I wage not any feud with Death

Shudderest when I strain my sight,Throbbing thro’ all thy heat and light,Lo, falling from my constant mind,Lo, parch’d and wither’d, deaf and blind,I whirl like leaves in roaring wind.Last night I wasted hateful hoursBelow the city’s eastern towers:I thirsted for the brooks, the showers:I roll’d among the tender flowers:I crush’d them on my breast, my…

Long fields of barley and of rye,That clothe the wold and meet the sky;And thro’ the field the road runs byTo many-tower’d Camelot;And up and down the people go,Gazing where the lilies blowRound an island there below,The island of Shalott.Willows whiten, aspens quiver,Little breezes dusk and shiverThro’ the wave that runs for everBy the island…

But rendered tributary, failed of lateTo send his tribute; wherefore Arthur calledHis treasurer, one of many years, and spake,‘Go thou with him and him and bring it to us,Lest we should set one truer on his throne.Man’s word is God in man.’His Baron said‘We go but harken: there be two strange knightsWho sit near Camelot…

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 oneThat sinks with all we love below the verge;So sad, so fresh,…

Leaving door and windows wide.Careless tenants they!All within is dark as night:In the windows is no light;And no murmur at the door,So frequent on its hinge before.Close the door; the shutters close;Or through the windows we shall seeThe nakedness and vacancyOf the dark deserted house.Come away: no more of mirthIs here or merry-making sound.The house…

Nor winks the gold fin in the porphyry font:The fire-fly wakens: wake thou with me.Now droops the milkwhite peacock like a ghost,And like a ghost she glimmers on to me.Now lies the Earth all Danaë to the stars,And all thy heart lies open unto me.Now lies the silent meteor on, and leavesA shining furrow, as…

For love or money. Let us picnic thereAt Audley Court.’I spoke, while Audley feastHumm’d like a hive all round the narrow quay,To Francis, with a basket on his arm,To Francis just alighted from the boat,And breathing of the sea. ‘With all my heart,’Said Francis. Then we shoulder’d thro’ the swarm,And rounded by the stillness of…

Stand off, or else my skipping-ropeWill hit you in the eye.How lightly Whirls the skipping-rope !How fairy-like you fly !Go, get you gone, you muse and mope –I hate that silly sigh.Nay, dearest, teach me how to hope,Or tell me how to die.There, take it, take my skipping-rope,And hang yourself thereby.

As where earth’s green stole into heaven’s own hue,Far-far-away?What sound was dearest in his native dells?The mellow lin-lan-lone of evening bellsFar-far-away.What vague world-whisper, mystic pain or joy,Thro’ those three words would haunt him when a boy,Far-far-away?A whisper from his dawn of life? a breathFrom some fair dawn beyond the doors of deathFar-far-away?Far, far, how far?…

Rise in the spiritual rock,Flow thro’ our deeds and make them pure,That we may lift from out of dustA voice as unto him that hears,A cry above the conquer’d yearsTo one that with us works, and trust,With faith that comes of self-control,The truths that never can be provedUntil we close with all we loved,And all…

That man’s the best CosmopoliteWho loves his native country best.May freedom’s oak for ever liveWith stronger life from day to day;That man’s the true ConservativeWho lops the moulder’d branch away.Hands all round!God the traitor’s hope confound!To this great cause of Freedom drink, my friends,And the great name of England, round and round.To all the loyal…

WARRIOR of God, man’s friend, and tyrant’s foeNow somewhere dead far in the waste Soudan,Thou livest in all hearts, for all men knowThis earth has never borne a nobler man.