Delphi Poetry Anthology: The World's Greatest Poems (Delphi Poets Series Book 50) (132 page)
Read Delphi Poetry Anthology: The World's Greatest Poems (Delphi Poets Series Book 50) Online
Authors: Homer,William Shakespeare
William Collins (1720–1759)
IF aught of oaten stop or pastoral song
May hope, chaste Eve, to soothe thy modest ear
Like thy own solemn springs,
Thy springs and dying gales;
O Nymph reserved, — while now the bright-hair’d sun
5
Sits in yon western tent, whose cloudy skirts,
With brede ethereal wove,
O’erhang his wavy bed,
Now air is hush’d, save where the weak-eyed bat
With short shrill shriek flits by on leathern wing,
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Or where the beetle winds
His small but sullen horn,
As oft he rises midst the twilight path,
Against the pilgrim borne in heedless hum, —
Now teach me, maid composed,
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To breathe some soften’d strain.
Whose numbers, stealing through thy darkening vale,
May not unseemly with its stillness suit;
As, musing slow, I hail
Thy genial loved return.
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For when thy folding-star arising shows
His paly circlet, at his warning-lamp
The fragrant Hours, and Elves
Who slept in buds the day,
And many a Nymph who wreathes her brows with sedge
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And sheds the freshening dew, and, lovelier still,
The pensive Pleasures sweet,
Prepare thy shadowy car.
Then let me rove some wild and heathy scene;
Or find some ruin midst its dreary dells,
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Whose walls more awful nod
By thy religious gleams.
Or, if chill blustering winds or driving rain
Prevent my willing feet, be mine the hut
That, from the mountain’s side,
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Views wilds and swelling floods,
And hamlets brown, and dim-discover’d spires;
And hears their simple bell; and marks o’er all
Thy dewy fingers draw
The gradual dusky veil.
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While Spring shall pour his showers, as oft he wont,
And bathe thy breathing tresses, meekest Eve!
While Summer loves to sport
Beneath thy lingering light;
While sallow Autumn fills thy lap with leaves;
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Or Winter, yelling through the troublous air,
Affrights thy shrinking train
And rudely rends thy robes;
So long, regardful of thy quiet rule,
Shall Fancy, Friendship, Science, smiling Peace,
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Thy gentlest influence own,
And love thy favourite name!
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
George Sewell (d. 1726)
WHY, Damon, with the forward day
Dost thou thy little spot survey,
From tree to tree, with doubtful cheer,
Pursue the progress of the year,
What winds arise, what rains descend,
5
When thou before that year shalt end?
What do thy noontide walks avail,
To clear the leaf, and pick the snail,
Then wantonly to death decree
An insect usefuller than thee?
10
Thou and the worm are brother-kind,
As low, as earthy, and as blind.
Vain wretch! canst thou expect to see
The downy peach make court to thee?
Or that thy sense shall ever meet
15
The bean-flower’s deep-embosom’d sweet
Exhaling with an evening blast?
Thy evenings then will all be past!
Thy narrow pride, thy fancied green
(For vanity’s in little seen)
20
All must be left when Death appears,
In spite of wishes, groans, and tears;
Nor one of all thy plants that grow
But Rosemary will with thee go.
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Alison Rutherford Cockburn (1712–1794)
I’VE seen the smiling
Of Fortune beguiling;
I’ve felt all its favours, and found its decay;
Sweet was its blessing,
Kind its caressing;
5
But now it is fled — fled far away.
I’ve seen the forest
Adorned the foremost,
With flowers of the fairest, most pleasant and gay;
Sae bonnie was their blooming!
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Their scent the air perfuming!
But now they are withered and a’ wede away.
I’ve seen the morning
With gold the hills adorning,
And loud tempest storming before the mid-day.
15
I’ve seen Tweed’s silver streams,
Shinning in the sunny beams
Grow drumly and dark as he rowed on his way.
Oh, fickle Fortune!
Why this cruel sporting?
20
Oh, why still perplex us, poor sons of a day?
Nae mair your smiles can cheer me,
Nae mair your frowns can fear me;
For the flowers of the forest are a’ wede away.
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Jane Elliot (1727–1805)
I’VE heard them lilting at our ewe-milking,
Lasses a’ lilting before dawn o’ day;
But now they are moaning on ilka green loaning —
For the Flowers of the Forest are a’ wede away.
At bughts, in the morning, nae blythe lads are scorning,
5
Lasses are lonely and dowie and wae;
Nae daffin’, nae gabbin’, but sighing and sabbing,
Ilk ane lifts her leglin and hies her away.
In har’st, at the shearing, nae youths now are jeering,
Bandsters are lyart, and runkled, and gray;
10
At fair or at preaching, nae wooing, nae fleeching —
The Flowers of the Forest are a’ wede away.
At e’en, in the gloaming, nae younkers are roaming
‘Bout stacks wi’ the lasses at bogle to play;
But ilk ane sits drearie, lamenting her dearie —
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The Flowers of the Forest are weded away.
Dool and wae for the order sent our lads to the Border!
The English, for ance, by guile wan the day;
The Flowers of the Forest, that fought aye the foremost,
The prime of our land, are cauld in the clay.
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We’ll hear nae mair lilting at the ewe-milking;
Women and bairns are heartless and wae;
Sighing and moaning on ilka green loaning —
The Flowers of the Forest are a’ wede away.
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Christopher Smart (1722–1770)
O THOU, that sitt’st upon a throne,
With harp of high, majestic tone,
To praise the King of kings:
And voice of heaven, ascending, swell,
Which, while its deeper notes excel,
5
Clear as a clarion rings:
To bless each valley, grove, and cost,
And charm the cherubs to the post
Of gratitude in throngs;
To keep the days on Zion’s Mount,
10
And send the year to his account,
With dances and with songs:
O servant of God’s holiest charge,
The minister of praise at large,
Which thou mayst now receive;
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From thy blest mansion hail and hear,
From topmost eminence appear
To this the wreath I weave.
Great, valiant, pious, good, and clean,
Sublime, contemplative, serene,
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Strong, constant, pleasant, wise!
Bright effluence of exceeding grace;
Best man! the swiftness and the race,
The peril and the prize!
Great — from the lustre of his crown,
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From Samuel’s horn, and God’s renown,
Which is the people’s voice;
For all the host, from rear to van,
Applauded and embraced the man —
The man of God’s own choice.
30
Valiant — the word, and up he rose;
The fight — he triumphed o’er the foes
Whom God’s just laws abhor;
And, armed in gallant faith, he took
Against the boaster, from the brook,
35
The weapons of the war.
Pious — magnificent and grand,
’Twas he the famous temple plann’d,
(The seraph in his soul:)
Foremost to give the Lord his dues,
40
Foremost to bless the welcome news,
And foremost to condole.
Good — from Jehudah’s genuine vein,
From God’s best nature, good in grain,
His aspect and his heart:
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To pity, to forgive, to save,
Witness En-gedi’s conscious cave,
And Shimei’s blunted dart.
Clean — if perpetual prayer be pure,
And love, which could itself inure
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To fasting and to fear —
Clean in his gestures, hands, and feet,
To smite the lyre, the dance complete,
To play the sword and spear.
Sublime — invention ever young,
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Of vast conception, towering tongue,
To God the eternal theme;
Notes from yon exaltations caught,
Unrivalled royalty of thought,
O’er meaner strains supreme.
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Contemplative — on God to fix
His musings, and above the six
The Sabbath-day he blessed;
’Twas then his thoughts self-conquest pruned,
And heavenly melancholy tuned,
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To bless and bear the rest.
Serene — to sow the seeds of peace,
Remembering, when he watched the fleece,
How sweetly Kidron purled —
To further knowledge, silence vice,
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And plant perpetual paradise,
When God had calmed the world.
Strong — in the Lord, who could defy
Satan, and all his powers that lie
In sempiternal night;
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And hell, and horror, and despair
Were as the lion and the bear
To his undaunted might.
Constant — in love to God, the Truth,
Age, manhood, infancy, and youth:
80
To Jonathan his friend
Constant, beyond the verge of death;
And Ziba, and Mephibosheth,
His endless fame attend.
Pleasant — and various as the year;
85
Man, soul, and angel without peer,
Priest, champion, sage, and boy;
In armour or in ephod clad,
His pomp, his piety was glad;
Majestic was his joy.
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Wise — in recovery from his fall,
Whence rose his eminence o’er all,
Of all the most reviled;
The light of Israel in his ways,
Wise are his precepts, prayer, and praise,
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And counsel to his child.
His muse, bright angel of his verse,
Gives balm for all the thorns that pierce,
For all the pangs that rage;
Blest light, still gaining on the gloom,
100
The more than Michal of his bloom,
The Abishag of his age.
He sang of God — the mighty source
Of all things — the stupendous force
On which all strength depends;
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From Whose right arm, beneath Whose eyes,
All period, power, and enterprise
Commences, reigns, and ends.
Angels — their ministry and meed,
Which to and fro with blessings speed,
110
Or with their citterns wait;
Where Michael, with his millions, bows,
Where dwells the seraph and his spouse,
The cherub and her mate.
Of man — the semblance and effect
115
Of God and love — the saint elect
For infinite applause —
To rule the land, and briny broad,
To be laborious in his laud,
And heroes in his cause.
120
The world — the clustering spheres He made,
The glorious light, the soothing shade,
Dale, champaign, grove, and hill;
The multitudinous abyss,
Where Secrecy remains in bliss,
125
And Wisdom hides her skill.
Trees, plants, and flowers — of virtuous root;
Gem yielding blossom, yielding fruit,
Choice gums and precious balm;
Bless ye the nosegay in the vale,
130
And with the sweetness of the gale
Enrich the thankful psalm.
Of fowl — even every beak and wing
Which cheer the winter, hail the spring,
That live in peace or prey;
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They that make music, or that mock,
The quail, the brave domestic cock.
The raven, swan, and jay.
Of fishes — every size and shape,
Which nature frames of light escape,
140
Devouring man to shun:
The shells are in the wealthy deep,
The shoals upon the surface leap,
And love the glancing sun.
Of beasts — the beaver plods his task;
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While the sleek tigers roll and bask,
Nor yet the shades arouse;
Her cave the mining coney scoops;
Where o’er the mead the mountain stoops,
The kids exult and browse.
150
Of gems — their virtue and their price,
Which, hid in earth from man’s device,
Their darts of lustre sheath;
The jasper of the master’s stamp,
The topaz blazing like a lamp,
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Among the mines beneath.
Blest was the tenderness he felt,
When to his graceful harp he knelt,
And did for audience call;
When Satan with his hand he quelled,
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And in serene suspense he held
The frantic throes of Saul.
His furious foes no more maligned
As he such melody divined,
And sense and soul detained;
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Now striking strong, now soothing soft,
He sent the godly sounds aloft,
Or in delight refrained.
When up to heaven his thoughts he piled,
From fervent lips fair Michal smiled,
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As blush to blush she stood;
And chose herself the queen, and gave
Her utmost from her heart— ‘so brave,
And plays his hymns so good.’
The pillars of the Lord are seven,
175
Which stand from earth to topmost heaven;
His Wisdom drew the plan;
His Word accomplished the design,
From brightest gem to deepest mine,
From CHRIST enthroned to Man.
180
Alpha,
the cause of causes, first
In station, fountain, whence the burst
Of light and blaze of day;
Whence bold attempt, and brave advance,
Have motion, life, and ordinance,
185
And heaven itself its stay.
Gamma
supports the glorious arch
On which angelic legions march,
And is with sapphires paved;
Thence the fleet clouds are sent adrift,
190
And thence the painted folds that lift
The crimson veil, are waved.
Eta
with living sculpture breathes,
With verdant carvings, flowery wreathes,
Of never-wasting bloom;
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In strong relief his goodly base
All instruments of labour grace,
The trowel, spade, and loom.
Next
Theta
stands to the supreme —
Who formed in number, sign, and scheme,
200
The illustrious lights that are;
And one addressed his saffron robe,
And one, clad in a silver globe,
Held rule with every star.
Iota’s
tuned to choral hymns
205
Of those that fly, while he that swims
In thankful safety lurks;
And foot, and chapiter, and niche,
The various histories enrich
Of God’s recorded works.
210
Sigma
presents the social droves
With him that solitary roves,
And man of all the chief;
Fair on whose face, and stately frame,
Did God impress His hallowed name,
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For ocular belief.
Omega!
greatest and the best,
Stands sacred to the day of rest,
For gratitude and thought;
Which blessed the world upon his pole,
220
And gave the universe his goal,
And closed the infernal draught.
O David, scholar of the Lord!
Such is thy science, whence reward,
And infinite degree;
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O strength, O sweetness, lasting ripe!
God’s harp thy symbol, and thy type
The lion and the bee!
There is but One who ne’er rebelled,
But One by passion unimpelled,
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By pleasures unenticed;
He from himself hath semblance sent,
Grand object of his own content,
And saw the God in Christ.
Tell them, I AM, Jehovah said
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To Moses; while earth heard in dread,
And, smitten to the heart,
At once above, beneath, around,
All Nature, without voice or sound,
Replied, ‘O Lord, THOU ART.’
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Thou art — to give and to confirm,
For each his talent and his term;
All flesh thy bounties share:
Thou shalt not call thy brother fool:
The porches of the Christian school
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Are meekness, peace, and prayer.
