Atalanta’s Race by William Morris
Through thick Arcadian woods a hunter went, Following the beasts upon a fresh spring day; But since his horn-tipped bow but seldom bent, Now at the noontide nought had happed to slay, Within a vale he called his hounds away, Hearkening the echoes of his lone voice cling About the cliffs and through the beech-trees […]
Mi ha el by Vinko Kalinić
Do not worry, I haven’t forgoten you even though we haven’t heard from each other for centuries. At some hollow time of the night, I’m still poetry writing because of you. And during the day, drinking often from that same invisible fountain, which makes me behave totaly childish. It happens at some blind time, when […]
Instead of farewell by Vinko Kalinić
– to Srdjan, the boy who has changed my world tell all those who you will love after me that your eyes have already conquered the world once. and also that your hands have split the ocean, dividing it in two. to those who would be kissing you in those sleepless nights , tell them: […]
House For Sale by Vinita Agrawal
House For Sale The bungalow at Marine Drive is on sale; the last of its owners has died leaving behind walls lunatic with visions and red luscious dates ashen with grief The mist gliding inwards from the Arabian Sea like an aerophane of damp ice blue chiffon sketching a familiar face on the house’s bleached […]
Mi ha el by Vinko Kalinić
Do not worry, I haven’t forgoten you even though we haven’t heard from each other for centuries. At some hollow time of the night, I’m still poetry writing because of you. And during the day, drinking often from that same invisible fountain, which makes me behave totaly childish. It happens at some blind time, when […]
Instead of farewell by Vinko Kalinić
– to Srdjan, the boy who has changed my world tell all those who you will love after me that your eyes have already conquered the world once. and also that your hands have split the ocean, dividing it in two. to those who would be kissing you in those sleepless nights , tell them: […]
House For Sale by Vinita Agrawal
House For Sale The bungalow at Marine Drive is on sale; the last of its owners has died leaving behind walls lunatic with visions and red luscious dates ashen with grief The mist gliding inwards from the Arabian Sea like an aerophane of damp ice blue chiffon sketching a familiar face on the house’s bleached […]
Aeneid by Virgil
ARMS, and the man I sing, who, forc’d by fate, And haughty Juno’s unrelenting hate, Expell’d and exil’d, left the Trojan shore. Long labors, both by sea and land, he bore, And in the doubtful war, before he won The Latian realm, and built the destin’d town; His banish’d gods restor’d to rites divine, And […]
Eclogue VIII by Virgil
TO POLLIO, DAMON, ALPHESIBOEUS Of Damon and Alphesiboeus now, Those shepherd-singers at whose rival strains The heifer wondering forgot to graze, The lynx stood awe-struck, and the flowing streams, Unwonted loiterers, stayed their course to hear- How Damon and Alphesiboeus sang Their pastoral ditties, will I tell the tale. Thou, whether broad Timavus’ rocky banks […]
Eclogue VI by Virgil
TO VARUS First my Thalia stooped in sportive mood To Syracusan strains, nor blushed within The woods to house her. When I sought to tell Of battles and of kings, the Cynthian god Plucked at mine ear and warned me: “Tityrus, Beseems a shepherd-wight to feed fat sheep, But sing a slender song.” Now, Varus, […]
Eclogue IV by Virgil
POLLIO Muses of Sicily, essay we now A somewhat loftier task! Not all men love Coppice or lowly tamarisk: sing we woods, Woods worthy of a Consul let them be. Now the last age by Cumae’s Sibyl sung Has come and gone, and the majestic roll Of circling centuries begins anew: Justice returns, returns old […]
Eclogue III by Virgil
MENALCAS, DAMOETAS, PALAEMON Menalcas. Who owns the flock, Damoetas? Meliboeus? Damoetas. Nay, they are Aegon’s sheep, of late by him Committed to my care. Menalcas. O every way Unhappy sheep, unhappy flock! while he Still courts Neaera, fearing lest her choice Should fall on me, this hireling shepherd here Wrings hourly twice their udders, from […]
Eclogue V by Virgil
MENALCAS, MOPSUS Menalcas. Why, Mopsus, being both together met, You skilled to breathe upon the slender reeds, I to sing ditties, do we not sit down Here where the elm-trees and the hazels blend? Mopsus. You are the elder, ’tis for me to bide Your choice, Menalcas, whether now we seek Yon shade that quivers […]
Ecologue I by Virgil
MELIBOEUS, TITYRUS Meliboeus. You, Tityrus, ‘neath a broad beech-canopy Reclining, on the slender oat rehearse Your silvan ditties: I from my sweet fields, And home’s familiar bounds, even now depart. Exiled from home am I; while, Tityrus, you Sit careless in the shade, and, at your call, “Fair Amaryllis” bid the woods resound. Tityrus. O […]
Eclogue X by Virgil
GALLUS This now, the very latest of my toils, Vouchsafe me, Arethusa! needs must I Sing a brief song to Gallus- brief, but yet Such as Lycoris’ self may fitly read. Who would not sing for Gallus? So, when thou Beneath Sicanian billows glidest on, May Doris blend no bitter wave with thine, Begin! The […]
Eve of spring by Vladimir Marku
It sprouts in my soul “Times New Roman”,”serif””>Luxuriates gaily “Times New Roman”,”serif””>Mistletoe of the kisses. “Times New Roman”,”serif””> “Times New Roman”,”serif””>Spring on its eve “Times New Roman”,”serif””>Longingly gracefully clad “Times New Roman”,”serif””>Her eyes anxious pearls. “Times New Roman”,”serif””> “Times New Roman”,”serif””>Zephyr brings the tear “Times New Roman”,”serif””>Conceived in spring “Times New Roman”,”serif””>Labored by the mistletoe. […]
The Wanderer by W H Auden
Doom is dark and deeper than any sea-dingle. Upon what man it fall In spring, day-wishing flowers appearing, Avalanche sliding, white snow from rock-face, That he should leave his house, No cloud-soft hand can hold him, restraint by women; But ever that man goes Through place-keepers, through forest trees, A stranger to strangers over undried […]
The Quest by W H Auden
I. The Door Out of it steps our future, through this door Enigmas, executioners and rules, Her Majesty in a bad temper or A red-nosed Fool who makes a fool of fools. Great persons eye it in the twilight for A past it might so carelessly let in, A widow with a missionary grin, The […]
The Dream by W H Auden
Dear, though the night is gone, Its dream still haunts to-day, That brought us to a room Cavernous, lofty as A railway terminus, And crowded in that gloom Were beds, and we in one In a far corner lay. Our whisper woke no clocks, We kissed and I was glad At everything you did, Indifferent […]
At Last the Secret is Out by W H Auden
At last the secret is out, as it always must come in the end, the delicious story is ripe to tell to tell to the intimate friend; over the tea-cups and into the square the tongues has its desire; still waters run deep, my dear, there’s never smoke without fire. Behind the corpse in the […]
Lady Weeping at the Crossroads by W H Auden
Lady, weeping at the crossroads, Would you meet your love In the twilight with his greyhounds, And the hawk on his glove? Bribe the birds then on the branches, Bribe them to be dumb, Stare the hot sun out of heaven That the night may come. Starless are the nights of travel, Bleak the winter […]
In Praise Of Limestone by W H Auden
If it form the one landscape that we, the inconstant ones, Are consistently homesick for, this is chiefly Because it dissolves in water. Mark these rounded slopes With their surface fragrance of thyme and, beneath, A secret system of caves and conduits; hear the springs That spurt out everywhere with a chuckle, Each filling a […]
For What As Easy by W H Auden
For what as easy For what thought small, For what is well Because between, To you simply From me I mean. Who goes with who The bedclothes say, As I and you Go kissed away, The data given, The senses even. Fate is not late, Nor the speech rewritten, Nor one word forgotten, Said at […]
Death’s Echo by W H Auden
“O who can ever gaze his fill,” Farmer and fisherman say, “On native shore and local hill, Grudge aching limb or callus on the hand? Father, grandfather stood upon this land, And here the pilgrims from our loins will stand.” So farmer and fisherman say In their fortunate hey-day: But Death’s low answer drifts across […]
As I Walked Out One Evening by W. H. Auden
As I walked out one evening, Walking down Bristol Street, The crowds upon the pavement Were fields of harvest wheat. And down by the brimming river I heard a lover sing Under an arch of the railway: ‘Love has no ending. ‘I’ll love you, dear, I’ll love you Till China and Africa meet, And the […]
After Reading a Child’s Guide to Modern Physics by W. H. Auden
If all a top physicist knows About the Truth be true, Then, for all the so-and-so’s, Futility and grime, Our common world contains, We have a better time Than the Greater Nebulae do, Or the atoms in our brains. Marriage is rarely bliss But, surely it would be worse As particles to pelt At thousands […]
Frogs Eat Butterflies, Snakes Eat Frogs, Hogs Eat Snakes, Men Eat Hogs by Wallace Stevens
It is true that the rivers went nosing like swine, Tugging at banks, until they seemed Bland belly-sounds in somnolent troughs, That the air was heavy with the breath of these swine, The breath of turgid summer, and Heavy with thunder’s rattapallax, That the man who erected this cabin, planted This field, and tended it […]
Whoever You are, Holding Me now in Hand. by Walt Whitman
WHOEVER you are, holding me now in hand, Without one thing, all will be useless, I give you fair warning, before you attempt me further, I am not what you supposed, but far different. Who is he that would become my follower? Who would sign himself a candidate for my affections? The way is suspicious—the […]
What think You I take my Pen in Hand? by Walt Whitman
WHAT think you I take my pen in hand to record? The battle-ship, perfect-model’d, majestic, that I saw pass the offing to-day under full sail? The splendors of the past day? Or the splendor of the night that envelopes me? Or the vaunted glory and growth of the great city spread around me?—No; But I […]
Vigil Strange I Kept on the Field. by Walt Whitman
VIGIL strange I kept on the field one night: When you, my son and my comrade, dropt at my side that day, One look I but gave, which your dear eyes return’d, with a look I shall never forget; One touch of your hand to mine, O boy, reach’d up as you lay on the […]
Thought. by Walt Whitman
AS I sit with others, at a great feast, suddenly, while the music is playing, To my mind, (whence it comes I know not,) spectral, in mist, of a wreck at sea; Of certain ships—how they sail from port with flying streamers, and wafted kisses—and that is the last of them! Of the solemn and […]
The Wound-Dresser by Walt Whitman
1 AN old man bending I come among new faces, Years looking backward resuming in answer to children, Come tell us old man, as from young men and maidens that love me, (Arous’d and angry, I’d thought to beat the alarum, and urge relentless war, But soon my fingers fail’d me, my face droop’d and […]
States! by Walt Whitman
STATES! Were you looking to be held together by the lawyers? By an agreement on a paper? Or by arms? Away! I arrive, bringing these, beyond all the forces of courts and arms, These! to hold you together as firmly as the earth itself is held together. The old breath of life, ever new, Here! […]
Starting from Paumanok. by Walt Whitman
1 STARTING from fish-shape Paumanok, where I was born, Well-begotten, and rais’d by a perfect mother; After roaming many lands—lover of populous pavements; Dweller in Mannahatta, my city—or on southern savannas; Or a soldier camp’d, or carrying my knapsack and gun—or a miner in California; Or rude in my home in Dakota’s woods, my diet […]
Song of the Open Road. by Walt Whitman
1 AFOOT and light-hearted, I take to the open road, Healthy, free, the world before me, The long brown path before me, leading wherever I choose. Henceforth I ask not good-fortune—I myself am good fortune; Henceforth I whimper no more, postpone no more, need nothing, Strong and content, I travel the open road. The earth—that […]
So Long. by Walt Whitman
1 TO conclude—I announce what comes after me; I announce mightier offspring, orators, days, and then, for the present, depart. I remember I said, before my leaves sprang at all, I would raise my voice jocund and strong, with reference to consummations. When America does what was promis’d, When there are plentiful athletic bards, inland […]
The Sleepers by Walt Whitman
1 I WANDER all night in my vision, Stepping with light feet, swiftly and noiselessly stepping and stopping, Bending with open eyes over the shut eyes of sleepers, Wandering and confused, lost to myself, ill-assorted, contradictory, Pausing, gazing, bending, and stopping. How solemn they look there, stretch’d and still! How quiet they breathe, the little […]
American Feuillage. by Walt Whitman
AMERICA always! Always our own feuillage! Always Florida’s green peninsula! Always the priceless delta of Louisiana! Always the cotton-fields of Alabama and Texas! Always California’s golden hills and hollows—and the silver mountains of New Mexico! Always soft-breath’d Cuba! Always the vast slope drain’d by the Southern Sea—inseparable with the slopes drain’d by the Eastern and […]
Passage to India. by Walt Whitman
1 SINGING my days, Singing the great achievements of the present, Singing the strong, light works of engineers, Our modern wonders, (the antique ponderous Seven outvied,) In the Old World, the east, the Suez canal, The New by its mighty railroad spann’d, The seas inlaid with eloquent, gentle wires, I sound, to commence, the cry, […]
Elemental Drifts. by Walt Whitman
1 ELEMENTAL drifts! How I wish I could impress others as you have just been impressing me! As I ebb’d with an ebb of the ocean of life, As I wended the shores I know, As I walk’d where the ripples continually wash you, Paumanok, Where they rustle up, hoarse and sibilant, Where the fierce […]