Browse Sermon Illustrations
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I thought that nature was enough
I thought that nature was enough Till Human nature came But that the other did absorb As Parallax a Flame -- Of Human nature just aware There added the Divine Brief struggle for capacity The power to
The Conquest
THE Son of Love and Lord of War I sing; Him who bade England bow to Normandy, And left the name of Conqueror more than King To his unconquerable dynasty. Not fanned alone by Victory's fleeting win
To My Mother
You too, my mother, read my rhymes For love of unforgotten times, And you may chance to hear once more The little feet along the floor.
The Angler Rose, He Took His Rod
THE angler rose, he took his rod, He kneeled and made his prayers to God. The living God sat overhead: The angler tripped, the eels were fed
Spring Song
THE air was full of sun and birds, The fresh air sparkled clearly. Remembrance wakened in my heart And I knew I loved her dearly. The fallows and the leafless trees And all my spirit tingled. My earl
Bed in Summer
In winter I get up at night And dress by yellow candle-light. In summer quite the other way, I have to go to bed by day. I have to go to bed and see The birds still hopping on the tree, Or hear the g
To Friends At Home
TO friends at home, the lone, the admired, the lost The gracious old, the lovely young, to May The fair, December the beloved, These from my blue horizon and green isles, These from this pinnacle of d
What General has a Good Army.
WHAT General has a good army in himself, has a good army; He happy in himself, or she happy in herself, is happy, But I tell you you cannot be happy by others, any more than you can beget or conceive
Fragment: Sufficient Unto the Day
Is not to-day enough? Why do I peer Into the darkness of the day to come? Is not to-morrow even as yesterday? And will the day that follows change thy doom? Few flowers grow upon thy wintry way; And w
Nature assigns the Sun --
Nature assigns the Sun -- That -- is Astronomy -- Nature cannot enact a Friend -- That -- is Astrology.
Fragment: Rain
The fitful alternations of the rain, When the chill wind, languid as with pain Of its own heavy moisture, here and there Drives through the gray and beamless atmosphere.
Napoleon's Snuff-Box
LADY, accept the box a hero wore, In spite of all this elegiac stuff: Let not seven stanzas written by a bore, Prevent your Ladyship from taking snuff!
Fragment: Home
Dear home, thou scene of earliest hopes and joys, The least of which wronged Memory ever makes Bitterer than all thine unremembered tears.
"Nature" is what we see --
"Nature" is what we see -- The Hill -- the Afternoon -- Squirrel -- Eclipse -- the Bumble bee -- Nay -- Nature is Heaven -- Nature is what we hear -- The Bobolink -- the Sea -- Thunder -- the Cricket
Oh Future! thou secreted peace
Oh Future! thou secreted peace Or subterranean woe -- Is there no wandering route of grace That leads away from thee -- No circuit sage of all the course Descried by cunning Men To balk thee of thy sa
Fragment: To the People of England
People of England, ye who toil and groan, Who reap the harvests which are not your own, Who weave the clothes which your oppressors wear, And for your own take the inclement air; Who build warm houses
Fragment: 'Follow to the Deep Wood's Weeds'
Follow to the deep wood's weeds, Follow to the wild-briar dingle, Where we seek to intermingle, And the violet tells her tale To the odour-scented gale, For they two have enough to do Of such work as
Fragment: 'The Viewless and Invisible Consequence'
The viewless and invisible Consequence Watches thy goings-out, and comings-in, And...hovers o'er thy guilty sleep, Unveiling every new-born deed, and thoughts More ghastly than those deeds--
Beautiful Women.
WOMEN sit, or move to and fro—some old, some young; The young are beautiful—but the old are more beautiful than the young.
Fragment: Love's Tender Atmosphere
There is a warm and gentle atmosphere About the form of one we love, and thus As in a tender mist our spirits are Wrapped in the ... of that which is to us The health of life's own life--
This Moment, Yearning and Thoughtful.
THIS moment yearning and thoughtful, sitting alone, It seems to me there are other men in other lands, yearning and thoughtful; It seems to me I can look over and behold them, in Germany, Italy, Franc
"Faithful to the end" Amended
"Faithful to the end" Amended From the Heavenly Clause -- Constancy with a Proviso Constancy abhors -- "Crowns of Life" are servile Prizes To the stately Heart, Given for the Giving, solely, No Emolu
Fragment: Wedded Souls
I am as a spirit who has dwelt Within his heart of hearts, and I have felt His feelings, and have thought his thoughts, and known The inmost converse of his soul, the tone Unheard but in the silence o
As the Time Draws Nigh.
1 AS the time draws nigh, glooming, a cloud, A dread beyond, of I know not what, darkens me. I shall go forth, I shall traverse The States awhile—but I cannot tell whither or how long; Perhaps soon,