CAPITAL POEMS
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Epilogue
With quiet heart, I climbed the hill,
from which one can see, the city, complete,
hospitals, brothels, purgatory, hell,
prison, where every sin flowers, at our feet.
.....
Charles Baudelaire
With quiet heart, I climbed the hill,
from which one can see, the city, complete,
hospitals, brothels, purgatory, hell,
prison, where every sin flowers, at our feet.
.....
Charles Baudelaire
Adonais
I weep for Adonais-he is dead!
O, weep for Adonais! though our tears
Thaw not the frost which binds so dear a head!
And thou, sad Hour, selected from all years
.....
Percy Bysshe Shelley
I weep for Adonais-he is dead!
O, weep for Adonais! though our tears
Thaw not the frost which binds so dear a head!
And thou, sad Hour, selected from all years
.....
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Dreaming Of Li Bai (2)
Clouds drifting the whole day;
a traveler traveling who never arrives.
Three nights you have been in my dreams;
.....
Du Fu
Clouds drifting the whole day;
a traveler traveling who never arrives.
Three nights you have been in my dreams;
.....
Du Fu
The Heart Is The Capital Of The Mind'
1354
The Heart is the Capital of the Mind-
The Mind is a single State-
.....
Emily Dickinson
1354
The Heart is the Capital of the Mind-
The Mind is a single State-
.....
Emily Dickinson
Love Among The Ruins
I
Where the quiet-coloured end of evening smiles
Miles and miles
.....
Robert Browning
I
Where the quiet-coloured end of evening smiles
Miles and miles
.....
Robert Browning
The Poet
The riches of the poet are equal to his poetry
His power is his left hand
It is idle weak and precious
His poverty is his wealth, a wealth which may destroy him
.....
Delmore Schwartz
The riches of the poet are equal to his poetry
His power is his left hand
It is idle weak and precious
His poverty is his wealth, a wealth which may destroy him
.....
Delmore Schwartz
Prelude
What a twitter! what a tumult! what a whirr of wheeling wings!
Birds of Passage hear the message which the Equinoctial brings.
Birds of Passage hear the message and beneath the flying clouds,
.....
Mathilde Blind
What a twitter! what a tumult! what a whirr of wheeling wings!
Birds of Passage hear the message which the Equinoctial brings.
Birds of Passage hear the message and beneath the flying clouds,
.....
Mathilde Blind
Letters To The Roman Friend
From Martial
Now is windy and the waves are cresting over
Fall is soon to come to change the place entirely.
Change of colors moves me, Postum, even stronger
.....
Joseph Brodsky
From Martial
Now is windy and the waves are cresting over
Fall is soon to come to change the place entirely.
Change of colors moves me, Postum, even stronger
.....
Joseph Brodsky
Song Of The Guitar.
In the tenth year of Yuanhe I was banished and demoted to be assistant official in Jiujiang. In the summer of the next year I was seeing a friend leave Penpu and heard in the midnight from a neighbouring boat a guitar played in the manner of the capital. Upon inquiry, I found that the player had formerly been a dancing-girl there and in her maturity had been married to a merchant. I invited her to my boat to have her play for us. She told me her story, heyday and then unhappiness. Since my departure from the capital I had not felt sad; but that night, after I left her, I began to realize my banishment. And I wrote this long poem -- six hundred and twelve characters.
I was bidding a guest farewell, at night on the Xunyang River,
Where maple-leaves and full-grown rushes rustled in the autumn.
.....
Bai Juyi
In the tenth year of Yuanhe I was banished and demoted to be assistant official in Jiujiang. In the summer of the next year I was seeing a friend leave Penpu and heard in the midnight from a neighbouring boat a guitar played in the manner of the capital. Upon inquiry, I found that the player had formerly been a dancing-girl there and in her maturity had been married to a merchant. I invited her to my boat to have her play for us. She told me her story, heyday and then unhappiness. Since my departure from the capital I had not felt sad; but that night, after I left her, I began to realize my banishment. And I wrote this long poem -- six hundred and twelve characters.
I was bidding a guest farewell, at night on the Xunyang River,
Where maple-leaves and full-grown rushes rustled in the autumn.
.....
Bai Juyi
Twenty-two Rhymes To Left-prime-minister Wei
Boys in fancy clothes never starve,
but Confucian scholars often find their lives in ruin.
Please listen to my explanation, Sir,
I, your humble student, ask permission to state my case.
.....
Du Fu
Boys in fancy clothes never starve,
but Confucian scholars often find their lives in ruin.
Please listen to my explanation, Sir,
I, your humble student, ask permission to state my case.
.....
Du Fu
Song Of Unending Sorrow.
China's Emperor, craving beauty that might shake an empire,
Was on the throne for many years, searching, never finding,
Till a little child of the Yang clan, hardly even grown,
Bred in an inner chamber, with no one knowing her,
.....
Bai Juyi
China's Emperor, craving beauty that might shake an empire,
Was on the throne for many years, searching, never finding,
Till a little child of the Yang clan, hardly even grown,
Bred in an inner chamber, with no one knowing her,
.....
Bai Juyi
Epitaph Of La Fontaine Made By Himself
JOHN, as he came, so went away,
Consuming capital and pay,
Holding superfluous riches cheap;
The trick of spending time he knew,
.....
Jean De La Fontaine
JOHN, as he came, so went away,
Consuming capital and pay,
Holding superfluous riches cheap;
The trick of spending time he knew,
.....
Jean De La Fontaine
The London 'bobby'
A Tribute To The Policemen Of England's Capital
Here in my cosy corner,
.....
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
A Tribute To The Policemen Of England's Capital
Here in my cosy corner,
.....
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Fragments
I
In that fair capital where Pleasure, crowned
Amidst her myriad courtiers, riots and rules,
.....
Alan Seeger
I
In that fair capital where Pleasure, crowned
Amidst her myriad courtiers, riots and rules,
.....
Alan Seeger
The Cottager
True as the church clock hand the hour pursues
He plods about his toils and reads the news,
And at the blacksmith's shop his hour will stand
To talk of 'Lunun' as a foreign land.
.....
John Clare
True as the church clock hand the hour pursues
He plods about his toils and reads the news,
And at the blacksmith's shop his hour will stand
To talk of 'Lunun' as a foreign land.
.....
John Clare
Clarification To My Poetry-readers
And of me say the fools:
I entered the lodges of women
And never left.
And they call for my hanging,
.....
Nizar Qabbani
And of me say the fools:
I entered the lodges of women
And never left.
And they call for my hanging,
.....
Nizar Qabbani
Hokku Poems In Four Seasons
Spring
The year's first poem done,
with smug self confidence
.....
Yosa Buson
Spring
The year's first poem done,
with smug self confidence
.....
Yosa Buson
Requiem
shared all this with my own people
There, where misfortune had abandoned us.
[1961]
.....
Anna Akhmatova
shared all this with my own people
There, where misfortune had abandoned us.
[1961]
.....
Anna Akhmatova
Morning
You're unhappy, sick at heart:
Oh, I know it-here such sickness isn't rare.
Nature can but mirror
The surrounding poverty.
.....
Nikolay Alekseyevich Nekrasov
You're unhappy, sick at heart:
Oh, I know it-here such sickness isn't rare.
Nature can but mirror
The surrounding poverty.
.....
Nikolay Alekseyevich Nekrasov
The London 'bobby'
A Tribute To The Policemen Of Englands Capital
Here in my cosy corner,
Before a blazing log,
.....
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
A Tribute To The Policemen Of Englands Capital
Here in my cosy corner,
Before a blazing log,
.....
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Capital Punishment
PROUD is the state of its millions of men,
And proud is the state of its name;
In its borders are masters of brush and of pen,
And wide as the world is its fame.
.....
Edgar Albert Guest
PROUD is the state of its millions of men,
And proud is the state of its name;
In its borders are masters of brush and of pen,
And wide as the world is its fame.
.....
Edgar Albert Guest
At The "atlantic" Dinner
I suppose it's myself that you're making allusion to
And bringing the sense of dismay and confusion to.
Of course some must speak, - they are always selected to,
But pray what's the reason that I am expected to?
.....
Oliver Wendell Holmes
I suppose it's myself that you're making allusion to
And bringing the sense of dismay and confusion to.
Of course some must speak, - they are always selected to,
But pray what's the reason that I am expected to?
.....
Oliver Wendell Holmes
A Dirge Of The Morning After
VOICE OF THE PEOPLE (wailing dismally):
'Who can deliver us, Lord of our destiny!
Out of the depths comes our passionate cry,
Wrung from the soul of us. Aid for the whole of us!
.....
Clarence Michael James Stanislaus Dennis
VOICE OF THE PEOPLE (wailing dismally):
'Who can deliver us, Lord of our destiny!
Out of the depths comes our passionate cry,
Wrung from the soul of us. Aid for the whole of us!
.....
Clarence Michael James Stanislaus Dennis
Eureka - A Prose Poem (an Essay On The Material And Spiritual Universe)
It is with humility really unassumed, it is with a sentiment even of awe, that I pen the opening sentence of this work: for of all conceivable subjects I approach the reader with the most solemn, the most comprehensive, the most difficult, the most august.
What terms shall I find sufficiently simple in their sublimity -- sufficiently sublime in their simplicity, for the mere enunciation of my theme?
.....
Edgar Allan Poe
It is with humility really unassumed, it is with a sentiment even of awe, that I pen the opening sentence of this work: for of all conceivable subjects I approach the reader with the most solemn, the most comprehensive, the most difficult, the most august.
What terms shall I find sufficiently simple in their sublimity -- sufficiently sublime in their simplicity, for the mere enunciation of my theme?
.....
Edgar Allan Poe
The Legend Of Kintu.
When earth was young and men were few,
And all things freshly born and new
Seemed made for blessing, not for ban,
Kintu, the god, appeared as man.
.....
Susan Coolidge (sarah Chauncey Woolsey)
When earth was young and men were few,
And all things freshly born and new
Seemed made for blessing, not for ban,
Kintu, the god, appeared as man.
.....
Susan Coolidge (sarah Chauncey Woolsey)
Paradise Lost: Book 02
High on a throne of royal state, which far
Outshone the wealth or Ormus and of Ind,
Or where the gorgeous East with richest hand
Showers on her kings barbaric pearl and gold,
.....
John Milton
High on a throne of royal state, which far
Outshone the wealth or Ormus and of Ind,
Or where the gorgeous East with richest hand
Showers on her kings barbaric pearl and gold,
.....
John Milton
Paradise Lost: Book 11
Undoubtedly he will relent, and turn
From his displeasure; in whose look serene,
When angry most he seemed and most severe,
What else but favour, grace, and mercy, shone?
.....
John Milton
Undoubtedly he will relent, and turn
From his displeasure; in whose look serene,
When angry most he seemed and most severe,
What else but favour, grace, and mercy, shone?
.....
John Milton
Paradise Lost: Book 12
As one who in his journey bates at noon,
Though bent on speed; so here the Arch-Angel paused
Betwixt the world destroyed and world restored,
If Adam aught perhaps might interpose;
.....
John Milton
As one who in his journey bates at noon,
Though bent on speed; so here the Arch-Angel paused
Betwixt the world destroyed and world restored,
If Adam aught perhaps might interpose;
.....
John Milton
I Have Found
I have found, yes, I have found the wealth of the Divine Name's gem.
My true guru gave me a priceless thing. With his grace, I accepted it.
I found the capital of my several births; I have lost the whole rest of the world.
No one can spend it, no one can steal it. Day by day it increases one and a quarter times.
.....
Mirabai
I have found, yes, I have found the wealth of the Divine Name's gem.
My true guru gave me a priceless thing. With his grace, I accepted it.
I found the capital of my several births; I have lost the whole rest of the world.
No one can spend it, no one can steal it. Day by day it increases one and a quarter times.
.....
Mirabai
The Dictaphone Bard
[And here is a suggestion: Did you ever try dictating your stories or articles to the dictaphone for the first draft? I would be glad to have you come down and make the experiment.--From a shorthand reporter's circular letter.]
(As "The Ballad of the Tempest" would have to issue from the dictaphone to the stenographer)
.....
Franklin Pierce Adams
[And here is a suggestion: Did you ever try dictating your stories or articles to the dictaphone for the first draft? I would be glad to have you come down and make the experiment.--From a shorthand reporter's circular letter.]
(As "The Ballad of the Tempest" would have to issue from the dictaphone to the stenographer)
.....
Franklin Pierce Adams
Limited Liability
Some seven men form an Association
(If possible, all Peers and Baronets),
They start off with a public declaration
To what extent they mean to pay their debts.
.....
William Schwenck Gilbert
Some seven men form an Association
(If possible, all Peers and Baronets),
They start off with a public declaration
To what extent they mean to pay their debts.
.....
William Schwenck Gilbert
Labour - Capital - Land
IN that rich Archipelago of sea
With fiery hills, thick woods wherein the mias
Browses along the trees, and god-like men
Leave monuments of speech too large for us,
.....
Francis William Lauderdale Adams
IN that rich Archipelago of sea
With fiery hills, thick woods wherein the mias
Browses along the trees, and god-like men
Leave monuments of speech too large for us,
.....
Francis William Lauderdale Adams
Iota Subscript
Seek not in me the big I capital,
Not yet the little dotted in me seek.
If I have in me any I at all,
'Tis the iota subscript of the Greek.
.....
Robert Frost
Seek not in me the big I capital,
Not yet the little dotted in me seek.
If I have in me any I at all,
'Tis the iota subscript of the Greek.
.....
Robert Frost
I Dream Of Hunchbacked Tiflis
I dream of hunchbacked Tiflis,
Where a Sazandar's groan resounds
The people cluster on the bridge,
The crowd carpets the whole capital,
.....
Osip Emilevich Mandelstam
I dream of hunchbacked Tiflis,
Where a Sazandar's groan resounds
The people cluster on the bridge,
The crowd carpets the whole capital,
.....
Osip Emilevich Mandelstam
A Nervous Governor-general
We read in the press that Lord Northcote is here
To take up Lord Tennyson's mission.
'Tis pleasant to find they have sent us a Peer,
And a man of exalted position.
.....
Banjo Paterson
We read in the press that Lord Northcote is here
To take up Lord Tennyson's mission.
'Tis pleasant to find they have sent us a Peer,
And a man of exalted position.
.....
Banjo Paterson
Narcissus
THE MIND IS AN ANCIENT AND FAMOUS CAPITAL
The mind is a city like London,
.....
Delmore Schwartz
THE MIND IS AN ANCIENT AND FAMOUS CAPITAL
The mind is a city like London,
.....
Delmore Schwartz
Lines Read At A Dairymaids' Social, 1887
Where the young lady waiters were dressed as dairymaids.
Throughout the world they do extol
.....
James Mcintyre
Where the young lady waiters were dressed as dairymaids.
Throughout the world they do extol
.....
James Mcintyre
Painted Head
By dark severance the apparition head
Smiles from the air a capital on no
Column or a Platonic perhaps head
On a canvas sky depending from nothing;
.....
John Crowe Ransom
By dark severance the apparition head
Smiles from the air a capital on no
Column or a Platonic perhaps head
On a canvas sky depending from nothing;
.....
John Crowe Ransom
A Nervous Governor-general
We read in the press that Lord Northcote is here
To take up Lord Tennyson's mission.
'Tis pleasant to find they have sent us a Peer,
And a man of exalted position.
.....
Banjo Paterson (andrew Barton)
We read in the press that Lord Northcote is here
To take up Lord Tennyson's mission.
'Tis pleasant to find they have sent us a Peer,
And a man of exalted position.
.....
Banjo Paterson (andrew Barton)
To An American Embassy
Written At Florence, 1866:
Since Sovereign Nature, at the happy best,
.....
Sydney Thompson Dobell
Written At Florence, 1866:
Since Sovereign Nature, at the happy best,
.....
Sydney Thompson Dobell
A Song Of An Autumn Midnight
A slip of the moon hangs over the capital;
Ten thousand washing-mallets are pounding;
And the autumn wind is blowing my heart
For ever and ever toward the Jade Pass....
.....
Li Po
A slip of the moon hangs over the capital;
Ten thousand washing-mallets are pounding;
And the autumn wind is blowing my heart
For ever and ever toward the Jade Pass....
.....
Li Po
The Hashish Eater -or- The Apocalypse Of Evil
Bow down: I am the emperor of dreams;
I crown me with the million-colored sun
Of secret worlds incredible, and take
Their trailing skies for vestment when I soar,
.....
Clark Ashton Smith
Bow down: I am the emperor of dreams;
I crown me with the million-colored sun
Of secret worlds incredible, and take
Their trailing skies for vestment when I soar,
.....
Clark Ashton Smith
The Ring
Miriam (singing).
Mellow moon of heaven.
Bright in blue,
Moon of married hearts,
.....
Alfred Lord Tennyson
Miriam (singing).
Mellow moon of heaven.
Bright in blue,
Moon of married hearts,
.....
Alfred Lord Tennyson
Iota Subscript
Seek not in me the big I capital,
Not yet the little dotted in me seek.
If I have in me any I at all,
'Tis the iota subscript of the Greek.
.....
Robert Lee Frost
Seek not in me the big I capital,
Not yet the little dotted in me seek.
If I have in me any I at all,
'Tis the iota subscript of the Greek.
.....
Robert Lee Frost
Stanzas In Memory Of The Author Of 'obermann'
In front the awful Alpine track
Crawls up its rocky stair;
The autumn storm-winds drive the rack,
Close o'er it, in the air.
.....
Matthew Arnold
In front the awful Alpine track
Crawls up its rocky stair;
The autumn storm-winds drive the rack,
Close o'er it, in the air.
.....
Matthew Arnold
The Excursion - Book Seventh - The Churchyard Among The Mountains - (continued)
While thus from theme to theme the Historian passed,
The words he uttered, and the scene that lay
Before our eyes, awakened in my mind
Vivid remembrance of those long-past hours;
.....
William Wordsworth
While thus from theme to theme the Historian passed,
The words he uttered, and the scene that lay
Before our eyes, awakened in my mind
Vivid remembrance of those long-past hours;
.....
William Wordsworth