George Gordon Byron – To Ianthe

Not in those climes where I have late been straying,Though Beauty long hath there been matchless deemed,Not in those visions to the heart displayingForms which it sighs but to have only dreamed,Hath aught like thee in Truth or Fancy seemed:Nor, having seen thee, shall I vainly seekTo...

Sylvia Plath – Admonition

If you dissect a birdTo diagram the tongueYou'll cut the chordArticulating song.If you flay a beastTo marvel at the maneYou'll wreck the restFrom which the fur began.If you pluck out the heartTo find what makes it move,You'll halt the clockThat syncopates our lo...

John Keats – Bards of Passion and of Mirth...

Bards of Passion and of Mirth,Ye have left your souls on earth!Have ye souls in heaven too,Doubled-lived in regions new?Yes, and those of heaven communeWith the spheres of sun and moon;With the noise of fountains wondrous,And the parle of voices thund'rous;With the whisper of heaven's...

Sylvia Plath – All The Dead Dears

Rigged poker -stiff on her backWith a granite grinThis antique museum-cased ladyLies, companioned by the gimcrackRelics of a mouse and a shrewThat battened for a day on her ankle-bone.These three, unmasked now, bearDry witnessTo the gross eating gameWe'd wink at if we didn't hearStars...

Rudyard Kipling – A Ballade of Jakko Hill

One moment bid the horses wait, Since tiffin is not laid till three, Below the upward path and straight You climbed a year ago with me. Love came upon us suddenly And loosed -- an idle hour to kill -- A headless, armless armory That smote us both on Jakko Hill. Ah...

Sylvia Plath – Aquatic Nocturne

deep in liquidturquoise sliversof dilute lightquiver in thin streaksof bright tinfoilon mobile jet:pale flounderwaver bytilting silver:in the shallowsagile minnowsflicker gilt:grapeblue musselsdilate lithe andpliant valves:dull lunar globesof blubous jellyfishglow milkgreen:eels...

William Shakespeare – A Fairy Song

Over hill, over dale,Thorough bush, thorough brier,Over park, over pale,Thorough flood, thorough fire!I do wander everywhere,Swifter than the moon's sphere;And I serve the Fairy Queen,To dew her orbs upon the green;The cowslips tall her pensioners be;In their gold coats spots you...

Khalil Gibran – Children Chapter IV

And a woman who held a babe against her bosom said, "Speak to us of Children."And he said:Your children are not your children.They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.They come through you but not from you,And though they are with you, yet they belong not...

William Shakespeare – A Madrigal

Crabbed Age and YouthCannot live together:Youth is full of pleasance,Age is full of care;Youth like summer morn,Age like winter weather;Youth like summer brave,Age like winter bare:Youth is full of sports,Age's breath is short,Youth is nimble, Age is lame:Youth is hot and bold,Age...

George Gordon Byron – Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (Canto the First)

I Oh, thou! in Hellas deem'd of heavenly birth, Muse! form'd or fabled at the minstrel's will! Since shamed full oft by later lyres on earth, Mine dares not call thee from thy sacred hill: Yet there I've wander'd by thy vaunted rill; Yes! sigh'd o'er Delphi's...