Poetry Books
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Henry Abbey
I. THE VENDER OF VIOLETS."Violets!Violets! Violets!"This was the cry I heardAs I passed through the street of a city;And quickly my heart was stirredTo an incomprehensible pity,At the undertone of the cry;For it seemed like the voice of oneWho was stricken, and all undone,Who was only longing to die."Violets! Violets! Violets!"The voice came nearer still."Surely," I said,...
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Charles Sangster
DEDICATORY POEM. Dear Carrie, were we truly wise, And could discern with finer eyes, And half-inspired sense, The ways of Providence: Could we but know the hidden things That brood beneath the Future's wings, Hermetically sealed, But soon to be revealed: Would we, more blest than we are now, In due submission learn to bow,— Receiving on our...
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Henry Cole
TRADITIONAL NURSERY SONGS. A diller, a dollar,A ten o'clock scholar,What makes you come so soon?You used to come at ten o'clock,And now you come at noon. A long tailed pig, or a short tailed pig,Or a pig without a tail,A sow pig, or a boar pig,Or a pig with a curly tail. As I was going up Pippen hill,Pippen hill was dirty;There I met a pretty Miss,And she dropt me a curtsey. Little Miss,...
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John Clare
BIOGRAPHICAL The life of John Clare, offering as it does so much opportunity for sensational contrast and unbridled distortion, became at one time (like the tragedy of Chatterton) a favourite with the quillmen. Even his serious biographers have made excessive use of light and darkness, poetry and poverty, genius and stupidity: that there should be some uncertainty about dates and incidents is no great...
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I. The Old Woman (A Morality Play) The Old Woman (A Morality Play) Characters: The Woman The House The Doctor The Deacon The Landlady Doctor: There is an old woman Who ought to die— Deacon: And nobody knows But what she's dead— Doctor: The air will be cleaner When she's gone— Deacon: But we dare not bury her Till...
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ABRAHAM LINCOLN: Born, Feb. 12th, 1809. Assassinated, Good-Friday, April 14th, 1865. "Confusion now hath made his masterpiece!Most sacrilegious murder hath broke opeThe Lord's anointed temple, and stole thenceThe life o' the building. * * * * * * * * * * "Approach the chamber, and destroy your sightWith a new Gorgon:—Do not bid me speak;See, and then speak yourselves.—Awake!...
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Gerontion Thou hast nor youth nor ageBut as it were an after dinner sleepDreaming of both. Here I am, an old man in a dry month,Being read to by a boy, waiting for rain.I was neither at the hot gatesNor fought in the warm rainNor knee deep in the salt marsh, heaving a cutlass,Bitten by flies, fought.My house is a decayed house,And the jew squats on the window sill, the owner,Spawned in some estaminet...
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HAFBUR AND SIGNE Young Hafbur King and Sivard King They lived in bitter enmity;’Twas Signe proud that caused their feud, Of maidens all the fairest she. It was youthful Hafbur King Awaked at midnight with a bound,And full of dread he straightway said His wondrous dream to all around. “Methought I was in heaven’s domain, Within that place so fair to view,And held to my breast...
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Kalidasa
KALIDASA—HIS LIFE AND WRITINGS I Kalidasa probably lived in the fifth century of the Christian era. This date, approximate as it is, must yet be given with considerable hesitation, and is by no means certain. No truly biographical data are preserved about the author, who nevertheless enjoyed a great popularity during his life, and whom the Hindus have ever regarded as the greatest of Sanskrit poets....
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Thomas Gray
To some the eighteenth-century definition of proper poetic matter is unacceptable; but to any who believe that true poetry may (if not "must") consist in "what oft was thought but ne'er so well expressed," Gray's "Churchyard" is a majestic achievement—perhaps (accepting the definition offered) the supreme achievement of its century. Its success, so the great critic...
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