RETIREMENT POEMS

The Deserted Village

Sweet Auburn! loveliest village of the plain,
Where health and plenty cheered the labouring swain,
Where smiling spring its earliest visits paid,
And parting summer's lingering blooms delayed:
.....

Oliver Goldsmith

Retirement

Spirit of solitude, silence, and rest,
Take me once more, like a child, to your breast!
Weary of worldliness, turmoil, and hate,
Welcome me back, if it be not too late,
.....

John L. Stoddard

Retirement

O, let me be alone a while,
No human form is nigh.
And may I sing and muse aloud,
No mortal ear is by.
.....

Anne Brontë

To My Father (upon His Retirement)

In all the land our race was once excelling.
In richer regions it e'en now possesses
Broad seats and fruitful; but by fate's hard stresses

.....

Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson

Retirement

My gentle friend! I hold no creed so false
As that which dares to teach that we are born
For battle only, and that in this life
The soul, if it would burn with starlike power,
.....

Henry Timrod

On Retirement

A hermit's house beside a stream
With forests planted round,
Whatever it to you may seem
More real happiness I deem
.....

Philip Freneau

On The Way

(Philadelphia, 1794)

Note.- The following imaginary dialogue between
Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr, which is not based upon
.....

Edwin Arlington Robinson

Habakkuk

Now leave the Porch, to vision now retreat,
Where the next rapture glows with varying heat;
Now change the time, and change the Temple scene,
The following Seer forewarns a future reign.
.....

Thomas Parnell

Lines. Addressed To The Rev. J. T. Becher, [1] On His Advising The Author To Mix More With Society.

1.

Dear BECHER, you tell me to mix with mankind;
I cannot deny such a precept is wise;
.....

George Gordon Byron

To Sarah, While Singing.

Written at the Cottage of T. LEWIS, Esq. Woodbury Downs.


In the retirement of this lovely spot,
.....

Thomas Gent

Hannah

Now Crowds more off, retiring trumpetts sound
On Eccho's dying in their last rebound,
The notes of fancy seem no longer strong,
But sweetning closes fitt a private song.
.....

Thomas Parnell

In Memory Of That Excellent Person Mrs. Mary Lloyd Of Bodidrist In Denbigh-shire,

I CANNOT hold, for though to write were rude,
Yet to be silent were Ingratitude,
And Folly too; for if Posterity
Should never hear of such a one as thee,
.....

Katherine Philips

Introductory 03

I was one night meditating on the time which had elapsed, repenting of the life I had squandered and perforating the stony mansion of my heart with adamantine tears. 1 I uttered the following verses in conformity with the state of mind:

Every moment a breath of life is spent,
If I consider, not much of it remains.
.....

Saadi Shirazi

The Task: Book Iv, The Winter Evening (excerpts)

Hark! 'tis the twanging horn! O'er yonder bridge,
That with its wearisome but needful length
Bestrides the wintry flood, in which the moon
Sees her unwrinkled face reflected bright,
.....

William Cowper

Roscoe - Prose

In the service of mankind to be
A guardian god below; still to employ
The mind's brave ardor in heroic aims,
Such as may raise us o'er the grovelling herd,
.....

Washington Irving

An Irregular Ode, After Sickness

-Melius, bunny venerit ipsa, canemus.
-Virg.
Imitation.

.....

William Shenstone

The Dog

THE key, which opes the chest of hoarded gold.
Unlocks the heart that favours would withhold.
To this the god of love has oft recourse,
When arrows fail to reach the secret source,
.....

Jean De La Fontaine

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 Adieu To Love

LOVE, I renounce thy tyrant sway,
I mock thy fascinating art,
MINE, be the calm unruffled day,
That brings no torment to the heart;
.....

Mary Darby Robinson

Hymn To Science

Science! thou fair effusive ray
From the great source of mental day,
Free, generous, and refin'd!
Descend with all thy treasures fraught,
.....

Mark Akenside

Reflections On Having Left A Place Of Retirement

Sermoni propriora.-Hor.

Low was our pretty Cot; our tallest Rose
Peep'd at the chamber-window. We could hear
.....

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Ch 02 The Morals Of Dervishes Story 20

Despite the abundant admonitions of the most illustrious Sheikh Abulfaraj Ben Juzi to shun musical entertainments and to prefer solitude and retirement, the budding of my youth overcame me, my sensual desires were excited so that, unable to resist them, I walked some steps contrary to the opinion of my tutor, enjoying myself in musical amusements and convivial meetings. When the advice of my sheikh occurred to my mind, I said:

â??If the qazi were sitting with us, he would clap his hands.
If the muhtasib were bibbing wine, he would excuse a drunkard.â??
.....

Saadi Shirazi

Ode To Beauty

EXULTING BEAUTY,­phantom of an hour,
Whose magic spells enchain the heart,
Ah! what avails thy fascinating pow'r,
Thy thrilling smile, thy witching art?
.....

Mary Darby Robinson

To Mrs. Ward. By The Same.

O thou, my beauteous, ever tender Friend,
Thou, on whom all my worldly Joys depend,
Accept these Numbers; and with Pleasure hear
Unstudy'd Truth, which few, alas! can bear;
.....

Mary Barber

The Devil In Hell

HE surely must be wrong who loving fears;
And does not flee when beauty first appears.
Ye FAIR, with charms divine, I know your fame;
No more I'll burn my fingers in the flame.
.....

Jean De La Fontaine

Written From Dublin, To A Lady In The Country.

A wretch, in smoaky Dublin pent,
Who rarely sees the Firmament,
You graciously invite, to view
The Sun's enliv'ning Rays with you;
.....

Mary Barber

The Task: Book Iv. -- The Winter Evening

Hark! â??tis the twanging horn oâ??er yonder bridge,
That with its wearisome but needful length
Bestrides the wintry flood, in which the moon
Sees her unwrinkled face reflected bright;â??
.....

William Cowper

The Four Seasons : Summer

From brightening fields of ether fair disclosed,
Child of the Sun, refulgent Summer comes,
In pride of youth, and felt through Nature's depth:
He comes attended by the sultry Hours,
.....

James Thomson

The Temple Of Fame

In that soft season, when descending show'rs
Call forth the greens, and wake the rising flow'rs;
When op'ning buds salute the welcome day,
And earth relenting feels the genial day,
.....

Alexander Pope

The Duellist. Book Ii.

Deep in the bosom of a wood,
Out of the road, a Temple[4] stood:
Ancient, and much the worse for wear,
It call'd aloud for quick repair,
.....

Charles Churchill

The Prelude - Book Twelfth

IMAGINATION AND TASTE, HOW IMPAIRED AND RESTORED

Long time have human ignorance and guilt
Detained us, on what spectacles of woe
.....

William Wordsworth

Rural Life In England - Prose

Oh! friendly to the best pursuits of man,
Friendly to thought, to virtue and to peace,
Domestic life in rural pleasures past!
- COWPER.
.....

Washington Irving

The Prelude - Book Ninth

RESIDENCE IN FRANCE

Even as a river, partly (it might seem)
Yielding to old remembrances, and swayed
.....

William Wordsworth

Paradise Regained - The Fourth Book

Perplex'd and troubl'd at his bad success
The Tempter stood, nor had what to reply,
Discover'd in his fraud, thrown from his hope,
So oft, and the perswasive Rhetoric
.....

John Milton

Paradise Regained: The Fourth Book

Perplexed and troubled at his bad success
The Tempter stood, nor had what to reply,
Discovered in his fraud, thrown from his hope
So oft, and the persuasive rhetoric
.....

John Milton

Sarah Walker

It was very hot. Not a breath of air was stirring throughout the western wing of the Greyport Hotel, and the usual feverish life of its four hundred inmates had succumbed to the weather. The great veranda was deserted; the corridors were desolated; no footfall echoed in the passages; the lazy rustle of a wandering skirt, or a passing sigh that was half a pant, seemed to intensify the heated silence. An intoxicated bee, disgracefully unsteady in wing and leg, who had been holding an inebriated conversation with himself in the corner of my window pane, had gone to sleep at last and was snoring. The errant prince might have entered the slumberous halls unchallenged, and walked into any of the darkened rooms whose open doors gaped for more air, without awakening the veriest Greyport flirt with his salutation. At times a drowsy voice, a lazily interjected sentence, an incoherent protest, a long-drawn phrase of saccharine tenuity suddenly broke off with a gasp, came vaguely to the ear, as if indicating a half-suspended, half-articulated existence somewhere, but not definite enough to indicate conversation. In the midst of this, there was the sudden crying of a child.

I looked up from my work. Through the camera of my jealously guarded window I could catch a glimpse of the vivid, quivering blue of the sky, the glittering intensity of the ocean, the long motionless leaves of the horse-chestnut in the road, all utterly inconsistent with anything as active as this lamentation. I stepped to the open door and into the silent hall.

.....

Bret Harte (francis)

The Recluse - Book First

HOME AT GRASMERE

Once to the verge of yon steep barrier came
A roving school-boy; what the adventurer's age
.....

William Wordsworth

Metamorphoses: Book 06

Pallas, attending to the Muse's song,
Approv'd the just resentment of their wrong;
And thus reflects: While tamely I commend
Those who their injur'd deities defend,
.....

Ovid

To Sarah, While Singing

Written at the Cottage of T. LEWIS, Esq. Woodbury Downs.


In the retirement of this lovely spot,
.....

Thomas Gent

Retirement

O, let me be alone a while,
No human form is nigh.
And may I sing and muse aloud,
No mortal ear is by.
.....

Anne Brontë

On Myselfe

Good Heav'n, I thank thee, since it was design'd
I shou'd be fram'd, but of the weaker kinde,
That yet, my Soul, is rescu'd from the Love
Of all those Trifles, which their Passions move.
.....

Anne Kingsmill Finch

Homecoming

What was is ... since 1930;
the boys in my old gang
are senior partners. They start up
bald like baby birds
.....

Robert Lowell

To James Norton Esq.

Think you I have not skill to gather gold,
If I could love it as some others do?
Or that I lack the spirit of a bold
And resolute man in any cause thatâ??s true,
.....

Charles Harpur

Retirement

If the whole weight of what we think and feel,
Save only far as thought and feeling blend
With action, were as nothing, patriot Friend!
From thy remonstrance would be no appeal;
.....

William Wordsworth

Esteem Of Literature

Literature plays an important role in the life,
Without it human can't work rife.

Literature is a kind of enjoyment ,
.....

Sahaj Sabharwal

Sonnet Lxxxi.

HE may be envied, who with tranquil breast
Can wander in the wild and woodland scene,
When summer's glowing hands have newly dress'd
The shadowy forests, and the copses green;
.....

Charlotte Smith

On The Projected Kendal And Windermere Railway

Is then no nook of English ground secure
From rash assault? Schemes of retirement sown
In youth, and 'mid the busy world kept pure
As when their earliest flowers of hope were blown,
.....

William Wordsworth

Retirement

Far from the world, O Lord, I flee,
From strife and tumult far;
From scenes where Satan wages still
His most successful war.
.....

William Cowper

The Retirement Of Mars

He pauses on his way, and gazing back
across the desert ways of splintered steel
recalls the noon, and sees his weary track,
and sees the bloody imprint of his heel.
.....

Leon Gellert

Olney Hymn 46: Retirement

Far from the world, O Lord, I flee,
From strife and tumult far;
From scenes where Satan wages still
His most successful war.
.....

William Cowper