Dictionary Poems

Sweet dreams, form a shadeO’er my lovely infant’s head!Sweet dreams of pleasant streamsBy happy, silent, moony beams! Sweet Sleep, with soft downWeave thy brows an infant crown!Sweet Sleep, angel mild,Hover o’er my happy child! Sweet smiles, in the nightHover over my delight!Sweet smiles, mother’s smiles,All the livelong night beguiles. Sweet moans, dovelike sighs,Chase not slumber … Continued

HURRAH for revolution and more cannon-shot!A beggar upon horseback lashes a beggar on foot.Hurrah for revolution and cannon come again!The beggars have changed places, but the lash goes on. – The Great Day by William Butler Yeats

The bat is dun with wrinkled wings Like fallow article,And not a song pervades his lips, Or none perceptible. His small umbrella, quaintly halved, Describing in the airAn arc alike inscrutable, — Elate philosopher! Deputed from what firmament Of what astute abode,Empowered with what malevolence Auspiciously withheld. To his adroit Creator Ascribe no less the … Continued

The body grows outside, —The more convenient way, —That if the spirit like to hide,Its temple stands alway Ajar, secure, inviting;It never did betrayThe soul that asked its shelterIn timid honesty. – THE SHELTER – The body grows outside by Emily Dickinson

The path by which we twain did go, ; ; ; ;Which led by tracts that pleased us well, ; ; ; ;Thro’ four sweet years arose and fell,From flower to flower, from snow to snow:And we with singing cheer’d the way, ; ; ; ;And, crown’d with all the season lent, ; ; ; … Continued

I bought my little grandchild Ann A bright balloon,And I was such a happy man To hear her croon.She laughed and babbled with delight, So gold its glow,As by a thread she held it tight, Then–let it go. As if it gloried to be free It climbed the sky;But oh how sorrowful was she, And … Continued

GOD grant a blessing on this tower and cottageAnd on my heirs, if all remain unspoiled,No table or chair or stool not simple enoughFor shepherd lads in Galilee; and grantThat I myself for portions of the yearMay handle nothing and set eyes on nothingBut what the great and passionate have usedThroughout so many varying centuriesWe … Continued

Each star a rung,night comes down the spiralstaircase of the evening.The breeze passes by so very closeas if someone just happened to speak of love.In the courtyard,the trees are absorbed refugeesembroidering maps of return on the sky.On the roof,the moon – lovingly, generously –is turning the starsinto a dust of sheen.From every corner, dark-green shadows,in … Continued

The appointed winners in a long-stretch’d game;The course of Time and nations–Egypt, India, Greece and Rome;The past entire, with all its heroes, histories, arts, experiments,Its store of songs, inventions, voyages, teachers, books,Garner’d for now and thee–To think of it!The heirdom all converged in thee! – To-Day and Thee by Walt Whitman

They dropped like flakes, they dropped like stars, Like petals from a rose,When suddenly across the June A wind with fingers goes. They perished in the seamless grass, — No eye could find the place;But God on his repealless list Can summon every face. – THE BATTLE-FIELD by Emily Dickinson