ESSENTIAL POEMS
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Bankers Are Just Like Anybody Else, Except Richer
This is a song to celebrate banks,
Because they are full of money and you go into them and all
you hear is clinks and clanks,
Or maybe a sound like the wind in the trees on the hills,
.....
Ogden Nash
This is a song to celebrate banks,
Because they are full of money and you go into them and all
you hear is clinks and clanks,
Or maybe a sound like the wind in the trees on the hills,
.....
Ogden Nash
The Guitarist Tunes Up
With what attentive courtesy he bent
Over his instrument;
Not as a lordly conquerer who could
Command both wire and wood,
.....
Frances Darwin Cornford
With what attentive courtesy he bent
Over his instrument;
Not as a lordly conquerer who could
Command both wire and wood,
.....
Frances Darwin Cornford
The Fudges In England. Letter Vii. From Miss Fanny Fudge, To Her Cousin, Miss Kitty ----.
IRREGULAR ODE.
Bring me the slumbering souls of flowers,
While yet, beneath some northern sky,
.....
Thomas Moore
IRREGULAR ODE.
Bring me the slumbering souls of flowers,
While yet, beneath some northern sky,
.....
Thomas Moore
A Hidden Life
Proudly the youth, sudden with manhood crowned,
Went walking by his horses, the first time,
That morning, to the plough. No soldier gay
Feels at his side the throb of the gold hilt
.....
George Macdonald
Proudly the youth, sudden with manhood crowned,
Went walking by his horses, the first time,
That morning, to the plough. No soldier gay
Feels at his side the throb of the gold hilt
.....
George Macdonald
An Essay On Man: Epistle I.
THE DESIGN.
Having proposed to write some pieces on human life and manners, such as (to use my Lord Bacon's expression) come home to men's business and bosoms, I thought it more satisfactory to begin with considering man in the abstract, his nature and his state; since, to prove any moral duty, to enforce any moral precept, or to examine the perfection or imperfection of any creature whatsoever, it is necessary first to know what condition and relation it is placed in, and what is the proper end and purpose of its being.
.....
Alexander Pope
THE DESIGN.
Having proposed to write some pieces on human life and manners, such as (to use my Lord Bacon's expression) come home to men's business and bosoms, I thought it more satisfactory to begin with considering man in the abstract, his nature and his state; since, to prove any moral duty, to enforce any moral precept, or to examine the perfection or imperfection of any creature whatsoever, it is necessary first to know what condition and relation it is placed in, and what is the proper end and purpose of its being.
.....
Alexander Pope
Love Is Blind
And can you tell me Love is blind
Because your faults he will not find,
Because the image that he sees
Is one of splendid mysteries?
.....
John Le Gay Brereton
And can you tell me Love is blind
Because your faults he will not find,
Because the image that he sees
Is one of splendid mysteries?
.....
John Le Gay Brereton
Only Words... My Son
Yield to love; both a proper self-love
and a sincere love for others.
One that will do no harm to you or your neighbor,
both here and for eternity.
.....
David Carolissen
Yield to love; both a proper self-love
and a sincere love for others.
One that will do no harm to you or your neighbor,
both here and for eternity.
.....
David Carolissen
Bus East
Society has good intentions Bureaucracy is like a friend
5 years ago - other furies other losses -
America's
.....
Jack Kerouac
Society has good intentions Bureaucracy is like a friend
5 years ago - other furies other losses -
America's
.....
Jack Kerouac
Essential Oils'are Wrung
675
Essential Oils-are wrung-
The Attar from the Rose
.....
Emily Dickinson
675
Essential Oils-are wrung-
The Attar from the Rose
.....
Emily Dickinson
An Open Fire
These logs with drama and with dream are rife,
For all their golden Summers and green Springs
Through leaf and root they sucked the forest's life,
Drank in its secret, deep, essential things,
.....
Don Marquis
These logs with drama and with dream are rife,
For all their golden Summers and green Springs
Through leaf and root they sucked the forest's life,
Drank in its secret, deep, essential things,
.....
Don Marquis
The Fish
In a cool curving world he lies
And ripples with dark ecstasies.
The kind luxurious lapse and steal
Shapes all his universe to feel
.....
Rupert Brooke
In a cool curving world he lies
And ripples with dark ecstasies.
The kind luxurious lapse and steal
Shapes all his universe to feel
.....
Rupert Brooke
Quatrains Of Life
What has my youth been that I love it thus,
Sad youth, to all but one grown tedious,
Stale as the news which last week wearied us,
Or a tired actor's tale told to an empty house?
.....
Wilfrid Scawen Blunt
What has my youth been that I love it thus,
Sad youth, to all but one grown tedious,
Stale as the news which last week wearied us,
Or a tired actor's tale told to an empty house?
.....
Wilfrid Scawen Blunt
Don Juan: Canto The Fourteenth
If from great nature's or our own abyss
Of thought we could but snatch a certainty,
Perhaps mankind might find the path they miss--
But then 'twould spoil much good philosophy.
.....
George Gordon Byron
If from great nature's or our own abyss
Of thought we could but snatch a certainty,
Perhaps mankind might find the path they miss--
But then 'twould spoil much good philosophy.
.....
George Gordon Byron
Fish, The
In a cool curving world he lies
And ripples with dark ecstasies.
The kind luxurious lapse and steal
Shapes all his universe to feel
.....
Rupert Brooke
In a cool curving world he lies
And ripples with dark ecstasies.
The kind luxurious lapse and steal
Shapes all his universe to feel
.....
Rupert Brooke
The Poem Cat
Sometimes the poem
doesn't want to come;
it hides from the poet
like a playful cat
.....
Erica Jong
Sometimes the poem
doesn't want to come;
it hides from the poet
like a playful cat
.....
Erica Jong
The Answer
Then what is the answer?- Not to be deluded by dreams.
To know that great civilizations have broken down into violence,
and their tyrants come, many times before.
When open violence appears, to avoid it with honor or choose
.....
Robinson Jeffers
Then what is the answer?- Not to be deluded by dreams.
To know that great civilizations have broken down into violence,
and their tyrants come, many times before.
When open violence appears, to avoid it with honor or choose
.....
Robinson Jeffers
Hans Huckebein (the Unlucky Raven) Prologue
Sosehr sein Ende mich bewegt,
Ich durft' es anders nicht vermelden. -
Er stirbt - denn tragisch angelegt
War der Charakter dieses Helden.
.....
Wilhelm Busch
Sosehr sein Ende mich bewegt,
Ich durft' es anders nicht vermelden. -
Er stirbt - denn tragisch angelegt
War der Charakter dieses Helden.
.....
Wilhelm Busch
Nero
This Rome, that was the toil of many men,
The consummation of laborious years-
Fulfilment's crown to visions of the dead
And image of the wide desire of kings-
.....
Clark Ashton Smith
This Rome, that was the toil of many men,
The consummation of laborious years-
Fulfilment's crown to visions of the dead
And image of the wide desire of kings-
.....
Clark Ashton Smith
A True Story.
(Read Before A Meeting Of The Danville Scribbler Club.)
Dear friends, to-night the inspiration of my theme
.....
George W. Doneghy
(Read Before A Meeting Of The Danville Scribbler Club.)
Dear friends, to-night the inspiration of my theme
.....
George W. Doneghy
The Diary Of An Old Soul: 03 ' March.
1.
The song birds that come to me night and morn,
Fly oft away and vanish if I sleep,
.....
George Macdonald
1.
The song birds that come to me night and morn,
Fly oft away and vanish if I sleep,
.....
George Macdonald
I Used To Think
I used to think
The mind essential in the body, even
As stood the body essential in the mind:
Two inseparable things, by nature equal
.....
Trumbull Stickney
I used to think
The mind essential in the body, even
As stood the body essential in the mind:
Two inseparable things, by nature equal
.....
Trumbull Stickney
Essential Oils-are Wrung
675
Essential Oilsâ??are wrungâ??
The Attar from the Rose
.....
Emily Dickinson
675
Essential Oilsâ??are wrungâ??
The Attar from the Rose
.....
Emily Dickinson
The Cloth Of The Tempest
These of living emanate a formidable light,
Which is equal to death, and when used
Gives increase eternally.
What fortifies in separate thought
.....
Kenneth Patchen
These of living emanate a formidable light,
Which is equal to death, and when used
Gives increase eternally.
What fortifies in separate thought
.....
Kenneth Patchen
Eureka - A Prose Poem (an Essay On The Material And Spiritual Universe)
It is with humility really unassumed, it is with a sentiment even of awe, that I pen the opening sentence of this work: for of all conceivable subjects I approach the reader with the most solemn, the most comprehensive, the most difficult, the most august.
What terms shall I find sufficiently simple in their sublimity -- sufficiently sublime in their simplicity, for the mere enunciation of my theme?
.....
Edgar Allan Poe
It is with humility really unassumed, it is with a sentiment even of awe, that I pen the opening sentence of this work: for of all conceivable subjects I approach the reader with the most solemn, the most comprehensive, the most difficult, the most august.
What terms shall I find sufficiently simple in their sublimity -- sufficiently sublime in their simplicity, for the mere enunciation of my theme?
.....
Edgar Allan Poe
The Pleasures Of Imagination - The Second Book
When shall the laurel and the vocal string
Resume their honours? When shall we behold
The tuneful tongue, the Promethéan hand
Aspire to ancient praise? Alas! how faint,
.....
Mark Akenside
When shall the laurel and the vocal string
Resume their honours? When shall we behold
The tuneful tongue, the Promethéan hand
Aspire to ancient praise? Alas! how faint,
.....
Mark Akenside
Air Has No Residence, No Neighbor
1060
Air has no Residence, no Neighbor,
No Ear, no Door,
.....
Emily Dickinson
1060
Air has no Residence, no Neighbor,
No Ear, no Door,
.....
Emily Dickinson
Toilet Seats
While I am emulating Keats
My brother fabrics toilet seats,
The which, they say, are works of art,
Aesthetic features of the mart;
.....
Robert Service
While I am emulating Keats
My brother fabrics toilet seats,
The which, they say, are works of art,
Aesthetic features of the mart;
.....
Robert Service
Should The Wide World Roll Away
Should the wide world roll away
Leaving black terror
Limitless night,
Nor God, nor man, nor place to stand
.....
Stephen Crane
Should the wide world roll away
Leaving black terror
Limitless night,
Nor God, nor man, nor place to stand
.....
Stephen Crane
Paradise Lost: Book 02
High on a throne of royal state, which far
Outshone the wealth or Ormus and of Ind,
Or where the gorgeous East with richest hand
Showers on her kings barbaric pearl and gold,
.....
John Milton
High on a throne of royal state, which far
Outshone the wealth or Ormus and of Ind,
Or where the gorgeous East with richest hand
Showers on her kings barbaric pearl and gold,
.....
John Milton
Paradise Lost: Book 05
Now Morn, her rosy steps in the eastern clime
Advancing, sowed the earth with orient pearl,
When Adam waked, so customed; for his sleep
Was aery-light, from pure digestion bred,
.....
John Milton
Now Morn, her rosy steps in the eastern clime
Advancing, sowed the earth with orient pearl,
When Adam waked, so customed; for his sleep
Was aery-light, from pure digestion bred,
.....
John Milton
Doubts
When she sleeps, her soul, I know,
Goes a wanderer on the air,
Wings where I may never go,
Leaves her lying, still and fair,
.....
Rupert Brooke
When she sleeps, her soul, I know,
Goes a wanderer on the air,
Wings where I may never go,
Leaves her lying, still and fair,
.....
Rupert Brooke
Concerning Jesus
I.
If thou hadst been a sculptor, what a race
Of forms divine had thenceforth filled the land!
.....
George Macdonald
I.
If thou hadst been a sculptor, what a race
Of forms divine had thenceforth filled the land!
.....
George Macdonald
The Diary Of An Old Soul: 12 ' December.
1.
I am a little weary of my life-
Not thy life, blessed Father! Or the blood
.....
George Macdonald
1.
I am a little weary of my life-
Not thy life, blessed Father! Or the blood
.....
George Macdonald
Within And Without: A Dramatic Poem: Part Iv
And should the twilight darken into night,
And sorrow grow to anguish, be thou strong;
Thou art in God, and nothing can go wrong
Which a fresh life-pulse cannot set aright.
.....
George Macdonald
And should the twilight darken into night,
And sorrow grow to anguish, be thou strong;
Thou art in God, and nothing can go wrong
Which a fresh life-pulse cannot set aright.
.....
George Macdonald
Within And Without: A Dramatic Poem: Part V
AND do not fear to hope. Can poet's brain
More than the Father's heart rich good invent?
Each time we smell the autumn's dying scent,
We know the primrose time will come again;
.....
George Macdonald
AND do not fear to hope. Can poet's brain
More than the Father's heart rich good invent?
Each time we smell the autumn's dying scent,
We know the primrose time will come again;
.....
George Macdonald
I Can't Feel The Sunshine
I can't feel the sunshine
Or see the stars aright
For thinking of her beauty
And her kisses bright.
.....
Lesbia Harford
I can't feel the sunshine
Or see the stars aright
For thinking of her beauty
And her kisses bright.
.....
Lesbia Harford
Toilet Seats
While I am emulating Keats
My brother fabrics toilet seats,
The which, they say, are works of art,
Aesthetic features of the mart;
.....
Robert William Service
While I am emulating Keats
My brother fabrics toilet seats,
The which, they say, are works of art,
Aesthetic features of the mart;
.....
Robert William Service
The Comedian As The Letter C: 03 - Approaching Carolina
The book of moonlight is not written yet
Nor half begun, but, when it is, leave room
For Crispin, fagot in the lunar fire,
Who, in the hubbub of his pilgrimage
.....
Wallace Stevens
The book of moonlight is not written yet
Nor half begun, but, when it is, leave room
For Crispin, fagot in the lunar fire,
Who, in the hubbub of his pilgrimage
.....
Wallace Stevens
Ii From Life-s Testament
The brain, the blood, the busy thews
That quickened in the primal ooze
Support me yet; till ice shall grip
The heart of Earth, no strength theyâ??ll lose.
.....
William Baylebridge
The brain, the blood, the busy thews
That quickened in the primal ooze
Support me yet; till ice shall grip
The heart of Earth, no strength theyâ??ll lose.
.....
William Baylebridge
The Quids
The little quids, the million quids,
The everywhere, everything, always quids,
The atoms of the Monoton-
Each turned three essences where it stood
.....
Laura (riding) Jackson
The little quids, the million quids,
The everywhere, everything, always quids,
The atoms of the Monoton-
Each turned three essences where it stood
.....
Laura (riding) Jackson
To A. C.
Not to the staring Day,
For all the importunate questionings he pursues
In his big, violent voice,
Shall those mild things of bulk and multitude,
.....
William Ernest Henley
Not to the staring Day,
For all the importunate questionings he pursues
In his big, violent voice,
Shall those mild things of bulk and multitude,
.....
William Ernest Henley
In The Highlands
In the highlands, in the country places,
Where the old plain men have rosy faces,
And the young fair maidens
Quiet eyes;
.....
Robert Louis Stevenson
In the highlands, in the country places,
Where the old plain men have rosy faces,
And the young fair maidens
Quiet eyes;
.....
Robert Louis Stevenson
Gray Weather
It is true that, older than man and ages to outlast him, the Pacific surf
Still cheerfully pounds the worn granite drum;
But there's no storm; and the birds are still, no song; no kind of excess;
Nothing that shines, nothing is dark;
.....
Robinson Jeffers
It is true that, older than man and ages to outlast him, the Pacific surf
Still cheerfully pounds the worn granite drum;
But there's no storm; and the birds are still, no song; no kind of excess;
Nothing that shines, nothing is dark;
.....
Robinson Jeffers
To The Daemon Of Sublimity
I wane and weary: come, thou swifter One,
With vans of ether-sundering instancy,
Zoned with essential night and sovereignty
Of flame septuple, strong to blind or stun
.....
Clark Ashton Smith
I wane and weary: come, thou swifter One,
With vans of ether-sundering instancy,
Zoned with essential night and sovereignty
Of flame septuple, strong to blind or stun
.....
Clark Ashton Smith
To The Apennines
Your peaks are beautiful, ye Apennines!
In the soft light of these serenest skies;
From the broad highland region, black with pines,
Fair as the hills of Paradise they rise,
.....
William Cullen Bryant
Your peaks are beautiful, ye Apennines!
In the soft light of these serenest skies;
From the broad highland region, black with pines,
Fair as the hills of Paradise they rise,
.....
William Cullen Bryant
Contrition
Out of the gulf into the glory,
Father, my soul cries out to be lifted.
Dark is the woof of my dismal story,
Thorough thy sun-warp stormily drifted!-
.....
George Macdonald
Out of the gulf into the glory,
Father, my soul cries out to be lifted.
Dark is the woof of my dismal story,
Thorough thy sun-warp stormily drifted!-
.....
George Macdonald