I don't think we have a poetry thread going yet so I'll start one. I've been thinking about some that I memorized a while ago lately. I'll start with this one:
God give us men! A time like this demands
Strong minds; great hearts, true faith, and ready hands.
Men whom the lust of office does not kill:
Men whom the spoils of office cannot buy;
Men who possess opinions and a will;
Men who have honour; men who will not lie;
Men who can stand before a demagogue,
And damn his treacherous flatteries without winking;
Tall men, sun-crowned, who live above the fog,
In public duty and in private thinking,
For while the rabble, with their thumb-worn creeds
Their large professions, and their little deeds,
Mingle in selfish strife - O! Freedom weeps
Wrong rules the land, and waiting Justice sleeps.
- Maltbie Davenport Babcock
For Valentines Day
Wild Nights – Wild Nights!
Were I with thee
Wild Nights should be
Our luxury!
Futile – the winds –
To a heart in port –
Done with the compass –
Done with the chart!
Rowing in Eden –
Ah, the sea!
Might I moor – Tonight –
In thee!
--Emily Dickenson--
Author unknown
The devil is a sly ole fox
and if I could I'd put him in a box
and throw away the key
for the mean ole things he's done to me.
You should have never started this thread ;)
Casabianca
The boy stood on the burning deck
Whence all but he had fled;
The flame that lit the battle's wreck
Shone round him o'er the dead.
Yet beautiful and bright he stood,
As born to rule the storm;
A creature of heroic blood,
A proud, though childlike form.
The flames roll'd on...he would not go
Without his father's word;
That father, faint in death below,
His voice no longer heard.
He call'd aloud..."Say, father, say
If yet my task is done!"
He knew not that the chieftain lay
Unconscious of his son.
"Speak, father!" once again he cried
"If I may yet be gone!"
And but the booming shots replied,
And fast the flames roll'd on.
Upon his brow he felt their breath,
And in his waving hair,
And looked from that lone post of death,
In still yet brave despair;
And shouted but one more aloud,
"My father, must I stay?"
While o'er him fast, through sail and shroud
The wreathing fires made way,
They wrapt the ship in splendour wild,
They caught the flag on high,
And stream'd above the gallant child,
Like banners in the sky.
There came a burst of thunder sound...
The boy-oh! where was he?
Ask of the winds that far around
With fragments strewed the sea.
With mast, and helm, and pennon fair,
That well had borne their part;
But the noblest thing which perished there
Was that young faithful heart.
Author: Mrs. Felicia Dorothea Hemans
I'm trying to get more versed in poetry. My sister loves it but I never got into it as much. I think it's the difference in public vs home school. We never read poetry in public school.
Thanks for posting this one. I read the first few lines in a book but wondered what the full version was.
Here's another favorite:
Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf,
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day
Nothing gold can stay. -- Robert Frost
Ah this reminds me of a favorite....
I memorized this in the 7th grade and have never forgotten it...
The Rainy Day
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882)
THE DAY is cold, and dark, and dreary;
It rains, and the wind is never weary;
The vine still clings to the mouldering wall,
But at every gust the dead leaves fall,
And the day is dark and dreary.
My life is cold, and dark, and dreary;
It rains, and the wind is never weary;
My thoughts still cling to the mouldering Past,
But the hopes of youth fall thick in the blast,
And the days are dark and dreary.
Be still, sad heart! and cease repining;
Behind the clouds is the sun still shining;
Thy fate is the common fate of all,
Into each life some rain must fall,
Some days must be dark and dreary.
You know, I think I must have memorized the last line of that one. I didn't know there was more to it.