Self-Acquaintance

Related poetry:

1. Take Back the Virgin Page Written on Returning a Blank Book Take back the virgin page, White and unwritten still; Some hand, more calm and sage, The leaf must fill. Thoughts come, as pure as light Pure as even you require; But, oh! each word I write Love turns to fire. Yet let me keep the book: Oft shall my […]...
2. Light Shining out of Darkness God moves in a mysterious way His wonders to perform; He plants His footsteps in the sea, And rides upon the storm. Deep in unfathomable mines Of never-failing skill, He treasures up His bright designs, And works His sovereign will. Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take, The clouds ye so much dread Are big with […]...
3. Pain has but one Acquaintance Pain has but one Acquaintance And that is Death Each one unto the other Society enough. Pain is the Junior Party By just a Second’s right Death tenderly assists Him And then absconds from Sight....
4. Hymn 156 Presumption and despair; or, Satan’s various temptations. I hate the tempter and his charms, I hate his flatt’ring breath; The serpent takes a thousand forms To cheat our souls to death. He feeds our hopes with airy dreams, Or kills with slavish fear; And holds us still in wide extremes, Presumption or despair. Now he […]...
5. Hymn 111 Salvation by grace. Titus 3:3-7. [Lord, we confess our num’rous faults, How great our guilt has been! Foolish and vain were all our thoughts, And all our lives were sin. But, O my soul! for ever praise, For ever love his name, Who turns thy feet from dangerous ways Of folly, sin, and shame.] [‘Tis […]...
6. Abuse of the Gospel Too many, Lord, abuse Thy grace In this licentious day, And while they boast they see Thy face, They turn their own away. Thy book displays a gracious light That can the blind restore; But these are dazzled by the sight, And blinded still the more. The pardon such presume upon, They do not beg […]...
7. Artist's Life Of all the waltzes the great Strauss wrote, Mad with melody, rhythm rife From the very first to the final note, Give me his “Artist’s Life!” It stirs my blood to my finger ends, Thrills me and fills me with vague unrest, And all that is sweetest and saddest blends Together within my breast. It […]...
8. The Wicked Postman Why do you sit there on the floor so quiet and silent, tell me, Mother dear? The rain is coming in through the open window, making you all Wet, and you don’t mind it. Do you hear the gong striking four? It is time for my brother To come home from school. What has happened […]...
9. Unlyric Love Song It is time to give that-of-myself which I could not at first: To offer you now at last my least and my worst: Minor, absurd preserves, The shell’s end-curves, A document kept at the back of a drawer, A tin hidden under the floor, Recalcitrant prides and hesitations: To pile them carefully in a desparate […]...
10. Psalm 106 part 1 v.1-5 L. M. Praise to God; or, Communion with saints. To God, the great, the ever-blest, Let songs of honor be addressed; His mercy firm for ever stands Give him the thanks his love demands. Who knows the wonders of thy ways? Who shall fulfil thy boundless praise? Blest are the souls that fear thee […]...
11. At leisure is the Soul At leisure is the Soul That gets a Staggering Blow The Width of Life before it spreads Without a thing to do It begs you give it Work But just the placing Pins Or humblest Patchwork Children do To Help its Vacant Hands...
12. 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 […]...
13. She Walks In Beauty She walks in beauty, like the night Of cloudless climes and starry skies; And all that’s best of dark and bright Meet in her aspect and her eyes: Thus mellowed to that tender light Which heaven to gaudy day denies. One shade the more, one ray the less, Had half impaired the nameless grace Which […]...
14. The Divine Image To Mercy Pity Peace and Love. All pray in their distress: And to these virtues of delight Return their thankfulness. For Mercy Pity Peace and Love, Is God our Father dear: And Mercy Pity Peace and Love, Is Man his child and care. For Mercy has a human heart Pity, a human face: And Love, […]...
15. God Full Of Mercy God-Full-of-Mercy, the prayer for the dead. If God was not full of mercy, Mercy would have been in the world, Not just in Him. I, who plucked flowers in the hills And looked down into all the valleys, I, who brought corpses down from the hills, Can tell you that the world is empty of […]...
16. The Grey Eros WE are desert leagues apart; Time is misty ages now Since the warmth of heart to heart Chased the shadows from my brow. Oh, I am so old, meseems I am next of kin to Time, The historian of her dreams From the long-forgotten prime. You have come a path of flowers. What a way […]...
17. Psalm 9 part 1 Wrath and mercy from the judgment-seat. With my whole heart I’ll raise my song, Thy wonders I’ll proclaim; Thou, sovereign Judge of right and wrong, Wilt put my foes to shame. I’ll sing thy majesty and grace; My God prepares his throne To judge the world in righteousness, And make his vengeance known. Then shall […]...
18. PUBLISHERS And then they pretend like owls With marble eyes and wizened stupidity I do not know why they cannot perceive True art But I will write Until sand evaporates And the moon consumes the sun I will write Even for the sake of art For myself and for those who feel Reading could lift them […]...
19. Some time Last night, my darling, as you slept, I thought I heard you sigh, And to your little crib I crept, And watched a space thereby; And then I stooped and kissed your brow, For oh! I love you so You are too young to know it now, But some time you shall know! Some time […]...
20. Psalm 136 Abridged God’s wonders of creation, providence, redemption, and salvation. Give to our God immortal praise; Mercy and truth are all his ways: Wonders of grace to God belong, Repeat his mercies in your song. Give to the Lord of lords renown, The King of kings with glory crown: His mercies ever shall endure, When lords and […]...
21. 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 […]...
22. Sonnet 08 With many a weary step, at length I gain Thy summit, Lansdown; and the cool breeze plays, Gratefully round my brow, as hence the gaze Returns to dwell upon the journeyed plain. ‘Twas a long way and tedious! to the eye Tho fair the extended vale, and fair to view The falling leaves of many […]...
23. Dear Colette Dear Colette, I want to write to you About being a woman For that is what you write to me. I want to tell you how your face Enduring after thirty, forty, fifty. . . Hangs above my desk Like my own muse. I want to tell you how your hands Reach out from your […]...
24. Manufactured Gods THEY put up big wooden gods. Then they burned the big wooden gods And put up brass gods and Changing their minds suddenly Knocked down the brass gods and put up A doughface god with gold earrings. The poor mutts, the pathetic slant heads, They didn’t know a little tin god Is as good as […]...
25. We May Roam Through This World We may roam through this world, like a child at a feast, Who but sips of a sweet, and then flies to the rest; And, when pleasure begins to grow dull in the east, We may order our wings and be off to the west: But if hearts that feel, and eyes that smile, Are […]...
26. Willard Fluke My wife lost her health, And dwindled until she weighed scarce ninety pounds. Then that woman, whom the men Styled Cleopatra, came along. And we we married ones All broke our vows, myself among the rest. Years passed and one by one Death claimed them all in some hideous form, And I was borne along […]...
27. The Joy Of Little Things It’s good the great green earth to roam, Where sights of awe the soul inspire; But oh, it’s best, the coming home, The crackle of one’s own hearth-fire! You’ve hob-nobbed with the solemn Past; You’ve seen the pageantry of kings; Yet oh, how sweet to gain at last The peace and rest of Little Things! […]...
28. Death in the Family They call it stroke. Two we loved were stunned By that same blow of cudgel Or axe to the brow. Lost on the earth They left our circle Broken. One spent five months Falling from our grasp Mute, her grace, wit, Beauty erased. Her green eyes gazed at us As if asking, as if aware, […]...
29. Like Trains of Cars on Tracks of Plush Like Trains of Cars on Tracks of Plush I hear the level Bee A Jar across the Flowers goes Their Velvet Masonry Withstands until the sweet Assault Their Chivalry consumes While He, victorious tilts away To vanquish other Blooms....
30. An Evening Thought: Salvation by Christ, with Penetential Cries Salvation comes by Christ alone, The only Son of God; Redemption now to every one, That love his holy Word. Dear Jesus, we would fly to Thee, And leave off every Sin, Thy tender Mercy well agree; Salvation from our King. Salvation comes now from the Lord, Our victorious King. His holy Name be well […]...
31. Psalm 89 part 4 v.19ff C. M. Christ’s mediatorial kingdom; or, His Divine and human nature Hear what the Lord in vision said, And made his mercy known: “Sinners, behold your help is laid On my Almighty Son. “Behold the Man my wisdom chose Among your mortal race: His head my holy oil o’erflows, The Spirit of my grace. […]...
32. 233. Song-O were I on Parnassus Hill O, WERE I on Parnassus hill, Or had o’ Helicon my fill, That I might catch poetic skill, To sing how dear I love thee! But Nith maun be my Muse’s well, My Muse maun be thy bonie sel’, On Corsincon I’ll glowr and spell, And write how dear I love thee. Then come, sweet […]...
33. Self-Congratulation Ellen, you were thoughtless once Of beauty or of grace, Simple and homely in attire, Careless of form and face; Then whence this change? and wherefore now So often smooth your hair? And wherefore deck your youthful form With such unwearied care? Tell us -­ and cease to tire our ears With that familiar strain […]...
34. Psalm 89 The covenant made with Christ; or, The true David. For ever shall my song record The truth and mercy of the Lord; Mercy and truth for ever stand, Like heav’n, established by his hand. Thus to his Son he sware, and said, “With thee my cov’nant first is made; In thee shall dying sinners live, […]...
35. Psalm II: Why Did the Nations Why did the nations join to slay The Lord’s anointed Son? Why did they cast His laws away And tread His gospel down? The Lord, that sits above the skies, Derides their rage below; He speaks with vengeance in His eyes And strikes their spirits through. “I call Him My Eternal Son, And raise Him […]...
36. The Beer Was Cold Enough It is amazing, while I lay in bed, I had the lines Roaring through my head like locusts on the wing, The unabashed extravagance of such a flock Of stunning words shocked me out of brittle sleep; And sleep avoids me now like something way too out of vogue, So I rise and try to […]...
37. To hang our head ostensibly To hang our head ostensibly And subsequent, to find That such was not the posture Of our immortal mind Affords the sly presumption That in so dense a fuzz You too take Cobweb attitudes Upon a plane of Gauze!...
38. As if the Sea should part As if the Sea should part And show a further Sea And that a further and the Three But a presumption be Of Periods of Seas Unvisited of Shores Themselves the Verge of Seas to be Eternity is Those...
39. Prelude They say that rhyme and rhythm are Outmoded now. I do not know, for I am far From high of brow. But if the twain you take away, Since basely bred, Proud Poetry, I dare to say, Would scarce be read. With humble heart I thus define My rôle in rhyme: Oh may I never […]...
40. Psalm 116 part 2 v.12ff C. M. Vows made in trouble paid in the church. What shall I render to my God For all his kindness shown? My feet shall visit thine abode, My songs address thy throne. Among the saints that fill thine house My off’rings shall be paid; There shall my zeal perform the vows My soul […]...