Quatrains

Related poetry:

1. Two Quatrains I As eons of incalculable strife Are in the vision of one moment caught, So are the common, concrete things of life Divinely shadowed on the walls of Thought. II We shriek to live, but no man ever lives Till he has rid the ghost of human breath; We dream to die, but no man […]...
2. In Salutation to the Eternal Peace Men say the world is full of fear and hate, And all life’s ripening harvest-fields await The restless sickle of relentless fate. But I, sweet Soul, rejoice that I was born, When from the climbing terraces of corn I watch the golden orioles of Thy morn. What care I for the world’s desire and pride, […]...
3. Three Quatrains I As long as Fame’s imperious music rings Will poets mock it with crowned words august; And haggard men will clamber to be kings As long as Glory weighs itself in dust. II Drink to the splendor of the unfulfilled, Nor shudder for the revels that are done: The wines that flushed Lucullus are all […]...
4. Rule Britannia When Britain first, at Heaven’s command, Arose from out the azure main; This was the charter of the land, And guardian angels sung this strain: “Rule, Britannia, rule the waves; Britons never will be slaves.” The nations, not so blest as thee, Must, in their turns, to tyrants fall: While thou shalt flourish great and […]...
5. Causation Said darling daughter unto me: “oh Dad, how funny it would be If you had gone to Mexico A score or so of years ago. Had not some whimsey changed your plan I might have been a Mexican. With lissome form and raven hair, Instead of being fat and fair. “Or if you’d sailed the […]...
6. Solomon And The Witch And thus declared that Arab lady: ‘Last night, where under the wild moon On grassy mattress I had laid me, Within my arms great Solomon, I suddenly cried out in a strange tongue Not his, not mine.’ Who understood Whatever has been said, sighed, sung, Howled, miau-d, barked, brayed, belled, yelled, cried, crowed, Thereon replied: […]...
7. To England at the Outbreak of the Balkan War A cloud has lowered that shall not soon pass o’er. The world takes sides: whether for impious aims With Tyranny whose bloody toll enflames A generous people to heroic war; Whether with Freedom, stretched in her own gore, Whose pleading hands and suppliant distress Still offer hearts that thirst for Righteousness A glorious cause to […]...
8. Before the Birth of One of Her Children All things within this fading world hath end, Adversity doth still our joys attend; No ties so strong, no friends so dear and sweet, But with death’s parting blow are sure to meet. The sentence past is most irrevocable, A common thing, yet oh, inevitable. How soon, my Dear, death may my steps attend, How […]...
9. The Law Of Laws If we could roll back History A century, let’s say, And start from there, I’m sure that we Would find things as to-day: In all creation’s cosmic range No vestige of a change. Turn back a thousand years, the same Unchangement we would view; Cause and Effect their laws proclaim, The truest of the true, […]...
10. So Many Blood-Lakes We have now won two world-wars, neither of which concerned us, we were Slipped in. We have levelled the powers Of Europe, that were the powers of the world, into rubble and Dependence. We have won two wars and a third is comming. This one will not be so easy. We were at ease while […]...
11. His Meditation Upon Death BE those few hours, which I have yet to spend, Blest with the meditation of my end; Though they be few in number, I’m content; If otherwise, I stand indifferent, Nor makes it matter, Nestor’s years to tell, If man lives long, and if he live not well. A multitude of days still heaped on […]...
12. Anthony Considine OUT in the wastes of the West countrie, Out where the white stars shine, Grim and silent as such men be, Rideth a man with a history – Anthony Considine. For the ways of men they are manifold As their differing views in life; Some sell themselves for the lust of gold, And some for […]...
13. Hymn 81 A song for morning or evening. Lam. 3:23; Isa. 45:7. God, how endless is thy love! Thy gifts are every evening new; And morning mercies from above Gently distill like early dew. Thou spread’st the curtains of the night, Great guardian of my sleeping hours; Thy sovereign word restores the light, And quickens all my […]...
14. Hymn 116 Love to God and our neighbor. Matt. 22:37-40. Thus saith the first, the great command, “Let all thy inward powers unite To love thy Maker and thy God With utmost vigor and delight. “Then shall thy neighbor next in place Share thine affections and esteem, And let thy kindness to thyself Measure and rule thy […]...
15. Design Said Seeker of the skies to me: “Behold yon starry host ashine! When Heaven’s harmony you see How can you doubt control divine, Law, order and design?” “Nay, Sire,” said I, “I do not doubt The spheres in cosmic pattern spin; But what I try to puzzle out Is that if Law and Order win […]...
16. Sonnet to My Beloved Daughter WHEN FATE in ruthless rage assail’d my breast, And Heaven relentless seal’d the harsh decree; HOPE, placid soother of the mind distress’d; To calm my rending sorrows­gave me THEE. In all the charms of innocence array’d, ‘Tis thine to sprinkle patience on my woes; As from thy voice celestial comfort flows, Glancing bright lustre o’er […]...
17. Mountains of Delight The problem was the manner of choice (or whether there was a choice for that matter) As you had taken those options to yourself, Choosing as you had to do, and as it was right for you, There is no shame in that – and no reproving, But my alternatives were emptied by your doing. […]...
18. Epitaph No matter how he toil and strive The fate of every man alive With luck will be to lie alone, His empty name cut in a stone. Grim time the fairest fame will flout, But though his name be blotted out, And he forgotten with his peers, His stone may wear a year of years. […]...
19. Flower Gardener Gas got me in the first World War, And all my mates at rest are laid. I felt I might survive them for I am a gardener by trade. My life is in the open air, And kindly is the work I do, Since flowers are my joy and care, And comfort too. My flowers […]...
20. Stamp Collector My worldly wealth I hoard in albums three, My life collection of rare postage stamps; My room is cold and bare as you can see, My coat is old and shabby as a tramp’s; Yet more to me than balances in banks, My albums three are worth a million francs. I keep them in that […]...
21. The Manner of its Death The Manner of its Death When Certain it must die ‘Tis deemed a privilege to choose ‘Twas Major Andre’s Way When Choice of Life is past There yet remains a Love Its little Fate to stipulate How small in those who live The Miracle to tease With Bable of the styles How “they are Dying […]...
22. Sonnet Suggested By Homer, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Edgar Allan Poe, Paul Vakzy, James Joyce, Et Al Let me not, ever, to the marriage in Cana Of Galilee admit the slightest sentiment Of doubt about the astonishing and sustaining manna Of chance and choice to throw a shadow’s element Of disbelief in truth Love is not love Nor is the love of love its truth in consciousness If it can be made […]...
23. WILDFLOWERS AND HOTHOUSE-PLANTS “GOOD Heavens, man, what a freak of taste! What blindness to form and feature! The girl’s no beauty, and might be placed As a hoydenish kind of creature.” No doubt it were more in the current tone And the tide today we move in, If I could but choose me to make my own A […]...
24. Beginners HOW they are provided for upon the earth, (appearing at intervals;) How dear and dreadful they are to the earth; How they inure to themselves as much as to any-What a paradox appears their age; How people respond to them, yet know them not; How there is something relentless in their fate, all times; How […]...
25. Three Wives Said Jones: “I’m glad my wife’s not clever; Her intellect is second-rate. If she was witty she would never Give me a chance to scintillate; But cap my humorous endeavour And make me seem as addle-pate.” Said Smith: “I’m glad my wife’s no beauty, For if a siren’s charm she had, And stinted her domestic […]...
26. 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 […]...
27. Hymn to Love We are thine, O Love, being in thee and made of thee, As théou, Léove, were the déep thought And we the speech of the thought; yea, spoken are we, Thy fires of thought out-spoken: But burn’d not through us thy imagining Like fiérce méood in a séong céaught, We were as clamour’d words a […]...
28. By an Evolutionist By an Evolutionist The Lord let the house of a brute to the soul of a man, And the man said, ‘Am I your debtor?’ And the Lord-‘Not yet; but make it as clean as you can, And then I will let you a better.’ I. If my body come from brutes, my soul uncertain […]...
29. Nor We Of Her To Him He said no word of her to us Nor we of her to him, But oh it saddened us to see How wan he grew and thin. We said: she eats him day and night And draws the blood from him, We did not know but said we thought This was why he grew thin. […]...
30. The Macaronis Italian people peaceful are, Let it be to their credit. They mostly fail to win a war, Oh they themselves have said it. “Allergic we to lethal guns And military might: We love our homes and little ones, And loath to fight.” But Teutons are a warrior race Who seek the sword to rattle; And […]...
31. In the Holy Nativity of our Lord CHORUS Come we shepherds whose blest sight Hath met love’s noon in nature’s night; Come lift we up our loftier song And wake the sun that lies too long. To all our world of well-stol’n joy He slept, and dreamt of no such thing, While we found out heav’n’s fairer eye, And kiss’d the cradle […]...
32. A Valentine's Song MOTLEY I count the only wear That suits, in this mixed world, the truly wise, Who boldly smile upon despair And shake their bells in Grandam Grundy’s eyes. Singers should sing with such a goodly cheer That the bare listening should make strong like wine, At this unruly time of year, The Feast of Valentine. […]...
33. Psalm 90 part 2 v.8-12 C. M. Infirmities and mortality the effect of sin. Lord, if thine eye surveys our faults, And justice grows severe, Thy dreadful wrath exceeds our thoughts, And burns beyond our fear. Thine anger turns our frame to dust; By one offence to thee Adam with all his sons have lost Their immortality. Life, like […]...
34. Psalm 119 part 8 The word of God is the saint’s portion. Ver. 111, paraphrased. Lord, I have made thy word my choice, My lasting heritage; There shall my noblest powers rejoice, My warmest thoughts engage. I’ll read the histories of thy love, And keep thy laws in sight, While through the promises I rove, With ever fresh delight. […]...
35. 257. Ode on the Departed Regency Bill DAUGHTER of Chaos’ doting years, Nurse of ten thousand hopes and fears, Whether thy airy, insubstantial shade (The rights of sepulture now duly paid) Spread abroad its hideous form On the roaring civil storm, Deafening din and warring rage Factions wild with factions wage; Or under-ground, deep-sunk, profound, Among the demons of the earth, With […]...
36. The Judgement The Judge looked down, his face was grim, He scratched his ear; The gangster’s moll looked up at him With eyes of fear. She thought: ‘This guy in velvet gown, With balding pate, Who now on me is looking down, Can seal my fate.’ The Judge thought: ‘Fifteen years or ten I might decree. Just […]...
37. Prelude – Tristan And Isolde Fate, out of the deep sea’s gloom, When a man’s heart’s pride grows great, And nought seems now to foredoom Fate, Fate, laden with fears in wait, Draws close through the clouds that loom, Till the soul see, all too late, More dark than a dead world’s tomb, More high than the sheer dawn’s gate, […]...
38. Ambition and Art Ambition I am the maid of the lustrous eyes Of great fruition, Whom the sons of men that are over-wise Have called Ambition. And the world’s success is the only goal I have within me; The meanest man with the smallest soul May woo and win me. For the lust of power and the pride […]...
39. John Cabanis Neither spite, fellow citizens, Nor forgetfulness of the shiftlessness, And the lawlessness and waste Under democracy’s rule in Spoon River Made me desert the party of law and order And lead the liberal party. Fellow citizens! I saw as one with second sight That every man of the millions of men Who give themselves to […]...
40. The Rule of the A. J. C Come all ye bold trainers attend to my song, It’s a rule of the A. J. C. You mustn’t train ponies, for that’s very wrong By the rules of the A. J. C. You have to wear winkers when crossing the street, For fear that a pony you’d happen to meet If you hear one […]...