Dawlish poem – John Betjeman poems | Poems and Poetry
Bird-watching colonels on the old sea wall, Down here at Dawlish where the slow trains crawl: Low tide lifting, on a shingle shore, Long-sunk islands from the sea once more: Red cliffs rising where the wet sands run, Gulls reflecting in the sharp spring sun; Pink-washed plaster by a sheltered patch, Ilex shadows upon […]
Cornish Cliffs poem – John Betjeman poems | Poems and Poetry
Those moments, tasted once and never done, Of long surf breaking in the mid-day sun. A far-off blow-hole booming like a gun- The seagulls plane and circle out of sight Below this thirsty, thrift-encrusted height, The veined sea-campion buds burst into white And gorse turns tawny orange, seen beside Pale drifts of […]
Christmas poem – John Betjeman poems | Poems and Poetry
The bells of waiting Advent ring, The Tortoise stove is lit again And lamp-oil light across the night Has caught the streaks of winter rain In many a stained-glass window sheen From Crimson Lake to Hookers Green. TThe bells of waiting Advent ring, The Tortoise stove is lit again And lamp-oil light across […]
Business Girls poem – John Betjeman poems | Poems and Poetry
From the geyser ventilators Autumn winds are blowing down On a thousand business women Having baths in Camden Town Waste pipes chuckle into runnels, Steam’s escaping here and there, Morning trains through Camden cutting Shake the Crescent and the Square. Early nip of changeful autumn, Dahlias glimpsed through garden doors, At the […]
Back From Australia poem – John Betjeman poems | Poems and Poetry
Cocooned in Time, at this inhuman height, The packaged food tastes neutrally of clay, We never seem to catch the running day But travel on in everlasting night With all the chic accoutrements of flight: Lotions and essences in neat array And yet another plastic cup and tray. “Thank you so much. Oh no, […]
An Edwardian Sunday, Broomhill, Sheffield poem – John Betjeman poems | Poems and Poetry
High dormers are rising So sharp and surprising, And ponticum edges The driveways of gravel; Stone houses from ledges Look down on ravines. The vision can travel From gable to gable, Italianate mansion And turretted stable, A sylvan expansion So varied and jolly Where laurel and holly Commingle their greens. Serene on a […]
A Subaltern’s Love Song poem – John Betjeman poems | Poems and Poetry
Miss J.Hunter Dunn, Miss J.Hunter Dunn, Furnish’d and burnish’d by Aldershot sun, What strenuous singles we played after tea, We in the tournament; you against me! Love-thirty, love-forty, oh! weakness of joy, The speed of a swallow, the grace of a boy, With carefullest carelessness, gaily you won, I am weak from your […]
A Shropshire Lad poem – John Betjeman poems | Poems and Poetry
The gas was on in the Institute, The flare was up in the gym, A man was running a mineral line, A lass was singing a hymn, When Captain Webb the Dawley man, Captain Webb from Dawley, Came swimming along the old canal That carried the bricks to Lawley. Swimming along – Swimming along […]
A Bay In Anglesey poem – John Betjeman poems | Poems and Poetry
The sleepy sound of a tea-time tide Slaps at the rocks the sun has dried, Too lazy, almost, to sink and lift Round low peninsulas pink with thrift. The water, enlarging shells and sand, Grows greener emerald out from land And brown over shadowy shelves below The waving forests of seaweed […]
Youth and Love poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry
What does youth know of love? Little enough, I trow! He plucks the myrtle for his brow, For his forehead the rose. Nay, but of love It is not youth who knows. Amy LevyAmy Levy (1861 – 1889) was a Victorian era poetess and prose author who wrote in English in […]
Twilight poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry
So Mary died last night! To-day The news has travelled here. And Robert died at Michaelmas, And Walter died last year. I went at sunset up the lane, I lingered by the stile; I saw the dusky fields that stretched Before me many a mile. I leaned against the stile, and thought […]
Translated from Geibel poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry
O say, thou wild, thou oft deceived heart, What mean these noisy throbbings in my breast? After thy long, unutterable woe Wouldst thou not rest? Fall’n from Life’s tree the sweet rose-blossom lies, And fragrant youth has fled. What made to seem This earth as fair to thee as Paradise, Was all a […]
To Vernon Lee poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry
On Bellosguardo, when the year was young, We wandered, seeking for the daffodil And dark anemone, whose purples fill The peasant’s plot, between the corn-shoots sprung. Over the grey, low wall the olive flung Her deeper greyness ; far off, hill on hill Sloped to the sky, which, pearly-pale and still, Above the […]
To E. poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry
The mountains in fantastic lines Sweep, blue-white, to the sky, which shines Blue as blue gems; athwart the pines The lake gleams blue. We three were here, three years gone by; Our Poet, with fine-frenzied eye, You, stepped in learned lore, and I, A poet too. Our Poet brought us books and […]
To Death poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry
(From Lenau.) If within my heart there’s mould, If the flame of Poesy And the flame of Love grow cold, Slay my body utterly. Swiftly, pause not nor delay; Let not my life’s field be spread With the ash of feelings dead, Let thy singer soar away. Amy LevyAmy […]
To Clementina Black poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry
More blest than was of old Diogenes, I have not held my lantern up in vain. Not mine, at least, this evil–to complain: “There is none honest among all of these.” Our hopes go down that sailed before the breeze; Our creeds upon the rock are rent in twain; Something it is, if […]
The Village Garden poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry
To E.M.S. Here, where your garden fenced about and still is, Here, where the unmoved summer air is sweet With mixed delight of lavender and lilies, Dreaming I linger in the noontide heat. Of many summers are the trees recorders, The turf a carpet many summers wove; Old-fashioned blossoms cluster in the […]
The Two Terrors poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry
Two terrors fright my soul by night and day: The first is Life, and with her come the years; A weary, winding train of maidens they, With forward-fronting eyes, too sad for tears; Upon whose kindred faces, blank and grey, The shadow of a kindred woe appears. Death is the second terror; who shall […]
The Sick Man and the Nightingale poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry
(From Lenau.) So late, and yet a nightingale? Long since have dropp’d the blossoms pale, The summer fields are ripening, And yet a sound of spring? O tell me, didst thou come to hear, Sweet Spring, that I should die this year; And call’st across from the far shore To me one […]
The Sequel to a Reminiscence poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry
Not in the street and not in the square, The street and square where you went and came; With shuttered casement your house stands bare, Men hush their voice when they speak your name. I, too, can play at the vain pretence, Can feign you dead; while a voice sounds clear In the […]
The Promise of Sleep poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry
Put the sweet thoughts from out thy mind, The dreams from out thy breast; No joy for thee–but thou shalt find Thy rest All day I could not work for woe, I could not work nor rest; The trouble drove me to and fro, Like a leaf on the storm’s breast. Night […]
The Piano-Organ poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry
My student-lamp is lighted, The books and papers are spread; A sound comes floating upwards, Chasing the thoughts from my head. I open the garret window, Let the music in and the moon; See the woman grin for coppers, While the man grinds out the tune. Grind me a dirge or a […]
The Old Poet poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry
I will be glad because it is the Spring; I will forget the winter in my heart– Dead hopes and withered promise; and will wring A little joy from life ere life depart. For spendthrift youth with passion-blinded eyes, Stays not to see how woods and fields are bright; He hears the phantom […]
The Old House poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry
In through the porch and up the silent stair; Little is changed, I know so well the ways;– Here, the dead came to meet me; it was there The dream was dreamed in unforgotten days. But who is this that hurries on before, A flitting shade the brooding shades among?– She turned,–I saw […]
The Lost Friend poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry
The people take the thing of course, They marvel not to see This strange, unnatural divorce Betwixt delight and me. I know the face of sorrow, and I know Her voice with all its varied cadences; Which way she turns and treads; how at her ease Things fit her dreary largess to bestow. […]
The Last Judgment poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry
With beating heart and lagging feet, Lord, I approach the Judgment-seat. All bring hither the fruits of toil, Measures of wheat and measures of oil; Gold and jewels and precious wine; No hands bare like these hands of mine. The treasure I have nor weighs nor gleams: Lord, I can bring you only […]
The First Extra poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry
A Waltz Song. O sway, and swing, and sway, And swing, and sway, and swing! Ah me, what bliss like unto this, Can days and daylight bring? A rose beneath your feet Has fallen from my head; Its odour rises sweet, All crushed it lies, and dead. O Love is like […]
The End of the Day poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry
To B. T. Dead-tired, dog-tired, as the vivid day Fails and slackens and fades away.– The sky that was so blue before With sudden clouds is shrouded o’er. Swiftly, stilly the mists uprise, Till blurred and grey the landscape lies. * * * * * * * All day we have […]
The Dream poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry
Believe me, this was true last night, Tho’ it is false to-day. — A.M.F. Robinson. A fair dream to my chamber flew: Such a crowd of folk that stirred, Jested, fluttered; only you, You alone of all that band, Calm and silent, spake no word. Only once you neared my place, And your […]
The Birch-Tree at Loschwitz poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry
At Loschwitz above the city The air is sunny and chill; The birch-trees and the pine-trees Grow thick upon the hill. Lone and tall, with silver stem, A birch-tree stands apart; The passionate wind of spring-time Stirs in its leafy heart. I lean against the birch-tree, My arms around it twine; It […]
Straw in the Street poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry
Straw in the street where I pass to-day Dulls the sound of the wheels and feet. ‘Tis for a failing life they lay Straw in the street. Here, where the pulses of London beat, Someone strives with the Presence grey; Ah, is it victory or defeat? The hurrying people go their way, […]
Sonnet poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry
Most wonderful and strange it seems, that I Who but a little time ago was tost High on the waves of passion and of pain, With aching heat and wildly throbbing brain, Who peered into the darkness, deeming vain All things there found if but One thing were lost, Thus calm and still and […]
Sinfonia Eroica poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry
(To Sylvia.) My Love, my Love, it was a day in June, A mellow, drowsy, golden afternoon; And all the eager people thronging came To that great hall, drawn by the magic name Of one, a high magician, who can raise The spirits of the past and future days, And draw the dreams […]
Run to Death poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry
A True Incident of Pre-Revolutionary French History. Now the lovely autumn morning breathes its freshness in earth’s face, In the crowned castle courtyard the blithe horn proclaims the chase; And the ladies on the terrace smile adieux with rosy lips To the huntsmen disappearing down the cedar-shaded groves, Wafting delicate aromas from their […]
Ralph to Mary poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry
Love, you have led me to the strand, Here, where the stilly, sunset sea, Ever receding silently, Lays bare a shining stretch of sand; Which, as we tread, in waving line, Sinks softly ‘neath our moving feet; And looking down our glances meet, Two mirrored figures–yours and mine. To-night you found me […]
Philosophy poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry
Ere all the world had grown so drear, When I was young and you were here, ‘Mid summer roses in summer weather, What pleasant times we’ve had together! We were not Phyllis, simple-sweet, And Corydon; we did not meet By brook or meadow, but among A Philistine and flippant throng Which much […]
Out of Town poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry
Out of town the sky was bright and blue, Never fog-cloud, lowering, thick, was seen to frown; Nature dons a garb of gayer hue, Out of town. Spotless lay the snow on field and down, Pure and keen the air above it blew; All wore peace and beauty for a crown. London […]
On the Wye in May poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry
Now is the perfect moment of the year. Half naked branches, half a mist of green, Vivid and delicate the slopes appear; The cool, soft air is neither fierce nor keen, And in the temperate sun we feel no fear; Of all the hours which shall be and have been, It is the […]
On the Threshold poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry
O God, my dream! I dreamed that you were dead; Your mother hung above the couch and wept Whereon you lay all white, and garlanded With blooms of waxen whiteness. I had crept Up to your chamber-door, which stood ajar, And in the doorway watched you from afar, Nor dared advance to kiss your […]
Oh, Is It Love? poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry
O is it Love or is it Fame, This thing for which I sigh? Or has it then no earthly name For men to call it by? I know not what can ease my pains, Nor what it is I wish; The passion at my heart-strings strains Like a tiger in a leash. […]