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A Song (A Cradle Song)
Sweet dreams, form a shade O'er my lovely infant's head! Sweet dreams of pleasant streams By happy, silent, moony beams! Sweet Sleep, with soft down Weave thy brows an infant crown Sweet Sleep, angel
Incident of the French Camp
You know, we French stormed Ratisbon: A mile or so away On a little mound, Napoleon Stood on our storming-day; With neck out-thrust, you fancy how, Legs wide, arms locked behind, As if to balanc
From Cocoon forth a Butterfly
From Cocoon forth a Butterfly As Lady from her Door Emerged -- a Summer Afternoon -- Repairing Everywhere -- Without Design -- that I could trace Except to stray abroad On Miscellaneous Enterprise Th
Human Life's Mystery (excerpt)
We sow the glebe, we reap the corn, We build the house where we may rest, And then, at moments, suddenly, We look up to the great wide sky, Inquiring wherefore we were born... For earnest or for jest?
Holy Sonnet IV: Oh My Black Soul! Now Art Thou Summoned
Oh my black soul! now art thou summoned By sickness, death's herald, and champion; Thou art like a pilgrim, which abroad hath done Treason, and durst not turn to whence he is fled; Or like a thief, wh
The Book of Thel. Part I
The daughters of Mne Seraphim led round their sunny flocks, All but the youngest: she in paleness sought the secret air. To fade away like morning beauty from her mortal day: Down by the river of Adon
Flowers in Winter
How strange to greet, this frosty morn, In graceful counterfeit of flower, These children of the meadows, born Of sunshine and of showers! How well the conscious wood retains The pictures of its flow
A Farewell to the World
FALSE world, good night! since thou hast brought That hour upon my morn of age; Henceforth I quit thee from my thought, My part is ended on thy stage. Yes, threaten, do. Alas! I fear As litt
Sonnet 3: Look in thy glass and tell the face thou viewest
Look in thy glass and tell the face thou viewest Now is the time that face should form another; Whose fresh repair if now thou not renewest, Thou dost beguile the world, unbless some mother. For where
The Light of Stars
The night is come, but not too soon; And sinking silently, All silently, the little moon Drops down behind the sky. There is no light in earth or heaven But the cold light of stars; And the first wat
Holy Sonnet VI: This Is My Play's Last Scene
This is my play's last scene, here heavens appoint My pilgrimage's last mile; and my race Idly, yet quickly run, hath this last pace, My span's last inch, my minute's latest point, And gluttonous deat
I felt my life with both my hands
I felt my life with both my hands To see if it was there -- I held my spirit to the Glass, To prove it possibler -- I turned my Being round and round And paused at every pound To ask the Owner's name
Sonnet 7: Lo! in the orient when the gracious light
Lo! in the orient when the gracious light Lifts up his burning head, each under eye Doth homage to his new-appearing sight, Serving with looks his sacred majesty; And having climb'd the steep-up heave
In Youth I Have Known One
_How often we forget all time, when lone Admiring Nature's universal throne; Her woods--her wilds--her mountains--the intense Reply of Hers to Our intelligence!_ In youth I have known one with whom t
Holy Sonnet III: O Might Those Sighs And Tears Return Again
O might those sighs and tears return again Into my breast and eyes, which I have spent, That I might in this holy discontent Mourn with some fruit, as I have mourned in vain; In mine Idolatry what sho
Lines Inscribed upon a Cup Formed From a Skull
Start not--nor deem my spirit fled: In me behold the only skull, From which, unlike a living head, Whatever flows is never dull. I lived, I loved, I quaff'd, like thee: I died: let earth my bon
The feet of people walking home
The feet of people walking home With gayer sandals go -- The Crocus -- til she rises The Vassal of the snow -- The lips at Hallelujah Long years of practise bore Til bye and bye these Bargemen Walked
Amoretti LXXIV: Most Happy Letters
Most happy letters, fram'd by skilful trade, With which that happy name was first design'd: The which three times thrice happy hath me made, With gifts of body, fortune, and of mind. The first my bein
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
Patriotism 1. Innominatus
BREATHES there the man with soul so dead, Who never to himself hath said, 'This is my own, my native land!' Whose heart hath ne'er within him burn'd As home his footsteps he hath turn'd From wan
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
To Autumn
Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun; Conspiring with him how to load and bless With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run; To bend with apple
The Water-Fall (excerpt)
With what deep murmurs through time's silent stealth Doth thy transparent, cool, and wat'ry wealth Here flowing fall, And chide, and call, As if his liquid, loose retinue stay'd Ling'ring, and were of
Holy Thursday
'Twas on a Holy Thursday, their innocent faces clean, Came children walking two and two, in read, and blue, and green: Grey-headed beadles walked before, with wands as white as snow, Till into the hig