Classic Poems - Every Day Poems

Wild nights! Wild nights! by Emily Dickinson

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) was one of the most famous and influential American poets. She led a very private life, rarely leaving her hometown of Amherst

Wild nights! Wild nights!

by Emily Dickinson

Wild nights! Wild nights!
Were I with thee,
Wild nights should be
Our luxury!

Futile the winds
To a heart in port, —
Done with the compass,
Done with the chart.

Rowing in Eden!
Ah! the sea!
Might I but moor
To-night in thee!

Summary

This poem, “Wild Nights – Wild Nights!” by Emily Dickinson, expresses the speaker’s longing for passionate connection with a beloved. The repetition of “Wild nights!” emphasizes the intensity of the speaker’s desire.

The poem uses the metaphor of a ship finding safe harbor to represent the fulfillment and security the speaker imagines feeling with her lover. Lines like “Done with the compass, / Done with the chart” suggest a sense of finally arriving at one’s true destination.

The exclamation “Rowing in Eden!” evokes the biblical garden of paradise, implying that being with the beloved would be a return to an ideal state of bliss and innocence.
The final stanza conveys the speaker’s yearning to “moor” herself with her lover, to anchor there even just for one night. The poem ultimately expresses deep romantic and sexual desire through its concise yet evocative figurative language.

Analysis

Structure: The poem consists of three stanzas, each containing four lines (quatrains). The second and fourth lines of each stanza rhyme (thee/be, port/chart, sea/thee), creating a sense of harmony and reinforcing the poem’s main themes.

Meaning and Metaphors: The poem expresses the speaker’s intense longing for a passionate connection with a lover. Dickinson employs the extended metaphor of a ship at sea to represent the speaker’s emotional state. The “wild nights” symbolize the speaker’s desire for unbridled passion and intimacy.

In the first stanza, the speaker imagines the joy and “luxury” of spending wild nights with her beloved. The second stanza suggests that once the heart has found its “port” (i.e., the lover), external circumstances (“futile the winds”) become irrelevant. The compass and chart, tools for navigation, are no longer necessary because the speaker has found her true destination.

The third stanza introduces a biblical allusion with “Rowing in Eden!” This line suggests that being with the beloved would be akin to returning to paradise, a place of pure bliss and innocence. The speaker’s wish to “moor” herself to her lover, even if only for one night, underscores the depth of her desire.

Language and Tone: Dickinson’s word choice and punctuation contribute to the poem’s passionate tone. The exclamations (“Wild nights!”, “Ah! the sea!”) convey a sense of yearning and intensity. The use of dashes (—) creates pauses that emphasize the speaker’s emotional state.

Themes: The main themes of the poem include passion, desire, love, and the search for fulfillment. Dickinson explores the idea that finding true love can provide a sense of completeness and a refuge from life’s uncertainties.

Historical Context: Emily Dickinson wrote during the 19th century when open expressions of female sexuality were somewhat taboo. This poem can be seen as a bold and provocative declaration of a woman’s desire, making it a powerful and subversive work for its time.

Analysis Questions

1. What is the central metaphor in the poem, and how does it relate to the speaker’s emotional state?
2. How does Dickinson’s use of exclamation points and dashes contribute to the poem’s overall tone and mood?
3. In the second stanza, the speaker claims to be “Done with the compass, / Done with the chart.” What do these navigation tools symbolize, and why does the speaker feel they are no longer necessary?
4. The third stanza includes the line “Rowing in Eden!” What is the significance of this biblical allusion, and how does it relate to the speaker’s desire?
5. Considering the historical context of 19th-century society, how might this poem have been perceived as a bold or unconventional expression of female desire? How does this contribute to the poem’s overall impact and meaning?

Discussion questions

The poem is often interpreted as an expression of sexual desire. How does Dickinson convey this theme through her choice of words, metaphors, and structure? Is there any ambiguity in the poem that might suggest other interpretations?
Dickinson uses the extended metaphor of a ship at sea to represent the speaker’s emotional state. How effective is this metaphor in conveying the intensity of the speaker’s longing? What other metaphors or images might the poet have used to express similar ideas?
In the context of 19th-century society, how might this poem have challenged conventional notions of female desire and sexuality? Do you think the poem’s meaning or impact changes when read from a contemporary perspective?
The poem’s title and first line, “Wild Nights – Wild Nights!” is repeated and followed by an exclamation point. What effect does this repetition and punctuation have on the poem’s tone and the reader’s perception of the speaker’s emotional state?
The final stanza introduces a religious allusion with the line “Rowing in Eden!” How does this reference to the biblical paradise contribute to the poem’s themes of desire and fulfillment? Does the religious imagery change your understanding of the poem’s central metaphor or the speaker’s longing?

Biography

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) was one of the most famous and influential American poets. She led a very private life, rarely leaving her hometown of Amherst, Massachusetts, where she pursued her passion for writing poems that broke conventional rules of style and theme.

Though she wrote nearly 1800 poems, less than a dozen were published during her lifetime. She was known for being reclusive and eccentric, interacting largely through letters. Her poems reflect deep insights into death, religion, nature, love and other weighty topics.

After Dickinson died, her sister discovered the enormous collection of unpublished poems and and wanted them published.. Emily Dickinson garnered recognition for her innovatively sparse, untitled form as well as her symbolic richness and bold questioning of core beliefs and doctrines. Her body of work became very influential for modernist and contemporary poets.

Today, Emily Dickinson is considered one of the towering figures of American literature. Though she never formally studied poetry and had little exposure to literary society, she is now studied globally and continues to inspire writers with the intensity and enigmatic beauty of her small yet profound poems.

TOO MUCH by Emily Dickinson

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) was one of the most famous and influential American poets. She led a very private life, rarely leaving

TOO MUCH

by Emily Dickinson

I should have been too glad, I see,
Too lifted for the scant degree
Of life’s penurious round;
My little circuit would have shamed
This new circumference, have blamed
The homelier time behind.

I should have been too saved, I see,
Too rescued; fear too dim to me
That I could spell the prayer
I knew so perfect yesterday, —
That scalding one, “Sabachthani,”
Recited fluent here.

Earth would have been too much, I see,
And heaven not enough for me;
I should have had the joy
Without the fear to justify, —
The palm without the Calvary;
So, Saviour, crucify.

Defeat whets victory, they say;
The reefs in old Gethsemane
Endear the shore beyond.
‘T is beggars banquets best define;
‘T is thirsting vitalizes wine, —
Faith faints to understand.

Biography

Hope by Emily Dickinson

In her poem “Hope,” Emily Dickinson uses an extended metaphor to compare hope to a bird, illustrating its resilience, comfort, and constancy.

Hope

by Emily Dickinson

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

I ‘ve heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.

Analysis

In her poem “Hope,” Emily Dickinson uses an extended metaphor to compare hope to a bird, illustrating its resilience, comfort, and constancy. The analysis of the poem can be broken down into the following aspects:

Extended Metaphor: Throughout the poem, Dickinson personifies hope as a bird that resides within the human soul. This metaphor suggests that hope is a living, dynamic presence that provides comfort and strength to individuals.

Resilience: The bird of hope “never stops at all” and continues to sing its tune even in the midst of life’s challenges and difficulties, represented by the “gale” and “storm.” This highlights the resilience of hope and its ability to persevere through hardships.

Comfort: The bird’s song is “sweetest in the gale” and “kept so many warm,” implying that hope offers the greatest comfort during times of adversity. It has the power to soothe and reassure individuals facing challenges.

Constancy: Dickinson emphasizes that hope is a constant presence, found in “the chillest land” and “on the strangest sea.” No matter the circumstances or location, hope remains steadfast and unwavering.

Self-sufficiency: The final stanza underscores the self-sufficiency of hope. The bird “never, in extremity, / It asked a crumb of me,” suggesting that hope does not depend on external sustenance or validation. It is an inherent part of the human experience.

Imagery and Sound: Dickinson’s choice of words, such as “perches,” “sings,” “gale,” and “storm,” evoke vivid imagery and create a sense of movement and energy within the poem. The alliteration in “sing” and “soul” adds to the poem’s musicality, reinforcing the idea of hope as a song within the soul.

Through this poem, Dickinson presents hope as a powerful, enduring force that provides solace, strength, and encouragement to individuals facing life’s challenges. The extended metaphor of the bird effectively conveys the intangible nature of hope and its profound impact on the human experience.

Biography

Because I could not stop for Death by Emily Dickinson

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) was one of the most original and influential poets in American history. Though she lived

Because I could not stop for Death,
He kindly stopped for me;
The carriage held but just ourselves
And Immortality.

We slowly drove, he knew no haste,
And I had put away
My labor, and my leisure too,
For his civility.

We passed the school where children played,
Their lessons scarcely done;
We passed the fields of gazing grain,
We passed the setting sun.

We paused before a house that seemed
A swelling of the ground;
The roof was scarcely visible,
The cornice but a mound.

Since then ‘t is centuries; but each
Feels shorter than the day
I first surmised the horses’ heads
Were toward eternity.

###

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) was one of the most original and influential poets in American history. Though she lived a largely reclusive life in Amherst, Massachusetts, she produced a body of work consisting of nearly 1,800 poems that contained unique creative expressions and broke from conventional writing styles of the 19th century. Dickinson was ahead of her time, pioneering unconventional capitalization and punctuation that gave her poems deeper layers of meaning. Though less than a dozen of her poems were published during her lifetime, Dickinson sent hundreds of poems to friends and family via letters. After her death, her pioneering style and mastery of themes like life, death, love, nature and spirituality cemented her place as one of the most important figures in American letters.

ULALUME by Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) was an American writer, poet, critic and editor best known for his tales of mystery and horror. He is considered a centra

ULALUME

by Edgar Allan Poe

The skies they were ashen and sober;
The leaves they were crispéd and sere,
The leaves they were withering and sere;
It was night in the lonesome October
Of my most immemorial year; 5
It was hard by the dim lake of Auber,
In the misty mid region of Weir:
It was down by the dank tarn of Auber,
In the ghoul-haunted woodland of Weir.

Here once, through an alley Titanic 10
Of cypress, I roamed with my Soul—
Of cypress, with Psyche, my Soul.
These were days when my heart was volcanic
As the scoriac rivers that roll,
As the lavas that restlessly roll 15
Their sulphurous currents down Yaanek
In the ultimate climes of the pole,
That groan as they roll down Mount Yaanek
In the realms of the boreal pole.

Our talk had been serious and sober, 20
But our thoughts they were palsied and sere,
Our memories were treacherous and sere,
For we knew not the month was October,
And we marked not the night of the year,
(Ah, night of all nights in the year!) 25
We noted not the dim lake of Auber
(Though once we had journeyed down here),
Remembered not the dank tarn of Auber
Nor the ghoul-haunted woodland of Weir.

And now, as the night was senescent 30
And star-dials pointed to morn,
As the star-dials hinted of morn,
At the end of our path a liquescent
And nebulous lustre was born,
Out of which a miraculous crescent 35
Arose with a duplicate horn,
Astarte’s bediamonded crescent
Distinct with its duplicate horn.

And I said—”She is warmer than Dian:
She rolls through an ether of sighs, 40
She revels in a region of sighs:
She has seen that the tears are not dry on
These cheeks, where the worm never dies,
And has come past the stars of the Lion
To point us the path to the skies, 45
To the Lethean peace of the skies:
Come up, in despite of the Lion,
To shine on us with her bright eyes:
Come up through the lair of the Lion,
With love in her luminous eyes.” 50

But Psyche, uplifting her finger,
Said—”Sadly this star I mistrust:
Her pallor I strangely mistrust:
Oh, hasten!—oh, let us not linger!
Oh, fly!—let us fly!—for we must.” 55
In terror she spoke, letting sink her
Wings until they trailed in the dust;
In agony sobbed, letting sink her
Plumes till they trailed in the dust,
Till they sorrowfully trailed in the dust. 60

I replied—”This is nothing but dreaming:
Let us on by this tremulous light!
Let us bathe in this crystalline light!
Its sibyllic splendor is beaming
With hope and in beauty to-night: 65
See, it flickers up the sky through the night!
Ah, we safely may trust to its gleaming,
And be sure it will lead us aright:
We safely may trust to a gleaming
That cannot but guide us aright, 70
Since it flickers up to Heaven through the night.”

Thus I pacified Psyche and kissed her,
And tempted her out of her gloom,
And conquered her scruples and gloom;
And we passed to the end of the vista, 75
But were stopped by the door of a tomb,
By the door of a legended tomb;
And I said—”What is written, sweet sister,
On the door of this legended tomb?”
She replied—”Ulalume—Ulalume— 80
‘T is the vault of thy lost Ulalume!”

Then my heart it grew ashen and sober
As the leaves that were crisped and sere,
As the leaves that were withering and sere,
And I cried—”It was surely October 85
On this very night of last year
That I journeyed—I journeyed down here,
That I brought a dread burden down here:
On this night of all nights in the year,
Ah, what demon has tempted me here? 90
Well I know, now, this dim lake of Auber,
This misty mid region of Weir:
Well I know, now, this dank tarn of Auber,
This ghoul-haunted woodland of Weir.”

###

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) was an American writer, poet, critic and editor best known for his tales of mystery and horror. He is considered a central figure in the American Romantic movement and was one of the first American practitioners of the short story.

Poe was born in Boston to actress Elizabeth Arnold Hopkins Poe and actor David Poe Jr. His father abandoned the family when Poe was a toddler and his mother died of tuberculosis when he was two, leaving him orphaned. He was taken in by the wealthy tobacco merchant John Allan and his wife Frances in Richmond, Virginia.

Though never formally adopted, Poe took Allan as his middle name. He had a strained relationship with John Allan who did not support his literary ambitions. As a young man Poe attended the University of Virginia but was forced to drop out due to lack of funds.

His publishing career began in 1827 with the poetry collection Tamerlane and Other Poems. In 1835 he became editor of the Southern Literary Messenger in Richmond. He later lived in Philadelphia working as editor for magazines like Burton’s Gentleman’s Magazine and Graham’s Magazine.

It was during this time that Poe established himself as a critical reviewer and published many of his most famous stories, including “The Fall of the House of Usher,” “The Tell-Tale Heart,” “The Pit and the Pendulum,” and “The Murders in the Rue Morgue.”

Known for his Gothic, macabre themes and melancholic tone, Poe pioneered the modern detective story and helped define early science fiction. He married his cousin Virginia Clemm in 1836 who died of tuberculosis in 1847. Poe himself died under mysterious circumstances at the age of 40 in 1849.

Though not widely recognized during his lifetime, Poe’s stories and criticism have had a profound and lasting influence on American and international literature. He is now considered one of the most significant writers of the 19th century.

She sights a Bird — she chuckles — by Emily Dickinson

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) was one of the most influential and innovative American poets of the 19th century

She sights a Bird — she chuckles —

by Emily Dickinson

She sights a Bird — she chuckles —
She flattens — then she crawls —
She runs without the look of feet —
Her eyes increase to Balls —

Her Jaws stir — twitching — hungry —
Her Teeth can hardly stand —
She leaps, but Robin leaped the first —
Ah, Pussy, of the Sand,

The Hopes so juicy ripening —
You almost bathed your Tongue —
When Bliss disclosed a hundred Toes —
And fled with every one —

###

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) was one of the most influential and innovative American poets of the 19th century. Though she lived a reclusive life in Amherst, Massachusetts, she created a body of work that had a profound impact on American literature.

Dickinson pushed the boundaries of poetic form, rhythm, and style. She was fond of unconventional capitalization, dashes instead of traditional punctuation, and playing with the rhythms of words and lines in unexpected ways. Her poems dealt with themes of death, immortality, religion, nature, and love.

Though less than a dozen of Dickinson’s nearly 1,800 poems were published during her lifetime, she shared her work in letters with friends and family members. After her death, Dickinson’s poems were published and she began garnering acclaim. She is now considered one of the towering figures of American poetry. Her innovative style and brave exploration of deep, philosophical themes in short lyric poems inspired later poets and helped shape the course of modern poetry.

Sappho by Sara Teasdale

Sara Teasdale (1884-1933) was an American lyrical poet associated with the early 20th century’s “poetry renaissance” in America.

Sappho

by Sara Teasdale

The twilight’s inner flame grows blue and deep,
And in my Lesbos, over leagues of sea,
The temples glimmer moonwise in the trees.
Twilight has veiled the little flower face
Here on my heart, but still the night is kind
And leaves her warm sweet weight against my breast.
Am I that Sappho who would run at dusk
Along the surges creeping up the shore
When tides came in to ease the hungry beach,
And running, running, till the night was black,
Would fall forespent upon the chilly sand
And quiver with the winds from off the sea?
Ah, quietly the shingle waits the tides
Whose waves are stinging kisses, but to me
Love brought no peace, nor darkness any rest.
I crept and touched the foam with fevered hands
And cried to Love, from whom the sea is sweet,
From whom the sea is bitterer than death.
Ah, Aphrodite, if I sing no more
To thee, God’s daughter, powerful as God,
It is that thou hast made my life too sweet
To hold the added sweetness of a song.
There is a quiet at the heart of love,
And I have pierced the pain and come to peace.
I hold my peace, my Cleis, on my heart;
And softer than a little wild bird’s wing
Are kisses that she pours upon my mouth.
Ah, never any more when spring like fire
Will flicker in the newly opened leaves,
Shall I steal forth to seek for solitude
Beyond the lure of light Alcaeus’ lyre,
Beyond the sob that stilled Erinna’s voice.
Ah, never with a throat that aches with song,
Beneath the white uncaring sky of spring,
Shall I go forth to hide awhile from Love
The quiver and the crying of my heart.
Still I remember how I strove to flee
The love-note of the birds, and bowed my head
To hurry faster, but upon the ground
I saw two winged shadows side by side,
And all the world’s spring passion stifled me.
Ah, Love, there is no fleeing from thy might,
No lonely place where thou hast never trod,
No desert thou hast left uncarpeted
With flowers that spring beneath thy perfect feet.
In many guises didst thou come to me;
I saw thee by the maidens while they danced,
Phaon allured me with a look of thine,
In Anactoria I knew thy grace,
I looked at Cercolas and saw thine eyes;
But never wholly, soul and body mine,
Didst thou bid any love me as I loved.
Now I have found the peace that fled from me;
Close, close, against my heart I hold my world.
Ah, Love that made my life a lyric cry,
Ah, Love that tuned my lips to lyres of thine,
I taught the world thy music, now alone
I sing for one who falls asleep to hear.

###

Sara Teasdale (1884-1933) was an American lyrical poet associated with the early 20th century’s “poetry renaissance” in America. Teasdale was born in St. Louis, Missouri and began writing poetry as a child. She published her first poetry collection, Sonnets to Duse and Other Poems, in 1907. Teasdale went on to publish several more collections including Helen of Troy and Other Poems (1911), Rivers to the Sea (1915), and Flame and Shadow (1920). The poem “There Will Come Soft Rains” from her 1920 collection is one of her most famous works. Teasdale’s poetry was known for its lyrical style, romantic themes, and focus on nature and love. She won the first Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1918 for her 1917 collection Love Songs. Plagued by poor health for much of her life, Teasdale committed suicide in 1933 at age 48. Her lyrical and romantic poems left a legacy and influenced later poets.

Autumn by Rainer Maria Rilke

AUTUMN

by Rainer Maria Rilke

The leaves fall, fall as from far,
Like distant gardens withered in the heavens;
They fall with slow and lingering descent.

And in the nights the heavy Earth, too, falls
From out the stars into the Solitude.

Thus all doth fall. This hand of mine must fall
And lo! the other one:—it is the law.
But there is One who holds this falling
Infinitely softly in His hands.

###

Rainer Maria Rilke was an influential Bohemian-Austrian poet and one of the most important German-language writers of the 20th century. He was born René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke in 1875 in Prague, which was then part of Bohemia and part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. As a poet, Rilke is associated with both Symbolism and Modernism. His major collections of lyrical poetry include Duino Elegies, Sonnets to Orpheus, Letters to a Young Poet, The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge, and The Book of Hours. Major themes in his work deal with existentialism, mysticism, solitude, and the role and calling of the poet. He corresponded with and was influenced by contemporaries like Lou Andreas-Salomé, Paul Cézanne, Marina Tsvetaeva and Boris Pasternak. He also drew inspiration from psychoanalysis and Rodin’s sculpture. While not well-known beyond German readers during his lifetime, Rilke’s work was rediscovered and celebrated posthumously. He is now considered one of the most lyrical poets writing in German and his poetry has been widely translated and continues to profoundly influence poets today. Rilke died in 1926 at the age of 51 in Valmont, Switzerland.

Friendship by Henry David Thoreau

Friendship

by Henry David Thoreau

‘Friends, Romans, Countrymen, and Lovers.’
Let such pure hate still underprop
Our love, that we may be
Each other’s conscience,
And have our sympathy
Mainly from thence.

We’ll one another treat like gods,
And all the faith we have
In virtue and in truth, bestow
On either, and suspicion leave
To gods below.

Two solitary stars—
Unmeasured systems far
Between us roll;
But by our conscious light we are
Determined to one pole.

What need confound the sphere?—
Love can afford to wait;
For it no hour’s too late
That witnesseth one duty’s end,
Or to another doth beginning lend.

It will subserve no use,
More than the tints of flowers;
Only the independent guest
Frequents its bowers,
Inherits its bequest.

No speech, though kind, has it;
But kinder silence doles
Unto its mates;
By night consoles,
By day congratulates.

What saith the tongue to tongue?
What heareth ear of ear?
By the decrees of fate
From year to year,
Does it communicate.

Pathless the gulf of feeling yawns;
No trivial bridge of words,
Or arch of boldest span,
Can leap the moat that girds
The sincere man.

No show of bolts and bars
Can keep the foeman out,
Or ’scape his secret mine,
Who entered with the doubt
That drew the line.

No warder at the gate
Can let the friendly in;
But, like the sun, o’er all
He will the castle win,
And shine along the wall.

There’s nothing in the world I know
That can escape from love,
For every depth it goes below,
And every height above.

It waits, as waits the sky
Until the clouds go by,
Yet shines serenely on
With an eternal day,
Alike when they are gone,
And when they stay.

Implacable is Love,—
Foes may be bought or teased
From their hostile intent,
But he goes unappeased

###

Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) was an American essayist, poet, philosopher, abolitionist, naturalist, tax resister, development critic, surveyor, historian, and leading transcendentalist. He is best known for his book Walden, a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and his essay Civil Disobedience, an argument for disobedience to an unjust state.

Thoreau was born in Concord, Massachusetts and graduated from Harvard University. He lived for two years, two months, and two days in a self-built cabin on Walden Pond, near Concord, and wrote his most famous work Walden during his time there. Thoreau was inspired by transcendentalism and emphasized the importance of nature and living simply. His writings on civil disobedience and protest against government policy would later influence many influential figures, including Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.

Although not initially popular, Thoreau’s works became influential and he is now regarded as one of the foremost American writers, both for the modern clarity of his prose style and the prescience of his views on nature and politics. Thoreau’s friend Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote of him “The scale on which his studies proceeded was so large as to require longevity, and a sort of eagle vision to survey the field … He was a protestant à l’outrance, and few lives contain so many renunciations.”

To A Poet A Thousand Years Hence

James Elroy Flecker (1884-1915) was an English poet, dramatist, and diplomat. Though his literary career was cut short by his premature death from tuberculosis

To A Poet A Thousand Years Hence

by James Elroy Flecker

I who am dead a thousand years,
And wrote this sweet archaic song,
Send you my words for messengers
The way I shall not pass along.

I care not if you bridge the seas,
Or ride secure the cruel sky,
Or build consummate palaces
Of metal or of masonry.

But have you wine and music still,
And statues and a bright-eyed love,
And foolish thoughts of good and ill,
And prayers to them who sit above?

How shall we conquer? Like a wind
That falls at eve our fancies blow,
And old Moeonides the blind
Said it three thousand years ago.

O friend unseen, unborn, unknown,
Student of our sweet English tongue,
Read out my words at night, alone:
I was a poet, I was young.

Since I can never see your face,
And never shake you by the hand,
I send my soul through time and space
To greet you. You will understand.

###

James Elroy Flecker (1884-1915) was an English poet, dramatist, and diplomat. Though his literary career was cut short by his premature death from tuberculosis at age 30, Flecker left behind a memorable body of poetic works.

The Sphinx by Ralph Waldo Emerson

The Sphinx

by Ralph Waldo Emerson

The Sphinx is drowsy,
Her wings are furled:
Her ear is heavy,
She broods on the world.
“Who’ll tell me my secret,
The ages have kept?—
I awaited the seer
While they slumbered and slept:—

“The fate of the man-child,
The meaning of man;
Known fruit of the unknown;
Daedalian plan;
Out of sleeping a waking,
Out of waking a sleep;
Life death overtaking;
Deep underneath deep?

“Erect as a sunbeam,
Upspringeth the palm;
The elephant browses,
Undaunted and calm;
In beautiful motion
The thrush plies his wings;
Kind leaves of his covert,
Your silence he sings.

“The waves, unashamèd,
In difference sweet,
Play glad with the breezes,
Old playfellows meet;
The journeying atoms,
Primordial wholes,
Firmly draw, firmly drive,
By their animate poles.

“Sea, earth, air, sound, silence.
Plant, quadruped, bird,
By one music enchanted,
One deity stirred,—
Each the other adorning,
Accompany still;
Night veileth the morning,
The vapor the hill.

“The babe by its mother
Lies bathèd in joy;
Glide its hours uncounted,—
The sun is its toy;
Shines the peace of all being,
Without cloud, in its eyes;
And the sum of the world
In soft miniature lies.

“But man crouches and blushes,
Absconds and conceals;
He creepeth and peepeth,
He palters and steals;
Infirm, melancholy,
Jealous glancing around,
An oaf, an accomplice,
He poisons the ground.

“Out spoke the great mother,
Beholding his fear;—
At the sound of her accents
Cold shuddered the sphere:—
‘Who has drugged my boy’s cup?
Who has mixed my boy’s bread?
Who, with sadness and madness,
Has turned my child’s head?'”

I heard a poet answer
Aloud and cheerfully,
‘Say on, sweet Sphinx! thy dirges
Are pleasant songs to me.
Deep love lieth under
These pictures of time;
They fade in the light of
Their meaning sublime.

“The fiend that man harries
Is love of the Best;
Yawns the pit of the Dragon,
Lit by rays from the Blest.
The Lethe of Nature
Can’t trance him again,
Whose soul sees the perfect,
Which his eyes seek in vain.

“To vision profounder,
Man’s spirit must dive;
His aye-rolling orb
At no goal will arrive;
The heavens that now draw him
With sweetness untold,
Once found,—for new heavens
He spurneth the old.

“Pride ruined the angels,
Their shame them restores;
Lurks the joy that is sweetest
In stings of remorse.
Have I a lover
Who is noble and free?—
I would he were nobler
Than to love me.

“Eterne alternation
Now follows, now flies;
And under pain, pleasure,—
Under pleasure, pain lies.
Love works at the centre,
Heart-heaving alway;
Forth speed the strong pulses
To the borders of day.

“Dull Sphinx, Jove keep thy five wits;
Thy sight is growing blear;
Rue, myrrh and cummin for the Sphinx,
Her muddy eyes to clear!”
The old Sphinx bit her thick lip,—
Said, “Who taught thee me to name?
I am thy spirit, yoke-fellow;
Of thine eye I am eyebeam.

“Thou art the unanswered question;
Couldst see thy proper eye,
Alway it asketh, asketh;
And each answer is a lie.
So take thy quest through nature,
It through thousand natures ply;
Ask on, thou clothed eternity;
Time is the false reply.”

Uprose the merry Sphinx,
And crouched no more in stone;
She melted into purple cloud,
She silvered in the moon;
She spired into a yellow flame;
She flowered in blossoms red;
She flowed into a foaming wave:
She stood Monadnoc’s head.

Thorough a thousand voices
Spoke the universal dame;
“Who telleth one of my meanings
Is master of all I am.”

Summary

The Sphinx, a mythical creature, poses philosophical questions about the mysteries of humanity and the universe that have gone unanswered over the ages. She wonders about the meaning of life, humanity’s purpose, and the secrets of nature. A poet responds optimistically, suggesting that profound love, spiritual vision, and embracing life’s dualities can provide meaning. However, the Sphinx counters that humanity is ignorant and fails to comprehend the deeper truths.

The poet argues that humanity must continuously dive deeper into the unknown, seeking new understanding rather than settling for surface truths. But the Sphinx replies that humanity can never fully grasp the infinite complexity of nature. She represents the eternal mystery at the heart of existence. After this dialogue, the Sphinx transforms into various forms in nature – cloud, moon, flame, blossoms, wave – representing the manifold variety and wisdom of the natural world, with which humanity is intertwined.

In the end, the poem explores humanity’s relationship to nature and the search for meaning through philosophical questioning. The Sphinx symbolizes the unknown, while the poet affirms love, imagination, and ceaseless searching as ways to catch glimpses of meaning. The poem suggests that although we may not find absolute answers, the quest itself brings meaning.

Bio

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) was a renowned American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, and poet who led the transcendentalist movement in the mid-19th century. He was born in Boston, Massachusetts and attended Harvard University where he began his career as a minister before turning to writing and public speaking. Emerson became one of America’s most influential thinkers and writers, pioneering a uniquely American approach to philosophy and literature based on optimism, individualism, and harmony between humanity and nature.

Some of Emerson’s most famous essays include “Self-Reliance,” “The American Scholar,” “Nature,” and “The Poet.” He gave hundreds of popular lectures across the country on a wide range of topics such as intellectual independence, the ethics of politics, and the role of scholars in society. Emerson was associated with other transcendentalists like Henry David Thoreau and Margaret Fuller who shared his belief in the mysticism of nature and individual intuition as a source of spirituality.

In addition to his prolific essays and lectures, Emerson wrote over 1,800 poems characterized by their philosophical idealism and emphasis on moral and ethical principles. He traveled widely throughout Europe and Asia and incorporated ideas from Eastern philosophy into his writings. Emerson’s work had an immense influence on American literature, embodying the energetic optimism and individualism of the young nation. He died in 1882 after a prolific career advocating for human rights, critical thinking, and the betterment of society through self-culture.

The Vampire by James Clerk Maxwell 1845

Translated into modern English by R Edwards

There is a knight riding through the woods,
A brave and noble knight is he.
And surely he is on an urgent quest,
He rides so hastily.

He passed the oak and the birch trees,
And many other trees passed he,
But pleasant to him was the slender willow,
For beneath it he did see

The fairest lady that he ever saw,
She was so bright and fair.
And there she sat beneath the willow,
Combing her golden hair.

The knight said “Oh beautiful lady,
What chance has brought you here?
Just say the word and you shall go
Back to your family dear.”

The fair lady spoke up:
“I have no friends or kin,
But in a little boat I live,
Amidst the waves’ loud din.”

The brave knight answered:
“I will follow you through all,
For if you live in a little boat,
The world seems to it small.”

They went through the woods, to the end they came:
And there they saw the sea foam white.

And then they saw the tiny boat,

That danced atop the waves so bright.
First got in the fair lady,
Then the brave knight.

They rowed in the tiny boat
With all their might;
But the brave knight turned about,
And looked upon the lady bright;

He looked upon her rosy cheek,
And into her eyes so bright,
But her cheek grew deathly pale,
As if she was dead that night.

The false, false knight grew pale with fright,

His hair stood up on end,
For days gone by came to his mind,
And his former love he did recognize.

The lady spoke “You false knight
Have done me great ill,
You did forsake me long ago,
But I am constant still;

For though I lie in these cold woods,
At rest I cannot be
Until I suck the lifeblood

Of the man who caused me to die.”

He saw her lips were wet with blood,
And her merciless eyes did shine,
Loud he cried “Get away from my side,

You unclean vampire corpse!”

But no, he was in her magic boat,
On the wide and winding sea;
And the vampire sucked his lifeblood,
She sucked until he died.

So beware, whoever you are,
That walks in this lonely wood:
Beware of that deceitful ghost,
The ghoul that drinks the blood.

###

James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879) was a Scottish mathematician and physicist who made major contributions to electromagnetism and thermodynamics. He is best known for formulating the classical theory of electromagnetic radiation, bringing together electricity, magnetism, and light as different manifestations of the same phenomenon.

The Vampire by Madison Julius Cawein

Madison Julius Cawein was an American poet born in 1865 in Louisville, Kentucky. He was associated with the “Kentucky School” of writers and was known

The Vampire

by Madison Cawein

A lily in a twilight place?
Or moonflower in the lonely night?—
Strange beauty of a woman’s face
Of wildflower-white!

The rain that hangs a star’s green ray
Slim on a leaf-point’s restlessness,
Is not so glimmering green and gray
As was her dress.

I drew her dark hair from her eyes,
And in their deeps beheld a while
Such shadowy moonlight as the skies
Of Hell may smile.

She held her mouth up, redly wan
And burning cold:—I bent and kissed
Such rosy snow as some wild dawn
Makes of a mist.

God shall not take from me that hour,
When round my neck her white arms clung!
When ‘neath my lips, like some fierce flower,
Her white throat swung!

Nor words she murmured while she leaned!
Witch-words, she holds me softly by,—
The spell that binds me to a fiend
Until I die.

###

Madison Julius Cawein was an American poet born in 1865 in Louisville, Kentucky. He was associated with the “Kentucky School” of writers and was known for his poetry featuring mystical themes of nature and mythology. Some of his notable published works include Blooms of the Berry (1898), Kentucky Poems (1900), Mystery and Romance (1901), and Myth and Romance (1908).

Cawein’s style was heavily influenced by the English Romantic poets like Keats and Shelley, with much of his poetry conveying a dreamy, romantic, and imaginative tone. He led a largely reclusive life, suffering from depression and alcoholism in his later years. Cawein died by suicide in 1914 at the age of 49.

At the peak of his career, Cawein was compared to renowned Romantic poets like Keats and Shelley. While mostly forgotten today, he was considered an influential regional American poet at the turn of the 20th century. His poem “The Vampire” is one example of his works dealing with supernatural subjects and themes. Though he died in obscurity, Cawein contributed a substantial body of mystical, nature-inspired poetry during his lifetime.

We’ll Go No More A-Roving–Lord Byron

George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron was born in 1788 and died in 1824. He was an English poet who helped lead the Romanticism movement.

We’ll go no more a-roving

So, we’ll go no more a-roving
So late into the night,
Though the heart be still as loving,
And the moon be still as bright.

For the sword outwears its sheath,
And the soul wears out the breast,
And the heart must pause to breathe,
And love itself have rest.

Though the night was made for loving,
And the day returns too soon,
Yet we’ll go no more a-roving
By the light of the moon.

O Captain My Captain by Walt Whitman

Walt Whitman (1819-1892)

O Captain My Captain

O Captain my Captain! our fearful trip is done,
The ship has weathered every rack, the prize we sought is won,
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring;
But O heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.

O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;
Rise up–for you the flag is flung for you the bugle trills,
For you bouquets and ribboned wreaths for you the shores a-crowding,
For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;
Here Captain! dear father!
This arm beneath your head!
It is some dream that on the deck,
You’ve fallen cold and dead.

My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still;
My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will;
The ship is anchored safe and sound, its voyage closed and done;
From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won;
Exult O shores, and ring O bells!
But I, with mournful tread,
Walk the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.