Thomas Hood
The man who cloaked his bitterness within
This winding-sheet of puns and pleasantries,
God never gave to look with common eyes
Upon a world of anguish and of sin:
His brother was the branded man of Lynn;
And there are woven with his jollities
The nameless and eternal tragedies
That render hope and hopelessness akin.
We laugh, and crown him; but anon we feel
A still chord sorrow-swept,—a weird unrest
And thin dim shadows home to midnight steal,
As if the very ghost of mirth were dead—
As if the joys of time to dream had fled,
Or sailed away with Ines to the West.
poem by Edwin Arlington Robinson
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Related quotes
Fair Ines
O saw ye not fair Ines?
She 's gone into the West,
To dazzle when the sun is down,
And rob the world of rest:
She took our daylight with her,
The smiles that we love best,
With morning blushes on her cheek,
And pearls upon her breast.
O turn again, fair Ines,
Before the fall of night,
For fear the Moon should shine alone,
And stars unrivall'd bright;
And blessèd will the lover be
That walks beneath their light,
And breathes the love against thy cheek
I dare not even write!
Would I had been, fair Ines,
That gallant cavalier,
Who rode so gaily by thy side,
And whisper'd thee so near!
Were there no bonny dames at home,
Or no true lovers here,
That he should cross the seas to win
The dearest of the dear?
I saw thee, lovely Ines,
Descend along the shore,
With bands of noble gentlemen,
And banners waved before;
And gentle youth and maidens gay,
And snowy plumes they wore:
It would have been a beauteous dream,—
If it had been no more!
Alas, alas! fair Ines,
She went away with song,
With Music waiting on her steps,
And shoutings of the throng;
But some were sad, and felt no mirth,
But only Music's wrong,
In sounds that sang Farewell, farewell,
To her you've loved so long.
Farewell, farewell, fair Ines!
That vessel never bore
So fair a lady on its deck,
Nor danced so light before,—
Alas for pleasure on the sea,
And sorrow on the shore!
The smile that bless'd one lover's heart
Has broken many more!
poem by Thomas Hood
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Stanzas
'T is sweet to think of days gone by,
When life and all its charms were new,
And seem'd as bright to childhood's eye,
As morning's liquid gems of dew.
To think of joys that long have fled,
Of youthful hopes indulged in vain,
Of feelings waken'd from the dead,
And sorrows that have ceased to pain.
To let the thoughts excursive rove,
In many a wild prophetic dream,
To pour the prayer for those we love
And feel that we are dear to them—
To think of friends we fondly loved,
Who calmly now in darkness sleep,
By all our joys and griefs unmoved—
To think with soften'd breast and weep!
Oh! well such moments can repay,
For lingering hours of darker thought,
When hope has bent ‘neath sorrow's sway,
And feeling is with anguish fraught.
poem by Elizabeth Margaret Chandler from Poetical Works (1836)
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
Vote! | Copy!
West End Girls
(....forever)
Sometimes youre better off dead
Theres gun in your hand and its pointing at your head
You think youre mad, too unstable
Kicking in chairs and knocking down tables
In a restaurant in a west end town
Call the police, theres a madman around
Running down underground to a dive bar
In a west end town
In a west end town, a dead end world
The east end boys and west end girls
In a west end town, a dead end world
The east end boys and west end girls
West end girls
Too many shadows, whispering voices
Faces on posters, too many choices
If, when, why, what?
How much have you got?
Have you got it, do you get it, if so, how often?
And which do you choose, a hard or soft option?
(how much do you need? )
In a west end town, a dead end world
The east end boys and west end girls
In a west end town, a dead end world
The east end boys and west end girls
West end girls
West end girls
(how much do you need? )
In a west end town, a dead end world
The east end boys and west end girls
Oooh west end town, a dead end world
East end boys, west end girls
West end girls
Youve got a heart of glass or a heart of stone
Just you wait till I get you home
Weve got no future, weve got no past
Here today, built to last
In every city, in every nation
From lake geneva to the finland station
(how far have you been? )
In a west end town, a dead end world
The east end boys and west end girls
A west end town, a dead end world
East end boys, west end girls
West end girls
West end girls
West end girls
(how far have you been? )
Girls
East end boys
And west end girls
And west end girls
And west end girls
East end boys
The west end girls
The west end boys
And west end girls
The west end girls
The west end boys
The west end girls
song performed by by Pet Shop Boys
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
Ballad Of Carol Lynn
Loving you has gotten weird
You'll see the sun hanging low down by your window
And all the rain left in the world
Won't bring you home again
Oh, Carol Lynn
And trusting you has gotten strange
You'll close the door when the cold has gotten in
And all the love left in the world
Won't keep you warm again
Oh, Carol Lynn
When you need a friend to be there for you
I won't be one who will help you out
And when you need someone who can let you in
You can count me out
Oh, Carol Lynn
When your life has worn you out
You'll have the past left for you to think about
And all the money in the world
Can't take you back again
Oh, Carol Lynn
Oh, Carol Lynn
song performed by by Whiskeytown
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
A Wandering Star
You filled the aching longing
Of a lonely wandering star
You bridged a yawning chasm
When you saw me from afar
I heard your cry from darkness
And the blackness of the night
You cried ' I've come to set you free.'
'I've come to give you sight.'
What could fill this aching longing?
What could bridge this vast expanse?
What could render sight to blind?
And cause dead feet to dance
Could hopelessness be turned to hope?
Could darkness turn to light?
Could sin be gone and sting no more?
And end this endless night
And soon enough I found it so
In Christ my risen King
The darkness fled from my lonely heart
A heart that now can sing
And hopelessness gave place to hope
His joy now fills my soul
The chasm bridged, the darkness light
His will became my only goal
So thank you Lord, you gave me sight
When you saw me from afar
You forgave my sins and set me free
No longer now a wandering star
poem by Frank McEleny
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
I Am You And You Are Me
We are as free as free can be
A construct of mentality
And if I can be you
And you can be me
We could walk a grand eternity.
Would you agree?
Yesterday's forgetting and tomorrows in the way
We are at odds with ourselves, chaos enthralling.
Order and reason long lost callings.
Join the big river harp in singing
Join the slide into blues and more
Each door a world revealing
Each solemn chord is somehow pleasing
As I cast myself from the shadows of my mind.
All is mine the world’s remembrance
Oblivion beckons in the corner of our eyes
No time for sinking now!
Our ship still fit to sail
Let us cast alongside the west wind
At the mercy of our shipmates
At the mercy of our captains sanity.
What if we're to mutiny?
A vessel of vagabonds, the great unwashed.
I fear our lungs more blackened than our feet.
Here to raise a flag our own, crimson ivy crawling.
And from the skin of tarmac serpent my feet have scaled
Never to try and therefore never to fail.
Let us rummage our pockets once more
Let us find a new door into a world evolving
Hope in hopelessness. Free of restlessness.
Free from the world revolving.
I know what I am. At least I think I do.
I believe that you are me
I believe that I am you
I guess I am just filling space.
I think I am alone
I feel at home in life
The universe experiencing itself.
poem by David Lacey
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
After Reading O'Neills's 'Long Day's Journey Into Night
This house in our home
Of grief and tears
Is filled with foam
Of spoiled kids
After Depression years
A father's dream
A sister's scream
A brother's cry
The dream is dead
The mother's sigh
The dream is alive
But our love is dead
Another brother said
The flowers bloom
Let them bloom
Let them hide our gloom
Then he fled.
poem by M.L. Squier
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Hunger
Your stomach stretched thin
Your rib cage pronounced
A bewildered gaze tell your story
Where are your parents?
Where are your friends?
You are dying from hunger
And there are no outstretched hands
You were dealt losing cards
Although you played to win
Some will say it's because you sin
On your back you lay
Hands on belly
Dead but breathing still
What type of life you lived?
Have you ever smiled?
Ever laughed uncontrollably
Because you were filled with joy?
Ever been out on the town?
If you did it does not show
Your body does not tell
Of happy times
It says grief, loneliness, abandonment
And pain
Ever gazed at the sky?
Dreamed of greatness and significance?
A time without lack
Or bitterness?
Maybe so but your body disagrees
Hunger, hunger is what I see
What if you could dream again?
Hope again and laugh?
Would you?
Could you?
If you are going to die anyway
Why not just laugh?
Laugh uncontrollably
This is your last hour
Hunger wins
Cannot receive food now
Cannot digest
Thirst cannot be quenched now
So laugh
Laugh for the first time
Laugh!
poem by Buxton Shippy
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
A Psalm of Hope
When the world beats
the rhythms of joy and sorrow,
when our hearts keep the hope
to light the dark shadows,
when our hands touch the strings
for our common song,
then I know there is a way to go:
a way to peace
a way to hope
a way to light.
When a child is caressed
by love and kindness
and a stranger is welcomed
by our hands of faith,
when each moment bears
the seed of a bright new day,
then I know there`s a dream
to find and rebuild:
a dream for peace
a dream for hope
a dream for love.
When pain in our life
numbs our senses
and the will to survive
seems extinguished,
yet a ray of hope
comes shining through,
then I know there's a place to go:
a world of peace
a world of light
a world of love.
poem by Elizabeth Padillo Olesen
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Night.
The wings of Evening, spread like phantom sails
Athwart the waning west,
Now as the last thin streak of crimson fails,
Seem as with sleep possessed.
Now hope is changed to memory, and time
Becomes eternity,
As thought were chaunting to a runic rhyme
In some old mystery.
The shadows deepen, and the Night's weird stir
Seems like a spirit still
To tremble in the silence, as with her
Death walked invisible.
The heart can ken, e'en like an echo dead,
The eerie things they say
Who have come from a coast where none may tread
Within the dream of Day.
Night and her paramour — the last of things
That touch the soul with fear,
As that which deems that it is deathless clings
To its own shadow here.
poem by Robert Crawford
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Ghosts
There are ghosts in the room.
As I sit here alone, from the dark corners there
They come out of the gloom,
And they stand at my side and they lean on my chair.
There's the ghost of a Hope
That lighted my days with a fanciful glow.
In her hand is the rope
That strangled her life out. Hope was slain long ago.
But her ghost comes to-night,
With its skeleton face and expressionless eyes,
And it stands in the light,
And mocks me, and jeers me with sobs and with sighs.
There's the ghost of a Joy,
A frail, fragile thing, and I prized it too much,
And the hands that destroy
Clasped it close, and it died at the withering touch.
There's the ghost of a Love,
Born with joy, reared with hope, died in pain and unrest,
But he towers above
All the others... this ghost: yet a ghost at the best.
I am weary, and fain
Would forget all these dead: but the gibbering host
Make my struggle in vain,
In each shadowy corner there lurketh a ghost.
poem by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
The Burial Of The Poet
In the old churchyard of his native town,
And in the ancestral tomb beside the wall,
We laid him in the sleep that comes to all,
And left him to his rest and his renown.
The snow was falling, as if Heaven dropped down
White flowers of Paradise to strew his pall;--
The dead around him seemed to wake, and call
His name, as worthy of so white a crown.
And now the moon is shining on the scene,
And the broad sheet of snow is written o'er
With shadows cruciform of leafless trees,
As once the winding-sheet of Saladin
With chapters of the Koran; but, ah! more
Mysterious and triumphant signs are these.
poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
The Four Places Of Sorrow
There is sorrow for me in the North, where the black wind blows,
(Hush, O Wind of the dirges, O Voice of the restless dead!)
The ache of its cruel keening thro' my heart like an arrow goes,
I see in the tossing waters the sheen of a dear bright head.
There is sorrow for me in the South, where the white wind sings,
(Hush, O Wind of all lovers, crooning a laugh and a cry!)
On the pain of a dream love-haunted breaks the music of wings,
Seagulls, sweeping and swaying, saw ye my dead drift by?
There is sorrow for me in the East, where the red wind burns,
(Hush, O Wind of remorse, O Wind of the scourging flame!)
Under its slow cold dawning the soul of the drowned returns
And wan, in the startled daybreak, a ghost from the sea he came.
There is sorrow for me in the West, where the brown wind raves,
(Hush, O Wind from the bogs, O memory-freighted Wind!)
He is spindrift hither and thither, sport of unweary waves:
Would that my heart were close on his heart, my eyes on his eyes were blind!
poem by Anna Johnston MacManus
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
To a friend, on being asked for some verses
I thought the Soul of Song had made
This heart of mine her sepulchre;
For all her golden dreams had fled,
And I could win no note from her.
But when for thee thou bid'st her sing,
That spell dissolves her icy chain;
She slowly plumes her drooping wing,
And strikes her shattered chords again.
For more than lifeless would she be,
If thou shouldst bid her wake in vain;
And lost her chords, if still for thee
She could not wake one living strain.
For thee -- that hours of deep distress,
And days of gloom with kindness lit,
Till half I blessed the bitterness
That gave me thee to sweeten it.
For thee -- that when, despairing long,
I said, "No friend has earth for me,"
Didst bid the tones die on my tongue,
And I could utter, "only thee."
For thee -- that when my mother earth
Shall call me to her sheltering breast,
Of all I know wilt weep alone
Above my nameless place of rest.
But see! her wings refuse to fly;
Her chords are harsh from silence long;
Alas! thy gentle sorcery
Hath summoned but the ghost of Song.
She hovers o'er her living tomb,
She seeks once more her grave and chain,
As spectres haunt the midnight gloom:
Sweet friend, awake her not again.
If o'er the wind harp's gentle strings
The threatening tempest rudely flies,
It does not wake more thrilling strains --
The chords are rent, the music dies.
Thus is my harp, thus is my song --
I woo in vain its sweetness fled,
The storms have swept the chords too long,
The music of my soul is dead.
poem by Anne Lynch Botta from Poems (1848)
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
Vote! | Copy!
Poem To A Stoner....2
I had a dream
this dream it was so real
but a dream which i could feel
and my broken heart this dream began to heal
because moments from love it began to steal.
i had a dream which felt so real
i had a dream wich gave me emotion to feel
i had a dream, a dream of you
this dream seemed to be my only clue
this deam was a dream of me and you,
maybe my dream was not really a dream
but becase i closed my eyes a dream is what you seemed
so i took my clue.
that clue being you.
and as iopened my eyes i saw the dream
the dream of me and you
poem by Maneshree Govender
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
The Christmas Of 1888
Low in the east, against a white, cold dawn,
The black-lined silhouette of the woods was drawn,
And on a wintry waste
Of frosted streams and hillsides bare and brown,
Through thin cloud-films, a pallid ghost looked down,
The waning moon half-faced!
In that pale sky and sere, snow-waiting earth,
What sign was there of the immortal birth?
What herald of the One?
Lo! swift as thought the heavenly radiance came,
A rose-red splendor swept the sky like flame,
Up rolled the round, bright sun!
And all was changed. From a transfigured world
The moon's ghost fled, the smoke of home-hearths curled
Up the still air unblown.
In Orient warmth and brightness, did that morn
O'er Nain and Nazareth, when the Christ was born,
Break fairer than our own?
The morning's promise noon and eve fulfilled
In warm, soft sky and landscape hazy-hilled
And sunset fair as they;
A sweet reminder of His holiest time,
A summer-miracle in our winter clime,
God gave a perfect day.
The near was blended with the old and far,
And Bethlehem's hillside and the Magi's star
Seemed here, as there and then,--
Our homestead pine-tree was the Syrian palm,
Our heart's desire the angels' midnight psalm,
Peace, and good-will to men!
poem by John Greenleaf Whittier
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
The Poets
O ye dead Poets, who are living still
Immortal in your verse, though life be fled,
And ye, O living Poets, who are dead
Though ye are living, if neglect can kill,
Tell me if in the darkest hours of ill,
With drops of anguish falling fast and red
From the sharp crown of thorns upon your head
Ye were not glad your errand to fulfill?
Yes; for the gift and ministry of Song
Have something in them so divinely sweet,
It can assuage the bitterness of wrong;
Not in the clamour of the crowded street,
Not in the shouts and plaudits of the throng,
But in ourselves, are triumph and defeat.
poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
The Poets
O ye dead Poets, who are living still
Immortal in your verse, though life be fled,
And ye, O living Poets, who are dead
Though ye are living, if neglect can kill,
Tell me if in the darkest hours of ill,
With drops of anguish falling fast and red
From the sharp crown of thorns upon your head
Ye were not glad your errand to fulfill?
Yes; for the gift and ministry of Song
Have something in them so divinely sweet,
It can assuage the bitterness of wrong;
Not in the clamour of the crowded street,
Not in the shouts and plaudits of the throng,
But in ourselves, are triumph and defeat.
poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Winding Road
Written by tiffany and nancy bryan
Ive been down many roads
Sometimes life can be unkind
I didnt wonder where Id go
Didnt know what I might find
What you got was not expected
And when you feel that time is running out on you
Chorus:
The winding road that takes me home
Im going there someday I know
The winding road that takes me home to you
Is there beneath the shadows
The winding road
Memories of the love we had
Never fade away
Tears of joy for the promises
That will come again someday
When you walked out it was unexpected
Im trying to find my way back to you
Chorus
The winding road
The truth can leave you breathless
And the truth can set you free
Ive got all these questions
Living inside of me, inside of me
Chorusx2
The winding road
The winding road
The winding road
song performed by by Tiffany
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
Emotional
loneliness seeps through my bones,
wondering,
there is no hope,
screaming sorrow in my brain,
hopelessness,
all in vain,
come with sorrow,
equals pain,
emptiness all in my head,
wondering,
when ill be dead,
broke my bones,
and,
bled me dry,
I just hope,
nobody saw me cry,
carelessness in my blood,
i am now,
face down in mud,
cornered in my mind,
restlessness,
i have now,
run out of time.
poem by Alicia Roseberry
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!