Lines.—Why look'd I on that fatal line
Why look'd I on that fatal line?
Why did I pray that page to see?
Too well I knew no word of thine
Was fraught with aught but pain to me.
I should have known, I should have thought
The fleeting hope would soon decay!
So oft the gleam of joy it brought
Has only shone to pass away.
Thy hand had traced the words I read;
And in that dream I wandered on—
Forgot their cherish'd spell was fled,
Thy vows no more—thy fondness gone.
I lived whole years of joy again
I dwelt on each recorded vow;
Oh! tender was their meaning then—
Alas! they have no meaning now!
poem by Louisa Stuart Costello
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Related quotes
One Life
One life, is like one prayer, one love to share.
One thought, one dream. one world, one meaning.
A man thats lost everything holds his faith in his heart.
Speaks to God of broken dreams, never wondering why when nothings heard ... one prayer.
A woman cries in frustration, her man holds it inside.
They forgot what got them here, the vows they promised to stand by ... one love.
One life is like one prayer, one love to share.
One thought, one dream. one world, one meaning.
It dont cost much for you to get to heaven, you just got to say your prayers.
If you want to stand with your saviors, you better learn how to bow your head.
Now bend your knees and bruise the earth and pray.
Heed the cries of the war child. mothers hold them to their breasts.
Fathers fight an enemy and fear breeds unto itself ... one world.
One life, is like one prayer, one love to share.
One thought, one dream. one world, one meaning. one life ... one
song performed by by Queensryche
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Hope & Pray
I see the headlights
Shining on the wall
It seems Ive got a visitor
Who is kind enough to call
And I hope and I pray, everyday
I hope and I pray its you.
I thought I heard some footsteps
On the floor
And tell me am I dreaming
Or is it someone at the door
cos I hope and I pray
Everyday
I hope and pray, its you
Autumn turns to winter
And winter turns to spring
I only know the passing of the days
And if you were to ask me
About the meaning of my life
It kind of lost its meaning
On the day you went away
You know that when it comes
To matters of the heart
I thought I had it covered
But its tearing me apart
And I hope and I pray
Everyday
I hope and I pray, its you.
Autumn turns to winter
And winter turns to spring
The summer sun still lingers
In my head
If it wasnt for the letters
That you wrote me from the heart
Id sometime wonder baby
If I dreamed it all instead
You see Ive got to feel your hand
Upon my face
I need to get the calling
To rejoin the human race
And I hope and I pray
Every day
I hope and I pray, its you.
song performed by by Moody Blues
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Truly, Truly, This Is The End
They say deaths an open door
Into another room
Within the city of the dead
(Our New Kingdom)
They say we walk like dreams
Sharing the same breath
Seeing through the same eyes
(A collective spirit)
As we pray (As we pray)
On his grave (On his grave)
Or words fall and decay (And decay)
As we pray (As we pray)
On his grave (On his grave)
Or words fall and decay (And decay)
They say the Earth it gives no peace
Nor does it take away
We all survive the grave
(Unfortunate eternal)
They say that in times past
A king walked in the sky
Until dethroned by man
(Tribe of Judas)
As we pray (As we pray)
On his grave (On his grave)
Or words fall and decay (And decay)
As we pray (As we pray)
On his grave (On his grave)
Or words fall and decay (And decay)
Truly, truly, this is the end
Truly, truly, this is the end
Truly, truly, this is the end
Truly, truly, this is the end
It's not the same
I'm plagued with pain and I can't let go
It's not the same
I'm plagued with pain and I can't let go
It's not the same
I'm plagued with pain and I can't let go
It's not the same
I'm plagued with pain and I can't let go
This is the end
song performed by by Zao
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The End Of The Chapter
Ah, yes, the chapter ends to-day;
We even lay the book away;
But oh, how sweet the moments sped
Before the final page was read!
We tried to read between the lines
The Author's deep-concealed designs;
But scant reward such search secures;
You saw my heart and I saw yours.
The Master,--He who penned the page
And bade us read it,--He is sage:
And what he orders, you and I
Can but obey, nor question why.
We read together and forgot
The world about us. Time was not.
Unheeded and unfelt, it fled.
We read and hardly knew we read.
Until beneath a sadder sun,
We came to know the book was done.
Then, as our minds were but new lit,
It dawned upon us what was writ;
And we were startled. In our eyes,
Looked forth the light of great surprise.
Then as a deep-toned tocsin tolls,
A voice spoke forth: 'Behold your souls!'
I do, I do. I cannot look
Into your eyes: so close the book.
But brought it grief or brought it bliss,
No other page shall read like this!
poem by Paul Laurence Dunbar
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Imitation
A dark unfathomed tide
Of interminable pride -
A mystery, and a dream,
Should my early life seem;
I say that dream was fraught
With a wild and waking thought
Of beings that have been,
Which my spirit hath not seen,
Had I let them pass me by,
With a dreaming eye!
Let none of earth inherit
That vision of my spirit;
Those thoughts I would control,
As a spell upon his soul:
For that bright hope at last
And that light time have past,
And my worldly rest hath gone
With a sigh as it passed on:
I care not though it perish
With a thought I then did cherish
poem by Edgar Allan Poe
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The Reply Of The Fountain
HOW deep within each human heart,
A thousand treasured feelings lie;
Things precious, delicate, apart,
Too sensitive for human eye.
Our purest feelings, and our best,
Yet shrinking from the common view;
Rarely except in song exprest,
And yet how tender, and how true!
They wake, and know their power, when eve
Flings on the west its transient glow;
Yet long dark shadows dimly weave
A gloom round some green path below.
Who dreams not then—the young dream on—
Life traced at hope's delicious will;
And those whose youth of heart is gone,
Perhaps have visions dearer still.
They rise, too, when expected least,
When gay yourself, amid the gay,
The heart from revelry hath ceased
To muse o'er hours long past away.
And who can think upon the past
And not weep o'er it as a grave?
How many leaves life's wreath has cast!
What lights have sunk beneath the wave!
But most these deep emotions rise
When, drooping o'er our thoughts alone,
Our former dearest sympathies
Come back, and claim us for their own.
Such mood is on the maiden's mind
Who bends o'er yon clear fount her brow;
Long years, that leave their trace behind,
Long years, are present with her now.
Yet, once before she asked a sign
From that wild fountain's plaintive song;
And silvery, with the soft moonshine,
Those singing waters past along.
It was an hour of beauty, made
For the young heart's impassioned mood,
For love of its sweet self afraid,
For hope that colours solitude.
'Alas,' the maiden sighed, 'since first
I said, Oh fountain, read my doom;
What vainest fancies have I nurst,
Of which I am myself the tomb!
'The love was checked—the hope was vain,
I deemed that I could feel no more;
Why, false one, did we meet again,
To show thine influence was not o'er?
'I thought that I could never weep
Again, as I had wept for thee,
That love was buried cold and deep,
That pride and scorn kept watch by me.
'My early hopes, my early tears
Were now almost forgotten things,
And other cares, and other years
Had brought what all experience brings—
'Indifference, weariness, disdain,
That taught and ready smile which grows
A habit soon—as streams retain
The shape and light in which they froze.
'Again I met that faithless eye,
Again I heard that charmed tongue;
I felt they were my destiny,
I knew again the spell they flung.
'Ah! years have fled, since last his name
Was breathed amid the twilight dim;
It was to dream of him I came,
And now again I dream of him.
'But changed and cold, my soul has been
Too deeply wrung, too long unmoved,
Too hardened in life's troubled scene
To love as I could once have loved.
'Sweet fountain, once I asked thy waves
To whisper hope's enchanted spell;
Now I but ask thy haunted caves
To teach me how to say farewell.'
She leaned her head upon her hand,
She gazed upon that fountain lone
Which wandered by its wild-flower strand
With a low, mournful, ceaseless moan.
It soothed her with a sweet deceit
Of pity, murmured on the breeze;
Ah deep the grief, which seeks to cheat
Itself with fantasies like these.
poem by Letitia Elizabeth Landon
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Love (A Poem for Annie)
The beauty of God’s creation
And subject of many dissertations.
Poets, fools and everything in between
Pack their minds to the brim to glean
On words that will best define Love,
To give justice to its Creator above.
For years I tried in vain,
To define love without constrain,
Failed miserably to my disdain,
Arcane thought that caused so much pain.
Considering that it is a common word,
Still many believe it is absurd.
To toil and ponder on its meaning
And spend years and tears in learning.
But now I can openly claim,
I found its true meaning and my aim.
Word that will best define love,
And give justice to our Creator above.
For I believe, there is no other word
under the heaven above
That better define LOVE than – YOU.
poem by Sipokoyto Lim
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There Are Weights On My Shoulder
there are weights on my shoulder
and everyday they keep on a certain burden
i slouch a bit making a balance between pain
and capacity to bear this
kind of living,
time knows how to manage burdens
and weights and
pain, and so here i am before you
as you read the last line of my words
i am finally attuned
i have taken the scales of
equivocation and wandered along the spaces
of ambiguities
and ironies and paradoxes
in such a way that whatever side i take
on whatever wall i lean
on whatever river i cross
and sometime even dream of flying across the
boundaries of this human fence
i have learned the art
this trick of picking up meanings
yes, i have understood the meaning of my life
i am lifting the lightness of the weight of my being.
i have wings
without feathers.
poem by Ric S. Bastasa
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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This Way That Way!
Today a miracle baby is running away
In a misty foggy distant motorway
While the balloon lion is timely floating
Wishes born and dissolve straight away
Tearful eyes
Lost in space
Lost in time
Lost
The
Meaning
Of
A special rhyme
Lost
The
Meaning
Of
A new day
Lost
The
Meaning
Of
A pure love
Running in anger
Running
Running
Running
In
Dismay
The world they say is rich and resourceful
But difficult to live in a peaceful way
Our existence is continuously changing
Like a river
Carrying
Life
Death
And
Decay
Disenchanted in today’s living
The miracle baby
Want to know
God
How
To live
How
To obey
Nothing seems
Honest
Nothing seems
Direct
Genuine
Sincere
Despite what they say!
The miracle baby 'cries' and 'continues'
To pray
For all the soldiers killed
Fighting
For
So called
Peace
And
For
Those
Scarified
Slaughtered
In a religious
Sway
Wondering
About
All these killing
All these sacrifices
Ever
Ever
Brought to them
The truth
They always
Thought about
Then they forgot
The next
Day
Miracle baby is running away
But not knowing
Why
How
And
Where
Just desperate
For a sign
For a hope
For a ray
Miracle baby is
Running
Searching
And
Searching
'Grew'
Old
Even before
Had a chance
To
Play
poem by Najib Altawell
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The f word and me
The other day we discussed reasons
why people use
the magical f word.
a Young woman is of the opinion
that it’s because of a lack of imperfect language,
where a person’s vocabulary
lacks other words to use.
I think that there are many more other reasons
to slip in everywhere
and that vocabulary
has very little
or nothing to do with it.
One thing that can incite it
is exposure,
where people hear it
hundreds of times
every day
like in an army.
Subsequently without intention
it becomes part of your conversation
and your own vocabulary,
without drawing any attention
with yourself.
The word f is a power word
that give colour intensity
to the meanings of other words
and it can underline, emphasize
or lift some out.
You can also use it as a word
that has many meanings
and use it like a good shifting spanner
that shift for meaning values.
This word can also
be almost any word type
that gives bigger power
to other words used with it.
The thing that really matters
what others read
in the meaning of my words
and if I loose integrity by using it.
There are times
my mother wants to catch a fit
when I use the f word
and not from the meaning
of my words,
but from the negative context
that can be drawn with the word
and the easy transfer
of the word on children that hear my dialogue.
[With thanks to Skymaster, whose article inspired this poem.]
poem by Gert Strydom
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What Is...?
What is the meaning of hate?
Is it the dislike of someone different than you?
Or is it the loathing of something simple like broccoli?
What is the meaning of discrimination?
Is it the hatred of someone of a different background?
The hatred of skin color;
Or is it the bitter taste of being different from everyone else?
What is the meaning of uniqueness?
Is it the purpose of being odd and unusual?
The adaptation to your own life and style;
Or is it the stereotypical clan that society has put you?
What is the meaning of life?
Is it that time keeps moving; leaving us in the dust is leaves behind?
The endless stream of consciousness that everything has;
Or is it the meaningless and indefinable thing we give every day?
What is the meaning of death?
Is it that grim reaper knocking at your door?
The inky blackness of nothing;
Or is it something that can’t be defined only experienced when it is time?
Many questions are asked everyday without even meaning to ask them.
They are hidden within the minds of those who are too afraid to speak out;
To let THEIR voices be heard.
So I ask you these questions in hope that you will ask them yourself;
To find the meaning of it for yourself and not what others say it is.
One final question is all I leave you with.
What is the meaning of everything that you thought you knew?
poem by Regan Meade
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A short poem
this poem is the shortest I've written
however it may appear long
because the actual poem
is hidden somewhere far away
it is not in this website
the poem bounces off stars
it floats across the milky way
and dances with rock stars
The actual poem is so short
that in trhe English language
it would be impossible to say
because it fits so much in into a short
time frain, the meaning is compacted
into a single alien word
but in that word there is meaning
of a thousand words of praise
the poem could be analysed
for days and months and years
and after that point the true meaning would
only start to appear
so I beg you to learn this alien
langauage
read my poem carefully
for it is returning to earth
and should arrive by the time I have finished typing
luckily the alien dialect uses English letters
so you can read it
however to understand it
truely
wholey
completely
is not possible for the tiny human mind
I can hear it zinging now
it's bounced of Orions Belt
it just hit me in the fore head and it is spreading over this page
so here it is
the shortest poem
I have ever written
prepare to face it; s mastery for
it
is:
Slurplesploosh
poem by Torben Duncan
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Words Sometimes Take On A Own Meaning
Words sometimes take on a own meaning
and sometimes they are sharp and painful
as if there is much more to words
as if a kind of secret knowledge hides in them
that are sometimes something moving.
Words sometimes take on a own meaning
but somehow words can at times miss things
and are sometimes dependent on feelings
as if there is much more to words
when through it all love brings a kind of bonding
and so you and I are attractive to each other.
Words sometimes take on a own meaning
and daily a bond develops between us,
while you become more considerable to me,
as if there is much more to words
you constantly live in my thoughts,
while love becomes real through words.
Words sometimes take on a own meaning
as if there is much more to words…
poem by Gert Strydom
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Meaning Of Loneliness
Lost in a strange city, no where to turn
Far cry from the streets that I came from
It can get lonely when you're trav'ling hard
But you can even be lonely
Standin' in your own backyard
Nobody knows the existential dread
Of the things that go on inside someone else's head
Whether it be trivial or something that Dante said
But baby, nobody knows the meaning of loneliness
No matter how well ya know someone
You can only ever guess
How can you ever really know somebody else?
It takes more than a lifetime
Just to get to know yourself
Nobody knows the meaning of loneliness
(Instrumental & sax)
I have to say a word about solitude
For the soul it sometimes, they say can be good
And I'm partial to it myself, and well I must confess
Nobody knows the meaning of loneliness
Well, it's Satra and Camu
Neitche and Hess
If ya dig deep enough you're gonna end
Up in distress
And no one escapes havin' to live life
Under duress
And no one escapes the meaning of loneliness
Well, they say keep it simple
When it gets to be a mess
And fame and fortune
Never brought anyone happiness
I must be lucky, some of my friends think
That I'm really blessed
Nobody knows the meaning of loneliness
No-no-no-no-no-no
Nobody knows the meaning of loneliness
No-no, no-ooh body knows the meaning of loneliness
Nobody knows the meaning of loneliness.
song performed by by Van Morrison
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Book Of Days
Your life is as a book
Written on the pages are the weeks
For you would give anything to take just one look
Into the next chapter, the next page
Each page is a new thought, a new dream
Sometimes it takes so long to pass that page
And sometimes nothing is as it seams
For you know you can not go ahead or back
You know you are where you are
You know you can't change that
As you read page to page, so near to fear
You write the chapters as you go, with each turn
Each turn, each move changes what's to come
And you know each moment could be the last
With this in mind you go so mumb
So numb to the touch, to the thought
You turn page after page
until you reach the 'end'
And only then, you are freed from the title
The title that has kept your thoughts bound, and tight
You turn the pages one by one
You take the pain, take the joy
Until you are done
And your story becomes another on the shelf of eternity
(1/24/2008)
poem by Bethany Maxwell
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A Desire To Know Deep Meanings
Dictionary!
My Dictionary!
Raise it high in your right hand!
We shall use it
we shall use it to explore
to seek out...
the meaning of words
the meaning behind words
the multiple hidden meaning of life.
Amen.
Because modern computer dictionaries
really blow... they do, not, contain,
varied rich poetical meanings of words...
as some of my youthful dictionaries did
stimulating imagination, thought, wonder,
stimulating a desire to know deep meanings...
poem by Terence George Craddock
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Everybodys Crying Mercy
I cant believe the things Ive seen
I wonder bout some things Ive heard
Everybodys crying mercy
When they dont know the meaning of the word
A bad enough situation
Is sure enough getting worse
Everybodys crying justice
Just as long as theres business first
Toe to toe
Touch and go
Give a cheer
Get your souvenier
People running round in circles
Dont know what theyre headed for
Everybodys crying peace on earth
Just as soon as we win this war
Straight ahead
Knock em dead
Pack your kid
Choose your hypocrite
Well you dont have to go to off broadway
To see something played absurd
Everybodys crying mercy
When they dont know the meaning of the word
Nobody knows the meaning of the word
When they dont know the meaning of the word
Nobody knows the meaning of the word
Nobody knows the meaning of the word
song performed by by Elvis Costello
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Just When.......
Just when you thought you had reached the top
Just when you thought the end was near
Just when you hear that beating heart
The one that is always near
Just when you see the finishing line
In the corner of your eye
Just when you think it's time to meet
It's time to say goodbye
Just when you can call a truce
Just when you can let it loose
Just when you can understand
Just when will you hold my hand?
The castles blowing in the wind
The sand flows grain by grain
Just when will you realise
The shadow that's in pain
The shadow meaning you
The sand meaning me
If only you will let me help
I'm here for you
You'll see
poem by Lucy Vernezze
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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The Meaning Of Love
By michael mcdonald and jim photoglow
Just so many words
No more than a touch
In matters of love
I never knew much
Till you gave your heart
And all of your soul
I look at your face
And I see it all
Chorus:
Baby, you showed me the meaning of love
You opened my eyes
You were patient and wise
Baby, you showed me the meaning of love
You brought me this far
In all that you are
I see the meaning of love
So insecure
Afraid of mistakes
Knowing too well
The toll love can take
cause I stood with a storm
Raging inside
Till you brought me in
Out of reach of my pride
Chorus:
song performed by by Michael Mcdonald
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Madeline
O lady! if, until this hour,
I've gazed in those bewildering eyes,
Yet never owned their touching power,
But when thou couldst not hear my sighs;
It has not been that love has slept
One single moment in my soul,
Or that on lip or look I kept
A stern and stoical control;
But that I saw, but that I felt,
In every tone and glance of thine,
Whate'er they spoke, where'er they dwelt,
How small, how poor a part was mine;
And that I deeply, dearly knew,
THAT hidden, hopeless love confessed,
The fatal words would lose me, too,
Even the weak friendship I possessed.
And so, I masked my secret well;
The very love within my breast
Became the strange, but potent spell
By which I forced it into rest.
Yet there were times -- I scarce know how
These eager lips refrained to speak, --
Some kindly smile would light thy brow,
And I grew passionate and weak;
The secret sparkled at my eyes,
And love but half repressed its sighs, --
Then had I gazed an instant more,
Or dwelt one moment on that brow,
I might have changed the smile it wore,
To what perhaps it weareth now,
And spite of all I feared to meet,
Confessed that passion at thy feet.
To save my heart, to spare thine own,
There was one remedy alone.
I fled, I shunned thy very touch, --
It cost me much, O God! how much!
But if some burning tears were shed,
Lady! I let them freely flow;
At least, they left unbreathed, unsaid,
A worse and wilder woe.
But now, -- NOW that we part indeed,
And that I may not think as then,
That as I wish, or as I need,
I may return again, --
Now that for months, perhaps for years --
I see no limit in my fears --
My home shall be some distant spot,
Where thou -- where even thy name is not,
And since I shall not see the frown,
Such wild, mad language must bring down,
Could I -- albeit I may not sue
In hope to bend thy steadfast will --
Could I have breathed this word, adieu,
And kept my secret still?
Doubtless thou know'st the Hebrew story --
The tale 's with me a favorite one --
How Raphael left the Courts of Glory,
And walked with Judah's honored Son;
And how the twain together dwelt,
And how they talked upon the road,
How often too they must have knelt
As equals to the same kind God;
And still the mortal never guessed,
How much and deeply he was blessed,
Till when -- the Angel's mission done --
The spell which drew him earthwards, riven --
The lover saved -- the maiden won --
He plumed again his wings for Heaven;
O Madeline! as unaware
Thou hast been followed everywhere,
And girt and guarded by a love,
As warm, as tender in its care,
As pure, ay, powerful in prayer,
As any saint above!
Like the bright inmate of the skies,
It only looked with friendly eyes,
And still had worn the illusive guise,
And thus at least been half concealed;
But at this parting, painful hour,
It spreads its wings, unfolds its power,
And stands, like Raphael, revealed.
More, Lady! I would wish to speak, --
But it were vain, and words are weak,
And now that I have bared my breast,
Perchance thou wilt infer the rest.
So, so, farewell! I need not say
I look, I ask for no reply,
The cold and scarcely pitying "nay"
I read in that unmelted eye;
Yet one dear favor, let me pray!
Days, months, however slow to me,
Must drag at last their length away,
And I return -- if not to thee --
At least to breathe the same sweet air
That wooes thy lips and waves thy hair.
Oh, then! -- these daring lines forgot --
Look, speak, as thou hadst read them not.
So, Lady, may I still retain
A right I would not lose again,
For all that gold or guilt can buy,
Or all that Heaven itself deny,
A right such love may justly claim,
Of seeing thee in friendship's name.
Give me but this, and still at whiles,
A portion of thy faintest smiles,
It were enough to bless;
I may not, dare not ask for more
Than boon so rich, and yet so poor,
But I should die with less.
poem by Henry Timrod
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