CategoryEngland

A War Song to Englishmen

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William Blake (1757–1827). Prepare, prepare the iron helm of war, Bring forth the lots, cast in the spacious orb; Th’ Angel of Fate turns them with mighty hands, And casts them out upon the darken’d earth!                     Prepare, prepare!         Prepare your hearts for Death’s cold hand! prepare Your souls for flight...

To the Muses

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WHETHER on Ida’s shady brow, Or in the chambers of the East, The chambers of the sun, that now From ancient melody have ceas’d; Whether in Heaven ye wander fair, Or the green corners of the earth, Or the blue regions of the air Where the melodious winds have birth; Whether on crystal rocks ye rove, Beneath the bosom of the sea Wand’ring in many a coral grove, Fair Nine, forsaking Poetry! How have...

The Lonely Walk

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To W.S.B. When the grey evening spreads a calm around,   Tell me, has thy bewilder’d fancy sought, Retir’d in some sequestered spot of ground,   Rest, from the labour of eternal thought? When, wrapt in self, the soul enjoys repose,   The wearied brain resigns its fervent heat, In dream-like musing every care we lose,   And wind our way with slowly-moving feet. Oft, to indulge the...

My Heart Leaps Up

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My heart leaps up when I behold
A rainbow in the sky:
So was it when my life began;
So is it now I am a man;
So be it when I shall grow old,
Or let me die!
The Child is father of the Man;
And I could wish my days to be
Bound each to each by natural piety.
William Wordsworth – 1770-1850

Love Philosophy

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The fountains mingle with the river, And the rivers with the ocean; The winds of heaven mix forever With a sweet emotion; Nothing in the world is single; All things by a law divine In another’s being mingle– Why not I with thine? See, the mountains kiss high heaven, And the waves clasp one another; No sister flower could be forgiven If it disdained its brother; And the sunlight clasps...

To Morning

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O HOLY virgin! clad in purest white,
Unlock heav’n’s golden gates, and issue forth;
Awake the dawn that sleeps in heaven; let light
Rise from the chambers of the east, and bring
The honey’d dew that cometh on waking day.         5
O radiant morning, salute the sun
Rous’d like a huntsman to the chase, and with
Thy buskin’d feet appear upon our hills.
William Blake (1757–1827).

Sonnet XCVII: How like a winter hath my absence been

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How like a winter hath my absence been From thee, the pleasure of the fleeting year! What freezings have I felt, what dark days seen! What old December’s bareness everywhere! And yet this time remov’d was summer’s time, The teeming autumn, big with rich increase, Bearing the wanton burthen of the prime, Like widow’d wombs after their lords’ decease: Yet this abundant...

Winter Nightfall

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THE day begins to droop,—     Its course is done: But nothing tells the place     Of the setting sun. The hazy darkness deepens,     And up the lane You may hear, but cannot see,     The homing wain. An engine pants and hums     In the farm hard by: Its lowering smoke is lost     In the lowering sky. The soaking branches drip,  ...

I love the jocund dance

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I LOVE the jocund dance, The softly breathing song, Where innocent eyes do glance, And where lisps the maiden’s tongue. I love the laughing vale,          I love the echoing hill, Where mirth does never fail, And the jolly swain laughs his fill. I love the pleasant cot, I love the innocent bow’r,          Where white and brown is our lot, Or fruit...