1. Epitaph On An Army of Mercenaries - written by A.E. Housman
Read 1209 times on Poetry Connection.

These, in the day when heaven was falling,
The hour when earth's foundations fled,
Followed their mercenary calling
And took their wages and are dead.

Their shoulders held the sky suspended;
They stood, and earth's foundations stay;
What... (Read full poem)

It goes on being Alexandria still. Just walk a bit
along the straight road that ends at the Hippodrome
and you'll see palaces and monuments that will amaze you.
Whatever war-damage it's suffered,
however much smaller it's become,
it's still a... (Read full poem)

3. To Failure - written by Philip Larkin
Read 6005 times on Poetry Connection.

You do not come dramatically, with dragons
That rear up with my life between their paws
And dash me butchered down beside the wagons,
The horses panicking; nor as a clause
Clearly set out to warn what can be lost,
What out-of-pocket charges must be... (Read full poem)

How can you bear to look at the Neva? 
How can you bear to cross the bridges?. 
Not in vain am I known as the grieving one 
Since the time you appeared to me. 
The black angels' wings are sharp, 
Judgment Day is coming soon, 
And... (Read full poem)

5. 153. Inscription for the Headstone of Fergusson the Poet - written by Robert Burns
From Poems and Songs. The Harvard Classics. 1909–14.. Published in 1787. Read 715 times on Poetry Connection.

NO 1 sculptured marble here, nor pompous lay,
  “No storied urn nor animated bust;”
This simple stone directs pale Scotia’s way,
  To pour her sorrows o’er the Poet’s dust.
 

ADDITIONAL STANZASShe mourns, sweet tuneful... (Read full poem)

Honor and happiness unite
To make the Christian's name a praise;
How fair the scene, how clear the light,
That fills the remnant of His days!

A kingly character He bears,
No change His priestly office knows;
Unfading is the crown He... (Read full poem)

7. The Grizzly Bear - written by A.E. Housman
Read 1042 times on Poetry Connection.

The Grizzly Bear is huge and wild
It has devoured the little child.
The little child is unaware
It has been eaten by the bear. (Read full poem)

Chorus—Bannocks o’ bear meal,
  Bannocks o’ barley,
Here’s to the Highlandman’s
  Bannocks o’ barley!
 

WHA, in a brulyie, will
  First cry a parley?
Never the lads wi’ the
  Bannocks o’ barley,... (Read full poem)

9. Teddy Bear - written by Robert William Service
From Ballads of a Bohemian (Book 3). Read 1030 times on Poetry Connection.

O Teddy Bear! with your head awry
And your comical twisted smile,
You rub your eyes -- do you wonder why
You've slept such a long, long while?
As you lay so still in the cupboard dim,
And you heard on the roof the rain,
Were you thinking . . . what... (Read full poem)

Man Naturally loves delay,
And to procrastinate;
Business put off from day to day
Is always done to late.

Let ever hour be in its place
Firm fixed, nor loosely shift,
And well enjoy the vacant space,
As though a birthday gift.

And when... (Read full poem)

11. A Mountain Station - written by Andrew Barton Paterson
Read 583 times on Poetry Connection.

I bought a run a while ago, 
On country rough and ridgy, 
Where wallaroos and wombats grow -- 
The Upper Murrumbidgee. 
The grass is rather scant, it's true, 
But this a fair exchange is, 
The sheep can see a lovely view 
By climbing up the... (Read full poem)

One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice—
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
"Mend my life!"
each voice cried.
But you... (Read full poem)

13. My Bear - written by Robert William Service
From Lyrics of a Low Brow. Read 502 times on Poetry Connection.

I never killed a bear because
I always thought them critters was
                            So kindo' cute;
Though round my shack they often came,
I'd raise my rifle and take aim,
                            But couldn't shoot.
Yet there was one... (Read full poem)

A bear, however hard he tries,
Grows tubby without exercise.
Our Teddy Bear is short and fat,
Which is not to be wondered at;
He gets what exercise he can
By falling off the ottoman,
But generally seems to lack
The energy to clamber... (Read full poem)

15. Psalm 82 - written by John Milton
From The Poetical Works of John Milton. Published in 1648. Read 485 times on Poetry Connection.

God in the *great *assembly stands                    *Bagnadath-el
Of Kings and lordly States,
Among the gods* on both his hands.                        *Bekerev.
He judges and debates.
How long will ye *pervert the right... (Read full poem)

"Alexander son of Philip, and the Greeks except the Lacedaemonians--"

We can very well imagine
that they were utterly indifferent in Sparta
to this inscription. "Except the Lacedaemonians",
but naturally. The Spartans were not
to be led and ordered... (Read full poem)

17. The Old - written by Robert William Service
From Rhymes of a Roughneck. Read 515 times on Poetry Connection.

Oh bear with me, for I am old
And count on fingers five
The years this pencil I may hold
And hope to be alive;
How sadly soon our dreaming ends!
How brief the sunset glow!
Be kindly to the old, my friends:
You'll miss them when they go. 

I've seen... (Read full poem)

LIFE, believe, is not a dream
So dark as sages say;
Oft a little morning rain
Foretells a pleasant day. 
Sometimes there are clouds of gloom,
But these are transient all;
If the shower will make the roses bloom,
O why lament its fall ?... (Read full poem)

19. Who shall deliver me? - written by Christina Rossetti
Read 857 times on Poetry Connection.

God strengthen me to bear myself; 
That heaviest weight of all to bear, 
Inalienable weight of care.

All others are outside myself;
I lock my door and bar them out
The turmoil, tedium, gad-about.

I lock my door upon myself, 
And bar them... (Read full poem)

I

To the cities I came in a time of disorder
That was ruled by hunger.
I sheltered with the people in a time of uproar
And then I joined in their rebellion.
That's how I passed my time that was given to me on this Earth.

I ate my dinners between... (Read full poem)

21. The Truro Bear - written by Mary Oliver
Read 1259 times on Poetry Connection.

There’s a bear in the Truro woods.
People have seen it - three or four, 
or two, or one. I think
of the thickness of the serious woods
around the dark bowls of the Truro ponds; 
I think of the blueberry fields, the blackberry tangles, 
the... (Read full poem)

FALSE world, good night! since thou hast brought 
   That hour upon my morn of age; 
Henceforth I quit thee from my thought, 
   My part is ended on thy stage. 

Yes, threaten, do. Alas! I fear 
   As little as I hope from thee: 
I know thou... (Read full poem)

23. The Little Black Boy - written by William Blake
From Songs of Innocence. Published in 1789. Read 4992 times on Poetry Connection.

My mother bore me in the southern wild,
And I am black, but O! my soul is white.
White as an angel is the English child:
But I am black as if bereav'd of light.

My mother taught me underneath a tree
And sitting down before the heat of day.
She took... (Read full poem)

Sometimes a light surprises
The Christian while he sings;
It is the Lord who rises
With healing on His wings;
When comforts are declining,
He grants the soul again
A season of clear shining,
To cheer it after rain.

In holy... (Read full poem)

25. 439. Song—My Spouse Nancy - written by Robert Burns
From Poems and Songs. The Harvard Classics. 1909–14.. Published in 1793. Read 814 times on Poetry Connection.

“HUSBAND, husband, cease your strife,
  Nor longer idly rave, Sir;
Tho’ I am your wedded wife
  Yet I am not your slave, Sir.”
“One of two must still obey,
  Nancy, Nancy;
Is it Man or Woman, say,
  My spouse Nancy?’... (Read full poem)