[ { "title": "Ode in Memory of the American Volunteers Fallen for France", "author": "Alan Seeger", "lines": [ "I", "", "Ay, it is fitting on this holiday,", "Commemorative of our soldier dead,", "When -- with sweet flowers of our New England May", "Hiding the lichened stones by fifty years made gray --", "Their graves in every town are garlanded,", "That pious tribute should be given too", "To our intrepid few", "Obscurely fallen here beyond the seas.", "Those to preserve their country's greatness died;", "But by the death of these", "Something that we can look upon with pride", "Has been achieved, nor wholly unreplied", "Can sneerers triumph in the charge they make", "That from a war where Freedom was at stake", "America withheld and, daunted, stood aside.", "", "II", "", "Be they remembered here with each reviving spring,", "Not only that in May, when life is loveliest,", "Around Neuville-Saint-Vaast and the disputed crest", "Of Vimy, they, superb, unfaltering,", "In that fine onslaught that no fire could halt,", "Parted impetuous to their first assault;", "But that they brought fresh hearts and springlike too", "To that high mission, and 'tis meet to strew", "With twigs of lilac and spring's earliest rose", "The cenotaph of those", "Who in the cause that history most endears", "Fell in the sunny morn and flower of their young years.", "", "III", "", "et sought they neither recompense nor praise,", "Nor to be mentioned in another breath", "Than their blue coated comrades whose great days", "It was their pride to share -- ay, share even to the death!", "Nay, rather, France, to you they rendered thanks", "(Seeing they came for honor, not for gain),", "Who, opening to them your glorious ranks,", "Gave them that grand occasion to excel,", "That chance to live the life most free from stain", "And that rare privilege of dying well.", "", "IV", "", "O friends! I know not since that war began", "From which no people nobly stands aloof", "If in all moments we have given proof", "Of virtues that were thought American.", "I know not if in all things done and said", "All has been well and good,", "Or if each one of us can hold his head", "As proudly as he should,", "Or, from the pattern of those mighty dead", "Whose shades our country venerates to-day,", "", "If we've not somewhat fallen and somewhat gone astray.", "But you to whom our land's good name is dear,", "If there be any here", "Who wonder if her manhood be decreased,", "Relaxed its sinews and its blood less red", "Than that at Shiloh and Antietam shed,", "Be proud of these, have joy in this at least,", "And cry: \"Now heaven be praised", "That in that hour that most imperilled her,", "Menaced her liberty who foremost raised", "Europe's bright flag of freedom, some there were", "Who, not unmindful of the antique debt,", "Came back the generous path of Lafayette;", "And when of a most formidable foe", "She checked each onset, arduous to stem --", "Foiled and frustrated them --", "On those red fields where blow with furious blow", "Was countered, whether the gigantic fray", "Rolled by the Meuse or at the Bois Sabot,", "Accents of ours were in the fierce melee;", "And on those furthest rims of hallowed ground", "Where the forlorn, the gallant charge expires,", "When the slain bugler has long ceased to sound,", "And on the tangled wires", "The last wild rally staggers, crumbles, stops,", "Withered beneath the shrapnel's iron showers: --", "Now heaven be thanked, we gave a few brave drops;", "Now heaven be thanked, a few brave drops were ours.\"", "", "V", "", "There, holding still, in frozen steadfastness,", "Their bayonets toward the beckoning frontiers,", "They lie -- our comrades -- lie among their peers,", "Clad in the glory of fallen warriors,", "Grim clusters under thorny trellises,", "Dry, furthest foam upon disastrous shores,", "Leaves that made last year beautiful, still strewn", "Even as they fell, unchanged, beneath the changing moon;", "And earth in her divine indifference", "Rolls on, and many paltry things and mean", "Prate to be heard and caper to be seen.", "But they are silent, calm; their eloquence", "Is that incomparable attitude;", "No human presences their witness are,", "But summer clouds and sunset crimson-hued,", "And showers and night winds and the northern star.", "Nay, even our salutations seem profane,", "Opposed to their Elysian quietude;", "Our salutations calling from afar,", "From our ignobler plane", "And undistinction of our lesser parts:", "Hail, brothers, and farewell; you are twice blest, brave hearts.", "Double your glory is who perished thus,", "For you have died for France and vindicated us." ], "linecount": "104" }, { "title": "In Memory of Walter Savage Landor", "author": "Algernon Charles Swinburne", "lines": [ "Back to the flower-town, side by side,", "The bright months bring,", "New-born, the bridegroom and the bride,", "Freedom and spring.", "The sweet land laughs from sea to sea,", "Filled full of sun;", "All things come back to her, being free;", "All things but one.", "In many a tender wheaten plot", "Flowers that were dead", "Live, and old suns revive; but not", "That holier head.", "", "By this white wandering waste of sea,", "Far north, I hear", "One face shall never turn to me", "As once this year:", "", "Shall never smile and turn and rest", "On mine as there,", "Nor one most sacred hand be prest", "Upon my hair.", "", "I came as one whose thoughts half linger,", "Half run before;", "The youngest to the oldest singer", "That England bore.", "", "I found him whom I shall not find", "Till all grief end,", "In holiest age our mightiest mind,", "Father and friend.", "", "But thou, if anything endure,", "If hope there be,", "O spirit that man's life left pure,", "Man's death set free,", "", "Not with disdain of days that were", "Look earthward now;", "Let dreams revive the reverend hair,", "The imperial brow;", "", "Come back in sleep, for in the life", "Where thou art not", "We find none like thee. Time and strife", "And the world's lot", "", "Move thee no more; but love at least", "And reverent heart", "May move thee, royal and released,", "Soul, as thou art.", "", "And thou, his Florence, to thy trust", "Receive and keep,", "Keep safe his dedicated dust,", "His sacred sleep.", "", "So shall thy lovers, come from far,", "Mix with thy name", "As morning-star with evening-star", "His faultless fame." ], "linecount": "52" }, { "title": "Elegy to the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady", "author": "Alexander Pope", "lines": [ "What beckoning ghost, along the moonlight shade", "Invites my steps, and points to yonder glade?", "'Tis she!--but why that bleeding bosom gored,", "Why dimly gleams the visionary sword?", "Oh, ever beauteous, ever friendly! tell,", "Is it, in heaven, a crime to love too well?", "To bear too tender, or too firm a heart,", "To act a lover's or a Roman's part?", "Is there no bright reversion in the sky,", "For those who greatly think, or bravely die?", "", "Why bade ye else, ye Powers! her soul aspire", "Above the vulgar flight of low desire?", "Ambition first sprung from your blest abodes;", "The glorious fault of angels and of gods:", "Thence to their images on earth it flows,", "And in the breasts of kings and heroes glows.", "Most souls, 'tis true, but peep out once an age,", "Dull, sullen prisoners in the body's cage:", "Dim lights of life, that burn a length of years", "Useless, unseen, as lamps in sepulchres;", "Like Eastern kings a lazy state they keep,", "And, close confined to their own palace, sleep.", "", "From these perhaps (ere Nature bade her die)", "Fate snatch'd her early to the pitying sky.", "As into air the purer spirits flow,", "And separate from their kindred dregs below;", "So flew the soul to its congenial place,", "Nor left one virtue to redeem her race.", "", "But thou, false guardian of a charge too good,", "Thou, mean deserter of thy brother's blood!", "See on these ruby lips the trembling breath,", "These cheeks, now fading at the blast of death;", "Cold is that breast which warm'd the world before,", "And those love-darting eyes must roll no more.", "Thus, if Eternal Justice rules the ball,", "Thus shall your wives, and thus your children fall:", "On all the line a sudden vengeance waits,", "And frequent hearses shall besiege your gates.", "There passengers shall stand, and pointing say,", "(While the long funerals blacken all the way)", "'Lo, these were they, whose souls the Furies steel'd,", "And cursed with hearts unknowing how to yield.'", "Thus unlamented pass the proud away,", "The gaze of fools, and pageant of a day!", "So perish all, whose breast ne'er learn'd to glow", "For others' good, or melt at others' woe.", "", "What can atone (O ever-injured Shade!)", "Thy fate unpitied, and thy rites unpaid?", "No friend's complaint, no kind domestic tear", "Pleased thy pale ghost, or graced thy mournful bier,", "By foreign hands thy dying eyes were closed,", "By foreign hands thy decent limbs composed,", "By foreign hands thy humble grave adorn'd,", "By strangers honour'd, and by strangers mourn'd!", "What, though no friends in sable weeds appear,", "Grieve for an hour, perhaps, then mourn a year,", "And bear about the mockery of woe", "To midnight dances, and the public show?", "What, though no weeping loves thy ashes grace,", "Nor polish'd marble emulate thy face?", "What, though no sacred earth allow thee room,", "Nor hallow'd dirge be mutter'd o'er thy tomb?", "Yet shall thy grave with rising flowers be dress'd,", "And the green turf lie lightly on thy breast:", "There shall the morn her earliest tears bestow,", "There the first roses of the year shall blow;", "While angels with their silver wings o'ershade", "The ground, now sacred by thy relics made.", "", "So peaceful rests, without a stone, a name,", "What once had beauty, titles, wealth, and fame.", "How loved, how honour'd once, avails thee not,", "To whom related, or by whom begot;", "A heap of dust alone remains of thee,", "'Tis all thou art, and all the proud shall be!", "", "Poets themselves must fall, like those they sung,", "Deaf the praised ear, and mute the tuneful tongue.", "Even he, whose soul now melts in mournful lays,", "Shall shortly want the generous tear he pays;", "Then from his closing eyes thy form shall part,", "And the last pang shall tear thee from his heart;", "Life's idle business at one gasp be o'er,", "The Muse forgot, and thou beloved no more!" ], "linecount": "82" }, { "title": "Ave atque Vale (In memory of Charles Baudelaire)", "author": "Algernon Charles Swinburne", "lines": [ "SHALL I strew on thee rose or rue or laurel,", " Brother, on this that was the veil of thee?", " Or quiet sea-flower moulded by the sea,", "Or simplest growth of meadow-sweet or sorrel,", " Such as the summer-sleepy Dryads weave,", " Waked up by snow-soft sudden rains at eve?", "Or wilt thou rather, as on earth before,", " Half-faded fiery blossoms, pale with heat", " And full of bitter summer, but more sweet", "To thee than gleanings of a northern shore", " Trod by no tropic feet?", "", "For always thee the fervid languid glories", " Allured of heavier suns in mightier skies;", " Thine ears knew all the wandering watery sighs", "Where the sea sobs round Lesbian promontories,", " The barren kiss of piteous wave to wave", " That knows not where is that Leucadian grave", "Which hides too deep the supreme head of song.", " Ah, salt and sterile as her kisses were,", " The wild sea winds her and the green gulfs bear", "Hither and thither, and vex and work her wrong,", " Blind gods that cannot spare.", "", "Thou sawest, in thine old singing season, brother,", " Secrets and sorrows unbeheld of us:", " Fierce loves, and lovely leaf-buds poisonous,", "Bare to thy subtler eye, but for none other", " Blowing by night in some unbreathed-in clime;", " The hidden harvest of luxurious time,", "Sin without shape, and pleasure without speech;", " And where strange dreams in a tumultuous sleep", " Make the shut eyes of stricken spirits weep;", "And with each face thou sawest the shadow on each,", " Seeing as men sow men reap.", "", "O sleepless heart and sombre soul unsleeping,", " That were athirst for sleep and no more life", " And no more love, for peace and no more strife!", "Now the dim gods of death have in their keeping", " Spirit and body and all the springs of song,", " Is it well now where love can do no wrong,", "Where stingless pleasure has no foam or fang", " Behind the unopening closure of her lips?", " Is it not well where soul from body slips", "And flesh from bone divides without a pang", " As dew from flower-bell drips?", "", "It is enough; the end and the beginning", " Are one thing to thee, who art past the end.", " O hand unclasp'd of unbeholden friend,", "For thee no fruits to pluck, no palms for winning,", " No triumph and no labour and no lust,", " Only dead yew-leaves and a little dust.", "O quiet eyes wherein the light saith naught,", " Whereto the day is dumb, nor any night", " With obscure finger silences your sight,", "Nor in your speech the sudden soul speaks thought,", " Sleep, and have sleep for light.", "", "Now all strange hours and all strange loves are over,", " Dreams and desires and sombre songs and sweet,", " Hast thou found place at the great knees and feet", "Of some pale Titan-woman like a lover,", " Such as thy vision here solicited,", " Under the shadow of her fair vast head,", "The deep division of prodigious breasts,", " The solemn slope of mighty limbs asleep,", " The weight of awful tresses that still keep", "The savour and shade of old-world pine-forests", " Where the wet hill-winds weep?", "", "Hast thou found any likeness for thy vision?", " O gardener of strange flowers, what bud, what bloom,", " Hast thou found sown, what gather'd in the gloom?", "What of despair, of rapture, of derision,", " What of life is there, what of ill or good?", " Are the fruits gray like dust or bright like blood?", "Does the dim ground grow any seed of ours,", " The faint fields quicken any terrene root,", " In low lands where the sun and moon are mute", "And all the stars keep silence? Are there flowers", " At all, or any fruit?", "", "Alas, but though my flying song flies after,", " O sweet strange elder singer, thy more fleet", " Singing, and footprints of thy fleeter feet,", "Some dim derision of mysterious laughter", " From the blind tongueless warders of the dead,", " Some gainless glimpse of Proserpine's veil'd head,", "Some little sound of unregarded tears", " Wept by effaced unprofitable eyes,", " And from pale mouths some cadence of dead sighs--", "These only, these the hearkening spirit hears,", " Sees only such things rise.", "", "Thou art far too far for wings of words to follow,", " Far too far off for thought or any prayer.", " What ails us with thee, who art wind and air?", "What ails us gazing where all seen is hollow?", " Yet with some fancy, yet with some desire,", " Dreams pursue death as winds a flying fire,", "Our dreams pursue our dead and do not find.", " Still, and more swift than they, the thin flame flies,", " The low light fails us in elusive skies,", "Still the foil'd earnest ear is deaf, and blind", " Are still the eluded eyes.", "", "Not thee, O never thee, in all time's changes,", " Not thee, but this the sound of thy sad soul,", " The shadow of thy swift spirit, this shut scroll", "I lay my hand on, and not death estranges", " My spirit from communion of thy song--", " These memories and these melodies that throng", "Veil'd porches of a Muse funereal--", " These I salute, these touch, these clasp and fold", " As though a hand were in my hand to hold,", "Or through mine ears a mourning musical", " Of many mourners roll'd.", "", "I among these, I also, in such station", " As when the pyre was charr'd, and piled the sods.", " And offering to the dead made, and their gods,", "The old mourners had, standing to make libation,", " I stand, and to the Gods and to the dead", " Do reverence without prayer or praise, and shed", "Offering to these unknown, the gods of gloom,", " And what of honey and spice my seed-lands bear,", " And what I may of fruits in this chill'd air,", "And lay, Orestes-like, across the tomb", " A curl of sever'd hair.", "", "But by no hand nor any treason stricken,", " Not like the low-lying head of Him, the King,", " The flame that made of Troy a ruinous thing,", "Thou liest and on this dust no tears could quicken.", " There fall no tears like theirs that all men hear", " Fall tear by sweet imperishable tear", "Down the opening leaves of holy poets' pages.", " Thee not Orestes, not Electra mourns;", " But bending us-ward with memorial urns", "The most high Muses that fulfil all ages", " Weep, and our God's heart yearns.", "", "For, sparing of his sacred strength, not often", " Among us darkling here the lord of light", " Makes manifest his music and his might", "In hearts that open and in lips that soften", " With the soft flame and heat of songs that shine.", " Thy lips indeed he touch'd with bitter wine,", "And nourish'd them indeed with bitter bread;", " Yet surely from his hand thy soul's food came,", " The fire that scarr'd thy spirit at his flame", "Was lighted, and thine hungering heart he fed", " Who feeds our hearts with fame.", "", "Therefore he too now at thy soul's sunsetting,", " God of all suns and songs, he too bends down", " To mix his laurel with thy cypress crown,", "And save thy dust from blame and from forgetting.", " Therefore he too, seeing all thou wert and art,", " Compassionate, with sad and sacred heart,", "Mourns thee of many his children the last dead,", " And hollows with strange tears and alien sighs", " Thine unmelodious mouth and sunless eyes,", "And over thine irrevocable head", " Sheds light from the under skies.", "", "And one weeps with him in the ways Lethean,", " And stains with tears her changing bosom chill;", " That obscure Venus of the hollow hill,", "That thing transform'd which was the Cytherean,", " With lips that lost their Grecian laugh divine", " Long since, and face no more call'd Erycine--", "A ghost, a bitter and luxurious god.", " Thee also with fair flesh and singing spell", " Did she, a sad and second prey, compel", "Into the footless places once more trod,", " And shadows hot from hell.", "", "And now no sacred staff shall break in blossom,", " No choral salutation lure to light", " A spirit sick with perfume and sweet night", "And love's tired eyes and hands and barren bosom.", " There is no help for these things; none to mend,", " And none to mar; not all our songs, O friend,", "Will make death clear or make life durable.", " Howbeit with rose and ivy and wild vine", " And with wild notes about this dust of thine", "At least I fill the place where white dreams dwell", " And wreathe an unseen shrine.", "", "Sleep; and if life was bitter to thee, pardon,", " If sweet, give thanks; thou hast no more to live;", " And to give thanks is good, and to forgive.", "Out of the mystic and the mournful garden", " Where all day through thine hands in barren braid", " Wove the sick flowers of secrecy and shade,", "Green buds of sorrow and sin, and remnants gray,", " Sweet-smelling, pale with poison, sanguine-hearted,", " Passions that sprang from sleep and thoughts that started,", "Shall death not bring us all as thee one day", " Among the days departed?", "", "For thee, O now a silent soul, my brother,", " Take at my hands this garland, and farewell.", " Thin is the leaf, and chill the wintry smell,", "And chill the solemn earth, a fatal mother,", " With sadder than the Niobean womb,", " And in the hollow of her breasts a tomb.", "Content thee, howsoe'er, whose days are done;", " There lies not any troublous thing before,", " Nor sight nor sound to war against thee more,", "For whom all winds are quiet as the sun,", " All waters as the shore." ], "linecount": "198" }, { "title": "Memory", "author": "Anne Bronte", "lines": [ "Brightly the sun of summer shone,", "Green fields and waving woods upon,", "And soft winds wandered by;", "Above, a sky of purest blue,", "Around, bright flowers of loveliest hue,", "Allured the gazer's eye.", "But what were all these charms to me,", "When one sweet breath of memory", "Came gently wafting by?", "I closed my eyes against the day,", "And called my willing soul away,", "From earth, and air, and sky;", "", "That I might simply fancy there", "One little flower -- a primrose fair,", "Just opening into sight;", "As in the days of infancy,", "An opening primrose seemed to me", "A source of strange delight.", "", "Sweet Memory! ever smile on me;", "Nature's chief beauties spring from thee,", "Oh, still thy tribute bring!", "Still make the golden crocus shine", "Among the flowers the most divine,", "The glory of the spring.", "", "Still in the wall-flower's fragrance dwell;", "And hover round the slight blue bell,", "My childhood's darling flower.", "Smile on the little daisy still,", "The buttercup's bright goblet fill", "With all thy former power.", "", "For ever hang thy dreamy spell", "Round mountain star and heather bell,", "And do not pass away", "From sparkling frost, or wreathed snow,", "And whisper when the wild winds blow,", "Or rippling waters play.", "", "Is childhood, then, so all divine?", "Or Memory, is the glory thine,", "That haloes thus the past?", "Not all divine; its pangs of grief,", "(Although, perchance, their stay be brief,)", "Are bitter while they last.", "", "Nor is the glory all thine own,", "For on our earliest joys alone", "That holy light is cast.", "With such a ray, no spell of thine", "Can make our later pleasures shine,", "Though long ago they passed." ], "linecount": "48" }, { "title": "In Memory of a Happy Day in February", "author": "Anne Bronte", "lines": [ "Blessed be Thou for all the joy", "My soul has felt today!", "O let its memory stay with me", "And never pass away!", "I was alone, for those I loved", "Were far away from me,", "The sun shone on the withered grass,", "The wind blew fresh and free.", "", "Was it the smile of early spring", "That made my bosom glow?", "'Twas sweet, but neither sun nor wind", "Could raise my spirit so.", "", "Was it some feeling of delight,", "All vague and undefined?", "No, 'twas a rapture deep and strong,", "Expanding in the mind!", "", "Was it a sanguine view of life", "And all its transient bliss­-", "A hope of bright prosperity?", "O no, it was not this!", "", "It was a glimpse of truth divine", "Unto my spirit given", "Illumined by a ray of light", "That shone direct from heaven!", "", "I felt there was a God on high", "By whom all things were made.", "I saw His wisdom and his power", "In all his works displayed.", "", "But most throughout the moral world", "I saw his glory shine;", "I saw His wisdom infinite,", "His mercy all divine.", "", "Deep secrets of his providence", "In darkness long concealed", "Were brought to my delighted eyes", "And graciously revealed.", "", "But while I wondered and adored", "His wisdom so divine,", "I did not tremble at his power,", "I felt that God was mine.", "", "I knew that my Redeemer lived,", "I did not fear to die;", "Full sure that I should rise again", "To immortality.", "", "I longed to view that bliss divine", "Which eye hath never seen,", "To see the glories of his face", "Without the veil between." ], "linecount": "48" }, { "title": "To The Memory Of My Beloved, The Author, Mr William Shakespeare, And What He Hath Left Us", "author": "Ben Jonson", "lines": [ "To draw no envy, Shakespeare, on thy name", "Am I thus ample to thy book and fame;", "While I confess thy writings to be such", "As neither Man nor Muse can praise too much.", "'Tis true, and all men's suffrage. But these ways", "Were not the paths I meant unto thy praise;", "For silliest ignorance on these may light,", "Which when it sounds at best but echoes right;", "Or blind affection, which doth ne'er advance", "The truth, but gropes, and urges all by chance;", "Or crafty malice might pretend this praise,", "And think to ruin where it seemed to raise.", "These are as some infamous bawd or whore", "Should praise a matron. What could hurt her more?", "But thou art proof against them, and indeed", "Above th' ill fortune of them, or the need.", "I therefore will begin: Soul of the Age!", "The applause, delight, the wonder of our stage!", "My Shakespeare, rise; I will not lodge thee by", "Chaucer, or Spenser, or bid Beaumont lie", "A little further, to make thee a room:", "Thou art a monument without a tomb,", "And art alive still, while thy book doth live,", "And we have wits to read, and praise to give.", "That I not mix thee so, my brain excuses,", "I mean with great but disproportioned Muses,", "For if I thought my judgement were of years,", "I should commit thee surely with thy peers,", "And tell how far thou didst our Lyly outshine,", "Or sporting Kyd, or Marlowe's mighty line.", "And though thou hadst small Latin and less Greek,", "From thence to honour thee I would not seek", "For names; but call forth thundering Aeschylus,", "Euripides, and Sophocles to us,", "Pacuvius, Accius, him of Cordova dead,", "To live again, to hear thy buskin tread,", "And shake a stage; or, when thy socks were on,", "Leave thee alone for the comparison", "Of all that insolent Greece or haughty Rome", "Sent forth, or since did from their ashes come.", "Triumph, my Britain, thou hast one to show", "To whom all scenes of Europe homage owe.", "He was not of an age, but for all time!", "And all the Muses still were in their prime", "When, like Apollo, he came forth to warm", "Our ears, or, like a Mercury, to charm!", "Nature herself was proud of his designs,", "And joyed to wear the dressing of his lines!", "Which were so richly spun, and woven so fit,", "As, since, she will vouchsafe no other wit.", "The merry Greek, tart Aristophanes,", "Neat Terence, witty Plautus, now not please;", "But antiquated and deserted lie,", "As they were not of Nature's family.", "Yet must I not give Nature all; thy art,", "My gentle Shakespeare, must enjoy a part.", "For though the poet's matter nature be,", "His art doth give the fashion; and that he", "Who casts to write a living line must sweat", "(Such as thine are) and strike the second heat", "Upon the Muses' anvil; turn the same,", "And himself with it, that he thinks to frame,", "Or for the laurel he may gain a scorn;", "For a good poet's made as well as born.", "And such wert thou. Look how the father's face", "Lives in his issue, even so the race", "Of Shakespeare's mind and manners brightly shines", "In his well turned and true-filed lines:", "In each of which he seems to shake a lance,", "As brandished at the eyes of ignorance.", "Sweet swan of Avon! what a sight it were", "To see thee in our waters yet appear,", "And make those flights upon the banks of Thames,", "That did so take Eliza and our James!", "But stay, I see thee in the hemisphere", "Advanced, and made a constellation there:", "Shine forth, thou Star of Poets, and with rage,", "Or influence, chide or cheer the drooping stage,", "Which, since thy flight from hence, hath mourned like night,", "And despairs day, but for thy volume's light." ], "linecount": "80" }, { "title": "Remorse -- is Memory -- awake --", "author": "Emily Dickinson", "lines": [ "Remorse -- is Memory -- awake --", "Her Parties all astir --", "A Presence of Departed Acts --", "At window -- and at Door --", "", "Its Past -- set down before the Soul", "And lighted with a Match --", "Perusal -- to facilitate --", "And help Belief to stretch --", "", "Remorse is cureless -- the Disease", "Not even God -- can heal --", "For 'tis His institution -- and", "The Adequate of Hell --" ], "linecount": "12" }, { "title": "When Memory is full", "author": "Emily Dickinson", "lines": [ "When Memory is full", "Put on the perfect Lid --", "This Morning's finest syllable", "Presumptuous Evening said --" ], "linecount": "4" }, { "title": "To flee from memory", "author": "Emily Dickinson", "lines": [ "To flee from memory", "Had we the Wings", "Many would fly", "Inured to slower things", "Birds with surprise", "Would scan the cowering Van", "Of men escaping", "From the mind of man" ], "linecount": "8" }, { "title": "Through those old Grounds of memory,", "author": "Emily Dickinson", "lines": [ "Through those old Grounds of memory,", "The sauntering alone", "Is a divine intemperance", "A prudent man would shun.", "Of liquors that are vended", "'Tis easy to beware", "But statutes do not meddle", "With the internal bar.", "Pernicious as the sunset", "Permitting to pursue", "But impotent to gather,", "The tranquil perfidy", "Alloys our firmer moments", "With that severest gold", "Convenient to the longing", "But otherwise withheld." ], "linecount": "16" }, { "title": "A Poem Sacred to the Memory of Sir Isaac Newton", "author": "James Thomson", "lines": [ "Shall the great soul of Newton quit this earth,", "To mingle with his stars; and every muse,", "Astonish'd into silence, shun the weight", "Of honours due to his illustrious name?", "But what can man?--Even now the sons of light,", "In strains high-warbled to seraphic lyre,", "Hail his arrival on the coast of bliss.", "Yet am not I deterr'd, though high the theme,", "And sung to harps of angels, for with you,", "Ethereal flames! ambitious, I aspire", "In Nature's general symphony to join.", "", "And what new wonders can ye show your guest!", "Who, while on this dim spot, where mortals toil", "Clouded in dust, from motion's simple laws,", "Could trace the secret hand of Providence,", "Wide-working through this universal frame.", "", "Have ye not listen'd while he bound the suns", "And planets to their spheres! th' unequal task", "Of humankind till then. Oft had they roll'd", "O'er erring man the year, and oft disgrac'd", "The pride of schools, before their course was known", "Full in its causes and effects to him,", "All-piercing sage! who sat not down and dream'd", "Romantic schemes, defended by the din", "Of specious words, and tyranny of names;", "But, bidding his amazing mind attend,", "And with heroic patience years on years", "Deep-searching, saw at last the system dawn,", "And shine, of all his race, on him alone.", "", "What were his raptures then! how pure! how strong!", "And what the triumphs of old Greece and Rome,", "By his diminish'd, but the pride of boys", "In some small fray victorious! when instead", "Of shatter'd parcels of this earth usurp'd", "By violence unmanly, and sore deeds", "Of cruelty and blood, Nature herself", "Stood all subdu'd by him, and open laid", "Her every latent glory to his view.", "", "All intellectual eye, our solar-round", "First gazing through, he by the blended power", "Of gravitation and projection saw", "The whole in silent harmony revolve.", "From unassisted vision hid, the moons", "To cheer remoter planets numerous pour'd,", "By him in all their mingled tracts were seen.", "He also fix'd the wandering Queen of Night,", "Whether she wanes into a scanty orb,", "Or, waxing broad, with her pale shadowy light,", "In a soft deluge overflows the sky.", "Her every motion clear-discerning, he", "Adjusted to the mutual main, and taught", "Why now the mighty mass of water swells", "Resistless, heaving on the broken rocks,", "And the full river turning; till again", "The tide revertive, unattracted, leaves", "A yellow waste of idle sands behind.", "", "Then breaking hence, he took his ardent flight", "Through the blue infinite; and every star,", "Which the clear concave of a winter's night", "Pours on the eye, or astronomic tube,", "Far-stretching, snatches from the dark abyss,", "Or such as farther in successive skies", "To fancy shine alone, at his approach", "Blaz'd into suns, the living centre each", "Of an harmonious system: all combin'd,", "And rul'd unerring by that single power,", "Which draws the stone projected to the ground.", "", "O unprofuse magnificence divine!", "O wisdom truly perfect! thus to call", "From a few causes such a scheme of things,", "Effects so various, beautiful, and great,", "An universe complete! and O belov'd", "Of Heaven! whose well-purg'd penetrative eye,", "The mystic veil transpiercing, inly scann'd", "The rising, moving, wide-establish'd frame.", "", "He, first of men, with awful wing pursu'd", "The comet through the long elliptic curve,", "As round innumerous worlds he wound his way,", "Till, to the forehead of our evening sky", "Return'd, the blazing wonder glares anew,", "And o'er the trembling nations shakes dismay.", "", "The heavens are all his own, from the wild rule", "Of whirling vortices and circling spheres", "To their first great simplicity restor'd.", "The schools astonish'd stood; but found it vain", "To keep at odds with demonstration strong,", "And, unawaken'd, dream beneath the blaze", "Of truth. At once their pleasing visions fled,", "With the gay shadows of the morning mix'd,", "When Newton rose, our philosophic sun!", "Th' aërial flow of sound was known to him,", "From whence it first in wavy circles breaks,", "Till the touch'd organ takes the message in.", "Nor could the darting beam of speed immense", "Escape his swift pursuit and measuring eye.", "Ev'n Light itself, which every thing displays,", "Shone undiscover'd, till his brighter mind", "Untwisted all the shining robe of day;", "And, from the whitening undistinguish'd blaze,", "Collecting every ray into his kind,", "To the charm'd eye educ'd the gorgeous train", "Of parent colours. First the flaming red", "Sprung vivid forth; the tawny orange next;", "And next delicious yellow; by whose side", "Fell the kind beams of all-refreshing green.", "Then the pure blue, that swells autumnal skies", "Ethereal played; and then, of sadder hue,", "Emerg'd the deepen'd indigo, as when", "The heavy-skirted evening droops with frost;", "While the last gleamings of refracted light", "Died in the fainting violet away.", "These, when the clouds distil the rosy shower,", "Shine out distinct adown the wat'ry bow;", "While o'er our heads the dewy vision bends", "Delightful, melting on the fields beneath.", "Myriads of mingling dyes from these result,", "And myriads still remain--infinite source", "Of beauty, ever flushing, ever new.", "", "Did ever poet image aught so fair,", "Dreaming in whisp'ring groves by the hoarse brook?", "Or prophet, to whose rapture heaven descends?", "Ev'n now the setting sun and shifting clouds,", "Seen, Greenwich, from thy lovely heights, declare", "How just, how beauteous the refractive law.", "", "The noiseless tide of time, all bearing down", "To vast eternity's unbounded sea,", "Where the green islands of the happy shine,", "He stemm'd alone; and, to the source (involv'd", "Deep in primeval gloom) ascending, rais'd", "His lights at equal distances, to guide", "Historian wilder'd on his darksome way.", "", "But who can number up his labours? who", "His high discoveries sing? When but a few", "Of the deep-studying race can stretch their minds", "To what he knew--in fancy's lighter thought", "How shall the muse then grasp the mighty theme?", "", "What wonder thence that his devotion swell'd", "Responsive to his knowledge? For could he,", "Whose piercing mental eye diffusive saw", "The finish'd university of things", "In all its order, magnitude, and parts,", "Forbear incessant to adore that Power", "Who fills, sustains, and actuates the whole?", "", "Say, ye who best can tell, ye happy few,", "Who saw him in the softest lights of life,", "All unwithheld, indulging to his friends", "The vast unborrow'd treasures of his mind,", "oh, speak the wondrous man! how mild, how calr", "How greatly humble, how divinely good,", "How firm establish'd on eternal truth;", "Fervent in doing well, with every nerve", "Still pressing on, forgetful of the past,", "And panting for perfection; far above", "Those little cares and visionary joys", "That so perplex the fond impassion'd heart", "Of ever-cheated, ever-trusting man.", "This, Conduitt, from thy rural hours we hope;", "As through the pleasing shade where nature pours", "Her every sweet in studious ease you walk,", "The social passions smiling at thy heart", "That glows with all the recollected sage.", "", "And you, ye hopeless gloomy-minded tribe,", "You who, unconscious of those nobler flights", "That reach impatient at immortal life,", "Against the prime endearing privilege", "Of being dare contend,--say, can a soul", "Of such extensive, deep, tremendous powers,", "Enlarging still, be but a finer breath", "Of spirits dancing through their tubes awhile,", "And then for ever lost in vacant air?", "", "But hark! methinks I hear a warning voice,", "Solemn as when some awful change is come,", "Sound through the world--\" 'Tis done!--the measure's full;", "And I resign my charge.\"--Ye mouldering stones", "That build the towering pyramid, the proud", "Triumphal arch, the monument effac'd", "By ruthless ruin, and whate'er supports", "The worship'd name of hoar antiquity--", "Down to the dust! What grandeur can ye boast", "While Newton lifts his column to the skies,", "Beyond the waste of time. Let no weak drop", "Be shed for him. The virgin in her bloom", "Cut off, the joyous youth, and darling child--", "These are the tombs that claim the tender tear", "And elegiac song. But Newton calls", "For other notes of gratulation high,", "That now he wanders through those endless worlds", "He here so well descried, and wondering talks,", "And hymns their Author with his glad compeers.", "", "O Britain's boast! whether with angels thou", "Sittest in dread discourse, or fellow-blest,", "Who joy to see the honour of their kind;", "Or whether, mounted on cherubic wing,", "Thy swift career is with the whirling orbs,", "Comparing things with things, in rapture lost,", "And grateful adoration for that light", "So plenteous ray'd into thy mind below", "From Light Himself; oh, look with pity down", "On humankind, a frail erroneous race!", "Exalt the spirit of a downward world!", "O'er thy dejected country chief preside,", "And be her Genius call'd! her studies raise,", "Correct her manners, and inspire her youth;", "For, though deprav'd and sunk, she brought thee forth,", "And glories in thy name! she points thee out", "To all her sons, and bids them eye thy star:", "While, in expectance of the second life,", "When time shall be no more, thy sacred dust", "Sleeps with her kings, and dignifies the scene." ], "linecount": "209" }, { "title": "To the Memory of Mrs. Lefroy who died Dec:r 16 -- my Birthday.", "author": "Jane Austen", "lines": [ "The day returns again, my natal day;", "What mix'd emotions with the Thought arise!", "Beloved friend, four years have pass'd away", "Since thou wert snatch'd forever from our eyes.--", "The day, commemorative of my birth", "Bestowing Life and Light and Hope on me,", "Brings back the hour which was thy last on Earth.", "Oh! bitter pang of torturing Memory!--", "", "Angelic Woman! past my power to praise", "In Language meet, thy Talents, Temper, mind.", "Thy solid Worth, they captivating Grace!--", "Thou friend and ornament of Humankind!--", "", "At Johnson's death by Hamilton t'was said,", "'Seek we a substitute--Ah! vain the plan,", "No second best remains to Johnson dead--", "None can remind us even of the Man.'", "", "So we of thee--unequall'd in thy race", "Unequall'd thou, as he the first of Men.", "Vainly we wearch around the vacant place,", "We ne'er may look upon thy like again.", "", "Come then fond Fancy, thou indulgant Power,--", "--Hope is desponding, chill, severe to thee!--", "Bless thou, this little portion of an hour,", "Let me behold her as she used to be.", "", "I see her here, with all her smiles benign,", "Her looks of eager Love, her accents sweet.", "That voice and Countenance almost divine!--", "Expression, Harmony, alike complete.--", "", "I listen--'tis not sound alone--'tis sense,", "'Tis Genius, Taste and Tenderness of Soul.", "'Tis genuine warmth of heart without pretence", "And purity of Mind that crowns the whole.", "", "She speaks; 'tis Eloquence--that grace of Tongue", "So rare, so lovely!--Never misapplied", "By her to palliate Vice, or deck a Wrong,", "She speaks and reasons but on Virtue's side.", "", "Her's is the Engergy of Soul sincere.", "Her Christian Spirit ignorant to feign,", "Seeks but to comfort, heal, enlighten, chear,", "Confer a pleasure, or prevent a pain.--", "", "Can ought enhance such Goodness?--Yes, to me,", "Her partial favour from my earliest years", "Consummates all.--Ah! Give me yet to see", "Her smile of Love.--the Vision diappears.", "", "'Tis past and gone--We meet no more below.", "Short is the Cheat of Fancy o'er the Tomb.", "Oh! might I hope to equal Bliss to go!", "To meet thee Angel! in thy future home!--", "", "Fain would I feel an union in thy fate,", "Fain would I seek to draw an Omen fair", "From this connection in our Earthly date.", "Indulge the harmless weakness--Reason, spare.--" ], "linecount": "52" }, { "title": "To The Memory Of Mr Oldham", "author": "John Dryden", "lines": [ "Farewell, too little and too lately known,", "Whom I began to think and call my own;", "For sure our souls were near allied, and thine", "Cast in the same poetic mould with mine.", "One common note on either lyre did strike,", "And knaves and fools we both abhorred alike.", "To the same goal did both our studies drive;", "The last set out the soonest did arrive.", "Thus Nisus fell upon the slippery place,", "While his young friend performed and won the race.", "O early ripe! to thy abundant store", "What could advancing age have added more?", "It might (what Nature never gives the young)", "Have taught the numbers of thy native tongue.", "But satire needs not those, and wit will shine", "Through the harsh cadence of a rugged line.", "A noble error, and but seldom made,", "When poets are by too much force betrayed.", "Thy generous fruits, though gathered ere their prime,", "Still showed a quickness; and maturing time", "But mellows what we write to the dull sweets of rhyme.", "Once more, hail and farewell! farewell, thou young,", "But ah too short, Marcellus of our tongue!", "Thy brows with ivy and with laurels bound;", "But fate and gloomy night encompass thee around." ], "linecount": "25" }, { "title": "To The Pious Memory Of The Accomplished Young Lady Mrs. Anne Killigrew", "author": "John Dryden", "lines": [ "Thou youngest virgin-daughter of the skies,", " Made in the last promotion of the Blest;", "Whose palms, new pluck'd from Paradise,", "In spreading branches more sublimely rise,", "Rich with immortal green above the rest:", "Whether, adopted to some neighbouring star,", "Thou roll'st above us, in thy wand'ring race,", " Or, in procession fix'd and regular,", " Mov'd with the Heavens' majestic pace:", " Or, call'd to more superior bliss,", "Thou tread'st, with seraphims, the vast abyss.", "What ever happy region is thy place,", "Cease thy celestial song a little space;", "(Thou wilt have time enough for hymns divine,", " Since Heav'n's eternal year is thine.)", "Hear then a mortal Muse thy praise rehearse,", " In no ignoble verse;", "But such as thy own voice did practise here,", "When thy first fruits of poesy were giv'n;", "To make thyself a welcome inmate there:", " While yet a young probationer,", " And Candidate of Heav'n.", "", " If by traduction came thy mind,", " Our wonder is the less to find", "A soul so charming from a stock so good;", "Thy father was transfus'd into thy blood:", "So wert thou born into the tuneful strain,", "(An early, rich, and inexhausted vein.)", " But if thy preexisting soul", " Was form'd, at first, with myriads more,", "It did through all the mighty poets roll,", " Who Greek or Latin laurels wore,", "And was that Sappho last, which once it was before.", " If so, then cease thy flight, O Heav'n-born mind!", " Thou hast no dross to purge from thy rich ore:", " Nor can thy soul a fairer mansion find,", " Than was the beauteous frame she left behind:", "Return, to fill or mend the choir, of thy celestial kind.", "", "May we presume to say, that at thy birth,", "New joy was sprung in Heav'n as well as here on earth.", "For sure the milder planets did combine", "On thy auspicious horoscope to shine,", "And ev'n the most malicious were in trine.", " Thy brother-angels at thy birth", " Strung each his lyre, and tun'd it high,", " That all the people of the sky", "Might know a poetess was born on earth;", " And then if ever, mortal ears", " Had heard the music of the spheres!", " And if no clust'ring swarm of bees", " On thy sweet mouth distill'd their golden dew,", " 'Twas that, such vulgar miracles,", " Heav'n had not leisure to renew:", " For all the blest fraternity of love", "Solemniz'd there thy birth, and kept thy Holyday above.", "", " O Gracious God! How far have we", "Profan'd thy Heav'nly gift of poesy?", "Made prostitute and profligate the Muse,", "Debas'd to each obscene and impious use,", "Whose harmony was first ordain'd above", "For tongues of angels, and for hymns of love?", "O wretched we! why were we hurried down", " This lubrique and adult'rate age,", " (Nay added fat pollutions of our own)", " T'increase the steaming ordures of the stage?", " What can we say t'excuse our Second Fall?", " Let this thy vestal, Heav'n, atone for all!", " Her Arethusian stream remains unsoil'd,", " Unmix'd with foreign filth, and undefil'd,", "Her wit was more than man, her innocence a child!", "", " Art she had none, yet wanted none:", " For Nature did that want supply,", " So rich in treasures of her own,", " She might our boasted stores defy:", "Such noble vigour did her verse adorn,", "That it seem'd borrow'd, where 'twas only born.", "Her morals too were in her bosom bred", " By great examples daily fed,", "What in the best of Books, her Father's Life, she read.", " And to be read her self she need not fear,", " Each test, and ev'ry light, her Muse will bear,", " Though Epictetus with his lamp were there.", " Ev'n love (for love sometimes her Muse express'd)", "Was but a lambent-flame which play'd about her breast:", " Light as the vapours of a morning dream,", "So cold herself, whilst she such warmth express'd,", " 'Twas Cupid bathing in Diana's stream.", "", "Born to the spacious empire of the Nine,", "One would have thought, she should have been content", "To manage well that mighty government;", "But what can young ambitious souls confine?", " To the next realm she stretch'd her sway,", " For painture near adjoining lay,", "A plenteous province, and alluring prey.", "A chamber of dependences was fram'd,", "(As conquerors will never want pretence,", " When arm'd, to justify th'offence)", "And the whole fief, in right of poetry she claim'd.", " The country open lay without defence:", "For poets frequent inroads there had made,", " And perfectly could represent", "The shape, the face, with ev'ry lineament:", "And all the large domains which the Dumb-sister sway'd,", "All bow'd beneath her government,", "Receiv'd in triumph wheresoe'er she went,", "Her pencil drew, what e'er her soul design'd,", "And oft the happy draught surpass'd the image in her mind.", "The sylvan scenes of herds and flocks,", "And fruitful plains and barren rocks,", "Of shallow brooks that flow'd so clear,", "The bottom did the top appear;", "Of deeper too and ampler floods,", "Which as in mirrors, show'd the woods;", "Of lofty trees, with sacred shades,", "And perspectives of pleasant glades,", "Where nymphs of brightest form appear,", "And shaggy satyrs standing near,", "Which them at once admire and fear.", "The ruins too of some majestic piece,", "Boasting the pow'r of ancient Rome or Greece,", "Whose statues, friezes, columns broken lie,", "And tho' defac'd, the wonder of the eye,", "What Nature, art, bold fiction e'er durst frame,", "Her forming hand gave feature to the name.", "So strange a concourse ne'er was seen before,", "But when the peopl'd Ark the whole creation bore.", "", "The scene then chang'd, with bold erected look", "Our martial king the sight with reverence strook:", "For not content t'express his outward part,", "Her hand call'd out the image of his heart,", "His warlike mind, his soul devoid of fear,", "His high-designing thoughts, were figur'd there,", "As when, by magic, ghosts are made appear.", "Our phoenix queen was portray'd too so bright,", "Beauty alone could beauty take so right:", "Her dress, her shape, her matchless grace,", "Were all observ'd, as well as heav'nly face.", "With such a peerless majesty she stands,", "As in that day she took the crown from sacred hands:", "Before a train of heroines was seen,", "In beauty foremost, as in rank, the queen!", "Thus nothing to her genius was deny'd,", "But like a ball of fire the further thrown,", " Still with a greater blaze she shone,", "And her bright soul broke out on ev'ry side.", "What next she had design'd, Heaven only knows,", "To such immod'rate growth her conquest rose,", "That fate alone its progress could oppose.", "", "Now all those charms, that blooming grace,", "The well-proportion'd shape, and beauteous face,", "Shall never more be seen by mortal eyes;", "In earth the much lamented virgin lies!", "Not wit, not piety could fate prevent;", "Nor was the cruel destiny content", "To finish all the murder at a blow,", "To sweep at once her life, and beauty too;", "But, like a harden'd felon, took a pride", " To work more mischievously slow,", " And plunder'd first, and then destroy'd.", "O double sacrilege on things divine,", "To rob the relique, and deface the shrine!", " But thus Orinda died:", "Heav'n, by the same disease, did both translate,", "As equal were their souls, so equal was their fate.", "", "Meantime her warlike brother on the seas", "His waving streamers to the winds displays,", "And vows for his return, with vain devotion, pays.", "Ah, generous youth, that wish forbear,", "The winds too soon will waft thee here!", "Slack all thy sails, and fear to come,", "Alas, thou know'st not, thou art wreck'd at home!", "No more shalt thou behold thy sister's face,", "Thou hast already had her last embrace.", "But look aloft, and if thou ken'st from far,", "Among the Pleiad's, a new-kindl'd star,", "If any sparkles, than the rest, more bright,", "'Tis she that shines in that propitious light.", "", "When in mid-air, the golden trump shall sound,", "To raise the nations under ground;", "When in the valley of Jehosophat,", "The Judging God shall close the book of fate;", "And there the last Assizes keep,", "For those who wake, and those who sleep;", "When rattling bones together fly,", "From the four corners of the sky,", "When sinews o'er the skeletons are spread,", "Those cloth'd with flesh, and life inspires the dead;", "The sacred poets first shall hear the sound,", "And foremost from the tomb shall bound:", "For they are cover'd with the lightest ground,", "And straight, with in-born vigour, on the wing,", "Like mounting larks, to the new morning sing.", "There thou, sweet saint, before the choir shall go,", "As harbinger of Heav'n, the way to show,", "The way which thou so well hast learn'd below." ], "linecount": "195" }, { "title": "On the Religious Memory of Mrs. Catherine Thomson, my Christian Friend, Deceased Dec. 16, 1646", "author": "John Milton", "lines": [ "When Faith and Love, which parted from thee never,", "Had ripened thy just soul to dwell with God,", "Meekly thou didst resign this earthly load", "Of death, called life, which us from life doth sever.", "Thy works, and alms, and all thy good endeavour,", "Stayed not behind, nor in the grave were trod;", "But, as Faith pointed with her golden rod,", "Followed thee up to joy and bliss for ever.", "Love led them on; and Faith, who knew them best", "Thy handmaids, clad them o’er with purple beams", "And azure wings, that up they flew so drest,", "And speak the truth of thee on glorious themes", "Before the Judge; who henceforth bid thee rest,", "And drink thy fill of pure immortal streams." ], "linecount": "14" }, { "title": "In Memory", "author": "Joyce Kilmer", "lines": [ "I", "Serene and beautiful and very wise,", "Most erudite in curious Grecian lore,", "You lay and read your learned books, and bore", "A weight of unshed tears and silent sighs.", "The song within your heart could never rise", "Until love bade it spread its wings and soar.", "Nor could you look on Beauty's face before", "A poet's burning mouth had touched your eyes.", "Love is made out of ecstasy and wonder;", "Love is a poignant and accustomed pain.", "It is a burst of Heaven-shaking thunder;", "It is a linnet's fluting after rain.", "Love's voice is through your song; above and under", "And in each note to echo and remain.", "", "II", "Because Mankind is glad and brave and young,", "Full of gay flames that white and scarlet glow,", "All joys and passions that Mankind may know", "By you were nobly felt and nobly sung.", "Because Mankind's heart every day is wrung", "By Fate's wild hands that twist and tear it so,", "Therefore you echoed Man's undying woe,", "A harp Aeolian on Life's branches hung.", "So did the ghosts of toiling children hover", "About the piteous portals of your mind;", "Your eyes, that looked on glory, could discover", "The angry scar to which the world was blind:", "And it was grief that made Mankind your lover,", "And it was grief that made you love Mankind.", "", "III", "Before Christ left the Citadel of Light,", "To tread the dreadful way of human birth,", "His shadow sometimes fell upon the earth", "And those who saw it wept with joy and fright.", "\"Thou art Apollo, than the sun more bright!\"", "They cried. \"Our music is of little worth,", "But thrill our blood with thy creative mirth", "Thou god of song, thou lord of lyric might!\"", "O singing pilgrim! who could love and follow", "Your lover Christ, through even love's despair,", "You knew within the cypress-darkened hollow", "The feet that on the mountain are so fair.", "For it was Christ that was your own Apollo,", "And thorns were in the laurel on your hair." ], "linecount": "45" }, { "title": "In Memory of Rupert Brooke", "author": "Joyce Kilmer", "lines": [ "In alien earth, across a troubled sea,", "His body lies that was so fair and young.", "His mouth is stopped, with half his songs unsung;", "His arm is still, that struck to make men free.", "But let no cloud of lamentation be", "Where, on a warrior's grave, a lyre is hung.", "We keep the echoes of his golden tongue,", "We keep the vision of his chivalry.", "So Israel's joy, the loveliest of kings,", "Smote now his harp, and now the hostile horde.", "To-day the starry roof of Heaven rings", "With psalms a soldier made to praise his Lord;", "And David rests beneath Eternal wings,", "Song on his lips, and in his hand a sword." ], "linecount": "14" }, { "title": "In memory of that excellent person Mrs. Mary Lloyd of Bodidrist in Denbigh-shire", "author": "Katherine Philips", "lines": [ "I CANNOT hold, for though to write were rude,", "Yet to be silent were Ingratitude,", "And Folly too; for if Posterity", "Should never hear of such a one as thee,", "And onely know this Age's brutish fame,", "They would think Vertue nothing but a Name.", "And though far abler Pens must her define,", "Yet her Adoption hath engaged mine:", "And I must own where Merit shines so clear,", "'Tis hard to write, but harder to forbear.", "Sprung from an ancient and an honour'd Stem,", "Who lent her lustre, and she paid it them;", "Who still in great and noble things appeared,", "Whom all their Country lov'd, and yet they feared.", "Match'd to another good and great as they,", "Who did their Country both oblige and sway.", "Behold herself, who had without dispute", "More then both Families could contribute.", "What early Beauty Grief and Age had broke,", "Her lovely Reliques and her Off-spring spoke.", "She was by nature and her Parents care", "A Woman long before most others are.", "But yet that antedated2 season she", "Improv'd to Vertue, not to Liberty.", "For she was still in either state of life", "Meek as a Virgin, Prudent as a Wife", "And she well knew, although so young and fair,", "Justly to mix Obedience Love and Care;", "Whil'st to her Children she did still appear", "So wisely kind, so tenderly severe,", "That they from her Rule and Example brought", "A native Honour, which she stampt and taught.", "Nor can a single Pen enough commend", "So kind a Sister and so clear a Friend.", "A Wisdom from above did her secure,", "Which as 'twas peaceable, was ever pure.", "And if well-order'd Commonwealths must be", "Patterns for every private Family,", "Her House, rul'd by her hand and by her eye,", "Might be a Pattern for a Monarchy.", "Solomon's wisest Woman less could do;", "She built her house, but this preserv'd hers too.", "She was so pious that when she did die,", "She scarce chang'd Place, I'm sure not Company.", "Her Zeal was primitive and practick too;", "She did believe, and pray, and read, and do.", "A firm and equal Soul she had engrost,", "Just ev'n to those that disoblig'd her most.", "She grew to love those wrongs she did receive", "For giving her the power to Forgive.", "Her Alms I may admire, but not relate;", "But her own works shall praise her in the gate.", "Her Life was checquer'd with afflictive years,", "And even her Comfort season'd in her Tears.", "Scarce for a Husband's loss her eyes were dried,", "And that loss by her Children half supplied,", "When Heav'n was pleas'd not these dear Propes' afford,", "But tore most off by sickness or by sword.", "She, who in them could still their Father boast,", "Was a fresh Widow every Son she lost.", "Litigious hands did her of Right deprive,", "That after all 'twas Penance to survive.", "She still these Griefs hath nobly undergone,", "Which few support at all, but better none.", "Such a submissive Greatness who can find?", "A tender Heart with so resolv'd a Mind?", "But she, though sensible, was still the same,", "Of a resigned Soul, untainted Fame,", "Nor were her Vertues coarsly set, for she", "Out-did Example in Civility.", "To bestow blessings, to oblige, relieve,", "Was all for which she could endure to live.", "She had a joy higher in doing good,", "Than they to whom the benefit accru'd.", "Though none of Honour had a quicker sense,", "Never had Woman more of complacence;", "Yet lost it not in empty forms, but still", "Her Nature noble was, her Soul gentile.", "And as in Youth she did attract, (for she", "The Verdure had without the Vanity)", "So she in Age was mild and grave to all,", "Was not morose, but was majestical.", "Thus from all other Women she had skill", "To draw their good, but nothing of their ill.", "And since she knew the mad tumultuous World,", "Saw Crowns revers'd, Temples to ruine hurl'd;", "She in Retirement chose to shine and burn,", "As a bright Lamp shut in some Roman Urn.", "At last, when spent with sickness, grief and age,", "Her Guardian Angel did her death presage:", "(So that by strong impulse she chearfully", "Dispensed blessings, and went home to die;", "That so she might, when to that place removed,", "Marry his Ashes whom she ever loved)", "She dy'd, gain'd a reward, and paid a debt.", "The Sun himself did never brighter set.", "Happy were they that knew her and her end,", "More happy they that did from her descend:", "A double blessing they may hope to have,", "One she convey'd to them, and one she gave.", "All that are hers are therefore sure to be", "Blest by Inheritance and Legacy.", "A Royal Birth had less advantage been.", "'Tis more to die a Saint than live a Queen." ], "linecount": "104" }, { "title": "In Memory of F.P.", "author": "Katherine Philips", "lines": [ "If I could ever write a lasting verse,", "It should be laid, deare Sainte, upon thy herse.", "But Sorrow is no muse, and doth confesse", "That it least can what most it would expresse.", "Yet, that I may some bounds to griefe allow,", "I'le try if I can weepe in numbers now.", "Ah beauteous blossom! too untimely dead!", "Whither, ah whither is thy sweetness fled?", "Where are the charmes that allwayes did arise", "From the prevailing languadge [sic] of thine eyes?", "Where is thy modest aire and lovely meen,", "And all the wonders that in these were seen?", "Alas! in vaine! In vaine on three I rave;", "There is no pitty in the stupid grave . . .", "Never, ah never let glad parents guesse", "At one remove of future happinesse,", "But reckon children 'mong those passing joys,", "Which one hour gives, and the next hour destroyes.", "Alas! we were secure of our content,", "But find too late that it was onely lent,", "To be a mirrour wherein we might see", "How fraile we are, how innocent should be.", "But if to thy blest soule my griefe appeares,", "Forgive and pitty these injurious teares;", "Impute them to affection's sad excesse,", "Which will not yeild to nature's tendernesse,", "Since 'twas through dearest tyes and highest trust", "Continu'd from thy cradle to thy dust;", "And so rewarded and confirm'd by thine,", "(wo is me!) I thought thee too much mine.", "But I'le resigne, and follow thee as fast", "As my unhappy minutes will make hast.", "Till when, the fresh remembrances of thee", "Shall be my emblem of mortalitie.", "For such a loss as thine, bright soule, is not", "Ever to be repaired, or forgot." ], "linecount": "36" }, { "title": "To the Memory of Sarah Livingston", "author": "Major Henry Livingston, Jr.", "lines": [ "BEYOND where billows roll or tempests vex", "Is gone the gentlest of the gentle sex!", "---Her brittle bark on life's wild ocean tost", "Unequal to the conflict soon was lost.", "Severe her sufferings! much, alas, she bore,", "Then sunk beneath the storm & rose no more.", "But when th' Archangel's awful trump shall sound", "And vibrate life thro all the deep profound", "Her renovated vessel will be seen,", "Transcendant floating on the silver stream!", "All beauteous to behold! serene she glides", "Borne on by mildest & propitious tides;", "While fanning zephyrs fill her snow white sails", "And aid her passage with the friendliest gales", "Till safe within the destin'd port of bliss", "She furls her sails and moors in endless peace." ], "linecount": "16" }, { "title": "To the Memory of Henry Welles Livingston", "author": "Major Henry Livingston, Jr.", "lines": [ "A gentle spirit now above", "Once animated what lies here", "Till heav'n announc'd in tenderest love", "\"Ascend Immortal to yon sphere.\"", "", "The lambkin at the great behest", "Gave up its life without one groan;", "When lo! In robes supernal drest", "He found the bright abodes his own!", "", "Most glorious and delightful scenes", "Rush'd full upon his raptur'd sense;", "Beyond what fancy ever dreams,", "Or Eden knew in innocence.", "", "Adieu! Adieu! My sweest boy,", "Adieu till life's vain dream be o'er;", "Then with a parent's keenest joy", "I'll cling to Thee to part no more." ], "linecount": "16" }, { "title": "Monody to the Memory of Chatterton", "author": "Robinson", "lines": [ "Chill penury repress'd his noble rage,", "And froze the genial current of his soul.", "GRAY.", "", "", "IF GRIEF can deprecate the wrath of Heaven,", "Or human frailty hope to be forgiven !", "Ere now thy sainted spirit bends its way", "To the bland regions of celestial day;", "Ere now, thy soul, immers'd in purest air", "Smiles at the triumphs of supreme Despair;", "Or bath'd in seas of endless bliss, disdains", "The vengeful memory of mortal pains;", "Yet shall the MUSE a fond memorial give", "To shield thy name, and bid thy GENIUS live.", "", "Too proud for pity, and too poor for praise,", "No voice to cherish, and no hand to raise;", "Torn, stung, and sated, with this \"mortal coil,\"", "This weary, anxious scene of fruitless toil;", "Not all the graces that to youth belong,", "Nor all the energies of sacred song;", "Nor all that FANCY, all that GENIUS gave,", "Could snatch thy wounded spirit from the grave.", "", "Hard was thy lot, from every comfort torn;", "In POVERTY'S cold arms condemn'd to mourn;", "To live by mental toil, e'en when the brain", "Could scarce its trembling faculties sustain;", "To mark the dreary minutes slowly creep:", "Each day to labour, and each night to weep;", "'Till the last murmur of thy frantic soul,", "In proud concealment from its mansion stole,", "While ENVY springing from her lurid cave,", "Snatch'd the young LAURELS from thy rugged grave.", "So the pale primrose, sweetest bud of May,", "Scarce wakes to beauty, ere it feels decay;", "While baleful weeds their hidden n poisons pour,", "Choke the green sod, and wither every flow'r.", "", "Immur'd in shades, from busy scenes remov'd;", "No sound to solace,­but the verse he lov'd:", "No soothing numbers harmoniz'd his ear;", "No feeling bosom gave his griefs a tear;", "Obscurely born­no gen'rous friend he found", "To lead his trembling steps o'er classic ground.", "No patron fill'd his heart with flatt'ring hope,", "No tutor'd lesson gave his genius scope;", "Yet, while poetic ardour nerv'd each thought,", "And REASON sanction'd what AMBITION taught;", "He soar'd beyond the narrow spells that bind", "The slow perceptions of the vulgar mind;", "The fire once kindled by the breath of FAME,", "Her restless pinions fann'd the glitt'ring flame;", "Warm'd by its rays, he thought each vision just;", "For conscious VIRTUE seldom feels DISTRUST.", "", "Frail are the charms delusive FANCY shows,", "And short the bliss her fickle smile bestows;", "Yet the bright prospect pleas'd his dazzled view,", "Each HOPE seem'd ripened, and each PHANTOM true;", "Fill'd with delight, his unsuspecting mind", "Weigh'd not the grov'ling treach'ries of mankind;", "For while a niggard boon his Savants supply'd,", "And NATURE'S claims subdued the voice of PRIDE:", "His timid talents own'd a borrow'd name,", "And gain'd by FICTION what was due to FAME.", "", "With secret labour, and with taste refin'd,", "This son of mis'ry form'd his infant mind !", "When op'ning Reason's earliest scenes began,", "The dawn of childhood mark'd the future man !", "He scorn'd the puerile sports of vulgar boys,", "His little heart aspir'd to nobler joys;", "Creative Fancy wing'd his few short hours,", "While soothing Hope adorn'd his path with flow'rs,", "Yet FAME'S recording hand no trophy gave,", "Save the sad TEAR­to decorate his grave.", "", "Yet in this dark, mysterious scene of woe,", "Conviction's flame shall shed a radiant glow;", "His infant MUSE shall bind with nerves of fire", "The sacrilegious hand that stabs its sire.", "Methinks, I hear his wand'ring shade complain,", "While mournful ECHO lingers on the strain;", "Thro' the lone aisle his restless spirit calls,", "His phantom glides along the minster's § walls;", "Where many an hour his devious footsteps trod,", "Ere Fate resign'd him TO HIS PITYING GOD.", "", "Yet, shall the MUSE to gentlest sorrow prone", "Adopt his cause, and make his griefs her own;", "Ne'er shall her CHATTERTON's neglected name,", "Fade in inglorious dreams of doubtful fame;", "Shall he, whose pen immortal GENIUS gave,", "Sleep unlamented in an unknown grave?", "No, ­the fond MUSE shall spurn the base neglect,", "The verse she cherish'd she shall still protect.", "", "And if unpitied pangs the mind can move,", "Or graceful numbers warm the heart to love;", "If the fine raptures of poetic fire", "Delight to vibrate on the trembling lyre;", "If sorrow claims the kind embalming tear,", "Or worth oppress'd, excites a pang sincere?", "Some kindred soul shall pour the song divine,", "And with the cypress bough the laurel twine,", "Whose weeping leaves the wint'ry blast shall wave", "In mournful murmurs o'er thy unbless'd grave.", "", "And tho' no lofty VASE or sculptur'd BUST", "Bends o'er the sod that hides thy sacred dust;", "Tho' no long line of ancestry betrays", "The PRIDE of RELATIVES, or POMP of PRAISE.", "Tho' o'er thy name a blushing nation rears", "OBLIVION'S wing­ to hide REFLECTION'S tears!", "Still shall thy verse in dazzling lustre live,", "And claim a brighter wreath THAN WEALTH CAN GIVE." ], "linecount": "107" }, { "title": "Elegy to the Memory of Werter", "author": "Robinson", "lines": [ "\"With female Fairies will thy tomb be haunted", "\"And worms will not come to thee.\" SHAKSPERE.", "", "", "WHEN from Day's closing eye the lucid tears", "Fall lightly on the bending lily's head;", "When o'er the blushing sky night's curtains spread,", "And the tall mountain's summit scarce appears;", "When languid Evening, sinking to repose,", "Her filmy mantle o'er the landscape throws;", "Of THEE I'll sing; and as the mournful song", "Glides in slow numbers the dark woods among;", "My wand'ring steps shall seek the lonely shade,", "Where all thy virtues, all thy griefs are laid!", "", "Yes, hopeless suff'rer, friendless and forlorn,", "Sweet victim of love's power; the silent tear", "Shall oft at twilight's close, and glimm'ring morn", "Gem the pale primrose that adorns thy bier,", "And as the balmy dew ascends to heaven,", "Thy crime shall steal away, thy frailty be forgiv'n.", "", "Oft by the moon's wan beam the love-lorn maid,", "Led by soft SYMPATHY, shall stroll along;", "Oft shall she listen in the Lime-tree's * shade,", "Her cold blood freezing at the night-owl's song:", "Or, when she hears the death-bell's solemn sound,", "Her light steps echoing o'er the hollow ground;", "Oft shall the trickling tear adorn her cheek,", "Thy pow'r, O SENSIBILITY ! in magic charms to speak!", "", "For the poor PILGRIM, doom'd afar to roam", "From the dear comforts of his native home,", "A glitt'ring star puts forth a silv'ry ray,", "Soothes his sad heart, and marks his tedious way;", "The short-liv'd radiance cheers the gloom of night,", "And decks Heaven's murky dome with transitory light.", "", "So from the mournful CHARLOTTE's dark-orb'd lids,", "The sainted tear of pitying VIRTUE flows;", "And the last boon, the \"churlish priest\" forbids,", "On thy lone grave the sacred drop bestows;", "There shall the sparkling dews of Evening shine,", "AND HEAVEN'S OWN INCENSE CONSECRATE THE SHRINE." ], "linecount": "38" }, { "title": "Elegy to the Memory of David Garrick, Esq.", "author": "Robinson", "lines": [ "DEAR SHADE OF HIM, who grac'd the mimick scene,", "And charm'd attention with resistless pow'r;", "Whose wond'rous art, whose fascinating mien,", "Gave glowing rapture to the short-liv'd hour!", "", "Accept the mournful verse, the ling'ring sigh,", "The tear that faithful Mem'ry stays to shed;", "The SACRED TEAR, that from Reflection's eye,", "Drops on the ashes of the sainted dead.", "", "Lov'd by the grave, and courted by the young,", "In social comforts eminently blest;", "All hearts rever'd the precepts of thy tongue,", "And Envy's self thy eloquence confess'd.", "", "Who could like thee the soul's wild tumults paint,", "Or wake the torpid ear with lenient art?", "Touch the nice sense with pity's dulcet plaint,", "Or soothe the sorrows of the breaking heart?", "", "Who can forget thy penetrating eye,", "The sweet bewitching smile, th' empassion'd look?", "The clear deep whisper, the persuasive sigh,", "The feeling tear that Nature's language spoke?", "", "Rich in each treasure bounteous Heaven could lend,", "For private worth distinguish'd and approv'd,", "The pride of WISDOM,­VIRTUE's darling friend,", "By MANSFIELD honor'd­and by CAMDEN lov'd!", "", "The courtier's cringe, the flatt'rer's abject smile,", "The subtle arts of well-dissembled praise,", "Thy soul abhorr'd;­above the gloss of guile,", "Truth lead thy steps, and Friendship crown'd thy days.", "", "Oft in thy HAMPTON's dark embow'ring shade", "The POET's hand shall sweep the trembling string;", "While the proud tribute §to thy mem'ry paid,", "The voice of GENIUS on the gale shall fling.", "", "Yes, SHERIDAN! thy soft melodious verse", "Still vibrates on a nation's polish'd ear;", "Fondly it hover'd o'er the sable hearse,", "Hush'd the loud plaint, and triumph'd in a tear.", "", "In life united by congenial minds,", "Dear to the MUSE, to sacred friendship true;", "Around her darling's urn a wreath SHE binds,", "A deathless wreath­immortaliz'd by YOU!", "", "But say, dear shade, is kindred mem'ry flown?", "Has widow'd love at length forgot to weep?", "That no kind verse, or monumental stone,", "Marks the lone spot where thy cold relics sleep!", "", "Dear to a nation, grateful to thy muse,", "That nation's tears upon thy grave shall flow,", "For who the gentle tribute can refuse,", "Which thy fine feeling gave to fancied woe?", "", "Thou who, by many an anxious toilsome hour,", "Reap'd the bright harvest of luxuriant Fame,", "Who snatch'd from dark oblivion's barb'rous pow'r", "The radiant glories of a SHAKSPERE's name!", "", "Rembrance oft shall paint the mournful scene", "Where the slow fun'ral spread its length'ning gloom,", "Where the deep murmur, and dejected mien,", "In artless sorrow linger'd round thy tomb.", "", "And tho' no laurel'd bust, or labour'd line,", "Shall bid the passing stranger stay to weep;", "Thy SHAKSPERE's hand shall point the hallow'd shrine,", "And Britain's genius with thy ashes sleep.", "", "Then rest in peace, O ever sacred shade!", "Your kindred souls exulting FAME shall join;", "And the same wreath thy hand for SHAKSPERE made,", "Gemm'd with her tears about THY GRAVE SHALL TWINE." ], "linecount": "64" }, { "title": "Lines to the memory of Richard Boyle, Esq.", "author": "Robinson", "lines": [ "\"Fate snatch'd him early to the pitying sky.\"", "", "- POPE.", "", "", "IF WORTH, too early to the grave consign'd,", "Can claim the pitying tear, or touch the mind ?", "If manly sentiments unstain'd by art,", "Could waken FRIENDSHIP, or delight the heart ?", "Ill-fated youth ! to THEE the MUSE shall pay", "The last sad tribute of a mournful lay;", "On thy lone grave shall MAY'S soft dews be shed,", "And fairest flowrets blossom o'er thy head;", "The drooping lily, and the snow-drop pale,", "Mingling their fragrant leaves, shall there recline,", "While CHERUBS hov'ring on th' ethereal gale,", "Shall chaunt a requiem o'er the hallow'd shrine.", "And if Reflection's piercing eye should scan", "The trivial frailties of imperfect MAN;", "If in thy generous heart those passions dwelt,", "Which all should own, and all that live have felt;", "Yet was thy polish'd mind so pure, so brave,", "The young admir'd thee, and the old forgave.", "", "And when stern FATE, with ruthless rancour, press'd", "Thy withering graces to her flinty breast;", "Bright JUSTICE darted from her bless'd abode,", "And bore thy VIRTUES to the throne of GOD;", "While cold OBLIVION stealing o'er thy mind,", "Each youthful folly to the grave consign'd.", "", "O, if thy purer spirit deigns to know", "Each thought that passes in this vale of woe,", "Accept the incense of a tender tear,", "By PITY wafted on a sigh sincere.", "And if the weeping MUSE a wreath could give", "To grace thy tomb, and bid thy VIRTUES live;", "THEN Wealth should blush the gilded mask to wear,", "And Avarice shrink the victim of Despair.", "While GENIUS bending o'er thy sable bier,", "Should mourn her darling SON with many a tear,", "While in her pensive form the world should view", "The ONLY PARENT that thy SORROWS knew." ], "linecount": "38" }, { "title": "Sonnet to the Memory of Miss Maria Linley", "author": "Robinson", "lines": [ "So bends beneath the storm yon balmy flow'r,", "Whose spicy blossoms once perfum'd the gale;", "So press'd with tears reclines yon lily pale,", "Obedient to the rude and beating show'r.", "", "Still is the LARK, that hov'ring o'er yon spray,", "With jocund carol usher'd in the morn;", "And mute the NIGHTINGALE, whose tender lay", "Melted the feeling mind with sounds forlorn:", "", "More sweet, MARIA, was thy plaintive strain!", "That strain is o'er; but mem'ry ne'er shall fade,", "When erst it cheer'd grey twilight's dreary shade,", "And charm'd the sorrow-stricken soul from pain;", "STILL, STILL, melodious maid, thy dulcet song", "Shall breathe, immortal, on an ANGEL'S TONGUE!" ], "linecount": "14" }, { "title": "Elegy to the Memory of Richard Boyle, Esq.", "author": "Robinson", "lines": [ "NEAR yon bleak mountain's dizzy height,", "That hangs o'er AVON's silent wave;", "By the pale Crescent's glimm'ring light,", "I sought LORENZO's lonely grave.", "", "O'er the long grass the silv'ry dew,", "Soft Twilight's tears spontaneous shone;", "And the dank bough of baneful yew", "Supply'd the place of sculptured stone.", "", "Oft, as my trembling steps drew near,", "The aëry voice of FANCY gave", "The plaint of GENIUS to mine ear,", "That, lingering, murmur'd on his grave.", "", "\"Cold is that heart, where honour glow'd,", "And Friendship's flame sublimely shone,", "And clos'd that eye where Pity flow'd,", "For ev'ry suff'ring but HIS OWN.", "", "\"That form where youth and grace conspir'd,", "To captivate admiring eyes,", "No more belov'd, no more admir'd,", "A torpid mass neglected lies.", "", "\"Mute is the music of that tongue,", "Once tuneful as the voice of love,", "When ORPHEUS, by his magic song,", "Taught trees, and flinty rocks to move.", "", "\"Oft shall the pensive MUSE be found,", "Sprinkling with flow'rs his mould'ring clay;", "While soft-eyed SORROW wand'ring round,", "Shall pluck intruding weeds away.\"", "", "Sad victim of the sordid mind,", "That doom'd THEE to an early grave;", "Ne'er shall HER breast that pity find,", "Which thy forgiveness nobly gave!", "", "Thou, who, when SORROW'S icy hand", "Forbad the healthsome pulse to flow,", "Obedient to HER stern command,", "With meek submission bow'd thee low!", "", "And when thy faded cheek proclaim'd", "The thorn that rankled in thy breast,", "Thy steady soul that pride maintain'd,", "Which marks the godlike mind distress'd!", "", "Nor was thy mental strength subdu'd,", "When HOPE's last ling'ring shadows fled,", "Unchang'd, thy dauntless spirit view'd", "The dreary confines of the dead!", "", "And when thy penetrating mind,", "Life's thorny maze presum'd to scan,", "In ev'ry path condemn'd to find", "\"The low ingratitude of man.\"", "", "Indignant would'st thou turn away,", "And smiling raise thy languid eye,", "And oft thy feeble voice would say,", "\"TO ME 'TIS HAPPINESS TO DIE.\"", "", "And tho' thy FRIEND, I with skilful art,", "To heal thy woes, each balm apply'd;", "Tho' the fine feelings of his heart,", "Nor cost nor studious care deny'd!", "", "He saw the fatal hour draw near,", "He saw THEE fading to the grave;", "He gave his last kind gift, A TEAR,", "And mourn'd the worth he could not save.", "", "Nor could the ruthless breath of FATE", "Snatch from thy grave the tender sigh;", "Nor a relentless monster's hate", "Impede thy passage to the sky.", "", "And tho' no kindred tears were shed,", "No tribute to thy memory giv'n;", "Sublime in death, thy spirit fled,", "To seek its best reward IN HEAVEN!" ], "linecount": "68" }, { "title": "To Memory", "author": "Mary Elizabeth Coleridge", "lines": [ "Strange Power, I know not what thou art,", "Murderer or mistress of my heart.", "I know I'd rather meet the blow", "Of my most unrelenting foe", "Than live---as now I live---to be", "Slain twenty times a day by thee.", "", "Yet, when I would command thee hence,", "Thou mockest at the vain pretence,", "Murmuring in mine ear a song", "Once loved, alas! forgotten long;", "And on my brow I feel a kiss", "That I would rather die than miss." ], "linecount": "12" }, { "title": "To the Memory of the Brave Americans", "author": "Philip Freneau", "lines": [ "Under General Greene, in South Carolina,", " who fell in the action of September 8, 1781", "", "AT Eutaw Springs the valiant died;", " Their limbs with dust are covered o'er--", "Weep on, ye springs, your tearful tide;", " How many heroes are no more!", "", "If in this wreck or ruin, they", " Can yet be thought to claim a tear,", "O smite your gentle breast, and say", " The friends of freedom slumber here!", "", "Thou, who shalt trace this bloody plain,", " If goodness rules thy generous breast,", "Sigh for the wasted rural reign;", " Sign for the shepherds, sunk to rest!", "", "Stranger, their humble graves adorn;", " You too may fall, and ask a tear;", "'Tis not the beauty of the morn", " That proves the evening shall be clear.--", "", "They saw their injured country's woe;", " The flaming town, the wasted field;", "Then rushed to meet the insulting foe;", " They took the spear--but left the shield.", "", "Led by thy conquering genius, Greene,", " The Britons they compelled to fly;", "None distant viewed the fatal plain,", " None grieved, in such a cause to die--", "", "But, like the Parthian, famed of old,", " Who, flying, still their arrows threw,", "These routed Britons, full as bold,", " Retreated, and retreating slew.", "", "Now rest in peace, our patriot band,", " Though far from nature's limits thrown,", "We trust they find a happier land,", " A brighter sunshine of their own." ], "linecount": "34" }, { "title": "247. Ode, Sacred to the Memory of Mrs. Oswald of Auchencruive", "author": "Robert Burns", "lines": [ "DWELLER in yon dungeon dark,", " Hangman of creation! mark,", " Who in widow-weeds appears,", " Laden with unhonour’d years,", " Noosing with care a bursting purse,", " Baited with many a deadly curse?", "", "", "STROPHE View the wither’d Beldam’s face;", " Can thy keen inspection trace", "Aught of Humanity’s sweet, melting grace?", " Note that eye, ’tis rheum o’erflows;", " Pity’s flood there never rose,", " See these hands ne’er stretched to save,", " Hands that took, but never gave:", " Keeper of Mammon’s iron chest,", " Lo, there she goes, unpitied and unblest,", "She goes, but not to realms of everlasting rest!", "", "", "ANTISTROPHEPlunderer of Armies! lift thine eyes,", " (A while forbear, ye torturing fiends;)", "Seest thou whose step, unwilling, hither bends?", "No fallen angel, hurl’d from upper skies;", " ’Tis thy trusty quondam Mate,", " Doom’d to share thy fiery fate;", " She, tardy, hell-ward plies.", "", "", "EPODE And are they of no more avail,", "Ten thousand glittering pounds a-year?", " In other worlds can Mammon fail,", " Omnipotent as he is here!", "", "", "O, bitter mockery of the pompous bier,", " While down the wretched Vital Part is driven!", "The cave-lodged Beggar,with a conscience clear,", " Expires in rags, unknown, and goes to Heaven." ], "linecount": "31" }, { "title": "A Memory", "author": "Rupert Brooke", "lines": [ "(From a sonnet-sequence)", "", "", "Somewhile before the dawn I rose, and stept", "Softly along the dim way to your room,", "And found you sleeping in the quiet gloom,", "And holiness about you as you slept.", "I knelt there; till your waking fingers crept", "About my head, and held it. I had rest", "Unhoped this side of Heaven, beneath your breast.", "I knelt a long time, still; nor even wept.", "", "It was great wrong you did me; and for gain", "Of that poor moment’s kindliness, and ease,", "And sleepy mother-comfort!", "Child, you know", "How easily love leaps out to dreams like these,", "Who has seen them true. And love that’s wakened so", "Takes all too long to lay asleep again." ], "linecount": "16" }, { "title": "Ode to the Memory of Burns", "author": "Thomas Campbell", "lines": [ "Soul of the Poet ! wheresoe'er,", "Reclaimed from earth, thy genius plume", "Her wings of immortality ;", "Suspend thy harp in happier sphere,", "And with thine influence illume", "The gladness of our jubilee.", "", "And fly like fiends from secret spell,", "Discord and Strife, at Burn's name,", "Exorcised by his memory ;", "For he was chief of bards that swell", "The heart with songs of social flame,", "And high delicious revelry.", "", "And Love's own strain to him was given,", "To warble all its ecstacies", "With Pythian words unsought, unwilled,—", "Love, the surviving gift of Heaven", "The choicest sweet of Paradise,", "In life's else bitter cup distilled.", "", "Who that has melted o'er his lay", "To Mary's soul, in Heaven above ,", "But pictured sees, in fancy strong,", "The landscape and the livelong day", "That smiled upon their mutual love ?", "Who that has felt forgets the song ?", "", "Nor skilled one flame alone to fan:", "His country's high-souled peasantry", "What patriot-pride he taught !—how much", "To weigh the inborn worth of man !", "And rustic life and poverty", "Grow beautiful beneath his touch.", "", "Him, in his clay-built cot, the Muse", "Entranced, and showed him all the forms,", "Of fairy-light and wizard gloom,", "(That only gifted Poet views,)", "The Genii of the floods and storms,", "And martial shades from Glory's tomb.", "", "On Bannock-field what thoughts arouse", "The swain whom Burns's song inspires !", "Beat not his Caledonian veins,", "As o'er the heroic turf he ploughs,", "With all the spirit of his sires,", "And all their scorn of death and chains ?", "", "And see the Scottish exile, tanned", "By many a far and foreign clime,", "Bend o'er his home-born verse, and weep", "In memory of his native land,", "With love that scorns the lapse of time,", "And ties that stretch beyond the deep.", "", "Encamped by Indian rivers wild,", "The soldier resting on his arms,", "In Burns's carol sweet recalls", "The scenes that blessed him when a child,", "And glows and gladdens at the charms", "Of Scotia's woods and waterfalls.", "", "O deem not, 'midst this worldly strife,", "An idle art the Poet brings:", "Let high Philosophy control,", "And sages calm the stream of life,", "'T is he refines its fountain-springs,", "The nobler passions of the soul.", "", "It is the muse that consecrates", "The native banner of the brave,", "Unfurling, at the trumpet's breath,", "Rose, thistle, harp ; 't is she elates", "", "To sweep the field or ride the wave,", "A sunburst in the storm of death.", "", "And thou, young hero , when thy pall", "Is crossed with mournful sword and plume,", "When public grief begins to fade,", "And only tears of kindred fall,", "Who but the bard shall dress thy tomb,", "And greet with fame thy gallant shade ?", "", "Such was the soldier—Burns, forgive", "That sorrows of mine own intrude", "In strains to thy great memory due.", "In verse like thine, oh ! Could he live,", "The friend I mourned—the brave—the good", "Edward that died at Waterloo !*", "", "Farewell, high chief of Scottish song !", "That couldst alternately impart", "Wisdom and rapture in thy page,", "And brand each vice with satire strong,", "Whose lines are mottoes of the heart?", "Whose truths electrify the sage.", "", "Farewell ! and ne'er may Envy dare", "To wring one baleful poison drop", "From the crushed laurels of thy bust ;", "But while the lark sings sweet in air,", "Still may the grateful pilgrim stop,", "To bless the spot that holds thy dust." ], "linecount": "90" }, { "title": "A Memory", "author": "William Allingham", "lines": [ "Four ducks on a pond,", "A grass-bank beyond,", "A blue sky of spring,", "White clouds on the wing;", "What a little thing", "To remember for years-", "To remember with tears!" ], "linecount": "7" }, { "title": "Memory", "author": "William Browne", "lines": [ "SO shuts the marigold her leaves", "At the departure of the sun;", "So from the honeysuckle sheaves", "The bee goes when the day is done;", "So sits the turtle when she is but one,", "And so all woe, as I since she is gone.", "", "To some few birds kind Nature hath", "Made all the summer as one day:", "Which once enjoy'd, cold winter's wrath", "As night they sleeping pass away.", "Those happy creatures are, that know not yet", "The pain to be deprived or to forget.", "", "I oft have heard men say there be", "Some that with confidence profess", "The helpful Art of Memory:", "But could they teach Forgetfulness,", "I'd learn; and try what further art could do", "To make me love her and forget her too." ], "linecount": "18" }, { "title": "Lines Written on a Blank Leaf of _the Pleasures of Memory_", "author": "George Gordon, Lord Byron", "lines": [ "Absent or present, still to thee,", " My friend, what magic spells belong!", "As all can tell, who share, like me,", " In turn thy converse, and thy song.", "", "But when the dreaded hour shall come", " By Friendship ever deemed too nigh,", "And \"Memory\" o'er her Druid's tomb", " Shall weep that aught of thee can die,", "", "How fondly will she then repay", " Thy homage offered at her shrine,", "And blend, while ages roll away,", " _Her_ name immortally with _thine_!" ], "linecount": "12" }, { "title": "Fragment: The Sepulchre of Memory", "author": "Percy Bysshe Shelley", "lines": [ "And where is truth? On tombs? for such to thee", "Has been my heart--and thy dead memory", "Has lain from childhood, many a changeful year,", "Unchangingly preserved and buried there." ], "linecount": "4" } ]