[ { "title": "Time And Life", "author": "Algernon Charles Swinburne", "lines": [ "I.", "", "Time, thy name is sorrow, says the stricken", "Heart of life, laid waste with wasting flame", "Ere the change of things and thoughts requicken,", "Time, thy name.", "", "Girt about with shadow, blind and lame,", "Ghosts of things that smite and thoughts that sicken", "Hunt and hound thee down to death and shame.", "", "Eyes of hours whose paces halt or quicken", "Read in bloodred lines of loss and blame,", "Writ where cloud and darkness round it thicken,", "Time, thy name.", "", "II.", "", "Nay, but rest is born of me for healing,", "- So might haply time, with voice represt,", "Speak: is grief the last gift of my dealing?", "Nay, but rest.", "", "All the world is wearied, east and west,", "Tired with toil to watch the slow sun wheeling,", "Twelve loud hours of life's laborious quest.", "", "Eyes forspent with vigil, faint and reeling,", "Find at last my comfort, and are blest,", "Not with rapturous light of life's revealing -", "Nay, but rest." ], "linecount": "24" }, { "title": "The Happy Life of a Country Parson.", "author": "Alexander Pope", "lines": [ "IMMITATION OF ENGLISH POETS. EARL OF DORSET", "", "Parson, these things in thy possessing", "Are better than the bishop's blessing:--", "A wife that makes conserves; a steed", "That carries double when there's need:", "October store, and best Virginia,", "Tithe-pig, and mortuary guinea:", "Gazettes sent gratis down, and frank'd,", "For which thy patron's weekly thank'd:", "A large Concordance, bound long since:", "Sermons to Charles the First, when prince:", "A Chronicle of ancient standing;", "A Chrysostom to smooth thy band in:", "The Polyglot--three parts--my text,", "Howbeit--likewise--now to my next:", "Lo, here the Septuagint--and Paul,", "To sum the whole--the close of all.", "He that has these, may pass his life,", "Drink with the squire, and kiss his wife;", "On Sundays preach, and eat his fill;", "And fast on Fridays--if he will;", "Toast Church and Queen, explain the news,", "Talk with churchwardens about pews,", "Pray heartily for some new gift,", "And shake his head at Doctor S----t." ], "linecount": "25" }, { "title": "Life's Progress", "author": "Anne Kingsmill Finch", "lines": [ "How gayly is at first begun", "Our Life's uncertain Race!", "Whilst yet that sprightly Morning Sun,", "With which we just set out to run", "Enlightens all the Place.", "", "How smiling the World's Prospect lies", "How tempting to go through !", "Not Canaan to the Prophet's Eyes,", "From Pisgah with a sweet Surprize,", "Did more inviting shew.", "", "How promising's the Book of Fate,", "Till thoroughly understood!", "Whilst partial Hopes such Lots create,", "As may the youthful Fancy treat", "With all that's Great and Good.", "", "How soft the first Ideas prove,", "Which wander through our Minds!", "How full the Joys, how free the Love,", "Which do's that early Season move;", "As Flow'rs the Western Winds!", "", "Our Sighs are then but Vernal Air;", "But April–drops our Tears,", "Which swiftly passing, all grows Fair,", "Whilst Beauty compensates our Care,", "And Youth each Vapour clears.", "", "But oh! too soon, alas, we climb;", "Scarce feeling we ascend", "The gently rising Hill of Time,", "From whence with Grief we see that Prime,", "And all its Sweetness end.", "", "The Die now cast, our Station known,", "Fond Expectation past;", "The Thorns, which former Days had sown,", "To Crops of late Repentance grown,", "Thro' which we toil at last.", "", "Whilst ev'ry Care's a driving Harm,", "That helps to bear us down;", "Which faded Smiles no more can charm,", "But ev'ry Tear's a Winter-Storm,", "And ev'ry Look's a Frown.", "", "Till with succeeding Ills opprest,", "For Joys we hop'd to find;", "By Age too, rumpl'd and undrest,", "We gladly sinking down to rest,", "Leave following Crouds behind." ], "linecount": "45" }, { "title": "Life", "author": "Charlotte Bronte", "lines": [ "LIFE, believe, is not a dream", "So dark as sages say;", "Oft a little morning rain", "Foretells a pleasant day.", "Sometimes there are clouds of gloom,", "But these are transient all;", "If the shower will make the roses bloom,", "O why lament its fall ?", "", "Rapidly, merrily,", "Life's sunny hours flit by,", "Gratefully, cheerily,", "Enjoy them as they fly !", "", "What though Death at times steps in", "And calls our Best away ?", "What though sorrow seems to win,", "O'er hope, a heavy sway ?", "Yet hope again elastic springs,", "Unconquered, though she fell;", "Still buoyant are her golden wings,", "Still strong to bear us well.", "Manfully, fearlessly,", "The day of trial bear,", "For gloriously, victoriously,", "Can courage quell despair !" ], "linecount": "24" }, { "title": "From “Later Life”", "author": "Christina Rossetti", "lines": [ "VI", "We lack, yet cannot fix upon the lack:", "Not this, nor that; yet somewhat, certainly.", "We see the things we do not yearn to see", "Around us: and what see we glancing back?", "Lost hopes that leave our hearts upon the rack,", "Hopes that were never ours yet seem’d to be,", "For which we steer’d on life’s salt stormy sea", "Braving the sunstroke and the frozen pack.", "If thus to look behind is all in vain,", "And all in vain to look to left or right,", "Why face we not our future once again,", "Launching with hardier hearts across the main,", "Straining dim eyes to catch the invisible sight,", "And strong to bear ourselves in patient pain?", "", "IX", "Star Sirius and the Pole Star dwell afar", "Beyond the drawings each of other’s strength:", "One blazes through the brief bright summer’s length", "Lavishing life-heat from a flaming car;", "While one unchangeable upon a throne", "Broods o’er the frozen heart of earth alone,", "Content to reign the bright particular star", "Of some who wander or of some who groan.", "They own no drawings each of other’s strength,", "Nor vibrate in a visible sympathy,", "Nor veer along their courses each toward", "Yet are their orbits pitch’d in harmony", "Of one dear heaven, across whose depth and length", "Mayhap they talk together without speech." ], "linecount": "30" }, { "title": "The Thread of Life", "author": "Christina Rossetti", "lines": [ "I", "The irresponsive silence of the land,", "The irresponsive sounding of the sea,", "Speak both one message of one sense to me:--", "Aloof, aloof, we stand aloof, so stand", "Thou too aloof bound with the flawless band", "Of inner solitude; we bind not thee;", "But who from thy self-chain shall set thee free?", "What heart shall touch thy heart? what hand thy hand?--", "And I am sometimes proud and sometimes meek,", "And sometimes I remember days of old", "When fellowship seemed not so far to seek", "And all the world and I seemed much less cold,", "And at the rainbow's foot lay surely gold,", "And hope felt strong and life itself not weak.", "", "II", "Thus am I mine own prison. Everything", "Around me free and sunny and at ease:", "Or if in shadow, in a shade of trees", "Which the sun kisses, where the gay birds sing", "And where all winds make various murmuring;", "Where bees are found, with honey for the bees;", "Where sounds are music, and where silences", "Are music of an unlike fashioning.", "Then gaze I at the merrymaking crew,", "And smile a moment and a moment sigh", "Thinking: Why can I not rejoice with you?", "But soon I put the foolish fancy by:", "I am not what I have nor what I do;", "But what I was I am, I am even I.", "", "III", "Therefore myself is that one only thing", "I hold to use or waste, to keep or give;", "My sole possession every day I live,", "And still mine own despite Time's winnowing.", "Ever mine own, while moons and seasons bring", "From crudeness ripeness mellow and sanitive;", "Ever mine own, till Death shall ply his sieve;", "And still mine own, when saints break grave and sing.", "And this myself as king unto my King", "I give, to Him Who gave Himself for me;", "Who gives Himself to me, and bids me sing", "A sweet new song of His redeemed set free;", "he bids me sing: O death, where is thy sting?", "And sing: O grave, where is thy victory?" ], "linecount": "45" }, { "title": "Later life", "author": "Christina Rossetti", "lines": [ "Something this foggy day, a something which", "Is neither of this fog nor of today,", "Has set me dreaming of the winds that play", "Past certain cliffs, along one certain beach,", "And turn the topmost edge of waves to spray:", "Ah pleasant pebbly strand so far away,", "So out of reach while quite within my reach,", "As out of reach as India or Cathay!", "I am sick of where I am and where I am not,", "I am sick of foresight and of memory,", "I am sick of all I have and all I see,", "I am sick of self, and there is nothing new;", "Oh weary impatient patience of my lot!", "Thus with myself: how fares it, Friends, with you?" ], "linecount": "14" }, { "title": "The Dream Called Life", "author": "Edward Fitzgerald", "lines": [ "From the Spanish of Pedro Calderon de la Barca", "", "", "A dream it was in which I found myself.", "And you that hail me now, then hailed me king,", "In a brave palace that was all my own,", "Within, and all without it, mine; until,", "Drunk with excess of majesty and pride,", "Methought I towered so big and swelled so wide", "That of myself I burst the glittering bubble", "Which my ambition had about me blown,", "And all again was darkness. Such a dream", "As this, in which I may be walking now,", "Dispensing solemn justice to you shadows,", "Who make believe to listen; but anon", "Kings, princes, captains, warriors, plume and steel,", "Aye, even with all your airy theatre,", "May flit into the air you seem to rend", "With acclamations, leaving me to wake", "In the dark tower; or dreaming that I wake", "From this that waking is; or this and that,", "Both waking and both dreaming; such a doubt", "Confounds and clouds our moral life about.", "But whether wake or dreaming, this I know,", "How dreamwise human glories come and go;", "Whose momentary tenure not to break,", "Walking as one who knows he soon may wake,", "So fairly carry the full cup, so well", "Disordered insolence and passion quell,", "That there be nothing after to upbraid", "Dreamer or doer in the part he played;", "Whether tomorrow's dawn shall break the spell,", "Or the last trumpet of the Eternal Day,", "When dreaming, with the night, shall pass away." ], "linecount": "32" }, { "title": "Human Life’s Mystery", "author": "Elizabeth Barrett Browning", "lines": [ "We sow the glebe, we reap the corn,", "We build the house where we may rest,", "And then, at moments, suddenly,", "We look up to the great wide sky,", "Inquiring wherefore we were born…", "For earnest or for jest?", "", "The senses folding thick and dark", "About the stifled soul within,", "We guess diviner things beyond,", "And yearn to them with yearning fond;", "We strike out blindly to a mark", "Believed in, but not seen.", "", "We vibrate to the pant and thrill", "Wherewith Eternity has curled", "In serpent-twine about God’s seat;", "While, freshening upward to His feet,", "In gradual growth His full-leaved will", "Expands from world to world.", "", "And, in the tumult and excess", "Of act and passion under sun,", "We sometimes hear—oh, soft and far,", "As silver star did touch with star,", "The kiss of Peace and Righteousness", "Through all things that are done.", "", "God keeps His holy mysteries", "Just on the outside of man’s dream;", "In diapason slow, we think", "To hear their pinions rise and sink,", "While they float pure beneath His eyes,", "Like swans adown a stream.", "", "Abstractions, are they, from the forms", "Of His great beauty?—exaltations", "From His great glory?—strong previsions", "Of what we shall be?—intuitions", "Of what we are—in calms and storms,", "Beyond our peace and passions?", "", "Things nameless! which, in passing so,", "Do stroke us with a subtle grace.", "We say, ‘Who passes?’—they are dumb.", "We cannot see them go or come:", "Their touches fall soft, cold, as snow", "Upon a blind man’s face.", "", "Yet, touching so, they draw above", "Our common thoughts to Heaven’s unknown,", "Our daily joy and pain advance", "To a divine significance,", "Our human love—O mortal love,", "That light is not its own!", "", "And sometimes horror chills our blood", "To be so near such mystic Things,", "And we wrap round us for defence", "Our purple manners, moods of sense—", "As angels from the face of God", "Stand hidden in their wings.", "", "And sometimes through life’s heavy swound", "We grope for them!—with strangled breath", "We stretch our hands abroad and try", "To reach them in our agony,—", "And widen, so, the broad life-wound", "Which soon is large enough for death." ], "linecount": "60" }, { "title": "The Life we have is very great.", "author": "Emily Dickinson", "lines": [ "The Life we have is very great.", "The Life that we shall see", "Surpasses it, we know, because", "It is Infinity.", "But when all Space has been beheld", "And all Dominion shown", "The smallest Human Heart's extent", "Reduces it to none." ], "linecount": "8" }, { "title": "He put the Belt around my life", "author": "Emily Dickinson", "lines": [ "He put the Belt around my life", "I heard the Buckle snap --", "And turned away, imperial,", "My Lifetime folding up --", "Deliberate, as a Duke would do", "A Kingdom's Title Deed --", "Henceforth, a Dedicated sort --", "A Member of the Cloud.", "", "Yet not too far to come at call --", "And do the little Toils", "That make the Circuit of the Rest --", "And deal occasional smiles", "To lives that stoop to notice mine --", "And kindly ask it in --", "Whose invitation, know you not", "For Whom I must decline?" ], "linecount": "16" }, { "title": "The first Day that I was a Life", "author": "Emily Dickinson", "lines": [ "The first Day that I was a Life", "I recollect it -- How still --", "That last Day that I was a Life", "I recollect it -- as well --", "", "'Twas stiller -- though the first", "Was still --", "\"Twas empty -- but the first", "Was full --", "", "This -- was my finallest Occasion --", "But then", "My tenderer Experiment", "Toward Men --", "", "\"Which choose I\"?", "That -- I cannot say --", "\"Which choose They\"?", "Question Memory!" ], "linecount": "16" }, { "title": "You see I cannot see -- your lifetime", "author": "Emily Dickinson", "lines": [ "You see I cannot see -- your lifetime --", "I must guess --", "How many times it ache for me -- today -- Confess --", "How many times for my far sake", "The brave eyes film --", "But I guess guessing hurts --", "Mine -- got so dim!", "", "Too vague -- the face --", "My own -- so patient -- covers --", "Too far -- the strength --", "My timidness enfolds --", "Haunting the Heart --", "Like her translated faces --", "Teasing the want --", "It -- only -- can suffice!" ], "linecount": "15" }, { "title": "In this short Life", "author": "Emily Dickinson", "lines": [ "In this short Life", "That only lasts an hour", "How much -- how little -- is", "Within our power" ], "linecount": "4" }, { "title": "Of Life to own --", "author": "Emily Dickinson", "lines": [ "Of Life to own --", "From Life to draw --", "But never tough the reservoir --" ], "linecount": "3" }, { "title": "Did life's penurious length", "author": "Emily Dickinson", "lines": [ "Did life's penurious length", "Italicize its sweetness,", "The men that daily live", "Would stand so deep in joy", "That it would clog the cogs", "Of that revolving reason", "Whose esoteric belt", "Protects our sanity." ], "linecount": "8" }, { "title": "I felt my life with both my hands", "author": "Emily Dickinson", "lines": [ "I felt my life with both my hands", "To see if it was there --", "I held my spirit to the Glass,", "To prove it possibler --", "", "I turned my Being round and round", "And paused at every pound", "To ask the Owner's name --", "For doubt, that I should know the Sound --", "", "I judged my features -- jarred my hair --", "I pushed my dimples by, and waited --", "If they -- twinkled back --", "Conviction might, of me --", "", "I told myself, \"Take Courage, Friend --", "That -- was a former time --", "But we might learn to like the Heaven,", "As well as our Old Home!\"" ], "linecount": "16" }, { "title": "My life closed twice before its close --", "author": "Emily Dickinson", "lines": [ "My life closed twice before its close --", "It yet remains to see", "If Immortality unveil", "A third event to me", "", "So huge, so hopeless to conceive", "As these that twice befell.", "Parting is all we know of heaven,", "And all we need of hell." ], "linecount": "8" }, { "title": "This Chasm, Sweet, upon my life", "author": "Emily Dickinson", "lines": [ "This Chasm, Sweet, upon my life", "I mention it to you,", "When Sunrise through a fissure drop", "The Day must follow too.", "", "If we demur, its gaping sides", "Disclose as 'twere a Tomb", "Ourself am lying straight wherein", "The Favorite of Doom.", "", "When it has just contained a Life", "Then, Darling, it will close", "And yet so bolder every Day", "So turbulent it grows", "", "I'm tempted half to stitch it up", "With a remaining Breath", "I should not miss in yielding, though", "To Him, it would be Death --", "", "And so I bear it big about", "My Burial -- before", "A Life quite ready to depart", "Can harass me no more --" ], "linecount": "20" }, { "title": "Each Life Converges to some Centre --", "author": "Emily Dickinson", "lines": [ "Each Life Converges to some Centre --", "Expressed -- or still --", "Exists in every Human Nature", "A Goal --", "", "Embodied scarcely to itself -- it may be --", "Too fair", "For Credibility's presumption", "To mar --", "", "Adored with caution -- as a Brittle Heaven --", "To reach", "Were hopeless, as the Rainbow's Raiment", "To touch --", "", "Yet persevered toward -- sure -- for the Distance --", "How high --", "Unto the Saint's slow diligence --", "The Sky --", "", "Ungained -- it may be -- by a Life's low Venture --", "But then --", "Eternity enable the endeavoring", "Again." ], "linecount": "20" }, { "title": "Tie the Strings to my Life, My Lord,", "author": "Emily Dickinson", "lines": [ "Tie the Strings to my Life, My Lord,", "Then, I am ready to go!", "Just a look at the Horses --", "Rapid! That will do!", "", "Put me in on the firmest side --", "So I shall never fall --", "For we must ride to the Judgment --", "And it's partly, down Hill --", "", "But never I mind the steeper --", "And never I mind the Sea --", "Held fast in Everlasting Race --", "By my own Choice, and Thee --", "", "Goodbye to the Life I used to live --", "And the World I used to know --", "And kiss the Hills, for me, just once --", "Then -- I am ready to go!" ], "linecount": "16" }, { "title": "One Life of so much Consequence!", "author": "Emily Dickinson", "lines": [ "One Life of so much Consequence!", "Yet I -- for it -- would pay --", "My Soul's entire income --", "In ceaseless -- salary --", "", "One Pearl -- to me -- so signal --", "That I would instant dive --", "Although -- I knew -- to take it --", "Would cost me -- just a life!", "", "The Sea is full -- I know it!", "That -- does not blur my Gem!", "It burns -- distinct from all the row --", "Intact -- in Diadem!", "", "The life is thick -- I know it!", "Yet -- not so dense a crowd --", "But Monarchs -- are perceptible --", "Far down the dustiest Road!" ], "linecount": "16" }, { "title": "Between the form of Life and Life", "author": "Emily Dickinson", "lines": [ "Between the form of Life and Life", "The difference is as big", "As Liquor at the Lip between", "And Liquor in the Jug", "The latter -- excellent to keep --", "But for ecstatic need", "The corkless is superior --", "I know for I have tried" ], "linecount": "8" }, { "title": "A Death blow is a Life blow to Some", "author": "Emily Dickinson", "lines": [ "A Death blow is a Life blow to Some", "Who till they died, did not alive become --", "Who had they lived, had died but when", "They died, Vitality begun." ], "linecount": "4" }, { "title": "Life and Art", "author": "Emma Lazarus", "lines": [ "Not while the fever of the blood is strong,", "The heart throbs loud, the eyes are veiled, no less", "With passion than with tears, the Muse shall bless", "The poet-sould to help and soothe with song.", "Not then she bids his trembling lips express", "The aching gladness, the voluptuous pain.", "Life is his poem then; flesh, sense, and brain", "One full-stringed lyre attuned to happiness.", "But when the dream is done, the pulses fail,", "The day's illusion, with the day's sun set,", "He, lonely in the twilight, sees the pale", "Divine Consoler, featured like Regret,", "Enter and clasp his hand and kiss his brow.", "Then his lips ope to sing--as mine do now." ], "linecount": "14" }, { "title": "Life", "author": "George Herbert", "lines": [ "I made a posie, while the day ran by:", "Here will I smell my remnant out, and tie", "My life within this band.", "But time did becken to the flowers, and they", "By noon most cunningly did steal away", "And wither'd in my hand.", "", "My hand was next to them, and then my heart:", "I took, without more thinking, in good part", "Times gentle admonition:", "Who did so sweetly deaths sad taste convey", "Making my minde to smell my fatall day;", "Yet sugring the suspicion.", "", "Farewell deare flowers, sweetly your time ye spent,", "Fit, while ye liv'd, for smell or ornament,", "And after death for cures.", "I follow straight without complaints or grief,", "Since if my sent be good, I care not, if", "It be as short as yours." ], "linecount": "18" }, { "title": "Within the Circuit of This Plodding Life", "author": "Henry David Thoreau", "lines": [ "Within the circuit of this plodding life", "There enter moments of an azure hue,", "Untarnished fair as is the violet", "Or anemone, when the spring strews them", "By some meandering rivulet, which make", "The best philosophy untrue that aims", "But to console man for his grievances", "I have remembered when the winter came,", "High in my chamber in the frosty nights,", "When in the still light of the cheerful moon,", "On every twig and rail and jutting spout,", "The icy spears were adding to their length", "Against the arrows of the coming sun,", "How in the shimmering noon of summer past", "Some unrecorded beam slanted across", "The upland pastures where the Johnswort grew;", "Or heard, amid the verdure of my mind,", "The bee's long smothered hum, on the blue flag", "Loitering amidst the mead; or busy rill,", "Which now through all its course stands still and dumb", "Its own memorial,—purling at its play", "Along the slopes, and through the meadows next,", "Until its youthful sound was hushed at last", "In the staid current of the lowland stream;", "Or seen the furrows shine but late upturned,", "And where the fieldfare followed in the rear,", "When all the fields around lay bound and hoar", "Beneath a thick integument of snow.", "So by God's cheap economy made rich", "To go upon my winter's task again." ], "linecount": "30" }, { "title": "My life has been the poem", "author": "Henry David Thoreau", "lines": [ "My life has been the poem I would have writ,", "But I could not both live and utter it." ], "linecount": "2" }, { "title": "The Goblet of Life", "author": "Henry Wadsworth Longfellow", "lines": [ "Filled is Life's goblet to the brim;", "And though my eyes with tears are dim,", "I see its sparkling bubbles swim,", "And chant a melancholy hymn", "With solemn voice and slow.", "", "No purple flowers,--no garlands green,", "Conceal the goblet's shade or sheen,", "Nor maddening draughts of Hippocrene,", "Like gleams of sunshine, flash between", "Thick leaves of mistletoe.", "", "This goblet, wrought with curious art,", "Is filled with waters, that upstart,", "When the deep fountains of the heart,", "By strong convulsions rent apart,", "Are running all to waste.", "", "And as it mantling passes round,", "With fennel is it wreathed and crowned,", "Whose seed and foliage sun-imbrowned", "Are in its waters steeped and drowned,", "And give a bitter taste.", "", "Above the lowly plants it towers,", "The fennel, with its yellow flowers,", "And in an earlier age than ours", "Was gifted with the wondrous powers,", "Lost vision to restore.", "", "It gave new strength, and fearless mood;", "And gladiators, fierce and rude,", "Mingled it in their daily food;", "And he who battled and subdued,", "A wreath of fennel wore.", "", "Then in Life's goblet freely press,", "The leaves that give it bitterness,", "Nor prize the colored waters less,", "For in thy darkness and distress", "New light and strength they give!", "", "And he who has not learned to know", "How false its sparkling buhbles show,", "How bitter are the drops of woe,", "With which its brim may overflow,", "He has not learned to live.", "", "The prayer of Ajax was for light;", "Through all that dark and desperate fight", "The blackness of that noonday night", "He asked but the return of sight,", "To see his foeman's face.", "", "Let our unceasing, earnest prayer", "Be, too, for light,--for strength to bear", "Our portion of the weight of care,", "That crushes into dumb despair", "One half the human race.", "", "O suffering, sad humanity!", "O ye afflicted one; who lie", "Steeped to the lips in misery,", "Longing, and yet afraid to die,", "Patient, though sorely tried !", "", "I pledge you in this cup of grief,", "Where floats the fennel's bitter leaf !", "The Battle of our Life is briet", "The alarm,--the struggle,--the relief,", "Then sleep we side by side." ], "linecount": "60" }, { "title": "A Psalm of Life", "author": "Henry Wadsworth Longfellow", "lines": [ "WHAT THE HEART OF THE YOUNG MAN SAID TO THE PSALMIST.", "", "Tell me not, in mournful numbers,", "Life is but an empty dream!", "For the soul is dead that slumbers,", "And things are not what they seem.", "", "Life is real! Life is earnest!", "And the grave is not its goal;", "Dust thou art, to dust returnest,", "Was not spoken of the soul.", "", "Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,", "Is our destined end or way;", "But to act, that each to-morrow", "Find us farther than to-day.", "", "Art is long, and Time is fleeting,", "And our hearts, though stout and brave,", "Still, like muffled drums, are beating", "Funeral marches to the grave.", "", "In the world's broad field of battle,", "In the bivouac of Life,", "Be not like dumb, driven cattle!", "Be a hero in the strife!", "", "Trust no Future, howe'er pleasant!", "Let the dead Past bury its dead!", "Act,--act in the living Present!", "Heart within, and God o'erhead!", "", "Lives of great men all remind us", "We can make our lives sublime,", "And, departing, leave behind us", "Footprints on the sands of time;--", "", "Footprints, that perhaps another,", "Sailing o'er life's solemn main,", "A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,", "Seeing, shall take heart again.", "", "Let us, then, be up and doing,", "With a heart for any fate;", "Still achieving, still pursuing,", "Learn to labor and to wait." ], "linecount": "37" }, { "title": "A Life-Lesson", "author": "James Whitcomb Riley", "lines": [ "There! little girl; don't cry!", "They have broken your doll, I know;", "And your tea-set blue,", "And your play-house, too,", "Are things of the long ago;", "But childish troubles will soon pass by. --", "There! little girl; don't cry!", "", "There! little girl; don't cry!", "They have broken your slate, I know;", "And the glad, wild ways", "Of your schoolgirl days", "Are things of the long ago;", "But life and love will soon come by. --", "There! little girl; don't cry!", "", "There! little girl; don't cry!", "They have broken your heart I know;", "And the rainbow gleams", "Of your youthful dreams", "Are things of the long ago;", "But Heaven holds all for which you sigh. --", "There! little girl; don't cry!" ], "linecount": "21" }, { "title": "Love and Life", "author": "John Wilmot", "lines": [ "All my past life is mine no more,", "The flying hours are gone,", "Like transitory dreams giv'n o'er,", "Whose images are kept in store", "By memory alone.", "", "The time that is to come is not;", "How can it then be mine?", "The present moment's all my lot;", "And that, as fast as it is got,", "Phyllis, is only thine.", "", "Then talk not of inconstancy,", "False hearts, and broken vows;", "If I, by miracle, can be", "This live-long minute true to thee,", "'Tis all that Heav'n allows." ], "linecount": "15" }, { "title": "All My Past Life...", "author": "John Wilmot", "lines": [ "All my past life is mine no more,", "The flying hours are gone,", "Like transitory dreams given o'er,", "Whose images are kept in store", "By memory alone.", "", "What ever is to come is not,", "How can it then be mine?", "The present moment's all my lot,", "And that as fast as it is got,", "Phyllis, is wholly thine.", "", "Then talk not of inconstancy,", "False hearts, and broken vows,", "Ii, by miracle, can be,", "This live-long minute true to thee,", "'Tis all that heaven allows." ], "linecount": "15" }, { "title": "Life", "author": "Robinson", "lines": [ "\"What is this world?­thy school, O misery!", "\"Our only lesson is to learn to suffer.\"", "", "- YOUNG.", "", "", "LOVE, thou sportive fickle boy,", "Source of anguish, child of joy,", "Ever wounding­ever smiling,", "Soothing still, and still beguiling;", "What are all thy boasted treasures,", "Tender sorrows, transient pleasures?", "Anxious hopes, and jealous fears,", "LAUGHING HOURS, and MOURNING YEARS.", "", "What is FRIENDSHIP'S soothing name?", "But a shad'wy, vap'rish flame;", "Fancy's balm for ev'ry wound,", "Ever sought, but rarely found;", "What is BEAUTY ? but a flow'r,", "Blooming, fading in an hour;", "Deck'd with brightest tints at morn,", "At twilight with'ring on a thorn;", "Like the gentle Rose of spring,", "Chill'd by ev'ry zephyr's wing,", "Ah! how soon its colour flies,", "Blushes, trembles, falls, and dies.", "", "What is YOUTH ? a smiling sorrow,", "Blithe to day, and sad to-morrow;", "Never fix'd, for ever ranging,", "Laughing, weeping, doating, changing;", "Wild, capricious, giddy, vain,", "Cloy'd with pleasure, nurs'd with pain;", "AGE steals on with wint'ry face,", "Ev'ry rapt'rous Hope to chase;", "Like a wither'd, sapless tree,", "Bow'd to chilling Fate's decree;", "Strip'd of all its foliage gay,", "Drooping at the close of day;", "What of tedious Life remains?", "Keen regrets and cureless pains;", "Till DEATH appears, a welcome friend,", "To bid the scene of sorrow end." ], "linecount": "39" }, { "title": "The Buried Life", "author": "Matthew Arnold", "lines": [ "Light flows our war of mocking words, and yet,", "Behold, with tears mine eyes are wet!", "I feel a nameless sadness o'er me roll.", "Yes, yes, we know that we can jest,", "We know, we know that we can smile!", "But there's a something in this breast,", "To which thy light words bring no rest,", "And thy gay smiles no anodyne.", "Give me thy hand, and hush awhile,", "And turn those limpid eyes on mine,", "And let me read there, love! thy inmost soul.", "", "Alas! is even love too weak", "To unlock the heart, and let it speak?", "Are even lovers powerless to reveal", "To one another what indeed they feel?", "I knew the mass of men conceal'd", "Their thoughts, for fear that if reveal'd", "They would by other men be met", "With blank indifference, or with blame reproved;", "I knew they lived and moved", "Trick'd in disguises, alien to the rest", "Of men, and alien to themselves--and yet", "The same heart beats in every human breast!", "", "But we, my love!--doth a like spell benumb", "Our hearts, our voices?--must we too be dumb?", "", "Ah! well for us, if even we,", "Even for a moment, can get free", "Our heart, and have our lips unchain'd;", "For that which seals them hath been deep-ordain'd!", "", "Fate, which foresaw", "How frivolous a baby man would be--", "By what distractions he would be possess'd,", "How he would pour himself in every strife,", "And well-nigh change his own identity--", "That it might keep from his capricious play", "His genuine self, and force him to obey", "Even in his own despite his being's law,", "Bade through the deep recesses of our breast", "The unregarded river of our life", "Pursue with indiscernible flow its way;", "And that we should not see", "The buried stream, and seem to be", "Eddying at large in blind uncertainty,", "Though driving on with it eternally.", "", "But often, in the world's most crowded streets,", "But often, in the din of strife,", "There rises an unspeakable desire", "After the knowledge of our buried life;", "A thirst to spend our fire and restless force", "In tracking out our true, original course;", "A longing to inquire", "Into the mystery of this heart which beats", "So wild, so deep in us--to know", "Whence our lives come and where they go.", "And many a man in his own breast then delves,", "But deep enough, alas! none ever mines.", "And we have been on many thousand lines,", "And we have shown, on each, spirit and power;", "But hardly have we, for one little hour,", "Been on our own line, have we been ourselves--", "Hardly had skill to utter one of all", "The nameless feelings that course through our breast,", "But they course on for ever unexpress'd.", "And long we try in vain to speak and act", "Our hidden self, and what we say and do", "Is eloquent, is well--but 't#is not true!", "And then we will no more be rack'd", "With inward striving, and demand", "Of all the thousand nothings of the hour", "Their stupefying power;", "Ah yes, and they benumb us at our call!", "Yet still, from time to time, vague and forlorn,", "From the soul's subterranean depth upborne", "As from an infinitely distant land,", "Come airs, and floating echoes, and convey", "A melancholy into all our day.", "Only--but this is rare--", "When a belov{'e}d hand is laid in ours,", "When, jaded with the rush and glare", "Of the interminable hours,", "Our eyes can in another's eyes read clear,", "When our world-deafen'd ear", "Is by the tones of a loved voice caress'd--", "A bolt is shot back somewhere in our breast,", "And a lost pulse of feeling stirs again.", "The eye sinks inward, and the heart lies plain,", "And what we mean, we say, and what we would, we know.", "A man becomes aware of his life's flow,", "And hears its winding murmur; and he sees", "The meadows where it glides, the sun, the breeze.", "", "And there arrives a lull in the hot race", "Wherein he doth for ever chase", "That flying and elusive shadow, rest.", "An air of coolness plays upon his face,", "And an unwonted calm pervades his breast.", "And then he thinks he knows", "The hills where his life rose,", "And the sea where it goes." ], "linecount": "98" }, { "title": "Buried Life, The", "author": "Matthew Arnold", "lines": [ "Light flows our war of mocking words, and yet,", "Behold, with tears mine eyes are wet!", "I feel a nameless sadness o'er me roll.", "Yes, yes, we know that we can jest,", "We know, we know that we can smile!", "But there's a something in this breast,", "To which thy light words bring no rest,", "And thy gay smiles no anodyne.", "Give me thy hand, and hush awhile,", "And turn those limpid eyes on mine,", "And let me read there, love! thy inmost soul.", "", "Alas! is even love too weak", "To unlock the heart, and let it speak?", "Are even lovers powerless to reveal", "To one another what indeed they feel?", "I knew the mass of men conceal'd", "Their thoughts, for fear that if reveal'd", "They would by other men be met", "With blank indifference, or with blame reproved;", "I knew they lived and moved", "Trick'd in disguises, alien to the rest", "Of men, and alien to themselves--and yet", "The same heart beats in every human breast!", "", "But we, my love!--doth a like spell benumb", "Our hearts, our voices?--must we too be dumb?", "", "Ah! well for us, if even we,", "Even for a moment, can get free", "Our heart, and have our lips unchain'd;", "For that which seals them hath been deep-ordain'd!", "", "Fate, which foresaw", "How frivolous a baby man would be--", "By what distractions he would be possess'd,", "How he would pour himself in every strife,", "And well-nigh change his own identity--", "That it might keep from his capricious play", "His genuine self, and force him to obey", "Even in his own despite his being's law,", "Bade through the deep recesses of our breast", "The unregarded river of our life", "Pursue with indiscernible flow its way;", "And that we should not see", "The buried stream, and seem to be", "Eddying at large in blind uncertainty,", "Though driving on with it eternally.", "", "But often, in the world's most crowded streets,", "But often, in the din of strife,", "There rises an unspeakable desire", "After the knowledge of our buried life;", "A thirst to spend our fire and restless force", "In tracking out our true, original course;", "A longing to inquire", "Into the mystery of this heart which beats", "So wild, so deep in us--to know", "Whence our lives come and where they go.", "And many a man in his own breast then delves,", "But deep enough, alas! none ever mines.", "And we have been on many thousand lines,", "And we have shown, on each, spirit and power;", "But hardly have we, for one little hour,", "Been on our own line, have we been ourselves--", "Hardly had skill to utter one of all", "The nameless feelings that course through our breast,", "But they course on for ever unexpress'd.", "And long we try in vain to speak and act", "Our hidden self, and what we say and do", "Is eloquent, is well--but 't#is not true!", "And then we will no more be rack'd", "With inward striving, and demand", "Of all the thousand nothings of the hour", "Their stupefying power;", "Ah yes, and they benumb us at our call!", "Yet still, from time to time, vague and forlorn,", "From the soul's subterranean depth upborne", "As from an infinitely distant land,", "Come airs, and floating echoes, and convey", "A melancholy into all our day.", "Only--but this is rare--", "When a belov{'e}d hand is laid in ours,", "When, jaded with the rush and glare", "Of the interminable hours,", "Our eyes can in another's eyes read clear,", "When our world-deafen'd ear", "Is by the tones of a loved voice caress'd--", "A bolt is shot back somewhere in our breast,", "And a lost pulse of feeling stirs again.", "The eye sinks inward, and the heart lies plain,", "And what we mean, we say, and what we would, we know.", "A man becomes aware of his life's flow,", "And hears its winding murmur; and he sees", "The meadows where it glides, the sun, the breeze.", "", "And there arrives a lull in the hot race", "Wherein he doth for ever chase", "That flying and elusive shadow, rest.", "An air of coolness plays upon his face,", "And an unwonted calm pervades his breast.", "And then he thinks he knows", "The hills where his life rose,", "And the sea where it goes." ], "linecount": "98" }, { "title": "A Parody on “A Psalm of Life”", "author": "Oliver Wendell Holmes", "lines": [ "Life is real, life is earnest,", "And the shell is not its pen –", "“Egg thou art, and egg remainest”", "Was not spoken of the hen.", "", "Art is long and Time is fleeting,", "Be our bills then sharpened well,", "And not like muffled drums be beating", "On the inside of the shell.", "", "In the world’s broad field of battle,", "In the great barnyard of life,", "Be not like those lazy cattle!", "Be a rooster in the strife!", "", "Lives of roosters all remind us,", "We can make our lives sublime,", "And when roasted, leave behind us,", "Hen tracks on the sands of time.", "", "Hen tracks that perhaps another", "Chicken drooping in the rain,", "Some forlorn and henpecked brother,", "When he sees, shall crow again." ], "linecount": "20" }, { "title": "Life's Tragedy", "author": "Paul Laurence Dunbar", "lines": [ "It may be misery not to sing at all,", "And to go silent through the brimming day;", "It may be misery never to be loved,", "But deeper griefs than these beset the way.", "", "To sing the perfect song,", "And by a half-tone lost the key,", "There the potent sorrow, there the grief,", "The pale, sad staring of Life's Tragedy.", "", "To have come near to the perfect love,", "Not the hot passion of untempered youth,", "But that which lies aside its vanity,", "And gives, for thy trusting worship, truth.", "", "This, this indeed is to be accursed,", "For if we mortals love, or if we sing,", "We count our joys not by what we have,", "But by what kept us from that perfect thing." ], "linecount": "16" }, { "title": "What is Life?", "author": "John Clare", "lines": [ "And what is Life?--An hour-glass on the run,", "A mist retreating from the morning sun,", " A busy, bustling, still repeated dream;", "Its length?--A minute's pause, a moment's thought;", " And happiness?-A bubble on the stream,", "That in the act of seizing shrinks to nought.", "", "What are vain Hopes?--The puffing gale of morn,", " That of its charms divests the dewy lawn,", "And robs each floweret of its gem,--and dies;", " A cobweb hiding disappointment's thorn,", "Which stings more keenly through the thin disguise.", "", "And thou, O Trouble?--Nothing can suppose,", "(And sure the power of wisdom only knows,)", " What need requireth thee:", "So free and liberal as thy bounty flows,", " Some necessary cause must surely be;", "But disappointments, pains, and every woe", " Devoted wretches feel,", "The universal plagues of life below,", " Are mysteries still neath Fate's unbroken seal.", "", "And what is Death? is still the cause unfound?", "That dark, mysterious name of horrid sound?", " A long and lingering sleep, the weary crave.", "And Peace? where can its happiness abound?--", " No where at all, save heaven, and the grave.", "", "Then what is Life?--When stripped of its disguise,", " A thing to be desired it cannot be;", "Since every thing that meets our foolish eyes", " Gives proof sufficient of its vanity.", "Tis but a trial all must undergo;", " To teach unthankful mortals how to prize", "That happiness vain man's denied to know,", " Until he's called to claim it in the skies." ], "linecount": "33" }, { "title": "488. Song—The Winter of Life", "author": "Robert Burns", "lines": [ "BUT lately seen in gladsome green,", " The woods rejoic’d the day,", "Thro’ gentle showers, the laughing flowers", " In double pride were gay:", "But now our joys are fled", " On winter blasts awa;", "Yet maiden May, in rich array,", " Again shall bring them a’.", "", "", "But my white pow, nae kindly thowe", " Shall melt the snaws of Age;", "My trunk of eild, but buss or beild,", " Sinks in Time’s wintry rage.", "Oh, Age has weary days,", " And nights o’ sleepless pain:", "Thou golden time, o’ Youthfu’ prime,", " Why comes thou not again!" ], "linecount": "16" }, { "title": "THE COUNTRY LIFE:", "author": "Robert Herrick", "lines": [ "TO THE HONOURED MR ENDYMION PORTER, GROOM OF", "THE BED-CHAMBER TO HIS MAJESTY", "", "Sweet country life, to such unknown,", "Whose lives are others', not their own!", "But serving courts and cities, be", "Less happy, less enjoying thee.", "Thou never plough'st the ocean's foam", "To seek and bring rough pepper home:", "Nor to the Eastern Ind dost rove", "To bring from thence the scorched clove:", "Nor, with the loss of thy loved rest,", "Bring'st home the ingot from the West.", "No, thy ambition's master-piece", "Flies no thought higher than a fleece:", "Or how to pay thy hinds, and clear", "All scores: and so to end the year:", "But walk'st about thine own dear bounds,", "Not envying others' larger grounds:", "For well thou know'st, 'tis not th' extent", "Of land makes life, but sweet content.", "When now the cock (the ploughman's horn)", "Calls forth the lily-wristed morn;", "Then to thy corn-fields thou dost go,", "Which though well soil'd, yet thou dost know", "That the best compost for the lands", "Is the wise master's feet, and hands.", "There at the plough thou find'st thy team,", "With a hind whistling there to them:", "And cheer'st them up, by singing how", "The kingdom's portion is the plough.", "This done, then to th' enamell'd meads", "Thou go'st; and as thy foot there treads,", "Thou seest a present God-like power", "Imprinted in each herb and flower:", "And smell'st the breath of great-eyed kine,", "Sweet as the blossoms of the vine.", "Here thou behold'st thy large sleek neat", "Unto the dew-laps up in meat:", "And, as thou look'st, the wanton steer,", "The heifer, cow, and ox draw near,", "To make a pleasing pastime there.", "These seen, thou go'st to view thy flocks", "Of sheep, safe from the wolf and fox,", "And find'st their bellies there as full", "Of short sweet grass, as backs with wool:", "And leav'st them, as they feed and fill,", "A shepherd piping on a hill.", "", "For sports, for pageantry, and plays,", "Thou hast thy eves, and holydays:", "On which the young men and maids meet,", "To exercise their dancing feet:", "Tripping the comely country Round,", "With daffadils and daisies crown'd.", "Thy wakes, thy quintels, here thou hast,", "Thy May-poles too with garlands graced;", "Thy Morris-dance; thy Whitsun-ale;", "Thy shearing-feast, which never fail.", "Thy harvest home; thy wassail bowl,", "That's toss'd up after Fox i' th' hole:", "Thy mummeries; thy Twelve-tide kings", "And queens; thy Christmas revellings:", "Thy nut-brown mirth, thy russet wit,", "And no man pays too dear for it.--", "To these, thou hast thy times to go", "And trace the hare i' th' treacherous snow:", "Thy witty wiles to draw, and get", "The lark into the trammel net:", "Thou hast thy cockrood, and thy glade", "To take the precious pheasant made:", "Thy lime-twigs, snares, and pit-falls then", "To catch the pilfering birds, not men.", "", "--O happy life! if that their good", "The husbandmen but understood!", "Who all the day themselves do please,", "And younglings, with such sports as these:", "And lying down, have nought t' affright", "Sweet Sleep, that makes more short the night.", "CAETERA DESUNT--" ], "linecount": "78" }, { "title": "A COUNTRY LIFE:TO HIS BROTHER, MR THOMAS HERRICK", "author": "Robert Herrick", "lines": [ "Thrice, and above, blest, my soul's half, art thou,", "In thy both last and better vow;", "Could'st leave the city, for exchange, to see", "The country's sweet simplicity;", "And it to know and practise, with intent", "To grow the sooner innocent;", "By studying to know virtue, and to aim", "More at her nature than her name;", "The last is but the least; the first doth tell", "Ways less to live, than to live well:--", "And both are known to thee, who now canst live", "Led by thy conscience, to give", "Justice to soon-pleased nature, and to show", "Wisdom and she together go,", "And keep one centre; This with that conspires", "To teach man to confine desires,", "And know that riches have their proper stint", "In the contented mind, not mint;", "And canst instruct that those who have the itch", "Of craving more, are never rich.", "These things thou knows't to th' height, and dost prevent", "That plague, because thou art content", "With that Heaven gave thee with a wary hand,", "(More blessed in thy brass than land)", "To keep cheap Nature even and upright;", "To cool, not cocker appetite.", "Thus thou canst tersely live to satisfy", "The belly chiefly, not the eye;", "Keeping the barking stomach wisely quiet,", "Less with a neat than needful diet.", "But that which most makes sweet thy country life,", "Is the fruition of a wife,", "Whom, stars consenting with thy fate, thou hast", "Got not so beautiful as chaste;", "By whose warm side thou dost securely sleep,", "While Love the sentinel doth keep,", "With those deeds done by day, which ne'er affright", "Thy silken slumbers in the night:", "Nor has the darkness power to usher in", "Fear to those sheets that know no sin.", "The damask'd meadows and the pebbly streams", "Sweeten and make soft your dreams:", "The purling springs, groves, birds, and well weaved bowers,", "With fields enamelled with flowers,", "Present their shapes, while fantasy discloses", "Millions of Lilies mix'd with Roses.", "Then dream, ye hear the lamb by many a bleat", "Woo'd to come suck the milky teat;", "While Faunus in the vision comes, to keep", "From rav'ning wolves the fleecy sheep:", "With thousand such enchanting dreams, that meet", "To make sleep not so sound as sweet;", "Nor call these figures so thy rest endear,", "As not to rise when Chanticlere", "Warns the last watch;--but with the dawn dost rise", "To work, but first to sacrifice;", "Making thy peace with Heaven for some late fault,", "With holy-meal and spirting salt;", "Which done, thy painful thumb this sentence tells us,", "'Jove for our labour all things sells us.'", "Nor are thy daily and devout affairs", "Attended with those desp'rate cares", "Th' industrious merchant has, who for to find", "Gold, runneth to the Western Ind,", "And back again, tortured with fears, doth fly,", "Untaught to suffer Poverty;--", "But thou at home, blest with securest ease,", "Sitt'st, and believ'st that there be seas,", "And watery dangers; while thy whiter hap", "But sees these things within thy map;", "And viewing them with a more safe survey,", "Mak'st easy fear unto thee say,", "'A heart thrice walled with oak and brass, that man", "Had, first durst plough the ocean.'", "But thou at home, without or tide or gale,", "Canst in thy map securely sail;", "Seeing those painted countries, and so guess", "By those fine shades, their substances;", "And from thy compass taking small advice,", "Buy'st travel at the lowest price.", "Nor are thine ears so deaf but thou canst hear,", "Far more with wonder than with fear,", "Fame tell of states, of countries, courts, and kings,", "And believe there be such things;", "When of these truths thy happier knowledge lies", "More in thine ears than in thine eyes.", "And when thou hear'st by that too true report,", "Vice rules the most, or all, at court,", "Thy pious wishes are, though thou not there,", "Virtue had, and moved her sphere.", "But thou liv'st fearless; and thy face ne'er shows", "Fortune when she comes, or goes;", "But with thy equal thoughts, prepared dost stand", "To take her by the either hand;", "Nor car'st which comes the first, the foul or fair:--", "A wise man ev'ry way lies square;", "And like a surly oak with storms perplex'd", "Grows still the stronger, strongly vex'd.", "Be so, bold Spirit; stand centre-like, unmoved;", "And be not only thought, but proved", "To be what I report thee, and inure", "Thyself, if want comes, to endure;", "And so thou dost; for thy desires are", "Confined to live with private Lar:", "Nor curious whether appetite be fed", "Or with the first, or second bread.", "Who keep'st no proud mouth for delicious cates;", "Hunger makes coarse meats, delicates.", "Canst, and unurged, forsake that larded fare,", "Which art, not nature, makes so rare;", "To taste boil'd nettles, coleworts, beets, and eat", "These, and sour herbs, as dainty meat:--", "While soft opinion makes thy Genius say,", "'Content makes all ambrosia;'", "Nor is it that thou keep'st this stricter size", "So much for want, as exercise;", "To numb the sense of dearth, which, should sin haste it,", "Thou might'st but only see't, not taste it;", "Yet can thy humble roof maintain a quire", "Of singing crickets by thy fire;", "And the brisk mouse may feast herself with crumbs,", "Till that the green-eyed kitling comes;", "Then to her cabin, blest she can escape", "The sudden danger of a rape.", "--And thus thy little well-kept stock doth prove,", "Wealth cannot make a life, but love.", "Nor art thou so close-handed, but canst spend,", "(Counsel concurring with the end),", "As well as spare; still conning o'er this theme,", "To shun the first and last extreme;", "Ordaining that thy small stock find no breach,", "Or to exceed thy tether's reach;", "But to live round, and close, and wisely true", "To thine own self, and known to few.", "Thus let thy rural sanctuary be", "Elysium to thy wife and thee;", "There to disport your selves with golden measure;", "For seldom use commends the pleasure.", "Live, and live blest; thrice happy pair; let breath,", "But lost to one, be th' other's death:", "And as there is one love, one faith, one troth,", "Be so one death, one grave to both;", "Till when, in such assurance live, ye may", "Nor fear, or wish your dying day." ], "linecount": "144" }, { "title": "LIFE IS THE BODY'S LIGHT", "author": "Robert Herrick", "lines": [ "Life is the body's light; which, once declining,", "Those crimson clouds i' th' cheeks and lips leave shining:-", "Those counter-changed tabbies in the air,", "The sun once set, all of one colour are:", "So, when death comes, fresh tinctures lose their place,", "And dismal darkness then doth smutch the face." ], "linecount": "6" }, { "title": "The Life Beyond", "author": "Rupert Brooke", "lines": [ "He wakes, who never thought to wake again,", "Who held the end was Death. He opens eyes", "Slowly, to one long livid oozing plain", "Closed down by the strange eyeless heavens. He lies;", "And waits; and once in timeless sick surmise", "Through the dead air heaves up an unknown hand,", "Like a dry branch. No life is in that land,", "Himself not lives, but is a thing that cries;", "An unmeaning point upon the mud; a speck", "Of moveless horror; an Immortal One", "Cleansed of the world, sentient and dead; a fly", "Fast-stuck in grey sweat on a corpse's neck.", "", "I thought when love for you died, I should die.", "It's dead. Alone, most strangely, I live on." ], "linecount": "14" }, { "title": "Life", "author": "Samuel Coleridge", "lines": [ "As late I journey'd o'er the extensive plain", "Where native Otter sports his scanty stream,", "Musing in torpid woe a Sister's pain,", "The glorious prospect woke me from the dream.", "", "At every step it widen'd to my sight -", "Wood, Meadow, verdant Hill, and dreary Steep,", "Following in quick succession of delight, -", "Till all - at once - did my eye ravish'd sweep!", "", "May this (I cried) my course through Life portray!", "New scenes of Wisdom may each step display,", "And Knowledge open as my days advance!", "Till what time Death shall pour the undarken'd ray,", "My eye shall dart thro' infinite expanse,", "And thought suspended lie in Rapture's blissful trance." ], "linecount": "14" }, { "title": "Human Life", "author": "Samuel Coleridge", "lines": [ "If dead, we cease to be ; if total gloom", "Swallow up life's brief flash for aye, we fare", "As summer-gusts, of sudden birth and doom,", "Whose sound and motion not alone declare,", "But are their whole of being ! If the breath", "Be Life itself, and not its task and tent,", "If even a soul like Milton's can know death ;", "O Man ! thou vessel purposeless, unmeant,", "Yet drone-hive strange of phantom purposes !", "Surplus of Nature's dread activity,", "Which, as she gazed on some nigh-finished vase,", "Retreating slow, with meditative pause,", "She formed with restless hands unconsciously.", "Blank accident ! nothing's anomaly !", "If rootless thus, thus substanceless thy state,", "Go, weigh thy dreams, and be thy hopes, thy fears,", "The counter-weights !--Thy laughter and thy tears", "Mean but themselves, each fittest to create", "And to repay the other ! Why rejoices", "Thy heart with hollow joy for hollow good ?", "Why cowl thy face beneath the mourner's hood ?", "Why waste thy sighs, and thy lamenting voices,", "Image of Image, Ghost of Ghostly Elf,", "That such a thing as thou feel'st warm or cold ?", "Yet what and whence thy gain, if thou withhold", "These costless shadows of thy shadowy self ?", "Be sad ! be glad ! be neither ! seek, or shun !", "Thou hast no reason why ! Thou canst have none ;", "Thy being's being is contradiction." ], "linecount": "29" }, { "title": "What Is Life?", "author": "Samuel Coleridge", "lines": [ "Resembles Life what once was held of Light,", "Too ample in itself for human sight ?", "An absolute Self--an element ungrounded--", "All, that we see, all colours of all shade", "[Image]By encroach of darkness made ?--", "Is very life by consciousness unbounded ?", "And all the thoughts, pains, joys of mortal breath,", "A war-embrace of wrestling Life and Death ?" ], "linecount": "8" }, { "title": "Life", "author": "Sir Walter Raleigh", "lines": [ "What is our life? A play of passion,", "Our mirth the music of division,", "Our mother's wombs the tiring-houses be,", "Where we are dressed for this short comedy.", "Heaven the judicious sharp spectator is,", "That sits and marks still who doth act amiss.", "Our graves that hide us from the setting sun", "Are like drawn curtains when the play is done.", "Thus march we, playing, to our latest rest,", "Only we die in earnest, that's no jest." ], "linecount": "10" }, { "title": "There was a man who lived a life of fire", "author": "Stephen Crane", "lines": [ "There was a man who lived a life of fire.", "Even upon the fabric of time,", "Where purple becomes orange", "And orange purple,", "This life glowed,", "A dire red stain, indelible;", "Yet when he was dead,", "He saw that he had not lived." ], "linecount": "8" }, { "title": "Upon the road of my life", "author": "Stephen Crane", "lines": [ "Upon the road of my life,", "Passed me many fair creatures,", "Clothed all in white, and radiant.", "To one, finally, I made speech:", "\"Who art thou?\"", "But she, like the others,", "Kept cowled her face,", "And answered in haste, anxiously,", "\"I am good deed, forsooth;", "You have often seen me.\"", "\"Not uncowled,\" I made reply.", "And with rash and strong hand,", "Though she resisted,", "I drew away the veil", "And gazed at the features of vanity.", "She, shamefaced, went on;", "And after I had mused a time,", "I said of myself,", "\"Fool!\"" ], "linecount": "19" }, { "title": "The River of Life", "author": "Thomas Campbell", "lines": [ "The more we live, more brief appear", "Our life's succeeding stages;", "A day to childhood seems a year,", "And years like passing ages.", "", "The gladsome current of our youth,", "Ere passion yet disorders,", "Steals lingering like a river smooth", "Along its grassy borders.", "", "But as the careworn cheek grows wan,", "And sorrow's shafts fly thicker,", "Ye stars, that measure life to man,", "Why seem your courses quicker?", "", "When joys have lost their bloom and breath,", "And life itself is vapid,", "Why, as we reach the Falls of Death", "Feel we its tide more rapid?", "", "It may be strange—yet who would change", "Time's course to slower speeding,", "When one by one our friends have gone,", "And left our bosoms bleeding?", "", "Heaven gives our years of fading strength", "Indemnifying fleetness;", "And those of youth, a seeming length,", "Proportion'd to their sweetness." ], "linecount": "24" }, { "title": "This Life Is All Chequer'd With Pleasures and Woes", "author": "Thomas Moore", "lines": [ "This life is all chequer'd with pleasures and woes,", "That chase one another like waves of the deep --", "Each brightly or darkly, as onward it flows,", "Reflecting our eyes, as they sparkle or weep.", "So closely our whims on our miseries tread,", "That the laugh is awaked ere the tear can be dried;", "And, as fast as the rain-drop of Pity is shed,", "The goose-plumage of Folly can turn it aside.", "But pledge me the cup -- if existence would cloy,", "With hearts ever happy and heads ever wise,", "Be ours the light Sorrow, half-sister to Joy,", "And the light brilliant Folly that flashes and dies.", "", "When Hylas was sent with his urn to the fount,", "Through fields full of light, and with heart full of play,", "Light rambled the boy, over meadow and mount,", "And neglected his task for the flowers on the way.", "Thus many, like me, who in youth should have tasted", "The fountain that runs by Philosophy's shrine,", "Their time with the flowers on the margin have wasted,", "And left their light urns all as empty as mine.", "But pledge me the goblet; -- while idleness weaves", "These flowerets together, should Wisdom but see", "One bright drop or two that has fall'n on the leaves", "From her fountain divine, 'tis sufficient for me." ], "linecount": "24" }, { "title": "In the Morning of Life", "author": "Thomas Moore", "lines": [ "In the morning of life, when its cares are unknown,", "And its pleasures in all their new lustre begin,", "When we live in a bright-beaming world of our own,", "And the light that surrounds us is all from within;", "Oh 'tis not, believe me, in that happy time", "We can love, as in hours of less transport we may; --", "Of our smiles, of our hopes, 'tis the gay sunny prime,", "But affection is truest when these fade away.", "", "When we see the first glory of youth pass us by,", "Like a leaf on the stream that will never return,", "When our cup, which had sparkled with pleasure so high,", "First tastes of the other, the dark-flowing urn;", "Then, then in the time when affection holds sway", "With a depth and a tenderness joy never knew;", "Love, nursed among pleasures, is faithless as they,", "But the love born of Sorrow, like Sorrow, is true.", "", "In climes full of sunshine, though splendid the flowers,", "Their sighs have no freshness, their odour no worth;", "'Tis the cloud and the mist of our own Isle of showers", "That call the rich spirit of fragrancy forth.", "So it is not 'mid splendour, prosperity, mirth,", "That the depth of Love's generous spirit appears;", "To the sunshine of smiles it may first owe its birth,", "But the soul of its sweetness is drawn out by tears." ], "linecount": "24" }, { "title": "They May Rail at this Life", "author": "Thomas Moore", "lines": [ "They may rail at this life -- from the hour I began it", "I found it a life full of kindness and bliss;", "And, until they can show me some happier planet,", "More social and bright, I'll content me with this.", "As long as the world has such lips and such eyes", "As before me this moment enraptured I see,", "They may say what they will of their orbs in the skies,", "But this earth is the planet for you, love, and me.", "", "In Mercury's star, where each moment can bring them", "New sunshine and wit from the fountain on high,", "Though the nymphs may have livelier poets to sing them,", "They've none, even there, more enamour'd than I.", "And, as long as this harp can be waken'd to love,", "And that eye its divine inspiration shall be,", "They may talk as they will of their Edens above,", "But this earth is the planet for you, love, and me.", "", "In that star of the west, by whose shadowy splendour,", "At twilight so often we've roam'd through the dew,", "There are maidens, perhaps, who have bosoms as tender,", "And look, in their twilights, as lovely as you.", "But though they were even more bright than the queen", "Of that Isle they inhabit in heaven's blue sea,", "As I never those fair young celestials have seen,", "Why -- this earth is the planet for you, love, and me.", "", "As for those chilly orbs on the verge of creation,", "Where sunshine and smiles must be equally rare,", "Did they want a supply of cold hearts for that station,", "Heaven knows we have plenty on earth we could spare,", "Oh! think what a world we should have of it here,", "If the haters of peace, of affection and glee,", "Were to fly up to Saturn's comfortless sphere,", "And leave earth to such spirits as you, love, and me." ], "linecount": "32" }, { "title": "Soon, O Ianthe! life is o'er", "author": "Walter Savage Landor", "lines": [ "Soon, O Ianthe! life is o'er,", "And sooner beauty's heavenly smile:", "Grant only (and I ask no more),", "Let love remain that little while." ], "linecount": "4" }, { "title": "Weave in, Weave in, My Hardy Life.", "author": "Walt Whitman", "lines": [ "WEAVE in! weave in, my hardy life!", "Weave yet a soldier strong and full, for great campaigns to come;", "Weave in red blood! weave sinews in, like ropes! the senses, sight weave in!", "Weave lasting sure! weave day and night the weft, the warp, incessant weave! tire not!", "(We know not what the use, O life! nor know the aim, the end—nor really aught we", " know;", "But know the work, the need goes on, and shall go on—the death-envelop’d march", " of", " peace as well as war goes on;)", "For great campaigns of peace the same, the wiry threads to weave;", "We know not why or what, yet weave, forever weave." ], "linecount": "11" }, { "title": "Full of Life, Now.", "author": "Walt Whitman", "lines": [ "FULL of life, now, compact, visible,", "I, forty years old the Eighty-third Year of The States,", "To one a century hence, or any number of centuries hence,", "To you, yet unborn, these, seeking you.", "", "When you read these, I, that was visible, am become invisible;", "Now it is you, compact, visible, realizing my poems, seeking me;", "Fancying how happy you were, if I could be with you, and become your comrade;", "Be it as if I were with you. (Be not too certain but I am now with you.)" ], "linecount": "8" }, { "title": "O Me! O Life!", "author": "Walt Whitman", "lines": [ "O ME! O life!... of the questions of these recurring;", "Of the endless trains of the faithless—of cities fill’d with the foolish;", "Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more foolish than I, and who more", " faithless?)", "Of eyes that vainly crave the light—of the objects mean—of the struggle ever", " renew’d;", "Of the poor results of all—of the plodding and sordid crowds I see around me;", "Of the empty and useless years of the rest—with the rest me intertwined;", "The question, O me! so sad, recurring—What good amid these, O me, O life?", "", "Answer.", "That you are here—that life exists, and identity;", "That the powerful play goes on, and you will contribute a verse." ], "linecount": "12" }, { "title": "Madam Life's a Piece in Bloom", "author": "William Ernest Henley", "lines": [ "Madam Life's a piece in bloom", "Death goes dogging everywhere:", "She's the tenant of the room,", "He's the ruffian on the stair.", "", "You shall see her as a friend,", "You shall bilk him once or twice;", "But he'll trap you in the end,", "And he'll stick you for her price.", "", "With his kneebones at your chest,", "And his knuckles in your throat,", "You would reason -- plead -- protest!", "Clutching at her petticoat;", "", "But she's heard it all before,", "Well she knows you've had your fun,", "Gingerly she gains the door,", "And your little job is done." ], "linecount": "16" }, { "title": "Song VI: Cherish Life that Abideth", "author": "William Morris", "lines": [ "Love is enough: cherish life that abideth,", "Lest ye die ere ye know him, and curse and misname him;", "For who knows in what ruin of all hope he hideth,", "On what wings of the terror of darkness he rideth?", "And what is the joy of man's life that ye blame him", "For his bliss grown a sword, and his rest grown a fire?", "", "Ye who tremble for death, or the death of desire,", "Pass about the cold winter-tide garden and ponder", "On the rose in his glory amidst of June's fire,", "On the languor of noontide that gathered the thunder,", "On the morn and its freshness, the eve and its wonder:", "Ye may make it no more--shall Spring come to awaken?", "", "Live on, for Love liveth, and earth shall be shaken", "By the wind of his wings on the triumphing morning,", "When the dead, and their deeds that die not shall awaken,", "And the world's tale shall sound in your trumpet of warning,", "And the sun smite the banner called Scorn of the Scorning,", "And dead pain ye shall trample, dead fruitless desire,", "As ye wend to pluck out the new world from the fire." ], "linecount": "19" }, { "title": "Sonnet 75: So are you to my thoughts as food to life", "author": "William Shakespeare", "lines": [ "So are you to my thoughts as food to life,", "Or as sweet-season'd showers are to the ground;", "And for the peace of you I hold such strife", "As 'twixt a miser and his wealth is found.", "Now proud as an enjoyer, and anon", "Doubting the filching age will steal his treasure;", "Now counting best to be with you alone,", "Then better'd that the world may see my pleasure:", "Sometime all full with feasting on your sight,", "And by and by clean starved for a look;", "Possessing or pursuing no delight,", "Save what is had, or must from you be took.", " Thus do I pine and surfeit day by day,", " Or gluttoning on all, or all away." ], "linecount": "14" }, { "title": "The Vanities of Life", "author": "John Clare", "lines": [ "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.--_Solomon", "", "What are life's joys and gains?", " What pleasures crowd its ways,", "That man should take such pains", " To seek them all his days?", "Sift this untoward strife", " On which thy mind is bent:", "See if this chaff of life", " Is worth the trouble spent.", "", "Is pride thy heart's desire?", " Is power thy climbing aim?", "Is love thy folly's fire?", " Is wealth thy restless game?", "Pride, power, love, wealth, and all", " Time's touchstone shall destroy,", "And, like base coin, prove all", " Vain substitutes for joy.", "", "Dost think that pride exalts", " Thyself in other's eyes,", "And hides thy folly's faults,", " Which reason will despise?", "Dost strut, and turn, and stride,", " Like walking weathercocks?", "The shadow by thy side", " Becomes thy ape, and mocks.", "", "Dost think that power's disguise", " Can make thee mighty seem?", "It may in folly's eyes,", " But not in worth's esteem,", "When all that thou canst ask,", " And all that she can give,", "Is but a paltry mask", " Which tyrants wear and live.", "", "Go, let thy fancies range", " And ramble where they may;", "View power in every change,", " And what is the display?", "--The country magistrate,", " The meanest shade in power,", "To rulers of the state,", " The meteors of an hour.", "", "View all, and mark the end", " Of every proud extreme,", "Where flattery turns a friend,", " And counterfeits esteem;", "Where worth is aped in show,", " That doth her name purloin,", "Like toys of golden glow", " That's sold for copper coin.", "", "Ambition's haughty nod", " With fancies may deceive,", "Nay, tell thee thou'rt a god,", " And wilt thou such believe?", "Go, bid the seas be dry;", " Go, hold earth like a ball,", "Or throw thy fancies by,", " For God can do it all.", "", "Dost thou possess the dower", " Of laws to spare or kill?", "Call it not heavenly power", " When but a tyrant's will.", "Know what a God will do,", " And know thyself a fool,", "Nor, tyrant-like, pursue", " Where He alone should rule.", "", "O put away thy pride,", " Or be ashamed of power", "That cannot turn aside", " The breeze that waves a flower.", "Or bid the clouds be still:", " Though shadows, they can brave", "Thy poor power mocking will:", " Then make not man a slave.", "", "Dost think, when wealth is won,", " Thy heart has its desire?", "Hold ice up to the sun,", " And wax before the fire;", "Nor triumph oer the reign", " Which they so soon resign;", "In this world's ways they gain,", " Insurance safe as thine.", "", "Dost think life's peace secure", " In house and in land?", "Go, read the fairy lure", " To twist a cord in sand;", "Lodge stones upon the sky,", " Hold water in a sieve,", "Nor give such tales the lie,", " And still thine own believe.", "", "Whoso with riches deals,", " And thinks peace bought and sold,", "Will find them slipping eels,", " That slide the firmest hold:", "Though sweet as sleep with health", " Thy lulling luck may be,", "Pride may oerstride thy wealth,", " And check prosperity.", "", "Dost think that beauty's power", " Life sweetest pleasure gives?", "Go, pluck the summer flower,", " And see how long it lives:", "Behold, the rays glide on", " Along the summer plain", "Ere thou canst say \"they're gone,\"", " And measure beauty's reign.", "", "Look on the brightest eye,", " Nor teach it to be proud;", "View but the clearest sky,", " And thou shalt find a cloud;", "Nor call each face ye meet", " An angel's, cause it's fair,", "But look beneath your feet,", " And think of what they are.", "", "Who thinks that love doth live", " In beauty's tempting show,", "Shall find his hopes ungive,", " And melt in reason's thaw.", "Who thinks that pleasure lies", " In every fairy bower,", "Shall oft, to his surprise,", " Find poison in the flower.", "", "Dost lawless passions grasp?", " Judge not thou deal'st in joy:", "Its flowers but hide the asp,", " Thy revels to destroy.", "Who trusts an harlot's smile,", " And by her wiles are led,", "Plays, with a sword the while", " Hung dropping oer his head.", "", "Dost doubt my warning song?", " Then doubt the sun gives light,", "Doubt truth to teach thee wrong,", " And wrong alone as right;", "And live as lives the knave,", " Intrigue's deceiving guest;", "Be tyrant, or be slave,", " As suits thy ends the best.", "", "Or pause amid thy toils", " For visions won and lost,", "And count the fancied spoils,", " If eer they quit the cost:", "And if they still possess", " Thy mind, as worthy things,", "Plat straws with bedlam Bess,", " And call them diamond rings.", "", "Thy folly's past advice,", " Thy heart's already won,", "Thy fall's above all price,", " So go, and be undone;", "For all who thus prefer", " The seeming great for small", "Shall make wine vinegar,", " And sweetest honey gall.", "", "Wouldst heed the truths I sing,", " To profit wherewithal,", "Clip folly's wanton wing,", " And keep her within call.", "I've little else to give,", " What thou canst easy try;", "The lesson how to live", " Is but to learn to die." ], "linecount": "161" }, { "title": "The Triumph of Life", "author": "Percy Bysshe Shelley", "lines": [ "Swift as a spirit hastening to his task", "Of glory and of good, the Sun sprang forth", "Rejoicing in his splendour, and the mask", "", "Of darkness fell from the awakened Earth--", "The smokeless altars of the mountain snows", "Flamed above crimson clouds, and at the birth", "", "Of light, the Ocean's orison arose,", "To which the birds tempered their matin lay.", "All flowers in field or forest which unclose", "", "Their trembling eyelids to the kiss of day,", "Swinging their censers in the element,", "With orient incense lit by the new ray", "", "Burned slow and inconsumably, and sent", "Their odorous sighs up to the smiling air;", "And, in succession due, did continent,", "", "Isle, ocean, and all things that in them wear", "The form and character of mortal mould,", "Rise as the Sun their father rose, to bear", "", "Their portion of the toil, which he of old", "Took as his own, and then imposed on them:", "But I, whom thoughts which must remain untold", "", "Had kept as wakeful as the stars that gem", "The cone of night, now they were laid asleep", "Stretched my faint limbs beneath the hoary stem", "", "Which an old chestnut flung athwart the steep", "Of a green Apennine: before me fled", "The night; behind me rose the day; the deep", "", "Was at my feet, and Heaven above my head,--", "When a strange trance over my fancy grew", "Which was not slumber, for the shade it spread", "", "Was so transparent, that the scene came through", "As clear as when a veil of light is drawn", "O'er evening hills they glimmer; and I knew", "", "That I had felt the freshness of that dawn", "Bathe in the same cold dew my brow and hair,", "And sate as thus upon that slope of lawn", "", "Under the self-same bough, and heard as there", "The birds, the fountains and the ocean hold", "Sweet talk in music through the enamoured air,", "And then a vision on my train was rolled.", "", "...", "", "As in that trance of wondrous thought I lay,", "This was the tenour of my waking dream:--", "Methought I sate beside a public way", "", "Thick strewn with summer dust, and a great stream", "Of people there was hurrying to and fro,", "Numerous as gnats upon the evening gleam,", "", "All hastening onward, yet none seemed to know", "Whither he went, or whence he came, or why", "He made one of the multitude, and so", "", "Was borne amid the crowd, as through the sky", "One of the million leaves of summer's bier;", "Old age and youth, manhood and infancy,", "", "Mixed in one mighty torrent did appear,", "Some flying from the thing they feared, and some", "Seeking the object of another's fear;", "", "And others, as with steps towards the tomb,", "Pored on the trodden worms that crawled beneath,", "And others mournfully within the gloom", "", "Of their own shadow walked, and called it death;", "And some fled from it as it were a ghost,", "Half fainting in the affliction of vain breath:", "", "But more, with motions which each other crossed,", "Pursued or shunned the shadows the clouds threw,", "Or birds within the noonday aether lost,", "", "Upon that path where flowers never grew,--", "And, weary with vain toil and faint for thirst,", "Heard not the fountains, whose melodious dew", "", "Out of their mossy cells forever burst;", "Nor felt the breeze which from the forest told", "Of grassy paths and wood-lawns interspersed", "", "With overarching elms and caverns cold,", "And violet banks where sweet dreams brood, but they", "Pursued their serious folly as of old.", "", "And as I gazed, methought that in the way", "The throng grew wilder, as the woods of June", "When the south wind shakes the extinguished day,", "", "And a cold glare, intenser than the noon,", "But icy cold, obscured with blinding light", "The sun, as he the stars. Like the young moon--", "", "When on the sunlit limits of the night", "Her white shell trembles amid crimson air,", "And whilst the sleeping tempest gathers might--", "", "Doth, as the herald of its coming, bear", "The ghost of its dead mother, whose dim form", "Bends in dark aether from her infant's chair,--", "", "So came a chariot on the silent storm", "Of its own rushing splendour, and a Shape", "So sate within, as one whom years deform,", "", "Beneath a dusky hood and double cape,", "Crouching within the shadow of a tomb;", "And o'er what seemed the head a cloud-like crape", "", "Was bent, a dun and faint aethereal gloom", "Tempering the light. Upon the chariot-beam", "A Janus-visaged Shadow did assume", "", "The guidance of that wonder-winged team;", "The shapes which drew it in thick lightenings", "Were lost:--I heard alone on the air's soft stream", "", "The music of their ever-moving wings.", "All the four faces of that Charioteer", "Had their eyes banded; little profit brings", "", "Speed in the van and blindness in the rear,", "Nor then avail the beams that quench the sun,--", "Or that with banded eyes could pierce the sphere", "", "Of all that is, has been or will be done;", "So ill was the car guided--but it passed", "With solemn speed majestically on.", "", "The crowd gave way, and I arose aghast,", "Or seemed to rise, so mighty was the trance,", "And saw, like clouds upon the thunder-blast,", "", "The million with fierce song and maniac dance", "Raging around--such seemed the jubilee", "As when to greet some conqueror's advance", "", "Imperial Rome poured forth her living sea", "From senate-house, and forum, and theatre,", "When ... upon the free", "", "Had bound a yoke, which soon they stooped to bear.", "Nor wanted here the just similitude", "Of a triumphal pageant, for where'er", "", "The chariot rolled, a captive multitude", "Was driven;--all those who had grown old in power", "Or misery,--all who had their age subdued", "", "By action or by suffering, and whose hour", "Was drained to its last sand in weal or woe,", "So that the trunk survived both fruit and flower;--", "", "All those whose fame or infamy must grow", "Till the great winter lay the form and name", "Of this green earth with them for ever low;--", "", "All but the sacred few who could not tame", "Their spirits to the conquerors--but as soon", "As they had touched the world with living flame,", "", "Fled back like eagles to their native noon,", "Or those who put aside the diadem", "Of earthly thrones or gems...", "", "Were there, of Athens or Jerusalem.", "Were neither mid the mighty captives seen,", "Nor mid the ribald crowd that followed them,", "", "Nor those who went before fierce and obscene.", "The wild dance maddens in the van, and those", "Who lead it--fleet as shadows on the green,", "", "Outspeed the chariot, and without repose", "Mix with each other in tempestuous measure", "To savage music, wilder as it grows,", "", "They, tortured by their agonizing pleasure,", "Convulsed and on the rapid whirlwinds spun", "Of that fierce Spirit, whose unholy leisure", "", "Was soothed by mischief since the world begun,", "Throw back their heads and loose their streaming hair;", "And in their dance round her who dims the sun,", "", "Maidens and youths fling their wild arms in air", "As their feet twinkle; they recede, and now", "Bending within each other's atmosphere,", "", "Kindle invisibly--and as they glow,", "Like moths by light attracted and repelled,", "Oft to their bright destruction come and go,", "", "Till like two clouds into one vale impelled,", "That shake the mountains when their lightnings mingle", "And die in rain--the fiery band which held", "", "Their natures, snaps--while the shock still may tingle", "One falls and then another in the path", "Senseless--nor is the desolation single,", "", "Yet ere I can say WHERE--the chariot hath", "Passed over them--nor other trace I find", "But as of foam after the ocean's wrath", "", "Is spent upon the desert shore;--behind,", "Old men and women foully disarrayed,", "Shake their gray hairs in the insulting wind,", "", "And follow in the dance, with limbs decayed,", "Seeking to reach the light which leaves them still", "Farther behind and deeper in the shade.", "", "But not the less with impotence of will", "They wheel, though ghastly shadows interpose", "Round them and round each other, and fulfil", "", "Their work, and in the dust from whence they rose", "Sink, and corruption veils them as they lie,", "And past in these performs what ... in those.", "", "Struck to the heart by this sad pageantry,", "Half to myself I said--'And what is this?", "Whose shape is that within the car? And why--'", "", "I would have added--'is all here amiss?--'", "But a voice answered--'Life!'--I turned, and knew", "(O Heaven, have mercy on such wretchedness!)", "", "That what I thought was an old root which grew", "To strange distortion out of the hill side,", "Was indeed one of those deluded crew,", "", "And that the grass, which methought hung so wide", "And white, was but his thin discoloured hair,", "And that the holes he vainly sought to hide,", "", "Were or had been eyes:--'If thou canst forbear", "To join the dance, which I had well forborne,'", "Said the grim Feature, of my thought aware,", "", "'I will unfold that which to this deep scorn", "Led me and my companions, and relate", "The progress of the pageant since the morn;", "", "'If thirst of knowledge shall not then abate,", "Follow it thou even to the night, but I", "Am weary.'--Then like one who with the weight", "", "Of his own words is staggered, wearily", "He paused; and ere he could resume, I cried:", "'First, who art thou?'--'Before thy memory,", "", "'I feared, loved, hated, suffered, did and died,", "And if the spark with which Heaven lit my spirit", "Had been with purer nutriment supplied,", "", "'Corruption would not now thus much inherit", "Of what was once Rousseau,--nor this disguise", "Stain that which ought to have disdained to wear it;", "", "'If I have been extinguished, yet there rise", "A thousand beacons from the spark I bore'--", "'And who are those chained to the car?'--'The wise,", "", "'The great, the unforgotten,--they who wore", "Mitres and helms and crowns, or wreaths of light,", "Signs of thought's empire over thought--their lore", "", "'Taught them not this, to know themselves; their might", "Could not repress the mystery within,", "And for the morn of truth they feigned, deep night", "", "'Caught them ere evening.'--'Who is he with chin", "Upon his breast, and hands crossed on his chain?'--", "'The child of a fierce hour; he sought to win", "", "'The world, and lost all that it did contain", "Of greatness, in its hope destroyed; and more", "Of fame and peace than virtue's self can gain", "", "'Without the opportunity which bore", "Him on its eagle pinions to the peak", "From which a thousand climbers have before", "", "'Fallen, as Napoleon fell.'--I felt my cheek", "Alter, to see the shadow pass away,", "Whose grasp had left the giant world so weak", "", "That every pigmy kicked it as it lay;", "And much I grieved to think how power and will", "In opposition rule our mortal day,", "", "And why God made irreconcilable", "Good and the means of good; and for despair", "I half disdained mine eyes' desire to fill", "", "With the spent vision of the times that were", "And scarce have ceased to be.--'Dost thou behold,'", "Said my guide, 'those spoilers spoiled, Voltaire,", "", "'Frederick, and Paul, Catherine, and Leopold,", "And hoary anarchs, demagogues, and sage--", "names which the world thinks always old,", "", "'For in the battle Life and they did wage,", "She remained conqueror. I was overcome", "By my own heart alone, which neither age,", "", "'Nor tears, nor infamy, nor now the tomb", "Could temper to its object.'--'Let them pass,'", "I cried, 'the world and its mysterious doom", "", "'Is not so much more glorious than it was,", "That I desire to worship those who drew", "New figures on its false and fragile glass", "", "'As the old faded.'--'Figures ever new", "Rise on the bubble, paint them as you may;", "We have but thrown, as those before us threw,", "", "'Our shadows on it as it passed away.", "But mark how chained to the triumphal chair", "The mighty phantoms of an elder day;", "", "'All that is mortal of great Plato there", "Expiates the joy and woe his master knew not;", "The star that ruled his doom was far too fair.", "", "'And life, where long that flower of Heaven grew not,", "Conquered that heart by love, which gold, or pain,", "Or age, or sloth, or slavery could subdue not.", "", "'And near him walk the ... twain,", "The tutor and his pupil, whom Dominion", "Followed as tame as vulture in a chain.", "", "'The world was darkened beneath either pinion", "Of him whom from the flock of conquerors", "Fame singled out for her thunder-bearing minion;", "", "'The other long outlived both woes and wars,", "Throned in the thoughts of men, and still had kept", "The jealous key of Truth's eternal doors,", "", "'If Bacon's eagle spirit had not lept", "Like lightning out of darkness--he compelled", "The Proteus shape of Nature, as it slept", "", "'To wake, and lead him to the caves that held", "The treasure of the secrets of its reign.", "See the great bards of elder time, who quelled", "", "'The passions which they sung, as by their strain", "May well be known: their living melody", "Tempers its own contagion to the vein", "", "'Of those who are infected with it--I", "Have suffered what I wrote, or viler pain!", "And so my words have seeds of misery--", "", "'Even as the deeds of others, not as theirs.'", "And then he pointed to a company,", "", "'Midst whom I quickly recognized the heirs", "Of Caesar's crime, from him to Constantine;", "The anarch chiefs, whose force and murderous snares", "", "Had founded many a sceptre-bearing line,", "And spread the plague of gold and blood abroad:", "And Gregory and John, and men divine,", "", "Who rose like shadows between man and God;", "Till that eclipse, still hanging over heaven,", "Was worshipped by the world o'er which they strode,", "", "For the true sun it quenched--'Their power was given", "But to destroy,' replied the leader:--'I", "Am one of those who have created, even", "", "'If it be but a world of agony.'--", "'Whence camest thou? and whither goest thou?", "How did thy course begin?' I said, 'and why?", "", "'Mine eyes are sick of this perpetual flow", "Of people, and my heart sick of one sad thought--", "Speak!'--'Whence I am, I partly seem to know,", "", "'And how and by what paths I have been brought", "To this dread pass, methinks even thou mayst guess;--", "Why this should be, my mind can compass not;", "", "'Whither the conqueror hurries me, still less;--", "But follow thou, and from spectator turn", "Actor or victim in this wretchedness,", "", "'And what thou wouldst be taught I then may learn", "From thee. Now listen:--In the April prime,", "When all the forest-tips began to burn", "", "'With kindling green, touched by the azure clime", "Of the young season, I was laid asleep", "Under a mountain, which from unknown time", "", "'Had yawned into a cavern, high and deep;", "And from it came a gentle rivulet,", "Whose water, like clear air, in its calm sweep", "", "'Bent the soft grass, and kept for ever wet", "The stems of the sweet flowers, and filled the grove", "With sounds, which whoso hears must needs forget", "", "'All pleasure and all pain, all hate and love,", "Which they had known before that hour of rest;", "A sleeping mother then would dream not of", "", "'Her only child who died upon the breast", "At eventide--a king would mourn no more", "The crown of which his brows were dispossessed", "", "'When the sun lingered o'er his ocean floor", "To gild his rival's new prosperity.", "'Thou wouldst forget thus vainly to deplore", "", "'Ills, which if ills can find no cure from thee,", "The thought of which no other sleep will quell,", "Nor other music blot from memory,", "", "'So sweet and deep is the oblivious spell;", "And whether life had been before that sleep", "The Heaven which I imagine, or a Hell", "", "'Like this harsh world in which I woke to weep,", "I know not. I arose, and for a space", "The scene of woods and waters seemed to keep,", "", "Though it was now broad day, a gentle trace", "Of light diviner than the common sun", "Sheds on the common earth, and all the place", "", "'Was filled with magic sounds woven into one", "Oblivious melody, confusing sense", "Amid the gliding waves and shadows dun;", "", "'And, as I looked, the bright omnipresence", "Of morning through the orient cavern flowed,", "And the sun's image radiantly intense", "", "'Burned on the waters of the well that glowed", "Like gold, and threaded all the forest's maze", "With winding paths of emerald fire; there stood", "", "'Amid the sun, as he amid the blaze", "Of his own glory, on the vibrating", "Floor of the fountain, paved with flashing rays,", "", "'A Shape all light, which with one hand did fling", "Dew on the earth, as if she were the dawn,", "And the invisible rain did ever sing", "", "'A silver music on the mossy lawn;", "And still before me on the dusky grass,", "Iris her many-coloured scarf had drawn:", "", "'In her right hand she bore a crystal glass,", "Mantling with bright Nepenthe; the fierce splendour", "Fell from her as she moved under the mass", "", "'Of the deep cavern, and with palms so tender,", "Their tread broke not the mirror of its billow,", "Glided along the river, and did bend her", "", "'Head under the dark boughs, till like a willow", "Her fair hair swept the bosom of the stream", "That whispered with delight to be its pillow.", "", "'As one enamoured is upborne in dream", "O'er lily-paven lakes, mid silver mist", "To wondrous music, so this shape might seem", "", "'Partly to tread the waves with feet which kissed", "The dancing foam; partly to glide along", "The air which roughened the moist amethyst,", "", "'Or the faint morning beams that fell among", "The trees, or the soft shadows of the trees;", "And her feet, ever to the ceaseless song", "", "'Of leaves, and winds, and waves, and birds, and bees,", "And falling drops, moved in a measure new", "Yet sweet, as on the summer evening breeze,", "", "'Up from the lake a shape of golden dew", "Between two rocks, athwart the rising moon,", "Dances i' the wind, where never eagle flew;", "", "'And still her feet, no less than the sweet tune", "To which they moved, seemed as they moved to blot", "The thoughts of him who gazed on them; and soon", "", "'All that was, seemed as if it had been not;", "And all the gazer's mind was strewn beneath", "Her feet like embers; and she, thought by thought,", "", "'Trampled its sparks into the dust of death", "As day upon the threshold of the east", "Treads out the lamps of night, until the breath", "", "'Of darkness re-illumine even the least", "Of heaven's living eyes--like day she came,", "Making the night a dream; and ere she ceased", "", "'To move, as one between desire and shame", "Suspended, I said--If, as it doth seem,", "Thou comest from the realm without a name", "", "'Into this valley of perpetual dream,", "Show whence I came, and where I am, and why--", "Pass not away upon the passing stream.", "", "'Arise and quench thy thirst, was her reply.", "And as a shut lily stricken by the wand", "Of dewy morning's vital alchemy,", "", "'I rose; and, bending at her sweet command,", "Touched with faint lips the cup she raised,", "And suddenly my brain became as sand", "", "'Where the first wave had more than half erased", "The track of deer on desert Labrador;", "Whilst the wolf, from which they fled amazed,", "", "'Leaves his stamp visibly upon the shore,", "Until the second bursts;--so on my sight", "Burst a new vision, never seen before,", "", "'And the fair shape waned in the coming light,", "As veil by veil the silent splendour drops", "From Lucifer, amid the chrysolite", "", "'Of sunrise, ere it tinge the mountain-tops;", "And as the presence of that fairest planet,", "Although unseen, is felt by one who hopes", "", "'That his day's path may end as he began it,", "In that star's smile, whose light is like the scent", "Of a jonquil when evening breezes fan it,", "", "'Or the soft note in which his dear lament", "The Brescian shepherd breathes, or the caress", "That turned his weary slumber to content;", "", "'So knew I in that light's severe excess", "The presence of that Shape which on the stream", "Moved, as I moved along the wilderness,", "", "'More dimly than a day-appearing dream,", "The host of a forgotten form of sleep;", "A light of heaven, whose half-extinguished beam", "", "'Through the sick day in which we wake to weep", "Glimmers, for ever sought, for ever lost;", "So did that shape its obscure tenour keep", "", "'Beside my path, as silent as a ghost;", "But the new Vision, and the cold bright car,", "With solemn speed and stunning music, crossed", "", "'The forest, and as if from some dread war", "Triumphantly returning, the loud million", "Fiercely extolled the fortune of her star.", "", "'A moving arch of victory, the vermilion", "And green and azure plumes of Iris had", "Built high over her wind-winged pavilion,", "", "'And underneath aethereal glory clad", "The wilderness, and far before her flew", "The tempest of the splendour, which forbade", "", "'Shadow to fall from leaf and stone; the crew", "Seemed in that light, like atomies to dance", "Within a sunbeam;--some upon the new", "", "'Embroidery of flowers, that did enhance", "The grassy vesture of the desert, played,", "Forgetful of the chariot's swift advance;", "", "'Others stood gazing, till within the shade", "Of the great mountain its light left them dim;", "Others outspeeded it; and others made", "", "'Circles around it, like the clouds that swim", "Round the high moon in a bright sea of air;", "And more did follow, with exulting hymn,", "", "'The chariot and the captives fettered there:--", "But all like bubbles on an eddying flood", "Fell into the same track at last, and were", "", "'Borne onward.--I among the multitude", "Was swept--me, sweetest flowers delayed not long;", "Me, not the shadow nor the solitude;", "", "'Me, not that falling stream's Lethean song;", "Me, not the phantom of that early Form", "Which moved upon its motion--but among", "", "'The thickest billows of that living storm", "I plunged, and bared my bosom to the clime", "Of that cold light, whose airs too soon deform.", "", "'Before the chariot had begun to climb", "The opposing steep of that mysterious dell,", "Behold a wonder worthy of the rhyme", "", "'Of him who from the lowest depths of hell,", "Through every paradise and through all glory,", "Love led serene, and who returned to tell", "", "'The words of hate and awe; the wondrous story", "How all things are transfigured except Love;", "For deaf as is a sea, which wrath makes hoary,", "", "'The world can hear not the sweet notes that move", "The sphere whose light is melody to lovers--", "A wonder worthy of his rhyme.--The grove", "", "'Grew dense with shadows to its inmost covers,", "The earth was gray with phantoms, and the air", "Was peopled with dim forms, as when there hovers", "", "'A flock of vampire-bats before the glare", "Of the tropic sun, bringing, ere evening,", "Strange night upon some Indian isle;--thus were", "", "'Phantoms diffused around; and some did fling", "Shadows of shadows, yet unlike themselves,", "Behind them; some like eaglets on the wing", "", "'Were lost in the white day; others like elves", "Danced in a thousand unimagined shapes", "Upon the sunny streams and grassy shelves;", "", "'And others sate chattering like restless apes", "On vulgar hands,...", "Some made a cradle of the ermined capes", "", "'Of kingly mantles; some across the tiar", "Of pontiffs sate like vultures; others played", "Under the crown which girt with empire", "", "'A baby's or an idiot's brow, and made", "Their nests in it. The old anatomies", "Sate hatching their bare broods under the shade", "", "'Of daemon wings, and laughed from their dead eyes", "To reassume the delegated power,", "Arrayed in which those worms did monarchize,", "", "'Who made this earth their charnel. Others more", "Humble, like falcons, sate upon the fist", "Of common men, and round their heads did soar;", "", "Or like small gnats and flies, as thick as mist", "On evening marshes, thronged about the brow", "Of lawyers, statesmen, priest and theorist;--", "", "'And others, like discoloured flakes of snow", "On fairest bosoms and the sunniest hair,", "Fell, and were melted by the youthful glow", "", "'Which they extinguished; and, like tears, they were", "A veil to those from whose faint lids they rained", "In drops of sorrow. I became aware", "", "'Of whence those forms proceeded which thus stained", "The track in which we moved. After brief space,", "From every form the beauty slowly waned;", "", "'From every firmest limb and fairest face", "The strength and freshness fell like dust, and left", "The action and the shape without the grace", "", "'Of life. The marble brow of youth was cleft", "With care; and in those eyes where once hope shone,", "Desire, like a lioness bereft", "", "'Of her last cub, glared ere it died; each one", "Of that great crowd sent forth incessantly", "These shadows, numerous as the dead leaves blown", "", "'In autumn evening from a poplar tree.", "Each like himself and like each other were", "At first; but some distorted seemed to be", "", "'Obscure clouds, moulded by the casual air;", "And of this stuff the car's creative ray", "Wrought all the busy phantoms that were there,", "", "'As the sun shapes the clouds; thus on the way", "Mask after mask fell from the countenance", "And form of all; and long before the day", "", "'Was old, the joy which waked like heaven's glance", "The sleepers in the oblivious valley, died;", "And some grew weary of the ghastly dance,", "", "'And fell, as I have fallen, by the wayside;--", "Those soonest from whose forms most shadows passed,", "And least of strength and beauty did abide.", "", "'Then, what is life? I cried.'--", "", "STANZA, WRITTEN AT BRACKNELL.", "", "Thy dewy looks sink in my breast;", "Thy gentle words stir poison there;", "Thou hast disturbed the only rest", "That was the portion of despair!", "Subdued to Duty's hard control,", "I could have borne my wayward lot:", "The chains that bind this ruined soul", "Had cankered then--but crushed it not.", "", "STANZAS.--APRIL, 1814.", "", "Away! the moor is dark beneath the moon,", "Rapid clouds have drank the last pale beam of even:", "Away! the gathering winds will call the darkness soon,", "And profoundest midnight shroud the serene lights of heaven.", "", "Pause not! The time is past! Every voice cries, Away!", "Tempt not with one last tear thy friend's ungentle mood:", "Thy lover's eye, so glazed and cold, dares not entreat thy stay:", "Duty and dereliction guide thee back to solitude.", "", "Away, away! to thy sad and silent home;", "Pour bitter tears on its desolated hearth;", "Watch the dim shades as like ghosts they go and come,", "And complicate strange webs of melancholy mirth.", "", "The leaves of wasted autumn woods shall float around thine head:", "The blooms of dewy spring shall gleam beneath thy feet:", "But thy soul or this world must fade in the frost that binds the dead,", "Ere midnight's frown and morning's smile, ere thou and peace may meet.", "", "The cloud shadows of midnight possess their own repose,", "For the weary winds are silent, or the moon is in the deep:", "Some respite to its turbulence unresting ocean knows;", "Whatever moves, or toils, or grieves, hath its appointed sleep.", "", "Thou in the grave shalt rest--yet till the phantoms flee", "Which that house and heath and garden made dear to thee erewhile,", "Thy remembrance, and repentance, and deep musings are not free", "From the music of two voices and the light of one sweet smile." ], "linecount": "579" }, { "title": "Fragment: Death in Life", "author": "Percy Bysshe Shelley", "lines": [ "My head is heavy, my limbs are weary,", "And it is not life that makes me move." ], "linecount": "2" }, { "title": "Fragment: 'Alas! This Is Not What I Thought Life Was'", "author": "Percy Bysshe Shelley", "lines": [ "Alas! this is not what I thought life was.", "I knew that there were crimes and evil men,", "Misery and hate; nor did I hope to pass", "Untouched by suffering, through the rugged glen.", "In mine own heart I saw as in a glass", "The hearts of others ... And when", "I went among my kind, with triple brass", "Of calm endurance my weak breast I armed,", "To bear scorn, fear, and hate, a woful mass!" ], "linecount": "9" }, { "title": "Fragment: Life Rounded With Sleep", "author": "Percy Bysshe Shelley", "lines": [ "The babe is at peace within the womb;", "The corpse is at rest within the tomb:", "We begin in what we end." ], "linecount": "3" } ]