Title Poet Year Written Collection Body
“How doth the little busy bee” Isaac Watts 1694 English

How doth the little busy bee
  Improve each shining hour,
And gather honey all the day
  From every opening flower.

How skilfully she builds her cell;
  How neat she spreads her wax,
And labors hard to store it well
  With the sweet food...

“How sleep the brave” William Collins 1741 English

How sleep the brave who sink to rest
By all their country’s wishes blest!
When Spring, with dewy fingers cold,
Returns to deck their hallowed mold,
She there shall dress a sweeter sod
Than Fancy’s feet have ever trod.

By fairy hands their knell...

“How ’s my boy?” Sydney Dobell 1844 English

“ho, sailor of the sea!
How ’s my boy—my boy?”
“What ’s your boy’s name, good wife,
And in what ship sailed he?”

“My boy John—
He that went to sea—
What care I for the ship, sailor?
My boy ’s my boy to me.

“You come back from...

“I dreamt I saw great Venus” Bion of Smyrna English

From the Greek by Leigh Hunt
I DREAMT I saw great Venus by me stand,
Leading a nodding infant by the hand;
And that she said to me familiarly—
“Take Love, and teach him how to play to me.”
She vanished then. And I, poor fool, must turn
To teach the...

“I fear thy kisses, gentle maiden” Percy Bysshe Shelley 1812 English

I Fear thy kisses, gentle maiden;
  Thou needest not fear mine;
My spirit is too deeply laden
  Ever to burden thine.

I fear thy mien, thy tones, thy motion;
  Thou needest not fear mine;
Innocent is the heart’s devotion
  With which I...

“I gave my life for thee” Frances Ridley Havergal English

I Gave my life for thee,
  My precious blood I shed
That thou might’st ransomed be,
  And quickened from the dead.
I gave my life for thee;
What hast thou given for me?

I spent long years for thee
  In weariness and woe,
That an...

“I knew by the smoke that so gracefully curled” Thomas Moore 1799 English

I Knew by the smoke that so gracefully curled
  Above the green elms, that a cottage was near,
And I said, “If there ’s peace to be found in the world,
  A heart that is humble might hope for it here!”

It was noon, and on flowers that languished around...

“I love my Jean” Robert Burns 1779 English

Of a’ the airts 1 the wind can blaw,
  I dearly like the west;
For there the bonnie lassie lives,
  The lassie I lo’e best.
There wild woods grow, and rivers row,
  And monie a hill ’s between;
But day and night my fancy’s flight
  Is ever...

“I prithee send me back my heart” Sir John Suckling 1629 English

I Prithee send me back my heart,
  Since I cannot have thine;
For if from yours you will not part,
  Why then shouldst thou have mine?

Yet, now I think on ’t, let it lie;
  To find it were in vain;
For thou ’st a thief in either eye
  ...

“I remember, I remember” Thomas Hood 1819 English

I Remember, I remember
  The house where I was born,
The little window where the sun
  Came peeping in at morn.
He never came a wink too soon,
  Nor brought too long a day;
But now I often wish the night
  Had borne my breath away!

...
“I saw Thee” Ray Palmer English

“When thou wast under the fig-tree, I saw thee.”—JOHN i. 48.

I SAW thee when, as twilight fell,
  And evening lit her fairest star,
Thy footsteps sought yon quiet dell,
  The world’s confusion left afar.

I saw thee when thou stood’st alone,
  ...

“I saw two clouds at morning” John Gardiner Calkins Brainard English

I Saw two clouds at morning,
  Tinged by the rising sun,
And in the dawn they floated on,
  And mingled into one;
I thought that morning cloud was blest,
It moved so sweetly to the west.

I saw two summer currents
  Flow smoothly to their...

“I would I were an excellent divine” Nicholas Breton 1562 English

I Would I were an excellent divine,
  That had the Bible at my fingers’ ends;
That men might hear out of this mouth of mine
  How God doth make his enemies his friends;
Rather than with a thundering and long prayer
Be led into presumption, or despair....

“I would not live alway” William Augustus Muhlenberg English

I Would not live alway—live alway below!
Oh no, I ’ll not linger when bidden to go:
The days of our pilgrimage granted us here
Are enough for life’s woes, full enough for its cheer:
Would I shrink from the path which the prophets of God,
Apostles, and...

“If doughty deeds my lady please” Robert Graham of Gartmore English

If doughty deeds my lady please,
  Right soon I ’ll mount my steed,
And strong his arm and fast his seat
  That bears frae me the meed.
I ’ll wear thy colors in my cap,
  Thy picture at my heart,
And he that bends not to thine eye
  Shall...

“If I should die to-night” Belle E. Smith English

                IF I should die to-night,
My friends would look upon my quiet face
Before they laid it in its resting-place,
And deem that death had left it almost fair;
And, laying snow-white flowers against my hair,
Would smooth it down with tearful...

“If it be true that any beauteous thing” Michaelangelo English

From the Italian by John Edward Taylor
IF it be true that any beauteous thing
Raises the pure and just desire of man
From earth to God, the eternal fount of all,
Such I believe my love; for as in her
So fair, in whom I all besides forget,
I view the...

“If thou wert by my side, my love” Reginald Heber English

Lines Written to His Wife, While on a Visit to Upper India

IF thou wert by my side, my love!
  How fast would evening fail
In green Bengala’s palmy grove,
  Listening the nightingale!

If thou, my love, wert by my side,
  My babies at my knee,...

“If we had but a day” Mary Lowe Dickinson 1859 English

We should fill the hours with the sweetest things,
        If we had but a day;
We should drink alone at the purest springs
        In our upward way;
We should love with a lifetime’s love in an hour,
        If the hours were few;
We should rest,...

“If we knew” May Riley Smith 1862 English

Or, Blessings of To-day
IF we knew the woe and heart-ache
  That await us on the road;
If our lips could taste the wormwood,
  If our backs could feel the load;
Would we waste to-day in wishing
  For a time that ne’er may be?
Would we wait...