An Imitation Of Anacreon
PAINTER in Paphos and Cythera famed
Depict, I pray, the absent Iris' face.
Thou hast not seen the lovely nymph I've named;
The better for thy peace.--Then will I trace
For thy instruction her transcendent grace.
Begin with lily white and blushing rose,
Take then the Loves and Graces... But what good
Words, idle words? for Beauty's Goddess could
By Iris be replaced, nor one suppose
The secret fraud--their grace so equal shows.
Thou at Cythera couldst, at Paphos too,
Of the same Iris Venus form anew.
poem by La Fontaine
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Related quotes
The Love Sonnets Of Proteus. Part IV: Vita Nova: CII
THE VENUS OF MILO
What art thou? Woman? Goddess? Aphrodite?
Yet never such as thou from the cold foam
Of ocean, nor from cloudy heaven might come,
Who wast begotten on her bridal night
In passionate Earth's womb by Man's delight,
When Man was young. I cannot trace in thee
Time's handiwork. Say, rather, where is he
For whom thy face was red which is so white?
Thou standest ravished, broken, and thy face
Is writ with ancient passions. Thou art dumb
To my new love. Yet, whatsoe'er of good,
Of crime, of pride, of passion, or of grace
In woman is, thou, woman, hast in sum.
Earth's archetypal Eve. All Womanhood.
poem by Wilfrid Scawen Blunt
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Song From Amphitryon
Air Iris I love, and hourly I die,
But not for a lip, nor a languishing eye:
She's fickle and false, and there we agree,
For I am as false and as fickle as she.
We neither believe what either can say;
And, neither believing, we neither betray.
'Tis civil to swear, and say things of course;
We mean not the taking for better or worse.
When present, we love; when absent, agree:
I think not of Iris, nor Iris of me.
The legend of love no couple can find,
So easy to part, or so equally join'd.
poem by John Dryden
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Fair Iris I Love and Hourly I Die
Fair Iris I love and hourly I die,
But not for a lip nor a languishing eye:
She's fickle and false, and there I agree;
For I am as false and as fickle as she:
We neither believe what either can say;
And, neither believing, we neither betray.
'Tis civil to swear and say things, of course;
We mean not the taking for better or worse.
When present we love, when absent agree;
I think not of Iris, nor Iris of me:
The legend of love no couple can find
So easy to part, or so equally join'd.
poem by John Dryden
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Sonnet To George Romney, Esq. On His Picture Of Me In Crayons
Romney, expert infallibly to trace
On chart of canvas, not the form alone
And semblance, but, however faintly shown,
The mind's impression too on every face;
With strokes that time ought never to cease
Thou hast so pencilled mine, that though I own
The subject worthless, I have never known
The artist shining with superior grace.
But this I mark, -- that symptoms none of woe
In thy incomparable work appear.
Well -- I am satisfied it should be so,
Since, on maturer thought, the cause is clear
For in my looks what sorrow couldst thou see,
When I was Hayley's guest, and sat to thee?
poem by William Cowper
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
The Defence
Piensan los Enamorados
Que tienen los otros, los oios quebranta dos.
Why slightest thou what I approve?
Thou art no Peer to try my love,
Nor canst discern where her form lyes,
Unless thou saw'st her with my eyes.
Say she were foul and blacker than
The Night, or Sun-burnt African,
If lik't by me, tis I alone
Can make a beauty where was none;
For rated in my fancie, she
Is so as she appears to me.
But tis not feature, or a face,
That does my free election grace,
Nor is my liking onely led
By a well temperd white and red;
Could I enamour'd grow on those,
The Lilly and the blushing Rose
United in one stalk might be
As dear unto my thoughts as she,
But I look farther, and do find
A richer beauty in her mind;
Where something is so lasting fair,
As time or age cannot impair.
Had'st thou a perspective so cleere,
Thou could'st behold my object there;
When thou her vertues should'st espy,
Theyl'd force thee to confess that I
Had cause to like her, and learn thence
To love by judgment not by sence.
poem by Henry King
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Mystical Rose, Pray For Us!
O aptly named, Illustrious One!
Thou art that flower fair
That filled this vast and changeful world
With mystic perfume rare—
Shedding on all the balmy breath
Of countless virtues high,
Rising like fragrant odours rich,
To God’s far, beauteous sky.
Mystical Rose! O aptly named!
For, as ’mid brightest flowers
The lovely Rose unquestioned reigns
The Queen of Nature’s bowers,
So ’mid the daughters fair of Eve
Art thou the peerless One!
The chosen handmaid of the Lord!
The Mother of His Son!
Yes, He endowed thee with all gifts
Which could thy beauty grace;
And ne’er did sin, e’en for one hour,
Thy spotless soul deface,
For from the first thou had’st the power
God’s fav’ring love to win;
It was His will that thou should’st be
Conceived devoid of sin.
Oh, Mother dear, obtain for us
That we from evil flee;
Throughout this, fleeting life’s career
Mayst thou our model be!
Seek we to imitate the gifts
That thy pure soul adorn—
Sweet flower of beauty and of grace!
Fair Rose without a thorn!
poem by Rosanna Eleanor Leprohon
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Song XVIII. - Imitated from the French
Yes, these are the scenes where with Iris I stray'd,
But short was her sway for so lovely a maid!
In the bloom of her youth to a cloister she run,
In the bloom of her graces too fair for a nun!
Ill-grounded, no doubt, a devotion must prove,
So fatal to beauty, so killing to love!
Yes, these are the meadows, the shrubs, and the plains,
Once the scene of my pleasures, the scene of my pains;
How many soft moments I spent in this grove!
How fair was my nymph! and how fervent my love!
Be still though, my Heart! thine emotion give o'er;
Remember, the season of love is no more.
With her how I stray'd amid fountains and bowers
Or loiter'd behind, and collected the flowers!
Then breathless with ardour my fair one pursued,
And to think with what kindness my garland she view'd!
But be still, my fond Heart! this emotion give o'er;
Fain wouldst thou forget thou must love her no more.
poem by William Shenstone
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Song - Say, Lovely Dream
Say, lovely dream, where couldst thou find
Shadows to counterfeit that face?
Colors of this glorious kind
Come not from any mortal place.
In heaven itself thou sure wert drest
With that angel-like disguise;
Thus deluded am I blest,
And see my joy with closed eyes.
But, ah, this image is too kind
To be other than a dream!
Cruel Sacharissa's mind
Never put on that sweet extreme.
Fair dream, if thou intend'st me grace,
Change that heavenly face of thine;
Paint despised love in thy face,
And make it to appear like mine.
Pale, wan, and meager let it look,
With a pity-moving shape,
Such as wander by the brook
Of Lethe, or from graves escape.
Then to that matchless nymph appear,
In whose shape thou shinest so,
Softly in her sleeping ear,
With humble words express my woe.
Perhaps from greatness, state, and pride,
Thus surprised she may fall:
Sleep does disproportion hide,
And, death resembling, equals all.
poem by Edmund Waller
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Ode to Apollo. On An Inkglass Almost Dried In The Sun
Patron of all those luckless brains,
That, to the wrong side leaning,
Indite much metre with much pains,
And little or no meaning;
Ah why, since oceans, rivers, streams,
That water all the nations,
Pay tribute to thy glorious beams,
In constant exhalations;
Why, stooping from the noon of day,
Too covetous of drink,
Apollo, hast thou stolen away
A poet’s drop of ink?
Upborne into the viewless air,
It floats a vapour now,
Impell’d through regions dense and rare,
By all the winds that blow.
Ordain’d perhaps, ere summer flies,
Combined with millions more,
To form an iris in the skies,
Though black and foul before.
Illustrious drop! and happy then
Beyond the happiest lot,
Of all that ever pass’d my pen,
So soon to be forgot!
Phœbus, if such be thy design,
To place it in thy bow,
Give wit, that what is left may shine
With equal grace below.
poem by William Cowper
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Eye Can't Lie!
Non verbal signals, Understand the pupils,
When these are bigger, smaller and normal,
One is attracted to another, the iris open wider,
Black grape balls in the white eye balls glitter.
Look at the eyes and the eyes don't lie,
When the pupils are shrunk to the beat,
Of sorrow and sadness, though have a false smile,
Eyes speak thousand of mute words,
To show the expression of their minds,
When we are happy these are dilated,
When we are sad these are constricted,
When we are intoxicated and feel happy and sad,
These are either dilated or constricted,
As if the iris controls the light to control our emotion,
When we are lifeless, the eyes still speak the truth,
Pupils are dilated as if the Iris found the truth in light.
When we are dead, the pupils are big,
As If the happiness is found in that last breath.
poem by Veeraiyah Subbulakshmi
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Eros
Why hast thou nothing in thy face?
Thou idol of the human race,
Thou tyrant of the human heart,
The flower of lovely youth that art;
Yea, and that standest in thy youth
An image of eternal Truth,
With thy exuberant flesh so fair,
That only Pheidias might compare,
Ere from his chaste marmoreal form
Time had decayed the colours warm;
Like to his gods in thy proud dress,
Thy starry sheen of nakedness.
Surely thy body is thy mind,
For in thy face is nought to find,
Only thy soft unchristen’d smile,
That shadows neither love nor guile,
But shameless will and power immense,
In secret sensuous innocence.
O king of joy, what is thy thought?
I dream thou knowest it is nought,
And wouldst in darkness come, but thou
Makest the light where’er thou go.
Ah yet no victim of thy grace,
None who e’er long’d for thy embrace,
Hath cared to look upon thy face.
poem by Robert Seymour Bridges
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Holy Sonnet IV: Oh my black soul!
Oh my black soul! now art thou summoned
By sickness, death's herald, and champion;
Thou art like a pilgrim, which abroad hath done
Treason, and durst not turn to whence he is fled;
Or like a thief, which till death's doom be read,
Wisheth himself delivered from prison,
But damned and haled to execution,
Wisheth that still he might be imprisoned.
Yet grace, if thou repent, thou canst not lack;
But who shall give thee that grace to begin?
Oh make thy self with holy mourning black,
And red with blushing, as thou art with sin;
Or wash thee in Christ's blood, which hath this might
That being red, it dyes red souls to white.
poem by John Donne
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
The Daughter Of Iris
Would anyone notice if the She ran away?
They would just turn and look the other way.
The People would ask why had the Daughter of Iris gone?
They would say nay she has not left,
but secretly They knew she had left with dismay.
They, to dignified to admit,
They had watched Her fall away.
They were there watching as she strayed, watching her fall away.
They said to the People nay she is here to stay.
But they knew she fell there and where she now lay.
The Daughter of Iris lies there at an early grave.
The Daughter of Iris is here to stay.
poem by Lucyfer Jade
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Sonnet 40: Take all my loves, my love, yea, take them all
Take all my loves, my love, yea, take them all;
What hast thou then more than thou hadst before?
No love, my love, that thou mayst true love call;
All mine was thine, before thou hadst this more.
Then if for my love, thou my love receivest,
I cannot blame thee, for my love thou usest;
But yet be blamed, if thou thy self deceivest
By wilful taste of what thy self refusest.
I do forgive thy robbery, gentle thief,
Although thou steal thee all my poverty;
And yet love knows it is a greater grief
To bear love's wrong, than hate's known injury.
Lascivious grace, in whom all ill well shows,
Kill me with spites; yet we must not be foes.
poem by William Shakespeare
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Holy Sonnet 4
O, my black soul, now thou art summoned
By sickness, Death's herald and champion;
Thou'rt like a pilgrim, which abroad hath done
Treason, and durst not turn to whence he's fled;
Or like a thief, which till death's doom be read,
Wisheth himself deliver'd from prison,
But damn'd and haled to execution,
Wisheth that still he might be imprisoned.
Yet grace, if thou repent, thou canst not lack;
But who shall give thee that grace to begin?
O, make thyself with holy mourning black,
And red with blushing, as thou art with sin;
Or wash thee in Christ's blood, which hath this might,
That being red, it dyes red souls to white.
poem by John Donne from Holy Sonnets
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
Vote! | Copy!
Who Are We Trying To Fool?
Iris
I like to think my heart is just a muscle
A muscle that Ive learned to control
I figured, hell, one harmless midnight tussle
With you would rest quite easy on my soul
Now I see youre a tres, tres goddamn charmer
An actress is taught to be cool
But who am I trying to fool?
Paperman
Id like to toast your firm determination
But human natures got the best of me
Ive never forced myself upon a lady
Iris
Youre about as subtle as artillery
Paperman
Ive been here before and I have to admit
That I cant keep my cool
Who are we trying to fool?
Who are we trying to fool?
Paperman dont look for me to be your savior
Iris no good can come from this behavior
Sheila
This aint no mystery, look at our history
Its just another wild caribbean night
The rum and drums just bring out whats in us
Temptations been here since that very first bite
Who are they tryin to fool?
Who are they tryin to fool?
They should forget it, theyll both regret it
He wants a push, she needs a shove
Hes got a good wife, she hides a dark life
Fuel for combustion ? anger and love
Who are they tryin to fool?
Who are they tryin to fool?
Who are they tryin to fool?
Paperman
Life is for most of us one long postponement
Iris
If we think too much I guess well miss our chance
Paperman
Its our time, our night, our island, not our future
Iris its not the whole tamale, just one dance
Duet
So who are we trying to fool?
Who are we trying to fool?
Lets break all of those goddamn kinja rules
song performed by by Jimmy Buffett
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
This is heaven to no one else but me
In this place
I am safe
Safe from other opinions
The expectance to have courage and grace
Here in this place
I can be afraid
Of the words I want to say
But never will
In this place
I can be honest to my heart
I can’t lie and say I’m fine
In this place called heaven
The heaven that is only mine.
A place of broken grace and
The place of unknown time.
The title of this poem is a copy of the lyric from elsewhere by sara mclaughlin.(sorry if spelled incorrectly)
poem by Dying Iris
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
To his Mistress
IF he that erst the form so lively drew
Of Venus' face, triumph'd in painter's art ;
Thy Father then what glory did ensue,
By whose pencil a Goddess made thou art.
Touched with flame that figure made some rue,
And with her love surprised many a heart.
There lack'd yet that should cure their hot desire :
Thou canst inflame and quench the kindled dire.
poem by Henry Howard
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Her Beautiful Eye
In thine eye, my island, my love's recluse
Where my heart stops to enjoy thy light
And eat thy beauties cloying fruits
And rest in the iris of tender night
Only seen by thy gratifying sight
In mourning I bath with thine tears
Drenched in sorrow I take flight
And search for thy internal peers
An orchid of orange, in my sight appears
Small sinuous lines do I trace
In the soil of thine iridescent honey
Illustrious in light's blessing grace.
Thy soil changes like the mood of thine face
From a honey brown to murky gray
When clouds form and it's not to sunny
For your eyes to beam in bright day.
For loves salvation, to the sun I pray.
To dry thine tears so thy honey may grow
And forever on thine eye my love can play
In its glisten and in its glow.
poem by Kevin Michael Murphy
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Little Thanks For My Dentist.
thanks for giving pain for a while,
then by god's grace, you restored my smile.
thanks for being so patient & mild,
when i behaved just like a child.