Once a dream did weave a shade O’er my Angel-guarded bed, That an emmet lost its way Where on grass methought I lay. Troubled, ’wilder’d, and forlorn, Dark, benighted, travel-worn, Over many a tangled spray, All heart-broke I heard her say: ‘O, my children! do they cry? Do they hear their father sigh? Now they look abroad to see: Now return and weep for...
I taught myself to live simply and wisely, to look at the sky and pray to God, and to wander long before evening to tire my superfluous worries. When the burdocks rustle in the ravine and the yellow-red rowanberry cluster droops I compose happy verses about life’s decay, decay and beauty. I come back. The fluffy cat licks my palm, purrs so sweetly and the fire flares bright on the saw-mill...
The sun descending in the west, The evening star does shine; The birds are silent in their nest, And I must seek for mine. The moon, like a flower, In heaven’s high bower, With silent delight Sits and smiles on the night. Farewell, green fields and happy groves, Where flocks have took delight. Where lambs have nibbled, silent moves The feet of angels bright; Unseen they pour blessing, And joy...
“Teach me, love, to be true; Teach me, love, to love; Teach me to be pure like you. It will be more than enough! “Ah, and in days to come, Give me, my seraph, too, A son nobler than I, A daughter...
You will hear thunder and remember me,
And think: she wanted storms. The rim
Of the sky will be the colour of hard crimson,
And your heart, as it was then, will be on fire.
That day in Moscow, it will all come true,
when, for the last time, I take my leave,
And hasten to the heights that I have longed for,
Leaving my shadow still to be with you.
Anna Akhmatova
“I slept, and dreamed that life was beauty; I woke, and found that life was duty. Was thy dream then a shadowy lie? Toil on, sad heart, courageously, And thou shall find thy dream to be A noonday light and truth to thee.” Louisa May Alcott...
Flow down, cold rivulet, to the sea, Thy tribute wave deliver: No more by thee my steps shall be, For ever and for ever. Flow, softly flow, by lawn and lea, A rivulet then a river: Nowhere by thee my steps shall be For ever and for ever. But here will sigh thine alder tree And here thine aspen shiver; And here by thee will hum the bee, For ever and for ever. A thousand suns will stream on thee, A...
Hereafter! O we need not waste
Our smiles or tears, whatever befall:
No happiness but holds a taste
Of something sweeter, after all; –
No depth of agony but feels
Some fragment of abiding trust, –
Whatever death unlocks or seals,
The mute beyond is just.
James Whitcomb Riley
L’amour, dont l’autre nom sur terre est la douleur, De ton sein fit jaillir une source écumante, Et ta voix était triste et ton âme charmante, Et de toi la pitié divine eût fait sa sœur. Ivresse ou désespoir, enthousiasme ou langueur, Tu jetais tes cris d’or à travers la tourmente ; Et les vers qui brûlaient sur ta bouche d’amante Formaient leur rythme aux seuls battements de ton cœur...
The first time that I saw you it was a summer’s day one morning when the sun was shining bright, and all the meadow’s flowers, so varied in display, in pairs stood bowing in its warming light. So gentle was the morning breeze, and at the shore but slightly a loving wavelet rippled round a shell the sand held tightly. The first time that I saw you it was a summer’s day the first time that I held...