ANCIENT POEMS

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My First Ever Mistake

The mistake I had never expected,
I did it without getting into awareness
Of how it would react.
Lacking that girl in me is like lacking
.....
Abubakar Mohammed Musa

Abubakar Mohammed Musa
Song Of The Sea

(Capri, Piccola Marina)


Timeless sea breezes,
.....

Rainer Maria Rilke
My Pen

My Pen
It keeps me busy in my bookish cage
Gliding and sliding on the open page
It rest so quiet but not dumb
.....
Abdullahi Lawal

Abdullahi Lawal
Tell Me, O Swan, Your Ancient Tale

Tell me, O Swan, your ancient tale.
From what land do you come,
O Swan? to what shore will you fly?
Where would you take your rest,
.....
Kabir

Kabir
Michael: A Pastoral Poem

If from the public way you turn your steps
Up the tumultuous brook of Green-head Ghyll,
You will suppose that with an upright path
Your feet must struggle; in such bold ascent
.....
William Wordsworth

William Wordsworth
Christmas In India

Dim dawn behind the tamerisks-the sky is saffron-yellow-
As the women in the village grind the corn,
And the parrots seek the riverside, each calling to his fellow
That the Day, the staring Easter Day is born.
.....
Rudyard Kipling

Rudyard Kipling
The Clerks

I did not think that I should find them there
When I came back again; but there they stood,
As in the days they dreamed of when young blood
Was in their cheeks and women called them fair.
.....
Edwin Arlington Robinson

Edwin Arlington Robinson
Remembrances

Summer pleasures they are gone like to visions every one
And the cloudy days of autumn and of winter cometh on
I tried to call them back but unbidden they are gone
Far away from heart and eye and for ever far away
.....
John Clare

John Clare
A Legend Of Truth

Once on a time, the ancient legends tell,
Truth, rising from the bottom of her well,
Looked on the world, but, hearing how it lied,
Returned to her seclusion horrified.
.....
Rudyard Kipling

Rudyard Kipling
Whitsunday

Listen sweet Dove unto my song,
And spread thy golden wings in me;
Hatching my tender heart so long,
Till it get wing, and fly away with thee.
.....
George Herbert

George Herbert
The Names

Yesterday, I lay awake in the palm of the night.

A soft rain stole in, unhelped by any breeze,

.....

Billy Collins
To A Bird At Dawn

O bird that somewhere yonder sings,
In the dim hour 'twixt dreams and dawn,
Lone in the hush of sleeping things,
In some sky sanctuary withdrawn;
.....

Richard Le Gallienne
The Holy Fair

A note of seeming truth and trust
Hid crafty observation;
And secret hung, with poison'd crust,
The dirk of defamation:
.....
Robert Burns

Robert Burns
1492

Thou two-faced year, Mother of Change and Fate,
Didst weep when Spain cast forth with flaming sword,
The children of the prophets of the Lord,
Prince, priest, and people, spurned by zealot hate.
.....
Emma Lazarus

Emma Lazarus
Bénédiction (benediction)

Lorsque, par un décret des puissances suprêmes,
Le Poète apparaît en ce monde ennuyé,
Sa mère épouvantée et pleine de blasphèmes
Crispe ses poings vers Dieu, qui la prend en pitié:
.....
Charles Baudelaire

Charles Baudelaire
In The Sound Of Mull

Tradition, be thou mute! Oblivion, throw
Thy veil in mercy o'er the records, hung
Round strath and mountain, stamped by the ancient tongue
On rock and ruin darkening as we go,
.....
William Wordsworth

William Wordsworth
Fear Of The Inexplicable

xistence of the individual; the relationship between
one human being and another has also been cramped by it,
as though it had been lifted out of the riverbed of
endless possibilities and set down in a fallow spot on the
.....

Rainer Maria Rilke
Elegy Ii. On Posthumous Reputation - To A Friend

O grief of griefs! that Envy's frantic ire
Should rob the living virtue of its praise;
O foolish Muses! that with zeal aspire
To deck the cold insensate shrine with bays.
.....

William Shenstone
The Royal Tombs Of Golconda

I MUSE among these silent fanes
Whose spacious darkness guards your dust;
Around me sleep the hoary plains
That hold your ancient wars in trust.
.....

Sarojini Naidu
The New Wall And The New Colossus.

LAZARUS! In silence you lie
Beneath the dust of ancient scrolls,
Whilst your art ; The mother of exiles
Dines in the womb of time demarcated.
.....
Dauda Tholley

Dauda Tholley
Religio Laici

Dim, as the borrow'd beams of moon and stars
To lonely, weary, wand'ring travellers,
Is reason to the soul; and as on high,
Those rolling fires discover but the sky
.....
John Dryden

John Dryden
The Secret People

Smile at us, pay us, pass us; but do not quite forget.
For we are the people of England, that never have spoken yet.
There is many a fat farmer that drinks less cheerfully,
There is many a free French peasant who is richer and sadder than we.
.....
G. K. Chesterton

G. K. Chesterton
Madness

What darkens, what darkens?-'t is heaven's high roof:
What lightens?-'t is Heckla's flame, shooting aloof:
The proud, the majestic, the rugged old Thor,
The mightiest giant the North ever saw,
.....
George Borrow

George Borrow
The Old Pond

Following are several translations
of the 'Old Pond' poem, which may be
the most famous of all haiku:

.....

Matsuo Basho
Absalom And Achitophel

In pious times, ere priest-craft did begin,
Before polygamy was made a sin;
When man, on many, multipli'd his kind,
Ere one to one was cursedly confin'd:
.....
John Dryden

John Dryden
The Voice

Atoms as old as stars,
Mutation on mutation,
Millions and millions of cells
Dividing yet still the same,
.....

Sara Teasdale
Sydney

In her grey majesty of ancient stone
She queens it proudly, though the sun's caress
Her piteous cheeks, ravished of bloom, confess,
And her dark eyes his bridegroom glance have know.
.....

Arthur Henry Adams
Preludes

I

The winter evening settles down
With smell of steaks in passageways.
.....
T. S. Eliot

T. S. Eliot
The Flower And The Leaf: Or, The Lady In The Arbour.[1]

A VISION.


Now turning from the wintry signs, the sun,
.....
John Dryden

John Dryden
England, My England

What have I done for you,
England, my England?
What is there I would not do,
England, my own?
.....
William Ernest Henley

William Ernest Henley
The Unicorn

The saintly hermit, midway through his prayers
stopped suddenly, and raised his eyes to witness
the unbelievable: for there before him stood
the legendary creature, startling white, that
.....

Rainer Maria Rilke
To Charles Dickens

Go then to Italy; but mind
To leave the pale low France behind;
Pass through that country, nor ascend
The Rhine, nor over Tyrol wend:
.....
Walter Savage Landor

Walter Savage Landor
A Dialogue Of Self And Soul

My Soul. I summon to the winding ancient stair;
Set all your mind upon the steep ascent,
Upon the broken, crumbling battlement,
Upon the breathless starlit air,
.....
William Butler Yeats

William Butler Yeats
The End

After the blast of lightning from the east,
The flourish of loud clouds, the Chariot throne,
After the drums of time have rolled and ceased
And from the bronze west long retreat is blown,
.....
Wilfred Owen

Wilfred Owen
Dead Before Death

Ah! changed and cold, how changed and very cold!
With stiffened smiling lips and cold calm eyes:
Changed, yet the same; much knowing, little wise;
This was the promise of the days of old!
.....
Christina Rossetti

Christina Rossetti
After The Rain

THE rain has ceased, and in my room
The sunshine pours an airy flood;
And on the church's dizzy vane
The ancient cross is bathed in blood.
.....
Thomas Bailey Aldrich

Thomas Bailey Aldrich
The Witch Of Wenham

I.
Along Crane River's sunny slopes
Blew warm the winds of May,
And over Naumkeag's ancient oaks
.....
John Greenleaf Whittier

John Greenleaf Whittier
The City Decorated

With his consort pious Rama, pure in deed and pure in thought,
After evening's due ablutions NARAYANA'S chamber sought,

Prayed unto the Lord of Creatures, NARAYANA Ancient Sire,
.....

Valmiki
Ka'ba

'A closed window looks down
on a dirty courtyard, and Black people
call across or scream across or walk across
defying physics in the stream of their will.
.....

Amiri Baraka
Saadi

Trees in groves,
Kine in droves,
In ocean sport the scaly herds,
Wedge-like cleave the air the birds,
.....
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson
A Modest Request

Complied With After The Dinner At President Everett's Inauguration

Scene, - a back parlor in a certain square,
Or court, or lane, - in short, no matter where;
.....

Oliver Wendell Holmes
August Moon

Look! the round-cheeked moon floats high,
In the glowing August sky,
Quenching all her neighbor stars,
Save the steady flame of Mars.
.....
Emma Lazarus

Emma Lazarus
Brothers

See! There he stands; not brave, but with an air
Of sullen stupor. Mark him well! Is he
Not more like brute than man? Look in his eye!
No light is there; none, save the glint that shines
.....
James Weldon Johnson

James Weldon Johnson
Treasures

Some folks I know, when friends drop in
To visit for awhile and chin,
Just lead them round the rooms and halls
And show them pictures on their walls,
.....
Edgar Albert Guest

Edgar Albert Guest
The Last Walk In Autumn

I.
O'er the bare woods, whose outstretched hands
Plead with the leaden heavens in vain,
I see, beyond the valley lands,
.....
John Greenleaf Whittier

John Greenleaf Whittier
The Village Of Tayport And Its Surroundings

All ye pleasure-seekers, where'er ye be,
I pray ye all be advised by me,
Go and visit Tayport on the banks o' the Tay,
And there ye can spend a pleasant holiday.
.....

William Topaz Mcgonagall
The Songs Of Selma

ARGUMENTAddress to the evening star:

An apostrophe to Fingal and his times. Minonasings before the king the song of the unfortunate Colma; and the bards exhibit other specimens of their poetical talents; according to an annual custom established by the monarchs of the ancient Caledonians.

.....

James Macpherson
The Touchstone

A man there came, whence none could tell,
Bearing a Touchstone in his hand;
And tested all things in the land
By its unerring spell.
.....
William Allingham

William Allingham
The Passions. An Ode To Music

When Music, heav'nly maid, was young,
While yet in early Greece she sung,
The Passions oft, to hear her shell,
Throng'd around her magic cell,
.....

William Collins
Lamia

Out of her desert lair the lamia came,
A lovely serpent shaped as women are.
Meeting me there, she hailed me by the name

.....

Clark Ashton Smith