Category: Poetry
-
More Japanese Poetry
Again, from Carter’s Traditional Japanese Poetry Sugawara no Michizane Idle Thoughts on a Winter Night Beneath eaves of white thatch, before the hearth–the servant boy who was at my side leans against the wall, asleep.My calendar says only a month of winter remains–which means I have been magistrate here now for three years.By nature I…
-
Thanatopsis
Thanatopsis William Cullen Bryant To him who in the love of Nature holds Communion with her visible forms, she speaks A various language; for his gayer hours She has a voice of gladness, and a smile And eloquence of beauty, and she glides Into his darker musings, with a mild And healing sympathy, that steals away Their sharpness, ere he is aware.…
-
Hellas
HellasPercy Bysshe Shelley The world’s great age begins anew, The golden years return, The earth doth like a snake renew Her winter weeds outworn: Heaven smiles, and faiths and empires gleam Like wrecks of a dissolving dream. A brighter Hellas rears its mountains From waves serener far; A new Peneus rolls his fountains Against the…
-
Japanese Poetry
As a change of pace, some selections from Traditional Japanese Poetry trans. Steven D. Carter A poem written by Kakinomoto no Hitomaro when Prince Karu took lodging in the fields of Aki Off to the eastward,the first shimmer of daylightrises on the fields–and when I turn round to see,the moon is sinking away Another by the same…
-
The Country Faith
The Country FaithNorman Gale Here in the country’s heart Where the grass is green, Life is the same sweet life As it e’er hath been. Trust in a God still lives, And the bell at morn Floats with a thought of God O’er the rising corn. God comes down in the rain, And the crop…
-
Sheep and Lambs
Sheep and LambsKatharine Hinkson All in the April morning, April airs were abroad; The sheep with their little lambs Pass’d me by on the road. The sheep with their little lambs Pass’d me by on the road; All in an April evening I thought on the Lamb of God. The lambs were weary, and crying…
-
Is It Nothing to You?
Is It Nothing to You?May Probyn WE were playing on the green together, My sweetheart and I— Oh! so heedless in the gay June weather, When the word went forth that we must die. Oh! so merrily the balls of amber And of ivory tossed we to the sky, While the word went forth in…
-
The Burning Babe
The Burning BabeRobert Southwell As I in hoary winter’s night stood shivering in the snow, Surpris’d I was with sudden heat which made my heart to glow; And lifting up a fearful eye to view what fire was near, A pretty Babe all burning bright did in the air appear; Who, scorched with excessive heat,…
-
Epitaph on an Army of Mercenaries
Epitaph on an Army of MercenariesA.E. Housman These, in the day when heaven was falling,The hour when earth’s foundations fled,Followed their mercenary calling,And took their wages, and are dead. Their shoulders held the sky suspended;They stood, and earth’s foundations stay;What God abandoned, these defended,And saved the sum of things for pay.
-
On the Death of a particular Friend
On the Death of a particular FriendJames Thomson AS those we love decay, we die in part, String after string is sever’d from the heart; Till loosen’d life, at last but breathing clay, Without one pang is glad to fall away. Unhappy he who latest feels the blow! Whose eyes have wept o’er every friend…
Dan Yingst 