id
stringlengths
10
10
poem
stringlengths
49
7.92k
title
stringlengths
3
117
author
stringlengths
4
57
label
int64
0
14
label_name
stringclasses
15 values
epf-000501
The ARGUMENT. A Vulgar Error having long prevailed among many Persons, who imagine Sally Salisbury the Subject of this Ballad, the Author begs leave to undeceive and assure them it has not the least allusion to her, he being a stranger to her very Name at the time this Song was composed. For as Innocence and Virtue we...
The Ballad of Sally in our Alley
Henry Carey
3
ballad
epf-001202
In the deep shadows of the rainy July, with secret steps, thou walkest, silent as night, eluding all watchers. To-day the morning has closed its eyes, heedless of the insistent calls of the loud east wind, and a thick veil has been drawn over the ever-wakeful blue sky. The woodlands have hushed their songs, and doors...
Gitanjali 22
Rabindranath Tagore
9
prose poem
epf-000179
How careful was I, when I took my way, Each trifle under truest bars to thrust, That to my use it might unused stay From hands of falsehood, in sure wards of trust! But thou, to whom my jewels trifles are, Most worthy comfort, now my greatest grief, Thou, best of dearest and mine only care, Art left the prey of every v...
How careful was I, when I took my way (Sonnet 48)
William Shakespeare
0
sonnet
epf-000801
I tell you, hopeless grief is passionless— That only men incredulous of despair, Half-taught in anguish, through the midnight air, Beat upward to God’s throne in loud access Of shrieking and reproach. Full desertness In souls, as countries, lieth silent-bare Under the blenching, vertical eye-glare Of the absolute Heave...
Grief
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
0
sonnet
epf-000588
My heart is a-breaking, dear Tittie,          Some counsel unto me come len'; To anger them a' is a pity,          But what will I do wi' Tam Glen? I'm thinking, wi' sic a braw fellow,          In poortith I might mak a fen': What care I in riches to wallow,          If I mauna marry Tam Glen? There's Lowrie, the lai...
Tam Glen
Robert Burns
3
ballad
epf-001150
A barefoot boy! I mark him at his play— For May is here once more, and so is he,— His dusty trousers, rolled half to the knee, And his bare ankles grimy, too, as they: Cross-hatchings of the nettle, in array Of feverish stripes, hint vividly to me Of woody pathways winding endlessly Along the creek, where even yesterda...
A Barefoot Boy
James Whitcomb Riley
0
sonnet
epf-000191
Let me confess that we two must be twain. Although our undivided loves are one: So shall those blots that do with me remain Without thy help by me be borne alone. In our two loves there is but one respect, Though in our lives a separable spite, Which though it alter not love’s sole effect, Yet doth it steal sweet hours...
Let me confess that we two must be twain. (Sonnet 36)
William Shakespeare
0
sonnet
epf-000590
O my Luve is like a red, red rose    That’s newly sprung in June; O my Luve is like the melody    That’s sweetly played in tune. So fair art thou, my bonnie lass,    So deep in luve am I; And I will luve thee still, my dear,    Till a’ the seas gang dry. Till a’ the seas gang dry, my dear,    And the rocks melt wi’ t...
A Red, Red Rose
Robert Burns
3
ballad
epf-000217
When forty winters shall besiege thy brow, And dig deep trenches in thy beauty’s field, Thy youth’s proud livery, so gazed on now, Will be a tatter’d weed, of small worth held: Then being ask’d where all thy beauty lies, Where all the treasure of thy lusty days, To say, within thine own deep-sunken eyes, Were an all-ea...
When forty winters shall besiege thy brow (Sonnet 2)
William Shakespeare
0
sonnet
epf-000754
My spirit is too weak—mortality Weighs heavily on me like unwilling sleep, And each imagined pinnacle and steep Of godlike hardship tells me I must die Like a sick eagle looking at the sky. Yet ‘tis a gentle luxury to weep, That I have not the cloudy winds to keep, Fresh for the opening of the morning’s eye...
On Seeing the Elgin Marbles
John Keats
13
ekphrasis
epf-001297
Listen. . With faint dry sound, Like steps of passing ghosts, The leaves, frost-crisp'd, break from the trees And fall.
November Night
Adelaide Crapsey
5
free verse
epf-000429
All things within this fading world hath end,    Adversity doth still our joyes attend; No ties so strong, no friends so dear and sweet,    But with death’s parting blow is sure to meet.    The sentence past is most irrevocable,    A common thing, yet oh inevitable. How soon, my Dear, death may my steps attend,    How ...
Before the Birth of One of Her Children
Anne Bradstreet
1
couplet
epf-001339
The things that one grows tired of—O, be sure They are only foolish artificial things! Can a bird ever tire of having wings? And I, so long as life and sense endure, (Or brief be they!) shall nevermore inure My heart to the recurrence of the springs, Of gray dawns, the gracious evenings, The infinite wheeling stars. A ...
Wonder and Joy
Robinson Jeffers
0
sonnet
epf-000922
Rome, 15— Vanity, saith the preacher, vanity! Draw round my bed: is Anselm keeping back? Nephews—sons mine . . . ah God, I know not! Well— She, men would have to be your mother once, Old Gandolf envied me, so fair she was! What's done is done, and she is dead beside, Dead long ago, and I am Bishop since, And as she di...
The Bishop Orders His Tomb at Saint Praxed's Church
Robert Browning
6
blank verse
epf-000239
Come live with me and be my love, And we will all the pleasures prove, That Valleys, groves, hills, and fields, Woods, or steepy mountain yields. And we will sit upon the Rocks, Seeing the Shepherds feed their flocks, By shallow Rivers to whose falls Melodious birds sing Madrigals. And I will make thee beds of Roses ...
The Passionate Shepherd to His Love
Christopher Marlowe
1
couplet
epf-000852
At midnight, in the month of June, I stand beneath the mystic moon. An opiate vapor, dewy, dim, Exhales from out her golden rim, And softly dripping, drop by drop, Upon the quiet mountain top, Steals drowsily and musically Into the universal valley. The rosemary nods upon the grave; The lily lolls upon the wave; Wrappi...
The Sleeper
Edgar Allan Poe
1
couplet
epf-001363
France, March 1916. Over the top! The wire’s thin here, unbarbed Plain rusty coils, not staked, and low enough: Full of old tins, though—“When you’re through, all three, Aim quarter left for fifty yards or so, Then straight for that new piece of German wire; See if it’s thick, and listen for a while For sounds of work...
The Night Patrol
Arthur Graeme West
6
blank verse
epf-001366
There will be rose and rhododendron    When you are dead and under ground; Still will be heard from white syringas    Heavy with bees, a sunny sound; Still will the tamaracks be raining    After the rain has ceased, and still Will there be robins in the stubble,    Brown sheep upon the warm green hill. Spring will no...
Elegy Before Death
Edna St. Vincent Millay
4
elegy
epf-000904
Fear death?—to feel the fog in my throat, The mist in my face, When the snows begin, and the blasts denote I am nearing the place, The power of the night, the press of the storm, The post of the foe; Where he stands, the Arch Fear in a visible form, Yet the strong man must go: For the journey is done and the summit att...
Prospice
Robert Browning
3
ballad
epf-000183
If the dull substance of my flesh were thought, Injurious distance should not stop my way; For then despite of space I would be brought, From limits far remote, where thou dost stay. No matter then although my foot did stand Upon the furthest earth removed from thee; For nimble thought can jump both sea and land As soo...
If the dull substance of my flesh were thought (Sonnet 44)
William Shakespeare
0
sonnet
epf-001190
The child who is decked with prince’s robes and who has jewelled chains round his neck loses all pleasure in his play; his dress hampers him at every step. In fear that it may be frayed, or stained with dust he keeps himself from the world, and is afraid even to move. Mother, it is no gain, thy bondage of finery, if ...
Gitanjali 8
Rabindranath Tagore
9
prose poem
epf-000309
Here take my picture; though I bid farewell Thine, in my heart, where my soul dwells, shall dwell. 'Tis like me now, but I dead, 'twill be more When we are shadows both, than 'twas before. When weather-beaten I come back, my hand Perhaps with rude oars torn, or sun beams tann'd, My face and breast of haircloth, and my ...
Elegy V: His Picture
John Donne
1
couplet
epf-000454
1 AMETAS Think’st thou that this love can stand, Whilst thou still dost say me nay? Love unpaid does soon disband: Love binds love as hay binds hay. 2 THESTYLIS Think’st thou that this rope would twine If we both should turn one way? Where both parties so combine, Neither love will twist nor hay. 3 AMETAS Thus you va...
Ametas and Thestylis Making Hay-ropes
Andrew Marvell
10
pastoral
epf-000065
Since there’s no help, come let us kiss and part. Nay, I have done, you get no more of me; And I am glad, yea glad with all my heart, That thus so cleanly I myself can free. Shake hands for ever, cancel all our vows, And when we meet at any time again, Be it not seen in either of our brows That we one jot of former lov...
Idea 61: Since there’s no help, come let us kiss and part
Michael Drayton
0
sonnet
epf-001200
What divine drink wouldst thou have, my God, from this overflowing cup of my life?     My poet, is it thy delight to see thy creation through my eyes and to stand as the portals of my ears silently to listen to thine own eternal harmony?     Thy world is weaving words in my mind and thy joy is adding music to them. Tho...
Gitanjali 65
Rabindranath Tagore
14
ars poetica
epf-001273
Tell me, Was Venus more beautiful Than you are, When she topped The crinkled waves, Drifting shoreward On her plaited shell? Was Botticelli’s vision Fairer than mine; And were the painted rosebuds    He tossed his lady Of better worth Than the words I blow about you To cover your too great loveliness    As with a gauze...
Venus Transiens
Amy Lowell
5
free verse
epf-001387
When you see millions of the mouthless dead Across your dreams in pale battalions go, Say not soft things as other men have said, That you'll remember. For you need not so. Give them not praise. For, deaf, how should they know It is not curses heaped on each gashed head? Nor tears. Their blind eyes see not your tears f...
When You See Millions of the Mouthless Dead'
Charles Hamilton Sorley
0
sonnet
epf-001396
I cannot hold my peace, John Keats; There never was a spring like this; It is an echo, that repeats My last year’s song and next year’s bliss. I know, in spite of all men say Of Beauty, you have felt her most. Yea, even in your grave her way Is laid. Poor, troubled, lyric ghost, Spring never was so fair and dear As Bea...
To John Keats, Poet, at Springtime
Countee Cullen
4
elegy
epf-001111
I The clearest eyes in all the world they read        With sense more keen and spirit of sight more true        Than burns and thrills in sunrise, when the dew Flames, and absorbs the glory round it shed, As they the light of ages quick and dead,        Closed now, forsake us: yet the shaft that slew        Can slay no...
A Sequence of Sonnets on the Death of Robert Browning
Algernon Charles Swinburne
4
elegy
epf-000144
Say that thou didst forsake me for some fault, And I will comment upon that offence; Speak of my lameness, and I straight will halt, Against thy reasons making no defence. Thou canst not, love, disgrace me half so ill, To set a form upon desired change, As I’ll myself disgrace: knowing thy will, I will acquaintance str...
Say that thou didst forsake me for some fault (Sonnet 89)
William Shakespeare
0
sonnet
epf-001223
Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;    Where knowledge is free;    Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;    Where words come out from the depth of truth;    Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;    Where the clear stream of reason ...
Gitanjali 35
Rabindranath Tagore
5
free verse
epf-001426
What is this nameless something that I want, Forever groping blindly, without light,— A ghost of pain that does forever haunt My days, and make my heart eternal night? I think it is your face I so long for, Your eyes that read my soul at one warm glance; Your lips that I may touch with mine no more Have left me in thei...
Sonnets from the Cherokee (III)
Ruth Muskrat Bronson
0
sonnet
epf-000094
Love is too young to know what conscience is; Yet who knows not conscience is born of love? Then, gentle cheater, urge not my amiss, Lest guilty of my faults thy sweet self prove: For, thou betraying me, I do betray My nobler part to my gross body’s treason; My soul doth tell my body that he may Triumph in love; flesh ...
Love is too young to know what conscience is: (Sonnet 151)
William Shakespeare
0
sonnet
epf-000749
1. No, no, go not to Lethe, neither twist        Wolf's-bane, tight-rooted, for its poisonous wine; Nor suffer thy pale forehead to be kiss'd        By nightshade, ruby grape of Proserpine; Make not your rosary of yew-berries,        Nor let the beetle, nor the death-moth be                Your mournful Psyche, nor th...
Ode on Melancholy
John Keats
7
ode
epf-000978
Light flows our war of mocking words, and yet, Behold, with tears mine eyes are wet! I feel a nameless sadness o'er me roll. Yes, yes, we know that we can jest, We know, we know that we can smile! But there's a something in this breast, To which thy light words bring no rest, And thy gay smiles no anodyne. Give me thy ...
The Buried Life
Matthew Arnold
7
ode
epf-000993
Ye sons of Great Britain, come join with me, And sing in praise of Sir Garnet Wolseley; Sound drums and trumpets cheerfully, For he has acted most heroically. Therefore loudly his praises sing Until the hills their echoes back doth ring; For he is a noble hero bold, And an honour to his Queen and country, be it told. ...
The Battle of Tel-el-Kebir
Knight of the White Elephant of Burmah William McGonagall
1
couplet
epf-000480
Infinity, when all things it beheld In Nothing, and of Nothing all did build, Upon what Base was fixt the Lath wherein He turn’d this Globe, and riggalld it so trim? Who blew the Bellows of His Furnace Vast? Or held the Mould wherein the world was Cast? Who laid its Corner Stone? Or whose Command? Where stand the Pilla...
The Preface
Edward Taylor
1
couplet
epf-000944
O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done, The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won, The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting, While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring;                          But O heart! heart! heart!                             O th...
O Captain! My Captain!
Walt Whitman
4
elegy
epf-001305
Gone are the sensuous stars, and manifold, Clear sunbeams burst upon the front of night; Ten thousand swords of azure and of gold Give darkness to the dark and welcome light; Across the night of ages strike the gleams, And leading on the gilded host appears An old man writing in a book of dreams, And telling tales of l...
Chaucer
Benjamin Brawley
0
sonnet
epf-000571
On Death's domain intent I fix my eyes, Where human nature in vast ruin lies, With pensive mind I search the drear abode, Where the great conqu'ror has his spoils bestow'd; There there the offspring of six thousand years In endless numbers to my view appears: Whole kingdoms in his gloomy den are thrust, And nations mix...
To a Gentleman and Lady on the Death of the Lady's Brother and Sister, and a Child of the Name Avis, Aged One Year
Phillis Wheatley
1
couplet
epf-001144
O peerless marble marvel! what of grace, Or matchless symmetry is not enshrined In thy rare contours! Could we hope to find The regal dignity of that fair face In aught less beautiful? We would retrace, At sight of thee, our willing steps where wind The paths great Homer trod. Within whose mind Wast thou a dream, O God...
The Venus of Milo
Henrietta Cordelia Ray
7
ode
epf-001139
I. As the blind Milton’s memory of light, The deaf Beethoven’s phantasy of tone, Wrought joys for them surpassing all things known In our restricted sphere of sound and sight,— So while the glaring streets of brick and stone Vex with heat, noise, and dust from morn till night, I will give rein to Fancy, taking flight ...
City Visions
Emma Lazarus
0
sonnet
epf-000733
(excerpt) "Throughout these infinite orbs of mingling light, Of which yon earth is one, is wide diffus'd A Spirit of activity and life, That knows no term, cessation, or decay; That fades not when the lamp of earthly life, Extinguish'd in the dampness of the grave, Awhile there slumbers, more than when the babe In the...
from Queen Mab: Part VI
Percy Bysshe Shelley
6
blank verse
epf-000634
A poet!—He hath put his heart to school, Nor dares to move unpropped upon the staff Which art hath lodged within his hand—must laugh By precept only, and shed tears by rule. Thy Art be Nature; the live current quaff, And let the groveller sip his stagnant pool, In fear that else, when Critics grave and cool Have killed...
A Poet! He Hath Put his Heart to School
William Wordsworth
0
sonnet
epf-001288
The inky-garmented, truth-dead Cloud—woven by dumb ghost alone in the darkness of          phantasmal mountain-mouth—kidnapped the maiden Moon, silence-faced,          love-mannered, mirroring her golden breast in silvery rivulets: The Wind, her lover, grey-haired in one moment, crazes around the Universe, hunting     ...
Where is the Poet
Yone Noguchi
14
ars poetica
epf-001120
Words shouting, singing, smiling, frowning—                   Sense lacking. Ah, nothing, more obscure than Browning,                   Save blacking.
With a Book
Ambrose Bierce
1
couplet
epf-000342
Cherry-lipt Adonis in his snowie shape,     Might not compare with his pure ivorie white,     On whose faire front a poet’s pen may write, Whose roseate red excels the crimson grape, His love-enticing delicate soft limbs,     Are rarely fram’d t’intrap poore gazine eies:     His cheeks, the lillie and carnation dies, W...
Sonnet 17
Richard Barnfield
0
sonnet
epf-000988
He dwelt among “apartments let,”       About five stories high; A man I thought that none would get,       And very few would try. A boulder, by a larger stone       Half hidden in the mud, Fair as a man when only one       Is in the neighborhood. He lived unknown, and few could tell       When Jacob was not free; Bu...
Jacob
Phoebe Cary
2
common measure
epf-000519
What beck'ning ghost, along the moon-light shade Invites my steps, and points to yonder glade? 'Tis she!—but why that bleeding bosom gor'd, Why dimly gleams the visionary sword? Oh ever beauteous, ever friendly! tell, Is it, in heav'n, a crime to love too well? To bear too tender, or too firm a heart, To act a lover's ...
Elegy to the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady
Alexander Pope
4
elegy
epf-000098
My love is as a fever, longing still For that which longer nurseth the disease; Feeding on that which doth preserve the sill, The uncertain sickly appetite to please. My reason, the physician to my love, Angry that his prescriptions are not kept, Hath left me, and I desperate now approve Desire is death, which physic d...
My love is as a fever, longing still (Sonnet 147)
William Shakespeare
0
sonnet
epf-000638
At the corner of Wood Street, when daylight appears, Hangs a Thrush that sings loud, it has sung for three years: Poor Susan has passed by the spot, and has heard In the silence of morning the song of the Bird. 'Tis a note of enchantment; what ails her? She sees A mountain ascending, a vision of trees; Bright volumes ...
The Reverie of Poor Susan
William Wordsworth
1
couplet
epf-000414
Let it no longer be a forlorn hope          To wash an Ethiope; He’s wash’d, his gloomy skin a peaceful shade,          For his white soul is made; And now, I doubt not, the Eternal Dove          A black-fac’d house will love.
Divine Epigrams: On the Baptized Ethiopian
Richard Crashaw
1
couplet
epf-000546
(excerpt) ’Tis morning; and the sun with ruddy orb Ascending, fires the horizon: while the clouds That crowd away before the driving wind, More ardent as the disk emerges more, Resemble most some city in a blaze, Seen through the leafless wood.  His slanting ray Slides ineffectual down the snowy vale, And tinging all ...
from The Task, Book V: The Winter Morning Walk
William Cowper
6
blank verse
epf-000256
How like a winter hath my absence been From thee, the pleasure of the fleeting year! What freezings have I felt, what dark days seen! What old December's bareness everywhere! And yet this time remov'd was summer's time, The teeming autumn, big with rich increase, Bearing the wanton burthen of the prime, Like widow'd wo...
Sonnet 97: How like a winter hath my absence been
William Shakespeare
0
sonnet
epf-001262
What torture lurks within a single thought When grown too constant; and however kind, However welcome still, the weary mind Aches with its presence. Dull remembrance taught Remembers on unceasingly; unsought The old delight is with us but to find That all recurring joy is pain refined, Become a habit, and we struggle, ...
A Fixed Idea
Amy Lowell
0
sonnet
epf-000531
Ye distant spires, ye antique tow'rs,          That crown the wat'ry glade, Where grateful Science still adores          Her Henry's holy Shade; And ye, that from the stately brow Of Windsor's heights th' expanse below          Of grove, of lawn, of mead survey, Whose turf, whose shade, whose flowr's among Wanders the ...
Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College
Thomas Gray
7
ode
epf-001059
At last we parley: we so strangely dumb In such a close communion! It befell About the sounding of the Matin-bell, And lo! her place was vacant, and the hum Of loneliness was round me. Then I rose, And my disordered brain did guide my foot To that old wood where our first love-salute Was interchanged: the source of man...
Modern Love: XLVI
George Meredith
0
sonnet
epf-000598
Ae fond kiss, and then we sever; Ae fareweel, and then forever! Deep in heart-wrung tears   I'll pledge thee, Warring sighs and groans I'll wage thee. Who shall say that Fortune grieves him, While the star of hope she leaves him? Me, nae cheerfu' twinkle lights me; Dark despair around benights me. I'll ne'er blame my ...
Ae Fond Kiss
Robert Burns
1
couplet
epf-001118
Yesterday I found my pipe while pondering a long evening of work, of fine winter work. Thrown aside were my cigarettes, with all the childish joys of summer, into the past which the leaves shining blue in the sun, the muslins, illuminate, and taken up once again was the grave pipe of a serious man who wants to smoke fo...
The Pipe
Stéphane Mallarmé
9
prose poem
epf-001370
Euclid alone has looked on Beauty bare. Let all who prate of Beauty hold their peace, And lay them prone upon the earth and cease To ponder on themselves, the while they stare At nothing, intricately drawn nowhere In shapes of shifting lineage; let geese Gabble and hiss, but heroes seek release From dusty bondage into ...
Euclid alone has looked on Beauty bare.
Edna St. Vincent Millay
0
sonnet
epf-000570
Twas mercy brought me from my Pagan land, Taught my benighted soul to understand That there's a God, that there's a Saviour too: Once I redemption neither sought nor knew. Some view our sable race with scornful eye, "Their colour is a diabolic die." Remember, Christians, Negros, black as Cain, May be refin'd, and join ...
On Being Brought from Africa to America
Phillis Wheatley
1
couplet
epf-000990
Suppose, my little lady,       Your doll should break her head, Could you make it whole by crying       Till your eyes and nose are red? And would n’t it be pleasanter       To treat it as a joke; And say you ’re glad “’T was Dolly’s       And not your head that broke?” Suppose you ’re dressed for walking,       And t...
Suppose
Phoebe Cary
2
common measure
epf-001308
I dreamt—before death made such dreaming vain— That sometime, on a day of wind and rain, I would come home to you at fall of night And see your window flushed with firelight. There in the chill dark lonesomeness I’d wait A moment, standing at the garden gate Scarce trusting that my happiness was true,— The kind warm li...
The Dream
Winifred M. Letts
0
sonnet
epf-000140
So shall I live, supposing thou art true, Like a deceived husband; so love’s face May still seem love to me, though alter’d new; Thy looks with me, thy heart in other place: For there can live no hatred in thine eye, Therefore in that I cannot know thy change. In many’s looks the false heart’s history Is writ in moods ...
So shall I live, supposing thou art true (Sonnet 93)
William Shakespeare
0
sonnet
epf-001388
I know it will be quiet when you come: No wind; the water breathing steadily; A light like ghost of silver on the sea; And the surf dreamily fingering his drum. Twilight will drift in large and leave me numb With nearness to the last tranquility; And then the slow and languorous tyranny Of orange moon, pale night, and ...
I Know It Will Be Quiet When You Come
Joseph Auslander
0
sonnet
epf-000719
Poet of Nature, thou hast wept to know That things depart which never may return: Childhood and youth, friendship and love’s first glow, Have fled like sweet dreams, leaving thee to mourn. These common woes I feel. One loss is mine Which thou too feel’st, yet I alone deplore. Thou wert as a lone star, whose light did s...
To Wordsworth
Percy Bysshe Shelley
0
sonnet
epf-000126
O, for my sake do you with Fortune chide, The guilty goddess of my harmful deeds, Than did not better for my life provide Than public means which public manners breeds. Thence comes it that my name receives a brand, And almost thence my nature is subdued To what it works in, like the dyer’s hand: Pity me then and wish ...
O, for my sake do you with Fortune chide (Sonnet 111)
William Shakespeare
0
sonnet
epf-000510
She said: the pitying audience melt in tears, But Fate and Jove had stopp'd the Baron's ears. In vain Thalestris with reproach assails, For who can move when fair Belinda fails? Not half so fix'd the Trojan could remain, While Anna begg'd and Dido rag'd in vain. Then grave Clarissa graceful wav'd her fan; Silence ensu'...
The Rape of the Lock: Canto 5
Alexander Pope
1
couplet
epf-000311
Let mans Soule be a Spheare, and then, in this, The intelligence that moves, devotion is, And as the other Spheares, by being growne Subject to forraigne motion, lose their owne, And being by others hurried every day, Scarce in a yeare their naturall forme obey: Pleasure or businesse, so, our Soules admit For their fir...
Good Friday, 1613. Riding Westward
John Donne
1
couplet
epf-000100
Two loves I have of comfort and despair, Which like two spirits do suggest me still: The better angel is a man right fair, The worser spirit a woman colour’d ill. To win me soon to hell, my female evil Tempteth my better angel from my side, And would corrupt my saint to bea devil, Wooing his purity with her foul pride....
Two loves I have of comfort and despair (Sonnet 144)
William Shakespeare
0
sonnet
epf-001126
As a dare-gale skylark scanted in a dull cage,     Man's mounting spirit in his bone-house, mean house, dwells —     That bird beyond the remembering his free fells; This in drudgery, day-labouring-out life's age. Though aloft on turf or perch or poor low stage     Both sing sometímes the sweetest, sweetest spells,    ...
The Caged Skylark
Gerard Manley Hopkins
0
sonnet
epf-001079
I felt a Funeral, in my Brain, And Mourners to and fro Kept treading - treading - till it seemed That Sense was breaking through - And when they all were seated, A Service, like a Drum - Kept beating - beating - till I thought My mind was going numb - And then I heard them lift a Box And creak across my Soul With tho...
I felt a Funeral, in my Brain, (340)
Emily Dickinson
2
common measure
epf-001287
God washes clean the souls and hearts of you, His favored ones, whose backs bend o’er the soil, Which grudging gives to them requite for toil In sober graces and in vision true. God places in your hands the pow’r to do A service sweet. Your gift supreme to foil The bare-fanged wolves of hunger in the moil Of Life’s act...
To the Negro Farmers of the United States
Alice Dunbar-Nelson
0
sonnet
epf-000895
The wind blew high, the waters raved, A ship drove on the land, A hundred human creatures saved Kneel’d down upon the sand. Three-score were drown’d, three-score were thrown Upon the black rocks wild, And thus among them, left alone, They found one helpless child. A seaman rough, to shipwreck bred, Stoo...
The Song of the Wreck
Charles Dickens
2
common measure
epf-000572
On Death's domain intent I fix my eyes, Where human nature in vast ruin lies, With pensive mind I search the drear abode, Where the great conqu'ror has his spoils bestow'd; There there the offspring of six thousand years In endless numbers to my view appears: Whole kingdoms in his gloomy den are thrust, And nations mix...
To a Gentleman and Lady on the Death of the Lady's Brother and Sister, and a Child of the Name Avis, Aged One Year
Phillis Wheatley
4
elegy
epf-000458
Clora, come view my soul, and tell    Whether I have contrived it well.    Now all its several lodgings lie    Composed into one gallery; And the great arras-hangings, made    Of various faces, by are laid;    That, for all furniture, you’ll find    Only your picture in my mind. Here thou are painted in the dress Of a...
The Gallery
Andrew Marvell
13
ekphrasis
epf-000648
Five years have past; five summers, with the length Of five long winters! and again I hear These waters, rolling from their mountain-springs With a soft inland murmur.—Once again Do I behold these steep and lofty cliffs, That on a wild secluded scene impress Thoughts of more deep seclusion; and connect The landscape wi...
Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey, On Revisiting the Banks of the Wye during a Tour. July 13, 1798
William Wordsworth
6
blank verse
epf-000111
Thine eyes I love, and they, as pitying me, Knowing thy heart torments me with disdain, Have put on black and loving mourners be, Looking with pretty ruth upon my pain. And truly not the morning sun of heaven Better becomes the grey cheeks of the east, Nor that full star that ushers in the even Doth half that glory to ...
Thine eyes I love, and they, as pitying me (Sonnet 132)
William Shakespeare
0
sonnet
epf-000673
Though friendships differ endless in degree , The sorts , methinks, may be reduced to three. Ac quaintance many, and Con quaintance few; But for In quaintance I know only two— The friend I've mourned with, and the maid I woo!
Fragment 10: The Three Sorts of Friends
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
1
couplet
epf-001062
I do not look for love that is a dream—     I only seek for courage to be still;     To bear my grief with an unbending will, And when I am a-weary not to seem. Let the round world roll on; let the sun beam;     Let the wind blow, and let the rivers fill     The everlasting sea, and on the hill The palms almost touch h...
Lady Montrevor
Christina Rossetti
0
sonnet
epf-000798
Lie down—lie down!—my noble hound,          That joyful bark give o’er; It wakes the lonely echoes round,          But rouses me no more— Thy lifted ears, thy swelling chest,          Thy eyes so keenly bright, No longer kindle in my breast          The thrill of fierce delight; When following thee on foaming steed My ...
The Dying Hunter to his Dog
Susanna Moodie
8
dramatic monologue
epf-001125
As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame; As tumbled over rim in roundy wells Stones ring; like each tucked string tells, each hung bell's Bow swung finds tongue to fling out broad its name; Each mortal thing does one thing and the same: Deals out that being indoors each one dwells; Selves — goes itself; mysel...
As Kingfishers Catch Fire
Gerard Manley Hopkins
0
sonnet
epf-001280
As I sit here in the quiet Summer night, Suddenly, from the distant road, there comes The grind and rush of an electric car. And, from still farther off, An engine puffs sharply, Followed by the drawn-out shunting scrape of a freight train. These are the sounds that men make In the long business of living. They will al...
Penumbra
Amy Lowell
5
free verse
epf-001368
I, being born a woman and distressed By all the needs and notions of my kind, Am urged by your propinquity to find Your person fair, and feel a certain zest To bear you body's weight upon my breast: So subtly is the fume of life designed, To clarify the pulse and cloud the mind, And leave me once again undone, possesse...
Sonnets from an Ungrafted Tree, XLI
Edna St. Vincent Millay
0
sonnet
epf-001346
On returning to the front after leave Apart sweet women (for whom Heaven be blessed), Comrades, you cannot think how thin and blue Look the leftovers of mankind that rest, Now that the cream has been skimmed off in you. War has its horrors, but has this of good— That its sure processes sort out and bind Brave hearts i...
Sonnet XI
Alan Seeger
0
sonnet
epf-000776
O Goddess! hear these tuneless numbers, wrung          By sweet enforcement and remembrance dear, And pardon that thy secrets should be sung          Even into thine own soft-conched ear: Surely I dreamt to-day, or did I see          The winged Psyche with awaken'd eyes? I wander'd in a forest thoughtlessly,          A...
Ode to Psyche
John Keats
10
pastoral
epf-000617
It is not to be thought of that the Flood Of British freedom, which, to the open sea Of the world's praise, from dark antiquity Hath flowed, "with pomp of waters, unwithstood," Roused though it be full often to a mood Which spurns the check of salutary bands, That this most famous Stream in bogs and sands Should perish...
It is not to be Thought of
William Wordsworth
0
sonnet
epf-000689
Come my little Robert near— Fie! what filthy hands are here! Who that e'er could understand The rare structure of a hand, With its branching fingers fine, Work itself of hands divine, Strong, yet delicately knit, For ten thousand uses fit, Overlaid with so clear skin You may see the blood within, And the curious palm, ...
Cleanliness
Charles Lamb
1
couplet
epf-000178
Against that time, if ever that time come, When I shall see thee frown on my defects, When as thy love hath cast his utmost sum, Call’d to that audit by advised respects; Against that time when thou shalt strangely pass And scarcely greet me with that sun, thine eye, When love, converted from the thing it was, Shall re...
Against that time, if ever that time come (Sonnet 49)
William Shakespeare
0
sonnet
epf-000359
Gather ye rose-buds while ye may, Old Time is still a-flying; And this same flower that smiles today Tomorrow will be dying. The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun, The higher he’s a-getting, The sooner will his race be run, And nearer he’s to setting. That age is best which is the first, When youth and blood are ...
To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time
Robert Herrick
2
common measure
epf-000038
Loving in truth, and fain in verse my love to show, That she, dear she, might take some pleasure of my pain,— Pleasure might cause her read, reading might make her know, Knowledge might pity win, and pity grace obtain,— I sought fit words to paint the blackest face of woe; Studying inventions fine her wits to entertain...
Astrophil and Stella 1: Loving in truth, and fain in verse my love to show
Sir Philip Sidney
0
sonnet
epf-000975
Even in a palace, life may be led well! So spake the imperial sage, purest of men, Marcus Aurelius. But the stifling den Of common life, where, crowded up pell-mell, Our freedom for a little bread we sell, And drudge under some foolish master's ken Who rates us if we peer outside our pen— Match'd with a palace, is not...
Worldly Place
Matthew Arnold
0
sonnet
epf-000933
Men say they know many things; But lo! they have taken wings, — The arts and sciences, And a thousand appliances; The wind that blows Is all that any body knows.
Men Say They Know Many Things
Henry David Thoreau
1
couplet
epf-000785
Vainly my heart had with thy sorceries striven: It had no refuge from thy love,—no Heaven But in thy fatal presence;—from afar It owned thy power and trembled like a star O’erfraught with light and splendor. Could I deem How dark a shadow should obscure its beam?— Could I believe that pain could ever dwell Where thy br...
To -
Sarah Helen Whitman
0
sonnet
epf-001022
Out in the yellow meadows, where the bee Hums by us with the honey of the Spring, And showers of sweet notes from the larks on wing, Are dropping like a noon-dew, wander we. Or is it now? or was it then? for now, As then, the larks from running rings pour showers: The golden foot of May is on the flowers, And friendly ...
Modern Love: XI
George Meredith
0
sonnet
epf-000892
Gr-r-r--there go, my heart's abhorrence!    Water your damned flower-pots, do! If hate killed men, Brother Lawrence,    God's blood, would not mine kill you! What? your myrtle-bush wants trimming?    Oh, that rose has prior claims-- Needs its leaden vase filled brimming?    Hell dry you up with its flames! At the meal...
Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister
Robert Browning
8
dramatic monologue
epf-000372
Tis true, dear Ben, thy just chastising hand Hath fix'd upon the sotted age a brand To their swoll'n pride and empty scribbling due; It can nor judge, nor write, and yet 'tis true Thy comic muse, from the exalted line Touch'd by thy Alchemist, doth since decline From that her zenith, and foretells a red And blushing ev...
To Ben Jonson
Thomas Carew
1
couplet
epf-001036
The rain is plashing on my sill, But all the winds of Heaven are still; And so it falls with that dull sound Which thrills us in the church-yard ground, When the first spadeful drops like lead Upon the coffin of the dead. Beyond my streaming window-pane, I cannot see the neighboring vane, Yet from its old familiar towe...
The Unknown Dead
Henry Timrod
1
couplet
epf-000769
TO A FRIEND No! those days are gone away And their hours are old and gray, And their minutes buried all Under the down-trodden pall Of the leaves of many years: Many times have winter's shears, Frozen North, and chilling East, Sounded tempests to the feast Of the forest's whispering fleeces, Since men knew nor rent no...
Robin Hood
John Keats
1
couplet
epf-000687
The summer and autumn had been so wet, That in winter the corn was growing yet, 'Twas a piteous sight to see all around The grain lie rotting on the ground. Every day the starving poor Crowded around Bishop Hatto's door, For he had a plentiful last-year's store, And all the neighbourhood could tell His granaries were f...
God's Judgment on a Wicked Bishop
Robert Southey
12
quatrain