Delphi Poetry Anthology: The World's Greatest Poems (Delphi Poets Series Book 50)

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Delphi Poetry Anthology: The World's Greatest Poems (Delphi Poets Series Book 50) Page 106

by Homer


  In the midst a form divine! 115

  Her eye proclaims her of the Briton-Line:

  Her lion-port, her awe-commanding face

  Attemper’d sweet to virgin-grace.

  What strings symphonious tremble in the air,

  What strains of vocal transport round her play? 120

  Hear from the grave, great Taliessin, hear;

  They breathe a soul to animate thy clay.

  Bright Rapture calls, and soaring as she sings,

  Waves in the eye of Heaven her many-coloured wings.

  ‘The verse adorn again 125

  Fierce War, and faithful Love,

  And Truth severe, by fairy Fiction drest.

  In buskin’d measures move

  Pale Grief, and pleasing Pain,

  With Horror, tyrant of the throbbing breast. 130

  A voice as of the cherub-choir

  Gales from blooming Eden bear,

  And distant warblings lessen on my ear

  That lost in long futurity expire.

  Fond impious man, think’st thou yon sanguine cloud 135

  Raised by thy breath, has quench’d the orb of day?

  To-morrow he repairs the golden flood

  And warms the nations with redoubled ray.

  Enough for me: with joy I see

  The different doom our fates assign: 140

  Be thine Despair and sceptred Care,

  To triumph and to die are mine.’

  — He spoke, and headlong from the mountain’s height

  Deep in the roaring tide he plunged to endless night.

  List of Poems in Alphabetical Order

  List of Poets in Alphabetical Order

  Ode on the Pleasure Arising from Vicissitude

  Thomas Gray (1716–1771)

  NOW the golden Morn aloft

  Waves her dew-bespangled wing,

  With vermeil cheek and whisper soft

  She woos the tardy Spring:

  Till April starts, and calls around 5

  The sleeping fragrance from the ground,

  And lightly o’er the living scene

  Scatters his freshest, tenderest green.

  New-born flocks, in rustic dance,

  Frisking ply their feeble feet; 10

  Forgetful of their wintry trance

  The birds his presence greet:

  But chief, the sky-lark warbles high

  His trembling thrilling ecstasy;

  And lessening from the dazzled sight, 15

  Melts into air and liquid light.

  Yesterday the sullen year

  Saw the snowy whirlwind fly;

  Mute was the music of the air,

  The herd stood drooping by; 20

  Their raptures now that wildly flow

  No yesterday nor morrow know;

  ’Tis Man alone that joy descries

  With forward and reverted eyes.

  Smiles on past Misfortune’s brow 25

  Soft Reflection’s hand can trace,

  And o’er the cheek of Sorrow throw

  A melancholy grace;

  While Hope prolongs our happier hour,

  Or deepest shades, that dimly lour 30

  And blacken round our weary way,

  Gilds with a gleam of distant day.

  Still, where rosy Pleasure leads,

  See a kindred Grief pursue;

  Behind the steps that Misery treads 35

  Approaching Comfort view:

  The hues of bliss more brightly glow

  Chastised by sabler tints of woe,

  And blended form, with artful strife,

  The strength and harmony of life. 40

  See the wretch that long has tost

  On the thorny bed of pain,

  At length repair his vigour lost

  And breathe and walk again:

  The meanest floweret of the vale, 45

  The simplest note that swells the gale,

  The common sun, the air, the skies,

  To him are opening Paradise.

  List of Poems in Alphabetical Order

  List of Poets in Alphabetical Order

  On a Favourite Cat, Drowned in a Tub of Gold Fishes

  Thomas Gray (1716–1771)

  ‘TWAS on a lofty vase’s side,

  Where China’s gayest art had dyed

  The azure flowers that blow,

  Demurest of the tabby kind

  The pensive Selima, reclined, 5

  Gazed on the lake below.

  Her conscious tail her joy declared:

  The fair round face, the snowy beard,

  The velvet of her paws,

  Her coat that with the tortoise vies, 10

  Her ears of jet, and emerald eyes —

  She saw, and purr’d applause.

  Still had she gazed, but ‘midst the tide

  Two angel forms were seen to glide,

  The Genii of the stream: 15

  Their scaly armour’s Tyrian hue

  Through richest purple, to the view

  Betray’d a golden gleam.

  The hapless Nymph with wonder saw:

  A whisker first, and then a claw 20

  With many an ardent wish

  She stretch’d, in vain, to reach the prize —

  What female heart can gold despise?

  What Cat’s averse to fish?

  Presumptuous maid! with looks intent 25

  Again she stretch’d, again she bent,

  Nor knew the gulf between —

  Malignant Fate sat by and smiled —

  The slippery verge her feet beguiled;

  She tumbled headlong in! 30

  Eight times emerging from the flood

  She mew’d to every watery God

  Some speedy aid to send: —

  No Dolphin came, no Nereid stirr’d.

  Nor cruel Tom nor Susan heard — 35

  A favourite has no friend!

  From hence, ye Beauties! undeceived

  Know one false step is ne’er retrieved,

  And be with caution bold:

  Not all that tempts your wandering eyes 40

  And heedless hearts, is lawful prize,

  Nor all that glisters, gold!

  List of Poems in Alphabetical Order

  List of Poets in Alphabetical Order

  George Bubb Dodington, Lord Melcombe

  List of Poems in Alphabetical Order

  List of Poets in Alphabetical Order

  Shorten Sail

  George Bubb Dodington, Lord Melcombe (1691–1762)

  LOVE thy country, wish it well,

  Not with too intense a care;

  ’Tis enough that, when it fell,

  Thou its ruin didst not share.

  Envy’s censure, Flattery’s praise, 5

  With unmoved indifference view:

  Learn to tread Life’s dangerous maze

  With unerring Virtue’s clue.

  Void of strong desire and fear,

  Life’s wide ocean trust no more; 10

  Strive thy little bark to steer

  With the tide, but near the shore.

  Thus prepared, thy shorten’d sail

  Shall, when’er the winds increase,

  Seizing each propitious gale, 15

  Waft thee to the port of Peace.

  Keep thy conscience from offence

  And tempestuous passions free,

  So, when thou art call’d from hence,

  Easy shall thy passage be. 20

  — Easy shall thy passage be,

  Cheerful thy allotted stay,

  Short the account ‘twixt God and thee.

  Hope shall meet thee on thy way.

  English Poetry II: From Collins to Fitzgerald.

  The Harvard Classics. 1909–14.

  List of Poems in Alphabetical Order

  List of Poets in Alphabetical Order

  William Collins

  List of Poems in Alphabetical Order

  List of Poets in Alphabetical
Order

  Fidele

  William Collins (1720–1759)

  TO fair Fidele’s grassy tomb

  Soft maids and village hinds shall bring

  Each opening sweet of earliest bloom,

  And rifle all the breathing Spring.

  No wailing ghost shall dare appear 5

  To vex with shrieks this quiet grove;

  But shepherds lads assemble here,

  And melting virgins own their love.

  No wither’d witch shall here be seen,

  No goblins lead their nightly crew; 10

  The female fays shall haunt the green,

  And dress thy grave with pearly dew.

  The redbreast oft at evening hours

  Shall kindly lend his little aid,

  With hoary moss, and gather’d flowers, 15

  To deck the ground where thou art laid.

  When howling winds, and beating rain,

  In tempests shake thy sylvan cell;

  Or ‘midst the chase, on every plain,

  The tender thought on thee shall dwell; 20

  Each lonely scene shall thee restore,

  For thee the tear be duly shed;

  Beloved, till life can charm no more;

  And mourn’d, till Pity’s self be dead.

  List of Poems in Alphabetical Order

  List of Poets in Alphabetical Order

  Ode Written in MDCCXLVI

  William Collins (1720–1759)

  HOW sleep the Brave, who sink to rest

  By all their Country’s wishes blest!

  When Spring, with dewy fingers cold,

  Returns to deck their hallow’d mould,

  She there shall dress a sweeter sod 5

  Than Fancy’s feet have ever trod.

  By fairy hands their knell is rung,

  By forms unseen their dirge is sung:

  There Honour comes, a pilgrim gray,

  To bless the turf that wraps their clay; 10

  And Freedom shall awhile repair

  To dwell, a weeping hermit, there!

  List of Poems in Alphabetical Order

  List of Poets in Alphabetical Order

  The Passions

  An Ode for Music

  William Collins (1720–1759)

  WHEN Music, heavenly maid, was young,

  While yet in early Greece she sung,

  The Passions oft, to hear her shell,

  Throng’d around her magic cell

  Exulting, trembling, raging, fainting, 5

  Possest beyond the Muse’s painting,

  By turns they felt the glowing mind

  Disturb’d, delighted, raised, refined:

  ‘Till once, ’tis said, when all were fired,

  Fill’d with fury, rapt, inspired, 10

  From the supporting myrtles round

  They snatch’d her instruments of sound,

  And, as they oft had heard apart

  Sweet lessons of her forceful art,

  Each, for Madness ruled the hour, 15

  Would prove his own expressive power.

  First Fear his hand, its skill to try,

  Amid the chords bewilder’d laid,

  And back recoil’d, he knew not why,

  E’en at the sound himself had made. 20

  Next Anger rush’d, his eyes on fire,

  In lightnings own’d his secret stings;

  In one rude clash he struck the lyre

  And swept with hurried hand the strings.

  With woeful measures wan Despair, 25

  Low sullen sounds, his grief beguiled;

  A solemn, strange, and mingled air,

  ’Twas sad by fits, by starts ’twas wild.

  But thou, O Hope, with eyes so fair,

  What was thy delighted measure? 30

  Still it whisper’d promised pleasure

  And bade the lovely scenes at distance hail!

  Still would her touch the strain prolong:

  And from the rocks, the woods, the vale

  She call’d on Echo still through all the song; 35

  And, where her sweetest theme she chose,

  A soft responsive voice was heard at every close;

  And Hope enchanted smiled, and waved her golden hair; —

  And longer had she sung: — but with a frown

  Revenge impatient rose: 40

  He threw his blood-stain’d sword in thunder down;

  And with a withering look

  The war-denouncing trumpet took

  And blew a blast so loud and dread,

  Were ne’er prophetic sounds so full of woe! 45

  And ever and anon he beat

  The doubling drum with furious heat;

  And, though sometimes, each dreary pause between,

  Dejected Pity at his side

  Her soul-subduing voice applied, 50

  Yet still he kept his wild unalter’d mien,

  While each strain’d ball of sight seem’d bursting from his head.

  Thy numbers, Jealousy, to nought were fix’d:

  Sad proof of thy distressful state!

  Of differing themes the veering song was mix’d; 55

  And now it courted Love, now raving call’d on Hate.

  With eyes up-raised, as one inspired,

  Pale Melancholy sat retired;

  And from her wild sequester’d seat,

  In notes by distance made more sweet, 60

  Pour’d through the mellow horn her pensive soul:

  And dashing soft from rocks around

  Bubbling runnels join’d the sound;

  Through glades and glooms the mingled measure stole,

  Or, o’er some haunted stream, with fond delay, 65

  Round an holy calm diffusing,

  Love of peace, and lonely musing,

  In hollow murmurs died away.

  But O! how alter’d was its sprightlier tone

  When Cheerfulness, a nymph of healthiest hue, 70

  Her bow across her shoulder flung,

  Her buskins gemm’d with morning dew,

  Blew an inspiring air, that dale and thicket rung,

  The hunter’s call to Faun and Dryad known!

  The oak-crown’d Sisters and their chaste-eyed Queen, 75

  Satyrs and Sylvan Boys, were seen

  Peeping from forth their alleys green:

  Brown Exercise rejoiced to hear;

  And Sport leapt up, and seized his beechen spear.

  Last came Joy’s ecstatic trial: 80

  He, with viny crown advancing,

  First to the lively pipe his hand addrest:

  But soon he saw the brisk awakening viol

  Whose sweet entrancing voice he loved the best:

  They would have thought who heard the strain 85

  They saw, in Tempe’s vale, her native maids

  Amidst the festal-sounding shades

  To some unwearied minstrel dancing;

  While, as his flying fingers kiss’d the strings,

  Love framed with Mirth a gay fantastic round: 90

  Loose were her tresses seen, her zone unbound;

  And he, amidst his frolic play,

  As if he would the charming air repay,

  Shook thousand odours from his dewy wings.

  O Music! sphere-descended maid, 95

  Friend of Pleasure, Wisdom’s aid!

  Why, goddess, why, to us denied,

  Lay’st thou thy ancient lyre aside?

  As in that loved Athenian bower

  You learn’d an all-commanding power, 100

  Thy mimic soul, O nymph endear’d!

  Can well recall what then it heard.

  Where is thy native simple heart

  Devote to Virtue, Fancy, Art?

  Arise, as in that elder time, 105

  Warm, energetic, chaste, sublime!

  Thy wonders, in that god-like age,

  Fill thy recording Sister’s page; —

  ’Tis said, and I believe the tale,

 
Thy humblest reed could more prevail 110

  Had more of strength, diviner rage,

  Than all which charms this laggard age,

  E’en all at once together found

  Cecilia’s mingled world of sound: —

  O bid our vain endeavours cease: 115

  Revive the just designs of Greece:

  Return in all thy simple state!

  Confirm the tales her sons relate!

  List of Poems in Alphabetical Order

  List of Poets in Alphabetical Order

  To Evening

  William Collins (1720–1759)

  IF aught of oaten stop or pastoral song

  May hope, chaste Eve, to soothe thy modest ear

  Like thy own solemn springs,

  Thy springs and dying gales;

  O Nymph reserved, — while now the bright-hair’d sun 5

  Sits in yon western tent, whose cloudy skirts,

  With brede ethereal wove,

  O’erhang his wavy bed,

  Now air is hush’d, save where the weak-eyed bat

  With short shrill shriek flits by on leathern wing, 10

  Or where the beetle winds

  His small but sullen horn,

  As oft he rises midst the twilight path,

  Against the pilgrim borne in heedless hum, —

  Now teach me, maid composed, 15

  To breathe some soften’d strain.

  Whose numbers, stealing through thy darkening vale,

  May not unseemly with its stillness suit;

  As, musing slow, I hail

  Thy genial loved return. 20

  For when thy folding-star arising shows

  His paly circlet, at his warning-lamp

  The fragrant Hours, and Elves

  Who slept in buds the day,

 

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