1.
Limericks a. b.
c. d. 2. Dreams Langston Hughes 3. Loss And Gain Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 4. Eye Mask Denise Levertov 5. A Light Breather Theodore Roethke 6. a. The Soul unto itself Emily Dickinson 6. b. Sometimes with the Heart Emily Dickinson 7. Sweet Disorder Robert Herrick 8. Joy Sara Teasdale 9. The Broken Field Sara Teasdale | 10.
When Love Flies In Walter
de la Mare 11. The Best of It Kay Ryan 12. A Leaf Bronislaw Maj 13. He wishes his beloved were dead W. B. Yeats 14. Wild Swans Edna St. Vincent Millay 15. a. Sanctuary Dorothy Parker 15. b. Experience Dorothy Parker 15. c. Faute de Mieux Dorothy Parker 16. Love Equals Swift and Slow Henry David Thoreau |
1.
Limericks
a. http://www.jokes2go.com/poems/26779.html
A mouse in her room woke Miss Doud
Who was frightened and screamed very loud
Then a happy thought hit her
To scare off the critter
She sat up in bed and just meowed.
b. http://www.skoletorget.no/abb/eng/limr/limr_birch.html
A psychiatrist fellow from Rye
Went to visit another close by,
Who said, with a grin,
As he welcomed him in:
"Hello, Smith! You're all right! How am I?"
by Stephen Cass
c. http://karenspoetryspot.blogspot.tw/2008/08/flea-and-fly-in-flue-by-ogden-nash.html
A flea and
a fly in a flue
Were caught, so what could they do?
Said the fly, "Let us flee."
"Let us fly," said the flea.
So they flew through a flaw in the flue.
by Ogden
Nash
d. http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/6091/
A mosquito was heard to complain,
"A chemist has poisoned my brain!"
The cause of his sorrow
was paradichloro-
triphenyldichloroethane.
by Dr. D. D. Perrin
2.
Dreams
http://www.favoritepoem.org/poems/hughes/dreams.html
Langston
Hughes African-American (1902-1967)
http://www.americanpoems.com/poets/Langston-Hughes
Hold
fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot
fly. Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen
with snow.
3.
Loss And Gain
http://www.emule.com/poetry/?page=poem&poem=1071
Henry
Wadsworth Longfellow American (1807-1882)
http://www.americanpoems.com/poets/longfellow/
Chinese
translation: http://www.chinapage.com/lf10.html
When
I compare
What I have lost with what I have gained,
What I have missed with
what attained,
Little room do I find for pride.
I
am aware
How many days have been idly spent;
How like an arrow the good
intent
Has fallen short or been turned aside.
But
who shall dare
To measure loss and gain in this wise?
Defeat may be victory
in disguise;
The lowest ebb is the turn of the tide.
4.
Eye Mask
http://www.monologs.net/archives/2004/11/20/le_poeme_du_jour.html
Denise
Levertov Anglo-American (1923-1997)
http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/g_l/levertov/life.htm
In
this dark I rest
unready for the light which dawns
day after day,
eager
to be shared.
Black silk, shelter me.
I need more of the night before I
open
eyes and heart
to illumination. I must still
grow in the dark like
a root
not ready, not ready at all.
5.
A Light Breather
http://www.poethig.com/Fancy/Words/Roethke_Poems.htm#Breather
Theodore
Roethke American (1908-1963)
http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/13
The
spirit moves,
Yet stays:
Stirs as a blossom stirs,
Still wet from its
bud-sheath,
Slowly unfolding,
Turning in the light with its tendrils;
Plays
as a minnow plays,
Tethered to a limp weed, swinging,
Tail around, nosing
in and out of the current,
Its shadows loose, a watery finger;
Moves, like
the snail,
Still inward,
Taking and embracing its surroundings,
Never
wishing itself away,
Unafraid of what it is,
A music in a hood,
A small
thing,
Singing.
6.
a. The Soul unto itself
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15879
Emily
Dickinson American (1830-1886)
http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/155
The
Soul unto itself
Is an imperial friend
Or the most agonizing Spy
An Enemy could send
Secure
against its own
No treason it can fear
Itself its Sovereign
of itself
The Soul should stand in Awe
6.
b. Sometimes with the Heart
http://www.americanpoems.com/poets/emilydickinson/11632
Emily
Dickinson American (1830-1886)
http://www.online-literature.com/dickinson/
Sometimes
with the Heart
Seldom with the Soul
Scarcer once with the Might
Few
love at all.
7.
Sweet Disorder
http://www.poemhunter.com/p/m/poem.asp?poet=3115&poem=29408
Robert
Herrick English (1594-1674)
http://www.poemhunter.com/robert-herrick/biography/poet-3115/
audio
(male, RP):
http://neuro.ohbi.net/english_poem/a_sweet_disorder_in_the_dress_herrick.wma
A
sweet disorder in the dress
Kindles in clothes a wantonness:
A lawn about
the shoulders thrown
Into a fine distraction
An erring lace, which
here and there
Enthrals the crimson stomacher
A cuff neglectful,
and thereby
Ribbands to flow confusedly
A winning wave, deserving
note,
In the tempestuous petticoat
A careless shoe-string, in whose
tie
I see a wild civility
Do more bewitch me than when art
Is
too precise in every part.
8.
Joy
http://www.poemhunter.com/p/m/poem.asp?poet=3104&poem=15338
Sara
Teasdale American (1884-1933)
http://poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/658
I
am wild, I will sing to the trees,
I will sing to the stars in the sky,
I
love, I am loved, he is mine,
Now at last I can die!
I
am sandaled with wind and with flame,
I have heart-fire and singing to give,
I
can tread on the grass or the stars,
Now at last I can live!
9.
The Broken Field
http://www.poetry-archive.com/t/the_broken_field.html
Sara
Teasdale American (1884-1933)
http://poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/658
My
soul is a dark ploughed field
In the cold rain;
My soul is a broken field
Ploughed
by pain.
Where windy grass and flowers
Were growing,
The field lies
broken now
For another sowing.
Great
Sower, when you tread
My field again,
Scatter the furrows there
With
better grain.
10.
When Love Flies In
Walter de la Mare English (1873-1956)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_de_la_Mare
When
Love flies in,
Make make no sign;
Owl-soft his wings,
Sand-blind
his eyne;
Sigh, if thou must,
But seal him thine.
Nor
make no sign
If love flit out;
He'll tire of thee
Without a doubt.
Stifle
thy pangs;
Thy heart resign;
And live without!
11.
The Best of It
http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/docs/2005/09/12/
Kay
Ryan American (1945- )
http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/352
http://www.nea.gov/features/Writers/ryan.html
http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0825/p25s01-bogn.html
However
carved up
or pared down we get,
we keep on making
the best of it as though
it
doesn't matter that
our acre's down to
a square foot. As
though our garden
could
be one bean
and we'd rejoice if
it flourishes, as
though one bean
could
nourish us.
12.
A Leaf
http://www.kottke.org/04/12/a-leaf-by-bronislaw-maj
Bronislaw
Maj Polish (1953- )
http://www.culture.pl/en/culture/artykuly/os_maj_bronislaw
A
leaf, one of the last, parts from a maple branch:
it is spinning in the transparent
air of October, falls
on a heap of others, stops, fades. No one
admired
its entrancing struggle with the wind,
followed its flight, no one will distinguish
it now
as it lies among the other leaves, no one saw what I did. I am
the
only one.
13.
He wishes his beloved were dead
http://www.poetryconnection.net/poets/William_Butler_Yeats/1243
William
Butler Yeats Irish (1865-1939)
http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/117
Were
you but lying cold and dead,
And lights were paling out of the West,
You
would come hither, and bend your head,
And I would lay my head on your breast;
And
you would murmur tender words,
Forgiving me, because you were dead:
Nor
would you rise and hasten away,
Though you have the will of the wild birds,
But
know your hair was bound and wound
About the stars and moon and sun:
O would,
beloved, that you lay
Under the dock-leaves in the ground,
While lights
were paling one by one.
14.
Wild Swans
http://www.everypoet.com/archive/poetry/Edna_St_Vincent_Millay/edna_st_vincent_millay_second_april_wild_swans.htm
Edna
St. Vincent Millay American (1892-1950)
http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/160
http://members.aol.com/MillayGirl/bio.htm
I
looked in my heart while the wild swans went over.
And what did I see I had
not seen before?
Only a question less or a question more;
Nothing to match
the flight of wild birds flying.
Tiresome heart, forever living and dying,
House
without air, I leave you and lock your door.
Wild swans, come over the town,
come over
The town again, trailing your legs and crying!
15.
a. Sanctuary
http://oldpoetry.com/oprintall/Dorothy%20Parker
Dorothy
Parker American (1893-1967)
http://www.americanpoems.com/poets/parker
My
land is bare of chattering folk;
The clouds are low along the ridges,
And
sweet's the air with curly smoke
From all my burning bridges.
15.
b. Experience
http://oldpoetry.com/oprintall/Dorothy%20Parker
Dorothy
Parker American (1893-1967)
http://eir.library.utoronto.ca/rpo/display/poet248.html
Some
men break your heart in two,
Some men fawn and flatter,
Some men never
look at you;
And that cleans up the matter.
15.
c. Faute de Mieux
http://oldpoetry.com/oprintall/Dorothy%20Parker
Dorothy
Parker American (1893-1967)
http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/dparker.htm
Travel,
trouble, music, art,
A kiss, a frock, a rhyme
I never said they
feed my heart,
But still they pass my time.
16.
Love Equals Swift and Slow
Henry
David Thoreau American (1817-1862)
http://education.yahoo.com/reference/encyclopedia/entry/Thoreau
http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/601
Love
equals swift and slow,
And high and low,
Racer and lame,
The hunter and his game.
Click
on the canna blossom
to hear the
poem read in General American by Karen Chung.
Click on the harpsichord
(image
source) to hear the poem read in Standard British English (RP) by Colin
Whiteley.