Category Archives: Poetry

A middle-class district. The hammers tapping All day, and all the radios talking of so many Metres per second, and all the aerials flapping. Cans and candles have vanished from the shops. The price of timber, for boarding the windows, Has gone up and up. The tapping never stops. The worst since—when was it? OhContinue reading “Waiting for the Typhoon”

(In a small valley opposite St. Goar, upon the Rhine) Genius of Raphael! if thy wings      Might bear thee to this glen, With faithful memory left of things      To pencil dear and pen, Thou wouldst forego the neighbouring Rhine,      And all his majesty— A studious forehead to incline      O’er this poor family. The Mother—her thouContinue reading “A Jewish Family”

Sweet Peace, where dost thou dwell? I humbly crave,                Let me once know.           I sought thee in a secret cave,           And ask’d, if Peace were there. A hollow wind did seem to answer, No:                Go seek elsewhere. I did; and going did a rainbow note:                Surely, thought I,           This is the lace of Peace’s coat:Continue reading “Peace”

A garden in a garden : a green spot         Where all is green : most fitting slumber-place         For the strong man grown weary of a race Soon over. Unto him a goodly lot Hath fallen in fertile ground ; there thorns are not,         But his own daisies ; silence, full of grace,         Surely hath shedContinue reading “On Keats”

Far-off, most secret, and inviolate Rose, Enfold me in my hour of hours; where those Who sought thee in the Holy Sepulchre, Or in the wine-vat, dwell beyond the stir And tumult of defeated dreams; and deep Among pale eyelids, heavy with the sleep Men have named beauty. Thy great leaves enfold The ancient beards,Continue reading “The Secret Rose”

O lorde Jhesu Cryste I commende my ♥ to thy love that ytt may enter into thy ♥ by love and spirituall delectacyon and I beseche the good lorde to inflame myn ♥ ardently with thy love and so to kyndle myn ♥ with the blessyd love of the good lorde that never hereafter IContinue reading “A prayer of the ♥”

‘Lift up your hearts’ ‘We lift them up.’ Ah me! I cannot, Lord, lift up my heart to Thee : Stoop, lift it up, that where Thou art           I too may be. ‘Give Me thy heart.’ I would not say Thee nay, But have no power to keep or give away My heart : stoop,Continue reading “Sursum Corda”

Press me not to take more pleasure       In this world of sugred lies, And to use a larger measure       Than my strict, yet welcome size. First, there is no pleasure here:       Colour’d griefs indeed there are, Blushing woes, that look as clear       As if they could beauty spare. Or if such deceits there be,       SuchContinue reading “The Rose”

I watched a rosebud very long      Brought on by dew and sun and shower,      Waiting to see the perfect flower : Then, when I thought it should be strong,      It opened at the matin hour And fell at evensong. I watched a nest from day to day,      A green nest full of pleasant shade,      WhereinContinue reading “Symbols”

Our life is hid with Christ in God. My words and thoughts do both express this notion, That Life hath with the sun a double motion. The first Is straight, and our diurnal friend, The other Hid, and doth obliquely bend. One life is wrapt In flesh, and tends to earth. The other winds towardsContinue reading “Coloss. 3.3.”