Poem Lake | Page 3889 | The Greatest Poems of All Time

To own a Susan of my own

To own a Susan of my own

Is of itself a Bliss —

Whatever Realm I forfeit, Lord,

Continue me in this!
To own the Art within the Soul

To own the Art within the Soul

The Soul to entertain

With Silence as a Company

And Festival maintain

Is an unfurnished Circumstance

Possession is to One

As an Estate perpetual

Or a reduceless Mine.
To Peter Cooper

          The Pyramids of Egypt, even to-day

             The wonder of the world, stupendous stand

          In their material greatness, and defy

             Alike relentless Time and Libyan sand.

          But what great thought through those grim structures smiles?

          What Aspiration reared those...
To pile like Thunder to its close

To pile like Thunder to its close

Then crumble grand away

While Everything created hid

This — would be Poetry —

Or Love — the two coeval come —

We both and neither prove —

Experience either and consume —

For None see God and live —
To put this World down, like a Bundle —

To put this World down, like a Bundle —

And walk steady, away,

Requires Energy — possibly Agony —

'Tis the Scarlet way

Trodden with straight renunciation

By the Son of God —

Later, his faint Confederates

Justify the Road —

Flavors of that old Crucifixion —

...
To Rembrandt

  As in that twilight, superstitious age

When all beyond the narrow grasp of mind

Seem'd fraught with meanings of supernal kind,

  When e'en the learned, philosophic sage,

Wont with the stars through boundless space to range,

  Listen'd with reverence to the changeling's tale;

E'en so, thou strangest of...
To see her is a Picture —

To see her is a Picture —

To hear her is a Tune —

To know her an Intemperance

As innocent as June —

To know her not — Affliction —

To own her for a Friend

A warmth as near as if the Sun

Were shining in your Hand.
To see the Summer Sky

To see the Summer Sky

Is Poetry, though never in a Book it lie —

True Poems flee —
To S——d (You all your youth observed the Golden Rule)

* * *

You all your Youth observed the Golden Rule

Till youre at last become the golden Fool

I sport with Fortune Merry Blithe & Gay

Like to the Lion Sporting with his Prey
5 Take you the hide &...
To tell the Beauty would decrease

To tell the Beauty would decrease

To state the Spell demean —

There is a syllable-less Sea

Of which it is the sign —

My will endeavors for its word

And fails, but entertains

A Rapture as of Legacies —

Of introspective Mines —