Olor Iscanus queries: 'Why should we Vex at the land's ridiculous miserie?' So on his Usk banks, in the blood-red dawn Of England's civil strife, did careless Vaughan...
Most tangible of all the gods that be, O Santa Claus - our own since Infancy! As first we scampered to thee - now, as then, Take us as children to thy heart again.
Sapho, I will choose to go Where the northern winds do blow Endless ice, and endless snow; Rather than I once would see But a winter's face in thee, To benumb my hopes and me.
Let us now take time and play, Love, and live here while we may; Drink rich wine, and make good cheer, While we have our being here; For once dead and laid i' th' grave, No return from thence we have.
Impassioned singer of the happy time. When all the world was waking into morn, And dew still glistened on the tangled thorn, And lingered on the branches of the lime, Oh peerless singer of the golden rhyme,...
Your lines that linger for us down the years, Like sparks that tell the glory of a flame, Still keep alight the splendor of your name, And living still, they sting us into tears....
One happy year has fled, Sall, Since you were all my own, The leaves have felt the autumn blight, The wintry storm has blown. We heeded not the cold blast, Nor the winter's icy air;...
Blithe dreams arise to greet us, And life feels clean and new, For the old love comes to meet us In the dawning and the dew. O'erblown with sunny shadows, O'ersped with winds at play,...
I can see the back-log blazing and the sparkles take their flight Up the cavernous old chimney on a merry Christmas night; I can see the old folks smiling and the children's cheeks aglow,...
With friends you stalwart stand and fair, To-day of fifty years the heir; The past your works rejoicing praise, But forward goes your gaze. Your childlike faith, your spirit true,...
To seem the stranger lies my lot, my life Among strang'rs. Father and mother dear, Brothers and sisters are in Christ not near And he my peace my parting, sword and strife....
Excuse is needless when with love sincere Of occupation, not by fashion led, Thou turn'st the Wheel that slept with dust o'erspread; 'My' nerves from no such murmur shrink, tho' near,...
Bright baffling Soul, least capturable of themes, Thou, who display'dst a life of common-place, Leaving no intimate word or personal trace Of high design outside the artistry Of thy penned dreams,...
Pardon my trespass, Silvia! I confess My kiss out-went the bounds of shamefacedness: None is discreet at all times; no, not Jove Himself, at one time, can be wise and love.
No more, my Silvia, do I mean to pray For those good days that ne'er will come away. I want belief; O gentle Silvia, be The patient saint, and send up vows for me.
Let us, though late, at last, my Silvia, wed; And loving lie in one devoted bed. Thy watch may stand, my minutes fly post haste; No sound calls back the year that once is past....