Works

The world is full of orphans: firstly, those
Who are so in the strict sense of the phrase
(But many a lonely tree the loftier grows
Than others crowded in the forest's maze);...

O Love! O Glory! what are ye who fly
Around us ever, rarely to alight?
There 's not a meteor in the polar sky
Of such transcendent and more fleeting flight.
Chill, and chain'd to cold earth, we lift on high...

The antique Persians taught three useful things,
To draw the bow, to ride, and speak the truth.
This was the mode of Cyrus, best of kings -
A mode adopted since by modern youth....

'There is a tide in the affairs of men
Which, - taken at the flood,' - you know the rest,
And most of us have found it now and then;
At least we think so, though but few have guess'd...

When Newton saw an apple fall, he found
In that slight startle from his contemplation -
'T is said (for I 'll not answer above ground
For any sage's creed or calculation) -...

Hail, Muse! et cetera. - We left Juan sleeping,
Pillow'd upon a fair and happy breast,
And watch'd by eyes that never yet knew weeping,
And loved by a young heart, too deeply blest...

I now mean to be serious; - it is time,
Since laughter now-a-days is deem'd too serious.
A jest at Vice by Virtue 's call'd a crime,
And critically held as deleterious:...

Of all the barbarous middle ages, that
Which is most barbarous is the middle age
Of man; it is - I really scarce know what;
But when we hover between fool and sage,...

Bob Southey! You're a poet, poet laureate,
And representative of all the race.
Although 'tis true that you turned out a Tory at
Last, yours has lately been a common case....

When Juan sought the subterranean flood,
And paid his obolus on the Stygian shore,
Charon, the proud and sombre beggar, stood
With one strong, vengeful hand on either oar.
...

(from Baudelaire.)



The night Don Juan came to pay his fees
To Charon, by the caverned water's shore,
A beggar, proud-eyed as Antisthenes,
Stretched out his knotted fingers on the oar.
...

(From the German of Heine)


In the evening through her garden
Wanders the Alcalde's daughter,
Festal sounds of drum and trumpet
Ring out hither from the Castle.

...

He who locks a gate doth close
Pity's heart against his woes;
But who opens one shall find
God is standing just behind.

Donn Piatt - of Mac-o-chee, -
Not the one of History,
Who, with flaming tongue and pen,
Scathes the vanities of men;
Not the one whose biting wit
Cuts pretense and etches it...

I saw the moon so broad and bright
Sailing high on a frosty night:

And the air swung far and far between
The silver disc and the orb of green:

While here and there a wisp of white...

Do not accept these rains that come too late.
Better to linger. Make your pain
An image of the desert. Say it's said
And do not look to the west. Refuse

To surrender. Try this year too...

Do not cheer, for men are dying
From their distant homes in pain;
And the restless sea is darkened
By a flood of crimson rain.

Do not cheer, for anxious mothers
Wait and watch in lonely dread;...

Do not say that life is waning,
Or that hope's sweet day is set;
While I've thee and love remaining,
Life is in the horizon yet.

Do not think those charms are flying,
Tho' thy roses fade and fall;...

Do not worry over trifles, though
to you they may seem great,
All your fretting will not help you,
or your troubles dissipate.

If your sky is dark and gloomy,
and the sun is hid from view,...

Not a lad in Saragossa
Nobler-featured, haughtier-tempered,
Than the Alcalde's youthful grandson,
Donna Clara's boy Pedrillo.


Handsome as the Prince of Evil,
And devout as St. Ignatius....