Robert Burns: First Six Verses Of The Ninetieth Psalm Versified, The :
First Six Verses Of The Ninetieth Psalm Versified, The 1781 Type: Poem O Thou, the first, the greatest friend Of all the human race! Whose strong right hand has ever been Their stay and dwelling place! Before the mountains heav’d their heads Beneath Thy forming hand, Before this ponderous globe itself Arose at Thy […]
Robert Burns: Paraphrase Of The First Psalm:
Paraphrase Of The First Psalm 1781 Type: Poem The man, in life wherever plac’d, Hath happiness in store, Who walks not in the wicked’s way, Nor learns their guilty lore! Nor from the seat of scornful pride Casts forth his eyes abroad, But with humility and awe Still walks before his God. That man […]
Robert Burns: Under The Pressure Of Violent Anguish:
Under The Pressure Of Violent Anguish 1781 Type: Poem O Thou Great Being! what Thou art, Surpasses me to know; Yet sure I am, that known to Thee Are all Thy works below. Thy creature here before Thee stands, All wretched and distrest; Yet sure those ills that wring my soul Obey Thy high […]
Robert Burns: Winter: A Dirge:
Winter: A Dirge 1781 Type: Poem The wintry west extends his blast, And hail and rain does blaw; Or the stormy north sends driving forth The blinding sleet and snaw: While, tumbling brown, the burn comes down, And roars frae bank to brae; And bird and beast in covert rest, And pass the heartless […]
Robert Burns: Mary Morison:
Mary Morison 1780 Type: Song Tune: Bide ye yet. O Mary, at thy window be, It is the wish’d, the trysted hour! Those smiles and glances let me see, That make the miser’s treasure poor: How blythely was I bide the stour, A weary slave frae sun to sun, Could I the rich reward […]
Robert Burns: Bonie Peggy Alison:
Bonie Peggy Alison 1780 Type: Song Tune: The Braes o’ Balquhidder. Chor. – And I’ll kiss thee yet, yet, And I’ll kiss thee o’er again: And I’ll kiss thee yet, yet, My bonie Peggy Alison. Ilk care and fear, when thou art near I evermair defy them, O! Young kings upon their hansel throne […]
Robert Burns: Lass Of Cessnock Banks, The:
Lass Of Cessnock Banks, The 1780 Type: Song Tune: If he be a Butcher neat and trim. A Song of Similes On Cessnock banks a lassie dwells; Could I describe her shape and mein; Our lasses a’ she far excels, An’ she has twa sparkling roguish een. She’s sweeter than the morning dawn, When […]
Robert Burns: Here’s To Thy Health:
Here’s To Thy Health 1780 Type: Song Tune: Laggan Burn. Here’s to thy health, my bonie lass, Gude nicht and joy be wi’ thee; I’ll come nae mair to thy bower-door, To tell thee that I lo’e thee. O dinna think, my pretty pink, But I can live without thee: I vow and swear […]
Robert Burns Country: Ronalds Of The Bennals, The:
Ronalds Of The Bennals, The 1780 Type: Poem In Tarbolton, ye ken, there are proper young men, And proper young lasses and a’, man; But ken ye the Ronalds that live in the Bennals, They carry the gree frae them a’, man. Their father’s laird, and weel he can spare’t, Braid money to tocher […]
Robert Burns: Handsome Nell:
Handsome Nell 1771-1779 Type: Song Tune: I am a man unmarried. Once I lov’d a bonie lass, Ay, and I love her still; And whilst that virtue warms my breast, I’ll love my handsome Nell. As bonie lasses I hae seen, And mony full as braw; But, for a modest gracefu’ mein, […]
The Language of William Dunbar
The Language of William Dunbar Maybe I should have titled this English of William of Dunbar or William Dunbar’s English, but I haven’t — because I am unsure what exactly is the language in which William Dunbar composed his poems. Or rather, I am pretty certain that the language is English, though literary authorities claim […]
The Amendis to the Telyouris and Sowtaris for the Turnament maid on thame
The Amendis to the Telyouris and Sowtaris for the Turnament maid on thame by William Dunbar (1450-1513 or 1530) Betuix twell houris and ellevin, I dremed ane angell came fra Hevin With plesand stevin sayand on hie, Telyouris and Sowtaris, blist be ye. In Hevin hie ordand is your place, Aboif all Sanctis in […]
The Land of Counterpane by Robert Louis Stevenson
When I was sick and lay a-bed, I had two pillows at my head, And all my toys beside me lay, To keep me happy all the day. And sometimes for an hour or so I watched my leaden soldiers go, With different uniforms and drills, Among the bed-clothes, through the hills; And sometimes sent […]
Come, My Beloved, Hear From Me by Robert Louis Stevenson
COME, my beloved, hear from me Tales of the woods or open sea. Let our aspiring fancy rise A wren’s flight higher toward the skies; Or far from cities, brown and bare, Play at the least in open air. In all the tales men hear us tell Still let the unfathomed ocean swell, Or shallower […]
Come, Here Is Adieu To The City by Robert Louis Stevenson
COME, here is adieu to the city And hurrah for the country again. The broad road lies before me Watered with last night’s rain. The timbered country woos me With many a high and bough; And again in the shining fallows The ploughman follows the plough. The whole year’s sweat and study, And the whole […]
Come From The Daisied Meadows by Robert Louis Stevenson
HOME from the daisied meadows, where you linger yet – Home, golden-headed playmate, ere the sun is set; For the dews are falling fast And the night has come at last. Home with you, home and lay your little head at rest, Safe, safe, my little darling, on your mother’s breast. Lullaby, darling; your mother […]
Block City by Robert Louis Stevenson
What are you able to build with your blocks? Castles and palaces, temples and docks. Rain may keep raining, and others go roam, But I can be happy and building at home. Let the sofa be mountains, the carpet be sea, There I’ll establish a city for me: A kirk and a mill and a […]
Behold, As Goblins Dark Of Mien by Robert Louis Stevenson
BEHOLD, as goblins dark of mien And portly tyrants dyed with crime Change, in the transformation scene, At Christmas, in the pantomime, Instanter, at the prompter’s cough, The fairy bonnets them, and they Throw their abhorred carbuncles off And blossom like the flowers in May. – So mankind, to angelic eyes, So, through the scenes […]
Before This Little Gift Was Come by Robert Louis Stevenson
BEFORE this little gift was come The little owner had made haste for home; And from the door of where the eternal dwell, Looked back on human things and smiled farewell. O may this grief remain the only one! O may our house be still a garrison Of smiling children, and for evermore The tune […]
Away With Funeral Music by Robert Louis Stevenson
AWAY with funeral music; set The pipe to powerful lips – The cup of life’s for him that drinks And not for him that sips. ————— 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 Monster — […]
Autumn Fires by Robert Louis Stevenson
In the other gardens And all up the vale, From the autumn bonfires See the smoke trail! Pleasant summer over And all the summer flowers, The red fire blazes, The grey smoke towers. Sing a song of seasons! Something bright in all! Flowers in the summer, Fires in the fall! ————— The End And that’s […]
Auntie’s Skirts by Robert Louis Stevenson
Whenever Auntie moves around, Her dresses make a curious sound, They trail behind her up the floor, And trundle after through the door. ————— 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 Monster — the multilingual […]
At the Sea-Side by Robert Louis Stevenson
When I was down beside the sea A wooden spade they gave to me To dig the sandy shore. My holes were empty like a cup. In every hole the sea came up, Till it could come no more. ————— The End And that’s the End of the Poem © Poetry Monster, 2021. Poems by topic […]
At Last She Comes by Robert Louis Stevenson
AT last she comes, O never more In this dear patience of my pain To leave me lonely as before, Or leave my soul alone again. ————— 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 Monster […]
As One Who Having Wandered All Night Long by Robert Louis Stevenson
AS one who having wandered all night long In a perplexed forest, comes at length In the first hours, about the matin song, And when the sun uprises in his strength, To the fringed margin of the wood, and sees, Gazing afar before him, many a mile Of falling country, many fields and trees, And […]
As In Their Flight The Birds Of Song by Robert Louis Stevenson
AS in their flight the birds of song Halt here and there in sweet and sunny dales, But halt not overlong; The time one rural song to sing They pause; then following bounteous gales Steer forward on the wing: Sun-servers they, from first to last, Upon the sun they wait To ride the sailing blast. […]
Armies in the Fire by Robert Louis Stevenson
The lamps now glitter down the street; Faintly sound the falling feet; And the blue even slowly falls About the garden trees and walls. Now in the falling of the gloom The red fire paints the empty room: And warmly on the roof it looks, And flickers on the back of books. Armies march by […]
Apologetic Postscript Of A Year Later by Robert Louis Stevenson
IF you see this song, my dear, And last year’s toast, I’m confoundedly in fear You’ll be serious and severe About the boast. Blame not that I sought such aid To cure regret. I was then so lowly laid I used all the Gasconnade That I could get. Being snubbed is somewhat smart, Believe, my […]
An English Breeze by Robert Louis Stevenson
UP with the sun, the breeze arose, Across the talking corn she goes, And smooth she rustles far and wide Through all the voiceful countryside. Through all the land her tale she tells; She spins, she tosses, she compels The kites, the clouds, the windmill sails And all the trees in all the dales. God […]
Air Of Diabelli’s by Robert Louis Stevenson
CALL it to mind, O my love. Dear were your eyes as the day, Bright as the day and the sky; Like the stream of gold and the sky above, Dear were your eyes in the grey. We have lived, my love, O, we have lived, my love! Now along the silent river, azure Through […]
Ad Se Ipsum by Robert Louis Stevenson
DEAR sir, good-morrow! Five years back, When you first girded for this arduous track, And under various whimsical pretexts Endowed another with your damned defects, Could you have dreamed in your despondent vein That the kind God would make your path so plain? Non nobis, domine! O, may He still Support my stumbling footsteps on […]
Ad Quintilianum by Robert Louis Stevenson
O CHIEF director of the growing race, Of Rome the glory and of Rome the grace, Me, O Quintilian, may you not forgive Before from labour I make haste to live? Some burn to gather wealth, lay hands on rule, Or with white statues fill the atrium full. The talking hearth, the rafters sweet with […]
Ad Piscatorem by Robert Louis Stevenson
FOR these are sacred fishes all Who know that lord that is the lord of all; Come to the brim and nose the friendly hand That sways and can beshadow all the land. Nor only so, but have their names, and come When they are summoned by the Lord of Rome. Here once his line […]
Ad Olum by Robert Louis Stevenson
CALL me not rebel, though { here at every word {in what I sing If I no longer hail thee { King and Lord { Lord and King I have redeemed myself with all I had, And now possess my fortunes poor but glad. With all I had I have redeemed myself, And escaped at […]
Ad Nepotem by Robert Louis Stevenson
O NEPOS, twice my neigh(b)our (since at home We’re door by door, by Flora’s temple dome; And in the country, still conjoined by fate, Behold our villas standing gate by gate), Thou hast a daughter, dearer far than life – Thy image and the image of thy wife. Thy image and thy wife’s, and be […]
Ad Martialem by Robert Louis Stevenson
GO(D) knows, my Martial, if we two could be To enjoy our days set wholly free; To the true life together bend our mind, And take a furlough from the falser kind. No rich saloon, nor palace of the great, Nor suit at law should trouble our estate; On no vainglorious statues should we look, […]
Ad Magistrum Ludi by Robert Louis Stevenson
NOW in the sky And on the hearth of Now in a drawer the direful cane, That sceptre of the . . . reign, And the long hawser, that on the back Of Marsyas fell with many a whack, Twice hardened out of Scythian hides, Now sleep till the October ides. ————— The End And […]
About The Sheltered Garden Ground by Robert Louis Stevenson
ABOUT the sheltered garden ground The trees stand strangely still. The vale ne’er seemed so deep before, Nor yet so high the hill. An awful sense of quietness, A fulness of repose, Breathes from the dewy garden-lawns, The silent garden rows. As the hoof-beats of a troop of horse Heard far across a plain, A […]
A Valentine’s Song by Robert Louis Stevenson
MOTLEY I count the only wear That suits, in this mixed world, the truly wise, Who boldly smile upon despair And shake their bells in Grandam Grundy’s eyes. Singers should sing with such a goodly cheer That the bare listening should make strong like wine, At this unruly time of year, The Feast of Valentine. […]
A Thought by Robert Louis Stevenson
It is very nice to think The world is full of meat and drink, With little children saying grace In every Christian kind of place. ————— 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 Monster — […]