English Poems – Page 336

More English Poems

• An Autograph

  O’er the wet sands an insect crept
  Ages ere man on earth was known—
  And patient Time, while Nature slept, …

  James Russell Lowell

• Art

  I.
  art’s use; what is it but to touch the springs
  Of nature? But to hold a torch up for …

  Sir Gilbert Parker

• Genius

  Far out at sea—the sun was high,
  While veered the wind, and flapped the sail—
  We saw a snow-white butterfly …

  Richard Henry Hengist Horne

• Books

  For why, who writes such histories as these
  Doth often bring the reader’s heart such ease,
  As when they sit and see what he doth note, …

  John Higgins

• Music

  From “The Merchant of Venice,” Act V. Sc. 1.
  LORENZO.—How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank!
  Here will we sit, and let the sounds of music …

  William Shakespeare

• To ——

  Music, when soft voices die,
  Vibrates in the memory,—
  Odors, when sweet violets sicken, …

  Percy Bysshe Shelley

• Invocation

  From “The Davideis”
  AWAKE, awake, my Lyre!
  And tell thy silent master’s humble tale …

  Abraham Cowley

• “The Man with the Hoe”

  Written after Seeing Millet’s World-Famous Painting
  “God made man in His own image,
  In the image of God made He him.” …

  Edwin Markham

• Work

  Let me but do my work from day to day,
  In field or forest, at the desk or loom,
  In roaring market-place, or tranquil room; …

  Henry Van Dyke

• A Wish

  This only grant me, that my means may lie
  Too low for envy, for contempt too high.
  Some honor I would have, …

  Abraham Cowley

• Content

  From “Farewell to Follie,” 1617
  SWEET are the thoughts that savor of content;
  The quiet mind is richer than a crown; …

  Robert Greene

• In Prison

  Beat on, proud billows; Boreas, blow;
  Swell, curlèd waves, high as Jove’s roof;
  Your incivility doth show …

  Sir Roger L’Estrange

• Contentment

  “Man wants but little here below.”
  LITTLE I ask; my wants are few;
  I only wish a hut of stone, …

  Oliver Wendell Holmes

• Rest

  TO spend the long warm days
  Silent beside the silent-stealing streams,
  To see, not gaze,— …

  Margaret L. Woods

• Sleep

  Come, gentle sleep! attend thy votary’s prayer,
  And, though death’s image, to my couch repair;
  How sweet, though lifeless, yet with life to lie, …

  John Wolcot

• Sleep

  From “Second Part of Henry IV.,” Act III. Sc. 1.
  KING HENRY.—How many thousand of my poorest subjects
  Are at this hour asleep!—O sleep! O gentle sleep! …

  William Shakespeare

• Watching

  In Burmah
  SLEEP, love, sleep!
  The dusty day is done. …

  Emily Chubbuck Judson

• Abraham Lincoln

  From the Harvard Commemoration Ode, July 21, 1865
  LIFE may be given in many ways,
  And loyalty to Truth be sealed …

  James Russell Lowell

• George Sand

  True genius, but true woman! dost deny
  Thy woman’s nature with a manly scorn,
  And break away the gauds and armlets worn …

  Elizabeth Barrett Browning

• Shakespeare

  From “Prologue”
  [Spoken by Mr. Garrick at the opening of the Theatre in Drury Lane, in 1747.]
  WHEN Learning’s triumph o’er her barbarous foes …

  Samuel Johnson

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