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To Diane de Poitiers |
Clément Marot |
1516 |
English |
From the French by Louise Stuart Costello
FAREWELL! since vain is all my care,
Far, in some desert rude,
I ’ll hide my weakness, my despair:
And, ’midst my solitude,
I ’ll pray, that, should another move thee,
He may as fondly, truly love thee... |
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To Dianeme |
Robert Herrick |
1611 |
English |
Sweet, be not proud of those two eyes,
Which starlike sparkle in their skies;
Nor be you proud that you can see
All hearts your captives, yours yet free.
Be you not proud of that rich hair,
Which wantons with the lovesick air;
Whenas that ruby... |
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To die — takes just a little while — |
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English |
To die — takes just a little while —
They say it doesn't hurt —
It's only fainter — by degrees —
And then — it's out of sight —
A darker Ribbon — for a Day —
A Crape upon the Hat —
And then the... |
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To die — without the Dying |
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English |
To die — without the Dying
And live — without the Life
This is the hardest Miracle
Propounded to Belief.
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To disappear enhances — |
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To disappear enhances —
The Man that runs away
Is tinctured for an instant
With Immortality
But yesterday a Vagrant —
Today in Memory lain
With superstitious value
We tamper with "Again"... |
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To do a magnanimous thing |
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English |
To do a magnanimous thing
And take oneself by surprise
If oneself is not in the habit of him
Is precisely the finest of Joys —
Not to do a magnanimous thing
Notwithstanding it never be known
... |
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To Dr. ---- (Botta) |
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English |
I know those subtle elements
Thou dost administer,
Have power to stay the parting breath,
The languid pulse to stir.
And not less potent is thy smile,
... |
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To Duty |
Thomas Wentworth Higginson |
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English |
Light of dim mornings; shield from heat and cold;
Balm for all ailments; substitute for praise;
Comrade of those who plod in lonely ways
(Ways that grow lonelier as the years wax old);
Tonic for fears; check to the over-bold;
Nurse, whose calm hand as... |
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To earn it by disdaining it |
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English |
To earn it by disdaining it
Is Fame's consummate Fee —
He loves what spurns him —
Look behind — He is pursuing thee.
So let us gather — every Day —
The Aggregate of
Life's Bouquet
Be... |
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To Elizabeth Barrett Browning |
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I have not met thee in this outward world,
Bounded by time and space; but in that realm,
O'er which imagination holds her reign,
There have I seen thy spirit face to face,
Majestic, and yet... |
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To Emma (Botta) |
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English |
I look within those deep, dark, lustrous eyes,
And there I read thy heart's sweet mysteries;
There, like those lakes that mirror earth and sky,
The lights and shadows of the future lie.
... |
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To England |
George Henry Boker |
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English |
Lear and Cordelia! ’t was an ancient tale
Before thy Shakespeare gave it deathless fame:
The times have changed, the moral is the same.
So like an outcast, dowerless, and pale,
Thy daughter went; and in a foreign gale
Spread her young banner, till its sway... |
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To England |
Charles Leonard Moore |
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English |
Now england lessens on my sight;
The bastioned front of Wales,
Discolored and indefinite,
There like a cloud-wreath sails:
A league, and all those thronging hills
Must sink beneath the sea;
But while one touch of Memory thrills,
... |
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To English Connoisseurs |
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English |
To English Connoisseurs
You must agree that Rubens was a Fool
And yet you make him master of Your School
And give more money for his Slobberings
Than you will give for Rafaels finest Things
... |
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To Euthalia. Written in the year 1728. |
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BURNING with love, tormented with despair,
Unable to forget or ease his care;
In vain each practis'd art Alexis tries;
In vain to books, to wine or women flies;
Each brings Euthalia's image to his eyes.... |
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To F.J.S. |
Robert Louis Stevenson |
1870 |
Love |
I read, dear friend, in your dear face
Your life’s tale told with perfect grace;
The river of your life, I trace
Up the sun-chequered, devious bed
To the far-distant fountain-head.
Not one quick beat of your warm heart,
Nor thought that came to you apart,... |
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To Faustine |
Arthur Colton |
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English |
Something, it may be, you and I
In some deserted yard will lie
Where Memory fades away;
Caring no more for Love his dreams,
Busy with new and alien themes,
The saints and sages say.
But let our graves be side by side,
So idlers may at... |
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To Fidessa |
Bartholomew Griffin |
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English |
From Fidessa
TONGUE! never cease to sing Fidessa’s praise;
Heart! howe’er she deserve, conceive the best;
Eyes! stand amazed to see her beauty’s rays;
Lips! steal one kiss and be for ever blessed;
Hands! touch that hand wherein your life is closed;
... |
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To fight aloud, is very brave — |
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English |
To fight aloud is very brave,
But gallanter, I know,
Who charge within the bosom,
The cavalry of woe.
Who win, and nations do not see,
... |
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To fill a Gap |
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To fill a Gap
Insert the Thing that caused it —
Block it up
With Other — and 'twill yawn the more —
You cannot solder an Abyss
With Air.
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