Poetry Books

ANTI-SLAVERY POEMS ………. TO WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON CHAMPION of those who groan beneathOppression's iron handIn view of penury, hate, and death,I see thee fearless stand.Still bearing up thy lofty brow,In the steadfast strength of truth,In manhood sealing well the vowAnd promise of thy youth. Go on, for thou hast chosen well;On in the strength of God!Long as one human heart shall swellBeneath... more...

ANIMAL CHILDREN Sometimes I am so sorry that my papa is a king,It's really most annoying and hurts like everythingTo have the little girls and boys all want to run away,For if I am a Lion prince, I'm a baby, anyway! Some jungle boys, by mischief made quite bold,Once took the baby Tiger, so we're told,And in broad stripes they smeared his coat so fine,And 'round his neck they hung a... more...

TORU DUTT. INTRODUCTORY MEMOIR. If Toru Dutt were alive, she would still be younger than any recognized European writer, and yet her fame, which is already considerable, has been entirely posthumous. Within the brief space of four years which now divides us from the date of her decease, her genius has been revealed to the world under many phases, and has been recognized throughout France and England.... more...

The ordered intermingling of the real and the dream,— The mill above the river, and the mist above the stream; The life of ceaseless labor, brave with song and cheery call— The radiant skies of evening, with its rainbow o'er us all. An Old Sweetheart of Mine!—Is thisher presence here with me,Or but a vain creation ofa lover's memory?A fair, illusive visionthat would vanish into airDared... more...

They who maintained their rights,Through storm and stress,And walked in all the waysThat God made known,Led by no wandering lights,And by no guess,Through dark and desolate daysOf trial and moan:Here let their monumentRise, like a wordIn rock commemorativeOf our Land's youth;Of ways the Puritan went,With soul love-spurredTo suffer, die, and liveFor faith and truth.Here they the corner-stoneOf... more...

Too long have Britain’s sons with proud disdainSurvey’d the gay Patrician’s titled train,Their various merit scann’d with eye severe,Nor learn’d to know the peasant from the peer:At length the Gothic ignorance is o’er,And vulgar brows shall scowl on LORDS no more;Commons shall shrink at each ennobled nod,And ev’ry lordling shine a demigod:By CRAVEN taught, the humbler herd shall know,How... more...

Pope’s life as a writer falls into three periods, answering fairly enough to the three reigns in which he worked.  Under Queen Anne he was an original poet, but made little money by his verses; under George I. he was chiefly a translator, and made much money by satisfying the French-classical taste with versions of the “Iliad” and “Odyssey.”  Under George I. he also edited Shakespeare, but... more...

In great King Arthur’s reign, Tom’s history first begun;A farmer’s wife had sigh’d in vain to have a darling son!A fairy listen’d to her call, and granted her the same;But being very small, Tom Thumb she did him name.To please him every means she’d take,And a pudding large did for him make;But in trying to obtain a sip,Into the batter did he slip!The batter in the pot went plump;Tom made the... more...

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... more...

Good people all,with one accord,Lament forMadam Blaize,Who never wanteda good word—From thosewho spoke her praise. The needy seldom pass’d her door,And always found her kind;She freely lent to all the poor—Who lefta pledge behind. She strove the neighbourhood to pleaseWith manners wondrous winning;And never follow’d wicked ways—Unless when she was sinning.At church, in silks and satins... more...