Venice masks

Tuesday, 31 May 2011

Lines On The Loss Of The "Titanic" - Thomas Hardy

In a solitude of the sea
Deep from human vanity,
And the Pride of Life that planned her, stilly couches she.

Monday, 30 May 2011

The Bluebell - Anne Brontë

A fine and subtle spirit dwells
In every little flower,
Each one its own sweet feeling breathes
With more or less of power.

Saturday, 28 May 2011

Fire's Reflection - Rainer Maria Rilke

Perhaps it's no more than the fire's reflection
on some piece of gleaming furniture
that the child remembers so much later
like a revelation.

Friday, 27 May 2011

Cargoes - John Masefield

Quinquireme of Nineveh from distant Ophir
Rowing home to haven in sunny Palestine,
With a cargo of ivory,
And apes and peacocks,
Sandalwood, cedarwood, and sweet white wine.

Thursday, 26 May 2011

maggie and milly and molly and may - ee cummings

maggie and milly and molly and may
went down to the beach (to play one day)

Wednesday, 25 May 2011

On an Invitation to the United States - Thomas Hardy

My ardours for emprize nigh lost
Since Life has bared its bones to me,
I shrink to seek a modern coast
Whose riper times have yet to be;
Where the new regions claim them free
From that long drip of human tears
Which peoples old in tragedy
Have left upon the centuried years.

Tuesday, 24 May 2011

Monday, 23 May 2011

Rescued - Theresa Ann Moore

Clump of exploring brown fur
Exploring with a nervous grip
Hesitating… fearfully immobile
Unsure… beginning to slip

Sunday, 22 May 2011

A Divine Rapture - Francis Quarles

E'en like two little bank-dividing brooks,
   That wash the pebbles with their wanton streams,
And having ranged and search'd a thousand nooks,
   Meet both at length in silver-breasted Thames,
   Where in a greater current they conjoin:
So I my Best-beloved's am; so He is mine.

Saturday, 21 May 2011

The Song Of The Sword - Cicely Fox Smith

This is the Song of the Sword,
A proud and a ringing song,
The song of the tempered blade
That has lain in the sheath too long.
'It's oh for the strong tight hand,
and the hiss of the wheeling brand,
to make honour a power in the land,'
Saith the sword.

Friday, 20 May 2011

A Parody - Charles Lamb

Lazy-bones, lazy-bones, wake up and peep;
The Cat's in the cupboard, your Mother's asleep.

Thursday, 19 May 2011

To a Young Lady, on Her Birthday - Samuel Johnson

This tributary verse receive, my fair,
Warm with an ardent lover's fondest prayer,
May this returning day for ever find
Thy form more lovely, more adorn'd thy mind;
All pains, all cares, may favouring heaven remove,
All but the sweet solicitudes of love!

Wednesday, 18 May 2011

Tuesday, 17 May 2011

The Truth Will Set You Free - Francis Duggan

From lying your soul is in spiritual poverty
But the truth though hard to say will surely set you free

Monday, 16 May 2011

The King's Daughter - Algernon Charles Swinburne

We were ten maidens in the green corn,
Small red leaves in the mill-water:
Fairer maidens never were born,
Apples of gold for the king's daughter.

Friday, 13 May 2011

Save Me From Madness - Aleksandr Pushkin

Save me from madness, God, I beg.
No, I prefer the beggar's bag,
Prefer to starve and toil.
And not as if I praise my head,
And not as if I were not glad
To part with mind at all.

Tuesday, 10 May 2011

Stone Is Not Stone - Carson McCullers

There was a time when stone was stone
And a face on the street was a finished face.
Between the Thing, myself and God alone
There was an instant symmetry.
Since you have altered all my world this trinity is twisted:

Monday, 9 May 2011

Job Interview - William Matthews

Think you, if Laura had been Petrarch's wife
He would have written sonnets all his life?
DON JUAN, III, 63-4

Sunday, 8 May 2011

The Emmaus Road - Edward A. Morris

Some poor stranger strolled beside them
On their long and lonely walk.
Kind and wise, He gently plied them,
Why such sadness in their talk?
How their hearts within were burning
When His wondrous Word He taught!
Precious lessons they were learning,
Though they recognized Him not.

Saturday, 7 May 2011

Hailstorm in May - Gerard Manley Hopkins

Strike, churl; hurl, cheerless wind, then; heltering hail

Friday, 6 May 2011

An Exam - Gita Ashok

Filling in the blanks;
choosing the right alternative;
deciding whether true or false;
defining and justifying;
comparing and contrasting;
coding, compiling and debugging;
estimating and proving;
integrating and differentiating;
plotting and interpreting,
illustrating and debating.

Thursday, 5 May 2011

Another Ordinary Day - Bullion Grey

Just an ordinary man with an ordinary wife,
going through ordinary days, living an ordinary life.
He has his ordinary job, receives his ordinary pay,
has his ordinary feelings every ordinary day.

Wednesday, 4 May 2011

The Man in the Moon Came Down Too Soon - JRR Tolkien

There is an inn, a merry old inn
beneath an old grey hill,
And there they brew a beer so brown
That the Man in the Moon himself came down
one night to drink his fill.

Tuesday, 3 May 2011

To A Mouse - Robert Burns

Wee, sleekit, cowrin, tim'rous beastie,
O, what a panic's in thy breastie!
Thou need na start awa sae hasty,
Wi' bickering brattle!
I wad be laith to rin an' chase thee
Wi' murd'ring pattle!

Monday, 2 May 2011

In Tintagel Graveyard - Brian Patten

Who brought flowers to this grave?
I, said the wren.
I brought them as seeds and then
Watched them grow.

Sunday, 1 May 2011

The Unicorn - Rainer Maria Rilke

The saintly hermit, midway through his prayers
stopped suddenly, and raised his eyes to witness
the unbelievable: for there before him stood
the legendary creature, startling white, that
had approached, soundlessly, pleading with his eyes.