Delphi Poetry Anthology: The World's Greatest Poems (Delphi Poets Series Book 50) (228 page)
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Authors: Homer,William Shakespeare
Thomas Hood (1798–1845)
ONE more Unfortunate
Weary of breath
Rashly importunate,
Gone to her death!
Take her up tenderly,
5
Lift her with care;
Fashion’d so slenderly,
Young, and so fair!
Look at her garments
Clinging like cerements;
10
Whilst the wave constantly
Drips from her clothing;
Take her up instantly,
Loving, not loathing.
Touch her not scornfully;
15
Think of her mournfully,
Gently and humanly;
Not of the stains of her —
All that remains of her
Now is pure womanly.
20
Make no deep scrutiny
Into her mutiny
Rash and undutiful:
Past all dishonour,
Death has left on her
25
Only the beautiful.
Still, for all slips of hers,
One of Eve’s family —
Wipe those poor lips of hers
Oozing so clammily.
30
Loop up her tresses
Escaped from the comb,
Her fair auburn tresses;
Whilst wonderment guesses
Where was her home?
35
Who was her father?
Who was her mother?
Had she a sister?
Had she a brother?
Or was there a dearer one
40
Still, and a nearer one
Yet, than all other?
Alas! for the rarity
Of Christian charity
Under the sun!
45
O! it was pitiful!
Near a whole city full,
Home she had none.
Sisterly, brotherly,
Fatherly, motherly
50
Feelings had changed:
Love, by harsh evidence,
Thrown from its eminence;
Even God’s providence
Seeming estranged.
55
Where the lamps quiver
So far in the river,
With many a light
From window and casement,
From garret to basement,
60
She stood, with amazement,
Houseless by night.
The bleak wind of March
Made her tremble and shiver;
But not the dark arch,
65
Or the black flowing river:
Mad from life’s history,
Glad to death’s mystery
Swift to be hurl’d —
Anywhere, anywhere
70
Out of the world!
In she plunged boldly,
No matter how coldly
The rough river ran,
Over the brink of it, —
75
Picture it, think of it,
Dissolute Man!
Lave in it, drink of it,
Then, if you can!
Take her up tenderly,
80
Lift her with care;
Fashion’d so slenderly,
Young, and so fair!
Ere her limbs frigidly
Stiffen too rigidly,
85
Decently, kindly,
Smooth and compose them;
And her eyes, close them,
Staring so blindly!
Dreadfully staring
90
Thro’ muddy impurity,
As when with the daring
Last look of despairing
Fix’d on futurity.
Perishing gloomily,
95
Spurr’d by contumely,
Cold inhumanity,
Burning insanity,
Into her rest.
— Cross her hands humbly
100
As if praying dumbly,
Over her breast!
Owning her weakness,
Her evil behaviour,
And leaving, with meekness,
105
Her sins to her Saviour.
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Thomas Hood (1798–1845)
WE watch’d her breathing thro’ the night,
Her breathing soft and low,
As in her breast the wave of life
Kept heaving to and fro.
So silently we seemed to speak,
5
So slowly moved about,
As we had lent her half our powers
To eke her living out.
Our very hopes belied our fears,
Our fears our hopes belied —
10
We thought her dying when she slept,
And sleeping when she died.
But when the morn came dim and sad
And chill with early showers,
Her quiet eyelids closed — she had
15
Another morn than ours.
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Thomas Hood (1798–1845)
I REMEMBER, I remember
The house where I was born,
The little window where the sun
Came peeping in at morn;
He never came a wink too soon
5
Nor brought too long a day;
But now, I often wish the night
Had borne my breath away.
I remember, I remember
The roses, red and white,
10
The violets, and the lily-cups —
Those flowers made of light!
The lilacs where the robin built,
And where my brother set
The laburnum on his birthday, —
15
The tree is living yet!
I remember, I remember
Where I was used to swing,
And thought the air must rush as fresh
To swallows on the wing;
20
My spirit flew in feathers then
That is so heavy now,
And summer pools could hardly cool
The fever on my brow.
I remember, I remember
25
The fir-trees dark and high;
I used to think their slender tops
Were close against the sky:
It was a childish ignorance,
But now ’tis little joy
30
To know I’m farther off from Heaven
Than when I was a boy.
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Sir Aubrey De Vere (1788–1846)
I
GAZING from each low bulwark of this bridge,
How wonderful the contrast! Dark as night,
Here, amid cliffs and woods, with headlong might
The black stream whirls, through ferns and drooping sedge,
‘Neath twisted roots moss-brown, and weedy ledge,
5
Gushing; — aloft, from yonder birch-clad height
Leaps into air a cataract, snow-white;
Falling to gulfs obscure. The mountain ridge,
Like a grey Warder, guardian of the scene,
Above the cloven gorge gloomily towers:
10
O’er the dim woods a gathering tempest lours;
Save where athwart the moist leaves’ lucid green
A sunbeam, glancing through disparted showers,
Sparkles along the rill with diamond sheen!
II
A sun-burst on the Bay! Turn and behold!
15
The restless waves, resplendent in their glory,
Sweep glittering past yon purpled promontory,
Bright as Apollo’s breastplate. Bathed in gold,
Yon bastioned islet gleams. Thin mists are rolled,
Translucent, through each glen. A mantle hoary
20
Veils those peaked hills shapely as e’er in story
Delphic, or Alpine, or Vesuvian old,
Minstrels have sung. From rock and headland proud
The wild wood spreads its arms around the bay:
The manifold mountain cones, now dark, now bright,
25
Now seen, now lost, alternate from rich light
To spectral shade; and each dissolving cloud
Reveals new mountains while it floats away.
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Hartley Coleridge (1796–1849)
SHE is not fair to outward view
As many maidens be;
Her loveliness I never knew
Until she smiled on me.
O then I saw her eye was bright,
5
A well of love, a spring of light.
But now her looks are coy and cold,
To mine they ne’er reply,
And yet I cease not to behold
The love-light in her eye:
10
Her very frowns are fairer far
Than smiles of other maidens are.
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Joseph Blanco White (1775–1841)
MYSTERIOUS Night! when our first parent knew
Thee from report divine, and heard thy name,
Did he not tremble for this lovely frame,
This glorious canopy of light and blue?
Yet ‘neath a curtain of translucent dew,
5
Bathed in the rays of the great setting flame,
Hesperus with the host of heaven came,
And lo! Creation widened in man’s view.
Who could have thought such darkness lay concealed
Within thy beams, O sun! or who could find,
10
Whilst fly and leaf and insect stood revealed,
That to such countless orbs thou mad’st us blind!
Why do we then shun death with anxious strife?
If Light can thus deceive, wherefore not Life?
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
