Delphi Poetry Anthology: The World's Greatest Poems (Delphi Poets Series Book 50) (211 page)
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Authors: Homer,William Shakespeare
CCXVII
Ambition was my idol, which was broken
Before the shrines of Sorrow, and of Pleasure;
And the two last have left me many a token
O’er which reflection may be made at leisure:
Now, like Friar Bacon’s brazen head, I’ve spoken,
“Time is, Time was, Time’s past:” — a chymic treasure
Is glittering youth, which I have spent betimes —
My heart in passion, and my head on rhymes.
CCXVIII
What is the end of Fame? ‘t is but to fill
A certain portion of uncertain paper:
Some liken it to climbing up a hill,
Whose summit, like all hills, is lost in vapour;
For this men write, speak, preach, and heroes kill,
And bards burn what they call their “midnight taper,”
To have, when the original is dust,
A name, a wretched picture, and worse bust.
CCXIX
What are the hopes of man? Old Egypt’s King
Cheops erected the first pyramid
And largest, thinking it was just the thing
To keep his memory whole, and mummy hid;
But somebody or other rummaging,
Burglariously broke his coffin’s lid:
Let not a monument give you or me hopes,
Since not a pinch of dust remains of Cheops.
CCXX
But I being fond of true philosophy,
Say very often to myself, “Alas!
All things that have been born were born to die,
And flesh (which Death mows down to hay) is grass;
You’ve pass’d your youth not so unpleasantly,
And if you had it o’er again— ‘t would pass —
So thank your stars that matters are no worse,
And read your Bible, sir, and mind your purse.”
CCXXI
But for the present, gentle reader! and
Still gentler purchaser! the bard — that’s I —
Must, with permission, shake you by the hand,
And so “Your humble servant, and good-b’ye!”
We meet again, if we should understand
Each other; and if not, I shall not try
Your patience further than by this short sample —
‘T were well if others follow’d my example.
CCXXII
“Go, little book, from this my solitude!
I cast thee on the waters — go thy ways!
And if, as I believe, thy vein be good,
The world will find thee after many days.”
When Southey’s read, and Wordsworth understood,
I can’t help putting in my claim to praise —
The four first rhymes are Southey’s every line:
For God’s sake, reader! take them not for mine.
Nov. 1, 1818
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Thomas Moore (1779–1852)
OFT in the stilly night
Ere slumber’s chain has bound me,
Fond Memory brings the light
Of other days around me:
The smiles, the tears
5
Of boyhood’s years,
The words of love then spoken;
The eyes that shone,
Now dimm’d and gone,
The cheerful hearts now broken!
10
Thus in the stilly night
Ere slumber’s chain has bound me,
Sad Memory brings the light
Of other days around me.
When I remember all
15
The friends so link’d together
I’ve seen around me fall
Like leaves in wintry weather,
I feel like one
Who treads alone
20
Some banquet-hall deserted,
Whose lights are fled
Whose garlands dead,
And all but he departed!
Thus in the stilly night
25
Ere slumber’s chain has bound me,
Sad Memory brings the light
Of other days around me.
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Thomas Moore (1779–1852)
WHEN he who adores thee has left but the name
Of his fault and his sorrows behind,
O! say wilt thou weep, when they darken the fame
Of a life that for thee was resign’d!
Yes, weep, and however my foes may condemn,
5
Thy tears shall efface their decree;
For, Heaven can witness, though guilty to them,
I have been but too faithful to thee.
With thee were the dreams of my earliest love;
Every thought of my reason was thine:
10
In my last humble prayer to the Spirit above
Thy name shall be mingled with mine!
O! blest are the lovers and friends who shall live
The days of thy glory to see;
But the next dearest blessing that Heaven can give
15
Is the pride of thus dying for thee.
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Thomas Moore (1779–1852)
THERE is not in the wide world a valley so sweet
As that vale in whose bosom the bright waters meet;
Oh! the last rays of feeling and life must depart,
Ere the bloom of that valley shall fade from my heart.
Yet it was not that nature had shed o’er the scene
5
Her purest of crystal and brightest of green;
’Twas not her soft magic of streamlet or hill,
Oh! no — it was something more exquisite still.
’Twas that friends, the beloved of my bosom, were near,
Who made every dear scene of enchantment more dear,
10
And who felt how the best charms of nature improve,
When we see them reflected from looks that we love.
Sweet vale of Avoca! how calm could I rest
In thy bosom of shade, with the friends I love best,
Where the storms that we feel in this cold world should cease,
15
And our hearts, like thy waters, be mingled in peace.
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Thomas Moore (1779–1852)
‘TIS the last rose of summer
Left blooming alone;
All her lovely companions
Are faded and gone;
No flower of her kindred,
5
No rosebud is nigh,
To reflect back her blushes,
To give sigh for sigh.
I’ll not leave thee, thou lone one!
To pine on the stem;
10
Since the lovely are sleeping,
Go, sleep thou with them.
Thus kindly I scatter
Thy leaves o’er the bed,
Where thy mates of the garden
15
Lie scentless and dead.
So soon may I follow,
When friendships decay,
And from Love’s shining circle
The gems drop away.
20
When true hearts lie withered
And fond ones are flown,
Oh! who would inhabit
This bleak world alone?
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
The Harp that Once Through Tara’s Halls
Thomas Moore (1779–1852)
THE HARP that once through Tara’s halls
The soul of music shed,
Now hangs as mute on Tara’s walls
As if that soul were fled.
So sleeps the pride of former days,
5
So glory’s thrill is o’er,
And hearts, that once beat high for praise,
Now feel that pulse no more.
No more to chiefs and ladies bright
The harp of Tara swells:
10
The chord alone, that breaks at night,
Its tale of ruin tells.
Thus Freedom now so seldom wakes,
The only throb she gives,
Is when some heart indignant breaks,
15
To show that still she lives.
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Thomas Moore (1779–1852)
FAINTLY as tolls the evening chime
Our voices keep tune and our oars keep time.
Soon as the woods on shore look dim,
We’ll sing at St. Anne’s our parting hymn.
Row, brothers, row, the stream runs fast,
5
The Rapids are near and the daylight’s past!
Why should we yet our sail unfurl?
There is not a breath the blue wave to curl;
But, when the wind blows off the shore,
Oh! sweetly we’ll rest our weary oar.
10
Blow, breezes, blow, the stream runs fast,
The Rapids are near and the daylight’s past!
Utawas’ tide! this trembling moon
Shall see us float over thy surges soon.
Saint of this green isle! hear our prayers,
15
Oh, grant us cool heavens and favouring airs.
Blow, breezes, blow, the stream runs fast,
The Rapids are near and the daylight’s past!
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Thomas Moore (1779–1852)
AS slow our ship her foamy track
Against the wind was cleaving,
Her trembling pennant still look’d back
To that dear isle ’twas leaving.
So loth we part from all we love,
5
From all the links that bind us;
So turn our hearts, as on we rove,
To those we’ve left behind us!
When, round the bowl, of vanish’d years
We talk with joyous seeming —
10
With smiles that might as well be tears,
So faint, so sad their beaming;
While memory brings us back again
Each early tie that twined us,
O, sweet’s the cup that circles then
15
To those we’ve left behind us!
And when, in other climes, we meet
Some isle or vale enchanting,
Where all looks flowery, wild and sweet,
And nought but love is wanting;
20
We think how great had been our bliss
If Heaven had but assign’d us
To live and die in scenes like this,
With some we’ve left behind us!
As travellers oft look back at eve
25
When eastward darkly going,
To gaze upon that light they leave
Still faint behind them glowing, —
So, when the close of pleasure’s day
To gloom hath near consign’d us,
30
We turn to catch one fading ray
Of joy that’s left behind us.
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
