Esther, A Sonnet Sequence: LI
When I hear laughter from a tavern door,
When I see crowds agape and in the rain
Watching on tiptoe and with stifled roar
To see a rocket fired or a bull slain,
When misers handle gold, when orators
Touch strong men's hearts with glory till they weep,
When cities deck their streets for barren wars
Which have laid waste their youth, and when I keep
Calmly the count of my own life and see
On what poor stuff my manhood's dreams were fed
Till I too learned what dole of vanity
Will serve a human soul for daily bread,
--Then I remember that I once was young
And lived with Esther the world's gods among.
poem by Wilfrid Scawen Blunt
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Related quotes
With Esther
HE who has once been happy is for aye
Out of destruction's reach. His fortune then
Holds nothing secret; and Eternity,
Which is a mystery to other men,
Has like a woman given him its joy.
Time is his conquest. Life, if it should fret.
Has paid him tribute. He can bear to die,
He who has once been happy! When I set
The world before me and survey its range,
Its mean ambitions, its scant fantasies,
The shreds of pleasure which for lack of change
Men wrap around them and call happiness,
The poor delights which are the tale and sum
Of the world's courage in its martyrdom;
When I hear laughter from a tavern door,
When I see crowds agape and in the rain
Watching on tiptoe and with stifled roar
To see a rocket fired or a bull slain,
When misers handle gold, when orators
Touch strong men's hearts with glory till they weep,
When cities deck their streets for barren wars
Which have laid waste their youth, and when I keep
Calmly the count of my own life and see
On what poor stuff my manhood's dreams were fed
Till I too learn'd what dole of vanity
Will serve a human soul for daily bread,
--Then I remember that I once was young
And lived with Esther the world's gods among.
poem by Wilfrid Scawen Blunt
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The War Hero
He sat at the bar, drinking his Jack
Talking about the war, since he came back
It ruined his mind, and broke his spirit too
He had seen alot of death among his crew
He drank till he didn't have to think at all
He drank till he couldn't hear the bugal call
When not drinking, he was taking so many pills
Disabled now, his wife paying all the bills
His very soul was tortured all the time
From crawling in the jungle in the dirt and slime
Hearing the shots fired every where
He was shooting too, just a boy there
He lived the war over every night in his dreams
In his sleep he could still his buddies screams
The war took a young boy and ruined his life
But he was proud, he had served in all the strife
This good man died just a year ago
He fought for our freedom and we do owe
Our freedom takes the life of young men
They serve their country and most come home again
All their lives will never be the same
Some will return whole and some lame
I'm proud to be a citizen of the USA
Where we're strong and proud and will never sway!
poem by Donna Nimmo
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He and She
[HE.] I know a youth who loves a little maid -
(Hey, but his face is a sight for to see!)
Silent is he, for he's modest and afraid -
(Hey, but he's timid as a youth can be!)
[SHE.] I know a maid who loves a gallant youth -
(Hey, but she sickens as the days go by!)
SHE cannot tell him all the sad, sad truth -
(Hey, but I think that little maid will die!)
[BOTH.] Now tell me pray, and tell me true,
What in the world should the poor soul do?
[HE.] He cannot eat and he cannot sleep -
(Hey, but his face is a sight for to see!)
Daily he goes for to wail - for to weep -
(Hey, but he's wretched as a youth can be!)
[SHE.] She's very thin and she's very pale -
(Hey, but she sickens as the days go by!)
Daily she goes for to weep - for to wail -
(Hey, but I think that little maid will die!)
[BOTH.] Now tell me pray, and tell me true,
What in the world should the poor soul do?
[SHE.] If I were the youth I should offer her my name -
(Hey, but her face is a sight for to see!)
[HE.] If I were the maid I should fan his honest flame -
(Hey, but he's bashful as a youth can be!)
[SHE.] If I were the youth I should speak to her to-day -
(Hey, but she sickens as the days go by!)
[HE.] If I were the maid I should meet the lad half way -
(For I really do believe that timid youth will die!)
[BOTH.] I thank you much for your counsel true;
I've learnt what that poor soul ought to do!
poem by William Schwenck Gilbert
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The First Spring Day
THE sunshine died long ago,
Stifled out long ago,
And the waste of the world was grey,
And night was the best to know,
For night was to doze and forget the day,
To be warm and forgetting and still,
And need not the sun and know not the chill:
But oh, for the day that was darkened so!
Why gaze on a barren heaven,
Void and unchanging heaven,
On a barren earth in the grime,
And not a poor blossom given,
No thing that was thinking of sunshine time,
For a promise, a praise of the past?
And so one forgot the sunshine at last;
And sleep could avail, but what to have striven?
The sunshine wakes once anew,
Wakes and is born anew,
And the Age of the earth grows young,
And heaven has its youth for hue,
And hope is the tune of the spring-bird's tongue,
And the leaves in their prisons all hark,
And blossoms will know there is end of the dark:
One hour of the sun, and the spring-time grew!
The sunshine new on the earth,
Heaven to brighten the earth,
And the deathful dimness gone by,
The barren and winter dearth!
And to-day is the best till the next is nigh,
And to-night is to-morrow begun,
To-morrow, when blossoms remember the sun!
Dead hopes, are ye born with the blossoms birth?
poem by Augusta Davies Webster
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Pictor Ignotus
Florence, 15—
I could have painted pictures like that youth's
Ye praise so. How my soul springs up! No bar
Stayed me—ah, thought which saddens while it soothes!
—Never did fate forbid me, star by star,
To outburst on your night with all my gift
Of fires from God: nor would my flesh have shrunk
From seconding my soul, with eyes uplift
And wide to heaven, or, straight like thunder, sunk
To the centre, of an instant; or around
Turned calmly and inquisitive, to scan
The license and the limit, space and bound,
Allowed to truth made visible in man.
And like that youth ye praise so, all I saw,
Over the canvas could my hand have flung,
Each face obedient to its passion's law,
Each passion clear proclaimed without a tongue;
Whether Hope rose at once in all the blood,
A-tiptoe for the blessing of embrace,
Or Rapture drooped the eyes, as when her brood
Pull down the nesting dove's heart to its place;
Or Confidence lit swift the forehead up,
And locked the mouth fast, like a castle braved,—
O human faces, hath it spilt, my cup?
What did ye give me that I have not saved?
Nor will I say I have not dreamed (how well!)
Of going—I, in each new picture,—forth,
As, making new hearts beat and bosoms swell,
To Pope or Kaiser, East, West, South, or North,
Bound for the calmly-satisfied great State,
Or glad aspiring little burgh, it went,
Flowers cast upon the car which bore the freight,
Through old streets named afresh from the event,
Till it reached home, where learned age should greet
My face, and youth, the star not yet distinct
Above his hair, lie learning at my feet!—
Oh, thus to live, I and my picture, linked
With love about, and praise, till life should end,
And then not go to heaven, but linger here,
Here on my earth, earth's every man my friend,—
The thought grew frightful, 'twas so wildly dear!
But a voice changed it. Glimpses of such sights
Have scared me, like the revels through a door
Of some strange house of idols at its rites!
This world seemed not the world it was before:
Mixed with my loving trusting ones, there trooped
...Who summoned those cold faces that begun
To press on me and judge me? Though I stooped
Shrinking, as from the soldiery a nun,
They drew me forth, and spite of me...enough!
These buy and sell our pictures, take and give,
Count them for garniture and household-stuff,
And where they live needs must our pictures live
And see their faces, listen to their prate,
Partakers of their daily pettiness,
Discussed of,—"This I love, or this I hate,
This likes me more, and this affects me less!"
Wherefore I choose my portion. If at whiles
My heart sinks, as monotonous I paint
These endless cloisters and eternal aisles
With the same series, Virgin, Babe and Saint,
With the same cold calm beautiful regard,—
At least no merchant traffics in my heart;
The sanctuary's gloom at least shall ward
Vain tongues from where my pictures stand apart:
Only prayer breaks the silence of the shrine
While, blackening in the daily candle-smoke,
They moulder on the damp wall's travertine,
'Mid echoes the light footstep never woke.
So, die my pictures! surely, gently die!
O youth, men praise so—holds their praise its worth?
Blown harshly, keeps the trump its golden cry?
Tastes sweet the water with such specks of earth?
poem by Robert Browning from Dramatic Romances and Lyrics (1845)
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
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The Love Sonnets Of Proteus. Part II: To Juliet: LII
THE SAME CONTINUED
Lame, impotent conclusion to youth's dreams
Vast as all heaven! See, what glory lies
Entangled here in these base stratagems,
What virtue done to death! O glorious sighs,
Sublime beseechings, high cajoleries,
Fond wraths, brave ruptures, all that sometime was
Our daily bread of gods beneath the skies,
How are ye ended, in what utter loss!
Time was, time is, and time is yet to come,
Till even time itself shall have its end.
These were eternal. And behold, a tomb!
Come, let us laugh and eat and drink. God send
What all the world must need one day as we,
Speedy oblivion, rest for memory.
poem by Wilfrid Scawen Blunt
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Remeber
Remember me through tears an sorrow,
Remember me through your cries of help,
Remember the laughter, Remember the joy,
Remember me till you can't remember anymore,
Remember i'll be there through your deepest fears,
Remember i'll be here when your week or strong,
Remember my memory will haunt you till your back here,
Remember these words if you decide to leave remember my tears,
Remember Remember.
poem by Kyndra Lowery
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The privilege
If you can thrill, its your own will,
I can't say whether it pleases me.
Yes, I'm privileged to this city up till,
but, this way ahead lil decreases me.
I'm restless for those things hidden,
that's discovered all aloof.
Wherever, which way, what city I'm in,
something happens a goof.
I feel sometimes brain, barren I till,
and being in the world this life teases me...
Yes, I'm privileged to this city up till,
but, this way ahead lil decreases me.
Bunch of years my life has lived,
risen I have from unknown streets.
Among the crowd why I'm timid,
when tides are hounding all fleets.
I wait for such a living skill,
that courage of death ceases me,
Yes, I'm privileged to this city up till,
but, this way ahead lil decreases me.
29/05/02
poem by by unknown author
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Music
In vain, when music’s seraph-fire
Runs kindling through the air,
Making it such as gods respire,
(And gods perhaps are there!)
In vain would words of subtlest wit
Reveal, as on they roll,
The clouds of glory it hath lit
Like sunrise in the soul!
Like sunrise when its conquering glow
Smites through the vapours cold,
Till all their ragged inlets flow
With floods of burning gold.
--------------------------------- -----------------------------------------------
Like him who great reports of tilth rejects,
Because his own is a most barren field,
Is he who man’s divinity suspects,
Because his own soul doth so little yield.
Better is one who through himself can see
How good, how lovely, all mankind might be,
Though mere experience give his faith the lie,
And all his hopes breathe the world’s breath—to die!
poem by Charles Harpur
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Charity
Charity, all the world really needs is charity
Were living in a dream
Ill plead with you all till it tears me apart.
Is this all that we want?
Is this all that we really are?
Turn away if you want, turn away if you like,
For the rest of your life, every day every night,
In your house and your car, yes I know who you are.
Can you not hear the world in its pain trying to call to you?
Oh, oh, charity, were living in a dream.
Charity, cant fool me with your vanity.
Ive seen whats in your heart.
Ill plead with you all till it tears me apart.
Is this all that we want?
Is this all that we really are?
Will our hearts ever change, does it sound so strange?
When people touch[? ] children cry, can you not wonder why?
In your own little world, can you not say a word?
Try to help someone else on this earth besides yourself.
Oh, oh, charity, were living in a dream.
Charity, cant fool me with your vanity.
Ive seen whats in your heart.
Charity, all the world really needs is charity.
Is this all that we want?
Is this all we really are?
song performed by by Kinks
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Money
When I had money, money, O!
I knew no joy till I went poor;
For many a false man as a friend
Came knocking all day at my door.
Then felt I like a child that holds
A trumpet that he must not blow
Because a man is dead; I dared
Not speak to let this false world know.
Much have I thought of life, and seen
How poor men’s hearts are ever light;
And how their wives do hum like bees
About their work from morn till night.
So, when I hear these poor ones laugh,
And see the rich ones coldly frown—
Poor men, think I, need not go up
So much as rich men should come down.
When I had money, money, O!
My many friends proved all untrue;
But now I have no money, O!
My friends are real, though very few.
poem by William Henry Davies
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World’s Clarion Call: Stop All Wars; Love Your Brethren!
Wars spread terror;
Wars cause horror;
Wars kill persons;
Wars maim people;
Wars pollute air;
Wars contaminate soil;
Wars destroy buildings;
Wars ravage cities;
Wars ruin countries;
Wars cause hatred;
Wars are expensive;
Wars escalate prices;
Wars create enemies;
Wars generate ill-will;
Wars instill mistrust;
Wars make the poor, poorer;
Wars make the world,
A difficult place to live in;
Don’t waste money on futile wars.
Love settles conflicts;
Love gets friends;
Love converts foes;
Love leads to dialogue;
Love spreads brotherhood;
Love brings lasting peace;
Love leads to progress;
Love is all-encompassing;
Love is the key to human problems;
Love rules the universe;
Love leads to heaven;
Stop the wars and love your brethren;
Science should improve man’s plight;
Unite against human calamities;
Fight diseases, poverty, and illiteracy;
Leaders should give up their ego;
The world should be free of fear;
Peaceful co-existence should bring all near;
Make the earth more habitable for all.
This is the world’s clarion call!
Copyright by Dr John Celes 3-30-2007
poem by John Celes
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Till We Get The Healing Done
Down those old ancient streets
Down those old ancient roads
Baby there together we must go
Till we get the healing done
Till we get the healing done
Till youre satisfied with your life
Till youre satisfied with your life
Till youre satisfied with your life
And its running right, and its running right
Till you deal with the poison inside
Sometimes youve got to sit down and cry
When you deal with the poison inside
Till we get the healing done
Till we get the healing done
Till you feel the tingle up your spine
Till youre satisfied and youre mine
Till you feel a tingle up your spine
Till we get the healing done
Till we get the healing done
Till you live in the glory of the one
Till you live in the land of the sun
Till you feel like your life has just begun
Till we get the healing done
Till we get the healing done
Till we dwell in the house of the lord
Till you dont have to worry no more
Till you open a brand new world
Till we get the healing done
Till we get the healing done
Till it makes you feel alright
Till youre satisfied with your life
Till you know you live in the light
Till we get the healing done
Oh till we get the healing done
Till you look at the mountains every day
Till you wash all your troubles away
And you live right here in the day
Till we get the healing done
Oh till we get the healing done
Oh till its truth and its beauty and its grace
Till youve finally found your true place
Till you know your original face
Till we get the healing done
Oh child, till we get the healing done
Oh when everythings going right
Till youre satisfied with your life
Till youre living in the light
Till we get the healing done
Oh till we get the healing done
Oh when you feel it, when you feel it in your soul
Baby, and you really know
That you reap just what you sow
When we get the healing done
Oh till we get the healing done
Till you know that its working every time
Till you work it out in your mind
And you know it straight down the line
Till you get the healing done
Oh make no worry till we get the healing done
Oh we gonna go back, back to our favourite place
Oh look at it again
See it all through different eyes
When we get the healing done
Oh when we get the healing done
Oh were living for the grace of the lord
Baby feel so good about it all
Oh give thanks every day
Till we get the healing done
Oh till we get the healing done
Till we get the healing done
Oh baby, baby till we get the healing done
Till we get the healing done
Baby you got to stay
Till we get the healing done
If it takes to the break of day
Till we get the healing done
Till we get the healing done
Till we get the healing done
Till we get the healing done
You got to stay all night long
Till we get the healing done
song performed by by Van Morrison
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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To Donneen
When first you came to London Town, Donneen,
Just five years old,
I said—'He'll ask for marble halls, and streets
All paved with gold!'
I thought—'He'll weep, so stricken with amaze,
To hear the roar
Of trampling hoofs, of rushing feet that go
Our way before.'
I said—'He'll fear the throbbing engine's shriek,
The shaking path,
The pushing crowd, the city's comrade cries
Of joy, of wrath.'
And when we stood to hear the mighty heart
Of London Town,
I saw your angry cheek and knew a tear
Had threatened down.
'Why weep,' I whispered by your red gold head,
'Dearest of boys?'
'I cannot hear my new shoes creak,' you said,
'There is such noise.'
Oh, creak, dear shoes, above the city's roar;
Be heard, be seen,
So hearts grow glad, hands clap, and voices cry,
'Here comes Donneen!'
poem by Dora Sigerson Shorter
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Madonna of the Streets
For many years, she walked the streets
and her body she sold.
It was a living, she said,
but deep within her,
there was a heart of gold.
The story goes they called her
the Madonna of the streets.
If anyone needed help,
her outstretched hand was always there.
She rescued many young souls
from the streets of despair.
Her neighbours turned their nose up
at her living ways,
but took a long second look
the day the lord took her away.
A child was playing in the road,
the car they did not see,
but this woman of the night
saw what was happening there.
There was a screech of brakes,
a child screaming for his mum,
and a twisted broken body
underneath the wheels of the car.
When the crowds began to gather,
the tragedy became very clear.
The girl had been passing,
saw what was happening there,
had sacrificed her own life
for that child fair.
The neighbours,
who had shunned her,
now began to weep openly
for that loathsome girl
that lived down the street,
and whose friends had nicknamed her,
the Madonna of the streets.
Many learned a lesson
on that fateful day.
That was not to judge to harshly
those they do not really know.
(1 July 2007)
poem by David Harris
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A Thanksgiving
From brief delights that rise to me
Out of unfathomable dole,
I thank whatever gods there be
For mine unconquerable soul.
In the strong clutch of Circumstance
It has not winced, nor groaned aloud.
Before the blows of eyeless chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
I front unfeared the threat of space
And dwindle into dark again.
My work is done, I take my place
Among the years that wait for men.
My life, my broken life must be
One unsuccourable dole.
I thank the gods- they gave to me
A dauntless and defiant soul.
poem by William Ernest Henley
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River Street Urchins
River street urchins,
The gutters are swelling.
[Waiting…] for the sky—you and I
To reach—the storm drains of joy.
Before we go…
Before we let, go.
We too will rain…
River street urchins,
Before we go…
Before we let, go.
We too will rain…
River street urchins…
Paupers oh so giving, don't you know.
We'll queue in the streets
And pray to be free!
Till we go…
Before we let, go.
We too will rain…
On every official bank holiday parade:
Till we're free, till were free
Till were free, till were free
Till were free, to go…
We'll never clear-out:
Absorbing as every stain might be.
I'll fabricate a new colour?
A rainbows pot of gold…
One for just you and me!
poem by Mark Heathcote
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A Song of Defeat
The line breaks and the guns go under,
The lords and the lackeys ride the plain;
I draw deep breaths of the dawn and thunder,
And the whole of my heart grows young again.
For our chiefs said 'Done,' and I did not deem it;
Our seers said 'Peace,' and it was not peace;
Earth will grow worse till men redeem it,
And wars more evil, ere all wars cease.
But the old flags reel and the old drums rattle,
As once in my life they throbbed and reeled;
I have found my youth in the lost battle,
I have found my heart on the battlefield.
For we that fight till the world is free,
We are not easy in victory:
We have known each other too long, my brother,
And fought each other, the world and we.
And I dream of the days when work was scrappy,
And rare in our pockets the mark of the mint,
When we were angry and poor and happy,
And proud of seeing our names in print.
For so they conquered and so we scattered,
When the Devil road and his dogs smelt gold,
And the peace of a harmless folk was shattered;
When I was twenty and odd years old.
When the mongrel men that the market classes
Had slimy hands upon England's rod,
And sword in hand upon Afric's passes
Her last Republic cried to God.
For the men no lords can buy or sell,
They sit not easy when all goes well,
They have said to each other what naught can smother,
They have seen each other, our souls and hell.
It is all as of old, the empty clangour,
The Nothing scrawled on a five-foot page,
The huckster who, mocking holy anger,
Painfully paints his face with rage.
And the faith of the poor is faint and partial,
And the pride of the rich is all for sale,
And the chosen heralds of England's Marshal
Are the sandwich-men of the Daily Mail,
And the niggards that dare not give are glutted,
And the feeble that dare not fail are strong,
So while the City of Toil is gutted,
I sit in the saddle and sing my song.
For we that fight till the world is free,
We have no comfort in victory;
We have read each other as Cain his brother,
We know each other, these slaves and we.
poem by Gilbert Keith Chesterton
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Galileo
Galileos head was on the block
The crime was looking up for truth
And as the bombshells of my daily fears explode
I try to trace them to my youth
And then you had to bring up reincarnation
Over a couple of beers the other night
And now Im serving time for mistakes
Made by another in another lifetime
How long till my soul gets it right
Can any human being ever reach that kind of light
I call on the resting soul of galileo
King of night vision, king of insight
And then I think about my fear of motion
Which I never could explain
Some other fool across the ocean years ago
Must have crashed his little airplane
How long till my soul gets it right
Can any human being ever reach that kind of light
I call on the resting soul of galileo
King of night vision, king of insight
Im not making a joke, you know me
I take everything so seriously
If we wait for the time till all souls get it right
Then at least I know therell be no nuclear annihilation
In my lifetime Im still not right
I offer thanks to those before me
Thats all Ive got to say
cause maybe you squandered big bucks in your lifetime
Now I have to pay
But then again it feels like some sort of inspiration
To let the next life off the hook
But shell say look what I had to overcome from my last life
I think Ill write a book
How long till my soul gets it right
Can any human being ever reach the highest light
Except for galileo God rest his soul
(except for the resting soul of galileo)
King of night vision, king of insight
How long
(till my soul gets it right)
[til we reach the highest light]
How long
(till my soul gets it right)
[til we reach the highest light]
How long
song performed by by Indigo Girls
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Ballad Of Youth
(sambora, morolda)
Growing up today
Theres many mountains you must climb
Youre not the only one
cause everybodys on that line
Hey mister know it all
What do you recommend
You think you know the answers
But the questions never end
Young hearts better hold on
Beyond the innocence
Your youth is gone
So look in your mirror
You got nothing to lose
Dont waste your time away
Thinkin bout yesterdays blues
Born outta passion
To a world gone cold
Ya wear it on your shoulders
Its a heavy, heavy load I know
Love and its emotions
Come knocking at your door
Young hearts will be broken
And times the only cure
Young hearts better hold on
Beyond the innocence
Your youth is gone
So look in your mirror
You got nothing to lose
Dont waste your time away
Thinkin bout yesterdays blues
Temptation makes us fall from grace
But the angels were sinners
And the sinners saints
Forgive yourself cause were all the same
Everybody rides on the karma train
Young hearts
Better hold on
Beyond the innocence
Your youth is gone
Look in your mirror
Itll tell you the truth
Dont waste your time away
Dont waste your life away, no, no
Live today
Theres no time to lose
Cause when tomorrow comes
Its all just yesterdays news
All just yesterday news
song performed by by Bon Jovi
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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