CHALLENGE POEMS
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A Song Of Success
Ho! we were strong, we were swift, we were brave.
Youth was a challenge, and Life was a fight.
All that was best in us gladly we gave,
Sprang from the rally, and leapt for the height.
.....
Robert Service
Ho! we were strong, we were swift, we were brave.
Youth was a challenge, and Life was a fight.
All that was best in us gladly we gave,
Sprang from the rally, and leapt for the height.
.....
Robert Service
Youth
If I had youth I'd bid the world to try me;
I'd answer every challenge to my will.
Though mountains stood in silence to defy me,
I'd try to make them subject to my skill.
.....
Edgar Albert Guest
If I had youth I'd bid the world to try me;
I'd answer every challenge to my will.
Though mountains stood in silence to defy me,
I'd try to make them subject to my skill.
.....
Edgar Albert Guest
The Voice
I dreamed a Voice, of one God-authorised,
Cried loudly throâ?? the world, â??Disarm! Disarm! â??
And there was consernation in the camps;
And men who strutted under braid and lace
.....
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
I dreamed a Voice, of one God-authorised,
Cried loudly throâ?? the world, â??Disarm! Disarm! â??
And there was consernation in the camps;
And men who strutted under braid and lace
.....
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Four Quartets 4: Little Gidding
I
Midwinter spring is its own season
Sempiternal though sodden towards sundown,
.....
T. S. Eliot
I
Midwinter spring is its own season
Sempiternal though sodden towards sundown,
.....
T. S. Eliot
The Iliad: Book 03
When the companies were thus arrayed, each under its own captain,
the Trojans advanced as a flight of wild fowl or cranes that scream
overhead when rain and winter drive them over the flowing waters of
Oceanus to bring death and destruction on the Pygmies, and they
.....
Homer
When the companies were thus arrayed, each under its own captain,
the Trojans advanced as a flight of wild fowl or cranes that scream
overhead when rain and winter drive them over the flowing waters of
Oceanus to bring death and destruction on the Pygmies, and they
.....
Homer
The Filipino Politician
When he finds his wife in bed with another man--
The conservative politician feels an ache in his stomach,
remembers the longanisa and the tapa he had for breakfast.
.....
Nick Carbo
When he finds his wife in bed with another man--
The conservative politician feels an ache in his stomach,
remembers the longanisa and the tapa he had for breakfast.
.....
Nick Carbo
The Lesson
I keep on dying again.
Veins collapse, opening like the
Small fists of sleeping
Children.
.....
Maya Angelou
I keep on dying again.
Veins collapse, opening like the
Small fists of sleeping
Children.
.....
Maya Angelou
Dedication
I have great faith in all things not yet spoken.
I want my deepest pious feelings freed.
What no one yet has dared to risk and warrant
will be for me a challenge I must meet.
.....
Rainer Maria Rilke
I have great faith in all things not yet spoken.
I want my deepest pious feelings freed.
What no one yet has dared to risk and warrant
will be for me a challenge I must meet.
.....
Rainer Maria Rilke
Little Queen
Do you remember the name I wore â??
The old pet-name of Little Queen â??
In the dear, dead days that are no more,
The happiest days of our lives, I ween?
.....
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Do you remember the name I wore â??
The old pet-name of Little Queen â??
In the dear, dead days that are no more,
The happiest days of our lives, I ween?
.....
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
The Silent Lover (ii)
Wrong not, sweet empress of my heart,
The merit of true passion,
With thinking that he feels no smart,
That sues for no compassion.
.....
Sir Walter Raleigh
Wrong not, sweet empress of my heart,
The merit of true passion,
With thinking that he feels no smart,
That sues for no compassion.
.....
Sir Walter Raleigh
The Big Fellow
A huge six footer,
Eyes bay blue,
And as deep;
Lower jaw like a cliff,
.....
E. J. Pratt
A huge six footer,
Eyes bay blue,
And as deep;
Lower jaw like a cliff,
.....
E. J. Pratt
The Call Of The Wild
Have you gazed on naked grandeur where there's nothing else to gaze on,
Set pieces and drop-curtain scenes galore,
Big mountains heaved to heaven, which the blinding sunsets blazon,
Black canyons where the rapids rip and roar?
.....
Robert Service
Have you gazed on naked grandeur where there's nothing else to gaze on,
Set pieces and drop-curtain scenes galore,
Big mountains heaved to heaven, which the blinding sunsets blazon,
Black canyons where the rapids rip and roar?
.....
Robert Service
Tease
I will give you all my keys,
You shall be my châtelaine,
You shall enter as you please,
As you please shall go again.
.....
D. H. Lawrence
I will give you all my keys,
You shall be my châtelaine,
You shall enter as you please,
As you please shall go again.
.....
D. H. Lawrence
The Explorers
And some still cry: “What is the use?
The service rendered? What the gain?
Heroic, yes!-but in what cause?
Have they made less one earth-borne pain?
.....
Don Marquis
And some still cry: “What is the use?
The service rendered? What the gain?
Heroic, yes!-but in what cause?
Have they made less one earth-borne pain?
.....
Don Marquis
Hiawatha's Fishing
Forth upon the Gitche Gumee,
On the shining Big-Sea-Water,
With his fishing-line of cedar,
Of the twisted bark of cedar,
.....
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Forth upon the Gitche Gumee,
On the shining Big-Sea-Water,
With his fishing-line of cedar,
Of the twisted bark of cedar,
.....
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Johnnie's First Moose
De cloud is hide de moon, but dere's plain-
tee light above,
Steady Johnnie, steady-kip your head down
low,
.....
William Henry Drummond
De cloud is hide de moon, but dere's plain-
tee light above,
Steady Johnnie, steady-kip your head down
low,
.....
William Henry Drummond
A Brave And Startling Truth
We, this people, on a small and lonely planet
Traveling through casual space
Past aloof stars, across the way of indifferent suns
To a destination where all signs tell us
.....
Maya Angelou
We, this people, on a small and lonely planet
Traveling through casual space
Past aloof stars, across the way of indifferent suns
To a destination where all signs tell us
.....
Maya Angelou
Roll Girl
Loaded and rolling on,
This can't take you away clown,
Strength build in you will keep lighting,
Even when ninety nine candles are dying
.....
Brian Dredan
Loaded and rolling on,
This can't take you away clown,
Strength build in you will keep lighting,
Even when ninety nine candles are dying
.....
Brian Dredan
The Iliad: Book 07
With these words Hector passed through the gates, and his brother
Alexandrus with him, both eager for the fray. As when heaven sends a
breeze to sailors who have long looked for one in vain, and have
laboured at their oars till they are faint with toil, even so
.....
Homer
With these words Hector passed through the gates, and his brother
Alexandrus with him, both eager for the fray. As when heaven sends a
breeze to sailors who have long looked for one in vain, and have
laboured at their oars till they are faint with toil, even so
.....
Homer
The Iliad: Book 13
Now when Jove had thus brought Hector and the Trojans to the
ships, he left them to their never-ending toil, and turned his keen
eyes away, looking elsewhither towards the horse-breeders of Thrace,
the Mysians, fighters at close quarters, the noble Hippemolgi, who
.....
Homer
Now when Jove had thus brought Hector and the Trojans to the
ships, he left them to their never-ending toil, and turned his keen
eyes away, looking elsewhither towards the horse-breeders of Thrace,
the Mysians, fighters at close quarters, the noble Hippemolgi, who
.....
Homer
The Odyssey: Book 08
Now when the child of morning, rosy-fingered Dawn, appeared,
Alcinous and Ulysses both rose, and Alcinous led the way to the
Phaecian place of assembly, which was near the ships. When they got
there they sat down side by side on a seat of polished stone, while
.....
Homer
Now when the child of morning, rosy-fingered Dawn, appeared,
Alcinous and Ulysses both rose, and Alcinous led the way to the
Phaecian place of assembly, which was near the ships. When they got
there they sat down side by side on a seat of polished stone, while
.....
Homer
Docks
Strolling along
By the teeming docks,
I watch the ships put out.
Black ships that heave and lunge
.....
Carl Sandburg
Strolling along
By the teeming docks,
I watch the ships put out.
Black ships that heave and lunge
.....
Carl Sandburg
The Iliad: Book 7
With these words Hector passed through the gates, and his brother
Alexandrus with him, both eager for the fray. As when heaven sends a
breeze to sailors who have long looked for one in vain, and have
laboured at their oars till they are faint with toil, even so
.....
Homer
With these words Hector passed through the gates, and his brother
Alexandrus with him, both eager for the fray. As when heaven sends a
breeze to sailors who have long looked for one in vain, and have
laboured at their oars till they are faint with toil, even so
.....
Homer
Francis Ii, King Of Naples
Written after reading Trevelyan's “Garibaldi and the making of Italy”
Poor foolish monarch, vacillating, vain,
.....
Amy Lowell
Written after reading Trevelyan's “Garibaldi and the making of Italy”
Poor foolish monarch, vacillating, vain,
.....
Amy Lowell
Nicholas Of Montenegro
He speaks as straight as his rifles shot,
As straight as a thrusting blade,
Waiting the deed that shall trouble the truce
His savage guns have made.
.....
Don Marquis
He speaks as straight as his rifles shot,
As straight as a thrusting blade,
Waiting the deed that shall trouble the truce
His savage guns have made.
.....
Don Marquis
Cadet Grey: Canto Ii
I
Where West Point crouches, and with lifted shield
Turns the whole river eastward through the pass;
.....
Bret Harte
I
Where West Point crouches, and with lifted shield
Turns the whole river eastward through the pass;
.....
Bret Harte
Your Dimension Of Greatness
No one can know the potential,
Of a life that is committed to win;
With courage - the challenge it faces,
To achieve great success in the end!
.....
Anonymous Americas
No one can know the potential,
Of a life that is committed to win;
With courage - the challenge it faces,
To achieve great success in the end!
.....
Anonymous Americas
A Friendly Game Of Football
We were challenged by The Dingoes - they're the pride of Squatter's Gap-
To a friendly game of football on the flat by Devil's Trap.
And we went along on horses, sworn to triumph in the game,
For the honour of Gyp's Diggings, and the glory of the same.
.....
Edward George Dyson
We were challenged by The Dingoes - they're the pride of Squatter's Gap-
To a friendly game of football on the flat by Devil's Trap.
And we went along on horses, sworn to triumph in the game,
For the honour of Gyp's Diggings, and the glory of the same.
.....
Edward George Dyson
Blue
The earth again like a ship steams out of the dark sea over
The edge of the blue, and the sun stands up to see us glide
Slowly into another day; slowly the rover
Vessel of darkness takes the rising tide.
.....
D. H. Lawrence
The earth again like a ship steams out of the dark sea over
The edge of the blue, and the sun stands up to see us glide
Slowly into another day; slowly the rover
Vessel of darkness takes the rising tide.
.....
D. H. Lawrence
The Wild Common
The quick sparks on the gorse bushes are leaping,
Little jets of sunlight-texture imitating flame;
Above them, exultant, the pee-wits are sweeping:
They are lords of the desolate wastes of sadness their screamings proclaim.
.....
D. H. Lawrence
The quick sparks on the gorse bushes are leaping,
Little jets of sunlight-texture imitating flame;
Above them, exultant, the pee-wits are sweeping:
They are lords of the desolate wastes of sadness their screamings proclaim.
.....
D. H. Lawrence
The Struggle
I have been down in a dark valley;
I have been groping through a deep gorge;
Far above, the lips of it were rimmed with moon-
light,
.....
Don Marquis
I have been down in a dark valley;
I have been groping through a deep gorge;
Far above, the lips of it were rimmed with moon-
light,
.....
Don Marquis
The Nymph Complaining For The Death Of Her Fawn
The wanton troopers riding by
Have shot my fawn, and it will die.
Ungentle men! they cannot thrive
To kill thee. Thou ne'er didst alive
.....
Andrew Marvell
The wanton troopers riding by
Have shot my fawn, and it will die.
Ungentle men! they cannot thrive
To kill thee. Thou ne'er didst alive
.....
Andrew Marvell
Atherton's Gambit
The master played the bishop's pawn,
For jest, while Atherton looked on;
The master played this way and that,
And Atherton, amazed thereat,
.....
Edwin Arlington Robinson
The master played the bishop's pawn,
For jest, while Atherton looked on;
The master played this way and that,
And Atherton, amazed thereat,
.....
Edwin Arlington Robinson
Prometheus
What sovereign good shall satiate man's desires,
Propell'd by Hope's unconquerable fires?
Vain each bright bauble by ambition prized;
Unwon, 'tis worshipp'd-but possess'd, despised.
.....
Thomas Gent
What sovereign good shall satiate man's desires,
Propell'd by Hope's unconquerable fires?
Vain each bright bauble by ambition prized;
Unwon, 'tis worshipp'd-but possess'd, despised.
.....
Thomas Gent
Hiawatha's Friends
Two good friends had Hiawatha,
Singled out from all the others,
Bound to him in closest union,
And to whom he gave the right hand
.....
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Two good friends had Hiawatha,
Singled out from all the others,
Bound to him in closest union,
And to whom he gave the right hand
.....
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
The Voice Of Beauty Drowned
Cry from the thicket my heart's bird!
The other birds woke all around,
Rising with toot and howl they stirred
Their plumage, broke the trembling sound,
.....
Robert Graves
Cry from the thicket my heart's bird!
The other birds woke all around,
Rising with toot and howl they stirred
Their plumage, broke the trembling sound,
.....
Robert Graves
The Haunted Tower
[Suggested by a poem of Theophile Gautier]
In front he saw the donjon tall
.....
Andrew Lang
[Suggested by a poem of Theophile Gautier]
In front he saw the donjon tall
.....
Andrew Lang
Rebel Color-bearers At Shiloh
A plea against the vindictive cry raised by civilians
shortly after the surrender at Appomattox
.....
Herman Melville
A plea against the vindictive cry raised by civilians
shortly after the surrender at Appomattox
.....
Herman Melville
The Sphinx
THIS mystery of golden hair,
Of eyes and lips and bosom fair,
Is not--if one could really see--
Mere flesh and blood, like you and me:
.....
Edith Nesbit
THIS mystery of golden hair,
Of eyes and lips and bosom fair,
Is not--if one could really see--
Mere flesh and blood, like you and me:
.....
Edith Nesbit
What The Heart Of The Poet Said To The 'bulletin'
Tell me not in future numbers
That our thought becomes inane,
That our metre halts and lumbers,
When the Wattle blooms again.
.....
Joseph Furphy
Tell me not in future numbers
That our thought becomes inane,
That our metre halts and lumbers,
When the Wattle blooms again.
.....
Joseph Furphy
The Widow Of Glencoe
Do not lift him from the bracken,
Leave him lying where he fell-
Better bier ye cannot fashion:
None beseems him half so well
.....
William Edmondstoune Aytoun
Do not lift him from the bracken,
Leave him lying where he fell-
Better bier ye cannot fashion:
None beseems him half so well
.....
William Edmondstoune Aytoun
Carolina
I
The despot treads thy sacred sands,
Thy pines give shelter to his bands,
.....
Henry Timrod
I
The despot treads thy sacred sands,
Thy pines give shelter to his bands,
.....
Henry Timrod
Derne
NIGHT on the city of the Moor!
On mosque and tomb, and white-walled shore,
On sea-waves, to whose ceaseless knock
The narrow harbor gates unlock,
.....
John Greenleaf Whittier
NIGHT on the city of the Moor!
On mosque and tomb, and white-walled shore,
On sea-waves, to whose ceaseless knock
The narrow harbor gates unlock,
.....
John Greenleaf Whittier
The Iliad: Book 3
When the companies were thus arrayed, each under its own captain,
the Trojans advanced as a flight of wild fowl or cranes that scream
overhead when rain and winter drive them over the flowing waters of
Oceanus to bring death and destruction on the Pygmies, and they
.....
Homer
When the companies were thus arrayed, each under its own captain,
the Trojans advanced as a flight of wild fowl or cranes that scream
overhead when rain and winter drive them over the flowing waters of
Oceanus to bring death and destruction on the Pygmies, and they
.....
Homer
Hast Thou A Song For A Flower.
I.
HAST thou a song for a flower,
Such as, if breathed in its ear,
.....
William Gilmore Simms
I.
HAST thou a song for a flower,
Such as, if breathed in its ear,
.....
William Gilmore Simms
At Sea
When the investing darkness growls,
And deep reverberates to deep;
When keyhole whines and chimney howls,
And all the roofs and windows weep;
.....
Ada Cambridge
When the investing darkness growls,
And deep reverberates to deep;
When keyhole whines and chimney howls,
And all the roofs and windows weep;
.....
Ada Cambridge
The Lonely God
So Eden was deserted, and at eve
Into the quiet place God came to grieve.
His face was sad, His hands hung slackly down
Along his robe; too sorrowful to frown
.....
James Stephens
So Eden was deserted, and at eve
Into the quiet place God came to grieve.
His face was sad, His hands hung slackly down
Along his robe; too sorrowful to frown
.....
James Stephens