Seeking Beauty by William Henry Davies
Seeking Beauty by William Henry Davies Cold winds can never freeze, nor thunder sour The cup of cheer that Beauty draws for me Out of those Azure heavens and this green earth — I drink and drink, and thirst the more I see. To see the dewdrops thrill the blades of grass, Makes my whole […]
Sadness and Joy by William Henry Davies
Sadness and Joy by William Henry Davies I pray you, Sadness, leave me soon, In sweet invention thou art poor! Thy sister, Joy can make ten songs While thou art making four. One hour with thee is sweet enough; But when we find the whole day gone And no created thing is left — We […]
Rich or Poor by William Henry Davies
Rich or Poor by William Henry Davies With thy true love I have more wealth Than Charon’s piled-up bank doth hold; Where he makes kings lay down their crowns And life-long misers leave their gold. Without thy love I’ve no more wealth Than seen upon that other shore; That cold, bare bank he rows them […]
Rich Days by William Henry Davies
Rich Days by William Henry Davies Welcome to you rich Autumn days, Ere comes the cold, leaf-picking wind; When golden stocks are seen in fields, All standing arm-in-arm entwined; And gallons of sweet cider seen On trees in apples red and green. With mellow pears that cheat our teeth, Which melt that tongues may suck […]
No Master by William Henry Davies
No Master by William Henry Davies Indeed this is the sweet life! my hand Is under no proud man’s command; There is no voice to break my rest Before a bird has left its nest; There is no man to change my mood, When I go nutting in the wood; No man to pluck my […]
Nell Barnes by William Henry Davies
Nell Barnes by William Henry Davies They lived apart for three long years, Bill Barnes and Nell his wife; He took his joy from other girls, She led a wicked life. Yet ofttimes she would pass his shop, With some strange man awhile; And, looking, meet her husband’s frown With her malicious smile. Until one […]
Money by William Henry Davies
Money by William Henry Davies When I had money, money, O! I knew no joy till I went poor; For many a false man as a friend Came knocking all day at my door. Then felt I like a child that holds A trumpet that he must not blow Because a man is dead; I […]
Leisure by William Henry Davies
Leisure by William Henry Davies What is this life if, full of care, We have no time to stand and stare. No time to stand beneath the boughs And stare as long as sheep or cows. No time to see, when woods we pass, Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass. No time to see, […]
Laughing Rose by William Henry Davies
Laughing Rose by William Henry Davies If I were gusty April now, How I would blow at laughing Rose; I’d make her ribbons slip their knots, And all her hair come loose. If I were merry April now, How I would pelt her cheeks with showers; I’d make carnations, rich and warm, Of her vermillion […]
Joy and Pleasure by William Henry Davies
Joy and Pleasure by William Henry Davies Now, joy is born of parents poor, And pleasure of our richer kind; Though pleasure’s free, she cannot sing As sweet a song as joy confined. Pleasure’s a Moth, that sleeps by day And dances by false glare at night; But Joy’s a Butterfly, that loves To spread […]
William Henry Davies – William Henry Davies
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In the Country by William Henry Davies
In the Country by William Henry Davies This life is sweetest; in this wood I hear no children cry for food; I see no woman, white with care; No man, with muscled wasting here. No doubt it is a selfish thing To fly from human suffering; No doubt he is a selfish man, Who shuns […]
In May by William Henry Davies
In May by William Henry Davies Yes, I will spend the livelong day With Nature in this month of May; And sit beneath the trees, and share My bread with birds whose homes are there; While cows lie down to eat, and sheep Stand to their necks in grass so deep; While birds do sing […]
Days Too Short by William Henry Davies
Days Too Short by William Henry Davies When primroses are out in Spring, And small, blue violets come between; When merry birds sing on boughs green, And rills, as soon as born, must sing; When butterflies will make side-leaps, As though escaped from Nature’s hand Ere perfect quite; and bees will stand Upon their heads […]
Come, Let Us Find by William Henry Davies
Come, Let Us Find by William Henry Davies Come, let us find a cottage, love, That’s green for half a mile around; To laugh at every grumbling bee, Whose sweetest blossom’s not yet found. Where many a bird shall sing for you, And in your garden build its nest: They’ll sing for you as though […]
Charms by William Henry Davies
Charms by William Henry Davies She walks as lightly as the fly Skates on the water in July. To hear her moving petticoat For me is music’s highest note. Stones are not heard, when her feet pass, No more than tumps of moss or grass. When she sits still, she’s like the flower To be […]
April’s Charms by William Henry Davies
April’s Charms by William Henry Davies When April scatters charms of primrose gold Among the copper leaves in thickets old, And singing skylarks from the meadows rise, To twinkle like black stars in sunny skies; When I can hear the small woodpecker ring Time on a tree for all the birds that sing; And hear […]
All in June by William Henry Davies
All in June by William Henry Davies A week ago I had a fire To warm my feet, my hands and face; Cold winds, that never make a friend, Crept in and out of every place. Today the fields are rich in grass, And buttercups in thousands grow; I’ll show the world where I have […]
Ale by William Henry Davies
Ale by William Henry Davies Now do I hear thee weep and groan, Who hath a comrade sunk at sea? Then quaff thee of my good old ale, And it will raise him up for thee; Thoul’t think as little of him then As when he moved with living men. If thou hast hopes to […]
A Plain Life by William Henry Davies
A Plain Life by William Henry Davies No idle gold — since this fine sun, my friend, Is no mean miser, but doth freely spend. No prescious stones — since these green mornings show, Without a charge, their pearls where’er I go. No lifeless books — since birds with their sweet tongues Will read aloud […]
A Greeting by William Henry Davies
A Greeting by William Henry Davies Good morning, Life–and all Things glad and beautiful. My pockets nothing hold, But he that owns the gold, The Sun, is my great friend– His spending has no end. Hail to the morning sky, Which bright clouds measure high; Hail to you birds whose throats Would number leaves by […]
A Great Time by William Henry Davies
A Great Time by William Henry Davies Sweet Chance, that led my steps abroad, Beyond the town, where wild flowers grow — A rainbow and a cuckoo, Lord, How rich and great the times are now! Know, all ye sheep And cows, that keep On staring that I stand so long In grass that’s wet […]
A Fleeting Passion by William Henry Davies
A Fleeting Passion by William Henry Davies Thou shalt not laugh, thou shalt not romp, Let’s grimly kiss with bated breath; As quietly and solemnly As Life when it is kissing Death. Now in the silence of the grave, My hand is squeezing that soft breast; While thou dost in such passion lie, It mocks […]
The Marriage of Heaven and Hell by William Blake
THE MARRIAGE OF HEAVEN AND HELL THE MARRIAGE OF HEAVEN AND HELL BY WILLIAM BLAKE [lwptoc] THE ARGUMENT RINTRAH roars and shakes his fires in the burden’d air, Hungry clouds swag on the deep. Once meek, and in a perilous path The just man kept his course along The Vale of Death. Roses are planted […]
Poems by William Blake, Songs of Innocence and Experience and the Book of Thel
Poems by William Blake, Songs of Innocence and Experience and the Book of Thel INTRODUCTION Piping down the valleys wild, Piping songs of pleasant glee, On a cloud I saw a child, And he laughing said to me: “Pipe a song about a Lamb!” So I piped with merry cheer. “Piper, pipe that song again;” […]
I see the Four-fold Man by William Blake
I see the Four-fold Man, The Humanity in deadly sleep And its fallen Emanation, the Spectre and its cruel Shadow. I see the Past, Present and Future existing all at once Before me. O Divine Spirit, sustain me on thy wings, That I may awake Albion from his long and cold repose; For Bacon and […]
An Imitation of Spenser by William Blake
Thou fair hair’d angel of the evening, Now, while the sun rests on the mountains light, Thy bright torch of love; Thy radiant crown Put on, and smile upon our evening bed! Smile on our loves; and when thou drawest the Blue curtains, scatter thy silver dew On every flower that shuts its sweet eyes […]
Gwin King of Norway by William Blake
Come, kings, and listen to my song: When Gwin, the son of Nore, Over the nations of the North His cruel sceptre bore; The nobles of the land did feed Upon the hungry poor; They tear the poor man’s lamb, and drive The needy from their door. `The land is desolate; our wives And children […]
Intorduction to the Songs of Experience by William Blake
Hear the voice of the Bard, Who present, past, and future, sees; Whose ears have heard The Holy Word That walked among the ancient tree; Calling the lapsed soul, And weeping in the evening dew; That might control The starry pole, And fallen, fallen light renew! ‘O Earth, O Earth, return! Arise from out the […]
Fair Elanor by William Blake
The bell struck one, and shook the silent tower; The graves give up their dead: fair Elenor Walk’d by the castle gate, and look?d in. A hollow groan ran thro’ the dreary vaults. She shriek’d aloud, and sunk upon the steps, On the cold stone her pale cheeks. Sickly smells Of death issue as from […]
England! awake! awake! awake! by William Blake
England! awake! awake! awake! Jerusalem thy Sister calls! Why wilt thou sleep the sleep of death And close her from thy ancient walls? Thy hills and valleys felt her feet Gently upon their bosoms move: Thy gates beheld sweet Zion’s ways: Then was a time of joy and love. And now the time returns again: […]
I Rose Up at the Dawn of Day by William Blake
I rose up at the dawn of day– `Get thee away! get thee away! Pray’st thou for riches? Away! away! This is the Throne of Mammon grey.’ Said I: This, sure, is very odd; I took it to be the Throne of God. For everything besides I have: It is only for riches that I […]
Hear the Voice by William Blake
HEAR the voice of the Bard, Who present, past, and future, sees; Whose ears have heard The Holy Word That walk’d among the ancient trees; Calling the lapsed soul, And weeping in the evening dew; That might control The starry pole, And fallen, fallen light renew! ‘O Earth, O Earth, return! Arise from out the […]
Introduction to the Songs of Innocence by William Blake
Piping down the valleys wild, Piping songs of pleasant glee, On a cloud I saw a child, And he laughing said to me: ‘Pipe a song about a Lamb!’ So I piped with merry cheer. ‘Piper, pipe that song again;’ So I piped: he wept to hear. ‘Drop thy pipe, thy happy pipe; Sing thy […]
French Revolution, The (excerpt) by William Blake
84 Thee the ancientest peer, Duke of Burgundy, rose from the monarch’s right hand, red as wines 85 From his mountains; an odor of war, like a ripe vineyard, rose from his garments, 86 And the chamber became as a clouded sky; o’er the council he stretch’d his red limbs, 87 Cloth’d in flames of […]
I Saw a Chapel by William Blake
I saw a chapel all of gold That none did dare to enter in, And many weeping stood without, Weeping, mourning, worshipping. I saw a serpent rise between The white pillars of the door, And he forc’d and forc’d and forc’d, Down the golden hinges tore. And along the pavement sweet, Set with pearls and […]
I Heard an Angel by William Blake
I heard an Angel singing When the day was springing, ‘Mercy, Pity, Peace Is the world’s release.’ Thus he sung all day Over the new mown hay, Till the sun went down And haycocks looked brown. I heard a Devil curse Over the heath and the furze, ‘Mercy could be no more, If there was […]
Broken Love by William Blake
MY Spectre around me night and day Like a wild beast guards my way; My Emanation far within Weeps incessantly for my sin. ‘A fathomless and boundless deep, There we wander, there we weep; On the hungry craving wind My Spectre follows thee behind. ‘He scents thy footsteps in the snow Wheresoever thou dost go, […]
Eternity by William Blake
He who binds to himself a joy Does the winged life destroy; But he who kisses the joy as it flies Lives in eternity’s sun rise. ————— 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 […]
Holy Thursday (Innocence) by William Blake
Twas on a Holy Thursday their innocent faces clean The children walking two & two in red & blue & green Grey headed beadles walked before with wands as white as snow Till into the high dome of Pauls they like Thames waters flow O what a multitude they seemed these flowers of London town […]