Life
WE are born; we laugh; we weep;
We love; we droop; we die!
Ah! wherefore do we laugh or weep?
Why do we live, or die?
Who knows that secret deep?
Alas, not I!
Why doth the violet spring
Unseen by human eye?
Why do the radiant seasons bring
Sweet thoughts that quickly fly?
Why do our fond hearts cling
To things that die?
We toil,—through pain and wrong;
We fight,—and fly;
We love; we lose; and then, ere long,
Stone-dead we lie.
O life! is all thy song
“Endure and—die”?
poem by Barry Cornwall
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Related quotes
Alas! So All Things Now Do Hold Their Peace
Alas! so all things now do hold their peace,
Heaven and earth disturbed in nothing.
The beasts, the air, the birds their song do cease,
The night{:e}s chare the stars about doth bring.
Calm is the sea, the waves work less and less:
So am not I, whom love, alas, doth wring,
Bringing before my face the great increase
Of my desires, whereat I weep and sing
In joy and woe, as in a doubtful ease.
For my sweet thoughts sometime do pleasure bring,
But by and by the cause of my disease
Gives me a pang that inwardly doth sting,
When that I think what grief it is again
To live and lack the thing should rid my pain.
poem by Henry Howard
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Weep Not Nigeria
Weep not Nigeria,
for justice is in the offing.
Weep not Nigeria,
for your cries resonate and ring.
Weep not Nigeria,
It's time for your African spring.
Weep not Nigeria,
none shall usurp your role as king.
Weep not Nigeria,
for soon in ecstasy you'll sing.
Weep not Nigeria,
for to towering heights you'll cling.
Weep not Nigeria,
and soar atop the eagle's wing.
Weep not Nigeria,
for your patience will gladness bring.
Weep not Nigeria,
it's time to sing the ding dong song.
Weep not Nigeria,
for your misery will not be long.
Weep not Nigeria,
for you are numbered with the strong.
poem by Joseph C Ogbonna (11 July 2018)
Submitted by Joseph C Ogbonna
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Spring Song
A BLUE-BELL springs upon the ledge,
A lark sits singing in the hedge;
Sweet perfumes scent the balmy air,
And life is brimming everywhere.
What lark and breeze and bluebird sing,
Is Spring, Spring, Spring!
No more the air is sharp and cold;
The planter wends across the wold,
And, glad, beneath the shining sky
We wander forth, my love and I.
And ever in our hearts doth ring
This song of Spring, Spring!
For life is life and love is love,
'Twixt maid and man or dove and dove.
Life may be short, life may be long,
But love will come, and to its song
Shall this refrain for ever cling
Of Spring, Spring, Spring!
poem by Paul Laurence Dunbar
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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The Mourners
LOW she lies, who blest our eyes
Through many a sunny day;
She may not smile, she will not rise--
The life hath past away!
Yet there is a world of light beyond,
Where we neither die nor sleep--
She is there, of whom our souls were fond--
Then wherefore do we weep?
The heart is cold, whose thoughts were told
In each glance of her glad bright eye;
And she lies pale, who was so bright,
She scarce seemed made to die.
Yet we know that her soul is happy now,
Where the saints their calm watch keep;
That angels are crowning that fair young brow--
Then wherefore do we weep?
Her laughing voice made all rejoice,
Who caught the happy sound;
There was gladness in her very step,
As it lightly touched the ground.
The echoes of voice and step are gone;
There is silence still and deep:
Yet we know she sings by God's bright throne--
Then wherefore do we weep?
The cheek's pale tinge, the lid's dark fringe;
That lies like a shadow there,
Were beautiful in the eyes of all--
And her glossy golden hair!
But though that lid may never wake
From its dark and dreamless sleep,
She is gone where young hearts do not break--
Then wherefore do we weep?
That world of light with joy is bright,
This is a world of woe:
Shall we grieve that her soul hath taken flight,
Because we dwell below?
We will bury her under the mossy sod,
And one long bright tress we'll keep;
We have only given her back to God--
Ah! wherefore do we weep?
poem by Caroline Elizabeth Sarah Norton
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Weep Not My Love
Weep not for me when I am gone,
weep not for me as life is never long.
Weep not for me as you must live
and be ever strong.
Our love will last eternally
and when you need me, I will be there.
I will be that whisper in your ear,
that whisper that no one else can hear.
Weep not for me my love
you must be strong and live your life long.
Even though I am gone weep not for me
as this is a phase, we all one day must go through.
Though I go first, my love never fear
for when your time come I’ll be waiting here for you.
16 September 2009
poem by David Harris
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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To Primroses Filled With Morning Dew
Why do ye weep, sweet babes? can tears
Speak grief in you,
Who were but born
just as the modest morn
Teem'd her refreshing dew?
Alas, you have not known that shower
That mars a flower,
Nor felt th' unkind
Breath of a blasting wind,
Nor are ye worn with years;
Or warp'd as we,
Who think it strange to see,
Such pretty flowers, like to orphans young,
To speak by tears, before ye have a tongue.
Speak, whimp'ring younglings, and make known
The reason why
Ye droop and weep;
Is it for want of sleep,
Or childish lullaby?
Or that ye have not seen as yet
The violet?
Or brought a kiss
From that Sweet-heart, to this?
--No, no, this sorrow shown
By your tears shed,
Would have this lecture read,
That things of greatest, so of meanest worth,
Conceived with grief are, and with tears brought forth.
poem by Robert Herrick
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Open Your Heart
Tis' one life you have,
Open your heart to love.
Love your wife, your son,
Daughter, husband, or special one.
Friends never turn away-
Open your heart to love every day.
Your scars will be many;
Much pain there will be.
Knives will cut deep;
Your eyes will for years weep.
At times you will wonder,
Is it really worth it all?
To love, feel, and cry,
Or to raise walls and inside die?
The latter seems the safer,
But behind walls doth one falter.
For we were made to live,
To love, breathe, and give.
To hide behind the walls,
Slowly one falls.
Petrified till no longer a soul,
Just grey stone, dead and cold.
Never able to move beyond,
The wail of a heart break song.
Forever in the past,
Never in the future, this his cast.
Never the chance feel,
The warmth of love so real;
The closeness of a friend,
When you are facing the bitter end.
Just a life of reclusion,
Doomed to seclusion.
A life wasted, a life for nothing.
A life of pain and bluffing.
Woe to sad memory,
But happy ones will never flee.
To love and live,
Or to die all stiff.
The choice is all yours,
What will be your course?
Please please open your heart,
Though it may be oft torn apart.
For if you don't ever,
True life experience you will never.
Tis' one life you have:
Open your heart to love.
poem by Joses Tirtabudi
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Maybe Its Love
(written by annie roboff, beth nielsen chapman)
Everybodys heart aches
Every time it opens
You dont know if youll win or lose
You have to just let go
No I wasnt looking
Its funny how I found you
Just when I thought
Id live my life alone
Maybe its love
That I have longed for
Maybe its love
I should be strong for
Im tearing down the walls inside
I want to laugh, and cry and kiss
Maybe its love
I miss
Ive close my heart down
So many seasons
I didnt want to hurt again
I didnt want to try
So I turned myself to ice and stone
Said I dont need anyone
And nobody else
Would ever make me cry
Maybe its love
Ive run away from
Maybe its love
Bringing me back home
Im tearing down the walls inside
I want to laugh, and cry and kiss
Maybe its love I miss
So put your arms around me now
Hold me tight
Show me how
No one has ever loved me more
Ive waited for so long
Maybe its love
Maybe Im dreaming
Maybe its love
I can believe in
Im tearing down the walls inside
I want to laugh, and cry and kiss
Maybe its love
Maybe its love
Maybe its love
Like this
song performed by by Trisha Yearwood
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The Heart Of Joy
DEAR, do you sigh that your love may not stay with you,
Laugh with and play with you,
Weep with and pray with you,
All his life through?
Think, O my heart, if you never had found me,
Crept through the cere-clothes the world has wound round me,
What would you do?
Wide is the world, and so many would sigh for you,
Long for and cry for you,
Weep for and die for you,
You being you.
I only I, am the man you could sigh for,
Live for and suffer for, sorrow and die for,
Twenty lives through.
Think! Had I missed you! The world was so wide for us,
Traps on each side for us,
Nothing as guide for us,
Yet I and you
Found Life's great treasure, the last and the first, love;
Life's little things, Time and Space, do their worst, love!
What, after all, can they do?
poem by Edith Nesbit
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Corn Grinders
O little mouse, why dost thou cry
While merry stars laugh in the sky?
Alas! alas! my lord is dead!
Ah, who will ease my bitter pain?
He went to seek a millet-grain
In the rich farmer's granary shed;
They caught him in a baited snare,
And slew my lover unaware:
Alas! alas! my lord is dead.
O little deer, why dost thou moan,
Hid in thy forest-bower alone?
Alas! alas! my lord is dead!
Ah! who will quiet my lament?
At fall of eventide he went
To drink beside the river-head;
A waiting hunter threw his dart,
And struck my lover through the heart.
Alas! alas! my lord is dead.
O little bride, why dost thou weep
With all the happy world asleep?
Alas! alas! my lord is dead!
Ah, who will stay these hungry tears,
Or still the want of famished years,
And crown with love my marriage-bed?
My soul burns with the quenchless fire
That lit my lover's funeral pyre:
Alas! alas! my lord is dead.
poem by Sarojini Naidu
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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I Laugh So Greenly
i laugh so greenly in tree spirits
to spring me the balloon man
and whistled for them afar
and almost beyond
as i jumped away and sank
in almost total wilderness
and tried to think but could not
as i saw the ant so busy
yet could not tell
as all ants hurried
to wheresoever they dwell
i waved not as my feet sank
deep in the soils of the river bank
to sand me a foot
and shoot
no blank
much further out
and about
than you could actually mouth
me out
as i laugh so greenly without
fear but flashed around no corner
as i sat by the rocks in honor
of the shepherd and the donor
of life,
to not a stone by the sun; a loner
like not born yet,
been long on order
though so unknown to you,
could not bother
to roar on feelings of the other
as i faded so gentle
into the night for another
laugh so greenly with my eyes further
yet not so sure how yet but rather
for i knew not a man without purpose
nor do i now without a cause
neither of mine i not suppose
to assume a run across the most
of my thoughts to force
and seduced my eyes without cause
as i laugh(ed) so greenly my resource
steadily waving my eyes goodbye
to wake the next light; sweet lullaby
set my soul and mood so high
and laugh(ed) a dry tear on my eye
without a why
as i laugh(ed) so greenly for a while
poem by Onalethuso Petruss Ntema
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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The End Of Laughter
O never laugh again!
Laughter is dead,
Deep hiding in her grave,
A sacred thing.
O never laugh again,
Never take hands and run
Through the wild streets,
Or sing,
Glad in the sun:
For she, the immortal sweetness of all sweets,
Took laughter with her
When she went away
With sleep.
O never laugh again!
Ours but to weep,
Ours but to pray.
poem by Richard Le Gallienne
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Laugh
Words and music by
Philip margo, mitchell margo, henry medress and jay siegel
Evry face that I see is all wrapped up in frowns,
And unfortunately, it kind of gets me down.
Laugh,
cause the music is funny
Yeah, the bass sounds off-beat.
Aint that neat.
Laugh,
When you lose all your money,
Or you cant find your shoes
To cover your feet.
Its not so hard to see exactly what Im after.
Sometimes a tear should fall, but I require giggles and chuckles
Laugh,
When youre keepin a secret
And it seems to be known
By the rest of the world.
Laugh,
When you go to a party,
And you cant tell the boys
From the girls.
Every face that I see is all wrapped up in frowns
And unfortunately, it kind of gets me down.
Laugh,
At the things that are wrong.
If you thinks its this song,
Then laugh.
Then laugh.
Then laugh.
[repeat and fade]
song performed by by Monkees
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Hope Dieth: Hope Liveth
Strong are thine arms, O love, & strong
Thine heart to live, and love, and long;
But thou art wed to grief and wrong:
Live, then, and long, though hope be dead!
Live on, & labour thro’ the years!
Make pictures through the mist of tears,
Of unforgotten happy fears,
That crossed the time ere hope was dead.
Draw near the place where once we stood
Amid delight’s swift-rushing flood,
And we and all the world seemed good
Nor needed hope now cold and dead.
Dream in the dawn I come to thee
Weeping for things that may not be!
Dream that thou layest lips on me!
Wake, wake to clasp hope’s body dead!
Count o’er and o’er, and one by one
The minutes of the happy sun
That while agone on kissed lips shone,
Count on, rest not, for hope is dead.
Weep, though no hair’s breadth thou shalt move
The living Earth, the heaven above
By all the bitterness of love!
Weep and cease not, now hope is dead!
Sighs rest thee not, tears bring no ease,
Life hath no joy, and Death no peace:
The years change not, though they decrease,
For hope is dead, for hope is dead.
Speak, love, I listen: far away
I bless the tremulous lips, that say,
“Mock not the afternoon of day,
Mock not the tide when hope is dead!”
I bless thee, O my love, who say’st:
“Mock not the thistle-cumbered waste;
I hold Love’s hand, and make no haste
Down the long way, now hope is dead.
With other names do we name pain,
The long years wear our hearts in vain.
Mock not our loss grown into gain,
Mock not our lost hope lying dead.
Our eyes gaze for no morning-star,
No glimmer of the dawn afar;
Full silent wayfarers we are
Since ere the noon-tide hope lay dead.
Behold with lack of happiness
The master, Love, our hearts did bless
Lest we should think of him the less:
Love dieth not, though hope is dead!”
poem by William Morris
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Heart Of Steel
Build a fire a thousand miles away
to light my long way home
I ride a comet
My trail is long to stay
Silence is a heavy stone
I fight the world and take all they can give
There are times my heart hangs low
Born to walk against the wind
Born to hear my name
No matter where I stand I'm alone
Stand and fight
Live by your heart
Always one more try
I'm not afraid to die
Stand and fight
Say what you feel
Born with a heart of steel
Burn the bridge behind you
Leave no retreat
There's only one way home
Those who laugh and crowd the path
and cut each other's throats
Will fall like melting snow
They'll watch us rise with fire in our eyes
They'll bow their heads
Their hearts will hang low
Then we'll laugh and they will kneel
and know this heart of steel was
Too hard to break
Too hard to hold
Stand and fight
Live by your heart
Always one more try
I'm not afraid to die
Stand and fight
Say what you feel
Born with a heart of steel
song performed by by Manowar from Kings Of Metal
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Nughtingale And Cuckoo
Yes, nightingale and cuckoo! it was meet
That you should come together; for ye twain
Are emblems of the rapture and the pain
That in the April of our life compete,
Until we know not which is the more sweet,
Nor yet have learned that both of them are vain!
Yet wherefore, nightingale! break off thy strain,
While yet the cuckoo doth his call repeat?
Not so with me. To sweet woe did I cling
Long after echoing happiness was dead,
And so found solace. Now, alas! the sting!
Cuckoo and nightingale alike have fled;
Neither for joy nor sorrow do I sing,
And autumn silence gathers in their stead.
poem by Alfred Austin
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Where Have You Gone
Where have you gone
It's been so long
Winter's turn in to spring
And your still not with me
So far away , sweet yesterday
Love came round but couldn't stay
Where have you gone
Do you still care
Rainy April regrets
All this pain and sorrow
Let me find , some other kind
Some sweet love, that's right this time
Friends dear hearts all around me
But deep in my soul I'm cold as stone
Once true love found me
Now I'm so alone
Where have you gone
Where are you now
It's so hard to forget
All those magic moments
Still sing our song
Still holding on to love
Where have you gone
Friends dear hearts all around me
But deep in my soul I'm cold as stone
Once true love found me
Now I'm so alone
Where have you gone
Where are you now
It's so hard to forget
All those magic moments
I still sing our song
Still holding on to love
Where have you gone
song performed by by Barry Manilow
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Birthday Song
If I could say the things I feel, it wouldn't be the same
Some things are not spoken of, some things have no name
And though the words come hard to me, I'll say them just for you
For this is something rare for me this feeling is so new
You see I love the way you love me
Love the way you smile at me,
I love the way we live this life we're in
Long ago I heard the song that lovers sing to me
And through the days with each new phrase I hummed that melody
And all along I loved the song but I never learned it through
But since the day you came along, I've saved it just for you
You see I love the way you love me
Love the way you smile at me,
I love the way we live this life we're in
I don't believe in magic but I do believe in you
And when you say you believe in me
There's so much magic I can do
Now you see me now you don't watch me dive below
Deep down in your love lake where the sweet fish come and go
And I might sink and I might drown but death don't mean a thing
'Cause life continues right or wrong when I play this birthday song
I learned from you, and you can't even sing
song performed by by Don McLean
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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I Hate You Then I Love You
Id like to run away from you
But if I were to leave you I would die
Id like to break the chains you put
Around me
And yet Ill never try
No matter what you do you drive me
Crazy
Id rather be alone
But then I know my life would be so
Empty
As soon as you were gone
Impossible to live with you
But I could never live without you
For whatever you do / for whatever you
Do
I never, never, never
Want to be in love with anyone but you
You make me sad
You make me strong
You make me mad
You make me long for you / you make
Me long for you
You make me live
You make me die
You make me laugh
You make me cry for you / you make me
Cry for you
I hate you
Then I love you
Then I love you
Then I hate you
Then I love you more
For whatever you do
I never, never, never
Want to be in love with anyone but you
You treat me wrong
You treat me right
You let me be
You make me fight with you / I could
Never live without you
You make me high
You bring me down
You set me free
You hold me bound to you
I hate you
Then I love you
Then I love you
Then I hate you
Then I love you more / I love you more
For whatever you do / for whatever you
Do
I never, never, never
Want to be in love with anyone but you
I never, never, never
I never, never, never
I never, never, never
Want to be in love with anyone but you
But you
song performed by by Celine Dion
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Am I Evil?
Years of living peril and anguish cease
When evil was killed, by my senseless wrath
As his eyes closed and his heart decease
I smirked I smiled and innocently laughed
This man was evil and deserved to die
He made my sins look common and mundane
Deceiving all with his clandestine lie
Vulgarizing life that was holy he hath profane
The moisture of mankind as they woefully cry.
Over his sins, over the souls he doth steal
From loved ones whom love naught now
All the life of love, and its ardent zeal
This man took by the hand of death and how?
He killed, pillaged and with life he stripped
With rage in his eyes as red as fire
He strangled and with knife in hand ripped
The flesh of love, the flesh of desire
With no conscience to judge or heart to feel
This man was evil for evil in him doth be
The dead man, for death in him was real
And death all around him is all he did see…
But his wife sobs and his son doth weep
And in me I marvel at death and happy to kill
Does evil cry? No! than why doth people cry over evil
And me cry naught; did the devil tempt me?
Is evil like a disease, that is contagious and viral?
Hath evil infected me, could I evil, truelly be?
For they weep for an evil man
And no man weep for me, and me not weep
I am evil, for this man's evil doth evil be
in me in my will deep....
poem by Kevin Michael Murphy
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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