|
The Present Crisis |
James Russell Lowell |
|
English |
When a deed is done for Freedom, through the broad earth’s aching breast
Runs a thrill of joy prophetic, trembling on from east to west,
And the slave, where’er he cowers, feels the soul within him climb
To the awful verge of manhood, as the energy sublime
Of a... |
|
The Present Good |
William Cowper |
1751 |
English |
From “The Task,” Book VI.
NOT to understand a treasure’s worth
Till time has stol’n away the slighted good,
Is cause of half the poverty we feel,
And makes the world the wilderness it is.
|
|
The Pretty Girl of Loch Dan |
Samuel Ferguson |
|
English |
The Shades of eve had crossed the glen
That frowns o’er infant Avonmore,
When, nigh Loch Dan, two weary men,
We stopped before a cottage door.
“God save all here,” my comrade cries,
And rattles on the raised latch-pin;
“God save you kindly... |
|
The pretty Rain from those sweet Eaves |
|
|
|
The pretty Rain from those sweet Eaves
Her unintending Eyes —
Took her own Heart, including ours,
By innocent Surprise —
The wrestle in her simple Throat
To hold the feeling down
That vanquished her... |
|
The Price. To The Same. |
|
|
English |
CAN there on earth, my Celia, be
A price I would not pay for thee?
Yes, one dear precious tear of thine
Should not be shed to make thee mine.
|
|
The Primeval Forest |
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow |
1827 |
English |
From “Evangeline,” Introduction
THIS is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks,
Bearded with moss, and in garments green, indistinct in the twilight,
Stand like Druids of eld, with voices sad and prophetic,
Stand like harpers hoar, with beards... |
|
The Primrose, Being at Montgomery Castle, Upon the Hill, on Which It Is Situate |
|
|
English |
UPON this Primrose hill,
Where, if heaven would distil
A shower of rain, each several drop might go
To his own primrose, and grow manna so... |
|
The Princess |
Björnstjerne Björnson |
1852 |
English |
From the Norwegian by Nathan Haskell Dole
THE PRINCESS sat lone in her maiden bower,
The lad blew his horn at the foot of the tower.
“Why playest thou alway? Be silent, I pray,
It fetters my thoughts that would flee far away,
As the sun goes down... |
|
The Prisoner of Chillon |
Lord Byron |
|
English |
Eternal spirit of the chainless mind!
Brightest in dungeons, Liberty! thou art,
For there thy habitation is the heart,—
The heart which love of thee alone can bind;
And when thy sons to fetters are consigned,—
To fetters, and the damp vault’s dayless gloom... |
|
The Private of the Buffs |
Sir Francis Hastings Doyle |
1830 |
English |
Or, the British Soldier in China
[“Some Seiks, and a private of the Buffs, 1 having remained behind with the grog carts, fell into the hands of the Chinese. On the next day they were brought before the authorities and ordered to perform Kotou. The Seiks obeyed, but Moyse,... |
|
The Problem |
Ralph Waldo Emerson |
1823 |
English |
I like a church; I like a cowl;
I love a prophet of the soul;
And on my heart monastic aisles
Fall like sweet strains, or pensive smiles:
Yet not for all his faith can see
Would I that cowlëd churchman be.
Why should the vest on him allure,... |
|
The Problem |
Ralph Waldo Emerson |
1823 |
English |
I Like a church; I like a cowl;
I love a prophet of the soul;
And on my heart monastic aisles
Fall like sweet strains or pensive smiles;
Yet not for all his faith can see
Would I that cowlèd churchman be.
Why should the vest on him allure,... |
|
The Products of my Farm are these |
|
|
|
The Products of my Farm are these
Sufficient for my Own
And here and there a Benefit
Unto a Neighbor's Bin.
With Us, 'tis Harvest all the Year
For when the Frosts begin
We just reverse the Zodiac... |
|
The Prohibition |
|
|
|
TAKE heed of loving me;
At least remember, I forbade it thee;
Not that I shall repair my unthrifty waste
Of breath and blood, upon thy sighs and tears,
By being to thee then... |
|
The Props assist the House |
|
|
|
The Props assist the House
Until the House is built
And then the Props withdraw
And adequate, erect,
The House support itself
And cease to recollect
The Auger and the Carpenter —
Just such a... |
|
The Prospect |
Elizabeth Barrett Browning |
1826 |
English |
Methinks we do as fretful children do,
Leaning their faces on the window-pane
To sigh the glass dim with their own breath’s stain,
And shut the sky and landscape from their view;
And, thus, alas! since God the maker drew
A mystic separation ’twixt... |
|
The Proud Miss MacBride |
John Godfrey Saxe |
|
English |
A Legend of Gotham
O, TERRIBLY proud was Miss MacBride,
The very personification of pride,
As she minced along in fashion’s tide,
Adown Broadway—on the proper side—
When the golden sun was setting;
There was pride in the head she carried so high... |
|
The Province of the Saved |
|
|
English |
The Province of the Saved
Should be the Art — To save —
Through Skill obtained in Themselves —
The Science of the Grave
No Man can understand
But He that hath endured
The Dissolution — in Himself —... |
|
The Pumpkin |
John Greenleaf Whittier |
1827 |
English |
O, Greenly and fair in the lands of the sun,
The vines of the gourd and the rich melon run,
And the rock and the tree and the cottage enfold,
With broad leaves all greenness and blossoms all gold,
Like that which o’er Nineveh’s prophet once grew,
While he... |
|
The pungent atom in the Air |
|
|
English |
The pungent atom in the Air
Admits of no debate —
All that is named of Summer Days
Relinquished our Estate —
For what Department of Delight
As positive are we
As Limit of Dominion
Or Dams... |
