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The Deserted Village (excerpt)
Sweet Auburn! loveliest village of the plain, Where health and plenty cheered the labouring swain, Where smiling spring its earliest visits paid, And parting summer's lingering blooms delayed: Dear lo
To a Youthful Friend
Few years have pass'd since thou and I Were firmest friends, at least in name, And Childhood's gay sincerity Preserved our feelings long the same. But now, like me, too well thou know'st What t
Psalm XXXII: Happy the Man
Happy the man to whom his God No more imputes his sin, But, washed in the Redeemer's blood, Hath made his garments clean. Happy beyond expression he Who debts are thus discharged; And from the guilty
Holy Sonnet VIII: If Faithful Souls Be Alike Glorified
If faithful souls be alike glorified As angels, then my fathers soul doth see, And adds this even to full felicity, That valiantly I hells wide mouth o'erstride: But if our minds to these souls be des
Holy Sonnet VII: At The Round Earth's Imagined Corners Blow
At the round earth's imagined corners blow Your trumpets, angels, and arise, arise From death, you numberless infinities Of souls, and to your scattered bodies go, All whom the flood did, and fire sha
Holy Sonnet XI: Spit In My Face You Jews, And Pierce My Side
Spit in my face you Jews, and pierce my side, Buffet, and scoff, scourge, and crucify me, For I have sinned, and sinned, and only he Who could do no iniquity hath died: But by my death can not be sati
Sonnet 75 (Amoretti)
One day I wrote her name upon the strand, But came the waves and washed it away: Agayne I wrote it with a second hand, But came the tyde, and made my paynes his pray. "Vayne man," sayd she, "that does
Lines on Hearing That Lady Byron Was Ill
And thou wert sad--yet I was not with thee; And thou wert sick, and yet I was not near; Methought that Joy and Health alone could be Where I was _not_--and pain and sorrow here! And is it thus?--i
The Hound of Heaven (excerpt)
I fled Him down the nights and down the days I fled Him down the arches of the years I fled Him down the labyrinthine ways Of my own mind, and in the midst of tears I hid from him, and under running l
Summer Evening (excerpt)
The sinking sun is taking leave, And sweetly gilds the edge of Eve, While huddling clouds of purple dye Gloomy hang the western sky. Crows crowd croaking over head, Hastening to the woods to bed. Cooi
Sonnet 40 - Oh, yes! they love through all this world of ours!
Oh, yes! they love through all this world of ours! I will not gainsay love, called love forsooth. I have heard love talked in my early youth, And since, not so long back but that the flowers Then gath
Blow, Blow, Thou Winter Wind
Blow, blow, thou winter wind Thou art not so unkind As man's ingratitude; Thy tooth is not so keen, Because thou art not seen, Although thy breath be rude. Heigh-ho! sing, heigh-ho! unto the green ho
The Book of Thel. Part IV
The eternal gates terrific porter lifted the northern bar: Thel enter'd in & saw the secrets of the land unknown; She saw the couches of the dead, & where the fibrous roots Of every heart on earth inf
Sonnet 23 - Is it indeed so? If I lay here dead
Is it indeed so? If I lay here dead, Wouldst thou miss any life in losing mine? And would the sun for thee more coldly shine Because of grave-damps falling round my head? I marvelled, my Beloved, when
For Annie
Thank Heaven! the crisis-- The danger is past, And the lingering illness Is over at last-- And the fever called "Living" Is conquered at last. Sadly, I know, I am shorn of my strength, And no
From Vergil's Tenth Eclogue
[VERSES 1-26.] Melodious Arethusa, o'er my verse Shed thou once more the spirit of thy stream: Who denies verse to Gallus? So, when thou Glidest beneath the green and purple gleam Of Syracusan waters
Psalm XIX: The Heavens Declare Thy Glory, Lord
The heavens declare thy glory, Lord, In every star thy wisdom shines; But when our eyes behold thy word, We read thy name in fairer lines. The rolling sun, the changing light, And night and day, thy
Euthanasia
When Time, or soon or late, shall bring The dreamless sleep that lulls the dead, Oblivion! may thy languid wing Wave gently o'er my dying bed! No band of friends or heirs be there, To weep, or
394. Song—Braw Lads o’ Gala Water
BRAW, braw lads on Yarrow-braes, They rove amang the blooming heather; But Yarrow braes, nor Ettrick shaws Can match the lads o’ Galla Water. But there is ane, a secret ane, Aboon them a’ I lo
278. On the late Captain Grose’s Peregrinations
HEAR, Land o’ Cakes, and brither Scots, Frae Maidenkirk to Johnie Groat’s;— If there’s a hole in a’ your coats, I rede you tent it: A chield’s amang you takin notes,
Going to Him! Happy letter!
Going to Him! Happy letter! Tell Him -- Tell Him the page I didn't write -- Tell Him -- I only said the Syntax -- And left the Verb and the pronoun out -- Tell Him just how the fingers hurried -- The
155. Epistle to Mrs. Scott of Wauchope House
GUDEWIFE,I MIND it weel in early date, When I was bardless, young, and blate, An’ first could thresh the barn, Or haud a yokin’ at the pleugh; An, tho’ forfoughten sair eneugh, Yet unco proud to l
Epilogue
THERE'S something in a stupid ass, And something in a heavy dunce; But never since I went to school I heard or saw so damned a fool As William Wordsworth is for once. And now I've seen so great a
To My Brothers
Small, busy flames play through the fresh-laid coals, And their faint cracklings o'er our silence creep Like whispers of the household gods that keep A gentle empire o'er fraternal souls. And while fo