathered sight and sound.
1813
@T This is no case of petty right or wrong
1815
This is no case of petty right or wrong
1816
That politicians or philosphers
1817
Can judge. I hate not Germans, nor grow hot
1818
With love of Englishmen, to please newspapers.
1819
Beside my hate for one fat patriot
1820
My hatred of the Kaiser is love true :--
1821
A kind of god he is, banging a gong.
1822
But I have not to choose between the two,
1823
Or between justice and injustice. Dinned
1824
With war and argument I read no more
1825
Than in the storm smoking along the wind
1826
Athwart the wood. Two witches' cauldrons roar.
1828
From one the weather shall rise clear and gay;
1829
Out of the other an England beautiful
1830
And like her mother that died yesterday.
1831
Little I know or care if, being dull,
1832
I shall miss something that historians
1833
Can rake out of the ashes when perchance
1834
The phoenix broods serene above their ken.
1835
But with the best and meanest Englishmen
1836
I am one in crying, God save England, lest
1837
We lose what never slaves and cattle blessed.
1838
The ages made here that made us from the dust:
1839
She is all we know and live by, and we trust
1840
She is good and must endure, loving her so:
1841
And as we love ourselves we hate her foe.
1847
And you, Helen, what should I give you?
1848
So many things I would give you
1849
Had I an infinite great store
1850
Offered me and I stood before
1851
To choose. I would give you youth,
1852
All kinds of lovelines and truth,
1853
A clear eye as good as mine,
1854
Lands, waters, flowers, wine,
1855
As many children as your heart
1856
Might wish for, a far better art
1857
Than mine can be, all you have lost
1858
Upon the travelling waters tossed,
1859
Or given to me. If I could choose
1860
Freely in that great treasure-house
1861
Anything from any shelf,
1862
I would give you back yourself,
1863
And power to discriminate
1864
What you want and want it not too late,
1865
Many fair days free from care
1866
And heart to enjoy both foul and fair,
1867
And myself, too, if I could find
1868
Where it lay hidden and it proved kind.
1874
Women he liked, did shovel-bearded Bob,
1875
Old Farmer Hayward of the Heath, but he
1876
Loved horses. He himself was like a cob,
1877
And leather-coloured. Also he loved a tree.
1879
For the life in them he loved most living things,
1880
But a tree chiefly. All along the lane
1881
He planted elms where now the stormcock sings
1882
That travellers hear from the slow-climbing train.
1884
Till then the track had never had a name
1885
For all its thicket and the nightingales
1886
That should have earned it. No one was to blame.
1887
To name a thing beloved man sometimes fails.
1889
Many years since, Bob Hayward died, and now
1890
None passes there because the mist and the rain
1891
Out of the elms have turned the lane to slough
1892
And gloom, the name alone survives, Bob's Lane.
1896
@T The Poetry of Dress
1898
A sweet disorder in the dress
1899
Kindles in clothes a wantonness :--
1900
A lawn about the shoulders thrown
1901
Into a fine distraction, --
1902
An erring lace, which here and there
1903
Enthrals the crimson stomacher --
1904
A cuff neglectful, and thereby
1905
Ribbands to flow confusedly, --
1906
A winning wave, deserving note,
1907
In the tempestuous petticoat, --
1908
A careless shoe-string, in whose tie
1909
I see a wild civility, --
1910
Do more bewitch me, than when art
1911
Is too precise in evry part.
1915
@T The Poetry of Dress
1917
When as in silks my Julia goes
1918
Then, then (methinks) how sweetly flows
1919
That liquefaction of her clothes.
1921
Next, when I cast mine eyes and see
1922
That brave vibration each way free;
1923
O how that glittering taketh me!
1927
My Love in her attire doth show her wit,
1928
It doth so well become her:
1929
For every season she hath dressings fit,
1930
For Winter, Spring and Summer.
1931
No beauty she doth miss
1932
When all her robes are on:
1933
But Beauty's self she is
1934
When all her robes are gone.
1940
That which her slender waist confined
1941
Shall now my joyful temples bind:
1942
No monarch but would give his crown
1943
His arms might do what this has done.
1945
It was my Heaven's extremest sphere,
1946
The pale which held that lovely deer:
1947
My joy, my grief, my hope, my love
1948
Did all within this circle move.
1950
A narrow compass! and yet there
1951
Dwelt all that's good, and all that's fair:
1952
Give me but what this ribband bound,
1953
Take all the rest the Sun goes round.
1959
She dwelt among the untrodden ways
1960
Beside the springs of Dove;
1961
A maid whom there were none to praise,
1962
And very few to love:
1964
A violet by a mossy stone
1965
Half hidden from the eye!
1966
-- Fair as a star, when only one
1967
Is shining in the sky.
1969
She lived unknown, and few could know
1970
When Lucy ceased to be;
1971
But she is in her grave, and oh,
1972
The difference to me!
1976
I strove with none, for none was worth my strife;
1977
Nature I loved, and next to Nature, Art;
1978
I warmed both hands before the fire of life
1979
It sinks, and I am ready to depart.
1983
@T The Miller's Daughter
1985
It is the miller's daughter,
1986
And she is grown so dear, so dear,
1987
That I would be the jewel
1988
That trembles in her ear:
1989
For his in ringlets day and night,
1990
I'd touch her neck so warm and white.
1992
And I would be the girdle
1993
About her dainty waist,
1994
And her heart would beat against me
1995
In sorrow and in rest:
1996
And I should know if it beat right,
1997
I'd clasp it round so close and tight.
1999
And I would be the necklace,
2000
And all day long to fall and rise
2001
Upon her balmy bosom,
2002
With her laughter or her sighs,
2003
And I would lie so light, so light,
2004
I scarce should be unclasp'd at night.
2010
I must down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
2011
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by,
2012
And the wheel's kick and the wind's song and the white sail's shaking,
2013
And a grey mist on the sea's face and a grey dawn breaking.
2015
I must down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide
2016
Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;
2017
And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,
2018
And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.
2020
I must down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,
2021
To the gull's way and the whale's way where the wind's like a whetted knife;
2022
And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover,
2023
And a quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick's over.
2029
I hate that drum's discordant sound,
2030
Parading round, and round, and round:
2031
To thoughtless youth it pleasure yields,
2032
And lures from cities and from fields,
2033
To sell their liberty for charms
2034
Of tawdry lace, and glittering arms;
2035
And when Ambition's voice commands,
2036
To march, and fight, and fall, in foreign lands.
2038
I hate that drum's discordant sound,
2039
Parading round, and round, and round:
2040
To me it talks of ravag'd plains,
2041
And burning towns, and ruin'd swains,
2042
And mangled limbs, and dying groans,
2043
And widows' tears, and orphans' moans;
2044
And all that Misery's hand bestows,
2045
To fill the catalogue of human woes.
2050
@T Everlasting Mercy
2052
Near Bullen Bank, on Gloucester road
2053
Thy everlasting mercy showed
2054
The ploughman patient on the hill, forever there,
2056
Ploughing the hill with steady yoke,
2057
The pine trees lightning-struck and broke.
2059
I've marked the May Hill ploughman stay
2060
There on his hill day after day
2061
Driving his team against the sky
2062
While men and women live and die
2063
And now and then he seems to stoop
2064
To clear the coulter with the scoop
2065
Or touch an ox, to haw or gee,
2066
While Severn's stream goes out to sea.
2068
Near Bullen Bank, on Gloucester road
2069
Thy everlasting mercy showed
2070
The ploughman patient on the hill, forever there,
2072
The sea with all her ships and sails,
2073
And that great smokey port in Wales,
2074
And Gloucester tower bright in the sun,
2075
All know that patient wandering one.
2079
Johnny Coppin's haunting arrangement of this available from
2080
Red Sky Records, 'English Morning' RSKC 107
2083
(From the train between Bologna and Milan, Second Class)
2085
Opposite me two Germans snore and sweat.
2086
Through sullen swirling gloom we jolt and roar.
2087
We have been here for ever: even yet
2088
A dim watch tells two hours, two aeons, more.
2089
The windows are tight-shut and slimy-wet
2090
With a night's foetor. There are two hours more;
2091
Two hours to dawn and Milan; two hours yet.
2092
Opposite me two Germans sweat and snore...
2094
One of them wakes, and spits, and sleeps again.
2095
The darkness shivers. A wan light through the rain
2096
Strikes on our faces, drawn and white. Somewhere
2097
A new day sprawls; and, inside, the foul air
2098
Is chill, and damp, and fouler than before...
2099
Opposite me two Germans sweat and snore.
2105
Safe in the magic of my woods
2106
I lay, and watched the dying light.
2107
Faint in the pale high solitudes,
2108
And washed with rain and veiled by night,
2110
Silver and blue and green were showing.
2111
And the dark woods grew darker still;
2112
And birds were hushed; and peace was growing;
2113
And quietness crept up the hill;
2115
And no wind was blowing...
2118
That this was the hour of knowing,
2119
And the night and the woods and you
2120
Were one together, and I should find
2121
Soon in the silence the hidden key
2122
Of all that had hurt and puzzled me --
2123
Why you were you, and the night was kind,
2124
And the woods were part of the heart of me.
2126
And there I waited breathlessly,
2127
Alone; and slowly the holy three,
2128
The three that I loved, together grew
2129
One, in the hour of knowing,
2130
Night, and the woods, and you --
2133
There was an uproar in my woods,
2134
The noise of a fool in mock distress,
2135
Crashing and laughing and blindly going,
2136
Of ignorant feet and a swishing dress,
2137
And a Voice profaning the solitudes.
2139
The spell was broken, the key denied me,
2140
And at length your flat clear voice beside me
2141
Mouthed cheerful clear flat platitudes.
2143
You came and quacked beside me in the wood.
2144
You said, 'The view from here is very good!'
2145
You said, 'It's nice to be alone a bit!'
2146
And, 'How the days are drawing out!' you said.
2147
You said, 'The sunset's pretty, isn't it?'
2151
By God! I wish -- I wish that you were dead!
2155
@T On a Tired Housewife
2157
Here lies a poor woman who was always tired,
2158
She lived in a house where help wasn't hired;
2159
Her last words on earth were: 'Dear friends, I am going
2160
To where there's no cooking, or washing, or sewing,
2161
For everything there is exact to my wishes,
2162
For where they don't eat there's no washing of dishes.
2163
I'll be where loud anthems will always be ringing,
2164
But having no voice I'll be quit of the singing.
2165
Don't mourn for me now, don't mourn for me never,
2166
I am going to do nothing for ever and ever.'
2172
Here lies Johnny Cole
2173
Who died, on my soul,
2174
After eating a plentiful dinner;
2175
While chewing his crust,
2176
He was turned into dust,
2177
With his crimes undigested - poor sinner.
2181
@T On a Wag in Mauchline
2183
Lament him, Mauchline husbands a',
2184
He often did assist ye;
2185
For had ye staid whole weeks awa',
2186
Your wives they ne'er had missed ye.
2188
Ye Mauchline bairns, as on ye pass,
2189
To schools in bands thegither,
2190
Oh, tread ye lightly on his grass,
2191
Perhaps he was your father.
2197
Little Willie from his mirror
2198
Licked the mercury right off,
2199
Thinking, in his childish error,
2200
It would cure the whooping cough.
2201
At the funeral his mother
2202
Smartly turned to Mrs Brown:
2203
''Twas a chilly day for Willie
2204
When the mercury went down.'
2208
@T On Mary Ann Lowder
2210
Here lies the body of Mary Ann Lowder,
2211
She burst while drinking a seidlitz powder.
2212
Called from this world to her heavenly rest,
2213
She should have waited till it effervesced.
2217
@T On Miss Arabella Young
2219
Here lies, returned to clay,
2220
Miss Arabella Young,
2221
Who on the first day of May
2222
Began to hold her tongue.
2226
@T From The Westminster Drollery, 1671
2228
I saw a peacock with a fiery tail
2229
I saw a blazing comet drop down hail
2230
I saw a cloud wrapped with ivy round
2231
I saw an oak creep upon the ground
2232
I saw a pismire swallow up a whale
2233
I saw the sea brimful of ale
2234
I saw a Venice glass full fifteen feet deep
2235
I saw a well full of men's tears that weep
2236
I saw red eyes all of a flaming fire
2237
I saw a house bigger than the moon and higher
2238
I saw the sun at twelve o'clock at night
2239
I saw the man that saw this wondrous sight.
2245
Engraved on the collar which I gave to his
2246
Royal Highness Frederick Prince of Wales:
2248
I am his Highness' dog at Kew
2249
Pray tell me, sir, whose dog are you?
2255
A man of words and not of deeds,
2256
Is like a garden full of weeds;
2257
And when the weeds begin to grow,
2258
It's like a garden full of snow;
2259
And when the snow begins to fall,
2260
It's like a bird upon the wall;
2261
And when the bird away does fly,
2262
It's like an eagle in the sky;
2263
And when the skye begins to roar,
2264
It's like a lion at the door;
2265
And when the door begins to crack,
2266
It's like a stick across your back;
2267
And when your back begins to smart,
2268
It's like a penknife in your heart;
2269
And when your heart begins to bleed,
2270
You're dead, and dead, and dead indeed.
2274
@T The Voice of the Lobster
2276
''Tis the voice of the Lobster; I heard him declare,
2277
"You have baked me too brown, I must sugar my hair."
2278
As a duck with its eyelids, so he with his nose
2279
Trims his belt and his buttons, and turns out his toes.
2280
When the sands are all dry, he is gay as a lark,
2281
And will talk in contemptuous tones of the Shark:
2282
But, when the tide rises and sharks are around,
2283
His voice has a timid and tremuous sound.
2285
'I passed by his garden, and marked, with one eye,
2286
How the Owl and the Panther were sharing a pie:
2287
The Panther took pie-crust, and gravy, and meat,
2288
While the Owl had the dish as its share of the treat.
2289
When the pie was all finished, the Owl, as a boon,
2290
Was kindly permitted to pocket the spoon:
2291
While the Panther received knife and fork with a growl,
2292
And concluded the banquet by --'
2296
@T Lines by a Humanitarian
2298
Be lenient with lobsters, and ever kind to crabs,
2299
And be not disrespectful to cuttle-fish or dabs;
2300
Chase not the Cochin-China, chaff not the ox obese,
2301
And babble not of feather-beds in company with geese.
2302
Be tender with the tadpole, and let the limpet thrive,
2303
Be merciful to mussels, don't skin your eels alive;
2304
When talking to a turtle don't mention calipee --
2305
Be always kind to animals wherever you may be.
2309
@T The Common Cormorant
2311
The common cormorant or shag
2312
Lays eggs inside a paper bag.
2313
The reason you will see no doubt
2314
It is to keep the lightning out.
2315
But what these unobservant birds
2316
Have never noticed is that herds
2317
Of wandering bears may come with buns
2318
And steal the bags to hold the crumbs.
2322
@T Imitation of Chaucer
2324
Women ben full of Ragerie,
2325
Yet swinken not sans secresie
2326
Thilke Moral shall ye understand,
2327
From Schoole-boy's Tale of fayre Irelond:
2328
Which to the Fennes hath him betake,
2329
To filch the gray Ducke fro the Lake.
2330
Right then, there passen by the Way
2331
His Aunt, and eke her Daughters tway.
2332
Ducke in his Trowses hath he hent,
2333
Not to be spied of Ladies gent.
2334
'But ho! our Nephew,' (crieth one)
2335
'Ho,' quoth another, 'Cozen John';
2336
And stoppen, and laugh, and callen out, --
2337
This sely Clerk full low doth lout:
2339
They asken that, and talken this,
2340
'Lo here is Coz, and here is Miss.'
2341
But, as he glozeth with Speeches soote,
2342
The Ducke sore tickleth his Erse-root:
2343
Fore-piece and buttons all-to-brest,
2344
Forth thrust a white neck, and red crest.
2345
'Te-he,' cry'd Ladies; Clerke nought spake:
2346
Miss star'd; and gray Ducke crieth Quake.
2347
'O Moder, Moder' (quoth the daughter)
2348
'Be thilke same thing Maids longen a'ter?
2349
'Better is to pyne on coals and chalke,
2350
'Then trust on Mon, whose yerde can talke.'
2356
Live with me, and be my love,
2357
And we will all the pleasures prove
2358
That hills and valleys, dales and fields,
2359
And all the craggy mountains yields.
2361
There will we sit upon the rocks,
2362
And see the shepherds feed their flocks,
2363
By shallow rivers, by whose falls
2364
Melodious birds sing madrigals.
2366
There will I make thee a bed of roses,
2367
With a thousand fragrant posies,
2368
A cap of flowers, and a kirtle
2369
Embroider'd all with leaves of myrtle.
2371
A belt of straw and ivy buds,
2372
With coral clasps and amber studs;
2373
And if these pleasures may thee move,
2374
Then live with me and be my love.
2378
If that the world and love were young,
2379
And truth in every shepherd's tongue,
2380
These pretty pleasures might me move
2381
To live with thee and be thy love.
2383
@A William Shakespeare
2387
On yonder hill there stands a creature;
2388
Who she is I do not know.
2389
I'll go and court her for her beauty,
2390
She must answer yes or no.
2391
O no, John! No, John! No, John! No!
2393
On her bosom are bunches of posies,
2394
On her breast where flowers grow;
2395
If I should chance to touch that posy,
2396
She must answer yes or no.
2397
O no, John! No, John! No, John! No!
2399
Madam I am come for to court you,
2400
If your favour I can gain;
2401
If you will but entertain me,
2402
Perhaps then I might come again.
2403
O no, John! No, John! No, John! No!
2405
My husband was a Spanish captain,
2406
Went to sea a month ago;
2407
The very last time we kissed and parted,
2408
Bid me always answer no.
2409
O no, John! No, John! No, John! No!
2411
Madam in your face is beauty,
2412
In your bosom flowers grow;
2413
In your bedroom there is pleasure,
2414
Shall I view it, yes or no?
2415
O no, John! No, John! No, John! No!
2417
Madam shall I tie your garter,
2418
Tie it a little above your knee;
2419
If my hands should slip a little farther,
2420
Would you think it amiss of me?
2421
O no, John! No, John! No, John! No!
2423
My love and I went to bed together,
2424
There we lay till cocks did crow;
2425
Unclose your arms my dearest jewel,
2426
Unclose your arms and let me go.
2427
O no, John! No, John! No, John! No!
2429
@A Old English Folk Song
2433
Heart, you are as restless as a paper scrap
2434
That's tossed down dusty pavements by the wind;
2435
Saying, 'She is most wise, patient and kind.
2436
Between the small hands folded in her lap
2437
Surely a shamed head may bow down at length,
2438
And find forgiveness where the shadows stir
2439
About her lips, and wisdom in her strength,
2440
Peace in her peace. Come to her, come to her!' . . .
2442
She will not care. She'll smile to see me come,
2443
So that I think all Heaven in flower to fold me.
2444
She'll give me all I ask, kiss me and hold me,
2445
And open wide upon that holy air
2446
The gates of peace, and take my tiredness home,
2447
Kinder than God. But, heart, she will not care.
2453
Now that we've done our best and worst, and parted,
2454
I would fill my mind with thoughts that will not rend.
2455
(O heart, I do not dare go empty-hearted)
2456
I'll think of Love in books, Love without end;
2457
Women with child, content; and old men sleeping;
2458
And wet strong ploughlands, scarred for certain grain;
2459
And babes that weep, and so forget their weeping;
2460
And the young heavens, forgetful after rain;
2461
And evening hush, broken by homing wings;
2462
And Song's nobility, and Wisdom holy,
2463
That live, we dead. I would think of a thousand things,
2464
Lovely and durable, and taste them slowly,
2465
One after one, like tasting a sweet food.
2466
I have need to busy my heart with quietude.
2472
Love is a breach in the walls, a broken gate,
2473
Where that comes in that shall not go again;
2474
Love sells the proud heart's citadel to Fate.
2475
They have known shame, who love unloved. Even then
2476
When two mouths, thirsty each for each, find slaking,
2477
And agony's forgot, and hushed the crying
2478
Of credulous hearts, in heaven -- such are but taking
2479
Their own poor dreams within their arms, and lying
2480
Each in his lonely night, each with a ghost.
2481
Some share that night. But they know, love grows colder,
2482
Grows false and dull, that was sweet lies at most.
2483
Astonishment is no more in hand or shoulder,
2484
But darkens, and dies out from kiss to kiss.
2485
All this love; and all love is but this.
2491
Today I have been happy. All the day
2492
I held the memory of you, and wove
2493
Its laughter with the dancing light o' the spray,
2494
And sowed the sky with tiny clouds of love,
2495
And sent you following the white waves of sea,
2496
And crowned your head with fancies, nothing worth,
2497
Stray buds from that old dust of misery,
2498
Being glad with a new foolish quiet mirth.
2500
So lightly I played with those dark memories,
2501
Just as a child, beneath the summer skies,
2502
Plays hour by hour with a strange shining stone,
2503
For which (he knows not) towns were fire of old,
2504
And love has been betrayed, and murder done,
2505
And great kings turned to a little bitter mould.
2511
When she sleeps, her soul, I know,
2512
Goes a wanderer on the air,
2513
Wings where I may never go,
2514
Leaves her lying, still and fair,
2515
Waiting, empty, laid aside,
2516
Like a dress upon a chair...
2517
This I know, and yet I know
2518
Doubts that will not be denied.
2520
For if the soul be not in place,
2521
What has laid trouble in her face?
2522
And, sits there nothing ware and wise
2523
Behind the curtains of her eyes,
2524
What is it, in the self's eclipse,
2525
Shadows, soft and passingly,
2526
About the corners of her lips,
2527
The smile that is essential she?
2529
And if the spirit be not there,
2530
Why is fragrance in the hair?
added
removed
demos/poem/wxpoem.dat
