Hot Sun, Cool Fire - George Peele

Hot sun, cool fire, tempered with sweet air,
Black shade, fair nurse, shadow my white hair.

Song of the Little Cripple at the Street Corner - Rainer Maria Rilke

Read the translator's notes
Maybe my soul’s all right.
But my body’s all wrong,
All bent and twisted,
All this that hurts me so.

Student Taper - James Stephens

When
- At end of moon,
At end of day -
My lamp is lit,

The Ballad of Sally in our Alley - Henry Carey

Of all the Girls that are so smart
There’s none like pretty SALLY,
She is the Darling of my Heart,
And she lives in our Alley.
There is no Lady in the Land
Is half so sweet as SALLY,
She is the Darling of my Heart,
And she lives in our Alley.

Take, Oh, Take Those Lips Away - John Fletcher

Take, oh, take those lips away
That so sweetly were forsworn

The Arrow - William Butler Yeats

I thought of your beauty, and this arrow,
Made out of a wild thought, is in my marrow.

Agamede’s Song - Arthur Upson

Grow, grow, thou little tree,
His body at the roots of thee;
Since last year’s loveliness in death
The living beauty nourisheth.

People are Legends - Kevin Gilbert

Kill the legend
Butcher it
With your acute cyncicisms
Your paternal superfluities
With your unwise wisdom

The Song of Fionn - Finn MacCool (trad.)

May-day, delightful time! How beautiful the colour!

The Lamb - William Blake

      Little Lamb, who made thee?
        Dost thou know who made thee?

The Green Isle of Lovers - Robert Charles Sands

They say that, afar in the land of the west,
Where the bright golden sun sinks in glory to rest,
Mid ferns where the hunter ne’er ventured to tread,
A fair lake unruffled and sparkling is spread;
Where, lost in his course, the rapt Indian discovers,
In distance seen dimly, the green Isle of Lovers.

Spring - Thomas Nashe

Spring, the sweet Spring, is the year’s pleasant king;
Then blooms each thing, then maids dance in a ring,
Cold doth not sting, the pretty birds do sing—
     Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-we, to-witta-woo!

The Ordinary Man - Robert Service

If you and I should chance to meet,
I guess you wouldn't care;
I'm sure you'd pass me in the street
As if I wasn't there;
You'd never look me in the face,
My modest mug to scan,
Because I'm just a commonplace
      And Ordinary Man.

Corrymeela - Moira O’Neill

Over here in England I’m helpin’ wi’ the hay,
And I wisht I was in Ireland the livelong day;
Weary on the English hay, an’ sorra take the wheat!
Och! Corrymeela, an’ the blue sky over it.

Eileen Aroon - Gerald Griffin

When, like the early rose,
   Eileen aroon!
Beauty in childhood blows,
   Eileen aroon!
When, like a diadem,
Buds blush around the stem,
Which is the fairest gem?
   Eileen aroon!

The Magic Flower - E. Nesbit

Through many days and many days
The seed of love lay hidden close;

Presence - T.E. Brown

Expecting him, my door was open wide:
   Then I looked round
   If any lack of service might be found,
And saw him at my side:
   How entered, by what secret stair,
   I know not, knowing only he was there.

---

T.E. Brown (1830 - 1897) Isle of Man, England

How Do I Love Thee? (Sonnet 43) - Elizabeth Barrett Browning

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

Karolin’s Song - Ben Jonson

Though I am young, and cannot tell,
Either what love, or death is well,

Manchester TRAFFIC - Mark Stubbs

There once was a project at Manchester Met
To transform curriculum was the goal that we set
Rewriting every module was the name of the game
Enhancing assessment for learning, our overall aim

When You And I Grow Up - Kate Greenaway

When you and I
Grow up–Polly–

Evanescence - Angelina Weld Grimke

You are like a pale purple flower
In the blue spring dusk

Words on a train - Bruce Levitan

On the commuter train home
    listening to two young people
        slagging off their friends:
They talked in consonant free jargon,
    not an H or a T to be heard --
        but the invective was clear and rough.

Would it be the same in Rome?
    Do youths descend from Dante's steeple
        to incoherently speak? The same trends
across our world -- really so far gone
    that we might as well be a herd
        that speaks only in acidic guff?

Would Nietzsche include in his tome
    of humanity's idiocy and evil,
        thoughts on how to cleanse
or how to kill the dragon?
    How far must the spoken word
        be destroyed before we've had enough?

---

Bruce Levitan (born 1955) England (born: Kenya)

We Waves - August Strindberg

We, we waves,
That are rocking the winds
To rest—
Green cradles, we waves!

I Do Not Know - Chihwan Yu

Whose footprint is that paulonia leaf
That drops softly, rousing ripples in the windless air?
whose face is that blue sky
Glimpsed between the threatening, dark clouds
Blown by the west wind after a long rain?

A Good Night - Francis Quarles

   Close now thine eyes and rest secure;

The Enchantment - Thomas Otway

I did but look and love awhile,
    ’Twas but for one half-hour;
Then to resist I had no will,
    And now I have no power.

Days - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Daughters of Time, the hypocritic Days,