A Psalm of Life

Related poetry:

1. A Parody on "A Psalm of Life&quot Life is real, life is earnest, And the shell is not its pen – “Egg thou art, and egg remainest” Was not spoken of the hen. Art is long and Time is fleeting, Be our bills then sharpened well, And not like muffled drums be beating On the inside of the shell. In the world’s […]...
2. Psalm 16 part 3 Courage in death, and hope of the resurrection. When God is nigh, my faith is strong; His arm is my almighty prop: Be glad, my heart; rejoice, my tongue; My dying flesh shall rest in hope. Though in the dust I lay my head, Yet, gracious God, thou wilt not leave My soul for ever […]...
3. Now When The Number Of My Years NOW when the number of my years Is all fulfilled, and I From sedentary life Shall rouse me up to die, Bury me low and let me lie Under the wide and starry sky. Joying to live, I joyed to die, Bury me low and let me lie. Clear was my soul, my deeds were […]...
4. Psalm 49 The rich sinner’s death, and the saint’s resurrection. Why do the proud insult the poor, And boast the large estates they have? How vain are riches to secure Their haughty owners from the grave! They can’t redeem one hour from death, With all the wealth in which they trust; Nor give a dying brother breath, […]...
5. A Song Of Life In the rapture of life and of living, I lift up my head and rejoice, And I thank the great Giver for giving The soul of my gladness a voice. In the glow of the glorious weather, In the sweet-scented, sensuous air, My burdens seem light as a feather – They are nothing to bear. […]...
6. Psalm 49 part 2 v.14,15 C. M. Death and the resurrection. Ye sons of pride, that hate the just And trample on the poor, When death has brought you down to dust, Your pomp shall rise no more. The last great day shall change the scene; When will that hour appear? When shall the just revive, and reign O’er […]...
7. 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 […]...
8. Death And Life ‘Twas in the grave-yard’s gruesome gloom That May and I were mated; We sneaked inside and on a tomb Our love was consummated. It’s quite all right, no doubt we’ll wed, Our sin will go unchidden. . . Ah! sweeter than the nuptial bed Are ecstasies forbidden. And as I held my sweetheart close, And […]...
9. Psalm 49 part 1 v.6-14 C. M. Pride and death; or, The vanity of life and riches. Why doth the man of riches grow To insolence and pride, To see his wealth and honors flow With every rising tide? [Why doth he treat the poor with scorn, Made of the self-same clay, And boast as though his flesh was […]...
10. Psalm 7 God’s care of his people. My trust is in my heav’nly Friend, My hope in thee, my God; Rise, and my helpless life defend From those that seek my blood. With insolence and fury they My soul in pieces tear, As hungry lions rend the prey, When no deliverer’s near. If I had e’er provoked […]...
11. Psalm 88 Lord God that dost me save and keep, All day to thee I cry; And all night long, before thee weep Before thee prostrate lie. Into thy presence let my praier With sighs devout ascend And to my cries, that ceaseless are, Thine ear with favour bend. For cloy’d with woes and trouble store Surcharg’d […]...
12. The Life Beyond He wakes, who never thought to wake again, Who held the end was Death. He opens eyes Slowly, to one long livid oozing plain Closed down by the strange eyeless heavens. He lies; And waits; and once in timeless sick surmise Through the dead air heaves up an unknown hand, Like a dry branch. No […]...
13. The Pilgrims Who is your lady of love, O ye that pass Singing? and is it for sorrow of that which was That ye sing sadly, or dream of what shall be? For gladly at once and sadly it seems ye sing. Our lady of love by you is unbeholden; For hands she hath none, nor eyes, […]...
14. It feels a shame to be Alive It feels a shame to be Alive When Men so brave are dead One envies the Distinguished Dust Permitted such a Head The Stone that tells defending Whom This Spartan put away What little of Him we possessed In Pawn for Liberty The price is great Sublimely paid Do we deserve a Thing That lives […]...
15. I took one Draught of Life I took one Draught of Life I’ll tell you what I paid Precisely an existence The market price, they said. They weighed me, Dust by Dust They balanced Film with Film, Then handed me my Being’s worth A single Dram of Heaven!...
16. Psalm 69 part 2 v.14-21,26,29,32 C. M. The passion and exaltation of Christ. Now let our lips with holy fear And mournful pleasure sing The suff’rings of our great High Priest, The sorrows of our King. He sinks in floods of deep distress; How high the waters rise! While to his heav’nly Father’s ear He sends perpetual cries. “Hear […]...
17. Ah, Are You Digging On My Grave? “Ah, are you digging on my grave, My loved one? planting rue?” “No: yesterday he went to wed One of the brightest wealth has bred. ‘It cannot hurt her now,’ he said, ‘That I should not be true.'” “Then who is digging on my grave, My nearest dearest kin?” “Ah, no: they sit and think, […]...
18. Meeting and Passing As I went down the hill along the wall There was a gate I had leaned at for the view And had just turned from when I first saw you As you came up the hill. We met. But all We did that day was mingle great and small Footprints in summer dust as if […]...
19. The Life we have is very great The Life we have is very great. The Life that we shall see Surpasses it, we know, because It is Infinity. But when all Space has been beheld And all Dominion shown The smallest Human Heart’s extent Reduces it to none....
20. Psalm XXXV: Now Plead My Cause, Almighty God Now plead my cause, Almighty God, With all the sons of strife; And fight against the men of blood, Who fight against my life. Draw out thy spear and stop their way, Lift thine avenging rod; But to my soul in mercv say, “I am thy Savior God!” They plant their snares to catch my […]...
21. Psalm 121 Divine protection. Up to the hills I lift mine eyes, Th’ eternal hills beyond the skies; Thence all her help my soul derives; There my Almighty refuge lives. He lives; the everlasting God, That built the world, that spread the flood; The heav’ns with all their hosts he made, And the dark regions of the […]...
22. Psalm IV Now I’ll record my secret vision, impossible sight of the face of God: It was no dream, I lay broad waking on a fabulous couch in Harlem Having masturbated for no love, and read half naked an open book of Blake on my lap Lo & behold! I was thoughtless and turned a page and […]...
23. Psalm 116 part 1 Recovery from sickness. I love the Lord; he heard my cries, And pitied every groan; Long as I live, when troubles rise, I’ll hasten to his throne. I love the Lord; he bowed his ear, And chased my griefs away; O let my heart no more despair, While I have breath to pray! My flesh […]...
24. The Fury Of Hating Eyes I would like to bury All the hating eyes Under the sand somewhere off The North Atlantic and suffocate Them with the awful sand And put all their colors to sleep In that soft smother. Take the brown eyes of my father, Those gun shots, those mean muds. Bury them. Take the blue eyes of […]...
25. Psalm 35 part 2 v.12-14 C. M. Love to enemies. Behold the love, the gen’rous love, That holy David shows; Hark, how his sounding bowels move To his afflicted foes! When they are sick his soul complains, And seems to feel the smart; The spirit of the gospel reigns, And melts his pious heart. How did his flowing tears […]...
26. Keepe On Your Maske (Version for his Mistress) Keepe on your maske and hide your eye For in beholding you I dye. Your fatall beauty Gorgon-like Dead with astonishment doth strike. Your piercing eyes that now I see Are worse than Basilisks to me. Shut from mine eyes those hills of snow, Their melting vally do not shew: Those azure paths lead to […]...
27. In The Moonlight “O lonely workman, standing there In a dream, why do you stare and stare At her grave, as no other grave where there?” “If your great gaunt eyes so importune Her soul by the shine of this corpse-cold moon, Maybe you’ll raise her phantom soon!” “Why, fool, it is what I would rather see Than […]...
28. Stream Of Life The same stream of life that runs through my veins night and day Runs through the world and dances in rhythmic measures. It is the same life that shoots in joy through the dust of the earth In numberless blades of grass And breaks into tumultuous waves of leaves and flowers. It is the same […]...
29. Psalm 143 Complaint of heavy afflictions in mind and body. My righteous Judge, my gracious God, Hear when I spread my hands abroad, And cry for succor from thy throne; O make thy truth and mercy known! Let judgment not against me pass; Behold, thy servant pleads thy grace: Should justice call us to thy bar, No […]...
30. In Memoriam A. H. H.: 55. The wish, that of the living whol The wish, that of the living whole No life may fail beyond the grave, Derives it not from what we have The likest God within the soul? Are God and Nature then at strife, That Nature lends such evil dreams? So careful of the type she seems, So careless of the single life; That I, […]...
31. Psalm 07 Aug. 14. 1653. Upon The Words Of Chush The Benjamite Against Him. Lord my God to thee I flie Save me and secure me under Thy protection while I crie Least as a Lion (and no wonder) He hast to tear my Soul asunder Tearing and no rescue nigh. Lord my God if I have […]...
32. Life's Scars They say the world is round, and yet I often think it square, So many little hurts we get From corners here and there. But one great truth in life I’ve found, While journeying to the West- The only folks who really wound Are those we love the best. The man you thoroughly despise Can […]...
33. Life's Harmonies Let no man pray that he know not sorrow, Let no soul ask to be free from pain, For the gall of to-day is the sweet of to-morrow, And the moment’s loss is the lifetime’s gain. Through want of a thing does its worth redouble, Through hunger’s pangs does the feast content, And only the […]...
34. O Living Always-Always Dying O LIVING always-always dying! O the burials of me, past and present! O me, while I stride ahead, material, visible, imperious as ever! O me, what I was for years, now dead, (I lament not-I am content;) O to disengage myself from those corpses of me, which I turn and look at, where I cast […]...
35. Psalm 51 part 3 The backslider restored. O Thou that hear’st when sinners cry, Though all my crimes before thee lie, Behold them not with angry look, But blot their mem’ry from thy book. Create my nature pure within, And form my soul averse to sin: Let thy good Spirit ne’er depart, Nor hide thy presence from my heart. […]...
36. All My Past Life All my past life is mine no more, The flying hours are gone, Like transitory dreams given o’er, Whose images are kept in store By memory alone. What ever is to come is not, How can it then be mine? The present moment’s all my lot, And that as fast as it is got, Phyllis, […]...
37. Love and Life All my past life is mine no more, The flying hours are gone, Like transitory dreams giv’n o’er, Whose images are kept in store By memory alone. The time that is to come is not; How can it then be mine? The present moment’s all my lot; And that, as fast as it is got, […]...
38. Psalm 86 Thy gracious ear, O Lord, encline, O hear me I thee pray, For I am poor, and almost pine With need, and sad decay. Preserve my soul, for *I have trod Heb. I am good, loving, Thy waies, and love the just, a doer of good and Save thou thy servant O my God holy […]...
39. Psalm 41 v.1-8 L. M. Charity to the poor; or, Pity to the afflicted. Blest is the man whose bowels move, And melt with pity to the poor; Whose soul, by sympathizing love, Feels what his fellow saints endure. His heart contrives for their relief More good than his own hands can do; He, in the time […]...
40. The Life of Love XVI Spring Come, my beloved; let us walk amidst the knolls, For the snow is water, and Life is alive from its Slumber and is roaming the hills and valleys. Let us follow the footprints of Spring into the Distant fields, and mount the hilltops to draw Inspiration high above the cool green plains. Dawn of […]...