Quotes about feign, page 13
The Mystery
I WAS not; now I am — a few days hence
I shall not be; I fain would look before
And after, but can neither do; some Power
Or lack of power says 'no' to all I would.
I stand upon a wide and sunless plain,
Nor chart nor steel to guide my steps aright.
Whene'er, o'ercoming fear, I dare to move,
I grope without direction and by chance.
Some feign to hear a voice and feel a hand
That draws them ever upward thro' the gloom.
But I — I hear no voice and touch no hand,
Tho' oft thro' silence infinite I list,
And strain my hearing to supernal sounds;
Tho' oft thro' fateful darkness do I reach,
And stretch my hand to find that other hand.
I question of th' eternal bending skies
That seem to neighbor with the novice earth;
But they roll on, and daily shut their eyes
On me, as I one day shall do on them,
And tell me not the secret that I ask.
poem by Paul Laurence Dunbar
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
On Music
When through life unblest we rove,
Losing all that made life dear,
Should some notes we used to love,
In days of boyhood, meet our ear,
Oh! how welcome breathes the strain!
Wakening thoughts that long have slept,
Kindling former smiles again
In faded eyes that long have wept.
Like the gale, that sighs along
Beds of oriental flowers,
Is the grateful breath of song,
That once was heard in happier hours.
Fill'd with balm the gale sighs on,
Though the flowers have sunk in death;
So, when pleasure's dream is gone,
Its memory lives in Music's breath.
Music, oh, how faint, how weak,
Language fades before thy spell!
[...] Read more
poem by Thomas Moore
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
To Mrs. D---
Dear Betsey now Pleasure the woodland has left,
Nor more in the water she laves,
Since winter the trees of their bloom has bereft,
And stiffen'd to crystal the waves.
Now clad all in fur our guest she appears,
By the fire-side a merry young grig;
She pours out the wine, our pensiveness cheers,
And at night leads us out to a jig.
Then venture among the tall pines if you dare,
Encounter the keen arctic wind;
Dare this for to meet with affection sincere,
And Pleasure untainted you'll find.
I know you have Pleasure, my sister, by whiles,
But then she appears in great state;
She is hard of access, and lofty her smiles,
While Envy and Pride on her wait.
[...] Read more
poem by Ann Eliza Bleecker from The Posthumous Works of Ann Eliza Bleecker
Added by Veronica Serbanoiu
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
The Sigh
I.
When youth his fairy reign began,
Ere sorrow had proclaimed me man;
While peace the present hour beguiled,
And all the lovely prospect smiled;
Then, Mary! 'mid my lightsome glee
I heaved the painless sigh for thee.
II.
And when, as tossed on waves of woe,
My harassed heart was doomed to know
The frantic burst, the outrage keen,
And the slow pang that gnaws unseen;
Then shipwrecked on life's stormy sea,
I heaved an anguish'd sigh for thee!
III.
But soon reflection's power imprest
A stiller sadness on my breast;
And sickly hope with waning eye
[...] Read more
poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
The Princess: A Medley: Tears, Idle Tears
Tears, idle tears, I know not what they mean,
Tears from the depth of some divine despair
Rise in the heart, and gather to the eyes,
In looking on the happy Autumn-fields,
And thinking of the days that are no more.
Fresh as the first beam glittering on a sail,
That brings our friends up from the underworld,
Sad as the last which reddens over one
That sinks with all we love below the verge;
So sad, so fresh, the days that are no more.
Ah, sad and strange as in dark summer dawns
The earliest pipe of half-awaken'd birds
To dying ears, when unto dying eyes
The casement slowly grows a summering square;
So sad, so strange, the days that are no more.
Dear as remember'd kisses after death,
And sweet as those by hopeless fancy feign'd
On lips that are for others; deep as love,
[...] Read more
poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
Golden Truths
Who knows who lives for longer span?
The father, son, grand-father, man;
Prudence must be our guide on earth;
And temperance practiced from birth.
The road we choose is left to us;
We walk or run or go by bus;
The time we take is left to us;
God gives the freedom ev’n to fuss!
This world if bad is due to men;
Good words or bad come from same ken;
Good deeds or bad, the same hand does;
Some day one must ‘let out the pus’!
Most swear that they won’t sin again;
All sins will take you down wrong lane;
’Tis tough to kick off bad habits;
Virtues are nurtured in small bits.
[...] Read more
poem by John Celes
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
Beloved Haunting Memory
Oh how you haunt me,
blessed memory of my beloved!
You wake me every morn'
and twice from my dreams.
How jealous you are of my slumber!
You appear as a reverberating echo when
someone's footsteps sound so similar to his stride.
I've heard that pattern a thousand times over
every floor surface imaginable.
You grip me when someone takes hold of my shoulder.
I turn to find only your face and a stranger's,
but not that of my beloved.
Dear memory, you are dipped in cologne, wear his hat,
stole his laugh and feign ghostly kisses that stain my lips.
Sometimes I wish you were as intangible as he, but mostly my sweet,
you are the blanket he wrapped 'round me when I was cold.
You are the words of solace sung off his breath
that still my heart and soul.
You are my companion as we walk familiar streets
linked arm in arm.
[...] Read more
poem by Argentine Tango
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
Charades II
Twas my impression, hours bending
infinitum in our minds' stall,
a ship to escape, deft sailors' call,
as times were hard and not ending.
Upon the ship were ghosts of souls,
as slow the dusk subscribed to night,
tulips of smoke, in hazed dim light,
three sailor forms in charades sprawls.
They danced and danced the nights after,
umpteen mimicks, and each mime word,
a riddle to enslave minds' circuit board,
ghosts jumped with their looney laughter.
We danced with them under the rain;
odd marionettes of dark ship hustle;
rotated round a conceived axle;
(the ship wants us to wind and feign) .
[...] Read more
poem by Giorgio Veneto
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
The Phantom Kiss
One night in my room, still and beamless,
With will and with thought in eclipse,
I rested in sleep that was dreamless;
When softly there fell on my lips
A touch, as of lips that were pressing
Mine own with the message of bliss--
A sudden, soft, fleeting caressing,
A breath like a maiden's first kiss.
I woke-and the scoffer may doubt me--
I peered in surprise through the gloom;
But nothing and none were about me,
And I was alone in my room.
Perhaps 't was the wind that caressed me
And touched me with dew-laden breath;
Or, maybe, close-sweeping, there passed me
The low-winging Angel of Death.
[...] Read more
poem by Paul Laurence Dunbar
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
The Sequel to a Reminiscence
Not in the street and not in the square,
The street and square where you went and came;
With shuttered casement your house stands bare,
Men hush their voice when they speak your name.
I, too, can play at the vain pretence,
Can feign you dead; while a voice sounds clear
In the inmost depths of my heart: Go hence,
Go, find your friend who is far from here.
Not here, but somewhere where I can reach!
Can a man with motion, hearing and sight,
And a thought that answered my thought and speech,
Be utterly lost and vanished quite?
Whose hand was warm in my hand last week? . .
My heart beat fast as I neared the gate--
Was it this I had come to seek,
"A stone that stared with your name and date;"
[...] Read more
poem by Amy Levy
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!