On Retirement

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1. Rich or Poor With thy true love I have more wealth Than Charon’s piled-up bank doth hold; Where he makes kings lay down their crowns And life-long misers leave their gold. Without thy love I’ve no more wealth Than seen upon that other shore; That cold, bare bank he rows them to – Those kings and misers made […]...
2. Retirement O, let me be alone a while, No human form is nigh. And may I sing and muse aloud, No mortal ear is by. Away! ye dreams of earthly bliss, Ye earthly cares begone: Depart! ye restless wandering thoughts, And let me be alone! One hour, my spirit, stretch thy wings, And quit this joyless […]...
3. A Mine there is no Man would own A Mine there is no Man would own But must it be conferred, Demeaning by exclusive wealth A Universe beside Potosi never to be spent But hoarded in the mind What Misers wring their hands tonight For Indies in the Ground!...
4. Upon the Priory Grove, His Usual Retirement Hail sacred shades! cool, leavy House! Chaste treasurer of all my vows, And wealth! on whose soft bosom laid My love’s fair steps I first betrayed: Henceforth no melancholy flight, No sad wing, or hoarse bird of night, Disturb this air, no fatal throat Of raven, or owl, awake the note Of our laid echo, […]...
5. Hymn 165 Unfruitfulness, ignorance, and unsanctified affections. Long have I sat beneath the sound Of thy salvation, Lord; But still how weak my faith is found, And knowledge of thy word! Oft I frequent thy holy place, And hear almost in vain; How small a portion of thy grace My memory can retain! [My dear Almighty, and […]...
6. Reflections On Having Left A Place Of Retirement Low was our pretty Cot : our tallest Rose Peep’d at the chamber-window. We could hear At silent noon, and eve, and early morn, The Sea’s faint murmur. In the open air Our Myrtles blossom’d; and across the porch Thick Jasmins twined : the little landscape round Was green and woody, and refresh’d the eye. […]...
7. The Rich Boy's Christmas And now behold this sulking boy, His costly presents bring no joy; Harsh tears of anger fill his eye Tho’ he has all that wealth can buy. What profits it that he employs His many gifts to make a noise? His playroom is so placed that he Can cause his folks no agony. MORAL: Mere […]...
8. Sonnet XXIV: Rich Fools There Be Rich fools there be, whose base and filthy heart Lies hatching still the goods wherein they flow: And damning their own selves to Tantal’s smart, Wealth breeding want, more blist more wretched grow. Yet to those fools heav’n such wit doth impart As what their hands do hold, their heads do know, And knowing love, […]...
9. 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. […]...
10. Retirement Fresh fields and woods! the Earth’s fair face, God’s foot-stool, and man’s dwelling-place. I ask not why the first Believer Did love to be a country liver? Who to secure pious content Did pitch by groves and wells his tent; Where he might view the boundless sky, And all those glorious lights on high; With […]...
11. Retirement Far from the world, O Lord, I flee, From strife and tumult far; From scenes where Satan wages still His most successful war. The calm retreat, the silent shade, With prayer and praise agree; And seem, by Thy sweet bounty made, For those who follow Thee. There if Thy Spirit touch the soul, And grace […]...
12. Longevity Said Brown: ‘I can’t afford to die For I have bought annuity, And every day of living I Have money coming in to me: While others toil to make their bread I make mine by not being dead.’ Said Jones: ‘I can’t afford to die, For I have books and books to write. I do […]...
13. Against Love Hence Cupid! with your cheating toys, Your real griefs, and painted joys, Your pleasure which itself destroys. Lovers like men in fevers burn and rave, And only what will injure them do crave. Men’s weakness makes love so severe, They give him power by their fear, And make the shackles which they wear. Who to […]...
14. Elegy X: The Dream Image of her whom I love, more than she, Whose fair impression in my faithful heart Makes me her medal, and makes her love me, As Kings do coins, to which their stamps impart The value: go, and take my heart from hence, Which now is grown too great and good for me: Honours oppress […]...
15. Lines Inscribed on The Wall of a Dungeon in The Southern P of I Though not a breath can enter here, I know the wind blows fresh and free; I know the sun is shining clear, Though not a gleam can visit me. They thought while I in darkness lay, ‘Twere pity that I should not know How all the earth is smiling gay; How fresh the vernal breezes […]...
16. The Maiden's Lament The clouds fast gather, The forest-oaks roar A maiden is sitting Beside the green shore, The billows are breaking with might, with might, And she sighs aloud in the darkling night, Her eyelid heavy with weeping. “My heart’s dead within me, The world is a void; To the wish it gives nothing, Each hope is […]...
17. If This Be All O God! if this indeed be all That Life can show to me; If on my aching brow may fall No freshening dew from Thee, If with no brighter light than this The lamp of hope may glow, And I may only dream of bliss, And wake to weary woe; If friendship’s solace must decay, […]...
18. Sonnet VIII: Why, Through Each Aching Vein Why, through each aching vein, with lazy pace Thus steals the languid fountain of my heart, While, from its source, each wild convulsive start Tears the scorch’d roses from my burning face? In vain, O Lesbian Vales! your charms I trace; Vain is the poet’s theme, the sculptor’s art; No more the Lyre its magic […]...
19. A Door just opened on a street A Door just opened on a street I lost was passing by An instant’s Width of Warmth disclosed And Wealth and Company. The Door as instant shut And I I lost was passing by Lost doubly but by contrast most Informing misery...
20. I think to Live may be a Bliss I think to Live may be a Bliss To those who dare to try Beyond my limit to conceive My lip to testify I think the Heart I former wore Could widen till to me The Other, like the little Bank Appear unto the Sea I think the Days could every one In Ordination stand […]...
21. Inspiration LIGHTEST of dancers, with no thought Thy glimmering feet beat on my heart, Gayest of singers, with no care Waking to beauty the still air, More than the labours of our art, More than our wisdom can impart, Thine idle ecstasy hath taught. Lost long in solemn ponderings, With the blind shepherd mind for guide, […]...
22. Nepenthe Yes, it was like you to forget, And cancel in the welcome of your smile My deep arrears of debt, And with the putting forth of both your hands To sweep away the bars my folly set Between us bitter thoughts, and harsh demands, And reckless deeds that seemed untrue To love, when all the […]...
23. TRUE ENJOYMENT VAINLY wouldst thou, to gain a heart, Heap up a maiden’s lap with gold; The joys of love thou must impart, Wouldst thou e’er see those joys unfold. The voices of the throng gold buys, No single heart ’twill win for thee; Wouldst thou a maiden make thy prize, Thyself alone the bribe must be. […]...
24. Metonymy as an Approach to a Real World Whether what we sense of this world Is the what of this world only, or the what Of which of several possible worlds which what? something of what we sense May be true, may be the world, what it is, what we sense. For the rest, a truce is possible, the tolerance Of travelers, eating […]...
25. One World “The worlds in which we live are two The world ‘I am’ and the world ‘I do.'” The worlds in which we live at heart are one, The world “I am,” the fruit of “I have done”; And underneath these worlds of flower and fruit, The world “I love,” the only living root....
26. Cardiac A mattock high he swung; I watched him at his toil; With never gulp of lung He gashed the ruddy soil. Thought I, I’d give my wealth To have his health. With fortune I would part, And privilege resign, Could I but have his heart, And he have mine. . . Then suddenly I knew […]...
27. SOLITUDE OH ye kindly nymphs, who dwell ‘mongst the rocks and the thickets, Grant unto each whatsoe’er he may in silence desire! Comfort impart to the mourner, and give to the doubter instruction, And let the lover rejoice, finding the bliss that he craves. For from the gods ye received what they ever denied unto mortals, […]...
28. The Revival 1 Unfold! unfold! Take in His light, 2 Who makes thy cares more short than night. 3 The joys which with His day-star rise, 4 He deals to all but drowsy eyes; 5 And (what the men of this world miss) 6 Some drops and dews of future bliss. 7 Hark! how his winds have […]...
29. 234. A Mother's Lament for her Son's Death FATE gave the word, the arrow sped, And pierc’d my darling’s heart; And with him all the joys are fled Life can to me impart. By cruel hands the sapling drops, In dust dishonour’d laid; So fell the pride of all my hopes, My age’s future shade. The mother-linnet in the brake Bewails her ravish’d […]...
30. 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 […]...
31. Hatred and vengeance, my eternal portion Hatred and vengeance, my eternal portion, Scarce can endure delay of execution, Wait, with impatient readiness, to seize my Soul in a moment. Damned below Judas:more abhorred than he was, Who for a few pence sold his holy Master. Twice betrayed Jesus me, this last delinquent, Deems the profanest. Man disavows, and Deity disowns me: […]...
32. Lines Written During A Period Of Insanity Hatred and vengence-my eternal portion Scarce can endure delay of execution – Wait with impatient readiness to seize my Soul in a moment. Damned below Judas; more abhorred than he was, Who for a few pence sold his holy Master! Twice betrayed, Jesus me, the last delinquent, Deems the profanest. Man disavows, and Deity disowns […]...
33. I reckon when I count it all I reckon when I count it all First Poets Then the Sun Then Summer Then the Heaven of God And then the List is done But, looking back the First so seems To Comprehend the Whole The Others look a needless Show So I write Poets All Their Summer lasts a Solid Year They can […]...
34. The Happy Change How bless’d Thy creature is, O God, When with a single eye, He views the lustre of Thy Word, The dayspring from on high! Through all the storms that veil the skies And frown on earthly things, The Sun of Righteousness he eyes, With healing on His wings. Struck by that light, the human heart, […]...
35. 1914 IV: The Dead These hearts were woven of human joys and cares, Washed marvellously with sorrow, swift to mirth. The years had given them kindness. Dawn was theirs, And sunset, and the colours of the earth. These had seen movement, and heard music; known Slumber and waking; loved; gone proudly friended; Felt the quick stir of wonder; sat […]...
36. I'll clutch and clutch I’ll clutch and clutch Next One Might be the golden touch Could take it Diamonds Wait I’m diving just a little late But stars go slow for night I’ll string you in fine Necklace Tiaras make of some Wear you on Hem Loop up a Countess with you Make a Diadem and mend my old […]...
37. I Speak Not I speak not, I trace not, I breathe not thy name; There is grief in the sound, there is guilt in the fame; But the tear that now burns on my cheek may impart The deep thoughts that dwell in that silence of heart. Too brief for our passion, too long for our peace, Were […]...
38. On the Death of a Young Gentleman Who taught thee conflict with the pow’rs of night, To vanquish satan in the fields of light? Who strung thy feeble arms with might unknown, How great thy conquest, and how bright thy crown! War with each princedom, throne, and pow’r is o’er, The scene is ended to return no more. O could my muse […]...
39. A Landscape By Courbet Low lies the mere beneath the moorside, still And glad of silence: down the wood sweeps clear To the utmost verge where fed with many a rill Low lies the mere. The wind speaks only summer: eye nor ear Sees aught at all of dark, hears aught of shrill, From sound or shadow felt or […]...
40. Monday Night May 11th 1846 / Domestic Peace Why should such gloomy silence reign; And why is all the house so drear, When neither danger, sickness, pain, Nor death, nor want have entered here? We are as many as we were That other night, when all were gay, And full of hope, and free from care; Yet, is there something gone away. The […]...