Remorseful Apology by Robert Burns

THE FRIEND whom, wild from Wisdom’s way, The fumes of wine infuriate send, (Not moony madness more astray) Who but deplores that hapless friend? Mine was th’ insensate frenzied part, Ah! why should I such scenes outlive? Scenes so abhorrent to my heart!— ’Tis thine to pity and forgive. ————— The End And that’s the […]

Song—A Man’s a Man for a’ that by Robert Burns

IS there for honest Poverty That hings his head, an’ a’ that; The coward slave-we pass him by, We dare be poor for a’ that! For a’ that, an’ a’ that. Our toils obscure an’ a’ that, The rank is but the guinea’s stamp, The Man’s the gowd for a’ that. What though on hamely […]

Remorseful Apology by Robert Burns

THE FRIEND whom, wild from Wisdom’s way, The fumes of wine infuriate send, (Not moony madness more astray) Who but deplores that hapless friend? Mine was th’ insensate frenzied part, Ah! why should I such scenes outlive? Scenes so abhorrent to my heart!— ’Tis thine to pity and forgive. ————— The End And that’s the […]

Lord Gregory: A Ballad by Robert Burns

O MIRK, mirk is this midnight hour, And loud the tempest’s roar; A waefu’ wanderer seeks thy tower, Lord Gregory, ope thy door. An exile frae her father’s ha’, And a’ for loving thee; At least some pity on me shaw, If love it may na be. Lord Gregory, mind’st thou not the grove By […]

inscription on Mr. Syme’s crystal goblet by Robert Burns

THERE’S Death in the cup, so beware! Nay, more—there is danger in touching; But who can avoid the fell snare, The man and his wine’s so bewitching! ————— The End And that’s the End of the Poem © Poetry Monster, 2021. Poems by topic and subject. Poetry Monster — the ultimate repository of world poetry. Poetry […]

Fragment of Song—“My Jean!” by Robert Burns

THO’ cruel fate should bid us part, Far as the pole and line, Her dear idea round my heart, Should tenderly entwine. Tho’ mountains, rise, and deserts howl, And oceans roar between; Yet, dearer than my deathless soul, I still would love my Jean. ————— The End And that’s the End of the Poem © Poetry […]

Fragment—Her Flwoing Locks by Robert Burns

HER flowing locks, the raven’s wing, Adown her neck and bosom hing; How sweet unto that breast to cling, And round that neck entwine her! Her lips are roses wat wi’ dew, O’ what a feast her bonie mou’! Her cheeks a mair celestial hue, A crimson still diviner! ————— The End And that’s the […]

For a’ that and a’ that by Robert Burns

Is there, for honest Poverty That hings his head, and a’ that; The coward-slave, we pass him by, We dare be poor for a’ that! For a’ that, and a’ that, Our toils obscure, and a’ that, The rank is but the guinea’s stamp, The Man ‘s the gowd for a’ that. – What though […]

Epistle to Colonel de Peyster by Robert Burns

MY honor’d Colonel, deep I feel Your interest in the Poet’s weal; Ah! now sma’ heart hae I to speel The steep Parnassus, Surrounded thus by bolus pill, And potion glasses. O what a canty world were it, Would pain and care and sickness spare it; And Fortune favour worth and merit As they deserve; […]

Epigram on Andrew Turner by Robert Burns

IN se’enteen hunder’n forty-nine, The deil gat stuff to mak a swine, An’ coost it in a corner; But wilily he chang’d his plan, An’ shap’d it something like a man, An’ ca’d it Andrew Turner. ————— The End And that’s the End of the Poem © Poetry Monster, 2021. Poems by topic and subject. Poetry […]

Complimentary versicles to Jessie Lewars by Robert Burns

THE TOASTFILL me with the rosy wine, Call a toast, a toast divine: Giveth me Poet’s darling flame, Lovely Jessie be her name; Then thou mayest freely boast, Thou hast given a peerless toast. THE MENAGERIETalk not to me of savages, From Afric’s burning sun; No savage e’er could rend my heart, As Jessie, thou […]

Ballad on Mr. Heron’s Election—No. 3 by Robert Burns

’TWAS in the seventeen hunder year O’ grace, and ninety-five, That year I was the wae’est man Of ony man alive. In March the three-an’-twentieth morn, The sun raise clear an’ bright; But oh! I was a waefu’ man, Ere to-fa’ o’ the night. Yerl Galloway lang did rule this land, Wi’ equal right and […]

Poem on Pastoral Poetry by Robert Burns

Hail, Poesie! thou Nymph reserv’d! In chase o’ thee, what crowds hae swerv’d Frae common sense, or sunk enerv’d ’Mang heaps o’ clavers: And och! o’er aft thy joes hae starv’d, ’Mid a’ thy favours! Say, Lassie, why, thy train amang, While loud the trump’s heroic clang, And sock or buskin skelp alang To death […]

With Scindia to Delphi by Rudyard Kipling

More than a hundred years ago, in a great battle fought near Delhi, an Indian Prince rode fifty miles after the day was lost with a beggar-girl, who had loved him and followed him in all his camps, on his saddle-bow. He lost the girl when almost within sight of safety. A Maratta trooper tells […]

The Prodigal Son by Rudyard Kipling

Here come I to my own again, Fed, forgiven and known again, Claimed by bone of my bone again And cheered by flesh of my flesh. The fatted calf is dressed for me, But the husks have greater zest for me, I think my pigs will be best for me, So I’m off to the […]

The Explorer by Rudyard Kipling

There’s no sense in going further — it’s the edge of cultivation,” So they said, and I believed it — broke my land and sowed my crop — Built my barns and strung my fences in the little border station Tucked away below the foothills where the trails run out and stop. Till a voice, […]

The Explanation by Rudyard Kipling

Love and Death once ceased their strife At the Tavern of Man’s Life. Called for wine, and threw — alas! — Each his quiver on the grass. When the bout was o’er they found Mingled arrows strewed the ground. Hastily they gathered then Each the loves and lives of men. Ah, the fateful dawn deceived! […]

The Dead King by Rudyard Kipling

(EDWARD VII.) 1910 Who in the Realm to-day lays down dear life for the sake of a land more dear? And, unconcerned for his own estate, toils till the last grudged sands have run? Let him approach. It is proven here Our King asks nothing of any man more than Our King himself, has done. […]

The Craftsman by Rudyard Kipling

Once, after long-drawn revel at The Mermaid, He to the overbearing Boanerges Jonson, uttered (if half of it were liquor, Blessed be the vintage!) Saying how, at an alehouse under Cotswold, He had made sure of his very Cleopatra, Drunk with enormous, salvation-con temning Love for a tinker. How, while he hid from Sir Thomas’s […]

Prelude by Rudyard Kipling

I have eaten your bread and salt. I have drunk your water and wine. In deaths ye died I have watched beside, And the lives ye led were mine. Was there aught that I did not share In vigil or toil or ease, — One joy or woe that I did not know, Dear hearts […]

One Viceroy Resigns by Rudyard Kipling

So here’s your Empire. No more wine, then? Good. We’ll clear the Aides and khitmatgars away. (You’ll know that fat old fellow with the knife — He keeps the Name Book, talks in English too, And almost thinks himself the Government.) O Youth, Youth, Youth! Forgive me, you’re so young. Forty from sixty — twenty […]

Delilah by Rudyard Kipling

We have another viceroy now, — those days are dead and done Of Delilah Aberyswith and depraved Ulysses Gunne. Delilah Aberyswith was a lady — not too young — With a perfect taste in dresses and a badly-bitted tongue, With a thirst for information, and a greater thirst for praise, And a little house in […]

Dedication by Rudyard Kipling

To the City of Bombay The Cities are full of pride, Challenging each to each — This from her mountain-side, That from her burthened beach. They count their ships full tale — Their corn and oil and wine, Derrick and loom and bale, And rampart’s gun-flecked line; City by City they hail: “Hast aught to […]

Cold Iron by Rudyard Kipling

Cold is for the mistress — silver for the maid — Copper for the craftsman cunning at his trade.” “Good!” said the Baron, sitting in his hall, “But Iron — Cold Iron — is master of them all.” So he made rebellion ‘gainst the King his liege, Camped before his citadel and summoned it to […]

Bridge-Guard in the Karroo by Rudyard Kipling

1901 “. . . and will supply details to guard the Blood River Bridge.” District Orders-Lines of Communication, South African War. Sudden the desert changes, The raw glare softens and clings, Till the aching Oudtshoorn ranges Stand up like the thrones of Kings — Ramparts of slaughter and peril — Blazing, amazing, aglow — ‘Twixt […]

A Smuggler’s Song by Rudyard Kipling

If you wake at midnight, and hear a horse’s feet, Don’t go drawing back the blind, or looking in the street. Them that ask no questions isn’t told a lie. Watch the wall, my darling, while the Gentlemen go by! Five and twenty ponies, Trotting through the dark — Brandy for the Parson, ‘Baccy for […]

Who is at my door? by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi

He said, “Who is at my door?” I said, “Your humble servant.” He said, “What business do you have?” I said, “To greet you, 0 Lord.” He said, “How long will you journey on?” I said, “Until you stop me.” He said, “How long will you boil in the fire?” I said, “Until I am […]

This Will Not Win Him by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi

Reason says, I will win him with my eloquence. Love says, I will win him with my silence. Soul says, How can I ever win him When all I have is already his? He does not want, he does not worry, He does not seek a sublime state of euphoria – How then can I […]

The Self We Share by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi

Thirst is angry with water. Hunger bitter with bread. The cave wants nothing to do with the sun. This is dumb, the self- defeating way we’ve been. A gold mine is calling us into its temple. Instead, we bend and keep picking up rocks from the ground. Every thing has a shine like gold, but […]

Quatrain 1693 (Farsi with English Translation) by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi

ay sâqî, az-ân bâda ke awwal dâd-î riTlê dô dar andâz-o be-y-afzâ shâdî yâ châshniyê az-ân na-bâyast namûd yâ mast-o kharâb kon, chô sar be-g’shâd-î English Translation O cupbearer, from that wine which you first gave, Toss in two [more] cups worth and increase (my) happiness. Either a taste of it must not be made […]

Lord, what a Beloved is mine! by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi

Lord, what a Beloved is mine! I have a sweet quarry; I possess in my breast a hundred meadows from his reed. When in anger the messenger comes and repairs towards me, he says, “Whither are you fleeing? I have business with you.” Last night I asked the new moon concerning my Moon. The moon […]

I have been tricked by flying too close by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi

I have been tricked by flying too close to what I thought I loved. Now the candleflame is out, the wine spilled, and the lovers have withdrawn somewhere beyond my squinting. The amount I thought I’d won, I’ve lost. My prayers becomes bitter and all about blindness. How wonderful it was to be for a […]

I have been tricked by flying too close by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi

I have been tricked by flying too close to what I thought I loved. Now the candleflame is out, the wine spilled, and the lovers have withdrawn somewhere beyond my squinting. The amount I thought I’d won, I’ve lost. My prayers becomes bitter and all about blindness. How wonderful it was to be for a […]

Confused and Distraught by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi

Again I am raging, I am in such a state by your soul that every bond you bind, I break, by your soul. I am like heaven, like the moon, like a candle by your glow; I am all reason, all love, all soul, by your soul. My joy is of your doing, my hangover […]

Bring Wine by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi

Bring wine, for I am suffering crop sickness from the vintage; God has seized me, and I am thus held fast. By love’s soul, bring me a cup of wine that is the envy of the sun, for I care aught but love. Bring that which if I were to call it “soul” would be […]

Book1 Prologue by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi

Hearken to the reed-flute, how it complains, Lamenting its banishment from its home: “Ever since they tore me from my osier bed, My plaintive notes have moved men and women to tears. I burst my breast, striving to give vent to sighs, And to express the pangs of my yearning for my home. He who […]

Because I Cannot Sleep by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi

Because I cannot sleep I make music at night. I am troubled by the one whose face has the color of spring flowers. I have neither sleep nor patience, neither a good reputation nor disgrace. A thousand robes of wisdom are gone. All my good manners have moved a thousand miles away. The heart and […]

Be Lost In The Call by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi

Lord, said David, since you do not need us, why did you create these two worlds? Reality replied: O prisoner of time, I was a secret treasure of kindness and generosity, and I wished this treasure to be known, so I created a mirror: its shining face, the heart; its darkened back, the world; The […]

intertwined by rachel wright

TO souls intertwined together like lace two hearts beating as one bodies linked, to minds in synced the love that we make is oh so sweet with love and passion that runs through deep the true love we find is intertwined in both of us together each touch that we feel is soft like a […]