Dictionary Poems

Home they brought her warrior dead: ; ; ; ;She nor swoon’d nor utter’d cry:All her maidens, watching, said, ; ; ; ;She must weep or she will die.Then they praised him, soft and low, ; ; ; ;Call’d him worthy to be loved,Truest friend and noblest foe; ; ; ; ;Yet she neither spoke … Continued

The heart asks pleasure first,And then, excuse from pain;And then, those little anodynesThat deaden suffering; And then, to go to sleep;And then, if it should beThe will of its Inquisitor,The liberty to die. – The heart asks pleasure first by Emily Dickinson

I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear,Those of mechanics, each one singing his as it should be blithe and strong,The carpenter singing his as he measures his plank or beam,The mason singing his as he makes ready for work, or leaves off work,The boatman singing what belongs to him in his boat, the … Continued

What’s the best thing in the world?June-rose, by May-dew impearled;Sweet south-wind, that means no rain;Truth, not cruel to a friend;Pleasure, not in haste to end;Beauty, not self-decked and curledTill its pride is over-plain;Light, that never makes you wink;Memory, that gives no pain;Love, when, so, you’re loved again.What’s the best thing in the world?—Something out of … Continued

I CALL on those that call me son,Grandson, or great-grandson,On uncles, aunts, great-uncles or great-aunts,To judge what I have done.Have I, that put it into words,Spoilt what old loins have sent?Eyes spiritualised by death can judge,I cannot, but I am not content.He that in Sligo at DrumcliffSet up the old stone Cross,That red-headed rector in … Continued

I wandered lonely as a cloudThat floats on high o’er vales and hills,When all at once I saw a crowd,A host, of golden daffodils;Beside the lake, beneath the trees,Fluttering and dancing in the breeze. Continuous as the stars that shineAnd twinkle on the milky way,They stretched in never-ending lineAlong the margin of a bay:Ten thousand … Continued

My own Beloved, who hast lifted meFrom this drear flat of earth where I was thrown,And, in betwixt the languid ringlets, blownA life-breath, till the forehead hopefullyShines out again, as all the angels see,Before thy saving kiss! My own, my own,Who camest to me when the world was gone,And I who looked for only God, … Continued

She was a phantom of delightWhen first she gleamed upon my sight;A lovely Apparition, sentTo be a moment’s ornament;Her eyes as stars of Twilight fair;Like Twilight’s, too, her dusky hair;But all things else about her drawnFrom May-time and the cheerful Dawn;A dancing Shape, an Image gay,To haunt, to startle, and way-lay. I saw her upon … Continued

Your clear eye is the one absolutely beautiful thing.I want to fill it with color and ducks,The zoo of the newWhose name you meditate —April snowdrop, Indian pipe,Little Stalk without wrinkle,Pool in which imagesShould be grand and classical Not this troublousWringing of hands, this darkCeiling without a star. – Child by Sylvia Plath

Gliding o’er all, through all,Through Nature, Time, and Space,As a ship on the waters advancing,The voyage of the soul–not life alone,Death, many deaths I’ll sing. – Gliding O’er all by Walt Whitman