To Himself

Related poetry:

1. Indifference When I am dead I will not care Forever more, If sky be radiantly fair Or tempest roar. If my life-hoard in sin be spent, My wife re-wed, I’ll be so damned indifferent When I am dead. When I meet up with dusty doom What if I rest In common ditch or marble tomb, If […]...
2. Hymn 104 A state of nature and of grace. 1 Cor. 6:10,11. Not the malicious or profane, The wanton or the proud, Nor thieves, nor sland’rers, shall obtain Tue kingdom of our God. Surprising grace! and such were we By nature and by sin, Heirs of immortal misery, Unholy and unclean. But we are washed in Jesus’ […]...
3. Philology Recapitulates Ontology, Poetry Is Ontology Faithful to your commandments, o consciousness, o Holy bird of words soaring ever whether to nothingness or to inconceivable fulfillment slowly: And still I follow you, awkward as that dandy of ontology and as awkward as his albatross and as Another dandy of ontology before him, another shepherd and watchdog of being, the one who […]...
4. Phoenix Lyrics I If nature is life, nature is death: It is winter as it is spring: Confusion is variety, variety And confusion in everything Make experience the true conclusion Of all desire and opulence, All satisfaction and poverty. II When a hundred years had passed nature seemed to man a clock Another century sank away and […]...
5. Double Ballade on the Nothingness of Things The big teetotum twirls, And epochs wax and wane As chance subsides or swirls; But of the loss and gain The sum is always plain. Read on the mighty pall, The weed of funeral That covers praise and blame, The – isms and the – anities, Magnificence and shame: “O Vanity of Vanities!” The Fates […]...
6. Ecclesiastes There is one sin: to call a green leaf gray, Whereat the sun in heaven shuddereth. There is one blasphemy: for death to pray, For God alone knoweth the praise of death. There is one creed: ”neath no world-terror’s wing Apples forget to grow on apple-trees. There is one thing is needful everything The rest […]...
7. II. Safety Dear! of all happy in the hour, most blest He who has found our hid security, Assured in the dark tides of the world that rest, And heard our word, ‘Who is so safe as we?’ We have found safety with all things undying, The winds, and morning, tears of men and mirth, The deep […]...
8. The last Night that She lived The last Night that She lived It was a Common Night Except the Dying this to Us Made Nature different We noticed smallest things Things overlooked before By this great light upon our Minds Italicized as ’twere. As We went out and in Between Her final Room And Rooms where Those to be alive Tomorrow […]...
9. The Virgin Mother WHO is that goddess to whom men should pray, But her from whom their hearts have turned away, Out of whose virgin being they were born, Whose mother nature they have named with scorn Calling its holy substance common clay. Yet from this so despised earth was made The milky whiteness of those queens who […]...
10. THE OLD CLOCK ON THE STAIRS L’eternite est une pendule, dont le balancier dit et redit sans Cesse ces deux mots seulement dans le silence des tombeaux: “Toujours! jamais! Jamais! toujours!” JACQUES BRIDAINE. Somewhat back from the village street Stands the old-fashioned country-seat. Across its antique portico Tall poplar-trees their shadows throw; And from its station in the hall An ancient […]...
11. The Gardener XLIV: Reverend Sir, Forgive Reverend sir, forgive this pair of Sinners. Spring winds to-day are Blowing in wild eddies, driving dust And dead leaves away, and with them Your lessons are all lost. Do not say, father, that life is a Vanity. For we have made truce with death For once, and only for a few fragrant Hours we […]...
12. Psalm 103 part 1 v.1-7 L. M. Blessing God for his goodness to soul and body. Bless, O my soul, the living God, Call home thy thoughts that rove abroad; Let all the powers within me join In work and worship so divine. Bless, O my soul, the God of grace; His favors claim thy highest praise: Why should […]...
13. Returning, We Hear the Larks Sombre the night is. And though we have our lives, we know What sinister threat lies there. Dragging these anguished limbs, we only know This poison-blasted track opens on our camp – On a little safe sleep. But hark! joy – joy – strange joy. Lo! heights of night ringing with unseen larks. Music showering […]...
14. 6th April 1651 L'Amitie: To Mrs. M. Awbrey Soule of my soule! my Joy, my crown, my friend! A name which all the rest doth comprehend; How happy are we now, whose sols are grown, By an incomparable mixture, One: Whose well acquainted minds are not as neare As Love, or vows, or secrets can endeare. I have no thought but what’s to […]...
15. Thoughts OF Public Opinion; Of a calm and cool fiat, sooner or later, (How impassive! How certain and final!) Of the President with pale face, asking secretly to himself, What will the people say at last? Of the frivolous Judge-Of the corrupt Congressman, Governor, Mayor-Of such as these, standing helpless and exposed; Of the mumbling and […]...
16. Psalm 19 part 1 The books of nature and scripture. For a Lord’s-day morning Behold, the lofty sky Declares its Maker God, And all his starry works on high Proclaim his power abroad. The darkness and the light Still keep their course the same; While night to day, and day to night, Divinely teach his name. In every diff’rent […]...
17. Remorse For Any Death Free of memory and of hope, Limitless, abstract, almost future, The dead man is not a dead man: he is death. Like the God of the mystics, Of Whom anything that could be said must be denied, The dead one, alien everywhere, Is but the ruin and absence of the world. We rob him of […]...
18. Poor Devil! Well, I was tired of life; the silly folk, The tiresome noises, all the common things I loved once, crushed me with an iron yoke. I longed for the cool quiet and the dark, Under the common sod where louts and kings Lie down, serene, unheeding, careless, stark, Never to rise or move or feel […]...
19. At the Gym This salt-stain spot Marks the place where men Lay down their heads, Back to the bench, And hoist nothing That need be lifted But some burden they’ve chosen This time: more reps, More weight, the upward shove Of it leaving, collectively, This sign of where we’ve been: Shroud-stain, negative Flashed onto the vinyl Where we […]...
20. Song VI: Cherish Life that Abideth Love is enough: cherish life that abideth, Lest ye die ere ye know him, and curse and misname him; For who knows in what ruin of all hope he hideth, On what wings of the terror of darkness he rideth? And what is the joy of man’s life that ye blame him For his bliss […]...
21. Ribbons of the Year Ribbons of the Year Multitude Brocade Worn to Nature’s Party once Then, as flung aside As a faded Bead Or a Wrinkled Pearl Who shall charge the Vanity Of the Maker’s Girl?...
22. Psalm 89 part 2 v.7ff C. M. The power and majesty of God; or, Reverential worship. With rev’rence let the saints appear, And bow before the Lord; His high commands with rev’rence hear, And tremble at his word. How terrible thy glories be! How bright thine armies shine! Where is the power that vies with thee, Or truth compared […]...
23. Who is now Reading This? WHO is now reading this? May-be one is now reading this who knows some wrong-doing of my past life, Or may-be a stranger is reading this who has secretly loved me, Or may-be one who meets all my grand assumptions and egotisms with derision, Or may-be one who is puzzled at me. As if I […]...
24. Thoreau's Flute We sighing said, “Our Pan is dead; His pipe hangs mute beside the river Around it wistful sunbeams quiver, But Music’s airy voice is fled. Spring mourns as for untimely frost; The bluebird chants a requiem; The willow-blossom waits for him; The Genius of the wood is lost.” Then from the flute, untouched by hands, […]...
25. Inferential Although I saw before me there the face Of one whom I had honored among men The least, and on regarding him again Would not have had him in another place, He fitted with an unfamiliar grace The coffin where I could not see him then As I had seen him and appraised him when […]...
26. Struck, was I, not yet by Lightning Struck, was I, not yet by Lightning Lightning lets away Power to perceive His Process With Vitality. Maimed was I yet not by Venture Stone of stolid Boy Nor a Sportsman’s Peradventure Who mine Enemy? Robbed was I intact to Bandit All my Mansion torn Sun withdrawn to Recognition Furthest shining done Yet was not […]...
27. Hymn 118 Moses and Christ; or, Sins against the law and gospel. John 1:17; Heb. 3:3,5,6; 10:28,29. The law by Moses came, But peace, and truth, and love, Were brought by Christ, a nobler name, Descending from above. Amidst the house of God Their diff’rent works were done; Moses a faithful servant stood, But Christ a faithful […]...
28. In a Disused Graveyard The living come with grassy tread To read the gravestones on the hill; The graveyard draws the living still, But never anymore the dead. The verses in it say and say: “The ones who living come today To read the stones and go away Tomorrow dead will come to stay.” So sure of death the […]...
29. An Astrologer's Song To the Heavens above us O look and behold The Planets that love us All harnessed in gold! What chariots, what horses Against us shall bide While the Stars in their courses Do fight on our side? All thought, all desires, That are under the sun, Are one with their fires, As we also are […]...
30. The Sonnets To Orpheus: Book 2: XIII Be ahead of all parting, as though it already were Behind you, like the winter that has just gone by. For among these winters there is one so endlessly winter That only by wintering through it all will your heart survive. Be forever dead in Eurydice-more gladly arise Into the seamless life proclaimed in your […]...
31. Psalm 72 part 1 The kingdom of Christ. Great God, whose universal sway The known and unknown worlds obey, Now give the kingdom to thy Son, Extend his power, exalt his throne. Thy sceptre well becomes his hands, All heav’n submits to his commands; His justice shall avenge the poor, And pride and rage prevail no more. With power […]...
32. Hymn 57 Original sin. Rom. 5:12, etc.; Psa. 51:5; Job 14:4. Backward with humble shame we look On our original; How is our nature dashed and broke In our first father’s fall! To all that’s good averse and blind, But prone to all that’s ill What dreadful darkness veils our mind! How obstinate our will! [Conceived in […]...
33. Psalm LXXII: Great God Great God, whose universal sway The known and unknown worlds obey, Now give the kingdom to thy Son, Extend his power, exalt his throne. The scepter well becomes his hands; All heaven submits to his commands; His justice shall avenge the poor, And pride and rage prevail no more. With power he vindicates the just, […]...
34. Hymn 153 The distemper, folly, and madness of sin Sin, like a venomous disease, Infects our vital blood; The only balm is sovereign grace, And the physician, God. Our beauty and our strength are fled, And we draw near to death; But Christ the Lord recalls the dead With his almighty breath. Madness by nature reigns within, […]...
35. Psalm 90 Man mortal, and God eternal A mournful song at a funeral. Through every age, eternal God, Thou art our rest, our safe abode; High was thy throne ere heav’n was made, Or earth thy humble footstool laid. Long hadst thou reigned ere time began, Or dust was fashioned to a man; And long thy kingdom […]...
36. Psalm 119 part 11 Breathing after holiness. Ver. 5,33 O that the Lord would guide my ways To keep his statutes still! O that my God would grant me grace To know and do his will! Ver. 29 O send thy Spirit down to write Thy law upon my heart! Nor let my tongue indulge deceit, Nor act the […]...
37. At Broad Ripple Oh luxury! Beyond the heat And dust of town, with dangling feet Astride the rock below the dam, In the cool shadows where the calm Rests on the stream again, and all Is silent save the waterfall, I bait my hook and cast my line, And feel the best of life is mine. No high […]...
38. Nature that Washed Her Hands in Milk Nature, that washed her hands in milk, And had forgot to dry them, Instead of earth took snow and silk, At love’s request to try them, If she a mistress could compose To please love’s fancy out of those. Her eyes he would should be of light, A violet breath, and lips of jelly; Her […]...
39. Had I presumed to hope Had I presumed to hope The loss had been to Me A Value for the Greatness’ Sake As Giants gone away Had I presumed to gain A Favor so remote The failure but confirm the Grace In further Infinite ‘Tis failure not of Hope But Confident Despair Advancing on Celestial Lists With faint Terrestial power […]...
40. The Smile on the Face of a Kouros This boy, of course, was dead, whatever that Might mean. And nobly dead. I think we should feel He was nobly dead. He fell in battle, perhaps, And this carved stone remembers him Not as he may have looked, but as if to define The naked virtue the stone describes as his. One foot is […]...