Citatepedia^®.com

A large wildlife book, start to finish, could take one to two years, but then I would expect to get several good (nature) magazine features off the back of this, plus of course a lot of stock.

quote by Nigel Dennis
Added by Lucian Velea
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

How A Naked Mole

breed pit bull puppy pictures breed pitbull pics breed pitbull pure breed pitbull snooty breed pitbulls breed platies breed platties breed plecos breed plecostomus breed point tabulating breed points breed points dog breed points havanese breed points veterans breed pomeranians breed poo puppy shih breed poodle chihuahua breed poodle toy breed portuguese water dog breed poultry rare breed predisposition to cruciate injurie breed primarily seal points breed problems with labadoodles breed problems with labradoodles breed professional pug training breed profile american pit bull terrier breed profile bierwer breed profile bierwer yorkshire terrier breed profile british blue breed profile exmoor pony breed profile german bierwer breed profile hungarian hound breed profile hungarian viszla breed profile labrador retriever breed profile maine coon cats breed profile munchkin cats breed profile of the weimaraner breed profile persian cats temperament breed profile schipperke breed profile selle francais breed profile siamese cat breed profile sphynx breed profile sphynx cat breed profiles dog breeds boxer breed puddle of mudd breed puppies breed puppy pure breed puppy teacup breed puppymill rescue toy wolfspirit breed pure rescue breed pygmy goats breed quail breed questionaire breed quiz selector breed rabbit tan breed rabbits for sale kansas city breed rabbits timeline breed racing greyhound breed ragdoll breed ragdoll cats breed rankings breed rap game mp3 breed rare survival trust breed rare turkey breed rarr monster tee breed rat terrier breed receiver breed red cows breed registry usa breed registry wikipedia the free encycl breed reptans breed rescue and virginia breed rescue black labradors breed rescue club minnesota breed rescue corgi breed rescue corgie breed rescue dallas breed rescue feline breed rescue french bulldogs breed rescue georgia breed rescue groups houston texas breed rescue groups in texas breed rescue groups indianapolis indiana breed rescue groups minnesota breed rescue husky breed rescue in colorado breed rescue in illinois breed rescue in michigan breed rescue in new jersey breed rescue jack russell breed rescue list cat breed rescue list co ok breed rescue list utah breed rescue maine coon breed rescue mississippi breed rescue northern virginia breed rescue of south louisiana breed rescue of terriers nz breed rescue organizations lake charles breed rescue organizations list texas breed rescue policies and procedures breed rescue policy and procedures breed rescue springer spaniel breed rescue wa breed rescue wa huesemann breed rescue weimerainer breed rescue zealots breed rescues list national cat breed rescues of mississippi breed rescuing st louis breed rescuw breed responsibly breed restrctions huskies breed restriction laws breed restriction list insurance breed restriction on german shepard dogs breed restrictions akita breed restrictions huskies breed restrictive legislation breed retrievr breed reviews breed rhodesian ridgeback dogs breed roan to dun breed roan to dun genetics breed roan to roan breed roll mp3 breed rooster breed rottie arizona breed rottweiler name ranger location mi breed rottweler breed rough mix breed s tobacco activism guide breed san juan rabbits breed savannah cat breed scarab beetle breed schipperke breed selecter dog quiz breed selection quiz breed selective legislation breed selector breed selector akc breed selector and dog breed selector au breed selector dog breed selector dog iams breed selector dog purina breed selector dog quiz breed selector dominance breed selector interactive breed selector quiz breed selectors breed seminar content breed seminar presentations breed series breed service golden retriever mi breed severum breed severum in a ten gallon breed sheba breed sheep hebridean rare year graze breed sheep in spring breed sheltie breed shi shus breed shiny pokemon breed shitzu breed shiz shus breed short ears black muzzle stocky breed showing papillons ears breed shrimp labrador retriever dog breed labrador retriever dog breed handbook labrador retriever english breed labrador retriever pit bull mixed breed labrador retriever puppies breed nsw aus labrador retriever puppies the dogs bree labrador retriever types breeds labrador retrievers breed distinctive labrador retrievers breeds labrador types of breeds labradore cross breed labradore spaniel cross breed labraodor retreivers labrador breeders l labrodoodle breed labrodor and rottweiler mixed breed lactating small breed dogs lactating small breed dogs calcium lady and the tramp dog breed lady and the tramp dog breeds laege cow breeds lagotta dog breed lagotto romognolo dog breed lahore pigeon breed laika breed club laika breed club uk laika breeds beregovoy laika dog breed laika the dog breed lake pepin half breed lake pepin half breed rolls lakeland terrier breed info lakeside large dog breed rescue lakewood wa dog breed restrictions lama breeds lamancha breed weaknesses lamb breeds and pictures lamb breeds chart lancier dog breed landrace breed landseer breed standard landseer dog breed landseer dog breed information lanois dog breed lap boxer breed lap cat breed lap cat breeds lap dog breeds lap dog mix breeds lapaso dog breed lapdog breeds laperm breed lapponian herder breed standard laps apso breed standard laps psa dog breed lapsa breeds lapsa dog breed lapsa opsa dog breed lapso opso mixed breed with pomeranian lard hog breed larg breed dog boxes for sale large aggressive breeds of dogs large breed 2 leather dog collar large breed animal boarding large breed animal boarding minnesota large breed bat large breed beagles large breed bluetick pitbull puppies large breed boarding kennels az large breed brazilian fella dog large breed brazilian fella dog pictures large breed canine nutrition calcium req large breed canine nutrition research large breed cedar dog house large breed chihuahua large breed chows large breed christmas clothing large breed crate large breed designer dog collars large breed discrimination in parks large breed doag easy to train large breed doberman large breed dog accerseries large breed dog apparel large breed dog bath large breed dog bathtub large breed dog bed large breed dog beds free shipping large breed dog calcium and phosphorus large breed dog clothes patterns large breed dog collar large breed dog collars fish large breed dog collors large breed dog crate large breed dog crate cover large breed dog cysts large breed dog exercise large breed dog exercise guidelines large breed dog exercise warnings large breed dog facts large breed dog feeders large breed dog food protein large breed dog gestation large breed dog gestation period large breed dog harness large breed dog igloo large breed dog items large breed dog kennel large breed dog muzzles large breed dog names large breed dog nutrition large breed dog photo gallery large breed dog ramp large breed dog shock collars large breed dog surgery saint louis large breed dog sweaters large breed dog trivia large breed dog tub large breed dog veteranarians wisconsin large breed doggy door large breed doghouse large breed doghouses large breed dogs and bone problems large breed dogs bloat large breed dogs bloat prevention large breed dogs good with ren large breed dogs great white large breed dogs guard castles large breed dogs hurcules large breed dogs in airline cabins large breed dogs in airplane cabins large breed dogs tan large breed dogs thailand large breed dogs that dont shed large breed duplex dog houses large breed family and protection dogs large breed german shepards large breed german shepherd large breed glucosamine benefits large breed glucosamine chondroitin bene large breed guard dog large breed harnesses large breed horse large breed house cats large breed housecats large breed hypo alergenic large breed hypoallergenic large breed kitten food large breed labradors large breed lamb and rice large breed leather collars large breed leather dog collar large breed leather dog collars large breed litterbox large breed meetup large breed non shedding dogs large breed of catahoulas large breed of dog mountain rescue large breed of doghouses large breed of dogs large breed of domestic house cats large breed of housecat large breed of pet cat large breed pet friendly rental properti large breed pitbull large breed pitbull kennels large breed pitbull terriers large breed pitbulls large breed plastic kennel large breed professional dog clippers large breed puppies in austin tx large breed puppy care briard large breed puppy care kit large breed puppy diet large breed puppy dog food large breed puppy dogfood large breed puppy food large breed puppy food protein large breed puppy food review large breed puppy food sample large breed puppy food trials large breed puppy foods large breed puppy foods lonewolf brand large breed puppy foods wolf large breed puppy foods wolf brand large breed puppy for sale large breed puppy nutrition large breed puppy rescue large breed red heelers large breed reflective vest large breed rescue norco ca large breed rescue ontario large breed rescue quebec large breed resuce evansville in large breed short hair dogs large breed shorthair dog coat sweater large breed size cats large breed soft dog crate large breed south beach dog collars large breed spayed dogs large breed temple dog large breed toys large breed vet in levittown pa large breed veterinarian tucson large breed veterinarians large breed waist belt large breed water dogs large breed whelping box large breeds of cats large breeds of ponies large bully breed large bully breeds large cat breed large cats breed large cats breed exotic large chested medium sized dog breeds large docked tails mixed breed pup large dof breeds large dog breed large dog breed elevated bowl large dog breed english bull hound large dog breed from south africa large dog breed info large dog breed no drool large dog breed pictures large dog breed recipes watch dogs breeds watch horses breed watch monkeys breed watch the breed watch wife breed watchdog breed watchdog breed dog watchdog breed pitbull watchdog breeds watchdogs breeds watching animals breed watching animals breed humans watching wild animals breed watching wives breed water conditions to breed mosquitos water dog breed water dragon breed standards water rescue breed dog water resistant wool breed water spaniel dog breed water test pointing breeds waterdog breed watusi breed of cattle wax worm breed we are a dying breed we breed speed we worship you isarel new breed we worship you israel new breed web foot breeds web-footed dog breeds web-footed hound breeds webbed feet dog breeds webfoot breeds webkinz codes for rare breeds webquest dog breeds website for all dog breeds websites on horse breeds wee-chon mixed breed weenie dogs breeds weight chart dog breeds weight limit on rabbit breeds weimaraner breed weimaraner breed clubs weimaraner breed diseases weimaraner breed info weimaraner breed information weimaraner breed photos weimaraner breed profile weimaraner breed standards weimaraner dog breed weimaraner dog breeds weimaraner mixed breed weimaraner rottweiler cross breed weimaraners dog breed weimer raner breed of dog weimerainer breed standard weimeraner breed weimeraner breed information weimeraner breeds weimeraner dog breed weimeraner dog breed akc weimeraner dog breeds weimeraner rottweiler cross breed weimeraner viszla mix breed weimerarner breed clubs weimereimer breed info weimereimer breed photos weimereiner breed photos weimeriener darker breeds weiner dog breed weinhaimer breed weinheimer breed weinheimer dog breed weinmaraner breed disposition weinmariner breed weinmeraner breed info weinmeraner dog breed weinmeraner dog breed standards weinreimer dog breed weird cross breeds weird crss breeds weird dog breed mixes weird mixed breed animals weirdest dog breed welch dog breed well behaved dog breeds well breed pets well mannered dog breed well-mannered poniy breeds well-mannered pony breeds wellness kibble for small toy breed wells and breed wellsummer chicken breed characteristics welsch terrior breed information welsh breed welsh breed of dog welsh cardigan corgies breed clubs welsh cardin corgi breed info welsh cat breed welsh corgi and collie mix breed welsh corgi breed infomation welsh corgi breed pembroke dog welsh corgi dog breed welsh corgi dog rescue breed purebreds welsh dog breed welsh dog breeds welsh gorgi breed welsh pembrook corgi breed welsh pony breed welsh terrier breed information welsh terrier breed standard welsh terriers and dog breeds welsumer chicken breed wendy rose half breed chronicles were a albatross breeds were did the pitbull breed originate were is the dying breed now werriwa all breeds dog training club wes craven the breed wes cravens the breed west bend insurance dog breed restrictio west half breed scrip 1885 west highland terrier beagle cross breed west highland terrier breed west highland terrier breed info west highland white dog breed west highland white terrier breed standa west highland white terrier dog breed west higland terrier dog breed west indies dog breeds westerhoven dog breed western breed tack michigan western nc all breed dog rescue western painted turtle breed western pond turtle captive breed westhighland terrier breed of dogs westie bichon mix breed dogs westie breed westie breed info westie breed of dog westie breed of dogs westie cairn breed westie dog breed westie dog breeds westie mixed breed dogs westie shih tzu mixed breed dog westies breed westies breeds westies cairn breed westies dog breed westin breed of dog westminster breed 2008 westminster breed club westminster breed judging video westminster dog breeds westminster dog show breed entries westminster dog show breed judging westminster dog show breed winners westminster dog show breeds westminster dog show new breeds westminster new breeds westminster results 2008 breed westminsters dog breeds weston breed of dog westphalian breed registry brand westphalian horse breed westphalian horse breed brands westy dog breed wether goat breed information whales breeds southern ocean what 2 breeds make a clydesdale what age can you breed chihuahuas what age do cats breed what age do i breed labradors what age do you breed maltese what age to breed a cat what age to breed flemish giants what age to breed pigs what age to breed yorkies what age to breed your dog what are animal breeds what are breed rescue groups what are breeds of smart dogs what are breeds unique characteristics p what are bull breeds of cattle what are european breeds of cattle what are gated horse breeds what are pug breeds like what are some cat breeds what are some squirrel dog breeds what are the breeds of llamas what are the oldest horse breeds what breed are cop dogs what breed are ginger cats what breed dog is gentlest what breed dog should i choose what breed dog was lassie what breed dogs fit my personality what breed horse originated in czechoslo what breed horse you what breed horses gladiators ride what breed hosre originated in czechosla what breed is a crusader rabbit what breed is a dolly dog what breed is a jug dog what breed is a morkie dog what breed is a samoyed dog what breed is a silly dog what breed is a tabby what breed is a tobiano what breed is a tuxedo cat what breed is benji what breed is czechoslovakia what breed is devon rex what breed is flicka pug puppies breed pug sheltie mix breed pugalier hybrid breed puggat breed information puggle breed puggle breed info puggle breed information puggle breed traits puggle dog breed puggle dog breeds puggle mixed breed puggles breeds puggles dog breed puggles new breed pugle dog breed pugs and larger breeds pugs breed pugs breed with beagels pugs dog breed pugs getting along with larger breeds pugs to breed puli breed puli breed as a pet puli breeds puli dog breed pulik dog breed pulldoggies working dog breeds pulldoggies working dog breeds text java pulli dog breed pultry breeds punish the breed not the deed punish the deed not the breed punish tjhe deed not the breed puppia dog harness for large breeds puppie breed puppie breed hybrid poodle puppie breed hybrid poodle bichon puppie breeds puppie mix breed puppies all breeds puppies arkansas breed puppies arkansas breed kennel puppies arkansas breed mill puppies breed puppies breed information dog breeds puppies breeds puppies by breed puppies cute breeds puppies diffrent breeds puppies for sale by breed puppies in different breeds puppies mixed breed puppies mixed breed poodles puppies mixed breeds puppies new breeds puppies of mixed breeds puppies small breeds for sale puppies toy breeds puppies what breed puppy and dog breeds puppy birth weight by breed puppy breed puppy breed choice puppy breed finder puppy breed finder quiz puppy breed illinois puppy breed illinois poodle puppy breed info puppy breed information puppy breed photo gallery puppy breed photos puppy breed picks puppy breed pics puppy breed picture puppy breed pictures puppy breed search puppy breed selector puppy breed selector quiz puppy breed shih poo puppy breed test puppy breeds puppy breeds and info puppy breeds and pictures puppy breeds collage puppy breeds identification puppy breeds identify photos puppy breeds list puppy breeds photos puppy breeds pictures puppy breeds that do not chew puppy breeds with pictures puppy care by breed puppy care for small breed dogs puppy care for specific breeds puppy cross breeds for sale puppy cut for maltese dog breed puppy designer breeds michigan puppy development by breed puppy dog breeds puppy dog breeds chihuahua shar pei puppy finder mixed breed puppy food large breed dogs puppy food vs large breed puppy puppy large breed puppy lhaso poo dog breed puppy love a new breed puppy love all breed puppy luv a new breed puppy luv new breed puppy markings breed puppy mills dogs breed pet stores puppy mills i breed dogs puppy mix breed puppy mixed breed puppy mixed breed finder puppy mixed breed wisconsin puppy names by breed puppy names for small breeds puppy nutrition for small breeds puppy page corgi breed pembroke welsh puppy photos by breed puppy pictures all breeds puppy pictures breeds puppy pictures by breed puppy pictures of every breed puppy pictures with breed name puppy pug breed info puppy purse carrier toy breeds puppy shar pei breed info puppy supplies for small breeds puppycat breed info puppys breeds puppys cross breed pur breed dog rescues pur breed spaniel purchase greyhoud pure breed puppy purdue glee club brian breed dismisal purdue glee club brian breed dismissal purdue glee club brian breed resigned pure bred dog breeds pure bred poodle breed pure breed pure breed 100 pound german shepard pure breed adoption pure breed akitas in philadelphia pa pure breed american eskimos pure breed american pitbull puppies pure breed animal shelters in virginia pure breed animal shelters sites pure breed animals cats health informati pure breed australian sheperd california pure breed beagle pure breed beagle puppies pure breed beagles pure breed beagles for sale pure breed beagles in texas pure breed beagles pups for sale pure breed black poddle pure breed blood test pure breed bloodtest pure breed boer goats pure breed boerboel pups pure breed boerboels pups pure breed boxer pure breed boxer pictures pure breed boxer puppies for sale pure breed boxer puppy pure breed boxer pups pure breed boxers pure breed breeding requirements pure breed brindle boxer pure breed brittney spaniel pure breed buldogs pure breed bulldogs pure breed california rabbits pure breed cat pure breed cat rescue pure breed cat rescues pure breed cats pure breed cats for sale pure breed cats kittens pure breed cattle pure breed charolias cattle pure breed chicken pure breed chickens pure breed chickens catologs pure breed chihuahua pure breed chihuahuas pure breed chiken pure breed chinese shitsu pure breed chinese shitsu in maryland pure breed chiuaua pure breed chocolate lab puppy pure breed chow chow puppies pure breed chow dogs for sale pure breed chow puppies pure breed cocker spanial pure breed cocker spanial puppies pure breed cocker spanial puupies pure breed collie breeder pure breed collie in joplin mo pure breed collies pure breed dalmations pure breed deog adoption orange county pure breed dog pure breed dog adoption horse breed societies horse breed societies uk horse breed society horse breed speeds horse breed standards horse breed sub-species horse breed symbols horse breed tatoos horse breed that originated from czechos horse breed that originated in czechoslo horse breed that oriniginated in czechos horse breed the conquistadores rode horse breed thoroughbred horse breed video horse breed with naturally bad temperame horse breed with pictures horse breed zorse horse breeded in czechoslovakia horse breeds horse breeds 101 horse breeds a through z horse breeds a to z horse breeds a z horse breeds and characteristics horse breeds and color horse breeds and colors horse breeds and head shape horse breeds and information horse breeds and pictures horse breeds and pictures of horses horse breeds and prices horse breeds and senior riders horse breeds and their characteristics horse breeds and there pictures horse breeds and training horse breeds and types horse breeds and what they do horse breeds anglo arabs horse breeds az horse breeds biggest horse breeds blue roan horse breeds brands horse breeds by country horse breeds capella horse breeds charger horse breeds clydale horse breeds clydesdale horse breeds definitions horse breeds description horse breeds different training horse breeds draft horse breeds drafts horse breeds education horse breeds f horse breeds fjords horse breeds for cattle drives horse breeds for ren horse breeds for s horse breeds for riding horse breeds from a to z horse breeds from a-z horse breeds from czechoslovakia horse breeds from czeck horse breeds from czeckoslovakia horse breeds german horse breeds gray horse breeds hanoverian horse breeds havasu horse breeds healthy horse breeds horses pictures horse breeds how many horse breeds in ancient greece horse breeds in canada horse breeds in czechoslovakia horse breeds in mauritius horse breeds in sd horse breeds in the 1500-1600 horse breeds in the civil war horse breeds in the world horse breeds info horse breeds irish draught horse breeds largest horse breeds list horse breeds listing horse breeds mauw horse breeds morgan horse breeds morgon horse breeds most bought horse breeds of horse breeds of czechoslavakia horse breeds of czechoslovakia horse breeds of the old west horse breeds of the world horse breeds of the world museum horse breeds of west texas horse breeds oklahoma state horse breeds originated czechoslovakia horse breeds pdf horse breeds pdf horse breeds horse breeds percherons about horse breeds personality horse breeds photo horse breeds pics horse breeds pictures horse breeds pony horse breeds quarterhorse horse breeds ratings horse breeds regency england horse breeds rocky mountian horse breeds selected girls and animals horse breeds sizes draft horse breeds south africa horse breeds south africa endurance horse breeds spanish barbs horse breeds spanish barbs new york horse breeds spped horse breeds starting with n horse breeds summary for s horse breeds tarpan horse breeds that start with a horse breeds that start with y horse breeds trak horse breeds used in show jumping horse breeds warm cold hot bloods horse breeds wikipedia horse breeds with definitions or descrip horse breeds with definitions or discrip horse breeds with dun color horse breeds with feathers horse breeds with picture horse breeds with pictures horse breeds x horse breeds zorse horse by breed horse cock breed horse colors and breeds chart horse colour breed black to chestnut horse colour breeds australia horse cross breeds horse crossbreeds create new breeds char horse farms in michigan breeds horse jokes breed stereotypes horse ky breed incentive aqha horse lover foal stallion world breed horse numbers by breed horse nutrition b breed horse pedigree all breeds horse personalities pictures breeds horse pictures and breeds horse pictures breeds horse pony breed horse pony breeds horse pony breeds of the world horse racing breed horse racing breeds horse rescue breed horse rescues by breed horse roach back breed horse stud breed horse training tack half breed sidepull horse types breeds horse types breeds feathered feet horse zebra cross breed horsee breeds horseland no breed horses all breeds horses and breeds horses breed horses breed by joy mccarty horses breeds horses in breed horses large breed horses rare breed spaniard horses standard breed horses that are breed in czechoslovakia horses thin skin breeds horses to breed hose breeds hose breeds and types hosre breeds hostile breed hot blood horse breeds hot blooded horse breeds hot climate dog breed hot lake water breeds illness hot pepper breeds hot to breed parakeetes hot to breed whites tree frogs hot wheels street breed hothouse tomato breeds hotsheet odp recreation pets dogs breeds hottest dog breeds houdan poultry breed information houdn dog breed hound breed hound breed caps hound breed characteristics hound breed photos hound breeds hound breeds and disposition hound breeds european hound cross breeds hound dog breed hound dog breeds american hound dog breeds pictures hound of the baskervilles breed hound sight breed hound temperament dog breed hound temperment dog breed hound type dog breeds hounds breeds hounds breeds info hounds hunting breeds hourse breeds house breed dog house breeds house cat breed house cat breeds house cats breeds house insurance agressive breed dogs house pet breeds house rabbit breeds house signs with dog breeds housebreaking a puppy toy breed housebreaking dog breeds housebreaking small breed dogs housebreaking small breed puppies housebreaking toy breeds housing different breeds of ducks togeth hovawart breed how a naked mole rat breeds how a red kangaroo breeds how and when do budgies breed how are ligers breeded how are rottweilers breeded how are toy breeds produced how are wholphins breed how big does a pelican breed how birds breed

poem by Rwetewrt Erwtwer
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

Prince Hohenstiel-Schwangau, Saviour of Society

Epigraph

Υδραν φονεύσας, μυρίων τ᾽ ἄλλων πόνων
διῆλθον ἀγέλας . . .
τὸ λοίσθιον δὲ τόνδ᾽ ἔτλην τάλας πόνον,
. . . δῶμα θριγκῶσαι κακοῖς.

I slew the Hydra, and from labour pass'd
To labour — tribes of labours! Till, at last,
Attempting one more labour, in a trice,
Alack, with ills I crowned the edifice.

You have seen better days, dear? So have I —
And worse too, for they brought no such bud-mouth
As yours to lisp "You wish you knew me!" Well,
Wise men, 't is said, have sometimes wished the same,
And wished and had their trouble for their pains.
Suppose my Œdipus should lurk at last
Under a pork-pie hat and crinoline,
And, latish, pounce on Sphynx in Leicester Square?
Or likelier, what if Sphynx in wise old age,
Grown sick of snapping foolish people's heads,
And jealous for her riddle's proper rede, —
Jealous that the good trick which served the turn
Have justice rendered it, nor class one day
With friend Home's stilts and tongs and medium-ware,—
What if the once redoubted Sphynx, I say,
(Because night draws on, and the sands increase,
And desert-whispers grow a prophecy)
Tell all to Corinth of her own accord.
Bright Corinth, not dull Thebes, for Lais' sake,
Who finds me hardly grey, and likes my nose,
And thinks a man of sixty at the prime?
Good! It shall be! Revealment of myself!
But listen, for we must co-operate;
I don't drink tea: permit me the cigar!
First, how to make the matter plain, of course —
What was the law by which I lived. Let 's see:
Ay, we must take one instant of my life
Spent sitting by your side in this neat room:
Watch well the way I use it, and don't laugh!
Here's paper on the table, pen and ink:
Give me the soiled bit — not the pretty rose!
See! having sat an hour, I'm rested now,
Therefore want work: and spy no better work
For eye and hand and mind that guides them both,
During this instant, than to draw my pen
From blot One — thus — up, up to blot Two — thus —
Which I at last reach, thus, and here's my line
Five inches long and tolerably straight:

[...] Read more

poem by Robert Browning (1871)
Added by Veronica Serbanoiu
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

The Rosciad

Unknowing and unknown, the hardy Muse
Boldly defies all mean and partial views;
With honest freedom plays the critic's part,
And praises, as she censures, from the heart.

Roscius deceased, each high aspiring player
Push'd all his interest for the vacant chair.
The buskin'd heroes of the mimic stage
No longer whine in love, and rant in rage;
The monarch quits his throne, and condescends
Humbly to court the favour of his friends;
For pity's sake tells undeserved mishaps,
And, their applause to gain, recounts his claps.
Thus the victorious chiefs of ancient Rome,
To win the mob, a suppliant's form assume;
In pompous strain fight o'er the extinguish'd war,
And show where honour bled in every scar.
But though bare merit might in Rome appear
The strongest plea for favour, 'tis not here;
We form our judgment in another way;
And they will best succeed, who best can pay:
Those who would gain the votes of British tribes,
Must add to force of merit, force of bribes.
What can an actor give? In every age
Cash hath been rudely banish'd from the stage;
Monarchs themselves, to grief of every player,
Appear as often as their image there:
They can't, like candidate for other seat,
Pour seas of wine, and mountains raise of meat.
Wine! they could bribe you with the world as soon,
And of 'Roast Beef,' they only know the tune:
But what they have they give; could Clive do more,
Though for each million he had brought home four?
Shuter keeps open house at Southwark fair,
And hopes the friends of humour will be there;
In Smithfield, Yates prepares the rival treat
For those who laughter love, instead of meat;
Foote, at Old House,--for even Foote will be,
In self-conceit, an actor,--bribes with tea;
Which Wilkinson at second-hand receives,
And at the New, pours water on the leaves.
The town divided, each runs several ways,
As passion, humour, interest, party sways.
Things of no moment, colour of the hair,
Shape of a leg, complexion brown or fair,
A dress well chosen, or a patch misplaced,
Conciliate favour, or create distaste.
From galleries loud peals of laughter roll,
And thunder Shuter's praises; he's so droll.
Embox'd, the ladies must have something smart,

[...] Read more

poem by Charles Churchill
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

The Interpretation of Nature and

I.

MAN, being the servant and interpreter of Nature, can do and understand so much and so much only as he has observed in fact or in thought of the course of nature: beyond this he neither knows anything nor can do anything.


II.

Neither the naked hand nor the understanding left to itself can effect much. It is by instruments and helps that the work is done, which are as much wanted for the understanding as for the hand. And as the instruments of the hand either give motion or guide it, so the instruments of the mind supply either suggestions for the understanding or cautions.

III.

Human knowledge and human power meet in one; for where the cause is not known the effect cannot be produced. Nature to be commanded must be obeyed; and that which in contemplation is as the cause is in operation as the rule.

IV.

Towards the effecting of works, all that man can do is to put together or put asunder natural bodies. The rest is done by nature working within.

V.

The study of nature with a view to works is engaged in by the mechanic, the mathematician, the physician, the alchemist, and the magician; but by all (as things now are) with slight endeavour and scanty success.

VI.

It would be an unsound fancy and self-contradictory to expect that things which have never yet been done can be done except by means which have never yet been tried.

VII.

The productions of the mind and hand seem very numerous in books and manufactures. But all this variety lies in an exquisite subtlety and derivations from a few things already known; not in the number of axioms.

VIII.

Moreover the works already known are due to chance and experiment rather than to sciences; for the sciences we now possess are merely systems for the nice ordering and setting forth of things already invented; not methods of invention or directions for new works.

IX.

The cause and root of nearly all evils in the sciences is this -- that while we falsely admire and extol the powers of the human mind we neglect to seek for its true helps.

X.

The subtlety of nature is greater many times over than the subtlety of the senses and understanding; so that all those specious meditations, speculations, and glosses in which men indulge are quite from the purpose, only there is no one by to observe it.

XI.

As the sciences which we now have do not help us in finding out new works, so neither does the logic which we now have help us in finding out new sciences.

XII.

The logic now in use serves rather to fix and give stability to the errors which have their foundation in commonly received notions than to help the search after truth. So it does more harm than good.

XIII.

[...] Read more

poem by Sir Francis Bacon
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

XI. Guido

You are the Cardinal Acciaiuoli, and you,
Abate Panciatichi—two good Tuscan names:
Acciaiuoli—ah, your ancestor it was
Built the huge battlemented convent-block
Over the little forky flashing Greve
That takes the quick turn at the foot o' the hill
Just as one first sees Florence: oh those days!
'T is Ema, though, the other rivulet,
The one-arched brown brick bridge yawns over,—yes,
Gallop and go five minutes, and you gain
The Roman Gate from where the Ema's bridged:
Kingfishers fly there: how I see the bend
O'erturreted by Certosa which he built,
That Senescal (we styled him) of your House!
I do adjure you, help me, Sirs! My blood
Comes from as far a source: ought it to end
This way, by leakage through their scaffold-planks
Into Rome's sink where her red refuse runs?
Sirs, I beseech you by blood-sympathy,
If there be any vile experiment
In the air,—if this your visit simply prove,
When all's done, just a well-intentioned trick,
That tries for truth truer than truth itself,
By startling up a man, ere break of day,
To tell him he must die at sunset,—pshaw!
That man's a Franceschini; feel his pulse,
Laugh at your folly, and let's all go sleep!
You have my last word,—innocent am I
As Innocent my Pope and murderer,
Innocent as a babe, as Mary's own,
As Mary's self,—I said, say and repeat,—
And why, then, should I die twelve hours hence? I—
Whom, not twelve hours ago, the gaoler bade
Turn to my straw-truss, settle and sleep sound
That I might wake the sooner, promptlier pay
His due of meat-and-drink-indulgence, cross
His palm with fee of the good-hand, beside,
As gallants use who go at large again!
For why? All honest Rome approved my part;
Whoever owned wife, sister, daughter,—nay,
Mistress,—had any shadow of any right
That looks like right, and, all the more resolved,
Held it with tooth and nail,—these manly men
Approved! I being for Rome, Rome was for me.
Then, there's the point reserved, the subterfuge
My lawyers held by, kept for last resource,
Firm should all else,—the impossible fancy!—fail,
And sneaking burgess-spirit win the day.
The knaves! One plea at least would hold,—they laughed,—
One grappling-iron scratch the bottom-rock

[...] Read more

poem by Robert Browning from The Ring and the Book
Added by Veronica Serbanoiu
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

Eighth Book

ONE eve it happened when I sate alone,
Alone upon the terrace of my tower,
A book upon my knees, to counterfeit
The reading that I never read at all,
While Marian, in the garden down below,
Knelt by the fountain (I could just hear thrill
The drowsy silence of the exhausted day)
And peeled a new fig from that purple heap
In the grass beside her,–turning out the red
To feed her eager child, who sucked at it
With vehement lips across a gap of air
As he stood opposite, face and curls a-flame
With that last sun-ray, crying, 'give me, give,'
And stamping with imperious baby-feet,
(We're all born princes)–something startled me,–
The laugh of sad and innocent souls, that breaks
Abruptly, as if frightened at itself;
'Twas Marian laughed. I saw her glance above
In sudden shame that I should hear her laugh,
And straightway dropped my eyes upon my book,
And knew, the first time, 'twas Boccaccio's tales,
The Falcon's,–of the lover who for love
Destroyed the best that loved him. Some of us
Do it still, and then we sit and laugh no more.
Laugh you, sweet Marian! you've the right to laugh,
Since God himself is for you, and a child!
For me there's somewhat less,–and so, I sigh.

The heavens were making room to hold the night,
The sevenfold heavens unfolding all their gates
To let the stars out slowly (prophesied
In close-approaching advent, not discerned),
While still the cue-owls from the cypresses
Of the Poggio called and counted every pulse
Of the skyey palpitation. Gradually
The purple and transparent shadows slow
Had filled up the whole valley to the brim,
And flooded all the city, which you saw
As some drowned city in some enchanted sea,
Cut off from nature,–drawing you who gaze,
With passionate desire, to leap and plunge,
And find a sea-king with a voice of waves,
And treacherous soft eyes, and slippery locks
You cannot kiss but you shall bring away
Their salt upon your lips. The duomo-bell
Strikes ten, as if it struck ten fathoms down,
So deep; and fifty churches answer it
The same, with fifty various instances.
Some gaslights tremble along squares and streets
The Pitti's palace-front is drawn in fire:

[...] Read more

poem by Elizabeth Barrett Browning from Aurora Leigh (1856)
Added by Veronica Serbanoiu
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

Fifth Book

AURORA LEIGH, be humble. Shall I hope
To speak my poems in mysterious tune
With man and nature,–with the lava-lymph
That trickles from successive galaxies
Still drop by drop adown the finger of God,
In still new worlds?–with summer-days in this,
That scarce dare breathe, they are so beautiful?–
With spring's delicious trouble in the ground
Tormented by the quickened blood of roots.
And softly pricked by golden crocus-sheaves
In token of the harvest-time of flowers?–
With winters and with autumns,–and beyond,
With the human heart's large seasons,–when it hopes
And fears, joys, grieves, and loves?–with all that strain
Of sexual passion, which devours the flesh
In a sacrament of souls? with mother's breasts,
Which, round the new made creatures hanging there,
Throb luminous and harmonious like pure spheres?–
With multitudinous life, and finally
With the great out-goings of ecstatic souls,
Who, in a rush of too long prisoned flame,
Their radiant faces upward, burn away
This dark of the body, issuing on a world
Beyond our mortal?–can I speak my verse
So plainly in tune to these things and the rest,
That men shall feel it catch them on the quick,
As having the same warrant over them
To hold and move them, if they will or no,
Alike imperious as the primal rhythm
Of that theurgic nature? I must fail,
Who fail at the beginning to hold and move
One man,–and he my cousin, and he my friend,
And he born tender, made intelligent,
Inclined to ponder the precipitous sides
Of difficult questions; yet, obtuse to me,–
Of me, incurious! likes me very well,
And wishes me a paradise of good,
Good looks, good means, and good digestion!–ay,
But otherwise evades me, puts me off
With kindness, with a tolerant gentleness,–
Too light a book for a grave man's reading! Go,
Aurora Leigh: be humble.
There it is;
We women are too apt to look to one,
Which proves a certain impotence in art.
We strain our natures at doing something great,
Far less because it's something great to do,
Than, haply, that we, so, commend ourselves
As being not small, and more appreciable
To some one friend. We must have mediators

[...] Read more

poem by Elizabeth Barrett Browning from Aurora Leigh (1856)
Added by Veronica Serbanoiu
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

VI. Giuseppe Caponsacchi

Answer you, Sirs? Do I understand aright?
Have patience! In this sudden smoke from hell,—
So things disguise themselves,—I cannot see
My own hand held thus broad before my face
And know it again. Answer you? Then that means
Tell over twice what I, the first time, told
Six months ago: 't was here, I do believe,
Fronting you same three in this very room,
I stood and told you: yet now no one laughs,
Who then … nay, dear my lords, but laugh you did,
As good as laugh, what in a judge we style
Laughter—no levity, nothing indecorous, lords!
Only,—I think I apprehend the mood:
There was the blameless shrug, permissible smirk,
The pen's pretence at play with the pursed mouth,
The titter stifled in the hollow palm
Which rubbed the eyebrow and caressed the nose,
When I first told my tale: they meant, you know,
"The sly one, all this we are bound believe!
"Well, he can say no other than what he says.
"We have been young, too,—come, there's greater guilt!
"Let him but decently disembroil himself,
"Scramble from out the scrape nor move the mud,—
"We solid ones may risk a finger-stretch!
And now you sit as grave, stare as aghast
As if I were a phantom: now 't is—"Friend,
"Collect yourself!"—no laughing matter more—
"Counsel the Court in this extremity,
"Tell us again!"—tell that, for telling which,
I got the jocular piece of punishment,
Was sent to lounge a little in the place
Whence now of a sudden here you summon me
To take the intelligence from just—your lips!
You, Judge Tommati, who then tittered most,—
That she I helped eight months since to escape
Her husband, was retaken by the same,
Three days ago, if I have seized your sense,—
(I being disallowed to interfere,
Meddle or make in a matter none of mine,
For you and law were guardians quite enough
O' the innocent, without a pert priest's help)—
And that he has butchered her accordingly,
As she foretold and as myself believed,—
And, so foretelling and believing so,
We were punished, both of us, the merry way:
Therefore, tell once again the tale! For what?
Pompilia is only dying while I speak!
Why does the mirth hang fire and miss the smile?
My masters, there's an old book, you should con
For strange adventures, applicable yet,

[...] Read more

poem by Robert Browning from The Ring and the Book
Added by Veronica Serbanoiu
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

I. The Ring and the Book

Do you see this Ring?
'T is Rome-work, made to match
(By Castellani's imitative craft)
Etrurian circlets found, some happy morn,
After a dropping April; found alive
Spark-like 'mid unearthed slope-side figtree-roots
That roof old tombs at Chiusi: soft, you see,
Yet crisp as jewel-cutting. There's one trick,
(Craftsmen instruct me) one approved device
And but one, fits such slivers of pure gold
As this was,—such mere oozings from the mine,
Virgin as oval tawny pendent tear
At beehive-edge when ripened combs o'erflow,—
To bear the file's tooth and the hammer's tap:
Since hammer needs must widen out the round,
And file emboss it fine with lily-flowers,
Ere the stuff grow a ring-thing right to wear.
That trick is, the artificer melts up wax
With honey, so to speak; he mingles gold
With gold's alloy, and, duly tempering both,
Effects a manageable mass, then works:
But his work ended, once the thing a ring,
Oh, there's repristination! Just a spirt
O' the proper fiery acid o'er its face,
And forth the alloy unfastened flies in fume;
While, self-sufficient now, the shape remains,
The rondure brave, the lilied loveliness,
Gold as it was, is, shall be evermore:
Prime nature with an added artistry—
No carat lost, and you have gained a ring.
What of it? 'T is a figure, a symbol, say;
A thing's sign: now for the thing signified.

Do you see this square old yellow Book, I toss
I' the air, and catch again, and twirl about
By the crumpled vellum covers,—pure crude fact
Secreted from man's life when hearts beat hard,
And brains, high-blooded, ticked two centuries since?
Examine it yourselves! I found this book,
Gave a lira for it, eightpence English just,
(Mark the predestination!) when a Hand,
Always above my shoulder, pushed me once,
One day still fierce 'mid many a day struck calm,
Across a Square in Florence, crammed with booths,
Buzzing and blaze, noontide and market-time,
Toward Baccio's marble,—ay, the basement-ledge
O' the pedestal where sits and menaces
John of the Black Bands with the upright spear,
'Twixt palace and church,—Riccardi where they lived,
His race, and San Lorenzo where they lie.

[...] Read more

poem by Robert Browning from The Ring and the Book
Added by Veronica Serbanoiu
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

V. Count Guido Franceschini

Thanks, Sir, but, should it please the reverend Court,
I feel I can stand somehow, half sit down
Without help, make shift to even speak, you see,
Fortified by the sip of … why, 't is wine,
Velletri,—and not vinegar and gall,
So changed and good the times grow! Thanks, kind Sir!
Oh, but one sip's enough! I want my head
To save my neck, there's work awaits me still.
How cautious and considerate … aie, aie, aie,
Nor your fault, sweet Sir! Come, you take to heart
An ordinary matter. Law is law.
Noblemen were exempt, the vulgar thought,
From racking; but, since law thinks otherwise,
I have been put to the rack: all's over now,
And neither wrist—what men style, out of joint:
If any harm be, 't is the shoulder-blade,
The left one, that seems wrong i' the socket,—Sirs,
Much could not happen, I was quick to faint,
Being past my prime of life, and out of health.
In short, I thank you,—yes, and mean the word.
Needs must the Court be slow to understand
How this quite novel form of taking pain,
This getting tortured merely in the flesh,
Amounts to almost an agreeable change
In my case, me fastidious, plied too much
With opposite treatment, used (forgive the joke)
To the rasp-tooth toying with this brain of mine,
And, in and out my heart, the play o' the probe.
Four years have I been operated on
I' the soul, do you see—its tense or tremulous part—
My self-respect, my care for a good name,
Pride in an old one, love of kindred—just
A mother, brothers, sisters, and the like,
That looked up to my face when days were dim,
And fancied they found light there—no one spot,
Foppishly sensitive, but has paid its pang.
That, and not this you now oblige me with,
That was the Vigil-torment, if you please!
The poor old noble House that drew the rags
O' the Franceschini's once superb array
Close round her, hoped to slink unchallenged by,—
Pluck off these! Turn the drapery inside out
And teach the tittering town how scarlet wears!
Show men the lucklessness, the improvidence
Of the easy-natured Count before this Count,
The father I have some slight feeling for,
Who let the world slide, nor foresaw that friends
Then proud to cap and kiss their patron's shoe,
Would, when the purse he left held spider-webs,
Properly push his child to wall one day!

[...] Read more

poem by Robert Browning from The Ring and the Book
Added by Veronica Serbanoiu
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

IV. Tertium Quid

True, Excellency—as his Highness says,
Though she's not dead yet, she's as good as stretched
Symmetrical beside the other two;
Though he's not judged yet, he's the same as judged,
So do the facts abound and superabound:
And nothing hinders that we lift the case
Out of the shade into the shine, allow
Qualified persons to pronounce at last,
Nay, edge in an authoritative word
Between this rabble's-brabble of dolts and fools
Who make up reasonless unreasoning Rome.
"Now for the Trial!" they roar: "the Trial to test
"The truth, weigh husband and weigh wife alike
"I' the scales of law, make one scale kick the beam!"
Law's a machine from which, to please the mob,
Truth the divinity must needs descend
And clear things at the play's fifth act—aha!
Hammer into their noddles who was who
And what was what. I tell the simpletons
"Could law be competent to such a feat
"'T were done already: what begins next week
"Is end o' the Trial, last link of a chain
"Whereof the first was forged three years ago
"When law addressed herself to set wrong right,
"And proved so slow in taking the first step
"That ever some new grievance,—tort, retort,
"On one or the other side,—o'ertook i' the game,
"Retarded sentence, till this deed of death
"Is thrown in, as it were, last bale to boat
"Crammed to the edge with cargo—or passengers?
"'Trecentos inseris: ohe, jam satis est!
"'Huc appelle!'—passengers, the word must be."
Long since, the boat was loaded to my eyes.
To hear the rabble and brabble, you'd call the case
Fused and confused past human finding out.
One calls the square round, t' other the round square—
And pardonably in that first surprise
O' the blood that fell and splashed the diagram:
But now we've used our eyes to the violent hue
Can't we look through the crimson and trace lines?
It makes a man despair of history,
Eusebius and the established fact—fig's end!
Oh, give the fools their Trial, rattle away
With the leash of lawyers, two on either side—
One barks, one bites,—Masters Arcangeli
And Spreti,—that's the husband's ultimate hope
Against the Fisc and the other kind of Fisc,
Bound to do barking for the wife: bow—wow!
Why, Excellency, we and his Highness here
Would settle the matter as sufficiently

[...] Read more

poem by Robert Browning from The Ring and the Book
Added by Veronica Serbanoiu
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

The Four Seasons : Spring

Come, gentle Spring! ethereal Mildness! come,
And from the bosom of yon dropping cloud,
While music wakes around, veil'd in a shower
Of shadowing roses, on our plains descend.
O Hertford, fitted or to shine in courts
With unaffected grace, or walk the plain
With innocence and meditation join'd
In soft assemblage, listen to my song,
Which thy own Season paints; when Nature all
Is blooming and benevolent, like thee.
And see where surly Winter passes off,
Far to the north, and calls his ruffian blasts:
His blasts obey, and quit the howling hill,
The shatter'd forest, and the ravaged vale;
While softer gales succeed, at whose kind touch,
Dissolving snows in livid torrents lost,
The mountains lift their green heads to the sky.
As yet the trembling year is unconfirm'd,
And Winter oft at eve resumes the breeze,
Chills the pale morn, and bids his driving sleets
Deform the day delightless: so that scarce
The bittern knows his time, with bill ingulf'd,
To shake the sounding marsh; or from the shore
The plovers when to scatter o'er the heath,
And sing their wild notes to the listening waste
At last from Aries rolls the bounteous sun,
And the bright Bull receives him. Then no more
The expansive atmosphere is cramp'd with cold
But, full of life and vivifying soul,
Lifts the light clouds sublime, and spreads then thin,
Fleecy, and white, o'er all-surrounding heaven.
Forth fly the tepid airs: and unconfined,
Unbinding earth, the moving softness strays.
Joyous, the impatient husbandman perceives
Relenting Nature, and his lusty steers
Drives from their stalls, to where the well used plough
Lies in the furrow, loosen'd from the frost.
There, unrefusing, to the harness'd yoke
They lend their shoulder, and begin their toil,
Cheer'd by the simple song and soaring lark.
Meanwhile incumbent o'er the shining share
The master leans, removes the obstructing clay,
Winds the whole work, and sidelong lays the glebe
While through the neighbouring fields the sowe stalks,
With measured step, and liberal throws the grain
Into the faithful bosom of the ground;
The harrow follows harsh, and shuts the scene.
Be gracious, Heaven! for now laborious Man
Has done his part. Ye fostering breezes, blow!
Ye softening dews, ye tender showers, descend!

[...] Read more

poem by James Thomson
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

A Fable For Critics

Phoebus, sitting one day in a laurel-tree's shade,
Was reminded of Daphne, of whom it was made,
For the god being one day too warm in his wooing,
She took to the tree to escape his pursuing;
Be the cause what it might, from his offers she shrunk,
And, Ginevra-like, shut herself up in a trunk;
And, though 'twas a step into which he had driven her,
He somehow or other had never forgiven her;
Her memory he nursed as a kind of a tonic,
Something bitter to chew when he'd play the Byronic,
And I can't count the obstinate nymphs that he brought over
By a strange kind of smile he put on when he thought of her.
'My case is like Dido's,' he sometimes remarked;
'When I last saw my love, she was fairly embarked
In a laurel, as _she_ thought-but (ah, how Fate mocks!)
She has found it by this time a very bad box;
Let hunters from me take this saw when they need it,-
You're not always sure of your game when you've treed it.
Just conceive such a change taking place in one's mistress!
What romance would be left?-who can flatter or kiss trees?
And, for mercy's sake, how could one keep up a dialogue
With a dull wooden thing that will live and will die a log,-
Not to say that the thought would forever intrude
That you've less chance to win her the more she is wood?
Ah! it went to my heart, and the memory still grieves,
To see those loved graces all taking their leaves;
Those charms beyond speech, so enchanting but now,
As they left me forever, each making its bough!
If her tongue _had_ a tang sometimes more than was right,
Her new bark is worse than ten times her old bite.'

Now, Daphne-before she was happily treeified-
Over all other blossoms the lily had deified,
And when she expected the god on a visit
('Twas before he had made his intentions explicit),
Some buds she arranged with a vast deal of care,
To look as if artlessly twined in her hair,
Where they seemed, as he said, when he paid his addresses,
Like the day breaking through, the long night of her tresses;
So whenever he wished to be quite irresistible,
Like a man with eight trumps in his hand at a whist-table
(I feared me at first that the rhyme was untwistable,
Though I might have lugged in an allusion to Cristabel),-
He would take up a lily, and gloomily look in it,
As I shall at the--, when they cut up my book in it.

Well, here, after all the bad rhyme I've been spinning,
I've got back at last to my story's beginning:
Sitting there, as I say, in the shade of his mistress,
As dull as a volume of old Chester mysteries,

[...] Read more

poem by James Russell Lowell
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

Seventh Book

'THE woman's motive? shall we daub ourselves
With finding roots for nettles? 'tis soft clay
And easily explored. She had the means,
The moneys, by the lady's liberal grace,
In trust for that Australian scheme and me,
Which so, that she might clutch with both her hands,
And chink to her naughty uses undisturbed,
She served me (after all it was not strange,;
'Twas only what my mother would have done)
A motherly, unmerciful, good turn.

'Well, after. There are nettles everywhere,
But smooth green grasses are more common still;
The blue of heaven is larger than the cloud;
A miller's wife at Clichy took me in
And spent her pity on me,–made me calm
And merely very reasonably sad.
She found me a servant's place in Paris where
I tried to take the cast-off life again,
And stood as quiet as a beaten ass
Who, having fallen through overloads, stands up
To let them charge him with another pack.

'A few months, so. My mistress, young and light,
Was easy with me, less for kindness than
Because she led, herself, an easy time
Betwixt her lover and her looking-glass,
Scarce knowing which way she was praised the most.
She felt so pretty and so pleased all day
She could not take the trouble to be cross,
But sometimes, as I stooped to tie her shoe,
Would tap me softly with her slender foot
Still restless with the last night's dancing in't,
And say 'Fie, pale-face! are you English girls
'All grave and silent? mass-book still, and Lent?
'And first-communion colours on your cheeks,
'Worn past the time for't? little fool, be gay!'
At which she vanished, like a fairy, through
A gap of silver laughter.
'Came an hour
When all went otherwise. She did not speak,
But clenched her brows, and clipped me with her eyes
As if a viper with a pair of tongs,
Too far for any touch, yet near enough
To view the writhing creature,–then at last,
'Stand still there, in the holy Virgin's name,
'Thou Marian; thou'rt no reputable girl,
'Although sufficient dull for twenty saints!
'I think thou mock'st me and my house,' she said;
'Confess thou'lt be a mother in a month,

[...] Read more

poem by Elizabeth Barrett Browning from Aurora Leigh (1856)
Added by Veronica Serbanoiu
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

VII. Pompilia

I am just seventeen years and five months old,
And, if I lived one day more, three full weeks;
'T is writ so in the church's register,
Lorenzo in Lucina, all my names
At length, so many names for one poor child,
—Francesca Camilla Vittoria Angela
Pompilia Comparini,—laughable!
Also 't is writ that I was married there
Four years ago: and they will add, I hope,
When they insert my death, a word or two,—
Omitting all about the mode of death,—
This, in its place, this which one cares to know,
That I had been a mother of a son
Exactly two weeks. It will be through grace
O' the Curate, not through any claim I have;
Because the boy was born at, so baptized
Close to, the Villa, in the proper church:
A pretty church, I say no word against,
Yet stranger-like,—while this Lorenzo seems
My own particular place, I always say.
I used to wonder, when I stood scarce high
As the bed here, what the marble lion meant,
With half his body rushing from the wall,
Eating the figure of a prostrate man—
(To the right, it is, of entry by the door)
An ominous sign to one baptized like me,
Married, and to be buried there, I hope.
And they should add, to have my life complete,
He is a boy and Gaetan by name—
Gaetano, for a reason,—if the friar
Don Celestine will ask this grace for me
Of Curate Ottoboni: he it was
Baptized me: he remembers my whole life
As I do his grey hair.

All these few things
I know are true,—will you remember them?
Because time flies. The surgeon cared for me,
To count my wounds,—twenty-two dagger-wounds,
Five deadly, but I do not suffer much—
Or too much pain,—and am to die to-night.

Oh how good God is that my babe was born,
—Better than born, baptized and hid away
Before this happened, safe from being hurt!
That had been sin God could not well forgive:
He was too young to smile and save himself.
When they took two days after he was born,
My babe away from me to be baptized
And hidden awhile, for fear his foe should find,—

[...] Read more

poem by Robert Browning from The Ring and the Book
Added by Veronica Serbanoiu
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

First Book

OF writing many books there is no end;
And I who have written much in prose and verse
For others' uses, will write now for mine,–
Will write my story for my better self,
As when you paint your portrait for a friend,
Who keeps it in a drawer and looks at it
Long after he has ceased to love you, just
To hold together what he was and is.

I, writing thus, am still what men call young;
I have not so far left the coasts of life
To travel inland, that I cannot hear
That murmur of the outer Infinite
Which unweaned babies smile at in their sleep
When wondered at for smiling; not so far,
But still I catch my mother at her post
Beside the nursery-door, with finger up,
'Hush, hush–here's too much noise!' while her sweet eyes
Leap forward, taking part against her word
In the child's riot. Still I sit and feel
My father's slow hand, when she had left us both,
Stroke out my childish curls across his knee;
And hear Assunta's daily jest (she knew
He liked it better than a better jest)
Inquire how many golden scudi went
To make such ringlets. O my father's hand,
Stroke the poor hair down, stroke it heavily,–
Draw, press the child's head closer to thy knee!
I'm still too young, too young to sit alone.

I write. My mother was a Florentine,
Whose rare blue eyes were shut from seeing me
When scarcely I was four years old; my life,
A poor spark snatched up from a failing lamp
Which went out therefore. She was weak and frail;
She could not bear the joy of giving life–
The mother's rapture slew her. If her kiss
Had left a longer weight upon my lips,
It might have steadied the uneasy breath,
And reconciled and fraternised my soul
With the new order. As it was, indeed,
I felt a mother-want about the world,
And still went seeking, like a bleating lamb
Left out at night, in shutting up the fold,–
As restless as a nest-deserted bird
Grown chill through something being away, though what
It knows not. I, Aurora Leigh, was born
To make my father sadder, and myself
Not overjoyous, truly. Women know
The way to rear up children, (to be just,)

[...] Read more

poem by Elizabeth Barrett Browning from Aurora Leigh (1856)
Added by Veronica Serbanoiu
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

Tirocinium; or, a Review of Schools

It is not from his form, in which we trace
Strength join'd with beauty, dignity with grace,
That man, the master of this globe, derives
His right of empire over all that lives.
That form, indeed, the associate of a mind
Vast in its powers, ethereal in its kind,
That form, the labour of Almighty skill,
Framed for the service of a freeborn will,
Asserts precedence, and bespeaks control,
But borrows all its grandeur from the soul.
Hers is the state, the splendour, and the throne,
An intellectual kingdom, all her own.
For her the memory fills her ample page
With truths pour’d down from every distant age;
For her amasses an unbounded store,
The wisdom of great nations, now no more;
Though laden, not encumber’d with her spoil;
Laborious, yet unconscious of her toil;
When copiously supplied, then most enlarged;
Still to be fed, and not to be surcharged.
For her the Fancy, roving unconfined,
The present muse of every pensive mind,
Works magic wonders, adds a brighter hue
To Nature’s scenes than Nature ever knew.
At her command winds rise and waters roar,
Again she lays them slumbering on the shore;
With flower and fruit the wilderness supplies,
Or bids the rocks in ruder pomp arise.
For her the Judgment, umpire in the strife
That Grace and Nature have to wage through life,
Quick-sighted arbiter of good and ill,
Appointed sage preceptor to the Will,
Condemns, approves, and, with a faithful voice,
Guides the decision of a doubtful choice.
Why did the fiat of a God give birth
To yon fair Sun and his attendant Earth?
And, when descending he resigns the skies,
Why takes the gentler Moon her turn to rise,
Whom Ocean feels through all his countless waves,
And owns her power on every shore he laves?
Why do the seasons still enrich the year,
Fruitful and young as in their first career?
Spring hangs her infant blossoms on the trees,
Rock’d in the cradle of the western breeze:
Summer in haste the thriving charge receives
Beneath the shade of her expanded leaves,
Till Autumn’s fiercer heats and plenteous dews
Dye them at last in all their glowing hues.—
‘Twere wild profusion all, and bootless waste,
Power misemploy’d, munificence misplaced,

[...] Read more

poem by William Cowper
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

Mist Upon the Placid Morn

Bleed out your beauty, Autumn –
Give up a gentle wrist, and smear
Your bloody hues atop the green.

Cast a calming throw of heady peace
Upon the cooling land.
And as you grant the sun a final fling of warmth,
Charge the silent air
(Now lolling on a foliar deathbed)
With earthen whiff to intimate the fungal push.

Soon you’ll send a shiver down the watery spine of
Quivering ponds, punctual brooks, and
Listless lakes, to warn them of the freeze to come.

Behold! your mellow spirit
Hanging as a mist upon the placid morn –
A sight that draws a sneaking tear or two – forlorn
Observers are we all of colder climes to view!

Autumn Lady, must you be the summer waning –?
Our adieu to fairer-weather life?
Ah well, at least you hum a warming tone, ensuring
Nature’s rhythm still abounds.

But now you must prepare the mind for chilly times –
You know the drill –
Guiding us along a sloping path
To ease our psyche in to sleet and snow –
The blue-ice bite of winter.

Copyright © Mark R Slaughter 2010

[...] Read more

poem by Mark R Slaughter
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

As I ventured to the Wood

As I ventured to the wood,
I stopped to draw on dewy air; let
Droplets shimmer in my hair, that
Rested on my tranquil head – as
In a sense of cosy bed.

As I ventured to the wood,
A gesturing cuckoo perched above,
And then in song with cooing dove,
‘You're welcome’, bade he, ’Enter please
To roam our land with gentle breeze.’

As I ventured to the wood,
A fallow deer of limpid eye
Gave care to glance at lucky I.
The heavenly aura 'bout her glow had
Charmed me, like a fine Bordeaux.

As I ventured to the wood,
A dazzling flower waved her face
In blazing show of dance and chase, and
Reddened bright in shade of dawn, she
Flirted like a prancing fawn.

As I ventured to the wood,
A butterfly had graced my arm,
And knowing I bid him no harm, he
Splayed for me hypnotic wing in
Colours for to urge me sing!

As I ventured to the wood,
The radiant sun shone down on me.
He flushed and beamed ‘I say to thee,
You bless your land; be filled with pride, and
Cherish e’er yon countryside! ’

Copyright © Mark R Slaughter 2009
All rights reserved

[...] Read more

poem by Mark R Slaughter
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

Second Book

TIMES followed one another. Came a morn
I stood upon the brink of twenty years,
And looked before and after, as I stood
Woman and artist,–either incomplete,
Both credulous of completion. There I held
The whole creation in my little cup,
And smiled with thirsty lips before I drank,
'Good health to you and me, sweet neighbour mine
And all these peoples.'
I was glad, that day;
The June was in me, with its multitudes
Of nightingales all singing in the dark,
And rosebuds reddening where the calyx split.
I felt so young, so strong, so sure of God!
So glad, I could not choose be very wise!
And, old at twenty, was inclined to pull
My childhood backward in a childish jest
To see the face of't once more, and farewell!
In which fantastic mood I bounded forth
At early morning,–would not wait so long
As even to snatch my bonnet by the strings,
But, brushing a green trail across the lawn
With my gown in the dew, took will and way
Among the acacias of the shrubberies,
To fly my fancies in the open air
And keep my birthday, till my aunt awoke
To stop good dreams. Meanwhile I murmured on,
As honeyed bees keep humming to themselves;
'The worthiest poets have remained uncrowned
Till death has bleached their foreheads to the bone,
And so with me it must be, unless I prove
Unworthy of the grand adversity,–
And certainly I would not fail so much.
What, therefore, if I crown myself to-day
In sport, not pride, to learn the feel of it,
Before my brows be numb as Dante's own
To all the tender pricking of such leaves?
Such leaves? what leaves?'
I pulled the branches down,
To choose from.
'Not the bay! I choose no bay;
The fates deny us if we are overbold:
Nor myrtle–which means chiefly love; and love
Is something awful which one dare not touch
So early o' mornings. This verbena strains
The point of passionate fragrance; and hard by,
This guelder rose, at far too slight a beck
Of the wind, will toss about her flower-apples.
Ah–there's my choice,–that ivy on the wall,
That headlong ivy! not a leaf will grow

[...] Read more

poem by Elizabeth Barrett Browning from Aurora Leigh (1856)
Added by Veronica Serbanoiu
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!