[ { "title": "To Flush, My Dog", "author": "Elizabeth Barrett Browning", "lines": [ "Yet, my pretty sportive friend,", "Little is't to such an end", "That I praise thy rareness!", "Other dogs may be thy peers", "Haply in these drooping ears,", "And this glossy fairness.", "", "But of thee it shall be said,", "This dog watched beside a bed", "Day and night unweary—", "Watched within a curtained room,", "Where no sunbeam brake the gloom", "Round the sick and dreary.", "", "Roses, gathered for a vase,", "In that chamber died apace,", "Beam and breeze resigning.", "This dog only, waited on,", "Knowing that when light is gone", "Love remains for shining.", "", "Other dogs in thymy dew", "Tracked the hares, and followed through", "Sunny moor or meadow.", "This dog only, crept and crept", "Next a languid cheek that slept,", "Sharing in the shadow.", "", "Other dogs of loyal cheer", "Bounded at the whistle clear,", "Up the woodside hieing.", "This dog only, watched in reach", "Of a faintly uttered speech,", "Or a louder sighing.", "", "And if one or two quick tears", "Dropped upon his glossy ears,", "Or a sigh came double—", "Up he sprang in eager haste,", "Fawning, fondling, breathing fast,", "In a tender trouble.", "", "And this dog was satisfied", "If a pale thin hand would glide", "Down his dewlaps sloping—", "Which he pushed his nose within,", "After—platforming his chin", "On the palm left open." ], "linecount": "42" }, { "title": "Bereavement in their death to feel", "author": "Emily Dickinson", "lines": [ "Bereavement in their death to feel", "Whom We have never seen --", "A Vital Kinsmanship import", "Our Soul and theirs -- between --", "", "For Stranger -- Strangers do not mourn --", "There be Immortal friends", "Whom Death see first -- 'tis news of this", "That paralyze Ourselves --", "", "Who, vital only to Our Thought --", "Such Presence bear away", "In dying -- 'tis as if Our Souls", "Absconded -- suddenly --" ], "linecount": "12" }, { "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": "When Lovely Woman Stoops To Folly", "author": "Oliver Goldsmith", "lines": [ "When lovely woman stoops to folly,", "And finds too late that men betray,", "What charm can soothe her melancholy,", "What art can wash her guilt away?", "", "The only art her guilt to cover,", "To hide her shame from every eye,", "To give repentance to her lover,", "And wring his bosom, is—to die." ], "linecount": "8" }, { "title": "To Florence", "author": "George Gordon, Lord Byron", "lines": [ "Oh Lady! when I left the shore,", " The distant shore which gave me birth,", "I hardly thought to grieve once more,", " To quit another spot on earth:", "", "Yet here, amidst this barren isle,", " Where panting Nature droops the head,", "Where only thou art seen to smile,", " I view my parting hour with dread.", "", "Though far from Albin's craggy shore,", " Divided by the dark-blue main;", "A few, brief, rolling seasons o'er,", " Perchance I view her cliffs again:", "", "But wheresoe'er I now may roam,", " Through scorching clime, and varied sea,", "Though Time restore me to my home,", " I ne'er shall bend mine eyes on thee:", "", "On thee, in whom at once conspire", " All charms which heedless hearts can move,", "Whom but to see is to admire,", " And, oh! forgive the word--to love.", "", "Forgive the word, in one who ne'er", " With such a word can more offend;", "And since thy heart I cannot share,", " Believe me, what I am, thy friend.", "", "And who so cold as look on thee,", " Thou lovely wand'rer, and be less?", "Nor be, what man should ever be,", " The friend of Beauty in distress?", "", "Ah! who would think that form had past", " Through Danger's most destructive path,", "Had braved the death-winged tempest's blast,", " And 'scaped a Tyrant's fiercer wrath?", "", "Lady! when I shall view the walls", " Where free Byzantium once arose,", "And Stamboul's Oriental halls", " The Turkish tyrants now enclose;", "", "Though mightiest in the lists of fame,", " That glorious city still shall be;", "On me 'twill hold a dearer claim,", " As spot of thy nativity:", "", "And though I bid thee now farewell,", " When I behold that wondrous scene--", "Since where thou art I may not dwell--", " 'Twill soothe to be where thou hast been." ], "linecount": "44" }, { "title": "To Friends At Home", "author": "Robert Louis Stevenson", "lines": [ "TO friends at home, the lone, the admired, the lost", "The gracious old, the lovely young, to May", "The fair, December the beloved,", "These from my blue horizon and green isles,", "These from this pinnacle of distances I,", "The unforgetful, dedicate." ], "linecount": "6" }, { "title": "A Farewell to False Love", "author": "Sir Walter Raleigh", "lines": [ "Farewell, false love, the oracle of lies,", "A mortal foe and enemy to rest,", "An envious boy, from whom all cares arise,", "A bastard vile, a beast with rage possessed,", "A way of error, a temple full of treason,", "In all effects contrary unto reason.", "", "A poisoned serpent covered all with flowers,", "Mother of sighs, and murderer of repose,", "A sea of sorrows whence are drawn such showers", "As moisture lend to every grief that grows;", "A school of guile, a net of deep deceit,", "A gilded hook that holds a poisoned bait.", "", "A fortress foiled, which reason did defend,", "A siren song, a fever of the mind,", "A maze wherein affection finds no end,", "A raging cloud that runs before the wind,", "A substance like the shadow of the sun,", "A goal of grief for which the wisest run.", "", "A quenchless fire, a nurse of trembling fear,", "A path that leads to peril and mishap,", "A true retreat of sorrow and despair,", "An idle boy that sleeps in pleasure's lap,", "A deep mistrust of that which certain seems,", "A hope of that which reason doubtful deems.", "", "Sith then thy trains my younger years betrayed,", "And for my faith ingratitude I find;", "And sith repentance hath my wrongs bewrayed,", "Whose course was ever contrary to kind:", "False love, desire, and beauty frail, adieu.", "Dead is the root whence all these fancies grew." ], "linecount": "30" }, { "title": "To F--", "author": "Edgar Allan Poe", "lines": [ "Beloved! amid the earnest woes", " That crowd around my earthly path--", "(Drear path, alas! where grows", "Not even one lonely rose)--", " My soul at least a solace hath", "In dreams of thee, and therein knows", "An Eden of bland repose.", "", "And thus thy memory is to me", " Like some enchanted far-off isle", "In some tumultuous sea--", "Some ocean throbbing far and free", " With storm--but where meanwhile", "Serenest skies continually", " Just o'er that one bright inland smile." ], "linecount": "14" }, { "title": "To Frances S. Osgood", "author": "Edgar Allan Poe", "lines": [ "Thou wouldst be loved?--then let thy heart", " From its present pathway part not;", "Being everything which now thou art,", " Be nothing which thou art not.", "So with the world thy gentle ways,", " Thy grace, thy more than beauty,", "Shall be an endless theme of praise.", " And love a simple duty." ], "linecount": "8" } ]