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

by Homer

  Thou art — to give and to confirm,

  For each his talent and his term;

  All flesh thy bounties share:

  Thou shalt not call thy brother fool:

  The porches of the Christian school 245

  Are meekness, peace, and prayer.

  Open and naked of offence,

  Man’s made of mercy, soul, and sense:

  God armed the snail and wilk;

  Be good to him that pulls thy plough; 250

  Due food and care, due rest allow

  For her that yields thee milk.

  Rise up before the hoary head,

  And God’s benign commandment dread,

  Which says thou shalt not die: 255

  ‘Not as I will, but as Thou wilt,’

  Prayed He, whose conscience knew no guilt;

  With Whose blessed pattern vie.

  Use all thy passions! love is thine,

  And joy and jealousy divine; 260

  Thine hope’s eternal fort,

  And care thy leisure to disturb,

  With fear concupiscence to curb,

  And rapture to transport.

  Act simply, as occasion asks; 265

  Put mellow wine in seasoned casks;

  Till not with ass and bull:

  Remember thy baptismal bond;

  Keep thy commixtures foul and fond,

  Nor work thy flax with wool. 270

  Distribute; pay the Lord His tithe,

  And make the widow’s heart-strings blithe;

  Resort with those that weep:

  As you from all and each expect,

  For all and each thy love direct, 275

  And render as you reap.

  The slander and its bearer spurn,

  And propagating praise sojourn

  To make thy welcome last;

  Turn from old Adam to the New: 280

  By hope futurity pursue:

  Look upwards to the past.

  Control thine eye, salute success,

  Honour the wiser, happier bless,

  And for their neighbour feel; 285

  Grutch not of mammon and his leaven,

  Work emulation up to heaven

  By knowledge and by zeal.

  O David, highest in the list

  Of worthies, on God’s ways insist, 290

  The genuine word repeat!

  Vain are the documents of men,

  And vain the flourish of the pen

  That keeps the fool’s conceit.

  Praise above all — for praise prevails; 295

  Heap up the measure, load the scales,

  And good to goodness add:

  The generous soul her Saviour aids,

  But peevish obloquy degrades;

  The Lord is great and glad. 300

  For Adoration all the ranks

  Of Angels yield eternal thanks,

  And David in the midst:

  With God’s good poor, which, last and least

  In man’s esteem, Thou to Thy feast, 305

  O Blessed Bridegroom, bidst.

  For Adoration seasons change,

  And order, truth, and beauty range,

  Adjust, attract, and fill:

  The grass the polyanthus checks; 310

  And polished porphyry reflects,

  By the descending rill.

  Rich almonds colour to the prime

  For Adoration; tendrils climb,

  And fruit-trees pledge their gems; 315

  And Ivis, with her gorgeous vest,

  Builds for her eggs her cunning nest,

  And bell-flowers bow their stems.

  With vinous syrup cedars spout;

  From rocks pure honey gushing out, 320

  For Adoration springs:

  All scenes of painting crowd the map

  Of nature; to the mermaid’s pap

  The scalèd infant clings.

  The spotted ounce and playsome cubs 325

  Run rustling ‘mong the flowering shrubs.

  And lizards feed the moss;

  For Adoration beasts embark,

  While waves upholding halcyon’s ark

  No longer roar and toss. 330

  While Israel sits beneath his fig,

  With coral root and amber sprig

  The weaned adventurer sports;

  Where to the palm the jasmine cleaves,

  For Adoration ‘mong the leaves 335

  The gale his peace reports.

  Increasing days their reign exalt,

  Nor in the pink and mottled vault

  The opposing spirits tilt;

  And by the coasting reader spied, 340

  The silverlings and crusions glide

  For Adoration gilt.

  For Adoration ripening canes,

  And cocoa’s purest milk detains

  The western pilgrim’s staff; 345

  Where rain in clasping boughs enclosed,

  And vines with oranges disposed,

  Embower the social laugh.

  Now labour his reward receives,

  For Adoration counts his sheaves, 350

  To peace, her bounteous prince;

  The nect’rine his strong tint imbibes,

  And apples of ten thousand tribes,

  And quick peculiar quince.

  The wealthy crops of whitening rice 355

  ‘Mongst thyine woods and groves of spice,

  For Adoration grow;

  And, marshalled in the fencèd land,

  The peaches and pomegranates stand,

  Where wild carnations blow. 360

  The laurels with the winter strive;

  The crocus burnishes alive

  Upon the snow-clad earth;

  For Adoration myrtles stay

  To keep the garden from dismay, 365

  And bless the sight from dearth.

  The pheasant shows his pompous neck;

  And ermine, jealous of a speck,

  With fear eludes offence:

  The sable, with his glossy pride, 370

  For Adoration is described,

  Where frosts the waves condense.

  The cheerful holly, pensive yew,

  And holy thorn, their trim renew;

  The squirrel hoards his nuts; 375

  All creatures batten o’er their stores,

  And careful nature all her doors

  For Adoration shuts.

  For Adoration, David’s Psalms,

  Lift up the heart to deeds of alms; 380

  And he, who kneels and chants,

  Prevails his passions to control,

  Finds meat and medicine to the soul,

  Which for translation pants.

  For Adoration, beyond match, 385

  The scholar bullfinch aims to catch

  The soft flute’s ivory touch:

  And, careless, on the hazel spray

  The daring redbreast keeps at bay

  The damsel’s greedy clutch. 390

  For Adoration, in the skies,

  The Lord’s philosopher espies

  The dog, the ram, and rose;

  The planets’ ring, Orion’s sword;

  Nor is his greatness less adored 395

  In the vile worm that glows.

  For Adoration, on the strings

  The western breezes work their wings,

  The captive ear to soothe —

  Hark!’tis a voice — how still, and small — 400

  That makes the cataracts to fall,

  Or bids the sea be smooth!

  For Adoration, incense comes

  From bezoar, and Arabian gums,

  And from the civet’s fur: 405

  But as for prayer, or e’er it faints,

  Far better is the breath of saints

  Than galbanum or myrrh.

  For Adoration, from the down

  Of damsons to the anana’s crown, 410

  God sends to tempt the taste;

  And while the luscious zest invites

  The sens
e, that in the scene delights,

  Commands desire be chaste.

  For Adoration, all the paths 415

  Of grace are open, all the baths

  Of purity refresh;

  And all the rays of glory beam

  To deck the man of God’s esteem

  Who triumphs o’er the flesh. 420

  For Adoration, in the dome

  Of CHRIST, the sparrows find a home;

  And on his olives perch:

  The swallow also dwells with thee

  O Man of GOD’S humility, 425

  Within his Saviour’s Church.

  Sweet is the dew that falls betimes,

  And drops upon the leafy limes;

  Sweet, Hermon’s fragrant air:

  Sweet is the lily’s silver bell, 430

  And sweet the wakeful tapers’ smell

  That watch for early prayer.

  Sweet the young nurse, with love intense,

  Which smiles o’er sleeping innocence;

  Sweet when the lost arrive: 435

  Sweet the musician’s ardour beats,

  While his vague mind’s in quest of sweets

  The choicest flowers to hive.

  Sweeter, in all the strains of love,

  The language of thy turtle-dove, 440

  Paired to thy swelling chord;

  Sweeter, with every grace endued,

  The glory of thy gratitude.

  Respired unto the Lord.

  Strong is the horse upon his speed; 445

  Strong in pursuit the rapid glede,

  Which makes at once his game:

  Strong the tall ostrich on the ground;

  Strong through the turbulent profound

  Shoots Xiphias to his aim. 450

  Strong is the lion — like a coal

  His eyeball — like a bastion’s mole

  His chest against the foes:

  Strong the gier-eagle on his sail,

  Strong against tide the enormous whale 455

  Emerges as he goes.

  But stronger still in earth and air,

  And in the sea, the man of prayer,

  And far beneath the tide:

  And in the seat to faith assigned, 460

  Where ask is have, where seek is find,

  Where knock is open wide.

  Beauteous the fleet before the gale;

  Beauteous the multitudes in mail,

  Ranked arms, and crested heads; 465

  Beauteous the garden’s umbrage mild

  Walk, water, meditated wild,

  And all the bloomy beds.

  Beauteous the moon full on the lawn;

  And beauteous when the veil’s withdrawn, 470

  The virgin to her spouse:

  Beauteous the temple, decked and filled,

  When to the heaven of heavens they build

  Their heart-directed vows.

  Beauteous, yea beauteous more than these, 475

  The Shepherd King upon his knees,

  For his momentous trust;

  With wish of infinite conceit,

  For man, beast, mute, the small and great,

  And prostrate dust to dust. 480

  Precious the bounteous widow’s mite;

  And precious, for extreme delight,

  The largess from the churl:

  Precious the ruby’s blushing blaze,

  And alba’s blest imperial rays, 485

  And pure cerulean pearl.

  Precious the penitential tear;

  And precious is the sigh sincere;

  Acceptable to God:

  And precious are the winning flowers, 490

  In gladsome Israel’s feast of bowers,

  Bound on the hallowed sod.

  More precious that diviner part

  Of David, even the Lord’s own heart

  Great, beautiful, and new; 495

  In all things where it was intent,

  In all extremes, in each event,

  Proof — answering true to true.

  Glorious the sun in mid career;

  Glorious the assembled fires appear; 500

  Glorious the comet’s train:

  Glorious the trumpet and alarm;

  Glorious the Almighty’s stretched-out arm;

  Glorious the enraptured main:

  Glorious the northern lights a-stream; 505

  Glorious the song, when God’s the theme;

  Glorious the thunder’s roar:

  Glorious Hosannah from the den;

  Glorious the catholic Amen;

  Glorious the martyr’s gore: 510

  Glorious, — more glorious, — is the crown

  Of Him that brought salvation down,

  By meekness called Thy Son;

  Thou that stupendous truth believed; —

  And now the matchless deed’s achieved, 515

  Determined, Dared, and Done.

  List of Poems in Alphabetical Order

  List of Poets in Alphabetical Order

  John Logan

  List of Poems in Alphabetical Order

  List of Poets in Alphabetical Order

  The Braes of Yarrow

  John Logan (1748–1788)

  THY braes were bonny, Yarrow stream,

  When first on them I met my lover;

  Thy braes how dreary, Yarrow stream,

  When now thy waves his body cover!

  For ever now, O Yarrow stream! 5

  Thou art to me a stream of sorrow;

  For never on thy banks shall I

  Behold my Love, the flower of Yarrow.

  He promised me a milk-white steed

  To bear me to his father’s bowers; 10

  He promised me a little page

  To squire me to his father’s towers;

  He promised me a wedding-ring, —

  Now he is wedded to his grave,

  Alas, his watery grave, in Yarrow! 15

  Sweet were his words when last we met;

  My passion I as freely told him;

  Clasp’d in his arms, I little thought

  That I should never more behold him!

  Scarce was he gone, I saw his ghost; 20

  It vanish’d with a shriek of sorrow;

  Thrice did the water-wraith ascend,

  And gave a doleful groan thro’ Yarrow.

  His mother from the window look’d

  With all the longing of a mother; 25

  His little sister weeping walk’d

  The green-wood path to meet her brother;

  They sought him east, they sought him west,

  They sought him all the forest thorough;

  They only saw the cloud of night, 30

  They only heard the roar of Yarrow.

  No longer from thy window look —

  Thou hast no son, thou tender mother!

  No longer walk, thou lovely maid;

  Alas, thou hast no more a brother! 35

  No longer seek him east or west

  And search no more the forest thorough;

  For, wandering in the night so dark,

  He fell a lifeless corpse in Yarrow.

  The tear shall never leave my cheek, 40

  No other youth shall be my marrow —

  I’ll seek thy body in the stream,

  — The tear did never leave her cheek,

  No other youth became her marrow;

  She found his body in the stream, 45

  And now with him she sleeps in Yarrow.

  List of Poems in Alphabetical Order

  List of Poets in Alphabetical Order

  Charlotte Smith

  List of Poems in Alphabetical Order

  List of Poets in Alphabetical Order

  Beachy Head.

  Charlotte Smith (1749–1806)

  ON thy stupendous summit, rock sublime!

  That o’er the channel rear’d, half way at sea

  The mariner at early morning hails,

  I would recline; while Fancy should go forth,

 
And represent the strange and awful hour

  Of vast concussion; when the Omnipotent

  Stretch’d forth his arm, and rent the solid hills,

  Bidding the impetuous main flood rush between

  The rifted shores, and from the continent

  Eternally divided this green isle.

  Imperial lord of the high southern coast!

  From thy projecting head-land I would mark

  Far in the east the shades of night disperse,

  Melting and thinned, as from the dark blue wave

  Emerging, brilliant rays of arrowy light

  Dart from the horizon; when the glorious sun

  Just lifts above it his resplendent orb.

  Advances now, with feathery silver touched,

  The rippling tide of flood; glisten the sands,

  While, inmates of the chalky clefts that scar

  Thy sides precipitous, with shrill harsh cry,

  Their white wings glancing in the level beam,

  The terns, and gulls, and tarrocks, seek their food,

  And thy rough hollows echo to the voice

  Of the gray choughs, and ever restless daws,

  With clamour, not unlike the chiding hounds,

  While the lone shepherd, and his baying dog,

  Drive to thy turfy crest his bleating flock.

  The high meridian of the day is past,

  And Ocean now, reflecting the calm Heaven,

  Is of cerulean hue; and murmurs low

  The tide of ebb, upon the level sands.

  The sloop, her angular canvas shifting still,

  Catches the light and variable airs

  That but a little crisp the summer sea.

  Dimpling its tranquil surface.

  Afar off,

  And just emerging from the arch immense

  Where seem to part the elements, a fleet

  Of fishing vessels stretch their lesser sails;

  While more remote, and like a dubious spot

  Just hanging in the horizon, laden deep,

  The ship of commerce richly freighted, makes