Browse Sermon Illustrations
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The Boy and the Angel
Morning, evening, noon, and night, "Praise God!" sang Theocrite. Then to his poor trade he turned, Whereby the daily meal was earned. Hard he laboured, long and well; O'er his work the boy's curls f
A Summer Evening Churchyard
LECHLADE, GLOUCESTERSHIRE. The wind has swept from the wide atmosphere Each vapour that obscured the sunset's ray; And pallid Evening twines its beaming hair In duskier braids around the languid eyes
Song
Fierce roars the midnight storm O'er the wild mountain, Dark clouds the night deform, Swift rolls the fountain-- See! o'er yon rocky height, Dim mists are flying-- See by the moon's pale light, Poor
Death
Death is here and death is there, Death is busy everywhere, All around, within, beneath, Above is death--and we are death. Death has set his mark and seal On all we are and all we feel, On all we kno
To Romance
Parent of golden dreams, Romance! Auspicious Queen of childish joys, Who lead'st along, in airy dance, Thy votive train of girls and boys; At length, in spells no longer bound, I break the fette
On Another's Sorrow
Can I see another's woe, And not be in sorrow too? Can I see another's grief, And not seek for kind relief? Can I see a falling tear, And not feel my sorrow's share? Can a father see his child Weep,
Youth and Art
It once might have been, once only: We lodged in a street together, You, a sparrow on the housetop lonely, I, a lone she-bird of his feather. Your trade was with sticks and clay, You thumbed, t
Clock-a-Clay
In the cowslip pips I lie, Hidden from the buzzing fly, While green grass beneath me lies, Pearled with dew like fishes' eyes, Here I lie, a clock-a-clay, Waiting for the time of day. While the fores
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’
The Dirge
Old winter was gone In his weakness back to the mountains hoar, And the spring came down From the planet that hovers upon the shore Where the sea of sunlight encroaches On the limits of wintry night;
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
On Death
THERE IS NO WORK, NOR DEVICE, NOR KNOWLEDGE, NOR WISDOM, IN THE GRAVE, WHITHER THOU GOEST.--Ecclesiastes. The pale, the cold, and the moony smile Which the meteor beam of a starless night Sheds on a
My Faith is larger than the Hills --
My Faith is larger than the Hills -- So when the Hills decay -- My Faith must take the Purple Wheel To show the Sun the way -- 'Tis first He steps upon the Vane -- And then -- upon the Hill -- And th
Liberty
The fiery mountains answer each other; Their thunderings are echoed from zone to zone; The tempestuous oceans awake one another, And the ice-rocks are shaken round Winter's throne, When the clarion of
Invocation to Misery
Come, be happy!--sit near me, Shadow-vested Misery: Coy, unwilling, silent bride, Mourning in thy robe of pride, Desolation--deified! Come, be happy!--sit near me: Sad as I may seem to thee, I am hap
I Wake And Feel The Fell Of Dark, Not Day
I wake and feel the fell of dark, not day. What hours, O what black hours we have spent This night! what sights you, heart, saw; ways you went! And more must, in yet longer light's delay. With witnes
Hymn of Apollo
The sleepless Hours who watch me as I lie, Curtained with star-inwoven tapestries From the broad moonlight of the sky, Fanning the busy dreams from my dim eyes,-- Waken me when their Mother, the gray
Fill the Goblet Again. a Song
Fill the goblet again! for I never before Felt the glow which now gladdens my heart to its core; Let us drink!--who would not?--since, through life's varied round, In the goblet alone no deception is
The Indian Serenade
I arise from dreams of thee In the first sweet sleep of night, When the winds are breathing low, And the stars are shining bright: I arise from dreams of thee, And a spirit in my feet Hath led me--who
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
Summer and Winter
It was a bright and cheerful afternoon, Towards the end of the sunny month of June, When the north wind congregates in crowds The floating mountains of the silver clouds From the horizon--and the stai
On the Medusa of Leonardo Da Vinci in the Florentine Gallery
It lieth, gazing on the midnight sky, Upon the cloudy mountain-peak supine; Below, far lands are seen tremblingly; Its horror and its beauty are divine. Upon its lips and eyelids seems to lie Loveline
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
Braggart
With careful step to keep his balance up He reels on warily along the street, Slabbering at mouth and with a staggering stoop Mutters an angry look at all he meets. Bumptious and vain and proud he sho