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epf-000445
C. Damon, come drive thy flocks this way. D. No, ’tis too late; they went astray. C. I have a grassy scutcheon spied, Where Flora blazons all her pride. The grass I aim to feast thy sheep: The flowers I for thy temples keep. D. Grass withers; and the flowers too fade. C. Seize the short joys then, ere they vade, ...
Clorinda and Damon
Andrew Marvell
1
couplet
epf-000878
The woods decay, the woods decay and fall, The vapours weep their burthen to the ground, Man comes and tills the field and lies beneath, And after many a summer dies the swan. Me only cruel immortality Consumes: I wither slowly in thine arms, Here at the quiet limit of the world, A white-hair'd shadow roaming like a dr...
Tithonus
Lord Tennyson Alfred
6
blank verse
epf-000575
When my mother died I was very young, And my father sold me while yet my tongue Could scarcely cry " 'weep! 'weep! 'weep! 'weep!" So your chimneys I sweep & in soot I sleep. There's little Tom Dacre, who cried when his head That curled like a lamb's back, was shaved, so I said, "Hush, Tom! never mind it, for when your...
The Chimney Sweeper: When my mother died I was very young
William Blake
1
couplet
epf-001031
Grief dies like joy; the tears upon my cheek Will disappear like dew. Dear God! I know Thy kindly Providence hath made it so, And thank thee for the law. I am too weak To make a friend of Sorrow, or to wear, With that dark angel ever by my side (Though to thy heaven there be no better guide), A front of manly calm. Yet...
Sonnet: Grief Dies
Henry Timrod
0
sonnet
epf-000011
Farewell love and all thy laws forever; Thy baited hooks shall tangle me no more. Senec and Plato call me from thy lore To perfect wealth, my wit for to endeavour. In blind error when I did persever, Thy sharp repulse, that pricketh aye so sore, Hath taught me to set in trifles no store And scape forth, since liberty i...
Farewell Love and all thy Laws for ever
Sir Thomas Wyatt
0
sonnet
epf-000745
They talk of short-lived pleasure—be it so— Pain dies as quickly: stern, hard-featured pain Expires, and lets her weary prisoner go. The fiercest agonies have shortest reign; And after dreams of horror, comes again The welcome morning with its rays of peace. Oblivion, softly wiping out the stain, Makes the strong secre...
Sonnet—Mutation
William Cullen Bryant
0
sonnet
epf-000245
When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes, I all alone beweep my outcast state, And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries, And look upon myself and curse my fate, Wishing me like to one more rich in hope, Featured like him, like him with friends possessed, Desiring this man’s art and that man’s scope, With wha...
Sonnet 29: When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes
William Shakespeare
0
sonnet
epf-000705
DANCE little baby, dance up high, Never mind baby, mother is by ; Crow and caper, caper and crow, There little baby, there you go ; Up to the ceiling, down to the ground, Backwards and forwards, round and round ; Dance little baby, and mother shall sing, With the merry coral, ding, ding, ding.
The Baby's Dance
Ann Taylor
1
couplet
epf-000216
Look in thy glass, and tell the faces thou viewest Now is the time that face should form another; Whose fresh repair if now thou not renewest, Thou dost beguile the world, unbless some mother. For where is she so fair whose unear’d womb Disdains the tillage of thy husbandry? Or who is he so fond will be the tomb Of his...
Look in thy glass, and tell the faces thou viewest (Sonnet 3)
William Shakespeare
0
sonnet
epf-001270
Pale, with the blue of high zeniths, shimmered over with silver, brocaded In smooth, running patterns, a soft stuff, with dark knotted fringes, it lies there, Warm from a woman’s soft shoulders, and my fingers close on it, caressing. Where is she, the woman who wore it? The scent of her lingers and drugs me. A languor,...
The Blue Scarf
Amy Lowell
5
free verse
epf-000310
No spring nor summer beauty hath such grace          As I have seen in one autumnal face. Young beauties force our love, and that's a rape,          This doth but counsel, yet you cannot scape. If 'twere a shame to love, here 'twere no shame;          Affection here takes reverence's name. Were her first years the gold...
Elegy IX: The Autumnal
John Donne
1
couplet
epf-000773
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 heart's content,          Fatigued he sinks into some pleasant lair          Of wavy grass, and reads a debon...
To One Who Has Been Long in City Pent
John Keats
10
pastoral
epf-000580
Tyger Tyger, burning bright,  In the forests of the night;  What immortal hand or eye,  Could frame thy fearful symmetry? In what distant deeps or skies.  Burnt the fire of thine eyes? On what wings dare he aspire? What the hand, dare seize the fire? And what shoulder, & what art, Could twist the sinews of thy heart?...
The Tyger
William Blake
1
couplet
epf-000910
The rain set early in to-night,        The sullen wind was soon awake, It tore the elm-tops down for spite,        And did its worst to vex the lake:        I listened with heart fit to break. When glided in Porphyria; straight        She shut the cold out and the storm, And kneeled and made the cheerless grate        ...
Porphyria's Lover
Robert Browning
8
dramatic monologue
epf-001342
Dear! of all happy in the hour, most blest       He who has found our hid security, Assured in the dark tides of the world that rest,       And heard our word, ‘Who is so safe as we?’ We have found safety with all things undying,       The winds, and morning, tears of men and mirth, The deep night, and birds singing, a...
Safety
Rupert Brooke
0
sonnet
epf-001119
For a Statue of Napoleon A conqueror as provident as brave, He robbed the cradle to supply the grave. His reign laid quantities of human dust: He fell upon the just and the unjust.
An Inscription
Ambrose Bierce
1
couplet
epf-001317
Under the level winter sky I saw a thousand Christs go by. They sang an idle song and free As they went up to calvary. Careless of eye and coarse of lip, They marched in holiest fellowship. That heaven might heal the world, they gave Their earth-born dreams to deck the grave. With souls unpurged and steadfast breath ...
Marching Men
Marjorie Pickthall
1
couplet
epf-000019
Much suspected by me, Nothing proved can be, Quoth Elizabeth prisoner.
Written with a Diamond on her Window at Woodstock
Queen Elizabeth I
1
couplet
epf-000447
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
1
couplet
epf-000672
When Hope but made Tranquillity be felt— A Flight of Hopes for ever on the wing But made Tranquillity a conscious Thing— And wheeling round and round in sportive coil Fann'd the calm air upon the brow of Toil—
Fragment 7: When Hope but made Tranquillity be felt
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
1
couplet
epf-001314
Oh moon, who now look over the roof of the church, in the tropical calm to be saluted by him who has been out all night, to be barked at by the dogs of the suburbs, Oh moon who in your silence have laughed at all things! In your sidereal silence  when, keeping carefully in the shadow, the municipal judge steals from s...
Verses to the Moon
Luis Carlos López
0
sonnet
epf-001382
Great carnal mountains crouching in the cloud That marrieth the young earth with a ring, Yet still its thoughts builds heavenward, whence spring Wee villages of vapor, sunset-proud.— And to the meanest door hastes one pure-browed White-fingered star, a little, childish thing, The busy needle of her light to bring, And ...
Sunset
E. E. Cummings
0
sonnet
epf-001211
When the last fight is lost, the last sword broken; The last call sounded, the last order spoken; When from the field where braver hearts lie sleeping, Faint, and athirst, and blinded, I come creeping, With not one waving shred of palm to bring you, With not one splendid battle-song to sing you, O Love, in my dishonor ...
Defeated
Sophie Jewett
1
couplet
epf-000728
I O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn's being, Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves dead Are driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing, Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red, Pestilence-stricken multitudes: O thou, Who chariotest to their dark wintry bed The winged seeds, where they lie cold and ...
Ode to the West Wind
Percy Bysshe Shelley
7
ode
epf-000279
Momus, to be a Poet Laureate, Has strained his wits through an iron grate. For he has rhymes and rhymes, and double strains, And golden verses, and all kinds of veins, Now to the press he presses hastily, To sell his friends stinking eternity.      For who would be eternal in such fashion,      To be a witness t...
Book 2, Epigram 21: In Momum. 
Thomas Bastard
1
couplet
epf-001389
Gulls when they fly move in a liquid arc, Still head, and wings that bend above the breast,  Covering its glitter with a cloak of dark, Gulls fly. So as at last toward balm and rest,  Remembering wings, the desperate leave their earth,  Bear from their earth what there was ruinous-crossed, Peace from distress, and love...
A Gull Goes Up
Léonie Adams
0
sonnet
epf-000539
Thy country, Wilberforce, with just disdain, Hears thee, by cruel men and impious, call'd Fanatic, for thy zeal to loose th' enthrall'd From exile, public sale, and slav'ry's chain. Friend of the poor, the wrong'd, the fetter-gall'd, Fear not lest labour such as thine be vain! Thou hast achiev'd a part; hast gain'd the...
Sonnet to William Wilberforce, Esq.
William Cowper
0
sonnet
epf-000823
A vision as of crowded city streets,       With human life in endless overflow;       Thunder of thoroughfares; trumpets that blow       To battle; clamor, in obscure retreats, Of sailors landed from their anchored fleets;       Tolling of bells in turrets, and below       Voices of children, and bright flowers that th...
Shakespeare
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
0
sonnet
epf-000806
My letters! all dead paper, mute and white! And yet they seem alive and quivering Against my tremulous hands which loose the string And let them drop down on my knee tonight. This said—he wished to have me in his sight Once, as a friend: this fixed a day in spring To come and touch my hand. . . a simple thing, Yes I we...
My Letters! all dead paper... (Sonnet 28)
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
0
sonnet
epf-000121
What potions have I drunk of Siren tears, Distill’d from limbecks foul as hell within, Applying fears to hopes and hopes to fears, Still losing when I saw myself to win! What wretched errors hath my heart committed, Whilst it hath thought itself so blessed never! How have mine eyes out of their spheres been fitted In t...
What potions have I drunk of Siren tears (Sonnet 119)
William Shakespeare
0
sonnet
epf-000295
At the round earth's imagin'd corners, blow Your trumpets, angels, and arise, arise From death, you numberless infinities Of souls, and to your scatter'd bodies go; All whom the flood did, and fire shall o'erthrow, All whom war, dearth, age, agues, tyrannies, Despair, law, chance hath slain, and you whose eyes Shall be...
Holy Sonnets: At the round earth's imagin'd corners, blow
John Donne
0
sonnet
epf-001282
When I have baked white cakes And grated green almonds to spread upon them; When I have picked the green crowns from the strawberries And piled them, cone-pointed, in a blue and yellow platter; When I have smoothed the seam of the linen I have been working; What then? To-morrow it will be the same: Cakes and strawberri...
Interlude
Amy Lowell
5
free verse
epf-001152
You better not fool with a Bumblebee!— Ef you don't think they can sting—you'll see! They're lazy to look at, an' kind o' go Buzzin' an' bummin' aroun' so slow, An' ac' so slouchy an' all fagged out, Danglin' their legs as they drone about The hollyhawks 'at they can't climb in 'Ithout ist a-tumble-un out ag'in! Wunst ...
The Bumblebee
James Whitcomb Riley
1
couplet
epf-001269
When I go away from you The world beats dead Like a slackened drum. I call out for you against the jutted stars And shout into the ridges of the wind. Streets coming fast, One after the other, Wedge you away from me, And the lamps of the city prick my eyes So that I can no longer see your face. Why should I leave you, ...
The Taxi
Amy Lowell
5
free verse
epf-001264
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 s...
Bath
Amy Lowell
9
prose poem
epf-000059
Clear Ancor, on whose silver-sanded shore My soul-shrin'd saint, my fair Idea lies, O blessed brook, whose milk-white swans adore Thy crystal stream, refined by her eyes, Where sweet myrrh-breathing Zephyr in the spring Gently distils his nectar-dropping showers, Where nightingales in Arden sit and sing Amongst the dai...
Idea 53: Clear Ancor, on whose silver-sanded shore
Michael Drayton
0
sonnet
epf-000018
Wyatt resteth here, that quick could never rest; Whose heavenly gifts increased by disdain, And virtue sank the deeper in his breast; Such profit he of envy could obtain. A head, where wisdom mysteries did frame, Whose hammers beat still in that lively brain As on a stith, where some work of fame Was daily wrought, to...
Wyatt Resteth Here
Earl of Surrey Henry Howard
4
elegy
epf-001247
Wintah, summah, snow er shine, Hit's all de same to me, Ef only I kin call you mine, An' keep you by my knee. Ha'dship, frolic, grief er caih, Content by night an' day, Ef only I kin see you whaih You wait beside de way. Livin', dyin', smiles er teahs, My soul will still be free, Ef only thoo de comin' yeahs Yo...
Song (Wintah, summah, snow er shine)
Paul Laurence Dunbar
2
common measure
epf-000616
Like the stamen inside a flower    The steeple stands in lovely blue    And the day unfolds around its needle;    The flock of swallows that circles the steeple    Flies there each day through the same blue air    That carries their cries from me to you;    We know how high the sun is now    As long as the roof of th...
from In Lovely Blue
Friedrich Hölderlin
6
blank verse
epf-000360
More discontents I never had Since I was born, than here; Where I have been, and still am, sad, In this dull Devonshire. Yet justly too I must confess, I ne'er invented such Ennobled numbers for the press, Than where I loath'd so much.
Discontents in Devon
Robert Herrick
2
common measure
epf-001035
It may be through some foreign grace, And unfamiliar charm of face; It may be that across the foam Which bore her from her childhood’s home, By some strange spell, my Katie brought, Along with English creeds and thought— Entangled in her golden hair— Some English sunshine, warmth, and air! I cannot tell—but here to-day...
Katie
Henry Timrod
1
couplet
epf-001257
Live blindly and upon the hour. The Lord, Who was the Future, died full long ago. Knowledge which is the Past is folly. Go, Poor child, and be not to thyself abhorred. Around thine earth sun-wingèd winds do blow And planets roll; a meteor draws his sword; The rainbow breaks his seven-coloured chord And the long strips ...
Live Blindly and upon the Hour
Trumbull Stickney
0
sonnet
epf-000148
My tongue-tied Muse in manners holds her still, While comments of your praise, richly compiled, Reserve their character with golden quill And precious phrase by all the Muses filed. I think good thoughts whilst other write good words, And like unletter’d clerk still cry ‘Amen’ To every hymn that able spirit affords In ...
My tongue-tied Muse in manners holds her still (Sonnet 85)
William Shakespeare
0
sonnet
epf-000102
Love is my sin and thy dear virtue hate, Hate of my sin, grounded on sinful loving: O, but with mine compare thou thine own state, And thou shalt find it merits not reproving; Or, if it do, not from those lips of thine, That have profaned their scarlet ornaments And seal’d false bonds of love as oft as mine, Robb’d oth...
Love is my sin and thy dear virtue hate (Sonnet 142)
William Shakespeare
0
sonnet
epf-001438
O golden month! How high thy gold is heaped! The yellow birch-leaves shine like bright coins strung On wands; the chestnut's yellow pennons tongue To every wind its harvest challenge. Steeped In yellow, still lie fields where wheat was reaped; And yellow still the corn sheaves, stacked among The yellow gourds, which fr...
September
Helen Hunt Jackson
0
sonnet
epf-000834
It was the schooner Hesperus,       That sailed the wintry sea; And the skipper had taken his little daughtèr,       To bear him company. Blue were her eyes as the fairy-flax,       Her cheeks like the dawn of day, And her bosom white as the hawthorn buds,       That ope in the month of May. The skipper he stood besi...
The Wreck of the Hesperus
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
2
common measure
epf-001138
Slight as thou art, thou art enough to hide, Like all created things, secrets from me, And stand a barrier to eternity. And I, how can I praise thee well and wide From where I dwell—upon the hither side? Thou little veil for so great mystery, When shall I penetrate all things and thee, And then look back? For this I m...
To a Daisy
Alice Meynell
0
sonnet
epf-000192
No more be grieved at that which thou hast done: Roses have thorns, and silver fountains mud; Clouds and eclipses stain both moon and sun, And loathsome canker lives in sweetest bud. All men make faults, and even I in this, Authorizing thy trespass with compare, Myself corrupting, salving thy amiss, Excusing thy sins m...
No more be grieved at that which thou hast done: (Sonnet 35)
William Shakespeare
0
sonnet
epf-000213
Lo! In the orient when the gracious light Lifts up his burning head, each under eye Doth homage to his new-appearing sight, Serving with looks his sacred majesty; And having climb’d the steep-up heavenly hill, Resembling strong youth in his middle age, Yet mortal looks adore his beauty still, Attending on his golden pi...
Lo! In the orient when the gracious light (Sonnet 7)
William Shakespeare
0
sonnet
epf-000862
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
1
couplet
epf-001229
translated from the Spanish by Thomas Walsh and Salomón de la Selva. Poets! Towers of God Made to resist the fury of the storms Like cliffs beside the ocean Or clouded, savage peaks! Masters of lightning! Breakwaters of eternity! Hope, magic-voiced, foretells the day When on the rock of harmony The Siren traitorous s...
Poets! Towers of God!
Rubén Darío
14
ars poetica
epf-000371
Now that the winter's gone, the earth hath lost Her snow-white robes, and now no more the frost Candies the grass, or casts an icy cream Upon the silver lake or crystal stream; But the warm sun thaws the benumbed earth, And makes it tender; gives a sacred birth To the dead swallow; wakes in hollow tree The drowsy cucko...
The Spring
Thomas Carew
1
couplet
epf-001153
Sing me a song of a lad that is gone, Say, could that lad be I? Merry of soul he sailed on a day Over the sea to Skye. Mull was astern, Rum on the port, Eigg on the starboard bow; Glory of youth glowed in his soul; Where is that glory now? Sing me a song of a lad that is gone, Say, could that lad be I?...
Sing me a Song of a Lad that is Gone
Robert Louis Stevenson
3
ballad
epf-000808
I thought once how Theocritus had sung Of the sweet years, the dear and wished for years, Who each one in a gracious hand appears To bear a gift for mortals, old or young: And, as I mused it in his antique tongue, I saw, in gradual vision through my tears, The sweet, sad years, the melancholy years, Those of my own lif...
Sonnets from the Portuguese  1: I thought once how Theocritus had sung
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
0
sonnet
epf-001053
Like labour-laden moonclouds faint to flee From winds that sweep the winter-bitten wold,— Like multiform circumfluence manifold Of night's flood-tide,—like terrors that agree Of hoarse-tongued fire and inarticulate sea,— Even such, within some glass dimm'd by our breath, Our hearts discern wild imag...
The House of Life: 41. Through Death to Love
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
0
sonnet
epf-000093
In loving thee thou know’st I am forsworn, But thou art twice forsworn, to me love swearing. In act thy bed-vow broke and new faith torn In vowing new hate after new love bearing. But why of two oaths’ breach do I accuse thee, Why I break twenty? I am perjured most; For all my vows are oaths but to misuse thee And all ...
In loving thee thou know'st I am forsworn (Sonnet 152)
William Shakespeare
0
sonnet
epf-001160
If, when I die, I must be buried, let No cemetery engulph me — no lone grot, Where the great palpitating world comes not, Save when, with heart bowed down and eyelids wet, It pays its last sad melancholy debt To some outjourneying pilgrim. May my lot Be rather to lie in some much-used spot, Where human life, with all i...
My Grave
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
0
sonnet
epf-000388
To the Lord General Cromwell, May 1652, On the proposals of certain ministers at the Committee for         Propagation of the Gospel Cromwell, our chief of men, who through a cloud        Not of war only, but detractions rude,        Guided by faith and matchless fortitude,        To peace and truth thy glorious way h...
Sonnet 16: Cromwell, our chief of men, who through a cloud
John Milton
0
sonnet
epf-001061
Pitch here the tent, while the old horse grazes: By the old hedge-side we'll halt a stage. It's nigh my last above the daisies: My next leaf'll be man's blank page. Yes, my old girl! and it's no use crying: Juggler, constable, king, must bow. One that outjuggles all's been spying Long to have me, and he...
Juggling Jerry
George Meredith
8
dramatic monologue
epf-001156
As from the house your mother sees You playing round the garden trees, So you may see, if you will look Through the windows of this book, Another child, far, far away, And in another garden, play. But do not think you can at all, By knocking on the window, call That child to hear you. He intent Is all on his play-busin...
To Any Reader
Robert Louis Stevenson
1
couplet
epf-000876
Our enemies have fall'n, have fall'n: the seed, The little seed they laugh'd at in the dark, Has risen and cleft the soil, and grown a bulk Of spanless girth, that lays on every side A thousand arms and rushes to the Sun.          Our enemies have fall'n, have fall'n: they came; The leaves were wet with women's tears:...
from The Princess: Our Enemies Have Fall'n
Lord Tennyson Alfred
6
blank verse
epf-001410
I am sweetly perplexed by love sallies, releases, By the countless retreats and the numberless captures, By the petulant coldness and agreeable raptures, By the whisper of phrases that hurts and then pleases, I am drunk by the prodigal total of leases From her body and spirit, her soul and her senses, I revel in approa...
Pagan Passion
Luis G. Dato
0
sonnet
epf-001078
I heard a Fly buzz - when I died - The Stillness in the Room Was like the Stillness in the Air - Between the Heaves of Storm - The Eyes around - had wrung them dry - And Breaths were gathering firm For that last Onset - when the King Be witnessed - in the Room - I willed my Keepsakes - Signed away What portion of me ...
I heard a Fly buzz - when I died - (591)
Emily Dickinson
2
common measure
epf-001048
Eat thou and drink; to-morrow thou shalt die. Surely the earth, that's wise being very old, Needs not our help. Then loose me, love, and hold Thy sultry hair up from my face; that I May pour for thee this golden wine, brim-high, Till round the glass thy fingers glow like gold. We'll drown all hours:...
The House of Life: 71. The Choice, I
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
0
sonnet
epf-000023
“And if I did, what then? Are you aggriev’d therefore? The sea hath fish for every man, And what would you have more?”    Thus did my mistress once, Amaze my mind with doubt; And popp’d a question for the nonce To beat my brains about.    Whereto I thus replied: “Each fisherman can wish That all the seas at every tid...
And If I Did, What Then?
George Gascoigne
3
ballad
epf-001318
See, the grass is full of stars, Fallen in their brightness; Hearts they have of shining gold, Rays of shining whiteness. Buttercups have honeyed hearts, Bees they love the clover, But I love the daisies' dance All the meadow over. Blow, O blow, you happy winds, Singing summer's praises, Up the field and down the fie...
Daisy Time
Marjorie Pickthall
2
common measure
epf-000713
So, we'll go no more a roving    So late into the night, Though the heart be still as loving,    And the moon be still as bright. For the sword outwears its sheath,    And the soul wears out the breast, And the heart must pause to breathe,    And love itself have rest. Though the night was made for loving,    And the...
So We'll Go No More a Roving
Lord Byron (George Gordon)
3
ballad
epf-000383
On the Late Massacre in Piedmont Avenge, O Lord, thy slaughter'd saints, whose bones        Lie scatter'd on the Alpine mountains cold,        Ev'n them who kept thy truth so pure of old,        When all our fathers worshipp'd stocks and stones; Forget not: in thy book record their groans        Who were thy sheep and...
Sonnet 18: Avenge, O Lord, thy slaughter'd saints, whose bones
John Milton
0
sonnet
epf-000691
I saw where in the shroud did lurk A curious frame of Nature's work. A flow'ret crushed in the bud, A nameless piece of Babyhood, Was in a cradle-coffin lying; Extinct, with scarce the sense of dying; So soon to exchange the imprisoning womb For darker closets of the tomb! She did but ope an eye, and put A clear beam f...
On an Infant Dying as Soon as Born
Charles Lamb
1
couplet
epf-000394
What needs my Shakespeare for his honoured bones, The labor of an age in pilèd stones, Or that his hallowed relics should be hid    Under a star-ypointing pyramid? Dear son of Memory, great heir of fame, What need’st thou such weak witness of thy name? Thou in our wonder and astonishment Hast built thyself a live-long ...
On Shakespeare. 1630
John Milton
4
elegy
epf-001023
He felt the wild beast in him between whiles So masterfully rude, that he would grieve To see the helpless delicate thing receive His guardianship through certain dark defiles. Had he not teeth to rend, and hunger too? But still be spared her. Once: ‘Have you no fear?’ He said: ’t was dusk; she in his grasp; none near....
Modern Love: IX
George Meredith
0
sonnet
epf-000435
Tell me not (Sweet) I am unkind,          That from the nunnery Of thy chaste breast and quiet mind          To war and arms I fly. True, a new mistress now I chase,          The first foe in the field; And with a stronger faith embrace          A sword, a horse, a shield. Yet this inconstancy is such          As you...
To Lucasta, Going to the Wars
Richard Lovelace
2
common measure
epf-000707
WELL, what's the matter ? there's a face What ! has it cut a vein ? And is it quite a shocking place ? Come, let us look again. I see it bleeds, but never mind That tiny little drop ; I don't believe you'll ever find That crying makes it stop. 'Tis sad indeed to cry at pain, For any but a baby ; If tha...
The Cut
Ann Taylor
2
common measure
epf-000344
Old Parson Beanes hunts six days of the week, And on the seventh, he has his notes to seek. Six days he hollows so much breath away That on the seventh he can nor preach or pray.
Upon Parson Beanes
Robert Herrick
1
couplet
epf-001307
Gold-brown upon the sated flood The rock-vine clusters lift and sway: Vast wings above the lambent waters brood Of sullen day. A waste of waters ruthlessly Sways and uplifts its weedy mane, Where brooding day stares down upon the sea In dull disdain. Uplift and sway, O golden vine, Thy clustered fruits to love's full...
Flood
James Joyce
7
ode
epf-000101
Lo! as a careful housewife run to catch One of her feather’d creatures broke away, Sets down her babe and makes all swift dispatch In pursuit of the thing she would have stay, Whilst her neglected child holds her in chase, Cried to catch her whose busy care is bent To follow that which flies before her face, Not prizin...
Lo! as a careful housewife run to catch (Sonnet 143)
William Shakespeare
0
sonnet
epf-001161
There is something in the sound of drum and fife That stirs all the savage instincts into life.   In the old times of peace we went our ways, Through proper days Of little joys and tasks. Lonely at times, When from the steeple sounded wedding chimes, Telling to all the world some maid was wife— But taking patie...
War Mothers
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
1
couplet
epf-000110
So, now I have confess’d that he is thine, And I myself am mortgaged to thy will, Myself I’ll forfeit, so that other mine Thou wilt restore, to be my comfort still: But thou wilt not, nor he will not be free, For thou art covetous and he is kind; He learn’d but surety-like to write for me Under that bond that him as fa...
So, now I have confess'd that he is thine (Sonnet 134)
William Shakespeare
0
sonnet
epf-000816
If I leave all for thee, wilt thou exchange And be all to me? Shall I never miss Home-talk and blessing and the common kiss That comes to each in turn, nor count it strange, When I look up, to drop on a new range Of walls and floors ... another home than this? Nay, wilt thou fill that place by me which is Filled by dea...
Sonnets from the Portuguese 35: If I leave all for thee, wilt thou exchange
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
0
sonnet
epf-000686
A Well there is in the west country,     And a clearer one never was seen; There is not a wife in the west country     But has heard of the Well of St. Keyne. An oak and an elm-tree stand beside,     And behind doth an ash-tree grow, And a willow from the bank above     Droops to the water below. A traveller came to th...
The Well of St. Keyne
Robert Southey
12
quatrain
epf-000290
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
4
elegy
epf-001240
Slow moves the pageant of a climbing race;    Their footsteps drag far, far below the height,    And, unprevailing by their utmost might, Seem faltering downward from each hard won place. No strange, swift-sprung exception we; we trace    A devious way thro’ dim, uncertain light,—    Our hope, through the long vistaed ...
Slow through the Dark
Paul Laurence Dunbar
0
sonnet
epf-001375
Mindful of you the sodden earth in spring,     And all the flowers that in the springtime grow,     And dusty roads, and thistles, and the slow Rising of the round moon, all throats that sing The summer through, and each departing wing,     And all the nests that the bared branches show,     And all winds that in any w...
Sonnet III: “Mindful of you the sodden earth in spring”
Edna St. Vincent Millay
0
sonnet
epf-000774
A Poetic Romance (excerpt) BOOK I A thing of beauty is a joy for ever: Its loveliness increases; it will never Pass into nothingness; but still will keep A bower quiet for us, and a sleep Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing. Therefore, on every morrow, are we wreathing A flowery band to bind us to t...
from Endymion
John Keats
10
pastoral
epf-000787
That you are fair or wise is vain, Or strong, or rich, or generous; You must have also the untaught strain That sheds beauty on the rose. There is a melody born of melody, Which melts the world into a sea: Toil could never compass it; Art its height could never hit; It came never out of wit; But a music music-born Well...
Fate
Ralph Waldo Emerson
1
couplet
epf-000906
FERRARA That’s my last Duchess painted on the wall, Looking as if she were alive. I call That piece a wonder, now; Fra Pandolf’s hands Worked busily a day, and there she stands. Will’t please you sit and look at her? I said “Fra Pandolf” by design, for never read Strangers like you that pictured countenance, The depth...
My Last Duchess
Robert Browning
1
couplet
epf-000450
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
1
couplet
epf-000974
Foil'd by our fellow-men, depress'd, outworn, We leave the brutal world to take its way, And, Patience! in another life, we say The world shall be thrust down, and we up-borne. And will not, then, the immortal armies scorn The world's poor, routed leavings? or will they, Who fail'd under the heat of this life's day, S...
Immortality
Matthew Arnold
0
sonnet
epf-000083
Ulysses speaks to Achilles in the Grecian camp Time hath, my lord, a wallet at his back, Wherein he puts alms for oblivion, A great-sized monster of ingratitudes: Those scraps are good deeds past; which are devour'd As fast as they are made, forgot as soon As done: perseverance, dear my lord, Keeps honour bright: to h...
Troilus and Cressida, Act III, Scene III [Time hath, my lord]
William Shakespeare
8
dramatic monologue
epf-000797
’Tis merry to hear, at evening time, By the blazing hearth the sleigh-bells chime; To know the bounding steeds bring near The loved one to our bosoms dear. Ah, lightly we spring the fire to raise, Till the rafters glow with the ruddy blaze; Those merry sleigh-bells, our hearts keep time Responsive to their fairy chime....
The Sleigh-Bells
Susanna Moodie
1
couplet
epf-000301
Thou hast made me, and shall thy work decay? Repair me now, for now mine end doth haste, I run to death, and death meets me as fast, And all my pleasures are like yesterday; I dare not move my dim eyes any way, Despair behind, and death before doth cast Such terror, and my feebled flesh doth waste By sin in it, which i...
Holy Sonnets: Thou hast made me, and shall thy work decay?
John Donne
0
sonnet
epf-000602
Whose was that gentle voice, that, whispering sweet,       Promised methought long days of bliss sincere!       Soothing it stole on my deluded ear, Most like soft music, that might sometimes cheat Thoughts dark and drooping! ’Twas the voice of Hope.       Of love and social scenes, it seemed to speak,       Of truth, ...
Bereavement
William Lisle Bowles
0
sonnet
epf-000017
I abide and abide and better abide, And after the old proverb, the happy day; And ever my lady to me doth say, "Let me alone and I will provide." I abide and abide and tarry the tide, And with abiding speed well ye may. Thus do I abide I wot alway, Nother obtaining nor yet denied. Ay me! this long abiding Seemeth to me...
I Abide and Abide and Better Abide
Sir Thomas Wyatt
0
sonnet
epf-001300
Written in A Moment of Exasperation How can you lie so still? All day I watch And never a blade of all the green sod moves To show where restlessly you toss and turn, And fling a desperate arm or draw up knees Stiffened and aching from their long disuse; I watch all night and not one ghost comes forth To take its free...
To The Dead in the Graveyard Underneath My Window
Adelaide Crapsey
6
blank verse
epf-000881
The wind, that beats the mountain, blows More softly round the open wold, And gently comes the world to those That are cast in gentle mould. And me this knowledge bolder made, Or else I had not dare to flow In these words toward you, and invade Even with a verse your holy woe. 'Tis strange that those we l...
To J. S.
Lord Tennyson Alfred
2
common measure
epf-000642
(At Inversneyde, upon Loch Lomond) Sweet Highland Girl, a very shower Of beauty is thy earthly dower! Twice seven consenting years have shed Their utmost bounty on thy head: And these grey rocks; that household lawn; Those trees, a veil just half withdrawn; This fall of water that doth make A murmur near the silent la...
To a Highland Girl
William Wordsworth
1
couplet
epf-000825
It was the schooner Hesperus,       That sailed the wintry sea; And the skipper had taken his little daughtèr,       To bear him company. Blue were her eyes as the fairy-flax,       Her cheeks like the dawn of day, And her bosom white as the hawthorn buds,       That ope in the month of May. The skipper he stood besi...
The Wreck of the Hesperus
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
3
ballad
epf-000563
Mute is thy wild harp, now, O Bard sublime!    Who, amid Scotia’s mountain solitude, Great Nature taught to “build the lofty rhyme,”    And even beneath the daily pressure, rude, Of laboring Poverty, thy generous blood, Fired with the love of freedom—Not subdued    Wert thou by thy low fortune: But a time    Like this ...
To the Shade of Burns
Charlotte Smith
0
sonnet
epf-000247
If thou survive my well-contented day, When that churl Death my bones with dust shall cover, And shalt by fortune once more re-survey These poor rude lines of thy deceased lover, Compare them with the bettering of the time, And though they be outstripp'd by every pen, Reserve them for my love, not for their rhyme, Exce...
Sonnet 32: If thou survive my well-contented day
William Shakespeare
0
sonnet
epf-001192
When the heart is hard and parched up, come upon me with a shower of mercy. When grace is lost from life, come with a burst of song. When tumultuous work raises its din on all sides shutting me out from beyond, come to me, my lord of silence, with thy peace and rest. When my beggarly heart sits crouched, shut up in a c...
Gitanjali 39
Rabindranath Tagore
9
prose poem