Poetry: Kipling – The Gods of the Copybook Headings

"As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn, The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!" Kipling - The Gods of the Copybook Headings

Poetry: Wordsworth – A Night Thought

Lo! where the Moon along the skySails with her happy destiny;Oft is she hid from mortal eyeOr dimly seen,But when the clouds asunder flyHow bright her mien! Far different we—a froward race,Thousands though rich in Fortune's graceWith cherished sullenness of paceTheir way pursue,Ingrates who wear a smileless faceThe whole year through. If kindred humours e'er …

Continue reading Poetry: Wordsworth – A Night Thought

Poetry: Shelley – Music, When Soft Voices Die

Music, when soft voices die,Vibrates in the memory—Odours, when sweet violets sicken,Live within the sense they quicken.Rose leaves, when the rose is dead,Are heaped for the belovèd's bed;And so thy thoughts, when thou art gone,Love itself shall slumber on. Considered a poetic fragment, I find these two verses by Shelley complete in their simplicity. Unlike …

Continue reading Poetry: Shelley – Music, When Soft Voices Die

Poetry: Milton – When I consider how my light is spent

When I consider how my light is spent,   Ere half my days in this dark world and wide,   And that one talent which is death to hideLodged with me useless, though my soul more bentTo serve therewith my Maker, and present   My true account, lest He returning chide;   "Doth God exact day-labor, light denied?"I fondly ask. But Patience, to …

Continue reading Poetry: Milton – When I consider how my light is spent

Poetry: Shakespeare – Sonnet 138

When my love swears that she is made of truth,I do believe her, though I know she lies,That she might think me some untutored youth,Unlearnèd in the world’s false subtleties.Thus vainly thinking that she thinks me young,Although she knows my days are past the best,Simply I credit her false-speaking tongue:On both sides thus is simple …

Continue reading Poetry: Shakespeare – Sonnet 138