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epf-001252
What is the current that makes machinery, that makes it crackle, what is the current that presents a long line and a necessary waist. What is this current. What is the wind, what is it.  Where is the serene length, it is there and a dark place is not a dark place, only a white and red are black, only a yellow and gre...
Tender Buttons [A Long Dress]
Gertrude Stein
9
prose poem
epf-001421
The skin of the sea was thick, to-night, And the tone of the sea was dull; When I found by the edge of the sullen sea The half of a sea-god’s skull. Half of a sea-god’s skull was there, Half of a sea-god’s tail. When I dug them out of the clutch of the sand The peering moon went pale. The peering moon went pale, beca...
Skull Song
Genevieve Taggard
3
ballad
epf-000569
Colin, why this mistake? Why plead thy foolish love? My heart shall sooner break Than I a minion prove; Nor care I half a rush, No snare I spread for thee: Go home, my friend, and blush For love and liberty. Remembrance is my own — Dominion bright and clear, Truth there was ever known To combat every care: One i...
The Indifferent Shepherdess to Colin
Ann Yearsley
10
pastoral
epf-000596
[First Setting] Comin thro' the rye, poor body,      Comin thro' the rye, She draigl't a' her petticoatie      Comin thro' the rye. [CHORUS.]           Oh Jenny 's a' weet poor body                Jenny 's seldom dry,           She draigl't a' her petticoatie                Comin thro' the rye. Gin a body meet a body...
Comin thro' the Rye
Robert Burns
3
ballad
epf-001274
The chatter of little people    Breaks on my purpose Like the water-drops which slowly wear the rocks to powder. And while I laugh My spirit crumbles at their teasing touch.
Aliens
Amy Lowell
5
free verse
epf-000260
O, for my sake do you with Fortune chide, The guilty goddess of my harmful deeds, That 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 subdu'd To what it works in, like the dyer's hand. Pity me then and wish ...
Sonnet 111: O, for my sake do you with Fortune chide,
William Shakespeare
0
sonnet
epf-000701
The Year’s twelve daughters had in turn gone by, Of measured pace tho’ varying mien all twelve, Some froward, some sedater, some adorn’d For festival, some reckless of attire. The snow had left the mountain-top; fresh flowers Had withered in the meadow; fig and prune Hung wrinkling; the last apple glow’d amid Its freck...
Acon and Rhodope; or, Inconstancy
Walter Savage Landor
6
blank verse
epf-000434
When Love with unconfinèd wings Hovers within my Gates, And my divine Althea brings To whisper at the Grates; When I lie tangled in her hair, And fettered to her eye, The Gods that wanton in the Air, Know no such Liberty. When flowing Cups run swiftly round With no allaying Thames, Our careless heads with Roses b...
To Althea, from Prison
Richard Lovelace
2
common measure
epf-000859
Now sleeps the crimson petal, now the white; Nor waves the cypress in the palace walk; Nor winks the gold fin in the porphyry font. The firefly wakens; waken thou with me.    Now droops the milk-white peacock like a ghost, And like a ghost she glimmers on to me.    Now lies the Earth all Danaë to the stars, And all t...
from The Princess: Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal
Lord Tennyson Alfred
0
sonnet
epf-000549
1 God moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform; He plants his footsteps in the sea, And rides upon the storm. 2 Deep in unfathomable mines Of never-failing skill, He treasures up his bright designs, And works his sov'reign will. 3 Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take, The clouds ye so much dr...
Light Shining out of Darkness
William Cowper
2
common measure
epf-001076
It sifts from Leaden Sieves - It powders all the Wood. It fills with Alabaster Wool The Wrinkles of the Road - It makes an even Face Of Mountain, and of Plain - Unbroken Forehead from the East Unto the East again - It reaches to the Fence - It wraps it Rail by Rail Till it is lost in Fleeces - It deals Celestial Vail...
It sifts from Leaden Sieves - (291)
Emily Dickinson
2
common measure
epf-001347
Not that I always struck the proper mean Of what mankind must give for what they gain, But, when I think of those whom dull routine And the pursuit of cheerless toil enchain, Who from their desk-chairs seeing a summer cloud Race through blue heaven on its joyful course Sigh sometimes for a life less cramped and bowed, ...
Sonnet II
Alan Seeger
0
sonnet
epf-000747
To one who has been long in city pent,   ’Tis very sweet to look into the fair   And open face of heaven,—to breathe a prayer Full in the smile of the blue firmament. Who is more happy, when, with hearts content,   Fatigued he sinks into some pleasant lair   Of wavy grass, and reads a debonair And gentle tale of love a...
Sonnet X [To one who has been long in city pent]
John Keats
0
sonnet
epf-000473
Farewell, too little and too lately known, Whom I began to think and call my own; For sure our souls were near ally'd; and thine Cast in the same poetic mould with mine. One common note on either lyre did strike, And knaves and fools we both abhorr'd alike: To the same goal did both our studies drive, The last set out ...
To the Memory of Mr. Oldham
John Dryden
4
elegy
epf-000578
Little Lamb who made thee           Dost thou know who made thee  Gave thee life & bid thee feed.  By the stream & o'er the mead; Gave thee clothing of delight, Softest clothing wooly bright; Gave thee such a tender voice, Making all the vales rejoice!           Little Lamb who made thee           Dost thou know who ma...
The Lamb
William Blake
1
couplet
epf-000678
This Sycamore, oft musical with bees,— Such tents the Patriarchs loved! O long unharmed May all its agèd boughs o'er-canopy The small round basin, which this jutting stone Keeps pure from falling leaves! Long may the Spring, Quietly as a sleeping infant's breath, Send up cold waters to the traveller With soft and even ...
Inscription for a Fountain on a Heath
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
10
pastoral
epf-000550
Gay Fashion thou Goddess so pleasing,    However imperious thy sway; Like a mistress capricious and teasing,    Thy slaves tho’ they murmur obey. The simple, the wise, and the witty,    The learned, the dunce, and the fool, The crooked, straight, ugly, and pretty,    Wear the badge of thy whimsical school. Tho’ thy s...
To Fashion
Elizabeth Moody
7
ode
epf-001092
One day in the dreamy summer,     On the Sabbath hills, from afar We heard the solemn echoes     Of the first fierce words of war.   Ah, tell me, thou veilèd Watcher     Of the storm and the calm to come, How long by the sun or shadow     Till these noises again are dumb.   And soon in a hush and glimmer    ...
Hearing the Battle.—July 21, 1861
Sarah Morgan Bryan Piatt
12
quatrain
epf-000485
A cloud of flowers! Is the bell Uyeno Or Asakusa?
[A cloud of flowers!]
Matsuo Bashō
11
haiku
epf-000805
Say over again, and yet once over again, That thou dost love me. Though the word repeated Should seem "a cuckoo-song," as thou dost treat it, Remember, never to the hill or plain, Valley and wood, without her cuckoo-strain Comes the fresh Spring in all her green completed. Belovèd, I, amid the darkness greeted By a dou...
Say over again... (Sonnet 21)
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
0
sonnet
epf-001244
Air a-gittin' cool an' coolah,    Frost a-comin' in de night, Hicka' nuts an' wa'nuts fallin',    Possum keepin' out o' sight. Tu'key struttin' in de ba'nya'd,    Nary step so proud ez his; Keep on struttin', Mistah Tu'key,    Yo' do' know whut time it is. Cidah press commence a-squeakin'    Eatin' apples sto'ed away,...
Signs of the Times
Paul Laurence Dunbar
2
common measure
epf-000905
It once might have been, once only: We lodged in a street together, You, a sparrow on the housetop lonely, I, a lone she-bird of his feather. Your trade was with sticks and clay, You thumbed, thrust, patted and polished, Then laughed "They will see some day Smith made, and Gibson demolished." My busines...
Youth and Art
Robert Browning
3
ballad
epf-000668
Where is the grave of Sir Arthur O'Kellyn? Where may the grave of that good man be?— By the side of a spring, on the breast of Helvellyn, Under the twigs of a young birch tree! The oak that in summer was sweet to hear, And rustled its leaves in the fall of the year, And whistled and roared in the winter alone, Is gone,...
The Knight's Tomb
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
1
couplet
epf-000463
LXVI. Upon the Disobedient Child. Children become, while little, our delights, When they grow bigger, they begin to fright's. Their sinful Nature prompts them to rebel, And to delight in Paths that lead to Hell. Their Parents Love, and Care, they overlook, As if Relation had them quite forsook. They take the Counsels o...
Upon the Disobedient Child
John Bunyan
1
couplet
epf-001106
Forth from Calais, at dawn of night, when sunset summer on autumn shone, Fared the steamer alert and loud through seas whence only the sun was gone: Soft and sweet as the sky they smiled, and bade man welcome: a dim sweet hour Gleamed and whispered in wind and sea, and heaven was fair as a field in flower, Stars fulfil...
A Channel Crossing
Algernon Charles Swinburne
1
couplet
epf-000894
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
3
ballad
epf-001311
Is Life itself but many ways of thought, Does thinking furl the poets’ pleiades, Is in His slightest convolution wrought These mantled worlds and their men-freighted seas? He thinks—and being comes to ardent things: The splendor of the day-spent sun, love’s birth,— Or dreams a little, while creation swings The circle o...
Substitution
Anne Spencer
0
sonnet
epf-000918
Would that the structure brave, the manifold music I build, Bidding my organ obey, calling its keys to their work, Claiming each slave of the sound, at a touch, as when Solomon willed Armies of angels that soar, legions of demons that lurk, Man, brute, reptile, fly,—alien of end and of aim, Adverse, each from ...
Abt Vogler
Robert Browning
8
dramatic monologue
epf-000526
To all you ladies now at Bath, And eke, ye beaux, to you, With aching heart, and wat'ry eyes, I bid my last adieu. Farewell ye nymphs, who waters sip Hot reeking from the pumps, While music lends her friendly aid, To cheer you from the dumps. Farewell ye wits, who prating stand, And criticise the fai...
Farewell to Bath
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu
2
common measure
epf-000095
O, from what power hast thou this powerful might With insufficiency my heart to sway? To make me give the lie to my true sight? And swear that brightness doth not grace the day? Whence hast thou this becoming of things ill, That in the very refuse of thy deeds There is such strength and warranties of skill That, in my ...
O, from what power hast thou this powerful might (Sonnet 150)
William Shakespeare
0
sonnet
epf-000693
Ianthe! you are call’d to cross the sea!          A path forbidden me! Remember, while the Sun his blessing sheds          Upon the mountain-heads, How often we have watcht him laying down          His brow, and dropt our own Against each other’s, and how faint and short          And sliding the support! What will succ...
Ianthe! You are Call’d to Cross the Sea
Walter Savage Landor
1
couplet
epf-000683
[Addressed to Charles Lamb, of the India House, London] Well, they are gone, and here must I remain, This lime-tree bower my prison! I have lost Beauties and feelings, such as would have been Most sweet to my remembrance even when age Had dimm'd mine eyes to blindness! They, meanwhile, Friends, whom I never more may m...
This Lime-tree Bower my Prison
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
6
blank verse
epf-001090
And did young Stephen sicken, And did young Stephen die? And did the sad hearts thicken, And did the mourners cry? No; such was not the fate of Young Stephen Dowling Bots; Though sad hearts round him thickened, 'Twas not from sickness' shots. No whooping-cough did rack his frame, Nor measles drear, wit...
Ode to Stephen Dowling Bots, Dec'd.
Mark Twain
4
elegy
epf-001019
’Tis Christmas weather, and a country house Receives us: rooms are full: we can but get An attic-crib. Such lovers will not fret At that, it is half-said. The great carouse Knocks hard upon the midnight’s hollow door, But when I knock at hers, see the pit. Why did I come here in that dullard fit? I enter, and lie couch...
Modern Love: XXIII
George Meredith
0
sonnet
epf-000607
Mosquito at my ear— does he think       I’m deaf?
[mosquito at my ear]
Kobayashi Issa
11
haiku
epf-000478
This Little, Silent, Gloomy Monument, Contains all that was sweet and innocent ; The softest pratler that e'er found a Tongue, His Voice was Musick and his Words a Song ; Which now each List'ning Angel smiling hears, Such pretty Harmonies compose the Spheres; Wanton as unfledg'd Cupids, ere their Charms Has learn'd the...
Epitaph on the Tombstone of a Child, the Last of Seven that Died Before
Aphra Behn
0
sonnet
epf-000875
Now sleeps the crimson petal, now the white; Nor waves the cypress in the palace walk; Nor winks the gold fin in the porphyry font. The firefly wakens; waken thou with me.    Now droops the milk-white peacock like a ghost, And like a ghost she glimmers on to me.    Now lies the Earth all Danaë to the stars, And all t...
from The Princess: Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal
Lord Tennyson Alfred
6
blank verse
epf-001374
I shall forget you presently, my dear, So make the most of this, your little day, Your little month, your little half a year Ere I forget, or die, or move away, And we are done forever; by and by I shall forget you, as I said, but now, If you entreat me with your loveliest lie I will protest you with my favorite vow. I...
I shall forget you presently, my dear (Sonnet IV)
Edna St. Vincent Millay
0
sonnet
epf-000446
Courage, my Soul, now learn to wield The weight of thine immortal shield. Close on thy head thy helmet bright. Balance thy sword against the fight. See where an army, strong as fair, With silken banners spreads the air. Now, if thou be’st that thing divine, In this day’s combat let it shine: And show that Nature wants ...
A Dialogue, between the Resolved Soul and Created Pleasure
Andrew Marvell
1
couplet
epf-000010
Avising the bright beams of these fair eyes Where he is that mine oft moisteth and washeth, The wearied mind straight from the heart departeth For to rest in his worldly paradise And find the sweet bitter under this guise. What webs he hath wrought well he perceiveth Whereby with himself on love he plaineth That spurre...
Avising the Bright Beams
Sir Thomas Wyatt
0
sonnet
epf-000456
Luxurious man, to bring his vice in use, Did after him the world seduce, And from the fields the flowers and plants allure, Where nature was most plain and pure. He first enclosed within the gardens square A dead and standing pool of air, And a more luscious earth for them did knead, Which stupified them while it f...
The Mower against Gardens
Andrew Marvell
10
pastoral
epf-000955
I saw in Louisiana a live-oak growing, All alone stood it and the moss hung down from the branches, Without any companion it grew there uttering joyous leaves of dark green, And its look, rude, unbending, lusty, made me think of myself, But I wonder’d how it could utter joyous leaves standing alone there without its fr...
I Saw in Louisiana A Live-Oak Growing
Walt Whitman
5
free verse
epf-001258
Tho’ lack of laurels and of wreaths not one Prove you our lives abortive, shall we yet Vaunt us our single aim, our hearts full set To win the guerdon which is never won. Witness, a purpose never is undone. And tho’ fate drain our seas of violet To gather round our lives her wide-hung net, Memories of hopes that are no...
Tho’ Lack of Laurels and of Wreaths Not One
Trumbull Stickney
0
sonnet
epf-000735
(excerpt) SCENE.—A Ravine of Icy Rocks in the Indian Caucasus. Prometheus is discovered bound to the Precipice. Panthea and Ione are seated at his feet. Time, night. During the Scene, morning slowly breaks. Prometheus.    Monarch of Gods and Dæmons, and all Spirits But One, who throng those bright and rolling worlds ...
Prometheus Unbound
Percy Bysshe Shelley
6
blank verse
epf-000345
Here a little child I stand Heaving up my either hand; Cold as paddocks though they be, Here I lift them up to Thee, For a benison to fall On our meat, and on us all. Amen.
Another Grace for a Child
Robert Herrick
1
couplet
epf-001441
Is love a fancy, or a feeling? No. It is immortal as immaculate Truth, 'Tis not a blossom shed as soon as youth, Drops from the stem of life—for it will grow, In barren regions, where no waters flow, Nor rays of promise cheats the pensive gloom. A darkling fire, faint hovering o'er a tomb, That but itself and darkness ...
Sonnet VII
Hartley Coleridge
0
sonnet
epf-000226
They that have power to hurt and will do none That do not do the thing they most do show, Who, moving others, are themselves as stone, Unmoved, cold, and to temptation slow; They rightly do inherit heaven’s graces And husband nature’s riches from expense; They are the lords and owners of their faces, Others but steward...
They that have power to hurt and will do none (Sonnet 94)
William Shakespeare
0
sonnet
epf-000054
Leave me, O Love, which reachest but to dust; And thou, my mind, aspire to higher things; Grow rich in that which never taketh rust; Whatever fades but fading pleasure brings. Draw in thy beams and humble all thy might To that sweet yoke where lasting freedoms be; Which breaks the clouds and opens forth the light, That...
"Leave me, O Love, which reachest but to dust"
Sir Philip Sidney
0
sonnet
epf-001393
The wind was a care-free soul      That broke the chains of earth,  And strode for a moment across the land     With the wild halloo of his mirth. He little cared that he ripped up trees,      That houses fell at his hand,  That his step broke calm on the breast of seas,      That his feet stirred clouds of sand.  But...
Wind
Gwendolyn Bennett
0
sonnet
epf-000535
(FROM THE NORSE TONGUE) Now the storm begins to lower, (Haste, the loom of Hell prepare.) Iron-sleet of arrowy shower Hurtles in the darken'd air. Glitt'ring lances are the loom, Where the dusky warp we strain, Weaving many a soldier's doom, Orkney's woe, and Randver's bane. See the grisly texture grow, ('Tis of hum...
The Fatal Sisters: An Ode
Thomas Gray
7
ode
epf-001056
What soul would bargain for a cure that brings Contempt the nobler agony to kill? Rather let me bear on the bitter ill, And strike this rusty bosom with new stings! It seems there is another veering fit Since on a gold-haired lady's eyeballs pure, I looked with little prospect of a cure, The while her mouth's red bow l...
Modern Love: XIV
George Meredith
0
sonnet
epf-001128
Towery city and branchy between towers; Cuckoo-echoing, bell-swarmèd, lark charmèd, rook racked, river-rounded; The dapple-eared lily below thee; that country and town did Once encounter in, here coped & poisèd powers; Thou hast a base and brickish skirt there, sours That neighbour-nature thy grey beauty is grounded Be...
Duns Scotus's Oxford
Gerard Manley Hopkins
0
sonnet
epf-000370
Ask me no more where Jove bestows, When June is past, the fading rose; For in your beauty's orient deep These flowers as in their causes, sleep. Ask me no more whither doth stray The golden atoms of the day; For in pure love heaven did prepare Those powders to enrich your hair. Ask me no more whither doth haste The n...
A Song: When June is past, the fading rose
Thomas Carew
1
couplet
epf-000639
Who is the happy Warrior? Who is he That every man in arms should wish to be? —It is the generous Spirit, who, when brought Among the tasks of real life, hath wrought Upon the plan that pleased his boyish thought: Whose high endeavours are an inward light That makes the path before him always bright; Who, with a natura...
Character of the Happy Warrior
William Wordsworth
1
couplet
epf-000288
Nature which headlong into life doth throw us, With our feet forward to our grave doth bring us, What is less ours, than this our borrowed breath, We stumble into life, we go to death. 
Book 7, Epigram 47: De Hominis Ortu & Sepultura. 
Thomas Bastard
4
elegy
epf-001174
The sin was mine; I did not understand.         So now is music prisoned in her cave,         Save where some ebbing desultory wave Frets with its restless whirls this meagre strand. And in the withered hollow of this land         Hath Summer dug herself so deep a grave,         That hardly can the leaden willow crave ...
The New Remorse
Oscar Wilde
0
sonnet
epf-000967
from Sonnets, First Series VI Dank fens of cedar; hemlock-branches gray With trees and trail of mosses, wringing-wet; Beds of the black pitchpine in dead leaves set Whose wasted red has wasted to white away; Remnants of rain and droppings of decay, — Why hold ye so my heart, nor dimly let Through your d...
“Dank fens of cedar; hemlock-branches gray”
Frederick Goddard Tuckerman
0
sonnet
epf-000206
But wherefore do not you a mightier way Make war upon this bloody tyrant, Time? And fortify yourself in your decay With means more blessed than my barren rhyme? Now stand you on the top of happy hours, And many maiden gardens yet unset With virtuous wish would bear your living flowers, Much liker than your painted coun...
But wherefore do not you a mightier way (Sonnet 16)
William Shakespeare
0
sonnet
epf-000165
Ah! wherefore with infection should he live, And with his presence grace impiety, That sin by him advantage should achieve And lace itself with his society? Why should false painting imitate his cheek And steel dead seeing of his living hue? Why should poor beauty indirectly seek Roses of shadow, since his rose is true...
Ah! wherefore with infection should he live (Sonnet 67)
William Shakespeare
0
sonnet
epf-000266
No, Time, thou shalt not boast that I do change: Thy pyramids built up with newer might To me are nothing novel, nothing strange; They are but dressings of a former sight. Our dates are brief, and therefore we admire What thou dost foist upon us that is old, And rather make them born to our desire Than think that we be...
Sonnet 123: No, Time, thou shalt not boast that I do change
William Shakespeare
0
sonnet
epf-000768
Souls of Poets dead and gone, What Elysium have ye known, Happy field or mossy cavern, Choicer than the Mermaid Tavern? Have ye tippled drink more fine Than mine host's Canary wine? Or are fruits of Paradise Sweeter than those dainty pies Of venison? O generous food! Drest as though bold Robin Hood Would, with his maid...
Lines on the Mermaid Tavern
John Keats
1
couplet
epf-000685
This Sycamore, oft musical with bees,— Such tents the Patriarchs loved! O long unharmed May all its agèd boughs o'er-canopy The small round basin, which this jutting stone Keeps pure from falling leaves! Long may the Spring, Quietly as a sleeping infant's breath, Send up cold waters to the traveller With soft and even ...
Inscription for a Fountain on a Heath
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
6
blank verse
epf-000030
Most happy letters, fram'd by skilful trade, With which that happy name was first design'd: The which three times thrice happy hath me made, With gifts of body, fortune, and of mind. The first my being to me gave by kind, From mother's womb deriv'd by due descent, The second is my sovereign Queen most kind, That honour...
Amoretti LXXIV: Most Happy Letters
Edmund Spenser
0
sonnet
epf-001281
This afternoon was the colour of water falling through sunlight; The trees glittered with the tumbling of leaves; The sidewalks shone like alleys of dropped maple leaves, And the houses ran along them laughing out of square, open windows. Under a tree in the park, Two little boys, lying flat on their faces, Were carefu...
September, 1918
Amy Lowell
5
free verse
epf-000255
They that have power to hurt and will do none, That do not do the thing they most do show, Who, moving others, are themselves as stone, Unmoved, cold, and to temptation slow: They rightly do inherit heaven's graces And husband nature's riches from expense; They are the lords and owners of their faces, Others but stewar...
Sonnet 94: They that have power to hurt and will do none
William Shakespeare
0
sonnet
epf-000819
As a fond mother, when the day is o'er,    Leads by the hand her little child to bed,    Half willing, half reluctant to be led,    And leave his broken playthings on the floor, Still gazing at them through the open door,    Nor wholly reassured and comforted    By promises of others in their stead,    Which, though mo...
Nature
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
0
sonnet
epf-000867
Wheer 'asta beän saw long and meä liggin' 'ere aloän? Noorse? thoort nowt o' a noorse: whoy, Doctor's abeän an' agoän; Says that I moänt 'a naw moor aäle; but I beänt a fool; Git ma my aäle, fur I beänt a-gawin' to breäk my rule. Doctors, they knaws nowt, fur a says what 's nawways true; Naw soort o' koind o' use to ...
Northern Farmer: Old Style
Lord Tennyson Alfred
8
dramatic monologue
epf-001199
Thou hast made me endless, such is thy pleasure. This frail vessel thou emptiest again and again, and fillest it ever with fresh life. This little flute of a reed thou hast carried over hills and dales, and hast breathed through it melodies eternally new. At the immortal touch of thy hands my little heart loses its l...
Gitanjali 1
Rabindranath Tagore
9
prose poem
epf-001188
Here is thy footstool and there rest thy feet where live the poorest, and lowliest, and lost. When I try to bow to thee, my obeisance cannot reach down to the depth where thy feet rest among the poorest, and lowliest, and lost Pride can never approach to where thou walkest in the clothes of the humble among the poore...
Gitanjali 10
Rabindranath Tagore
9
prose poem
epf-000948
On the beach at night alone, As the old mother sways her to and fro singing her husky song, As I watch the bright stars shining, I think a thought of the clef of the universes and of the future. A vast similitude interlocks all, All spheres, grown, ungrown, small, large, suns, moons, planets, All distances of place ho...
On the Beach at Night Alone
Walt Whitman
5
free verse
epf-001413
It was at a wine party— I lay in a drowse, knowing it not. The blown flowers fell and filled my lap. When I arose, still drunken, The birds had all gone to their nests, And there remained but few of my comrades. I went along the river—alone in the moonlight.
The Solitude of Night
Li Bai
5
free verse
epf-000122
Accuse me thus: that I have scanted all Wherein I should your great deserts repay, Forgot upon your dearest love to call, Whereto all bonds do tie me day by day; That I have frequent been with unknown minds And given to time your own dear-purchased right; That I have hoisted sail to all the winds Which should transport...
Accuse me thus: that I have scanted all (Sonnet 117)
William Shakespeare
0
sonnet
epf-000528
Hark! the herald Angels sing, Glory to the new-born King, Peace on earth and mercy mild, God and sinner reconcil’d. Hark! the herald Angels sing, Glory to the new-born King. Joyful all ye nations rise, Join the triumph of the skies, With the angelic host proclaim, Christ is born in Bethlehem. Hark! the herald...
For Christmas Day: Hark! the Herald Angels Sing
Charles Wesley
1
couplet
epf-000238
The First Sestiad (excerpt) On Hellespont, guilty of true love's blood, In view and opposite two cities stood, Sea-borderers, disjoin'd by Neptune's might; The one Abydos, the other Sestos hight. At Sestos Hero dwelt; Hero the fair, Whom young Apollo courted for her hair, And offer'd as a dower his burning throne, Wh...
Hero and Leander
Christopher Marlowe
1
couplet
epf-000664
Lines Composed 21st February 1825 All Nature seems at work. Slugs leave their lair— The bees are stirring—birds are on the wing— And Winter slumbering in the open air, Wears on his smiling face a dream of Spring! And I the while, the sole unbusy thing, Nor honey make, nor pair, nor build, nor sing.          Yet well ...
Work without Hope
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
0
sonnet
epf-001060
Thus piteously Love closed what he begat: The union of this ever-diverse pair! These two were rapid falcons in a snare, Condemned to do the flitting of the bat. Lovers beneath the singing sky of May, They wandered once; clear as the dew on flowers: But they fed not on the advancing hours: Their hearts held cravings for...
Modern Love: L
George Meredith
0
sonnet
epf-001265
Bath   The day is fresh-washed and fair, and there is a smell of tulips and narcissus in the air.   The sunshine pours in at the bath-room window and bores through the water in the bath-tub in lathes and planes of greenish-white. It cleaves the water into flaws like a jewel, and cracks it to bright light.   Little spot...
Spring Day
Amy Lowell
9
prose poem
epf-001085
THE FLESH "Sweet, thou art pale." "More pale to see, Christ hung upon the cruel tree And bore His Father's wrath for me." "Sweet, thou art sad." "Beneath a rod More heavy, Christ for my sake trod The winepress of the wrath of God." "Sweet, thou art weary." "Not so Christ: Whose mighty love of me suffic...
The Three Enemies
Christina Rossetti
1
couplet
epf-000506
Nolueram, Belinda, tuos violare capillos; Sedjuvat, hoc precibus me tribuisse tuis. (Martial, Epigrams 12.84) What dire offence from am'rous causes springs, What mighty contests rise from trivial things, I sing—This verse to Caryl, Muse! is due: This, ev'n Belinda may vouchsafe to view: Slight is the subject, but not ...
The Rape of the Lock: Canto 1
Alexander Pope
1
couplet
epf-001017
You like not that French novel? Tell me why. You think it quite unnatural. Let us see. The actors are, it seems, the usual three: Husband, and wife, and love. She—but fie! In England we’ll not hear of it. Edmond, The lover, her devout chagrin doth share; Blanc-mange and absinthe are his penitent fare, Till his pale asp...
Modern Love: XXV
George Meredith
0
sonnet
epf-001414
I have a yong suster Fer beyonden the se, Many be the drowryes That she sente me. She sente me the cherye Withouten ony ston; And so she dede the dove Withouten ony bon. She sente me the brer Withouten ony rinde; She bad me love my lemman Withoute longing. How shuld ony cherye Be withoute ston? And how shuld ony dov...
"I Have a Young Sister"
Anonymous
3
ballad
epf-001086
What is pink? a rose is pink By a fountain's brink. What is red? a poppy's red In its barley bed. What is blue? the sky is blue Where the clouds float thro'. What is white? a swan is white Sailing in the light. What is yellow? pears are yellow, Rich and ripe and mellow. What is green? the grass is green, With small flo...
Color
Christina Rossetti
1
couplet
epf-000690
May the Babylonish curse, Strait confound my stammering verse, If I can a passage see In this word-perplexity, Or a fit expression find, Or a language to my mind, (Still the phrase is wide or scant) To take leave of thee, GREAT PLANT! Or in any terms relate Half my love, or half my hate: For I hate, yet love, thee so, ...
A Farewell to Tobacco
Charles Lamb
1
couplet
epf-000248
Full many a glorious morning have I seen Flatter the mountain-tops with sovereign eye, Kissing with golden face the meadows green, Gilding pale streams with heavenly alchemy; Anon permit the basest clouds to ride With ugly rack on his celestial face And from the forlorn world his visage hide, Stealing unseen to west wi...
Sonnet 33: Full many a glorious morning have I seen
William Shakespeare
0
sonnet
epf-000320
(excerpt) OF THE PROGRESS OF THE SOUL Wherein, by occasion of the religious death of Mistress Elizabeth Drury, the incommodities of the soul in this her life, and her exaltation in the next, are contemplated THE SECOND ANNIVERSARY Forget this rotten world, and unto thee Let thine own times as an old story be. Be not ...
Of the Progress of the Soul: The Second Anniversary
John Donne
4
elegy
epf-000486
’Tis the first snow— Just enough to bend The gladiolus leaves!
[’Tis the first snow—]
Matsuo Bashō
11
haiku
epf-001391
He came in silvern armour, trimmed with black— A lover come from legends long ago— With silver spurs and silken plumes a-blow, And flashing sword caught fast and buckled back In a carven sheath of Tamarack. He came with footsteps beautifully slow, And spoke in voice meticulously low. He came and Romance followed in his...
Sonnet 1
Gwendolyn Bennett
0
sonnet
epf-000934
Weaned from life and flown away In the morning of thy day, Bound in everlasting gloom, Buried in a hapless tomb. Yet upon thy bended knee Thank the power that banished thee; Chain and bar and dungeon wall Saved thee from a deadlier thrall. Thank the power that made thee part Ere that parting broke thy heart. Wildly r...
[Weaned from life and flown away]
Emily Brontë
0
sonnet
epf-001024
Yet it was plain she struggled, and that salt Of righteous feeling made her pitiful. Poor twisting worm, so queenly beautiful! Where came the cleft between us? whose the fault? My tears are on thee, that have rarely dropped As balm for any bitter wound of mine: My breast will open for thee at a sign! But no: we are two...
Modern Love: VIII
George Meredith
0
sonnet
epf-001032
They dub thee idler, smiling sneeringly, And why? because, forsooth, so many moons, Here dwelling voiceless by the voiceful sea, Thou hast not set thy thoughts to paltry tunes In song or sonnet. Them these golden noons Oppress not with their beauty; they could prate, Even while a prophet read the solemn runes On which ...
Sonnet: They Dub Thee Idler
Henry Timrod
0
sonnet
epf-000433
Wise emblem of our politic world, Sage snail, within thine own self curl’d; Instruct me softly to make haste, Whilst these my feet go slowly fast. Compendious snail! thou seem’st to me, Large Euclid’s strict epitome; And in each diagram dost fling Thee from the point unto the ring; A figure now triangular, An ova...
The Snail
Richard Lovelace
7
ode
epf-001121
Have but one God: thy knees were sore If bent in prayer to three or four. Adore no images save those The coinage of thy country shows. Take not the Name in vain. Direct Thy swearing unto some effect. Thy hand from Sunday work be held— Work not at all unless compelled. Honor thy parents, and perchance Their wills th...
The New Decalogue
Ambrose Bierce
1
couplet
epf-001427
translated from the Arabic by Reynold A. Nicholson When night draws on, remembering keeps me wakeful  And hinders my rest with grief upon grief returning  For Ṣakhr. What a man was he on the day of battle,  When, snatching their chance, they swiftly exchange the spear-thrusts!  Ah, never of woe like this in the world ...
[When night draws on, remembering keeps me wakeful]
al-Khansāʾ
4
elegy
epf-000952
The world below the brine, Forests at the bottom of the sea, the branches and leaves, Sea-lettuce, vast lichens, strange flowers and seeds, the thick tangle, openings, and pink turf, Different colors, pale gray and green, purple, white, and gold, the play of light through the water, Dumb swimmers there among the rocks,...
The World Below the Brine
Walt Whitman
5
free verse
epf-001115
A Load of brushes and baskets and cradles and chairs Labours along the street in the rain: With it a man, a woman, a pony with whiteybrown hairs. — The man foots in front of the horse with a shambling sway At a slower tread than a funeral train, While to a dirge-like tune he chants his wares, Swingi...
No Buyers
Thomas Hardy
10
pastoral
epf-000035
PIERCE       &         CUDDIE Cuddie, for shame hold up thy heavye head, And let us cast with what delight to chace, And weary thys long lingring Phoebus race. Whilome thou wont the shepheards laddes to leade, In rymes, in ridles, and in bydding base: Now they in thee, and thou in sleepe art dead. CUDDY Piers, I have ...
from The Shepheardes Calender: October
Edmund Spenser
10
pastoral
epf-000633
A trouble, not of clouds, or weeping rain, Nor of the setting sun's pathetic light Engendered, hangs o'er Eildon's triple height: Spirits of Power, assembled there, complain For kindred Power departing from their sight; While Tweed, best pleased in chanting a blithe strain, Saddens his voice again, and yet again. Lift ...
On the Departure of Sir Walter Scott from Abbotsford, for Naples
William Wordsworth
0
sonnet
epf-000349
A sweet disorder in the dress Kindles in clothes a wantonness; A lawn about the shoulders thrown Into a fine distraction; An erring lace, which here and there Enthrals the crimson stomacher; A cuff neglectful, and thereby Ribands to flow confusedly; A winning wave, deserving note, In the tempestuous petticoat; A carele...
Delight in Disorder
Robert Herrick
1
couplet
epf-001275
Cold, wet leaves Floating on moss-coloured water    And the croaking of frogs— Cracked bell-notes in the twilight.
The Pond
Amy Lowell
5
free verse
epf-001081
Remember me when I am gone away,          Gone far away into the silent land;          When you can no more hold me by the hand, Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay. Remember me when no more day by day          You tell me of our future that you plann'd:          Only remember me; you understand It will be late to c...
Remember
Christina Rossetti
0
sonnet