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 you were mine, if you were mine” poem – Alfred Austin
`If you were mine, if you were mine, The day would dawn, the stars would shine, The sun would set, the moon arise, In holier and yet heavenlier skies. Then unto me the Year would bring A younger April, fresher Spring. I should not then seek sylvan ways For primrose clusters, woodbine sprays, To […]
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 […]
“Here, where the vine and fig bask hand in hand,” poem – Alfred Austin
Here, where the vine and fig bask hand in hand, And the hot lizard lies along the wall, Blinded I shrink where cypress shadows fall, And gaze upon the far-off mountains bland: Then down the dusty track Lorenzo planned Watch the slow oxen oscillating crawl Sleek in the sultry glare, and feel withal Half […]
“Here have I learnt the little that I know” poem – Alfred Austin
Here have I learnt the little that I know, Here where in these untutored woodland ways The primrose, all unconscious of our praise, Dimpled the dainty coverlet of the snow, March’s first-born, and, still averse to go, Though drowsy-lidded, dallies and delays When, dawning through the bluebell’s heavenly haze, June into full mid-summer broadeneth […]
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, […]
“Give me October’s meditative haze” poem – Alfred Austin
Give me October’s meditative haze, Its gossamer mornings, dewy-wimpled eves, Dewy and fragrant, fragrant and secure, The long slow sound of farmward-wending wains, When homely Love sups quiet ‘mid his sheaves, Sups ‘mid his sheaves, his sickle at his side, And all is peace, peace and plump fruitfulness. Alfred AustinAlfred Austin (1835 – […]
“Give me a roof where Wisdom dwells” poem – Alfred Austin
Give me a roof where Wisdom dwells, Where honeysuckle smiles and smells, A bleating flock, some lowing kine, An honest welcome always mine, A homely draught, a humble meal, Leisure to live, to think, to feel, A narrow plot, a prospect wide, A patch upon the mountain side! From these my heart you will […]
“For where, beneath one’s parent sky” poem – Alfred Austin
For where, beneath one’s parent sky, Our dear ones live, our dead ones lie. Alfred AustinAlfred Austin (1835 – 1913) was an English journalist and a poet who was appointed Poet Laureate in 1896, after an interval following the death of Tennyson, when the other candidates had either caused controversy or simply refused […]
“`Father, farewell! Be not distressed” poem – Alfred Austin
`Father, farewell! Be not distressed, And take my vow, ere I depart, To found a Convent in my breast, And keep a cloister in my heart.’ Alfred AustinAlfred Austin (1835 – 1913) was an English journalist and a poet who was appointed Poet Laureate in 1896, after an interval following the death of […]
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 […]
Farewell To Italy poem – Alfred Austin
Incomparable Italy, farewell! Tears not unmanly trespass to the eyes, From thy soft touch and glance unspeakable Compelled to turn and suffer other skies. E’en as I leave thee, the maternal vine Under the weight of clustering fruitage bends; And the plump fig, beyond where tendrils twine, Shows greener, moister, as the sap ascends. […]
Dedication To The Edition Of 1876 To H.J.A. poem – Alfred Austin
Three graces still attend me, since the day Your step across my graceless threshold came: Reverence, and Gratitude, and Love, their name. Reverence, whose gaze fears from the ground to stray, And bows its head, and sues to you to lay Your foot thereon, and keep my base self down: Next, Gratitude, that, bolder, […]
Dedication To Lady Windsor poem – Alfred Austin
Where violets blue to olives gray From furrows brown lift laughing eyes, And silvery Mensola sings its way Through terraced slopes, nor seeks to stay, But onward and downward leaps and flies; Where vines, just newly burgeoned, link Their hands to join the dance of Spring, Green lizards glisten from clest and chink, And […]
“`Covet who will the patronage of Kings ” poem – Alfred Austin
`Covet who will the patronage of Kings, And pompous titles Emperors bestow, Splendour, and revelry, and all that brings A thousand bitter thoughts, a world of woe: A meadow glistening in an April shower, A green-banked rivulet, and, near his nest, A blackbird carolling in guelder bower, ‘Tis these that soothe and satisfy the […]
“Could I but leave men wiser by my song ” poem – Alfred Austin
Could I but leave men wiser by my song, And somewhat happier in their little day, Wean them from things that lure but to betray, Make the harsh gentle, and the feeble strong, Shunning the paths where pride and folly throng, Then would I carol all the livelong day, And, as the golden sunset […]
Content Written Off Ithica poem – Alfred Austin
I could not find the little maid Content, So out I rushed, and sought her far and wide; But not where Pleasure each new fancy tried, Heading the maze of reeling merriment, Nor where, with restless eyes and bow half bent, Love in a brake of sweetbrier smiled and sighed, Nor yet where Fame […]
Chi È? poem – Alfred Austin
When for a buonamano Cometh, at break of day, Knock at the terzo piano, A little voice answers, Chi è? “I, the facchino, awaiting The bounty of cara lei.” She droppeth a paul through the grating, And silently steals away. When, with a long low mumble Of lips that appear to pray, There cometh […]
By The Fates poem – Alfred Austin
By the fates that have fastened our life, By the distance that holds us apart, By our passion, its sweetness, its strife, By the longing and ache of the heart; By our meeting, our parting, our pain When meeting and parting are o’er,- Take me hence to where once I have lain, Ere I […]
Burns’s Statue At Irvine poem – Alfred Austin
Yes! let His place be there! Where the lone moorland gazes on the sea, Not in the squalid street nor pompous square: So that he again may be From contamination free, His pedestal the plain, his canopy the air! There leave him all alone! Too much, too long, he herded with his kind, Lured […]
“Beyond the pasture’s withered bents ” poem – Alfred Austin
Beyond the pasture’s withered bents, Upstanding hop, recumbent fleece, And sheaves of wheat, like weathered tents, A twilight bivouac of peace. Alfred AustinAlfred Austin (1835 – 1913) was an English journalist and a poet who was appointed Poet Laureate in 1896, after an interval following the death of Tennyson, when the other candidates […]
Before, Behind, And Beyond poem – Alfred Austin
O the sunny days before us, before us, before us, When all was bright From holt to height, And the heavens were shining o’er us; When sound and scent, with vision blent, Wingèd Hope, and perched Content, Joys that came, and ills that went, Seemed singing all in chorus. O the dreary days behind […]
“Because I failed, shall I asperse the End” poem – Alfred Austin
Because I failed, shall I asperse the End With scorn or doubt, my failure to excuse; ‘Gainst arduous Truth my feeble falseness use, Like that worst foe, a vain splenetic friend? Deem’st thou, self-amorous fool, the High will bend If that thy utmost stature prove too small? Though thou be dwarf, some other is […]
At Vaucluse poem – Alfred Austin
By Avignon’s dismantled walls, Where cloudless mid-March sunshine falls, Rhone, through broad belts of green, Flecked with the light of almond groves, Upon itself reverting, roves Reluctant from the scene. Yet from stern moat and storied tower, From sprouting vine, from spreading flower, My footsteps cannot choose But turn aside, as though some friend […]
At The Lattice poem – Alfred Austin
Behind the curtain, With glance uncertain, Peeps pet Florence as I gaily ride; Half demurely, But, though purely, Most, most surely Wishing she were riding, riding by my side. In leafy alleys, Where sunlight dallies, Pleasant were it, bonnie, to be riding rein by rein; And where summer tosses, All about in bosses, Velvet […]
At The Gate Of The Convent poem – Alfred Austin
Beside the Convent Gate I stood, Lingering to take farewell of those To whom I owed the simple good Of three days’ peace, three nights’ repose. My sumpter-mule did blink and blink; Was nothing more to munch or quaff; Antonio, far too wise to think, Leaned vacantly upon his staff. It was the childhood […]
At Shelley’s House At Lerici poem – Alfred Austin
Maiden, with English hair, and eyes The colour of Italian skies, What seek you by this shore? “I seek, sir, for the latest home Where Shelley dwelt, and, o’er the foam Speeding, returned no more.” Come, then, with me: I seek it, too. Are you his kith? For strangely you Resemble him in mien. […]
At Shelley’s Grave poem – Alfred Austin
Beneath this marble, mute of praise, Is hushed the heart of One Who, whilst it beat, had eagle’s gaze To stare upon the sun. Equal in flight To any height, He lies where they that crawl but come, Sleeping most sound,-Cor Cordium. No rippling notes announcing spring, No bloom-evoking breeze, No fleecy clouds that […]
At San Giovanni Del Lago poem – Alfred Austin
I leaned upon the rustic bridge, And watched the streamlet make Its chattering way past zigzag ridge Down to the silent lake. The sunlight flickered on the wave, Lay quiet on the hill; Italian sunshine, bright and brave, Though ’twas but April still. I heard the distant shepherd’s shout, I heard the fisher’s call; […]
A Woman’s Apology poem – Alfred Austin
In the green darkness of a summer wood, Wherethro’ ran winding ways, a lady stood, Carved from the air in curving womanhood. A maiden’s form crowned by a matron’s mien, As, about Lammas, wheat-stems may be seen, The ear all golden, but the stalk still green. There as she stood, waiting for sight or […]
A Wintry Picture poem – Alfred Austin
Now where the bare sky spans the landscape bare, Up long brown fallows creeps the slow brown team, Scattering the seed-corn that must sleep and dream, Till by Spring’s carillon awakened there. Ruffling the tangles of his thicket hair, The stripling yokel steadies now the beam, Now strides erect with cheeks that glow and […]
A Wintry Picture (II) poem – Alfred Austin
Now in the woodlands from the creaking boughs The last sere leaves are loosened and unstrung, Where once the tender honeysuckle clung, And the fond mavis fluted to his spouse. Already dreaming of her winter drowse, And brooding dimly on her unborn young, The dormouse rakes the beechmast, and among The matted roots the […]
A Wild Rose poem – Alfred Austin
The first wild rose in wayside hedge, This year I wandering see, I pluck, and send it as a pledge, My own Wild Rose, to Thee. For when my gaze first met thy gaze, We were knee-deep in June: The nights were only dreamier days, And all the hours in tune. I found thee, […]