Mine and Thine by William Morris
Two words about the world we see, And nought but Mine and Thine they be. Ah! might we drive them forth and wide With us should rest and peace abide; All free, nought owned of goods and gear, By men and women though it were Common to all all wheat and wine Over the seas […]
March by William Morris
Slayer of the winter, art thou here again? O welcome, thou that’s bring’st the summer nigh! The bitter wind makes not thy victory vain, Nor will we mock thee for thy faint blue sky. Welcome, O March! whose kindly days and dry Make April ready for the throstle’s song, Thou first redresser of the winter’s […]
Love’s Gleaning Tide by William Morris
Draw not away thy hands, my love, With wind alone the branches move, And though the leaves be scant above The Autumn shall not shame us. Say; Let the world wax cold and drear, What is the worst of all the year But life, and what can hurt us, dear, Or death, and who shall […]
King Arthur’s Tomb by William Morris
Hot August noon: already on that day Since sunrise through the Wiltshire downs, most sad Of mouth and eye, he had gone leagues of way; Ay and by night, till whether good or bad He was, he knew not, though he knew perchance That he was Launcelot, the bravest knight Of all who since the […]
In Prison by William Morris
Wearily, drearily, Half the day long, Flap the great banners High over the stone; Strangely and eerily Sounds the wind’s song, Bending the banner-poles. While, all alone, Watching the loophole’s spark, Lie I, with life all dark, Feet tether’d, hands fetter’d Fast to the stone, The grim walls, square-letter’d With prison’d men’s groan. Still strain […]
Iceland First Seen by William Morris
Lo from our loitering ship a new land at last to be seen; Toothed rocks down the side of the firth on the east guard a weary wide lea, And black slope the hillsides above, striped adown with their desolate green: And a peak rises up on the west from the meeting of cloud and […]
For the Bed at Kelmscott by William Morris
The wind’s on the wold And the night is a-cold, And Thames runs chill ‘Twixt mead and hill. But kind and dear Is the old house here And my heart is warm ‘Midst winter’s harm. Rest then and rest, And think of the best ‘Twixt summer and spring, When all birds sing In the town […]
Flora by William Morris
I am the handmaid of the earth, I broider fair her glorious gown, And deck her on her days of mirth With many a garland of renown. And while Earth’s little ones are fain And play about the Mother’s hem, I scatter every gift I gain From sun and wind to gladden them. ————— The […]
Earth the Healer, Earth the Keeper by William Morris
So swift the hours are moving Unto the time unproved: Farewell my love unloving, Farewell my love beloved! What! are we not glad-hearted? Is there no deed to do? Is not all fear departed And Spring-tide blossomed new? The sails swell out above us, The sea-ridge lifts the keel; For They have called who love […]
Day by William Morris
I am Day; I bring again Life and glory, Love and pain: Awake, arise! from death to death Through me the World’s tale quickeneth. ————— The End And that’s the End of the Poem © Poetry Monster, 2021. Poems by topic and subject. Poetry Monster — the ultimate repository of world poetry. Poetry Monster — the […]
Autumn by William Morris
Laden Autumn here I stand Worn of heart, and weak of hand: Nought but rest seems good to me, Speak the word that sets me free. ————— The End And that’s the End of the Poem © Poetry Monster, 2021. Poems by topic and subject. Poetry Monster — the ultimate repository of world poetry. Poetry Monster […]
Atalanta’s Race by William Morris
Through thick Arcadian woods a hunter went, Following the beasts upon a fresh spring day; But since his horn-tipped bow but seldom bent, Now at the noontide nought had happed to slay, Within a vale he called his hounds away, Hearkening the echoes of his lone voice cling About the cliffs and through the beech-trees […]
A Good Knight In Prison by William Morris
Wearily, drearily, Half the day long, Flap the great banners High over the stone; Strangely and eerily Sounds the wind’s song, Bending the banner-poles. While, all alone, Watching the loophole’s spark, Lie I, with life all dark, Feet tether’d, hands fetter’d Fast to the stone, The grim walls, square-letter’d With prison’d men’s groan. Still strain […]
A Death Song by William Morris
What cometh here from west to east awending? And who are these, the marchers stern and slow? We bear the message that the rich are sending Aback to those who bade them wake and know. Not one, not one, nor thousands must they slay, But one and all if they would dusk the day. We […]
Who’s Who by W H Auden
A shilling life will give you all the facts: How Father beat him, how he ran away, What were the struggles of his youth, what acts Made him the greatest figure of his day; Of how he fought, fished, hunted, worked all night, Though giddy, climbed new mountains; named a sea; Some of the last […]
We’re Late by W H Auden
Clocks cannot tell our time of day For what event to pray Because we have no time, because We have no time until We know what time we fill, Why time is other than time was. Nor can our question satisfy The answer in the statue’s eye: Only the living ask whose brow May wear […]
Warm are the Still and Lucky Miles by W H Auden
Warm are the still and lucky miles, White shores of longing stretch away, A light of recognition fills The whole great day, and bright The tiny world of lovers’ arms. Silence invades the breathing wood Where drowsy limbs a treasure keep, Now greenly falls the learned shade Across the sleeping brows And stirs their secret […]
Voltaire At Ferney by W H Auden
Almost happy now, he looked at his estate. An exile making watches glanced up as he passed, And went on working; where a hospital was rising fast A joiner touched his cap; an agent came to tell Some of the trees he’d planted were progressing well. The white alps glittered. It was summer. He was […]
Underneath an Abject Willow by W H Auden
Underneath an abject willow, Lover, sulk no more: Act from thought should quickly follow. What is thinking for? Your unique and moping station Proves you cold; Stand up and fold Your map of desolation. Bells that toll across the meadows From the sombre spire Toll for these unloving shadows Love does not require. All that […]
This Lunar Beauty by W H Auden
This lunar beauty Has no history Is complete and early, If beauty later Bear any feature It had a lover And is another. This like a dream Keeps other time And daytime is The loss of this, For time is inches And the heart’s changes Where ghost has haunted Lost and wanted. But this was […]
They Wondered Why the Fruit had Been Forbidden by W H Auden
They wondered why the fruit had been forbidden: It taught them nothing new. They hid their pride, But did not listen much when they were chidden: They knew exactly what to do outside. They left. Immediately the memory faded Of all they known: they could not understand The dogs now who before had always aided; […]
The Waters by W H Auden
Poet,oracle and wit Like unsuccessful anglers by Th ponds of apperception sit, Baiting with the wrong request The vectors of their interest; At nightfall tell the angler’s lie. With time in tempest everywhere, To rafts of frail assumption cling The saintly and the insincere; Enraged phenonmena bear down In overwhelming waves to drown Both sufferer […]
The Wanderer by W H Auden
Doom is dark and deeper than any sea-dingle. Upon what man it fall In spring, day-wishing flowers appearing, Avalanche sliding, white snow from rock-face, That he should leave his house, No cloud-soft hand can hold him, restraint by women; But ever that man goes Through place-keepers, through forest trees, A stranger to strangers over undried […]
The Two by W H Auden
You are the town and we are the clock. We are the guardians of the gate in the rock. The Two. On your left and on your right In the day and in the night, We are watching you. Wiser not to ask just what has occurred To them who disobeyed our word; To those […]
The Riddle by W H Auden
Underneath the leaves of life, Green on the prodigious tree, In a trance of grief Stand the fallen man and wife: Far away the single stag Banished to a lonely crag Gazes placid out to sea, And from thickets round about Breeding animals look in On Duality, And the birds fly in and out Of […]
The Quest by W H Auden
I. The Door Out of it steps our future, through this door Enigmas, executioners and rules, Her Majesty in a bad temper or A red-nosed Fool who makes a fool of fools. Great persons eye it in the twilight for A past it might so carelessly let in, A widow with a missionary grin, The […]
The Quest XII (Vocation) by W H Auden
Incredulous, he stared at the amused Official writing down his name among Those whose request to suffer was refused. The pen ceased scratching: though he came too late To join the martyrs, there was still a place Among the tempters for a caustic tongue. To test the resolution of the young With tales of the […]
The Novelist by W H Auden
Encased in talent like a uniform, The rank of every poet is well known; They can amaze us like a thunderstorm, Or die so young, or live for years alone. They can dash forward like hussars: but he Must struggle out of his boyish gift and learn How to be plain and awkward, how to […]
The Labyrinth by W H Auden
Anthropos apteros for days Walked whistling round and round the Maze, Relying happily upon His temperment for getting on. The hundredth time he sighted, though, A bush he left an hour ago, He halted where four alleys crossed, And recognized that he was lost. “Where am I?” Metaphysics says No question can be asked unless […]
The Hidden Law by W H Auden
The Hidden Law does not deny Our laws of probability, But takes the atom and the star And human beings as they are, And answers nothing when we lie. It is the only reason why No government can codify, And verbal definitions mar The Hidden Law. Its utter patience will not try To stop us […]
The Geography of the House by W H Auden
(for Christopher Isherwood) Seated after breakfast In this white-tiled cabin Arabs call the House where Everybody goes, Even melancholics Raise a cheer to Mrs. Nature for the primal Pleasure She bestows. Sex is but a dream to Seventy-and-over, But a joy proposed un- -til we start to shave: Mouth-delight depends on Virtue in the cook, […]
The Dream by W H Auden
Dear, though the night is gone, Its dream still haunts to-day, That brought us to a room Cavernous, lofty as A railway terminus, And crowded in that gloom Were beds, and we in one In a far corner lay. Our whisper woke no clocks, We kissed and I was glad At everything you did, Indifferent […]
The Common Life by W H Auden
A living-room, the catholic area you (Thou, rather) and I may enter without knocking, leave without a bow, confronts each visitor with a style, a secular faith: he compares its dogmas with his, and decides whether he would like to see more of us. (Spotless rooms where nothing’s left lying about chill me, so do […]
Thanksgiving for a Habitat by W H Auden
Nobody I know would like to be buried with a silver cocktail-shaker, a transistor radio and a strangled daily help, or keep his word because of a great-great-grandmother who got laid by a sacred beast. Only a press lord could have built San Simeon: no unearned income can buy us back the gait and gestures […]
Taller To-day by W H Auden
Taller to-day, we remember similar evenings, Walking together in a windless orchard Where the brook runs over the gravel, far from the glacier. Nights come bringing the snow, and the dead howl Under headlands in their windy dwelling Because the Adversary put too easy questions On lonely roads. But happy now, though no nearer each […]
Song Of The Master And Boatswain by W H Auden
At Dirty Dick’s and Sloppy Joe’s We drank our liquor straight, Some went upstairs with Margery, And some, alas, with Kate; And two by two like cat and mouse The homeless played at keeping house. There Wealthy Meg, the Sailor’s Friend, And Marion, cow-eyed, Opened their arms to me but I Refused to step inside; […]
At the Party by W H Auden
Unrhymed, unrhythmical, the chatter goes: Yet no one hears his own remarks as prose. Beneath each topic tunelessly discussed The ground-bass is reciprocal mistrust. The names in fashion shuttling to and fro Yield, when deciphered, messages of woe. You cannot read me like an open book. I’m more myself than you will ever look. Will […]
Old People’s Home by W H Auden
All are limitory, but each has her own nuance of damage. The elite can dress and decent themselves, are ambulant with a single stick, adroit to read a book all through, or play the slow movements of easy sonatas. (Yet, perhaps their very carnal freedom is their spirit’s bane: intelligent of what has happened and […]
O What Is That Sound by W H Auden
O what is that sound which so thrills the ear Down in the valley drumming, drumming? Only the scarlet soldiers, dear, The soldiers coming. O what is that light I see flashing so clear Over the distance brightly, brightly? Only the sun on their weapons, dear, As they step lightly. O what are they doing […]
O Tell Me The Truth About Love by W H Auden
Some say love’s a little boy, And some say it’s a bird, Some say it makes the world go around, Some say that’s absurd, And when I asked the man next-door, Who looked as if he knew, His wife got very cross indeed, And said it wouldn’t do. Does it look like a pair of […]