Monadnock Valley Press: Poems

This page lists all of the poems that have been published so far by the Monadnock Valley Press.

If you like poetry, also check out the Classic Poems Substack, where we send one poem a day directly to your inbox.

Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888)

William Alexander (1567-1640)

Matthew Arnold (1822-1888)

William Basse (1583-1653?)

Stephen Vincent Benét (1898-1943)

William Blake (1757-1827)

Songs of Innocence

Songs of Experience

Louise Bogan (1897-1970)

Anne Bradstreet (1612-1672)

Robert Bridges (1844-1930)

Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861)

Sonnets from the Portuguese

  1. "I thought once how Theocritus had sung"
  2. "But only three in all God's universe"
  3. "Unlike are we, unlike, O princely Heart!"
  4. "Thou hast thy calling to some palace-floor"
  5. "I lift my heavy heart up solemnly"
  6. "Go from me.  Yet I feel that I shall stand"
  7. "The face of all the world is changed, I think"
  8. "What can I give thee back, O liberal"
  9. "Can it be right to give what I can give?"
  10. "Yet, love, mere love, is beautiful indeed"
  11. "And therefore if to love can be desert"
  12. "Indeed this very love which is my boast"
  13. "And wilt thou have me fashion into speech"
  14. "If thou must love me, let it be for nought"
  15. "Accuse me not, beseech thee, that I wear"
  16. "And yet, because thou overcomest so"
  17. "My poet, thou canst touch on all the notes"
  18. "I never gave a lock of hair away"
  19. "The soul's Rialto hath its merchandize"
  20. "Belovëd, my Belovëd, when I think"
  21. "Say over again, and yet once over again"
  22. "When our two souls stand up erect and strong"
  23. "Is it indeed so?  If I lay here dead"
  24. "Let the world's sharpness like a clasping knife"
  25. "A heavy heart, Belovëd, have I borne"
  26. "I lived with visions for my company"
  27. "My own Belovëd, who hast lifted me"
  28. "My letters! all dead paper, mute and white!"
  29. "I think of thee!—my thoughts do twine and bud"
  30. "I see thine image through my tears to-night"
  31. "Thou comest! all is said without a word"
  32. "The first time that the sun rose on thine oath"
  33. "Yes, call me by my pet-name! let me hear"
  34. "With the same heart, I said, I'll answer thee"
  35. "If I leave all for thee, wilt thou exchange"
  36. "When we met first and loved, I did not build"
  37. "Pardon, oh, pardon, that my soul should make"
  38. "First time he kissed me, he but only kissed"
  39. "Because thou hast the power and own'st the grace"
  40. "Oh, yes! they love through all this world of ours!"
  41. "I thank all who have loved me in their hearts"
  42. "My future will not copy fair my past—"
  43. "How do I love thee?  Let me count the ways."
  44. "Belovëd, thou hast brought me many flowers"

William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878)

Lord Byron (1788-1824)

Thomas Campion (1567-1620)

Thomas Carew (?-1640)

Willa Cather (1873-1947)

Badger Clark (1883-1957)

William Collins (1721-1759)

Abraham Cowley (1618-1667)

William Cowper (1731-1800)

George Crabbe (1754-1832)

Samuel Daniel (1562-1619)

The Delia Sonnets

  1. Unto the boundless ocean of thy beauty
  2. Go, wailing verse, the infants of my love
  3. If so it hap this offspring of my care
  4. These plaintive verse, the posts of my desire
  5. Whilst youth and error led my wandering mind
  6. Fair is my love, and cruel as she's fair
  7. For had she not been fair and thus unkind
  8. Thou, poor heart, sacrificed unto the fairest
  9. If this be love, to draw a weary breath
  10. Then do I love and draw this weary breath
  11. Tears, vows and prayers gain the hardest hearts
  12. My spotless love hovers with purest wings
  13. Behold what hap Pygmalion had to frame
  14. Those snary locks are those same nets, my dear
  15. If that a loyal heart and faith unfeigned
  16. Happy in sleep, waking content to languish
  17. Why should I sing in verse? Why should I frame
  18. Since the first look that led me to this error
  19. Restore thy tresses to the golden ore
  20. What it is to breathe and live without life
  21. If beauty thus be clouded with a frown
  22. Come Time, the anchor hold of my desire
  23. Time, cruel Time, come and subdue that brow
  24. These sorrowing sighs, the smoke of mine annoy
  25. False hope prolongs my ever certain grief
  26. Look in my griefs, and blame me not to mourn
  27. Reignin my thoughts, fair hand, sweet eye, rare voice
  28. Whilst by thy eyes pursued, my poor heart flew
  29. Still in the trace of one perplexèd thought
  30. Oft do I marvel whether Delia's eyes
  31. The star of my mishap imposed this pain
  32. And yet I cannot reprehend the flight
  33. Raising my hopes on hills of high desire
  34. Why dost thou, Delia, credit so thy glass
  35. I once may see when years shall wreck my wrong
  36. Look, Delia, how w'esteem the half-blown rose
  37. But love whilst that thou mayst be loved again
  38. When men shall find thy flower, thy glory pass
  39. When winter snows upon thy sable hairs
  40. Thou canst not die whilst any zeal abound
  41. Be not displeased that these my papers should
  42. Delia, these eyes that so admireth thine
  43. ost fair and lovely maid, look from the shore
  44. Read in my face a volume of despairs
  45. My Delia hath the waters of mine eyes
  46. How long shall I in mine affliction mourn
  47. Beauty, sweet love, is like the morning dew
  48. I must not grieve my love, whose eyes would read
  49. Ah whither, poor forsaken, wilt thou go
  50. Drawn with th'attractive virtue of her eyes
  51. Care-charmer sleep, son of the sable night
  52. Let others sing of knights and paladins
  53. As to the Roman that would free his land
  54. Like as the lute delights or else dislikes
  55. None other fame mine unambitious Muse
  56. Unhappy pen, and ill-accepted lines
  57. Lo here the impost of a faith entire

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)

John Donne (1572-1631)

John Dryden (1631-1700)

Sir Edward Dyer (1543-1607)

George Eliot (1819-1880)

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

Robert Frost (1874-1963)

Thomas Gray (1716-1771)

Robert Herrick (1591-1674)

Hesiod

Robert Hillyer (1895-1961)

From Sonnets and Other Lyrics (1917)

From The Five Books of Youth (1920)

From The Hills Give Promise (1923)

From The Seventh Hill (1928)

Horace (65-8 BCE)

A.E. Housman (1859-1936)

A Shropshire Lad

  1. 1887
  2. "Loveliest of trees, the cherry now"
  3. The Recruit
  4. Reveille
  5. "Oh see how thick the goldcup flowers"
  6. "When the lad for longing sighs"
  7. "When smoke stood up from Ludlow"
  8. "Farewell to barn and stack and tree"
  9. "On moonlit heath and lonesome bank"
  10. March
  11. "On your midnight pallet lying"
  12. "When I watch the living meet"
  13. "When I was one-and-twenty"
  14. "There pass the careless people"
  15. "Look not in my eyes, for fear"
  16. "It nods and curtseys and recovers"
  17. "Twice a week the winter thorough"
  18. "Oh, when I was in love with yo"
  19. To an Athlete Dying Young
  20. "Oh fair enough are sky and plain"
  21. Bredon Hill
  22. "The street sounds to the soldiers' tread"
  23. "The lads in their hundreds to Ludlow come in for the fair"
  24. "Say, lad, have you things to do?"
  25. "This time of year a twelvemonth past"
  26. "Along the field as we came by"
  27. "Is my team ploughing"
  28. The Welsh Marches
  29. The Lent Lily
  30. "Others, I am not the first"
  31. "On Wenlock Edge the wood's in trouble"
  32. "From far, from eve and morning"
  33. "If truth in hearts that perish"
  34. The New Mistress
  35. "On the idle hill of summer"
  36. "White in the moon the long road lies"
  37. "As through the wild green hills of Wyre"
  38. "The winds out of the west land blow"
  39. "'Tis time, I think, by Wenlock town"
  40. "Into my heart an air that kills"
  41. "In my own shire, if I was sad"
  42. The Merry Guide
  43. The Immortal Part
  44. "Shot? so quick, so clean an ending?"
  45. "If by chance your eye offend you"
  46. "Bring, in this timeless grave to throw"
  47. The Carpenter's Son
  48. "Be still, my soul, be still; the arms you bear are brittle"
  49. "Think no more, lad; laugh, be jolly"
  50. "Clunton and Clunbury"
  51. "Loitering with a vacant eye"
  52. "Far in a western brookland"
  53. The True Lover
  54. "With rue my heart is laden"
  55. "Westward on the high-hilled plains"
  56. The Day of Battle
  57. "You smile upon your friend to-day"
  58. "When I came last to Ludlow"
  59. The Isle of Portland
  60. "Now hollow fires burn out to black"
  61. Hughley Steeple
  62. "Terence, this is stupid stuff"
  63. "I hoed and trenched and weeded"

Last Poems

  1. The West
  2. "As I gird on for fighting"
  3. "Her strong enchantments failing"
  4. Illic Jacet
  5. Grenadier
  6. Lancer
  7. "In valleys green and still"
  8. "Soldier from the wars returning"
  9. "The chestnut casts his flambeaux, and the flowers"
  10. "Could man be drunk for ever"
  11. "Yonder see the morning blink"
  12. "The laws of God, the laws of man"
  13. The Deserter
  14. The Culprit
  15. Eight o'Clock
  16. Spring Morning
  17. Astronomy
  18. The rain, it streams on stone and hillock
  19. "In midnights of November"
  20. "The night is freezing fast"
  21. "The fairies break their dances"
  22. "The sloe was lost in flower"
  23. "In the morning, in the morning"
  24. Epithalamium
  25. The Oracles
  26. "The half-moon westers low, my love"
  27. "The sigh that heaves the grasses"
  28. "Now dreary dawns the eastern light"
  29. "Wake not for the world-heard thunder"
  30. Sinner's Rue
  31. Hell's Gate
  32. "When I would muse in boyhood"
  33. "When the eye of day is shut"
  34. The First of May
  35. "When first my way to fair I took"
  36. Revolution
  37. Epitaph on an Army of Mercenaries
  38. "Oh stay at home, my lad, and plough"
  39. "When summer's end is nighing"
  40. "Tell me not here, it needs not saying"
  41. Fancy's Knell

Langston Hughes (1901-1967)

Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906)

Robinson Jeffers (1887-1962)

Ben Jonson (1572-1631)

John Keats (1795-1821)

Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)

Emma Lazarus (1849-1887)

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)

Richard Lovelace (1617-1658)

Robert Lovell (1771-1796)

Andrew Marvell (1621-1678)

Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892-1950)

Renascence and Other Poems (1917, complete)

A Few Figs from Thistles (1920, complete)

Second April (1921, complete)

The Harp-Weaver and Other Poems (1923, complete)

The Buck in the Snow (1928, selections)

John Milton (1608-1674)

Arthur O'Shaughnessy (1844-1881)

Alexander Pope (1688-1744)

Laura Riding (1901-1991)

Edwin Arlington Robinson (1869-1935)

Carl Sandburg (1878-1967)

George Santayana (1863-1952)

Sappho (c. 630-570 BCE)

Sir Charles Sedley (1639-1701)

William Shakespeare

Sonnets

  1. From fairest creatures we desire increase
  2. When forty winters shall besiege thy brow
  3. Look in thy glass and tell the face thou viewest
  4. Unthrifty loveliness, why dost thou spend
  5. Those hours, that with gentle work did frame
  6. Then let not winter's ragged hand deface
  7. Lo! in the orient when the gracious light
  8. Music to hear, why hear'st thou music sadly?
  9. Is it for fear to wet a widow's eye
  10. For shame! deny that thou bear'st love to any
  11. As fast as thou shalt wane, so fast thou grow'st
  12. When I do count the clock that tells the time
  13. O! that you were your self; but, love you are
  14. Not from the stars do I my judgement pluck
  15. When I consider every thing that grows
  16. But wherefore do not you a mightier way
  17. Who will believe my verse in time to come
  18. Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
  19. Devouring Time, blunt thou the lion's paws
  20. A woman's face with nature's own hand painted
  21. So is it not with me as with that Muse
  22. My glass shall not persuade me I am old
  23. As an unperfect actor on the stage
  24. Mine eye hath play'd the painter and hath stell'd
  25. Let those who are in favour with their stars
  26. Lord of my love, to whom in vassalage
  27. Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed
  28. How can I then return in happy plight
  29. When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes
  30. When to the sessions of sweet silent thought
  31. Thy bosom is endeared with all hearts
  32. If thou survive my well-contented day
  33. Full many a glorious morning have I seen
  34. Why didst thou promise such a beauteous day
  35. No more be griev'd at that which thou hast done
  36. Let me confess that we two must be twain
  37. As a decrepit father takes delight
  38. How can my muse want subject to invent
  39. O! how thy worth with manners may I sing
  40. Take all my loves, my love, yea take them all
  41. Those pretty wrongs that liberty commits
  42. That thou hast her it is not all my grief
  43. When most I wink, then do mine eyes best see
  44. If the dull substance of my flesh were thought
  45. The other two, slight air, and purging fire
  46. Mine eye and heart are at a mortal war
  47. Betwixt mine eye and heart a league is took
  48. How careful was I when I took my way
  49. Against that time, if ever that time come
  50. How heavy do I journey on the way
  51. Thus can my love excuse the slow offence
  52. So am I as the rich, whose blessed key
  53. What is your substance, whereof are you made
  54. O! how much more doth beauty beauteous seem
  55. Not marble, nor the gilded monuments
  56. Sweet love, renew thy force; be it not said
  57. Being your slave what should I do but tend
  58. That god forbid, that made me first your slave
  59. If there be nothing new, but that which is
  60. Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore
  61. Is it thy will, thy image should keep open
  62. Sin of self-love possesseth all mine eye
  63. Against my love shall be as I am now
  64. When I have seen by Time's fell hand defac'd
  65. Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea
  66. Tired with all these, for restful death I cry
  67. Ah! wherefore with infection should he live
  68. Thus is his cheek the map of days outworn
  69. Those parts of thee that the world's eye doth view
  70. That thou art blam'd shall not be thy defect
  71. No longer mourn for me when I am dead
  72. O! lest the world should task you to recite
  73. That time of year thou mayst in me behold
  74. But be contented: when that fell arrest
  75. So are you to my thoughts as food to life
  76. Why is my verse so barren of new pride
  77. Thy glass will show thee how thy beauties wear
  78. So oft have I invoked thee for my Muse
  79. Whilst I alone did call upon thy aid
  80. O! how I faint when I of you do write
  81. Or I shall live your epitaph to make
  82. I grant thou wert not married to my Muse
  83. I never saw that you did painting need
  84. Who is it that says most, which can say more
  85. My tongue-tied Muse in manners holds her still
  86. Was it the proud full sail of his great verse
  87. Farewell! thou art too dear for my possessing
  88. When thou shalt be dispos'd to set me light
  89. Say that thou didst forsake me for some fault
  90. Then hate me when thou wilt; if ever, now
  91. Some glory in their birth, some in their skill
  92. But do thy worst to steal thyself away
  93. So shall I live, supposing thou art true
  94. They that have power to hurt, and will do none
  95. How sweet and lovely dost thou make the shame
  96. Some say thy fault is youth, some wantonness
  97. How like a winter hath my absence been
  98. From you have I been absent in the spring
  99. The forward violet thus did I chide
  100. Where art thou Muse that thou forget'st so long
  101. O truant Muse what shall be thy amends
  102. My love is strengthen'd, though more weak in seeming
  103. Alack! what poverty my Muse brings forth
  104. To me, fair friend, you never can be old
  105. Let not my love be call'd idolatry
  106. When in the chronicle of wasted time
  107. Not mine own fears, nor the prophetic soul
  108. What's in the brain, that ink may character
  109. O! never say that I was false of heart
  110. Alas! 'tis true, I have gone here and there
  111. O! for my sake do you with Fortune chide
  112. Your love and pity doth the impression fill
  113. Since I left you, mine eye is in my mind
  114. Or whether doth my mind, being crown'd with you
  115. Those lines that I before have writ do lie
  116. Let me not to the marriage of true minds
  117. Accuse me thus: that I have scanted all
  118. Like as, to make our appetite more keen
  119. What potions have I drunk of Siren tears
  120. That you were once unkind befriends me now
  121. 'Tis better to be vile than vile esteem'd
  122. Thy gift, thy tables, are within my brain
  123. No, Time, thou shalt not boast that I do change
  124. If my dear love were but the child of state
  125. Were't aught to me I bore the canopy
  126. O thou, my lovely boy, who in thy power
  127. In the old age black was not counted fair
  128. How oft when thou, my music, music play'st
  129. The expense of spirit in a waste of shame
  130. My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun
  131. Thou art as tyrannous, so as thou art
  132. Thine eyes I love, and they, as pitying me
  133. Beshrew that heart that makes my heart to groan
  134. So, now I have confess'd that he is thine
  135. Whoever hath her wish, thou hast thy 'Will'
  136. If thy soul check thee that I come so near
  137. Thou blind fool, Love, what dost thou to mine eyes
  138. When my love swears that she is made of truth
  139. O! call not me to justify the wrong
  140. Be wise as thou art cruel; do not press
  141. In faith I do not love thee with mine eyes
  142. Love is my sin, and thy dear virtue hate
  143. Lo, as a careful housewife runs to catch
  144. Two loves I have of comfort and despair
  145. Those lips that Love's own hand did make
  146. Poor soul, the centre of my sinful earth
  147. My love is as a fever longing still
  148. O me! what eyes hath Love put in my head
  149. Canst thou, O cruel! say I love thee not
  150. O! from what power hast thou this powerful might
  151. Love is too young to know what conscience is
  152. In loving thee thou know'st I am forsworn
  153. Cupid laid by his brand and fell asleep
  154. The little Love-god lying once asleep

Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)

Philip Sidney (1554-1586)

Astrophil and Stella

  1. Loving in trueth, and fayne my love in verse to show
  2. Not at first sight, nor with a dribbing shot
  3. Let Daintie wittes cry on the Sisters nine
  4. Vertue (alas) now let me take some rest
  5. It is most true, that eyes are found to serve
  6. Some Lovers speake, when they their Muses entertaine
  7. When nature made her chiefe worke, Stella’s eyes
  8. Love borne in Greece, of late fled from his native place
  9. Queene Vertues Court, which some call Stellas face
  10. Reason, in faith thou art well serv’d, that still
  11. In truth oh Love: with what a boyish kinde
  12. Cupid because thou shin’st in Stellas eyes
  13. Phœbus was Judge, betweene Jove, Mars, & love
  14. Alas, have I not paine enough my friend
  15. You that do search for every purling spring
  16. In nature apt to like, when I did see
  17. His mother deere Cupid offended late
  18. With what strange checkes I in my selfe am shent
  19. On Cupids bowe, how are my hart strings bent?
  20. Fly, flye my friends, I have my deathes wound, flye
  21. Your words my freend right helthfull caustickes blame
  22. In highest way of heaven the Sunne did ride
  23. The curious wits, seeing dull pensivenes
  24. Rich fooles there there be, whose base and filthie hart
  25. The wisest scholler of the wight most wise
  26. Though duskie wits dare scorne Astrologie
  27. Because I oft in darke abstracted guise
  28. You that with allegories curious frame
  29. Like some weake Lords Neighbord by mightie kings
  30. Whether the Turkish new Moone minded be
  31. With how sad steps ô Moone thou clim’st the skyes
  32. Morpheus the lively sonne of deadlie Sleepe
  33. I might, unhappy word, (woe me) I might
  34. Come let me write, and to what end? to ease
  35. What may words say? or what may words not say
  36. Stella, whence doth these newe assaults arise
  37. My mouth doth water, and my breast doth swell
  38. This night while sleepe begins, with heavie wings
  39. Come Sleepe, ô Sleepe, the certaine knot of peace
  40. As good to write, as for to lie and groane
  41. Having this days, my horse, my hand, my Launce
  42. O Eyes which doe the Spheres of beautie move
  43. Faire eyes, sweet lips, deere hart, that foolish I
  44. My words I know doe well set forth my minde
  45. Stella oft sees the verie face of woes
  46. I curst thee oft, I pittie now thy case
  47. What, have I thus betraide my libertie
  48. Soules joy, bend not those morning starres from me
  49. I on my horse, and Love on me doth trie
  50. Stella, the fulnes of my thoughts of thee
  51. Pardon mine eares, both I and they doe pray
  52. A Strife is growne betweene Vertue and Love
  53. In Martiall sportes I had my cunning tryde
  54. Because I breathe not love to every one
  55. Fie schoole of Patience, fie, your Lesson is
  56. Muses, I oft invoked your whole ayde
  57. Woe having made with many sighs his owne
  58. Doubt there hath beene, when with his golden chaine
  59. Deere, why make you more of a dogge than me?
  60. When my good Angell guides me to the place
  61. Oft with true sighes, oft with uncalled teares
  62. Late tyr’d with woe, even ready for to pine
  63. Oh Grammer rules, oh now your vertues showe
  64. No more my deere, no more these Counsels try
  65. Love, by sure proofe I may call thee unkinde
  66. And doe I see some cause a hope to feede
  67. Hope art thou true or doost thou flatter me?
  68. Stella, the only Plannet of my light
  69. Oh joy, too high for my Love still to showe
  70. My Muse may well grudge at my heavenly joy
  71. Who will in fayrest booke of nature know
  72. Desire, though thou mine olde companion art
  73. Love still a Boy, and oft a wanton is
  74. I Never dranke of Aganippe well
  75. Of all the Kings that ever heere did raigne
  76. Shee comes, and straight therewith her shining twins do move
  77. Those lookes, whose beames be joy, whose motion is delight
  78. Oh how the pleasant ayres of true love bee
  79. Sweete kisse, thy sweetes I faine would sweetely indite
  80. Sweet swelling lip well maiest thou swell in pride
  81. O Kisse which doth those ruddie gemmes impart
  82. Nymph of the garden where all beauties be
  83. Good brother Philip I have forborne you long
  84. High way since you my chiefe Pernassus be
  85. I see the house my harte thy selfe containe
  86. Alas whence comes this change of lookes?
  87. When I was forst from Stella ever deare
  88. Out Traytour absence dar’st thou counsell mee
  89. Now that of absence the most yrksome night
  90. Stella, thinke not that I by verse seeke fame
  91. Stella, while now by honours cruell might
  92. Be your words made (good sir) of Indean ware
  93. O Fate, ô fault, O curst child of my blisse
  94. Greefe find the words, for thou hast made my braine
  95. Yet sighes, deare sighes, in deede true friends you are
  96. Though with good cause thou lik’st so well the night
  97. Dian that faine would cheare her friend the Night
  98. Ah bed the feeld where joyes peace some do see
  99. When farre spent night perswades each mortall eie
  100. Oh teares, no teares, but shoures from beauties skyes
  101. Stella is sicke, and in that sick-bed lyes
  102. Where be those Roses, which so sweetned earst our eyes?
  103. O happie Thames that didst my Stella beare
  104. Envious wits what hath beene mine offence
  105. Unhappie sight and hath shee vanisht by
  106. O absent presence Stella is not here
  107. Stella since thou so right a Princesse art
  108. When sorrow (using my owne Siers might)

Robert Southey (1774-1843)

Edmund Spenser (1552-1599)

Amoretti

  1. "Happy, ye leaves! when as those lilly hands"
  2. "Unquiet thought! whom at the first I bred"
  3. "The soverayne beauty which I doo admyre,"
  4. "New yeare, forth looking out of Ianus gate,"
  5. "Rudely thou wrongest my deare harts desire,"
  6. "Be nought dismayd that her unmoved mind"
  7. "Fayre eyes! the myrrour of my mazed hart,"
  8. "More then most faire, full of the living fire"
  9. "Long-while I sought to what I might compare"
  10. "Unrighteous Lord of love, what law is this,"
  11. "Dayly when I do seeke and sew for peace,"
  12. "One day I sought with her hart-thrilling eies"
  13. "In that proud port which her so goodly graceth,"
  14. "Retourne agayne, my forces late dismayd,"
  15. "Ye tradefull Merchants, that, with weary toyle,"
  16. "One day as I unwarily did gaze"
  17. "The glorious pourtraict of that angels face,"
  18. "The rolling wheele that runneth often round,"
  19. "The merry cuckow, messenger of Spring,"
  20. "In vaine I seeke and sew to her for grace,"
  21. "Was it the worke of Nature or of Art,"
  22. "This holy season, fit to fast and pray,"
  23. "Penelope, for her Ulisses sake,"
  24. "When I behold that beauties wonderment,"
  25. "How long shall this lyke-dying lyfe endure,"
  26. "Sweet is the rose, but growes upon a brere;"
  27. "Faire Proud! now tell me, why should faire be proud,"
  28. "The laurel-leafe which you this day doe weare"
  29. "See! how the stubborne damzell doth deprave"
  30. "My Love is lyke to yse, and I to fyre:"
  31. "Ah! why hath Nature to so hard a hart"
  32. "The paynefull smith with force of fervent heat"
  33. "Great wrong I doe, I can it not deny,"
  34. "Lyke as a ship, that through the ocean wyde"
  35. "My hungry eyes, through greedy covetize"
  36. "Tell me, when shall these wearie woes have end;"
  37. "What guyle is this, that those her golden tresses"
  38. "Arion, when, through tempests cruel wracke,"
  39. "Sweet smile! the daughter of the Queene of Love,"
  40. "Mark when she smiles with amiable cheare,"
  41. "Is it her nature, or is it her will,"
  42. "The love which me so cruelly tormenteth"
  43. "Shall I then silent be, or shall I speake?"
  44. "When those renoumed noble peres of Greece"
  45. "Leave, Lady! in your glasse of cristall clene"
  46. "When my abodes prefixed time is spent,"
  47. "Trust not the treason of those smyling lookes,"
  48. "Innocent paper! whom too cruell hand"
  49. "Fayre Cruell! why are ye so fierce and cruell?"
  50. "Long languishing in double malady"
  51. "Doe I not see that fayrest ymages"
  52. "So oft as homeward I from her depart,"
  53. "The panther, knowing that his spotted hyde"
  54. "Of this worlds theatre in which we stay,"
  55. "So oft as I her beauty doe behold,"
  56. "Fayre ye be sure, but cruell and unkind,"
  57. "Sweet warriour! when shall I have peace with you?"
  58. "Weake is th’assurance that weake flesh reposeth"
  59. "Thrise happie she that is so well assured"
  60. "They that in course of heavenly spheares are skild"
  61. "The glorious image of the Makers beautie,"
  62. "The weary yeare his race now having run,"
  63. "After long stormes and tempests sad assay,"
  64. "Comming to kisse her lyps, (such grace I found,)"
  65. "The doubt which ye misdeeme, fayre Love, is vaine,"
  66. "To all those happy blessings which ye have"
  67. "Lyke as a huntsman, after weary chace,"
  68. "Most glorious Lord of lyfe! that on this day"
  69. "The famous warriors of the anticke world"
  70. "Fresh Spring, the herald of loves mighty king,"
  71. "I ioy to see how, in your drawen work,"
  72. "Oft when my spirit doth spred her bolder winges,"
  73. "Being my self captyved here in care,"
  74. "Most happy letters! fram’d by skilfull trade,"
  75. "One day I wrote her name upon the strand,"
  76. "Fayre bosome! fraught with vertues richest tresure,
  77. "Was it a dreame, or did I see it playne?"
  78. "Lackyng my Love, I go from place to place,"
  79. "Men call you fayre, and you doe credit it,"
  80. "After so long a race as I have run"
  81. "Fayre is my Love, when her fayre golden haires"
  82. "Ioy of my life! full oft for loving you"
  83. "Let not one sparke of filthy lustfull fyre"
  84. "The world, that cannot deeme of worthy things,"
  85. "Venemous tongue, tipt with vile adders sting,"
  86. "Since I did leave the presence of my Love,"
  87. "Since I have lackt the comfort of that light"
  88. "Lyke as the culver on the bared bough"

Wallace Stevens (1879-1955)

Sir John Suckling (1609-1641)

Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837-1909)

Sara Teasdale (1884-1933)

Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892)

In Memoriam A. H. H.

Preface

  1. "I held it truth, with him who sings"
  2. "Old Yew, which graspest at the stones"
  3. "O Sorrow, cruel fellowship"
  4. "To Sleep I give my powers away"
  5. "I sometimes hold it half a sin"
  6. "One writes, that 'Other friends remain'"
  7. "Dark house, by which once more I stand"
  8. "A happy lover who has come"
  9. "Fair ship, that from the Italian shore"
  10. "I hear the noise about thy keel"
  11. "Calm is the morn without a sound"
  12. "Lo, as a dove when up she springs"
  13. "Tears of the widower, when he sees"
  14. "If one should bring me this report"
  15. "To-night the winds begin to rise"
  16. "What words are these have falle'n from me?"
  17. "Thou comest, much wept for: such a breeze"
  18. "'Tis well; 'tis something; we may stand"
  19. "The Danube to the Severn gave"
  20. "The lesser griefs that may be said"
  21. "I sing to him that rests below"
  22. "The path by which we twain did go"
  23. "Now, sometimes in my sorrow shut"
  24. "And was the day of my delight"
  25. "I know that this was Life, the track"
  26. "Still onward winds the dreary way"
  27. "I envy not in any moods"
  28. "The time draws near the birth of Christ"
  29. "With such compelling cause to grieve"
  30. "With trembling fingers did we weave"
  31. "When Lazarus left his charnel-cave"
  32. "Her eyes are homes of silent prayer"
  33. "O thou that after toil and storm"
  34. "My own dim life should teach me this"
  35. "Yet if some voice that man could trust"
  36. "Tho' truths in manhood darkly join"
  37. "Urania speaks with darken'd brow"
  38. "With weary steps I loiter on"
  39. "Old warder of these buried bones"
  40. "Could we forget the widow'd hour"
  41. "Thy spirit ere our fatal loss"
  42. "I vex my heart with fancies dim"
  43. "If Sleep and Death be truly one"
  44. "How fares it with the happy dead?"
  45. "The baby new to earth and sky"
  46. "We ranging down this lower track"
  47. "That each, who seems a separate whole"
  48. "If these brief lays, of Sorrow born"
  49. "From art, from nature, from the schools"
  50. "Be near me when my light is low"
  51. "Do we indeed desire the dead"
  52. "I cannot love thee as I ought"
  53. "How many a father have I seen"
  54. "Oh yet we trust that somehow good"
  55. "The wish, that of the living whole"
  56. "'So careful of the type?' but no"
  57. "Peace; come away: the song of woe"
  58. "In those sad words I took farewell"
  59. "O Sorrow, wilt thou live with me"
  60. "He past; a soul of nobler tone"
  61. "If, in thy second state sublime"
  62. "Tho' if an eye that's downward cast"
  63. "Yet pity for a horse o'er-driven"
  64. "Dost thou look back on what hath been"
  65. "Sweet soul, do with me as thou wilt"
  66. "You thought my heart too far diseased"
  67. "When on my bed the moonlight falls"
  68. "When in the down I sink my head"
  69. "I dream'd there would be Spring no more"
  70. "I cannot see the features right"
  71. "Sleep, kinsman thou to death and trance"
  72. "Risest thou thus, dim dawn, again"
  73. "So many worlds, so much to do"
  74. "As sometimes in a dead man's face"
  75. "I leave thy praises unexpress'd"
  76. "Take wings of fancy, and ascend"
  77. "What hope is here for modern rhyme"
  78. "Again at Christmas did we weave"
  79. "'More than my brothers are to me'?"
  80. "If any vague desire should rise"
  81. "Could I have said while he was here"
  82. "I wage not any feud with Death"
  83. "Dip down upon the northern shore"
  84. "When I contemplate all alone"
  85. "This truth came borne with bier and pall"
  86. "Sweet after showers, ambrosial air"
  87. "I past beside the reverend walls"
  88. "Wild bird, whose warble, liquid sweet"
  89. "Witch-elms that counterchange the floor"
  90. "He tasted love with half his mind"
  91. "When rosy plumelets tuft the larch"
  92. "If any vision should reveal"
  93. "I shall not see thee. Dare I say"
  94. "How pure at heart and sound in head"
  95. "By night we linger'd on the lawn"
  96. "You say, but with no touch of scorn"
  97. "My love has talk'd with rocks and trees"
  98. "You leave us: you will see the Rhine"
  99. "Risest thou thus, dim dawn, again"
  100. "I climb the hill: from end to end"
  101. "Unwatch'd, the garden bough shall sway"
  102. "We leave the well-beloved place"
  103. "On that last night before we went"
  104. "The time draws near the birth of Christ"
  105. "To-night ungather'd let us leave"
  106. "Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky"
  107. "It is the day when he was born"
  108. "I will not shut me from my kind"
  109. "Heart-affluence in discursive talk"
  110. "Thy converse drew us with delight"
  111. "The churl in spirit, up or down"
  112. "High wisdom holds my wisdom less"
  113. "'Tis held that sorrow makes us wise"
  114. "Who loves not Knowledge? Who shall rail"
  115. "Now fades the last long streak of snow"
  116. "Is it, then, regret for buried time"
  117. "O days and hours, your work is this"
  118. "Contemplate all this work of Time"
  119. "Doors, where my heart was used to beat"
  120. "I trust I have not wasted breath"
  121. "Sad Hesper o'er the buried sun"
  122. "Oh, wast thou with me, dearest, then"
  123. "There rolls the deep where grew the tree"
  124. "That which we dare invoke to bless"
  125. "Whatever I have said or sung"
  126. "Love is and was my Lord and King"
  127. "And all is well, tho' faith and form"
  128. "The love that rose on stronger wings"
  129. "Dear friend, far off, my lost desire"
  130. "Thy voice is on the rolling air"
  131. "O living will that shalt endure"

Epilogue

Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)

Chidiock Tichborne (1562-1586)

Thomas Traherne (c. 1637-1674)

Henry Vaughan (1621-1695)

Edmund Waller (1606-1687)

Walt Whitman (1819-1892)

Leaves of Grass (1855 edition)

John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892)

William Wordsworth (1770-1850)

Sir Henry Wotton (1568-1639)

Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503-1542)

William Butler Yeats (1865-1939)

Monadnock Valley Press