Delphi Poetry Anthology: The World's Greatest Poems (Delphi Poets Series Book 50) (229 page)
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Authors: Homer,William Shakespeare
George Darley (1795–1846)
IT is not Beauty I demand,
A crystal brow, the moon’s despair,
Nor the snow’s daughter, a white hand,
Nor mermaid’s yellow pride of hair:
Tell me not of your starry eyes,
5
Your lips that seem on roses fed,
Your breasts, where Cupid tumbling lies
Nor sleeps for kissing of his bed: —
A bloomy pair of vermeil cheeks
Like Hebe’s in her ruddiest hours,
10
A breath that softer music speaks
Than summer winds a-wooing flowers,
These are but gauds; nay, what are lips:
Coral beneath the ocean-stream,
Whose brink when your adventurer slips
15
Full oft he perisheth on them.
And what are cheeks but ensigns oft
That wave hot youth to fields of blood?
Did Helen’s breast, though ne’er so soft,
Do Greece or Ilium any good?
20
Eyes can with baleful ardour burn;
Poison can breathe, than erst perfumed;
There’s many a white hand holds an urn
With lovers’ hearts to dust consumed.
For crystal brows there’s nought within;
25
They are but empty cells for pride;
He who the Syren’s hair would win
Is mostly strangled in the tide.
Give me, instead of Beauty’s bust,
A tender heart, a loyal mind
30
Which with temptation I would trust,
Yet never link’d with error find, —
One in whose gentle bosom I
Could pour my secret heart of woes,
Like the case-burthen’d honey-fly
35
That hides his murmurs in the rose —
My earthly Comforter! whose love
So indefeasible might be
That, when my spirit wonn’d above
Hers could not stay, for sympathy.
40
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Thomas Babington Macaulay, Lord Macaulay (1800–1859)
ATTEND, all ye who list to hear our noble England’s praise;
I tell of the thrice famous deeds she wrought in ancient days,
When that great fleet invincible against her bore in vain
The richest spoils of Mexico, the stoutest hearts of Spain.
It was about the lovely close of a warm summer day,
5
There came a gallant merchant-ship full sail to Plymouth Bay;
Her crew had seen Castile’s black fleet beyond Aurigny’s isle,
At earliest twilight, on the waves lie heaving many a mile.
At sunrise she escaped their van, by God’s especial grace,
And the tall
Pinta,
till the noon, had held her close in chase.
10
Forthwith a guard at every gun was placed along the wall;
The beacon blazed upon the roof of Edgecumbe’s lofty hall;
Many a light fishing-bark put out to pry along the coast,
And with loose rein and bloody spur rode inland many a post,
With his white hair, unbonneted, the stout old sheriff comes;
15
Behind him march the halberdiers; before him sound the drums;
His yeomen round the market cross make clear an ample space;
For there behoves him to set up the standard of Her Grace.
And haughtily the trumpets peal, and gaily dance the bells,
As slow upon the labouring wind the royal blazon swells,
20
Look how the Lion of the sea lifts up his ancient crown,
And underneath his deadly paw treads the gay lilies down.
So stalked he when he turned to flight, on that famed Picard field,
Bohemia’s plume, and Genoa’s bow, and Caesar’s eagle shield.
So glared he when at Agincourt in wrath he turned to bay,
25
And crushed and torn beneath his claws the princely hunters lay.
Ho! strike the flagstaff deep, sir Knight: ho! scatter flowers, fair maids:
Ho! gunners, fire a loud salute: ho! gallants, draw your blades:
Thou sun, shine on her joyously; ye breezes, waft her wide;
Our glorious
semper eadem,
the banner of our pride.
30
The freshening breeze of eve unfurled that banner’s massy fold;
The parting gleam of sunshine kissed that haughty scroll of gold:
Night sank upon the dusky beach, and on the purple sea,
Such night in England ne’er had been, nor e’er again shall be.
From Eddystone to Berwick bounds, from Lynn to Milford Bay,
35
That time of slumber was as bright and busy as the day;
For swift to east and swift to west the ghastly war-flame spread,
High on St. Michael’s Mount it shone: it shone on Beachy Head.
Far on the deep the Spaniard saw, along each southern shire,
Cape beyond cape, in endless range, those twinkling points of fire.
40
The fisher left his skiff to rock on Tamar’s glittering waves:
The rugged miners poured to war from Mendip’s sunless caves:
O’er Longleat’s towers, o’er Cranbourne’s oaks, the fiery herald flew
And roused the shepherds of Stonehenge, the rangers of Beaulieu.
Right sharp and quick the bells all night rang out from Bristol town,
45
And ere the day three hundred horse had met on Clifton down;
The sentinel on Whitehall gate looked forth into the night,
And saw o’erhanging Richmond Hill that streak of blood-red light.
Then bugle’s note and cannon’s roar the death-like silence broke,
And with one start, and with one cry, the royal city woke.
50
At once on all her stately gates arose the answering fires;
At once the wild alarum clashed from all her reeling spires;
From all the batteries of the Tower pealed loud the voice of fear;
And all the thousand masts of Thames sent back a louder cheer:
And from the farthest wards was heard the rush of hurrying feet,
55
And the broad streams of pikes and flags rushed down each roaring street;
And broader still became the blaze, and louder still the din,
As fast from every village round the horse came spurring in;
And eastward straight from wild Blackheath the warlike errand went,
And roused in many an ancient hall the gallant squires of Kent.
60
Southward from Surrey’s pleasant hills flew those bright couriers forth;
High on bleak Hampstead’s swarthy moor they started for the north;
And on, and on, without a pause, untired they bounded still:
All night from tower to tower they sprang; they sprang from hill to hill:
Till the proud Peak unfurled the flag o’er Darwin’s rocky dales
65
Till like volcanoes flared to heaven the stormy hills of Wales,
Till twelve fair counties saw the blaze on Malvern’s lonely height,
Till streamed in crimson on the wind the Wrekin’s crest of light,
Till broad and fierce the star came forth on Ely’s stately fane,
And tower and hamlet rose in arms o’er all the boundless plain;
70
Till Belvoir’s lordly terraces the sign to Lincoln sent,
And Lincoln sped the message on o’er the wide vale of Trent;
Till Skiddaw saw the fire that burned on Gaunt’s embattled pile,
And the red glare on Skiddaw roused the burghers of Carlisle.
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Thomas Babington Macaulay, Lord Macaulay (1800–1859)
TO my true king I offered, free from stain,
Courage and faith; vain faith, and courage vain.
For him I threw lands, honours, wealth, away,
And one dear hope, that was more prized than they.
For him I languished in a foreign clime,
5
Grey-haired with sorrow in my manhood’s prime;
Heard on Lavernia Scargill’s whispering trees,
And pined by Arno for my lovelier Tees;
Beheld each night my home in fevered sleep,
Each morning started from the dream to weep;
10
Till God, who saw me tried too sorely, gave
The resting-place I asked, an early grave.
O thou, whom chance leads to this nameless stone,
From that proud country which was once mine own,
By those white cliffs I never more must see,
15
By that dear language which I spake like thee,
Forget all feuds, and shed one English tear
O’er English dust. A broken heart lies here.
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Sir William Edmondstoune Aytoun
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Sir William Edmondstoune Aytoun (1813–1865)
WHY look the distant mountains
So gloomy and so drear?
Are rain clouds passing o’er them,
Or is the tempest near?
No shadow of the tempest
5
Is there, nor wind nor rain —
’Tis Charon that is passing by,
With all his gloomy train.
The young men march before him,
In all their strength and pride;
10
The tender little infants,
They totter by his side;
The old men walk behind him,
And earnestly they pray —
Both old and young imploring him
15
To grant some brief delay.
‘O Charon! halt, we pray thee,
Beside some little town,
Or near some sparkling fountain,
Where the waters wimple down!
20
The old will drink and be refreshed,
The young the disc will fling,
And the tender little children
Pluck flowers beside the spring.’
‘I will not stay my journey,
25
Nor halt by any town,
Near any sparkling fountain,
Where the waters wimple down:
The mothers coming to the well
Would know the babes they bore,
30
The wives would clasp their husbands,
Nor could I part them more.’
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
