Blank Verse in Rhyme
EVEN is come; and from the dark Park, hark,
The signal of the setting sun—one gun!
And six is sounding from the chime, prime time
To go and see the Drury-Lane Dane slain,—
Or hear Othello’s jealous doubt spout out,—
Or Macbeth raving at that shade-made blade,
Denying to his frantic clutch much touch;
Or else to...
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(The Unconscious Poetizing on a Philosopher)
THERE is no force however great
Can stretch a cord however fine
Into a horizontal line
That shall be accurately straight. -
O Unhatched Bird, so high preferred,
As porter of the Pole,
Of beakless things, who have no wings,
Exact no heavy toll.
If this my song its theme should wrong,
The theme itself is sweet;
Let others rhyme the unborn time,
I sing the Obsolete.And first, I praise the nobler traits
Of birds preceding Noah,... -
She laid it where the sunbeams fall
Unscanned upon the broken wall.
Without a tear, without a groan,
She laid it near a mighty stone,
Which some rude swain had haply cast
Thither in sport, long ages past,
And time with mosses had o’erlaid,
And fenced with many a tall grass-blade,
And all about bid roses bloom
And violets... -
’t Was ever thus from childhood’s hour
My fondest hopes would not decay:
I never loved a tree or flower
Which was the first to fade away!
The garden, where I used to delve
Short-frocked, still yields me pinks in plenty;
The pear-tree that I climbed at twelve,
I see still blossoming, at twenty.I never nursed a dear...
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[A farmer’s daughter, during the rage for albums, handed to the author an old account-book ruled for pounds, shillings, and pence, and requested a contribution.]
THIS WORLD ’s a scene as dark as Styx, £ s. d.
Where hope is scarce worth 2 6
Our joys are borne so fleeting hence
That they are dear at 18
And yet to stay here most are... -
I Watched her as she stooped to pluck
A wild flower in her hair to twine;
And wished that it had been my luck
To call her mine;Anon I heard her rate with mad,
Mad words her babe within its cot,
And felt particularly glad
That it had not.I knew (such subtle brains have men!)
That she was uttering... -
There ’s a joy without canker or cark,
There ’s a pleasure eternally new,
’T is to gloat on the glaze and the mark
Of china that ’s ancient and blue;
Unchipped, all the centuries through
It has passed, since the chime of it rang,
And they fashioned it, figure and hue,
In the reign of the Emperor Hwang.These dragons (their tails...
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I Never saw a Purple Cow,
I never hope to see one;
But I can tell you, anyhow,
I rather see than be one. -
[Supposed to be translated from the Old Parsee]
TWINE then the rays
Round her soft Theban tissues!
All will be as She says,
When that dead past reissues.
Matters not what nor where,
Hark, to the moon’s dim cluster!
How was her heavy hair
Lithe as a feather duster!
Matters not when nor whence;
...