Delphi Poetry Anthology: The World's Greatest Poems (Delphi Poets Series Book 50) (95 page)
Read Delphi Poetry Anthology: The World's Greatest Poems (Delphi Poets Series Book 50) Online
Authors: Homer,William Shakespeare
One Hundred and Forty-eighth Sonnet
William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
O ME! what eyes hath love put in my head,
Which have no correspondence with true sight:
Or if they have, where is my judgment fled
That censures falsely what they see aright?
If that be fair whereon my false eyes dote,
5
What means the world to say it is not so?
If it be not, then love doth well denote
Love’s eye is not so true as all men’s: No,
How can it? O how can love’s eye be true,
That is so vex’d with watching and with tears?
10
No marvel then though I mistake my view:
The sun itself sees not till heaven clears.
O cunning Love! with tears thou keep’st me blind,
Lest eyes well-seeing thy foul faults should find!
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Robert Greene (1560–1592)
SWEET are the thoughts that savour of content,
The quiet mind is richer than a crown,
Sweet are the nights in careless slumber spent,
The poor estate scorns Fortune’s angry frown:
Such sweet content, such minds, such sleep, such bliss,
5
Beggars enjoy, when princes oft do miss.
The homely house that harbours quiet rest,
The cottage that affords no pride nor care,
The mean that ‘grees with country music best,
The sweet consort of mirth and modest fare,
10
Obscurèd life sets down a type of bliss:
A mind content both crown and kingdom is.
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Richard Barnfield (1574–1627)
AS it fell upon a day
In the merry month of May,
Sitting in a pleasant shade
Which a grove of myrtles made,
Beasts did leap and birds did sing,
5
Trees did grow and plants did spring;
Every thing did banish moan
Save the Nightingale alone.
She, poor bird, as all forlorn,
Lean’d her breast up-till a thorn,
10
And there sung the dolefull’st ditty
That to hear it was great pity.
Fie, fie, fie, now would she cry;
Tereu, tereu, by and by:
That to hear her so complain
15
Scarce I could from tears refrain;
For her griefs so lively shown
Made me think upon mine own.
— Ah, thought I, thou mourn’st in vain,
None takes pity on thy pain:
20
Senseless trees, they cannot hear thee,
Ruthless beasts, they will not cheer thee;
King Pandion, he is dead,
All thy friends are lapp’d in lead:
All thy fellow birds do sing
25
Careless of thy sorrowing:
Even so, poor bird, like thee
None alive will pity me.
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Thomas Campion (1567–1620)
THERE is a garden in her face
Where roses and white lilies blow;
A heavenly paradise is that place,
Wherein all pleasant fruits do flow:
There cherries grow which none may buy
5
Till ‘Cherry-ripe’ themselves do cry.
Those cherries fairly do enclose
Of orient pearl a double row,
Which when her lovely laughter shows,
They look like rose-buds fill’d with snow;
10
Yet them nor peer nor prince can buy
Till ‘Cherry-ripe’ themselves do cry.
Her eyes like angels watch them still;
Her brows like bended bows do stand,
Threat’ning with piercing frowns to kill
15
All that attempt with eye or hand
Those sacred cherries to come nigh,
Till ‘Cherry-ripe’ themselves do cry.
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Thomas Campion (1567–1620)
FOLLOW your saint, follow with accents sweet!
Haste you, sad notes, fall at her flying feet!
There, wrapt in cloud of sorrow, pity move,
And tell the ravisher of my soul I perish for her love:
But if she scorns my never-ceasing pain,
5
Then burst with sighing in her sight, and ne’er return again!
All that I sung still to her praise did tend;
Still she was first, still she my songs did end;
Yet she my love and music both doth fly,
The music that her echo is and beauty’s sympathy:
10
Then let my notes pursue her scornful flight!
It shall suffice that they were breathed and died for her delight.
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
When to Her Lute Corinna Sings
Thomas Campion (1567–1620)
WHEN to her lute Corinna sings,
Her voice revives the leaden strings,
And doth in highest notes appear,
As any challenged echo clear;
But when she doth of mourning speak,
5
E’en with her sighs, the strings do break,
And as her lute doth live or die,
Led by her passion, so must I:
For when of pleasure she doth sing,
My thoughts enjoy a sudden spring,
10
But if she doth of sorrow speak,
E’en from my heart the strings do break.
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Thomas Campion (1567–1620)
FOLLOW thy fair sun, unhappy shadow,
Though thou be black as night,
And she made all of light;
Yet follow thy fair sun, unhappy shadow!
Follow her, whose light thy light depriveth!
5
Though here thou livest disgraced,
And she in heaven is placed;
Yet follow her whose light the world reviveth!
Follow those pure beams, whose beauty burneth!
That so have scorchèd thee;
10
As thou still black must be,
Till her kind beams thy black to brightness turneth!
Follow her, while yet her glory shineth!
There comes a luckless night
That will dim all her light;
15
And this the black unhappy shade divineth.
Follow still, since so thy Fates ordainèd!
The sun must have his shade,
Till both at once do fade;
The sun still proved, the shadow still disdainèd!
20
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Thomas Campion (1567–1620)
TURN all thy thoughts to eyes,
Turn all thy hairs to ears,
Change all thy friends to spies
And all thy joys to fears:
True love will yet be free
5
In spite of jealousy.
Turn darkness into day,
Conjectures into truth,
Believe what th’ envious say,
Let age interpret youth:
10
True love will yet be free
In spite of jealousy.
Wrest every word and look,
Rack every hidden thought,
Or fish with golden hook;
15
True love cannot be caught:
For that will still be free
In spite of jealousy.
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Thomas Campion (1567–1620)
THE MAN of life upright,
Whose guiltless heart is free
From all dishonest deeds,
Or thought of vanity;
The man whose silent days
5
In harmless joys are spent,
Whom hopes cannot delude,
Nor sorrow discontent;
That man needs neither towers
Nor armour for defence,
10
Nor secret vaults to fly
From thunder’s violence:
He only can behold
With unaffrighted eyes
The horrors of the deep
15
And terrors of the skies.
Thus, scorning all the cares
That fate or fortune brings,
He makes the heaven his book,
His wisdom heavenly things;
20
Good thoughts his only friends,
His wealth a well-spent age,
The earth his sober inn
And quiet pilgrimage.
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order