THEY hold their public meetings where
Our most renowned patriots stand,
One among the birds of the air,
A stumpier on either hand;
And all the popular statesmen say
That purity built up the State
And after kept it from decay;
And let all base ambition be,
For intellect would make us proud
And pride bring in impurity:
The three old rascals laugh aloud.
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‘PUT off that mask of burning gold
‘O no, my dear, you make so boldTo find if hearts be wild and wise,And yet not cold.’‘I would but find what’s there to find,Love or deceit.’‘It was the mask engaged your mind,And after set your heart to beat,Not what’s behind.’‘But lest you are my enemy,I must enquire.’‘O no, my dear, let all that be;What…
FOR certain minutes at the least
That plague me day and nightRan out of my sight;Though I had long perned in the gyre,Between my hatred and desire.I saw my freedom wonAnd all laugh in the sun.The glittering eyes in a death’s headOf old Luke Wadding’s portrait saidWelcome, and the Ormondes allNodded upon the wall,And even Strafford smiled as thoughIt made him…
Come play with me;
Through the shaking treeAs though I’d a gunTo strike you dead?When all I would doIs to scratch your headAnd let you go.
Overcome — O bitter sweetness,
The rich man and his affairs,The fat flocks and the fields’ fatness,Mariners, rough harvesters;Overcome Gods upon Parnassus;Overcome the Empyrean; hurlHeaven and Earth out of their places,That in the Same calamityBrother and brother, friend and friend,Family and family,City and city may contend,By that great glory driven wild.Pray I will and sing I must,And yet I weep…
I MADE my song a coat
Out of old mythologiesFrom heel to throat;But the fools caught it,Wore it in the world’s eyesAs though they’d wrought it.Song, let them take it,For there’s more enterpriseIn walking naked.
I know, although when looks meet
The more I leave the door unlatchedThe sooner love is gone,For love is but a skein unwoundBetween the dark and dawn.A lonely ghost the ghost isThat to God shall come;I – love’s skein upon the ground,My body in the tomb –Shall leap into the light lostIn my mother’s womb.But were I left to lie aloneIn…