The Flitting (John Clare Poems)
I've left my own old home of homes, Green fields and every pleasant place;The summer like a stranger comes, I pause and ...
I've left my own old home of homes, Green fields and every pleasant place;The summer like a stranger comes, I pause and ...
Occasion'd by the Insults of the Spaniards, and the present Preparations for War, 1738.Whence this unwonted Transport in my Breast?Why ...
I landed there on the day of my birth,—The day that the city was swept from the earth;Though thirteen years ...
A West Australian Bushman's StoryWell, mate, you've asked about a fellowYou met to-day, in a black-and-yellowChain-gang suit, with a peddler's ...
At winter dusk upon the hillside cold,While shivering trees made moan,Went Hojo Tokiyori all alone.Free of his Regent robes and ...
There are lonesome places upon the earthThat have never re-echoed a sound of mirth,Where the spirits abide that feast and ...
Wonder not Blount, whose magick HandLifts to the Clouds thy native Land,That in these busy, golden Times,Thy Ears are teaz'd ...
-A RhapsodyOf all the various lots around the ball,Which fate to man distributes, absolute;Avert, ye gods! that of the Muse's ...
Now, sporting muse, draw in the flowing reins,Leave the clear streams a while for sunny plains.Should you the various arms ...
From the German of Buerger.Ich will euch erzaehlen ein Maerchen gar schnurrig; u.s.w.PRAY, listen, good friends, and I'll tell you ...
The smell of snow, stinging in nostrils as the wind lifts it from a beachEve-shuttering, mixed with sand, or when ...
Poor Tray charmant!Poor Tray de mon Ami!-- Dog-bury, and Vergers.Oh! where shall I bury my poor dog Tray,Now his fleeting ...
I climbed a hill as light fell short,And rooks came home in scramble sort,And filled the trees and flapped and ...
O, go not by Dunorloch's wallsWhen the moon is in the wane,And cross not o'er Dunorloch's bridge,The farther bank to ...
Sir,As once a twelvemonth to the priest,Holy at Rome, here Antichrist,The Spanish king presents a jennetTo show his love, -- ...
. IN THE BACKS. As I was strolling lonely in the Backs, I met a woman whom I did not like. I did not like the way the woman walked: Loose-hipped, big-boned, disjointed, angular. If her anatomy comprised a waist, I did not notice it: she had a face With eyes and lips adjusted thereunto, But round her mouth no pleasing shadows stirred, Nor did her eyes invite a second glance. Her dress was absolutely colourless, Devoid of taste or shape or character; Her boots were rather old, and rather large, And rather shabby, not precisely matched. Her hair was very far from beautiful And not abundant: she had such a hat As neither merits nor expects remark. She was not clever, I am very sure, Nor witty nor amusing: well-informed She may have been, and kind, perhaps, of heart; But gossip was writ plain upon her face. And so she stalked her dull unthinking way; Or, if she thought of anything, it was That such a one had got a second class, Or Mrs So-and-So a second child. I did not want to see that girl again: I did not like her: and I should not mind If she were done away with, killed, or ploughed. She did not seem to serve a useful end: And certainly she was not beautiful.. ON THE KING'S PARADE. As I was waiting for the tardy tram, I met what purported to be a man. What seemed to pass for its material frame, The semblance of a suit of clothes had on, Fit emblem of the grand sartorial art And worthy of a more sublime abode. Its coat and waistcoat were of weird design Adapted to the fashion's latest whim. I think it wore an Athenæum tie. White flannels draped its too ethereal limbs And in its vacant eye there glared a glass. In vain for this poor derelict of flesh, Void of the spirit it was built to house, Have classic poets tuned their deathless lyre, Astute historians fingered mouldering sheets And reared a palace of sententious truth. In vain has y been added unto x, In vain the mighty decimal unrolled, Which strives indefinitely to be π In vain the palpitating frog has groaned Beneath the licensed knife: in vain for this The surreptitious corpse been disinterred And forced, amid the disinfectant fumes, To yield its secrets to philosophy. In vain the stress and storm of politics Beat round this empty head: in vain the priest Pronounces loud anathemas: the fool In vain remarks upon the fact that God Is missing in the world of his belief. Vain are the problems whether space, or time, Or force, or matter can be said to be: Vain are the mysteries of Melchisedec, And vain Methuselah's unusual years. It had a landlady I make no doubt; A friend or two as vacant as itself; A kitchen-bill; a thousand cigarettes; A dog which knew it for the fool it was. Perhaps it was a member of the Union, Who votes as often as he does not speak, And "recommends" as wildly as he spells. Its income was as much beyond its merits As less than its inane expenditure. Its conversation stood to common sense As stands the Sporting Times (its favourite print) To wit or humour. It was seldom drunk, But seldom sober when it went to bed. The mean contents of these superior clothes Were they but duly trained by careful hands, And castigated with remorseless zeal, Endowed with purpose, gifted with a mind, And taught to work, or play, or talk, or laugh, Might possibly aspire—I do not know— To pass, in time, for what they dare to scorn, An ordinary undergraduate. What did this thing crawling 'twixt heaven and earth, Amid the network of our grimy streets? What end was it intended to subserve, What lowly mission fashioned to neglect? It did not seem to wish for a degree, And what its object was I do not know, Unless it was to catch the tardy tram. (James Kenneth Stephen)
I climbed a hill as light fell short,And rooks came home in scramble sort,And filled the trees and flapped and ...
MENALCASWho owns the flock, Damoetas? Meliboeus?DAMOETASNay, they are Aegon's sheep, of late by himCommitted to my care.MENALCAS O every wayUnhappy sheep, ...
There stood an unsold captive in the mart,a gray-haired and majestical old man,chained to a pillar. It was almost night,and ...
WHEN the merry spring-tide Floods all the land;Nature hath a Mother's heart, Gives with open hand;Flowers running up the lane Tell us May ...
INTRODUCTIONThe theme is ancient as the hills, With all their prehistoric glory;But yet of Corney and his friend, We've often longed to tell ...
Education.See Example. Parents and Children.Let no indecent Speech, or Action vile,Be known within the Walls where Youth is bred:Far, far ...
I-The Song Of YouthThis is the song of youth,This is the cause of myself;I knew my father well and he ...
Once Satan and a monk went on a "drunk,"And Satan struck a bargain with the monk,Whereby the Devil's crew was ...
We are accused of terrorism:if we defended rose and womanand the mighty verse...and the blueness of sky...A dominion... nothing left ...
The Jackdaw sat on the Cardinal's chair!Bishop, and abbot, and prior were there;Many a monk, and many a friar,Many a ...
(From "An Idyll of the Wimmera.")On the geodetic line, where the parish boundaries joinAt a level and interminable laneYou can ...
The April house was near a pond; It was made of reeds and of rushes, All helter-skelter and out of kelter, And ringed ...
FROM the heart of Waumbek Methna, from thelake that never fails,Falls the Saco in the green lap of Conway'sintervales;There, in ...
My mother stands at the screen door, laughing."Out out damn Spot," she commands our silly dog.I wonder what this means. ...
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