A Voice From The West poem – Alfred Austin
What is the voice I hear On the wind of the Western Sea? Sentinel, listen from out Cape Clear And say what the voice may be. “’Tis a proud, free people calling loud to a people proud and free. “And it says to them, `Kinsmen, hail! We severed have been too long. Now let […]
A Twilight Song poem – Alfred Austin
Why, rapturous bird, though shades of night Muffle the leaves and swathe the lawn, Singest thou still with all thy might, As though ’twere noon, as though ’twere dawn? Silence darkens on vale and hill, But thou, unseen, art singing still. ‘Tis because, though in dusky bower, With love delighted still thou art; Nor […]
A Tusculan Question poem – Alfred Austin
One day as on an ass I rode, By many a twisting gully, To where once stood the famed abode Of philosophic Tully, A shepherd lad with hat aslouch Was singing to his flock O; I pulled my money from my pouch, And chucked him a baiocco. A moment gone, and with his psalm […]
The Haymakers’ Song poem – Alfred Austin
HERE’S to him that grows it, Drink, lads, drink! That lays it in and mows it, Clink, jugs, clink! To him that mows and makes it, That scatters it and shakes it, That turns, and teds, and rakes it, Clink, jugs, clink! Now here ’s to him that stacks it, Drink, lads, drink! That […]
Love’s Blindness poem – Alfred Austin
Now do I know that Love is blind, for I Can see no beauty on this beauteous earth, No life, no light, no hopefulness, no mirth, Pleasure nor purpose, when thou art not nigh. Thy absence exiles sunshine from the sky, Seres Spring’s maturity, checks Summer’s birth, Leaves linnet’s pipe as sad as plover’s cry, […]
At Her Grave poem – Alfred Austin
Lo, here among the rest you sleep, As though no difference were ‘Twixt them and you, more wide, more deep, Than such as fondness loves to keep Round each lone sepulchre. Yet they but human, you divine, Warmed by that heavenly breath, Which, when ephemeral lights decline, Like lamp before nocturnal shrine, Still burneth […]
At Delphi poem – Alfred Austin
I Apollo! Apollo! Apollo! II Where hast thou, Apollo, gone? I have wandered on and on, Through the shaggy Dorian gorges, Down from where Parnassus forges Thunder for the Phocian valleys; Where the Pleistus springs and sallies Past ravines and caverns dread, Have, like it, meanderëd; But I cannot see thee, hear thee, Find […]
As Dies The Year poem – Alfred Austin
The Old Year knocks at the farmhouse door. October, come with your matron gaze, From the fruit you are storing for winter days, And prop him up on the granary floor, Where the straw lies threshed and the corn stands heaped: Let him eat of the bread he reaped; He is feeble and faint, […]
Any Poet At Any Time poem – Alfred Austin
Time, thou supreme inexorable Judge, Whom none can bribe, and none can overawe, Who unto party rancour, private grudge, Calmly opposeth equitable law, Before whom advocacy vainly strives To make the better cause to seem the worse, To thy Tribunal, when our jangling lives Are husht, I leave the verdict on my verse. Irrevocably […]
An Experiment In Translation poem – Alfred Austin
Blest husbandmen! if they but knew their bliss! For whom, from war remote, fair-minded Earth Teems, to light toil, with ready sustenance. What though from splendid palace streams at dawn No servile train, gaping at inlaid gates, Corinthian bronzes, garments tricked with gold; What though for them no snow-white wool be stained By Eastern […]
An Autumn Picture poem – Alfred Austin
Now round red roofs stand russet stacks arow: Homeward from gleaning in the stubbly wheat, High overhead the harsh rook saileth slow, And cupless acorns crackle ‘neath your feet. No breeze, no breath, veereth the oasthouse hoods, Whence the faint smoke floats fragrantly away; And, in the distance, the half-hazy woods Glow with the […]
An Autumn Homily poem – Alfred Austin
Here let us sit beneath this oak, and hear The acorns fitfully fall one by one, The final harvest of the fading year Now Summer eves and Autumn days are done. The orchard rows stand desolate and bare, Even the mellow quince is gathered now; The furrow yields the sickle to the share, And […]
An Autumn-Blooming Rose poem – Alfred Austin
I found, and plucked, an autumn-blooming rose, And shut my eyes, and scented all its savour: When lo! as in the month the blackthorn blows, Lambs ‘gan to bleat, and merle and lark to quaver. Flower of my life! inestimably dear, Now that its calendar wanes sere and sober, To me your freshness, turning […]
An April Love poem – Alfred Austin
Nay, be not June, nor yet December, dear, But April always, as I find thee now: A constant freshness unto me be thou, And not the ripeness that must soon be sere. Why should I be Time’s dupe, and wish more near The sobering harvest of thy vernal vow? I am content, so still […]
An April Fool poem – Alfred Austin
I sallied afield when the bud first swells, And the sun first slanteth hotly, And I came on a yokel in cap and bells, And a suit of saffron motley. He was squat on a bank where a self-taught stream, Fingering flint and pebble, Was playing in tune to the yaffel’s scream, And the […]
An Answer poem – Alfred Austin
Come, let us go into the lane, love mine, And mark and gather what the Autumn grows: The creamy elder mellowed into wine, The russet hip that was the pink-white rose; The amber woodbine into rubies turned, The blackberry that was the bramble born; Nor let the seeded clematis be spurned, Nor pearls, that […]
“Although no stupid scoffer, I” poem – Alfred Austin
Although no stupid scoffer, I Am wholly at a loss To apprehend the reason why You kiss Lorenzo’s Cross. For though indeed a hundred days’ Indulgence thus you win, There does not move a lip but says That you did never sin. Ha! but I did not read the whole. I see it now; […]
All Hail To The Czar! poem – Alfred Austin
All hail to the Czar! By the fringe of the foam That thunders, untamed, around Albion’s shore, See multitudes throng, dense as sea-birds whose home Is betwixt the deaf rocks and the ocean’s mad roar; And across the ridged waters stand straining their eyes For a glimpse of the Eagle that comes from afar: […]
Alfred’s Song poem – Alfred Austin
In the Beginning when, out of darkness, The Earth, the Heaven, The stars, the seasons, The mighty mainland, And whale-ploughed water, By God the Maker Were formed and fashioned, Then God made England. He made it shapely, With land-locked inlets, And gray-green nesses; With rivers roaming From fair-leafed forests Through windless valleys, Past plain […]
A Te Deum poem – Alfred Austin
Now let me praise the Lord, The Lord, the Maker of all! I will praise Him on timbrel and chord; Will praise Him, whatever befall. For the Heavens are His, and the Earth, His are the wind and the wave; His the begetting, the birth, And His the jaws of the grave. ‘Tis He […]
A Tale Of True Love poem – Alfred Austin
Not in the mist of legendary ages, Which in sad moments men call long ago, And people with bards, heroes, saints, and sages, And virtues vanished, since we do not know, But here to-day wherein we all grow old, But only we, this Tale of True Love will be told. For Earth to tender […]
A Spring Carol poem – Alfred Austin
I Blithe friend! blithe throstle! Is it thou, Whom I at last again hear sing, Perched on thy old accustomed bough, Poet-prophet of the Spring? Yes! Singing as thou oft hast sung, I can see thee there among The clustered branches of my leafless oak; Where, thy plumage gray as it, Thou mightst unsuspected […]
A Souless Singer poem – Alfred Austin
Hail! throstle, by thy ringing voice descried, Not by the wanderings of the tuneless wing! Now once again where forkëd boughs divide, Lost in green leafage thou dost perch and sing: Trilling, shrilling, far and wide, “It is Spring.” Thy matins peal long ere the rosy dawn Unfolds its hull and burgeons into light; […]
A Snow-White Lily poem – Alfred Austin
There was a snow-white lily Grew by a cottage door: Such a white and wonderful lily Never was seen before. The earth and the ether brought it Sustenance, raiment, grace, And the feet of the west wind sought it, And smiled in its smiling face. Tall were its leaves and slender, Slender and tall […]
A Sleepless Night poem – Alfred Austin
Within the hollow silence of the night I lay awake and listened. I could hear Planet with punctual planet chiming clear, And unto star star cadencing aright. Nor these alone: cloistered from deafening sight, All things that are, made music to my ear: Hushed woods, dumb caves, and many a soundless mere, With Arctic […]
A Shakespeare Memorial poem – Alfred Austin
Why should we lodge in marble or in bronze Spirits more vast than earth, or sea, or sky? Wiser the silent worshipper that cons Their words for wisdom that will never die. Unto the favourite of the passing hour Erect the statue and parade the bust; Whereon decisive Time will slowly shower Oblivion’s refuse […]
A Royal Home-Coming poem – Alfred Austin
Welcome, right welcome home, to these blest Isles, Where, unforgotten, loved Victoria sleeps, But now with happy pride your Father smiles, Your Mother weeps. You went as came the swallow, homeward draw Now it hath winged its way to winters green; But never swallow or wandering sea-bird saw What You have seen. For You […]
A Reply To A Pessimist poem – Alfred Austin
O beautiful bright world! for ever young, And now with Wisdom grafted on thy Spring, Why do they slander thee with wailing tongue, And lose the wealth of thy long harvesting? Why do they say that thou art old and sad, When, each fresh April, nightingales are glad, And, each returning May, paired misselthrushes […]
A Rare Guest poem – Alfred Austin
Love, that all men think they know, Is a rare guest here below; But with mortals when it stays, These are its unerring ways. I Love builds secret, half afraid, In the covert, in the shade, Fostering, where none know it is, Solitary gladnesses. Pry not on its brooding breast, Lest it should desert […]
A Question poem – Alfred Austin
Love, wilt thou love me still when wintry streak Steals on the tresses of autumnal brow; When the pale rose hath perished in my cheek, And those are wrinkles that are dimples now? Wilt thou, when this fond arm that here I twine Round thy dear neck to help thee in thy need, Droops […]
A Question Answered poem – Alfred Austin
I saw the lark at break of day Rise from its dewy bed, And, winged with melody, away Circle to Heaven o’erhead. I watched it higher and higher soar, Still ceasing not to trill, When, though I could descry no more Its flight, I heard it still. But shortly quavered back its note, And, […]
A Portrait poem – Alfred Austin
When friends grown faithless, or the fickle throng, Withdrawing from my life the love they lent, Breed in my heart disdainful discontent, And sadden sunshine with a sense of wrong, Then I, forgetting to be wise and strong, And on my own endearment too intent, Unto myself make musical lament, And lullaby my pain […]
A Point Of Honour poem – Alfred Austin
“Tell me again; I did not hear: It was wailing so sadly. Nay, Hush! little one, for mother wants to know what they have to say. There! At my breast be good and still! What quiets you calms me too. They say that the source is poisoned; still, it seems pure enough for you! […]
A Poet’s Eightieth Birthday poem – Alfred Austin
“He dieth young whom the Gods love,” was said By Greek Menander; nor alone by One Who gave to Greece his English song and sword Re-echoed is the saying, but likewise he “Who uttered nothing base,” and from whose brow, By right divine, the laurel lapsed to yours,- Great sire, great successor,-in verse confirmed […]
A November Note poem – Alfred Austin
Why, throstle, do you sing In this November haze? Singing for what? for whom? Deem you that it is Spring, Or that your lonely lays Will stave off Winter’s gloom? Then did the bird reply: “I sing because I know That Spring will surely come: That is the reason why, Though menaced by the […]
A Night In June poem – Alfred Austin
Lady! in this night of June Fair like thee and holy, Art thou gazing at the moon That is rising slowly? I am gazing on her now: Something tells me, so art thou. Night hath been when thou and I Side by side were sitting, Watching o’er the moonlit sky Fleecy cloudlets flitting. Close […]
A Meeting poem – Alfred Austin
Queen, widowed Mother of a widowed child, Whose ancient sorrow goeth forth to meet Her new-born sorrow with parental feet, And tearful eyes that oft on hers have smiled, Will not your generous heart be now beguiled From its too lonely anguish, as You greet Her anguish, yet more cruel and complete, And, through […]
A March Minstrel poem – Alfred Austin
Hail! once again, that sweet strong note! Loud on my loftiest larch, Thou quaverest with thy mottled throat, Brave minstrel of bleak March! Hearing thee flute, who pines or grieves For vernal smiles and showers? Thy voice is greener than the leaves, And fresher than the flowers. Scorning to wait for tuneful May When […]
A Letter From Italy poem – Alfred Austin
I Lately, when we wished good-bye Underneath a gloomy sky, “Bear,” you said, “my love in mind, Leaving me not quite behind; And across the mountains send News and greeting to your friend.” II Swiftly though we did advance Through the rich flat fields of France, Still the eye grew tired to see Patches […]
A Last Request poem – Alfred Austin
Let not the roses lie Too thickly tangled round my tomb, Lest fleecy clouds that skim the summer sky, Flinging their faint soft shadows, pass it by, And know not over whom. And let not footsteps come Too frequent round that nook of rest; Should I-who knoweth?-not be deaf, though dumb, Bird’s idle pipe, […]