Me Johnny
Lookin back Id say we broke a few rules
Left one or two hearts in a ruin
Spent all that precious time doin
Things we figured that presley might have done
Stole a few cars, never got caught
Started some fights in the scrimmage
We got caught up in the image
Of playing young rebels by the handbook
Looking back I guess we had some attitude
We were gonna be hard and tough
Me & johnny
Were gonna play tonight
Its gonna be alright
Were gonna shine
Look in the mirror watch our faces change
We were gonna be mccartney clones
We skipped school to see the rolling stones
And sang their songs on the train on our way home
We were gonna be like all of them
Uncompromising to the very end
Live for girls, guitars and glory
And someday theyd write our story
Sometimes I think that they clapped in sympathy
But we were gonna be hard and tough
Me & johnny
Were gonna play tonight
Its gonna be alright
Were gonna have some fun tonight
Me & johnny
We may get blood on our face
Were gonna have our place
In the sun
Johnnys still living, back in australia
I hear hes got himself a wife and kids
And Im still chasing whatever it is
That put me out here on the road in the first place
I think of times, that I cursed out loud
Wishin I was still runnin with the same old crowd
Sometimes it can make you cry
Just watching the years roll by
Me & johnny
Were gonna play tonight
Its gonna be alright
Were gonna have fun tonight
Me & johnny
We may get blood on our face
Were gonna have our place
In the sun
song performed by Rick Springfield
Added by Lucian Velea
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Related quotes
Doin That Crazy Thing
Doin the crazy thing, doing the crazy thing
Doin the crazy thing, doing the crazy thing
Crazy lady commin cross the floor
Dont know her name just gotta get more, gotta get more
Read it on the rhythm of the midnight hour
Babys got me goin gotta do it now
Caus everybodys doin it, doin it, doin it, doin the crazy thing
Do the crazy thing
Ahy, you lookin outa sight
Wont you get on the floor, get on the floor, your gonna feel all right
Dancing with your penny tonight,
Cause everybody is doin it, doin the crazy, crazy, crazy thing
Everybodys doin it, doin the crazy, crazy, crazy thing
They come a dancin like their souls on fire
Shes taking everybody higher, and higher, and higher
Everybodys moving on that red hot floor
Gota keep on movin we can get it now
Caus everybodys doin it, doin it, doin it, doin the crazy thing
Doin the crazy thing.
Hay, your looking outta sight
Wont you get on the floor, get on the floor, your gonna feel all right
Dancing with your baby tonight, caus everybodys doin it
The crazy lady gonna stay with me
We goona dance the night away till three
Dance getting better as the band plays on
Me and my baby gonna do it all night long
Caus everybodys doin it, yeah, doin it, all right, doin it,
Doin the crazy thing, doin the crazy thing
Everybodys doin it, doin it, doin it, doin the crazy thing
Doin it, doin it, doin it, doin the crazy thing
Doin it, doin it, doin it, doin the crazy thing
song performed by Electric Light Orchestra
Added by Lucian Velea
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Doin It Right
(tom lavin)
Published by uncut music - bmi/procan
Doin it right, doin it right, doin it right, doin it right
The rock bands cookin and the drummers gettin down
Were doin it right on the wrong side of town
I know a place on the wrong side of town
The rock bands cookin and theyre gettin on down
The slot mans playin like his souls on fire
Movin like a rumour on a telephone wire
Go rev up your chevy, put your gas foot down
Were doin it right on the wrong side of town
Doin it right, doin it right, doin it right, doin it right
The rock bands cookin and the drummers gettin down
Were doin it right on the wrong side of town
There aint no future gettin magazine girls
Taken to the club with their hard lovin thrills
No time for tears, trouble and sorrow
Rock and roll like theres no tomorrow
Turn off the tube and put your magazine down
Were doin it right on the wrong side of the town
Doin it right, doin it right, doin it right, doin it right
The rock bands cookin and the drummers gettin down
Were doin it right on the wrong side of town
Doin it right on the wrong side of town
I know a place on the wrong side of town
The rock bands cookin and theyre gettin on down
The slot mans playin like his souls on fire
Movin like a rumour on a telephone wire
Go rev up your chevy, put your gas foot down
Were doin it right on the wrong side of town
Doin it right, doin it right, doin it right, doin it right
The rock bands cookin and theyre gettin on down
Were doin it right on the wrong side of town
Doin it right, doin it right, doin it right, doin it right
The rock bands cookin and theyre gettin on down
Doin it right on the wrong side of town
Doin it right, doin it right, doin it right, doin it right
The rock bands cookin and the drummers gettin down
Were doin it right on the wrong side of town
song performed by April Wine
Added by Lucian Velea
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Me & Johnny
Lookin' back i'd say we broke a few rules
Left one or two hearts in a ruin
Spent all that precious time doin'
Things we figured that presley might have done
Stole a few cars, never got caught
Started some fights in the scrimmage
We got caught up in the image
Of playing young rebels by the handbook
Looking back i guess we had some attitude
We were gonna be hard and tough
Me & johnny
We're gonna play tonight
It's gonna be alright
We're gonna shine
Look in the mirror watch our faces change
We were gonna be mccartney clones
We skipped school to see the rolling stones
And sang their songs on the train on our way home
We were gonna be like all of them
Uncompromising to the very end
Live for girls, guitars and glory
And someday they'd write our story
Sometimes i think that they clapped in sympathy
But we were gonna be hard and tough
Me & johnny
We're gonna play tonight
It's gonna be alright
We're gonna have some fun tonight
Me & johnny
We may get blood on our face
We're gonna have our place
In the sun
Johnny's still living, back in australia
I hear he's got himself a wife and kids
And i'm still chasing whatever it is
That put me out here on the road in the first place
I think of times, that i cursed out loud
Wishin' i was still runnin' with the same old crowd
Sometimes it can make you cry
Just watching the years roll by
Me & johnny
We're gonna play tonight
It's gonna be alright
We're gonna have fun tonight
Me & johnny
We may get blood on our face
We're gonna have our place
In the sun
song performed by Rick Springfield
Added by Lucian Velea
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The Loves of the Angels
'Twas when the world was in its prime,
When the fresh stars had just begun
Their race of glory and young Time
Told his first birth-days by the sun;
When in the light of Nature's dawn
Rejoicing, men and angels met
On the high hill and sunny lawn,-
Ere sorrow came or Sin had drawn
'Twixt man and heaven her curtain yet!
When earth lay nearer to the skies
Than in these days of crime and woe,
And mortals saw without surprise
In the mid-air angelic eyes
Gazing upon this world below.
Alas! that Passion should profane
Even then the morning of the earth!
That, sadder still, the fatal stain
Should fall on hearts of heavenly birth-
And that from Woman's love should fall
So dark a stain, most sad of all!
One evening, in that primal hour,
On a hill's side where hung the ray
Of sunset brightening rill and bower,
Three noble youths conversing lay;
And, as they lookt from time to time
To the far sky where Daylight furled
His radiant wing, their brows sublime
Bespoke them of that distant world-
Spirits who once in brotherhood
Of faith and bliss near ALLA stood,
And o'er whose cheeks full oft had blown
The wind that breathes from ALLA'S throne,
Creatures of light such as still play,
Like motes in sunshine, round the Lord,
And thro' their infinite array
Transmit each moment, night and day,
The echo of His luminous word!
Of Heaven they spoke and, still more oft,
Of the bright eyes that charmed them thence;
Till yielding gradual to the soft
And balmy evening's influence-
The silent breathing of the flowers-
The melting light that beamed above,
As on their first, fond, erring hours,-
Each told the story of his love,
The history of that hour unblest,
When like a bird from its high nest
[...] Read more
poem by Thomas Moore
Added by Poetry Lover
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Attitude Dancing
(carly simon/jacob brackman)
Theres a new kind of dancing
Thats gonna be the rage
You just leave yourself behind
Like an actor on a stage
Cop a different pose
>from the pose youre in
Shine a different attitude
>from underneath your skin
Attitude dancing
Strut around the floor in a different attitide
Attitude dancing
Any attitude is the proper attitude
Attitude dancing
Dont be afraid to change your attitude
Attitude dancing
Free up your spirit with a new attitude
It dont even matter
If you stretch or shake
And it dont really matter
What moves your body makes
And it dont really matter
What steps you choose to do
Only one thing matters:
Thats your attitude
Your attitude, attitude dancing
Attitude dancing
Strut around the floor in a different attitide
Attitude dancing
Learn to move in another attitude
Attitude dancing
Find the groove in a new attitude
Attitude dancing
Dont be afraid of a new attitude
It dont really matter
What steps you choose to do
Only one thing matters:
Is your attitude
Your attitude, attitude dancing
Strut around the floor in a new attitude
Do the locomotion in a new attitude
Do the mashed potato in a new attitude
Do the hully gully in a new attitude
Find a role you like
Capture it and freeze
Then turn it around
A hundred and eighty degrees
Or if youre at a loss
Observe some natural dude
And turn into a mirror of his attitude
[...] Read more
song performed by Carly Simon
Added by Lucian Velea
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I Stole Your Love
I remember the day that we met
I needed someone, you needed someone too, yeah
Spend time takin all you could get
Givin yourself was one thing you never could do
You played with my heart, played with my head
I got to laugh when I think of the things you said
cause I stole your love, stole your love
Aint never gonna let you go
I, oh yeah, stole your love, I stole your love
Stole your love, I stole your love
You never stop runnin around
You pick me up, then you could still put me down
You were the girl that nobody could own
Stay for a while, then you would leave me alone
Im somethin different, aint like the rest
How does it feel to find out youre failin your test
cause I stole your love, stole your love
Aint never gonna let you go
I, i, stole your love, I stole your love
Stole your love, I stole your love
Guitar
Listen, I stole your love, stole your love
Aint never gonna let you go
I, i, stole your love, I stole your love
Stole your love, I stole your love
I stole your love, stole your love
I stole your love, stole your love
I stole your love, oh
I, oh yeah, stole your love, I stole your love
Stole your love, I stole your love
I, oh yeah, stole your love, oh yeah, stole your love, alright
song performed by Kiss
Added by Lucian Velea
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Cars Are Cars
Words & music by paul simon 1983
Cars are cars all over the world
Cars are cars all over the world
Similarly made. similarly sold
In a motorcade. abandoned when theyre old
Cars are cars all over the world
Cars are cars all over the world
Cars are cars all over the world
Engine in the front. jack in the back
Wheels take the brunt. pinion and a rack
Cars are cars all over the world
Cars are cars all over the world
But people are strangers
They change with the curve
From time zone to time zone
As we can observe
They shut down their borders
And think theyre immune
They stand on their differences
And shoot at the moon
But cars are cars all over the world
Cars are cars all over the world
Drive em on the left. drive em on the right
Susceptible to theft in the middle of the night
Cars are cars all over the world
Cars are cars all over the world
I once had a car
That was more like a home
I lived in it, loved in it
Polished its chrome
If some of my homes
Had been more like my car
I probably wouldnt have
Travelled this far
Cars are cars all over the world
Cars are cars all over the world
Cars are cars all over the world
Cars are cars all over the world
Cars are cars all over the world
song performed by Paul Simon
Added by Lucian Velea
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Don't Stop
Haha
Yeah
Are you ready to do this one
Alright then
Let's go
Wooooh
Ah come on
Ooooh yeah
(don't stop doin' that thing you do)
Oh, your sweet love is making me high, yeah yeah
(don't stop givin' me all your love)
I've been waiting for you all my life
Yes, you know i've been waiting
(don't stop, don't stop)
Doin' it (doin' it)
Don't stop doin' it baby
....
They feed me all of their lives, yeah
But i can't be messin' up, no
Gotta love, keep me satisfied
And baby what i see
Whenever i, look at you
Is all i ever wanted in this world
Nothing else is gonna do
Sing on
(don't stop doin' that thing you do)
Aah, your sweet love is making me high, heya heya
(don't stop givin' me all your love)
I've been waiting for you all my life
Come on and sing it
(don't stop) ooh (doin' it) oh
I said don't stop doin' it baby
Friends got you down
Oh, they say you must be a fool, no
But there ain't nothin', no no
That i wouldn't do for you
'cause i'm out here, always wrong
Every night and every day
And i'm asking just one thing
Don't you ever take your love away
(don't stop doin' that thing you do)
Aah, baby
Your sweet love is making me high
Come on, come on
(don't stop givin' me all your love)
I've been waiting for you all my life
All my life baby
(don't stop) come on sing yeah (doin' it)
Don't stop doin' it baby
Ah baby don't stop (don't stop) doin' it
[...] Read more
song performed by Anastacia
Added by Lucian Velea
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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
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Na Na Na Na
[Supercat]
This is the "Long Long He Love" fe the gal dem, Na, Na, Na Na,
The Rapper Don and 112 he nah gon stay pon the shelf.
I wanna see you rock that ass
Rock that ass
Rock that ass
Rock that ass
Work your body body
Work your body body
Work your body body
Work your body body
Change positions
Change positions
Change positions
New position
I want a new position
Twirk it for me
Twirk it for me
Twirk it for me
Twirk it for me
[Q]
Come a little closer baby
Girl I want to feel your body
Lead you right next to me
We can be the life of the party
I just wanna let you know
I love the way your movin
Never wanna let you go
Never wanna stop the music
[Chorus:]
Girl Na Na Na Na
You don't know what you doin to me
Girl you lookin so sexy
When you doin the dance for me
Hey we goin Na Na Na Na
You don't know what you doin to me
Girl you lookin so sexy
When you doin the dance for me
[Slim]
Now that I've got you babe
Know we gotta keep it sexy
Touchin all over me
Baby it's ecstasy
Lady won't you take my hand
Let's go to VIP I don't think you understand
What you are doin to me
[Chorus:]
Girl Na Na Na Na
You don't know what you doin to me
Girl you lookin so sexy
[...] Read more
song performed by 112
Added by Lucian Velea
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Attitude
You go down the pub
You wear make up
And old dads trousers
Why dont you tidy up
You talk like a docker but you act like a queer
You drink champagne then complain its too dear
You try so hard not to follow any trends
Then you cry in your beer and say youve got no friends
But is it any wonder that youve got no friends
But its not the make up
Or the way you dress
Its not your appearance, that they all detest
Its not your manners, that you gotta improve
Ooooo--its your attitude.
Chorus
Attitude, oo oo oo
Your attitude
Attitude, oo oo oo
Your attitude
Take off your head phones
Hear whats going on
You cant live in a time zone
Youve gotta move on
But before you get there
Theres one thing youve gotta do
Oh change your attitude
Its your attitude
Its your attitude
Chorus
Attitude, oo oo oo
Your attitude
Attitude, oo oo oo
Your attitude
The 80s are here, I know cuz Im staring right at them
But youre still waiting for 1960 to happen
You might have the illness, but youve got the cure
Youve got the answer, you will endure
Youre the only person thats gonna pull you through
Ooh, with your attitude
Chorus
Attitude, oo oo oo
Your attitude
Attitude, oo oo oo
Your attitude
You gotta learn to be positive, its your only chance
You mustnt be so defensive, you gotta join in the dance
But it isnt your dancing that youve gotta improve
Ooh, its your attitude.
Chorus
Attitude, oo oo oo
[...] Read more
song performed by Kinks
Added by Lucian Velea
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The Dream
'TWAS summer eve; the changeful beams still play'd
On the fir-bark and through the beechen shade;
Still with soft crimson glow'd each floating cloud;
Still the stream glitter'd where the willow bow'd;
Still the pale moon sate silent and alone,
Nor yet the stars had rallied round her throne;
Those diamond courtiers, who, while yet the West
Wears the red shield above his dying breast,
Dare not assume the loss they all desire,
Nor pay their homage to the fainter fire,
But wait in trembling till the Sun's fair light
Fading, shall leave them free to welcome Night!
So when some Chief, whose name through realms afar
Was still the watchword of succesful war,
Met by the fatal hour which waits for all,
Is, on the field he rallied, forced to fall,
The conquerors pause to watch his parting breath,
Awed by the terrors of that mighty death;
Nor dare the meed of victory to claim,
Nor lift the standard to a meaner name,
Till every spark of soul hath ebb'd away,
And leaves what was a hero, common clay.
Oh! Twilight! Spirit that dost render birth
To dim enchantments; melting Heaven with Earth,
Leaving on craggy hills and rumning streams
A softness like the atmosphere of dreams;
Thy hour to all is welcome! Faint and sweet
Thy light falls round the peasant's homeward feet,
Who, slow returning from his task of toil,
Sees the low sunset gild the cultured soil,
And, tho' such radliance round him brightly glows,
Marks the small spark his cottage window throws.
Still as his heart forestals his weary pace,
Fondly he dreams of each familiar face,
Recalls the treasures of his narrow life,
His rosy children, and his sunburnt wife,
To whom his coming is the chief event
Of simple days in cheerful labour spent.
The rich man's chariot hath gone whirling past,
And those poor cottagers have only cast
One careless glance on all that show of pride,
Then to their tasks turn'd quietly aside;
But him they wait for, him they welcome home,
Fond sentinels look forth to see him come;
The fagot sent for when the fire grew dim,
The frugal meal prepared, are all for him;
For him the watching of that sturdy boy,
[...] Read more
poem by Caroline Elizabeth Sarah Norton
Added by Poetry Lover
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Canto the Second
I
Oh ye! who teach the ingenuous youth of nations,
Holland, France, England, Germany, or Spain,
I pray ye flog them upon all occasions,
It mends their morals, never mind the pain:
The best of mothers and of educations
In Juan's case were but employ'd in vain,
Since, in a way that's rather of the oddest, he
Became divested of his native modesty.
II
Had he but been placed at a public school,
In the third form, or even in the fourth,
His daily task had kept his fancy cool,
At least, had he been nurtured in the north;
Spain may prove an exception to the rule,
But then exceptions always prove its worth -—
A lad of sixteen causing a divorce
Puzzled his tutors very much, of course.
III
I can't say that it puzzles me at all,
If all things be consider'd: first, there was
His lady-mother, mathematical,
A—never mind; his tutor, an old ass;
A pretty woman (that's quite natural,
Or else the thing had hardly come to pass);
A husband rather old, not much in unity
With his young wife—a time, and opportunity.
IV
Well—well, the world must turn upon its axis,
And all mankind turn with it, heads or tails,
And live and die, make love and pay our taxes,
And as the veering wind shifts, shift our sails;
The king commands us, and the doctor quacks us,
The priest instructs, and so our life exhales,
A little breath, love, wine, ambition, fame,
Fighting, devotion, dust,—perhaps a name.
V
I said that Juan had been sent to Cadiz -—
A pretty town, I recollect it well -—
'T is there the mart of the colonial trade is
(Or was, before Peru learn'd to rebel),
And such sweet girls—I mean, such graceful ladies,
Their very walk would make your bosom swell;
I can't describe it, though so much it strike,
Nor liken it—I never saw the like:
[...] Read more
poem by Byron from Don Juan (1824)
Added by Veronica Serbanoiu
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Doin The Thing That We Want To
The other night we went to see sams play
Doin the things that we want to
It was very physical it held you to the stage
Doin the things that he wants to
Doin the things that he wants to
The guys a cowboy from some rodeo
Doin the things that he wants to
The girl had once loved him, but now she want to go
Doin the things that she wants to
Doin the things that she wants to
The man was bullish, the woman was a tease
Doin the things that they want to
They fought with their words, their bodies and their deeds
Doin the things that they want to
When they finished fighting, they exited the stage
Doin the things that they want to
I was firmly struck by the way they had behaved
Doin the things that they want to
Doin the things that they want to
Hey
It reminds me of the movies marty made about new york
(doin the things that he wants to)
Those frank and brutal movies that are so brilliant
(doin the things that he wants to)
True love meet the raging bull
(doin the things that he wants to)
Theyre very inspirational, I love the things they do
(doin the things that he wants to)
Doin the things that I want to
Theres not much you hear on the radio today
(doin the things that we want to)
But you could still see a movie or a play
(doin the things that we want to)
Heres to travis bickle and heres johnny boy
(doin the things that we want to)
Growing up in the mean streets of new york
(doin the things that we want to)
I wrote this song cause Id like to shake your hand
(doin the things that we want to)
In a way you guys are the best friends I ever had
(doin the things that we want to)
Doin the things that we want to
That we want to
A true love
song performed by Lou Reed
Added by Lucian Velea
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The Undying One- Canto III
'THERE is a sound the autumn wind doth make
Howling and moaning, listlessly and low:
Methinks that to a heart that ought to break
All the earth's voices seem to murmur so.
The visions that crost
Our path in light--
The things that we lost
In the dim dark night--
The faces for which we vainly yearn--
The voices whose tones will not return--
That low sad wailing breeze doth bring
Borne on its swift and rushing wing.
Have ye sat alone when that wind was loud,
And the moon shone dim from the wintry cloud?
When the fire was quench'd on your lonely hearth,
And the voices were still which spoke of mirth?
If such an evening, tho' but one,
It hath been yours to spend alone--
Never,--though years may roll along
Cheer'd by the merry dance and song;
Though you mark'd not that bleak wind's sound before,
When louder perchance it used to roar--
Never shall sound of that wintry gale
Be aught to you but a voice of wail!
So o'er the careless heart and eye
The storms of the world go sweeping by;
But oh! when once we have learn'd to weep,
Well doth sorrow his stern watch keep.
Let one of our airy joys decay--
Let one of our blossoms fade away--
And all the griefs that others share
Seem ours, as well as theirs, to bear:
And the sound of wail, like that rushing wind
Shall bring all our own deep woe to mind!
'I went through the world, but I paused not now
At the gladsome heart and the joyous brow:
I went through the world, and I stay'd to mark
Where the heart was sore, and the spirit dark:
And the grief of others, though sad to see,
Was fraught with a demon's joy to me!
'I saw the inconstant lover come to take
Farewell of her he loved in better days,
And, coldly careless, watch the heart-strings break--
Which beat so fondly at his words of praise.
She was a faded, painted, guilt-bow'd thing,
Seeking to mock the hues of early spring,
When misery and years had done their worst
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poem by Caroline Elizabeth Sarah Norton
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Canto the Fourth
I.
I stood in Venice, on the Bridge of Sighs;
A palace and a prison on each hand:
I saw from out the wave her structures rise
As from the stroke of the enchanter’s wand:
A thousand years their cloudy wings expand
Around me, and a dying glory smiles
O’er the far times when many a subject land
Looked to the wingèd Lion’s marble piles,
Where Venice sate in state, throned on her hundred isles!
II.
She looks a sea Cybele, fresh from ocean,
Rising with her tiara of proud towers
At airy distance, with majestic motion,
A ruler of the waters and their powers:
And such she was; her daughters had their dowers
From spoils of nations, and the exhaustless East
Poured in her lap all gems in sparkling showers.
In purple was she robed, and of her feast
Monarchs partook, and deemed their dignity increased.
III.
In Venice, Tasso’s echoes are no more,
And silent rows the songless gondolier;
Her palaces are crumbling to the shore,
And music meets not always now the ear:
Those days are gone - but beauty still is here.
States fall, arts fade - but Nature doth not die,
Nor yet forget how Venice once was dear,
The pleasant place of all festivity,
The revel of the earth, the masque of Italy!
IV.
But unto us she hath a spell beyond
Her name in story, and her long array
Of mighty shadows, whose dim forms despond
Above the dogeless city’s vanished sway;
Ours is a trophy which will not decay
With the Rialto; Shylock and the Moor,
And Pierre, cannot be swept or worn away -
The keystones of the arch! though all were o’er,
For us repeopled were the solitary shore.
V.
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poem by Byron from Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1818)
Added by Veronica Serbanoiu
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The Aeneid of Virgil: Book 2
ALL were attentive to the godlike man,
When from his lofty couch he thus began:
“Great queen, what you command me to relate
Renews the sad remembrance of our fate:
An empire from its old foundations rent, 5
And ev’ry woe the Trojans underwent;
A peopled city made a desart place;
All that I saw, and part of which I was:
Not ev’n the hardest of our foes could hear,
Nor stern Ulysses tell without a tear. 10
And now the latter watch of wasting night,
And setting stars, to kindly rest invite;
But, since you take such int’rest in our woe,
And Troy’s disastrous end desire to know,
I will restrain my tears, and briefly tell 15
What in our last and fatal night befell.
“By destiny compell’d, and in despair,
The Greeks grew weary of the tedious war,
And by Minerva’s aid a fabric rear’d,
Which like a steed of monstrous height appear’d: 20
The sides were plank’d with pine; they feign’d it made
For their return, and this the vow they paid.
Thus they pretend, but in the hollow side
Selected numbers of their soldiers hide:
With inward arms the dire machine they load, 25
And iron bowels stuff the dark abode.
In sight of Troy lies Tenedos, an isle
(While Fortune did on Priam’s empire smile)
Renown’d for wealth; but, since, a faithless bay,
Where ships expos’d to wind and weather lay. 30
There was their fleet conceal’d. We thought, for Greece
Their sails were hoisted, and our fears release.
The Trojans, coop’d within their walls so long,
Unbar their gates, and issue in a throng,
Like swarming bees, and with delight survey 35
The camp deserted, where the Grecians lay:
The quarters of the sev’ral chiefs they show’d;
Here Phœnix, here Achilles, made abode;
Here join’d the battles; there the navy rode.
Part on the pile their wond’ring eyes employ: 40
The pile by Pallas rais’d to ruin Troy.
Thymoetes first (’t is doubtful whether hir’d,
Or so the Trojan destiny requir’d)
Mov’d that the ramparts might be broken down,
To lodge the monster fabric in the town. 45
But Capys, and the rest of sounder mind,
The fatal present to the flames designed,
Or to the wat’ry deep; at least to bore
The hollow sides, and hidden frauds explore.
The giddy vulgar, as their fancies guide, 50
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poem by Publius Vergilius Maro
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Fundamental of Liar Chapter CXXVI: Ruin
Do not ruin a good story
Do not ruin a perfect plan
Do not ruin a flawless lie
Do not ruin a great sacrifice
Do not ruin a hard work
Do not ruin a long trust
Do not ruin a magical moment
Do not ruin a golden opportunity
Do not ruin the current mood
Do not ruin an innocent dream
Do not ruin a sweet memory
Do not ruin a fair game
Do not ruin a mutual agreement
Do not ruin a smiling face
Do not ruin the flowing river
Do not ruin the sequence order
Do not ruin the standard procedure
Do not ruin the prepared show
Do not ruin a complete circle
Do not ruin a final ending
Do not ruin the leisure time
Do not ruin the aiming shot
Do not ruin the hidden purpose
Do not ruin a genius idea
Do not ruin the dead price
Do not ruin a determined mind
poem by Maria Sudibyo
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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,—
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poem by Robert Browning from The Ring and the Book
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Lara. A Tale
The Serfs are glad through Lara's wide domain,
And slavery half forgets her feudal chain;
He, their unhoped, but unforgotten lord--
The long self-exiled chieftain is restored:
There be bright faces in the busy hall,
Bowls on the board, and banners on the wall;
Far chequering o'er the pictured window, plays
The unwonted fagots' hospitable blaze;
And gay retainers gather round the hearth,
With tongues all loudness, and with eyes all mirth.
II.
The chief of Lara is return'd again:
And why had Lara cross'd the bounding main?
Left by his sire, too young such loss to know,
Lord of himself;--that heritage of woe,
That fearful empire which the human breast
But holds to rob the heart within of rest!--
With none to check, and few to point in time
The thousand paths that slope the way to crime;
Then, when he most required commandment, then
Had Lara's daring boyhood govern'd men.
It skills not, boots not, step by step to trace
His youth through all the mazes of its race;
Short was the course his restlessness had run,
But long enough to leave him half undone.
III.
And Lara left in youth his fatherland;
But from the hour he waved his parting hand
Each trace wax'd fainter of his course, till all
Had nearly ceased his memory to recall.
His sire was dust, his vassals could declare,
'Twas all they knew, that Lara was not there;
Nor sent, nor came he, till conjecture grew
Cold in the many, anxious in the few.
His hall scarce echoes with his wonted name,
His portrait darkens in its fading frame,
Another chief consoled his destined bride,
The young forgot him, and the old had died;
'Yet doth he live!' exclaims the impatient heir,
And sighs for sables which he must not wear.
A hundred scutcheons deck with gloomy grace
The Laras' last and longest dwelling-place;
But one is absent from the mouldering file,
That now were welcome to that Gothic pile.
IV.
He comes at last in sudden loneliness,
And whence they know not, why they need not guess;
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