Delphi Poetry Anthology: The World's Greatest Poems (Delphi Poets Series Book 50) (265 page)
Read Delphi Poetry Anthology: The World's Greatest Poems (Delphi Poets Series Book 50) Online
Authors: Homer,William Shakespeare
THE RAIN
set early in to-night,
The sullen wind was soon awake,
It tore the elm-tops down for spite,
And did its worst to vex the lake,
I listened with heart fit to break;
When glided in Porphyria: straight
She shut the cold out and the storm,
And kneeled and made the cheerless grate
Blaze up, and all the cottage warm;
Which done, she rose, and from her form
Withdrew the dripping cloak and shawl,
And laid her soiled gloves by, untied
Her hat and let the damp hair fall,
And, last, she sate down by my side
And called me. When no voice replied,
She put my arm about her waist,
And made her smooth white shoulder bare,
And all her yellow hair displaced,
And, stooping, made my cheek lie there,
And spread o’er all her yellow hair,
Murmuring how she loved me; she
Too weak, for all her heart’s endeavour,
To set its struggling passion free
From pride, and vainer ties dissever,
And give herself to me for ever:
But passion sometimes would prevail,
Nor could to-night’s gay feast restrain
A sudden thought of one so pale
For love of her, and all in vain;
So, she was come through wind and rain.
Be sure I looked up at her eyes
Proud, very proud; at last I knew
Porphyria worshipped me; surprise
Made my heart swell, and still it grew
While I debated what to do.
That moment she was mine, mine, fair,
Perfectly pure and good: I found
A thing to do, and all her hair
In one long yellow string I wound
Three times her little throat around,
And strangled her. No pain felt she;
I am quite sure she felt no pain.
As a shut bud that holds a bee
I warily oped her lids; again
Laughed the blue eyes without a stain.
And I untightened next the tress
About her neck; her cheek once more
Blushed bright beneath my burning kiss:
I propped her head up as before,
Only, this time
my
shoulder bore
Her head, which droops upon it still:
The smiling rosy little head,
So glad it has its utmost will,
That all it scorned at once is fled,
And I, its love, am gained instead!
Porphyria’s love: she guessed not how
Her darling one wish would be heard.
And thus we sit together now,
And all night long we have not stirred,
And yet God has not said a word!
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Robert Browning (1812–1889)
NEVER the time and the place
And the loved one all together!
This path — how soft to pace!
This May — what magic weather!
Where is the loved one’s face?
5
In a dream that loved one’s face meets mine,
But the house is narrow, the place is bleak
Where, outside, rain and wind combine
With a furtive ear, if I strive to speak,
With a hostile eye at my flushing cheek,
10
With a malice that marks each word, each sign!
O enemy sly and serpentine,
Uncoil thee from the waking man!
Do I hold the Past
Thus firm and fast
15
Yet doubt if the Future hold I can?
This path so soft to pace shall lead
Through the magic of May to herself indeed!
Or narrow if needs the house must be,
Outside are the storms and strangers: we —
20
Oh, close, safe, warm, sleep I and she, I and she.
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Dedication of the Ring and the Book
Robert Browning (1812–1889)
O LYRIC Love, half angel and half bird,
And all a wonder and a wild desire, —
Boldest of hearts that ever braved the sun,
Took sanctuary within the holier blue,
And sang a kindred soul out to his face, —
5
Yet human at the red-ripe of the heart —
When the first summons from the darkling earth
Reached thee amid thy chambers, blanched their blue,
And bared them of the glory — to drop down,
To toil for man, to suffer or to die, —
10
This is the same voice: can thy soul know change?
Hail then, and harken from the realms of help!
Never may I commence my song, my due
To God who best taught song by gift of thee,
Except with bent head and beseeching hand —
15
That still, despite the distance and the dark,
What was, again may be; some interchange
Of grace, some splendor once thy very thought,
Some benediction anciently thy smile:
— Never conclude, but raising hand and head
20
Thither where eyes, that cannot reach, yet yearn
For all hope, all sustainment, all reward,
Their utmost up and on, — so blessing back
In those thy realms of help, that heaven thy home,
Some whiteness which, I judge, thy face makes proud,
25
Some wanness where, I think, thy foot may fall!
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Robert Browning (1812–1889)
AT the midnight in the silence of the sleep-time,
When you set your fancies free,
Will they pass to where — by death, fools think, imprisoned —
Low he lies who once so loved you, whom you loved so,
— Pity me?
5
Oh to love so, be so loved, yet so mistaken!
What had I on earth to do
With the slothful, with the mawkish, the unmanly?
Like the aimless, helpless, hopeless, did I drivel
— Being — who?
10
One who never turned his back but marched breast forward,
Never doubted clouds would break,
Never dreamed, though right were worsted, wrong would triumph,
Held we fall to rise, are baffled to fight better,
Sleep to wake.
15
No, at noonday in the bustle of man’s work-time
Greet the unseen with a cheer!
Bid him forward, breast and back as either should be,
“Strive and thrive!” cry “Speed, — fight on, fare ever
There as here!”
20
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Emily Bronte (1818–1848)
NO coward soul is mine,
No trembler in the world’s storm-troubled sphere:
I see Heaven’s glories shine,
And faith shines equal, arming me from fear.
O God within my breast,
5
Almighty, ever-present Deity!
Life — that in me has rest,
As I — undying Life — have power in Thee!
Vain are the thousand creeds
That move men’s hearts: unutterably vain;
10
Worthless as wither’d weeds,
Or idlest froth amid the boundless main,
To waken doubt in one
Holding so fast by Thine infinity;
So surely anchor’d on
15
The steadfast rock of immortality.
With wide-embracing love
Thy Spirit animates eternal years,
Pervades and broods above,
Changes, sustains, dissolves, creates, and rears.
20
Though earth and man were gone,
And suns and universes cease to be,
And Thou were left alone,
Every existence would exist in Thee.
There is not room for Death,
25
Nor atom that his might could render void:
Thou — Thou art Being and Breath,
And what Thou art may never be destroyed.
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Emily Bronte (1818–1848)
RICHES I hold in light esteem,
And Love I laugh to scorn;
And lust of fame was but a dream,
That vanish’d with the morn:
And if I pray, the only prayer
5
That moves my lips for me
Is, ‘Leave the heart that now I bear,
And give me liberty!’
Yes, as my swift days near their goal,
’Tis all that I implore;
10
In life and death a chainless soul
With courage to endure.
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Robert Stephen Hawker (1804–1875)
A GOOD sword and a trusty hand!
A merry heart and true!
King James’s men shall understand
What Cornish lads can do.
And have they fixed the where and when?
5
And shall Trelawny die?
Here’s twenty thousand Cornish men
Will know the reason why!
Out spake their captain brave and bold,
A merry wight was he:
10
‘If London Tower were Michael’s hold,
We’ll set Trelawny free!
‘We’ll cross the Tamar, land to land,
The Severn is no stay,
With “one and all,” and hand in hand,
15
And who shall bid us nay?
‘And when we come to London Wall,
A pleasant sight to view,
Come forth! come forth, ye cowards all,
Here’s men as good as you.
20
‘Trelawny he’s in keep and hold,
Trelawny he may die;
But here’s twenty thousand Cornish bold
Will know the reason why!’
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order