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classic: results 1–24 of 79

To the Same  by JOHN MILTON

Cyriack, this three years' day these eyes, though clear,

   To outward view, of blemish or of spot,

   Bereft of light, their seeing have forgot;

   Nor to their idle orbs doth sight appear

Of sun, or moon, or star, throughout the year,

   Or man, or woman.

On the Same  by JOHN MILTON

I did but prompt the age to quit their clogs

   By the known rules of ancient liberty,

   When straight a barbarous noise environs me

   Of owls and cuckoos, asses, apes, and dogs …

Methought I saw my late espoused saint  by JOHN MILTON

Mine, as whom washed from spot of childbed taint

  Purification in the Old Law did save,

  And such as yet once more I trust to have

Full sight of her in Heaven without restraint,


Came vested all in white, pure as her mind.

When I consider how my light is spent,  by JOHN MILTON

When I consider how my light is spent,

  Ere half my days in this dark world and wide,

  And that one talent which is death to hide

Lodged with me useless, though my soul more bent


To serve therewith my Maker, and present

  My true account, lest He returning chide;

The Badger  by JOHN CLARE

They get a forked stick to bear him down

And clap the dogs and take him to the town,

And bait him all the day with many dogs,

And laugh and shout and fright the scampering hogs.

He runs along and bites at all he meets:

They shout and hollo down the noisy streets.

The Scholar Gypsy  by MATTHEW ARNOLD

24 April 2008
Vol. 8, No. 1
rhyme

Go, for they call you, Shepherd, from the hill;

  Go, Shepherd, and untie the wattled cotes:

    No longer leave thy wistful flock unfed,

  Nor let thy bawling fellows rack their throats,

    Nor the cropp'd grasses shoot another head.

      But when the fields are still,

  And the tired men and dogs all gone to rest,

    And only the white sheep are sometimes seen

    Cross and recross the strips of moon-blanch'd green;

  Come Shepherd, and again begin the quest.

Dover Beach  by MATTHEW ARNOLD

23 April 2008
Vol. 8, No. 1
rhyme

And we are here as on a darkling plain

Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,

Where ignorant armies clash by night.

Love Song  by RAINER MARIA RILKE

15 February 2008
Vol. 7, No. 4
translation

Yet everything that touches us, me and you,

takes us together like a violin's bow,

which draws one voice out of two separate strings.

Camomile Tea  by KATHERINE MANSFIELD

14 February 2008
Vol. 7, No. 4
rhyme

We might be fifty, we might be five,

So snug, so compact, so wise are we!

Under the kitchen-table leg

My knee is pressing against his knee.

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.  by ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

13 February 2008
Vol. 7, No. 4
sonnet, rhyme

I love thee to the level of everyday's

Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight.

To Winter  by WILLIAM BLAKE

1 February 2008
Vol. 7, No. 4

'O Winter! bar thine adamantine doors:

The north is thine; there hast thou built thy dark

Deep-founded habitation. Shake not thy roofs,

Nor bend thy pillars with thine iron car.'

Frost at Midnight  by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE

21 January 2008
Vol. 7, No. 4

The Frost performs its secret ministry,

Unhelped by any wind. The owlet's cry

Came loud—and hark, again! loud as before.

The inmates of my cottage, all at rest,

Have left me to that solitude, which suits

Abstruser musings: save that at my side

My cradled infant slumbers peacefully.

There's a certain slant of light,  by EMILY DICKINSON

20 January 2008
Vol. 7, No. 4

There's a certain slant of light,

On winter afternoons,

That oppresses, like the weight

Of cathedral tunes.


Heavenly hurt it gives us;

The Old Year  by JOHN CLARE

1 January 2008
Vol. 7, No. 4
rhyme

Old papers thrown away,

      Old garments cast aside,

The talk of yesterday,

      Are things identified;

But time once torn away

      No voices can recall:

The eve of New Year's Day

      Left the Old Year lost to all.

A Song for New Year's Eve  by WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT

31 December 2007
Vol. 7, No. 4
rhyme

Stay yet, my friends, a moment stay—

      Stay till the good old year,

So long companion of our way,

      Shakes hands, and leaves us here.

            Oh stay, oh stay,

One little hour, and then away.

One Year ago—jots what?  by EMILY DICKINSON

13 December 2007
Vol. 7, No. 4

Such Anniversary shall be—

Sometimes—not often—in Eternity—

When farther Parted, than the Common Woe—

Look—feed upon each other's faces—so—

In doubtful meal, if it be possible

Their Banquet's true—

Employment (II)  by GEORGE HERBERT

1 December 2007
Vol. 7, No. 3
rhyme

Man is no star, but a quick coal

                  Of mortal fire;

Who blows it not, nor doth control

                  A faint desire,

Lets his own ashes choke his soul.

The Pulley  by GEORGE HERBERT

30 November 2007
Vol. 7, No. 3
rhyme

      When God at first made Man,

      Having a glass of blessings standing by—

Let us (said He) pour on him all we can;

Let the world's riches, which dispersād lie,

      Contract into a span.

The World  by GEORGE HERBERT

11 November 2007
Vol. 7, No. 3
rhyme

Love built a stately house, where Fortune came,

And spinning fancies, she was heard to say

That her fine cobwebs did support the frame,

Whereas they were supported by the same;

But Wisdom quickly swept them all away.

Under the Oak  by D. H. LAWRENCE

1 November 2007
Vol. 7, No. 3
rhyme

You, if you were sensible,

When I tell you the stars flash signals, each one dreadful,

You would not turn and answer me

"The night is wonderful."

The Nine Little Goblins  by JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY

They all climbed up on a high board fence—

Nine little Goblins, with green-glass eyes—

Nine little Goblins that had no sense,

And couldn't tell coppers from cold mince pies;

And they all climbed up on the fence, and sat—

And I asked them what they were staring at.

Love (III)  by GEORGE HERBERT

20 October 2007
Vol. 7, No. 3
rhyme

Love bade me welcome: yet my soul drew back…

Life  by GEORGE HERBERT

19 October 2007
Vol. 7, No. 3
rhyme

I made a posie, while the day ran by:

Here will I smell my remnant out, and tie

            My life within this band.

But time did becken to the flowers, and they

By noon most cunningly did steal away,

            And wither'd in my hand.

Pauline: A Fragment of a Confession  by ROBERT BROWNING

27 September 2007
Vol. 7, No. 3

Pauline, mine own, bend o'er me—thy soft breast

Shall pant to mine—bend o'er me—thy sweet eyes,

And loosened hair, and breathing lips, arms

Drawing me to thee—these build up a screen

To shut me in with thee, and from all fear,

So that I might unlock the sleepless brood

Of fancies from my soul…

 

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