Poem Lake | The Greatest Poems of All Time

The Bibliomaniac's Prayer

Keep me, I pray, in wisdom’s way,
  That I may truths eternal seek;
I need protecting care to-day,—
  My purse is light, my flesh is weak.
So banish from my erring heart
  All baleful appetites and hints
Of Satan’s fascinating art,
  Of...

Poet: Eugene Field

Ike Walton's Prayer

I crave, dear Lord,
No boundless hoard
  Of gold and gear,
    Nor jewels fine,
    Nor lands, nor kine,
Nor treasure-heaps of anything.—
    Let but a little hut be mine
Where at the hearthstone I may hear
    The cricket sing,...

Poet: James Whitcomb Riley

Love's Prayer

Dear lord! kind Lord!
  Gracious Lord! I pray
Thou wilt look on all I love,
  Tenderly to-day!
Weed their hearts of weariness;
  Scatter every care,
Down a wake of angel wings
  Winnowing the air.

Bring unto the sorrowing...

Poet: James Whitcomb Riley

The Prayer of Agassiz

On the isle of Penikese,
Ringed about by sapphire seas,
Fanned by breezes salt and cool,
Stood the Master with his school.
Over sails that not in vain
Wooed the west-wind’s steady strain,
Line of coast that low and far
Stretched its...

Poet: John Greenleaf Whittier