Leszko The Bastard poem – Alfred Austin
“Why do I bid the rising gale To waft me from your shore? Why hail I, as the vultures hail, The scent of far-off gore? Why wear I with defiant pride The Paynim’s badge and gear, Though I am vowed to Christ that died, And fain would staunch the gaping side That felt the […]
Is Life Worth Living? poem – Alfred Austin
Is life worth living? Yes, so long As Spring revives the year, And hails us with the cuckoo’s song, To show that she is here; So long as May of April takes, In smiles and tears, farewell, And windflowers dapple all the brakes, And primroses the dell; While children in the woodlands yet Adorn […]
Inflexible As Fate poem – Alfred Austin
When for one brief dark hour Rome’s virile sway Felt the sharp shock of Cannae’s adverse day, Forum, and field, and Senate-House were rent With cries of nor misgiving nor lament, Only of men contending now who should Purchase the spot on which the Victor stood. Legion on legion sprang up from the ground, […]
In The Month When Sings The Cuckoo poem – Alfred Austin
Hark! Spring is coming. Her herald sings, Cuckoo! The air resounds and the woodland rings, Cuckoo! Cuckoo! Leave the milking pail and the mantling cream, And down by the meadow, and up by the stream, Where movement is music and life a dream, In the month when sings the cuckoo. Away with old Winter’s […]
In The Forum poem – Alfred Austin
The last warm gleams of sunset fade From cypress spire and stonepine dome, And, in the twilight’s deepening shade, Lingering, I scan the wrecks of Rome. Husht the Madonna’s Evening Bell; The steers lie loosed from wain and plough; The vagrant monk is in his cell, The meek nun-novice cloistered now. Pedant’s presumptuous voice […]
In Sutton Woods poem – Alfred Austin
There-peace once more; the restless roar Of troubled cities dies away. “Welcome to our broad shade once more,” The dear old woodlands seem to say. The sweet suggestions of the wind, That spake in whispers, now are stilled; The songless branches all remind That summer’s glory is fulfilled. The petulant plaint of falling leaves […]
In Praise Of England poem – Alfred Austin
From tangled brake and trellised bower Bring every bud that blows, But never will you find the flower To match an English rose. It blooms with more than city grace, Though rustic and apart; It has a smile upon its face, And a dewdrop in its heart. Though wide the goodly world around Your […]
Impromptu: To Frances Garnet Wolseley poem – Alfred Austin
Little maiden just beginning To be comely, arch, and winning, In whose form I catch the traces Of your mother’s gifts and graces, And around whose head the glory Of your father’s growing story, O’er whose cradle, fortune-guided, Mars and Venus both presided, May your fuller years inherit Female charm and manly merit, So […]
If I To You But Sorry Bring poem – Alfred Austin
If I to you but sorrow bring, But aching hours and brackish tears, And that poor drooping Hope whose wing Flags ‘neath the weight of clogging fears, Then let me in the desert hide This fatal gift, this feverish breast; Or, better,’neath the sounding tide Be hushed, and evermore at rest. What recks it […]
I Chide Not At The Seasons poem – Alfred Austin
I chide not at the seasons, for if Spring With backward look refuses to be fair, My Love still more than April makes me sing, And shows May blossom in the bleak March air. Should Summer fail its tryst, or June delay To wreathe my porch with roses red and pale, Her breath is […]
Hymn To Death poem – Alfred Austin
I What is it haunts the summer air? A sense of something lately passed away; Something pleasant, something fair, That was with us yesterday, And is no longer there. Now from the pasture comes no baby bleat, Nor the frisk of frolic feet There is seen. Blossom and bloom have spread their wings, and […]
Grandmother’s Teaching poem – Alfred Austin
“Grandmother dear, you do not know; you have lived the old-world life, Under the twittering eaves of home, sheltered from storm and strife; Rocking cradles, and covering jams, knitting socks for baby feet, Or piecing together lavender bags for keeping the linen sweet: Daughter, wife, and mother in turn, and each with a blameless […]
Gleaners Of Fame poem – Alfred Austin
Hearken not, friend, for the resounding din That did the Poet’s verses once acclaim: We are but gleaners in the field of fame, Whence the main harvest hath been gathered in. The sheaves of glory you are fain to win, Long since were stored round many a household name, The reapers of the Past, […]
Love’s Wisdom poem – Alfred Austin
Love, that in my mind seeks Reason’s aid. Paraphrase. I crave not love, for it would only bring Tears to your eyes, and anguish to your heart; I am in Autumn, you are still in Spring, And you must linger after I depart. Then to you Summer would scarce Summer be, Vainly for you […]
Love’s Fitfulness poem – Alfred Austin
You say that I am fitful. Sweet, ’tis true; But ’tis that I your fitfulness obey. If you are April, how can I be May, Or flaunt bright roses when you wear sad rue? Shine like the sun, and my sky will be blue; Sing, and the lark shall envy me my lay: I […]
Love Of Life poem – Alfred Austin
Why love life more, the less of it be left, And what is left be little but the lees, And Time’s subsiding passions have bereft One’s taste for pleasure, and one’s power to please? Is it not better, like the waning year, Without lament resignedly to fade, Since by enduring ordinance all things here […]
Love Of Life poem – Alfred Austin
Why love life more, the less of it be left, And what is left be little but the lees, And Time’s subsiding passions have bereft One’s taste for pleasure, and one’s power to please? Is it not better, like the waning year, Without lament resignedly to fade, Since by enduring ordinance all things here […]
Lost poem – Alfred Austin
Sweet lark! that, bedded in the tangled grass, Protractest dewy slumbers, wake, arise! The brightest moments of the morning pass- Thou shouldst be up, and carolling in the skies. Go up! go up! and melt into the blue, And to heaven’s veil on wings of song repair; But, ere thou dost descend to earth, […]
Lines Written On Visiting The Chateaux On The Loire poem – Alfred Austin
I “River rolling past the grey Battlements of yesterday, Palace strongholds reared by hands Summoned from transalpine lands, Skilled in wedding strength with grace, Fort with stately dwelling-place, Vizored brow with siren tress, Majesty with loveliness,- River, that beheld their sway Dawn and dwindle, then decay, Linger, loiter, while I sit, As the sunshine-shadows […]
Let The Weary World Go Round poem – Alfred Austin
Let the weary world go round! What care I? Life’s a surfeiting of sound: I would die. It would be so sweet to lie Under waving grasses, Where a maiden’s footstep sly, Tremulous for a lover nigh, Sometimes passes. Why, why remain? Graves are the sovereign simples Against life’s pain; Graves are the sheltering […]
Leszko The Bastard poem – Alfred Austin
“Why do I bid the rising gale To waft me from your shore? Why hail I, as the vultures hail, The scent of far-off gore? Why wear I with defiant pride The Paynim’s badge and gear, Though I am vowed to Christ that died, And fain would staunch the gaping side That felt the […]
Is Life Worth Living? poem – Alfred Austin
Is life worth living? Yes, so long As Spring revives the year, And hails us with the cuckoo’s song, To show that she is here; So long as May of April takes, In smiles and tears, farewell, And windflowers dapple all the brakes, And primroses the dell; While children in the woodlands yet Adorn […]
Inflexible As Fate poem – Alfred Austin
When for one brief dark hour Rome’s virile sway Felt the sharp shock of Cannae’s adverse day, Forum, and field, and Senate-House were rent With cries of nor misgiving nor lament, Only of men contending now who should Purchase the spot on which the Victor stood. Legion on legion sprang up from the ground, […]
In The Month When Sings The Cuckoo poem – Alfred Austin
Hark! Spring is coming. Her herald sings, Cuckoo! The air resounds and the woodland rings, Cuckoo! Cuckoo! Leave the milking pail and the mantling cream, And down by the meadow, and up by the stream, Where movement is music and life a dream, In the month when sings the cuckoo. Away with old Winter’s […]
In The Forum poem – Alfred Austin
The last warm gleams of sunset fade From cypress spire and stonepine dome, And, in the twilight’s deepening shade, Lingering, I scan the wrecks of Rome. Husht the Madonna’s Evening Bell; The steers lie loosed from wain and plough; The vagrant monk is in his cell, The meek nun-novice cloistered now. Pedant’s presumptuous voice […]
In Sutton Woods poem – Alfred Austin
There-peace once more; the restless roar Of troubled cities dies away. “Welcome to our broad shade once more,” The dear old woodlands seem to say. The sweet suggestions of the wind, That spake in whispers, now are stilled; The songless branches all remind That summer’s glory is fulfilled. The petulant plaint of falling leaves […]
In Praise Of England poem – Alfred Austin
From tangled brake and trellised bower Bring every bud that blows, But never will you find the flower To match an English rose. It blooms with more than city grace, Though rustic and apart; It has a smile upon its face, And a dewdrop in its heart. Though wide the goodly world around Your […]
Impromptu: To Frances Garnet Wolseley poem – Alfred Austin
Little maiden just beginning To be comely, arch, and winning, In whose form I catch the traces Of your mother’s gifts and graces, And around whose head the glory Of your father’s growing story, O’er whose cradle, fortune-guided, Mars and Venus both presided, May your fuller years inherit Female charm and manly merit, So […]
If I To You But Sorry Bring poem – Alfred Austin
If I to you but sorrow bring, But aching hours and brackish tears, And that poor drooping Hope whose wing Flags ‘neath the weight of clogging fears, Then let me in the desert hide This fatal gift, this feverish breast; Or, better,’neath the sounding tide Be hushed, and evermore at rest. What recks it […]
I Chide Not At The Seasons poem – Alfred Austin
I chide not at the seasons, for if Spring With backward look refuses to be fair, My Love still more than April makes me sing, And shows May blossom in the bleak March air. Should Summer fail its tryst, or June delay To wreathe my porch with roses red and pale, Her breath is […]
Hymn To Death poem – Alfred Austin
I What is it haunts the summer air? A sense of something lately passed away; Something pleasant, something fair, That was with us yesterday, And is no longer there. Now from the pasture comes no baby bleat, Nor the frisk of frolic feet There is seen. Blossom and bloom have spread their wings, and […]
Grandmother’s Teaching poem – Alfred Austin
“Grandmother dear, you do not know; you have lived the old-world life, Under the twittering eaves of home, sheltered from storm and strife; Rocking cradles, and covering jams, knitting socks for baby feet, Or piecing together lavender bags for keeping the linen sweet: Daughter, wife, and mother in turn, and each with a blameless […]
Gleaners Of Fame poem – Alfred Austin
Hearken not, friend, for the resounding din That did the Poet’s verses once acclaim: We are but gleaners in the field of fame, Whence the main harvest hath been gathered in. The sheaves of glory you are fain to win, Long since were stored round many a household name, The reapers of the Past, […]
Farewell To Spring poem – Alfred Austin
I saw this morning, with a sudden smart, Spring preparing to depart. I know her well and so I told her all my heart. “Why did you, Spring, your coming so delay, If, now here, you cannot stay? You win my love and then unloving pass away. “We waited, waited, O so long, so […]
The Golden Age poem – Alfred Austin
Long ere the Muse the strenuous chords had swept, And the first lay as yet in silence slept, A Time there was which since has stirred the lyre To notes of wail and accents warm with fire; Moved the soft Mantuan to his silvery strain, And him who sobbed in pentametric pain; To which […]
“The flower, full blown, now bends the stalk, now breaks” poem – Alfred Austin
The flower, full blown, now bends the stalk, now breaks; The mellow fruit inclines the bough to earth; The brow which thought impregnates ofttimes aches; Death-stricken is the womb in giving birth. Cracked is the vase by heat which doth illume, The driest logs the swiftest burn to nought, Sweet flowers are stifled by […]
The Fallen Elm poem – Alfred Austin
The popinjay screamed from tree to tree, Then was lost in the burnished leaves; The sky was as blue as a southern sea, And the swallow came back to the eaves. So I followed the sound of pipe and bleat To the glade where my dear old Elm, With head majestic and massive feet, […]
The Evening Light poem – Alfred Austin
I Angels their silvery trumpets blow, At dawn, to greet the Morning Glow, And mortals lift adoring eyes To see the glorious sun arise. Then, winged by Faith, and spurred by Hope Youth scans the hill, youth scales the slope. Its pulses bound, its thoughts exult, It finds no danger difficult, Quickens its pace, […]
The Dregs Of Love poem – Alfred Austin
Think you that I will drain the dregs of Love, I who have quaffed the sweetness on its brink? Now by the steadfast burning stars above, Better to faint of thirst than thuswise drink. What! shall we twain who saw love’s glorious fires Flame toward the sky and flush Heaven’s self with light, Crouch […]
The Door Of Humility poem – Alfred Austin
ENGLAND We lead the blind by voice and hand, And not by light they cannot see; We are not framed to understand The How and Why of such as He; But natured only to rejoice At every sound or sign of hope, And, guided by the still small voice, In patience through the darkness […]