Delphi Poetry Anthology: The World's Greatest Poems (Delphi Poets Series Book 50) (253 page)
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Authors: Homer,William Shakespeare
Richard Monckton Milnes, Lord Houghton (1809–1885)
BECAUSE the Few with signal virtue crowned,
The heights and pinnacles of human mind,
Sadder and wearier than the rest are found,
Wish not thy Soul less wise or less refined.
True that the small delights which every day
5
Cheer and distract the pilgrim are not theirs;
True that, though free from passion’s lawless sway,
A loftier being brings several cares.
Yet have they special pleasures, even mirth,
By those undreamt of who have only trod
10
Life’s valley smooth; and if the rolling earth
To their nice ear have many a painful tone,
They know, Man does not live by Joy alone
But by the presence of the power of God.
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
William Makepeace Thackeray (1811–1863)
THE PLAY is done; the curtain drops,
Slow falling to the prompter’s bell:
A moment yet the actor stops,
And looks around, to say farewell.
It is an irksome word and task;
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And, when he’s laughed and said his say,
He shows, as he removes the mask,
A face that’s anything but gay.
One word, ere yet the evening ends,
Let’s close it with a parting rhyme,
10
And pledge a hand to all young friends,
As fits the merry Christmas-time.
On life’s wide scene you, too, have parts,
That Fate ere long shall bid you play;
Good night! with honest gentle hearts
15
A kindly greeting go alway!
Good night! — I’d say, the griefs, the joys,
Just hinted in this mimic page,
The triumphs and defeats of boys,
Are but repeated in our age.
20
I’d say, your woes were not less keen,
Your hopes more vain than those of men;
Your pangs or pleasures of fifteen
At forty-five played o’er again.
I’d say, we suffer and we strive,
25
Not less or more as men than boys;
With grizzled beards at forty-five,
As erst at twelve in corduroys.
And if, in time of sacred youth,
We learned at home to love and pray,
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Pray Heaven that early Love and Truth
May never wholly pass away.
And in the world, as in the school,
I’d say, how fate may change and shift;
The prize be sometimes with the fool,
35
The race not always to the swift.
The strong may yield, the good may fall,
The great man be a vulgar clown,
The knave be lifted over all,
The kind cast pitilessly down.
40
Who knows the inscrutable design?
Blessed be He who took and gave!
Why should your mother, Charles, not mine,
Be weeping at her darling’s grave?
We bow to Heaven that will’d it so,
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That darkly rules the fate of all.
That sends the respite or the blow,
That’s free to give, or to recall.
This crowns his feast with wine and wit:
Who brought him to that mirth and state?
50
His betters, see, below him sit,
Or hunger hopeless at the gate.
Who bade the mud from Dives’ wheel
To spurn the rags of Lazarus?
Come, brother, in that dust we’ll kneel,
55
Confessing Heaven that ruled it thus.
So each shall mourn, in life’s advance,
Dear hopes, dear friends, untimely killed;
Shall grieve for many a forfeit chance,
And longing passion unfulfilled.
60
Amen! whatever fate be sent,
Pray God the heart may kindly glow,
Although the head with cares be bent,
And whitened with the winter snow.
Come wealth or want, come good or ill,
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Let young and old accept their part,
And bow before the Awful Will,
And bear it with an honest heart,
Who misses or who wins the prize.
Go, lose or conquer as you can;
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But if you fail, or if you rise,
Be each, pray God, a gentleman.
A gentleman, or old or young!
(Bear kindly with my humble lays);
The sacred chorus first was sung
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Upon the first of Christmas Days:
The shepherds heard it overhead —
The joyful angels raised it then:
Glory to Heaven on high, it said,
And peace on earth to gentle men.
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My song, save this, is little worth;
I lay the weary pen aside,
And wish you health, and love, and mirth,
As fits the solemn Christmas-tide.
As fits the holy Christmas birth,
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Be this, good friends, our carol still —
Be peace on earth, be peace on earth,
To men of gentle will.
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Charles Kingsley (1819–1875)
AIRLY Beacon, Airly Beacon;
O the pleasant sight to see
Shires and towns from Airly Beacon,
While my love climb’d up to me!
Airly Beacon, Airly Beacon;
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O the happy hours we lay
Deep in fern on Airly Beacon,
Courting through the summer’s day!
Airly Beacon, Airly Beacon;
O the weary haunt for me,
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All alone on Airly Beacon,
With his baby on my knee!
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Charles Kingsley (1819–1875)
‘O MARY, go and call the cattle home,
And call the cattle home,
And call the cattle home
Across the sands of Dee;’
The western wind was wild and dank with foam,
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And all alone went she.
The western tide crept up along the sand,
And o’er and o’er the sand,
And round and round the sand,
As far as eye could see.
10
The rolling mist came down and hid the land:
And never home came she.
‘Oh! is it weed, or fish, or floating hair,
A tress of golden hair,
A drownèd maiden’s hair
15
Above the nets at sea?
Was never salmon yet that shone so fair
Among the stakes of Dee.’
They rowed her in across the rolling foam,
The cruel crawling foam,
20
The cruel hungry foam,
To her grave beside the sea:
But still the boatmen hear her call the cattle home
Across the sands of Dee.
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Charles Kingsley (1819–1875)
WHEN all the world is young, lad,
And all the trees are green;
And every goose a swan, lad,
And every lass a queen;
Then hey for boot and horse, lad,
5
And round the world away;
Young blood must have its course, lad,
And every dog his day.
When all the world is old, lad,
And all the trees are brown;
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And all the sport is stale, lad,
And all the wheels run down:
Creep home, and take your place there,
The spent and maimed among:
God grant you find one face there
15
You loved when all was young.
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Charles Kingsley (1819–1875)
WELCOME, wild North-easter!
Shame it is to see
Odes to every zephyr;
Ne’er a verse to thee.
Welcome, black North-easter!
5
O’er the German foam;
O’er the Danish moorlands,
From thy frozen home.
Tired we are of summer,
Tired of gaudy glare,
10
Showers soft and steaming,
Hot and breathless air.
Tired of listless dreaming,
Through the lazy day:
Jovial wind of winter
15
Turn us out to play!
Sweep the golden reed-beds;
Crisp the lazy dyke;
Hunger into madness
Every plunging pike.
20
Fill the lake with wild-fowl;
Fill the marsh with snipe;
While on dreary moorlands
Lonely curlew pipe.
Through the black fir-forest
25
Thunder harsh and dry,
Shattering down the snow-flakes
Off the curdled sky.
Hark! The brave North-easter!
Breast-high lies the scent,
30
On by holt and headland,
Over heath and bent.
Chime, ye dappled darlings,
Through the sleet and snow.
Who can over-ride you?
35
Let the horses go!
Chime, ye dappled darlings,
Down the roaring blast
You shall see a fox die
Ere an hour be past.
40
Go! and rest to-morrow,
Hunting in your dreams,
While our skates are ringing
O’er the frozen streams.
Let the luscious South-wind
45
Breathe in lovers’ sighs,
While the lazy gallants
Bask in ladies’ eyes.
What does he but soften
Heart alike and pen?
50
’Tis the hard grey weather
Breeds hard English men.
What’s the soft South-wester?
’Tis the ladies’ breeze,
Bringing home their true-loves
55
Out of all the seas:
But the black North-easter,
Through the snowstorm hurled,
Drives our English hearts of oak
Seaward round the world.
60
Come, as came our fathers,
Heralded by thee,
Conquering from the eastward,
Lords by land and sea.
Come; and strong within us
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Stir the Vikings’ blood;
Bracing brain and sinew;
Blow, thou wind of God!
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order