Insularum Ocelle
Sark, fairer than aught in the world that the lit skies cover,
Laughs inly behind her cliffs, and the seafarers mark
As a shrine where the sunlight serves, though the blown clouds hover,
Sark.
We mourn, for love of a song that outsang the lark,
That nought so lovely beholden of Sirmio's lover
Made glad in Propontis the flight of his Pontic bark.
Here earth lies lordly, triumphal as heaven is above her,
And splendid and strange as the sea that upbears as an ark,
As a sign for the rapture of storm-spent eyes to discover,
Sark.
poem by Algernon Charles Swinburne
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Related quotes
Three Faces
I.--VENTIMIGLIA
The sky and sea glared hard and bright and blank:
Down the one steep street, with slow steps firm and free,
A tall girl paced, with eyes too proud to thank
The sky and sea.
One dead flat sapphire, void of wrath or glee,
Through bay on bay shone blind from bank to bank
The weary Mediterranean, drear to see.
More deep, more living, shone her eyes that drank
The breathless light and shed again on me,
Till pale before their splendour waned and shrank
The sky and sea.
II.--GENOA
Again the same strange might of eyes, that saw
In heaven and earth nought fairer, overcame
My sight with rapture of reiterate awe,
Again the same.
The self-same pulse of wonder shook like flame
The spirit of sense within me: what strange law
Had bid this be, for blessing or for blame?
To what veiled end that fate or chance foresaw
Came forth this second sister face, that came
Absolute, perfect, fair without a flaw,
Again the same?
III.--VENICE
Out of the dark pure twilight, where the stream
Flows glimmering, streaked by many a birdlike bark
That skims the gloom whence towers and bridges gleam
Out of the dark,
Once more a face no glance might choose but mark
Shone pale and bright, with eyes whose deep slow beam
Made quick the twilight, lifeless else and stark.
The same it seemed, or mystery made it seem,
As those before beholden; but St. Mark
Ruled here the ways that showed it like a dream
Out of the dark.
poem by Algernon Charles Swinburne
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Love Lies Bleeding
Love lies bleeding in the bed whereover
Roses lean with smiling mouths or pleading:
Earth lies laughing where the sun's dart clove her:
Love lies bleeding.
Stately shine his purple plumes, exceeding
Pride of princes: nor shall maid or lover
Find on earth a fairer sign worth heeding.
Yet may love, sore wounded scarce recover
Strength and spirit again, with life receding:
Hope and joy, wind-winged, about him hover:
Love lies bleeding.
poem by Algernon Charles Swinburne
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
The Rapture of the Year
While skies glint bright with bluest light
Through clouds that race o'er fields and town,
And leaves go dancing left and right,
And orchard apples tumble down;
While school-girls sweet, in lane or street,
Lean 'gainst the wind and feel and hear
Its glad heart like a lover's beat,--
So reigns the rapture of the year.
The ho! and hey! and whop-hooray!
Though winter clouds be looming,
Remember a November day
Is merrier than mildest May
With all her blossoms blooming.
While birds in scattered flight are blown
Aloft and lost in dusky mist,
And truant boys scud home alone
'Neath skies of gold and amethyst;
While twilight falls, and Echo calls
Across the haunted atmosphere,
With low, sweet laughs at intervals,--
So reigns the rapture of the year.
The ho! and hey! and whop-hooray!
Though winter clouds be looming,
Remember a November day
Is merrier than mildest May
With all her blossoms blooming.
poem by James Whitcomb Riley
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Single Handed Sailor
Two in the morning, dry-dock town
The rivers rolls away in the night
Little gypsy moth shes all tied down
She quiver in the wind and the light
Yeah and a sailing ship just held down in chains
From the lazy days of sail
Its just lying there in silent pain
He lean on the turist rail
A mother and her baby and the colege war
And the concrete graves
You never wanna against the river law
Nobody rules the waves
Yeah and on the night when the lazy wind is a-wailing
Around the cutty sark
Single handed sailor goes sailing
Sailing away in the dark
Hes upon the bridge on the self same night
The mariner of dry dock land
Two in the morning, but there is one green light
And the man on the barge of sand
Shes gonna slip away below him
Away from the things hes done
But he just shouts hey man, what do you call this thing?
He could have said pride of london
On the night when the lazy wind is a-wailing
Around the cutty sark
Yeah the single handed sailor goes sailing
Sailing away in the dark
song performed by by Dire Straits
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
The Sky-Lark’s Song
WINGED voice to tell the skies of earth,
Dear earth-born lark, sing on, sing clear,
Sing into heaven that she may hear
;Sing what thou wilt, so she but know
Thine ecstasy of summer mirth
And think ''Tis from the world below!'
Instant, old wont returns fresh brought,
And her desire goes seeking me,
For whom her whole world used to be
And all my world for sake of her;
She cannot think an earthward thought
That shall not seem my messenger.
She will be glad for love, and smile,
Saying 'Thank God for joy like ours:
Saying 'There come the kind home hours:
His work-day will be sped ere long,
That keeps him hence this little while.
'Sing, lark, until she know thy song.
Sing of the earth, but sing no care,
Sing thine own measureless content;
She will remember what it meant;
Griefs are too base, but, carolling thus,
Thou with thy joy mayst reach her there,
And she joy too remembering us.
poem by Augusta Davies Webster
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
I'm Growing Old
I’M growing old — ‘t is surely so;
And yet how short it seems
Since I was but a sportive child,
Enjoying childish dreams!
I cannot see the change that comes
With such an even pace;
I mark not when the wrinkles fall
Upon my fading face.
I know I’m old; and yet my heart
Is just as young and gay
As e’er it was before my locks
Of bright brown turned to gray.
I know these eyes to other eyes
Look not so bright and glad
As once they looked; and yet ‘tis nor
Because my heart’s more sad.
I never watched with purer joy
The floating clouds and glowing skies,
While glistening tears of rapture fill
These old and fading eyes.
And when I mark the cheek, wkere once
The bright rose used to glow,
It grieves me not to see instead
The almond crown my brow.
I’ve seen the flower grow old and pale,
And withered more than I;
I’ve seen it lose its every charm,
Then droop away and die.
And then I’ve seen it rise again,
Bright as the beaming sky,
And young and pure and beautiful—
And felt that so shall I.
Then what if I am growing old?
My heart is changeless still,
And God has given me enough
This loving heart to fill.
I love to see the sun go down,
And lengthening shadows throw
Along the ground, while o’er my head
The clouds in crimson glow.
I see, beyond those gorgeous clouds,
A country bright and fair,
Which needs no sun: God and the Lamb
Its light and beauty are.
I seem to hear the wondrous song
Redeemed sinners sing;
And my heart leaps to join the throng
To praise the Heavenly King.
I seem to see three cherub boys,
As hand in hand they go,
With golden curls and snowy wings,
Whose eyes with rapture glow.
When I was young I called them mine —
Now Heaven’s sweet ones are they;
But I shall claim my own again,
When I am called away.
Perhaps, when heaven’s bright gate I’ve passed,
They’ll know from every other
The one who gave them back to God,
And haste to call me mother.
0! 1 am glad I’m growing old!
For every day I spend
Shall bring me one day nearer that
Bright day that has no end.
poem by Anonymous Americas
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
More Than A Lover
(ronnie scott/steve wolfe)
Producers for bonnie: david mackay, ronnie scott, steve wolfe
Blown in the breeze
Falling like leaves
Give me a chance to recover
Deep in you eyes
Half of me lies
Let me be more than a lover
Let me be more than a lover
Oh, let it be known
Youre my heart, your my home
Youre the world that I wanna discover
All I can give is the way that I live
And I wanna be more than a lover
Oh, let me be more than a lover
Lovers are like
Stars in the night
Never quite touching each other
Deep in your eyes
Half of me lies
Let me be more than a lover
Let me be more than a lover
Oh, let it be known
Youre my heart, your my home
Youre the world that I wanna discover
All I can give is the way that I live
And I wanna be more than a lover
Oh, let me be more than a lover
Ad libs...
Oh, let it be known
Youre my heart, your my home
Youre the world that I wanna discover
All I can give is the way that I live
And I wanna be more than a lover
Oh, let me be more than a lover
Ad libs...
Let me be more than a lover
song performed by by Bonnie Tyler
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
A Landscape By Courbet
Low lies the mere beneath the moorside, still
And glad of silence: down the wood sweeps clear
To the utmost verge where fed with many a rill
Low lies the mere.
The wind speaks only summer: eye nor ear
Sees aught at all of dark, hears aught of shrill,
From sound or shadow felt or fancied here.
Strange, as we praise the dead man's might and skill,
Strange that harsh thoughts should make such heavy cheer,
While, clothed with peace by heaven's most gentle will,
Low lies the mere.
poem by Algernon Charles Swinburne
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Past Days
I.
Dead and gone, the days we had together,
Shadow-stricken all the lights that shone
Round them, flown as flies the blown foam's feather,
Dead and gone.
Where we went, we twain, in time foregone,
Forth by land and sea, and cared not whether,
If I go again, I go alone.
Bound am I with time as with a tether;
Thee perchance death leads enfranchised on,
Far from deathlike life and changeful weather,
Dead and gone.
II.
Above the sea and sea-washed town we dwelt,
We twain together, two brief summers, free
From heed of hours as light as clouds that melt
Above the sea.
Free from all heed of aught at all were we,
Save chance of change that clouds or sunbeams dealt
And gleam of heaven to windward or to lee.
The Norman downs with bright grey waves for belt
Were more for us than inland ways might be;
A clearer sense of nearer heaven was felt
Above the sea.
III.
Cliffs and downs and headlands which the forward-hasting
Flight of dawn and eve empurples and embrowns,
Wings of wild sea-winds and stormy seasons wasting
Cliffs and downs,
These, or ever man was, were: the same sky frowns,
Laughs, and lightens, as before his soul, forecasting
Times to be, conceived such hopes as time discrowns.
These we loved of old: but now for me the blasting
Breath of death makes dull the bright small seaward towns,
Clothes with human change these all but everlasting
Cliffs and downs.
poem by Algernon Charles Swinburne
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
The Garment Of Good Ladies
Would my good Lady love me best,
And work after my will,
I should ane garment goodliest
Gar mak' her body till.
Of high honour should be her hood
Upon her head to wear,
Garnish'd with governance so good
No deeming should her deir.
Her sark should be, her body next,
Of chastity so white;
With shame and dread together mix'd,
The same should be perfyt.
Her kirtle should be of clear Constance,
Lasit with lesum love ,
The maillies of continuance,
For never to remove.
Her gown should be of goodliness,
Well ribbon'd with renown,
Purfill'd with pleasure in ilk place,
Furred with fine fashion.
Her belt should be of benignity
About her middle meet;
Her mantle of humility,
To thole baith wind and wet.
Her hat should be of fair having,
And her tippet of truth,
Her patelet of good pansing,
Her hats-ribbon of ruth.
Her sleeves should be of esperance,
To keep her from despair;
Her gloves of the good governance,
To hide her fingers fair.
Her shoon should be of sickerness,
In sign that she nought slide;
Her hose of honesty, I guess,
I should for her provide.
Would she put on this garment gay,
I durst swear by my seill,
That she wore never green nor gray
That set her half so weil.
poem by Robert Henryson
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
A Parting
So good-bye!
This is where we end it, you and I.
Life's to live, you know, and death's to die;
So good-bye!
I was yours
For the love in life that loves while life endures,
For the earth-path that the Heaven-flight ensures
I was yours.
You were mine
For the moment that a garland takes to twine,
For the human hour that sorcery shews divine
You were mine.
All is over.
You and I no more are love and lover;
Nought's to seek now, gain, attain, discover.
All is over.
poem by Edith Nesbit
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Cover Me
The times are tough now, just getting tougher
This old world is rough, its just getting rougher
Cover me, come on baby, cover me
Well Im looking for a lover who will come on in and cover me
Promise me baby you wont let them find us
Hold me in your arms, lets let our love blind us
Cover me, shut the door and cover me
Well Im looking for a lover who will come on in and cover me
Outsides the rain, the driving snow
I can hear the wild wind blowing
Turn out the light, bolt the door
I aint going out there no more
This whole world is out there just trying to score
Ive seen enough I dont want to see any more,
Cover me, come on and cover me
Im looking for a lover who will come on in and cover me
Looking for a lover who will come on in and cover me
song performed by by Bruce Springsteen
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
To A Cat
STATELY, kindly, lordly friend,
Condescend
Here to sit by me, and turn
Glorious eyes that smile and burn,
Golden eyes, love's lustrous meed,
On the golden page I read.
All your wondrous wealth of hair,
Dark and fair,
Silken-shaggy, soft and bright
As the clouds and beams of night,
Pays my reverent hand's caress
Back with friendlier gentleness.
Dogs may fawn on all and some
As they come;
You, a friend of loftier mind,
Answer friends alone in kind.
Just your foot upon my hand
Softly bids it understand.
Morning round this silent sweet
Garden-seat
Sheds its wealth of gathering light,
Thrills the gradual clouds with might,
Changes woodland, orchard, heath,
Lawn, and garden there beneath.
Fair and dim they gleamed below:
Now they glow
Deep as even your sunbright eyes,
Fair as even the wakening skies.
Can it not or can it be
Now that you give thanks to see ?
May not you rejoice as I,
Seeing the sky
Change to heaven revealed, and bid
Earth reveal the heaven it hid
All night long from stars and moon,
Now the sun sets all in tune?
What within you wakes with day
Who can say?
All too little may we tell,
Friends who like each other well,
What might haply, if we might,
Bid us read our lives aright.
Wild on woodland ways your sires
Flashed like fires;
Fair as flame and fierce and fleet
As with wings on wingless feet
Shone and sprang your mother, free,
Bright and brave as wind or sea.
Free and proud and glad as they,
Here to-day
Rests or roams their radiant child,
Vanquished not, but reconciled,
Free from curb of aught above
Save the lovely curb of love.
Love through dreams of souls divine
Fain would shine
Round a dawn whose light and song
Then should right our mutual wrong---
Speak, and seal the love-lit law
Sweet Assisi's seer foresaw.
Dreams were theirs; yet haply may
Dawn a day
When such friends and fellows born,
Seeing our earth as fair at morn,
May for wiser love's sake see
More of heaven's deep heart than we.
poem by Algernon Charles Swinburne
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
In these cormorant hours
I’ve never begun to understand,
The sea changing patterns beholden,
With holding onto a woman’s hand,
No matter how many times
Unwilled she can be emboldened.
The ever changing wind still chimes
With me!
The ever changing green sea grimes
Deep in the deepest blue coral waves
Of the world,
In the darkest barroom grave
With me!
Just to be hurled,
Unbroken like a bird like a wave
Sucked out on a storm just to be free!
In these cormorant hours spent swift
On the wind like a sparrow hawk
With the thoughts of these old lovers up lift
On these wings I still feel strong, but hark
I still feel in my heart
The emptiness of the dark
As a marginal, migrant, migrating
Longing to go back into the virginal bay
I left battered and bereft
A long, long, long time away!
Looking further from my lovers reach
Back along the stony cliffs
Unto the foaming beach
In a whirlpool of memory I’m split into fifths
Like the lemming jumping off the cliffs
I high tale because I can’t be beholden
To an emboldened smile
No matter whomever you think you are!
This time! or any time my cormorant star!
16
poem by Mark Heathcote
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Resurrection Of The Butterfly
In kamikazic state and crisp,
Steered and wrenched from soft illusion;
Terrible, it's fragile, dust-blown shape
That carried it's fat world within -
A sarcophagus tick, hear it crack
With sunlight spooned upon its back.
A Cinderella slipper; the Cutty Sark
Sailing between the earth and moon.
Precision filled waste - an engine of love,
Clumsily ripped it's world apart.
Nightfall and O how everything's changed:
Nature and dimensions, re-arranged.
But unlike the stink crazed filth obsessed fly,
That celebration of the Gothic:
There are no songs, there are no buzz ballads;
No embarrassing moments and no bad manners,
Which is why the fly finds it difficult to get
Into butterfly circles and butterfly etiquette.
Yet behold! Pharaoh and his aphrodisiac
Filtered by moon powers
Into a gossamer-sighing Icarus,
A testament of beauty's charm,
Soured by the need to explain
The difference between sacred and profane,
As some 'dressed up' doctor with sulphurous eye
Sat under the stairs by a dim bulb to break
Sachets of sea salt and stare through glass jars
Of bright coloured inks, and investigate
Nature's larder of breathless experiments
And the periodic table of the elements.
And in attempting the cathode resurrection
With veins sighing for Frankenstein,
I saw those wings beat once, and no more
One Summer's day to the song of a lawn mower.
Yet life sat blinking far away, and Colin Clive
Was as silent as the grave:
There was no 'It's alive! It's alive! It's alive! '
But life's intrusion will wound it still
Soldiering over the centuries
To flicker like Caligari's ghost;
To sigh, measureless at moon's kiss
And yawn beneath some superior pulse
That beats full stops and nothing else!
poem by Barry Van Asten
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Jealous Lover
Lost and lonely
Clouds hide the sun
Out on the highway
It's all hit and run
Cold empty nights
Demons in my head
It's something I did
Or baby something you said
And it's hard to discover
That you're just another
Jealous Lover
And its so tough to take
But you're making no mistake
Jealous Lover
Oh Yeah
Don't want no other
Shades of red
Eyes of green
Sees black and white
And there's no in between
Ask me no questions
I'll tell you no lies
Still you keep thinking
That it's all alibis
And it's hard to discover
You're like any other
Jealous Lover
And you're saying I'm a fake
But you're making a mistake
Oh, no no
Every day it's the same
The faces and the names
How long can I go on
Playing this game
So I live for the nights
Soft candle lights
Today they love you
Then tomorrow they might
And it's hard to face
Someone else takes your place
Jealous Lover
And they're saying that's the brakes
But I got what it takes
Jealous Lover, ohh oh
Jealous Lover
Jealous Lover
Don't need no, no no
Don't need no other
Jealous Lover, yeah
Jealous Lover
song performed by by Rainbow
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
This Is Like Heaven To Me
Heaven is where we walk the streets made of gold,
And secrets of our hearts will be told.
The further we go the heavenly sunset we behold
Thinking of heaven where angles are ordained of God
Around the throne eternity is bound,
Wound in celestial mantle our old prayers are found.
Where you will never age, and see sunrise in the dark,
Waiting for the star and the dewy morning light,
Appearing so bright the night is soon forgotten.
Heaven wakes the stations in the entire kingdom,
A new enchantment waiting to be discovered,
A secret world lies between heaven and earth.
Walking daytime if you are immortal full of life,
On earth life is hell; our lives are like empty shell.
We carry misery from early birth to the deep earth,
Belief keeps us looking for heaven in the clouds,
In hope of humane rapture that will give peace.
And take in the dim view; to a place that is new
Where teenagers can dress like linen lilies.
Hiding a sermon you cannot walk to church with,
The sign makes the heart free from the pain of fear.
And the sky above them are laden with smoke,
Dreams which could be paradise move uneasy,
The next day life is different when they awake.
This is like heaven to me with love and dreams,
I will wait patiently until my destiny come.
They see the blue skies above and watch the smoke
Move gently through the clouds away from the crowd,
Gathering storm brings the rain that will quickly fall,
One of Gods messenger touches the Glover grass.
And soon the dark shadows past into the night,
Be reborn in the harvest of heavenly paradise.
On the street where I live there is a ladder to climb
Tall hedges and scented foliage blind the golden sun,
That sweet savor with leaves fluttering in the wind,
Turned the pages as they move below the window pane,
They seemed too changed and turn a different color.
And the heart looses gain and falls apart with pain,
The realm of this world tries to take control,
Angels tells a different story running from heaven.
My mind does not exist among the clouds
When the rain falls, blessings feel like I am forgiven
African violet sometimes your eyes are wet,
But the showers needs to fall on barren hearts,
Places we have been and the things we regret.
poem by Gerry Legister
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Spring Gathering
I'm wondering with my soul prepared feeling off and on
breeze within the springtime glare.I have met in my
mind a woman more fair-fairer than the bending green
of brooks, rare is her beauty never misunderstood.
Fairer than the mist over hills and mountains.
Fairer than sunshine on water when it sparkles.
Fairer than the sound of birds calling, mating.
Fairer than rapture of rivers running full force.
Fairer than trees with leaves of gold.
Fairer inside those dark brown eyes.
Fairer than raindrops falling from rooftops.
Fairer than a breathing bed of flowers.
Fairer than the most enchanting pools of the jungle.
Fairer than the sky in a radiant blue.
Fairer in heart than I could have ever imagined.
poem by William Blackman
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
A Night-Piece By Millet
Wind and sea and cloud and cloud-forsaking
Mirth of moonlight where the storm leaves free
Heaven awhile, for all the wrath of waking
Wind and sea.
Bright with glad mad rapture, fierce with glee,
Laughs the moon, borne on past cloud's o'ertaking
Fast, it seems, as wind or sail can flee.
One blown sail beneath her, hardly making
Forth, wild-winged for harbourage yet to be,
Strives and leaps and pants beneath the breaking
Wind and sea.
poem by Algernon Charles Swinburne
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!