Browse Sermon Illustrations
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Sonnet 20: A woman's face with nature's own hand painted
A woman's face with nature's own hand painted, Hast thou, the master mistress of my passion; A woman's gentle heart, but not acquainted With shifting change, as is false women's fashion: An eye more b
Sonnet 105: Let not my love be call'd idolatry
Let not my love be call'd idolatry, Nor my beloved as an idol show, Since all alike my songs and praises be To one, of one, still such, and ever so. Kind is my love to-day, to-morrow kind, Still const
Sonnet 116: Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Let me not to the marriage of true minds Admit impediments. Love is not love Which alters when it alteration finds, Or bends with the remover to remove: O, no! it is an ever-fixed mark, That looks on
Holy Sonnet I: Tho Has Made Me
Tho has 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
Sonnet 98: From you have I been absent in the spring
From you have I been absent in the spring, When proud-pied April, dress'd in all his trim, Hath put a spirit of youth in every thing, That heavy Saturn laugh'd and leap'd with him. Yet nor the lays of
Sonnet 80: O! how I faint when I of you do write
O! how I faint when I of you do write, Knowing a better spirit doth use your name, And in the praise thereof spends all his might, To make me tongue-tied speaking of your fame! But since your worth--w
Well! Thou Art Happy
Well! thou art happy, and I feel That I should thus be happy too; For still my heart regards thy weal Warmly, as it was wont to do. Thy husband's blest--and 'twill impart Some pangs to view his
Remember Him, Whom Passion's Power
Remember him, whom Passion's power Severely--deeply--vainly proved: Remember thou that dangerous hour, When neither fell, though both were loved. That yielding breast, that melting eye, Too muc
Sonnet 142: Love is my sin, and thy dear virtue hate
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
Ossian's Address to the Sun in "Carthon."
Oh! thou that roll'st above thy glorious Fire, Round as the shield which grac'd my godlike Sire, Whence are the beams, O Sun! thy endless blaze, Which far eclipse each minor Glory's rays? Forth in thy
Easter Day
The silver trumpets rang across the Dome: The people knelt upon the ground with awe: And borne upon the necks of men I saw, Like some great God, the Holy Lord of Rome. Priest-like, he wore a robe more
The Chimney-Sweeper
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, and in soot I sleep. There's little Tom Dacre, w
Sonnet 1: From fairest creatures we desire increase
From fairest creatures we desire increase, That thereby beauty's rose might never die, But as the riper should by time decease, His tender heir might bear his memory: But thou contracted to thine own
That Music Always Round Me.
THAT music always round me, unceasing, unbeginning—yet long untaught I did not hear; But now the chorus I hear, and am elated; A tenor, strong, ascending, with power and health, with glad notes of day
Pensive on Her Dead Gazing, I Heard the Mother of All.
PENSIVE, on her dead gazing, I heard the Mother of All, Desperate, on the torn bodies, on the forms covering the battle-fields gazing; (As the last gun ceased—but the scent of the powder-smoke linger’
Warble for Lilac-Time.
WARBLE me now, for joy of Lilac-time, Sort me, O tongue and lips, for Nature’s sake, and sweet life’s sake—and death’s the same as life’s, Souvenirs of earliest summer—birds’ eggs, and the first ber
Out of the Rolling Ocean, the Crowd.
1 OUT of the rolling ocean, the crowd, came a drop gently to me, Whispering, I love you, before long I die, I have travel’d a long way, merely to look on you, to touch you, For I could not die till I
On Parting
The kiss, dear maid! thy lip has left Shall never part from mine, Till happier hours restore the gift Untainted back to thine. Thy parting glance, which fondly beams, An equal love may see: The
Sonnet to Byron
If I esteemed you less, Envy would kill Pleasure, and leave to Wonder and Despair The ministration of the thoughts that fill The mind which, like a worm whose life may share A portion of the unapproac
Poem of Remembrance for a Girl or a Boy.
YOU just maturing youth! You male or female! Remember the organic compact of These States, Remember the pledge of the Old Thirteen thenceforward to the rights, life, liberty, equality of man, Re
Song for All Seas, All Ships.
1 TO-DAY a rude brief recitative, Of ships sailing the Seas, each with its special flag or ship-signal; Of unnamed heroes in the ships—Of waves spreading and spreading, far as the eye can reach; Of d
The Book of Thel. Part III
Then Thel astonish'd view'd the Worm upon its dewy bed. Art thou a Worm? image of weakness, art thou but a Worm? I see thee like an infant wrapped in the Lillys leaf; Ah weep not little voice, thou
Matilda Gathering Flowers
FROM THE PURGATORIO OF DANTE, CANTO 28, LINES 1-51. And earnest to explore within--around-- The divine wood, whose thick green living woof Tempered the young day to the sight--I wound Up the green s
Apparent Failure
No, for I'll save it! Seven years since I passed through Paris, stopped a day To see the baptism of your Prince, Saw, made my bow, and went my way: Walking the heat and headache off, I took the