The Penguin Book of English Verse

by Paul Keegan

  Forget not yet the tryde entent 82

  Forsaken woods, trees with sharpe storms opprest 151

  Fra banc to banc fra wod to wod I rin 110

  From a friend’s friend I taste friendship 945

  From Frozen Climes, and Endless Tracks of Snow 413

  From my father my strong heart 1007

  From the hagg and hungrie goblin 212

  Full fadom five thy Father lies 209

  Gasholders, russet among fields 1025

  Gather ye Rose-buds while ye may 294

  George the Third 898

  ‘Get up!’ the caller calls, ‘Get up!’ 789

  Give me my Scallop shell of quiet 186

  Gloria mundi est 7

  Glory be to God for dappled things 778

  Go forth myn hert wyth my lady 46

  Go, litel boke, go, litel myn tragedye 12

  Go lovely Rose 278

  God give me strength to lead a double life 1100

  God hath the whole world perfect made, and free 210

  God moves in a mysterious way 511

  God of our fathers, known of old 818

  Goe hurtles soules, whom mischiefe hath opprest 103

  Goe soule the bodies guest 126

  Gold and al this worldës wyn 7

  Gone, gone again 855

  Good, and great GOD, can I not thinke of thee 217

  ‘Good-morning; good-morning!’ the General said 860

  Good-night to the Season! ’tis over! 663

  Grass of levity 201

  Grasshopper thrice-happy! who 310

  Great Folks are of a finer Mold 449

  Gut eates all day, and lechers all the night 217

  Had we but World enough, and Time 368

  Happy Insect, what can be 319

  Happy those early dayes! when I 303

  Hard by the lilied Nile I saw 719

  Hark, all ye lovely saints above 159

  Harke, al you ladies that do sleep 121

  Harke how my Celia, with the choyce 270

  Harmonious powers with nature work 670

  Hatred and vengeance, my eternal portion 512

  Having been tenant long to a rich Lord 243

  He could raise Scruples dark and nice 326

  He did not wear his scarlet coat 819

  He disappeared in the dead of winter 929

  He first deceas’d: She for a little tri’d 276

  He gazed and gazed and gazed and gazed 776

  He is gone on the mountain 603

  He sees the gentle stir of birth 711

  He sipped at a weak hock and seltzer 921

  He that but once too nearly hears 727

  He was lodging above in Coom 830

  He was the first always: Fortune 739

  Hear the voice of the Bard! 538

  Hearke, now everything is still 212

  Heere uninterr’d suspendes (though not to save 242

  Hence to deep Acheron they take their way 403

  Her Chariot ready straight is made 240

  Here are two pictures from my father’s head 1037

  Here I am, an old man in a dry month 871

  Here, in this little Bay 777

  Here Johnson lies; what human can deny 513

  Here lies David Garrick, describe me who can 513

  Here lies our good Edmund, whose genius was such 513

  Here lies the best and worst of Fate 291

  Here lies Wise and Valiant Dust 292

  Here lies wrapt up in forty thousand towels 467

  Here Reynolds is laid, and to tell you my mind 514

  Here should my wonder dwell, and here my praise 276

  Here’s to the maiden of Bashful fifteen 516

  Hereto I come to view a voiceless ghost 835

  Heroes, and Kings! your distance keep 463

  He’s gone, and all our plans 860

  High diddle diddle 495

  His bodie was as straight as Circes wand 156

  His Golden lockes, Time hath to Silver turn’d 110

  His Grace! impossible! what dead! 430

  His hand came from the east 987

  Horse Boyle was called Horse Boyle because of his brother Mule 1087

  Hot sunne, coole fire, temperd with sweet aire 167

  Hours before dawn we were woken by the quake 938

  How comes it, Flora, that, whenever we 761

  How fresh, O Lord, how sweet and clean 247

  How Life and Death in Thee 285

  How like an Angel came I down! 345

  How many times Nights silent Queene her Face 218

  How often have I carried our family word 1078

  How sleep the Brave, who sink to Rest 477

  How small, of all that human hearts endure 495

  How vainly men themselves amaze 372

  Hurry me Nymphs! O, hurry me 687

  I always remember your beautiful flowers 966

  I am a man now 982

  I am in love, meantime, you think; no doubt you would think so 731

  ‘I am just going outside and may be some time’ 1083

  I am the ancient Apple-Queen 804

  I am – yet what I am, none cares or knows 710

  I cannot tell you how it was 739

  I caught a little ladybird 776

  I caught this morning morning’s minion, king- 778

  I could not look on Death, which being known 862

  I couldn’t touch a stop and turn a screw 808

  I did not live until this time 340

  ‘I fear thee, ancient Mariner! 607

  I finde hou whilom ther was on 37

  I found a ball of grass among the hay 688

  I gave to Hope a watch of mine: but he 246

  I had come to the edge of the water 1080

  I have been here before 751

  I have been noting events forty years 904

  I have been young, and now am not too old 899

  I have got into the slow train 1051

  I have laborede sore and suffered deyyth 49

  I have lived in important places, times 980

  I have met them at close of day 869

  I have put on a grotesque mask 1101

  I imagine this midnight moment’s forest 976

  I leant upon a coppice gate 824

  I love my work and my children. God 1011

  I love you, rotten 879

  I met a traveller from an antique land 611

  I met ayont the cairney 890

  I might, unhappie word, ô me, I might 120

  I now thinke, Love is rather deafe, then blind 238

  I only knew one poet in my life 722

  I ordered this, this clean wood box 1001

  I place my hope on the water 1096

  I play a spade: – Such strange new faces 676

  I pray thee Nymph Penaeis stay, I chase not as a fo 95

  I rode one evening with Count Maddalo 653

  I saw Eternity the other night 305

  I saw faire Cloris walke alone 321

  I say although the fire were wondrous hot 122

  I scarce beleeve my love to be so pure 227

  I see as through a skylight in my brain 1014

  I sing of Brooks, of Blossomes, Birds, and Bowers 293

  I strove with none, for none was worth my strife 711

  I struck the board, and cry’d, No more 246

  I syng of a mayden that is makëles 47

  I tell my secret? No indeed, not I 740

  I tell you, hopeless grief is passionless 698

  I that in heill wes and gladnes 59

  I’ the how-dumb-deid o’ the cauld hairst nicht 889

  I wake and feel the fell of dark, not day 794

  I walk through the long schoolroom questioning 894

  I wander thro’ each charter’d street 541

  I was angry with my friend 542

  I was going up to say something 1037

  I was not borne to Helicon, nor dare 257

  I was of delic
ate mind. I went aside for my needs 862

  I was thy neighbour once, thou rugged Pile! 591

  I watch the happier people of the house 802

  I went to the Garden of Love 541

  ‘I wille you allë swalewë withouten any bot 8

  I wonder do you feel today 726

  I wrote: in the dark cavern of our birth 987

  Ich am of Irlande 3

  If a pig wore a wig 776

  If all the world and love were young 175

  If any question why we died 862

  If I were fierce, and bald, and short of breath 859

  If ought of Oaten Stop, or Pastoral Song 477

  If there were, oh! an Hellespont of cream 201

  If you complain your Flames are hot 388

  I’m going out to dine at Gray’s 884

  I’m wearin’ awa’, John 661

  I’me made in sport by Nature, when 395

  Imprimis – My departed Shade I trust 480

  In a coign of the cliff between lowland and highland 781

  In a herber green asleep whereas I lay 93

  In a solitude of the sea 831

  In a somur sesoun whan softe was the sonne 15

  In all the space of space 1094

  In my childhood trees were green 940

  In Night when colours all to blacke are cast 172

  In our town, people live in rows 844

  In pious times, e’r Priest-craft did begin 376

  In Saturn’s Reign, at Nature’s Early Birth 396

  In Siberia’s wastes 707

  In such a Night, when every louder Wind 417

  In summers heate and mid-time of the day 159

  In that instant 1029

  In that same Gardin all the goodly flowres 114

  In the first taxi he was alone tra-la 991

  In the forest of Noyous Hevynes 44

  In the third decade of March 1069

  In the way that the most of the wind 1038

  In the wrackes of Walsingham 177

  In this cold Monument lies one 390

  In this little Urne is laid 296

  In this small fort, besieged with snow 478

  In this strang labourinth how shall I turne? 234

  In this world (the Isle of Dreames) 296

  In to thir dirk and drublie dayis 64

  In unexperienc’d Infancy 347

  In what torne ship soever I embarke 232

  ‘In winter, when the fields are white 773

  In Xanadu did Kubla Khan 604

  Indoors the tang of a tiny oil lamp. Outdoors 977

  Into my heart an air that kills 816

  Is she mine, – and for life 813

  Is there a solitary wretch who hies 546

  Is this the Region, this the Soil, the Clime 334

  It fell upon a holly eve 100

  It had been badly shot 1080

  It is a fearful thing to be 876

  It is an ancyent Marinere 547

  It is December in Wicklow 1043

  It is early morning within this room: without 956

  It is most curious to see what a power a few calm words (in 731

  It is not what they built. It is what they knocked down 1073

  It is summer, and we are in a house 1032

  It is this deep blankness is the real thing strange 963

  It little profits that an idle king 696

  It once might have been, once only 752

  It was my thirtieth year to heaven 960

  It was the first gift he ever gave her 1096

  It was the Winter wilde 280

  It was your birthday, we had drunk and dined 1099

  ‘Ithin the woodlands, flow’ry gleäded 734

  It’s Lamkin was a mason good 587

  James Cagney was the one up both our streets 1076

  Jean-Baptiste Chardin 1091

  Just like unto a Nest of Boxes round 314

  Just when our drawing-rooms begin to blaze 521

  Kilbarchan now may say alas! 252

  King of the perennial holly-graus 1023

  Last night we had a thunderstorm in style 791

  Late in the Forest I did Cupid see 235

  Lawne as white as driven Snow 207

  Lead, Kindly Light, amid the encircling gloom 687

  Leave me ô Love, which reachest but to dust 153

  Leaving the white glow of filling stations 1067

  Let Earth and Heaven combine 476

  Let me not to the marriage of true mindes 197

  Let the bird of lowdest lay 181

  Let the day perish, wherein I was borne, and the night in which it was said, There is a man-childe conceived 203

  Let them bestow on ev’ry Airth a Limb 301

  Let us go then, you and I 847

  Life is a jest; and all things show it 429

  Like as the waves make towards the pibled shore 194

  Like to the Artick needle, that doth guide 250

  Living in a wide landscape are the flowers 952

  London Bridge is broken down 474

  Long time a child, and still a child, when years 682

  Long time hath Christ, long time I must confess 150

  Long time he lay upon the sunny hill 888

  Long-expected one and twenty 518

  ‘Look not thou on Beauty’s charming 612

  Look there! What a wheaten 999

  Lord Thomas and Fair Annet 498

  Lord when the wise men came from Farr 266

  Lost to the world; lost to my selfe; alone 296

  Love bade me welcome: yet my soul drew back 249

  Love in Fantastique Triumph satt 355

  Love is the Peace, whereto all thoughts doe strive 171

  Love me broughte 8

  Love seeketh not Itself to please 539

  Love without hope, as when the young bird-catcher 886

  Loving in truth, and faine in verse my love to show 119

  Lully, lulley; lully, lulley 70

  Luxurious Man, to bring his Vice in use 370

  Lyke as a huntsman after weary chace 138

  Lyke as the armed knyght 87

  Madam Life’s a piece in bloom 822

  Madam would speak with me. So, now it comes 747

  Maiden in the morë lay 3

  Maides to bed, and cover coale 207

  Make the greate God thy Fort, and dwell 273

  Man is a Glas: Life is 201

  Man’s and woman’s bodies lay without souls 1023

  Man’s Life 201

  Me not no Oxford don 1084

  Methought I saw my late espoused Saint 351

  Miles of pram in the wind and Pam in the gorse track 936

  Miss Helen Slingsby was my maiden aunt 851

  Mobile, immaculate and austere 978

  Mock on Mock on Voltaire Rousseau 584

  Most glorious Lord of lyfe that on this day 139

  Move him into the sun 857

  Much have I travell’d in the realms of gold 606

  Muses helpe me, sorrow swarmeth 129

  My comforts drop and melt away like snow 248

  My Dear One is mine as mirrors are lonely 962

  My dearest dust could not thy hasty day 234

  ‘My deere doghter Venus,’ quod Saturne 24

  My fourthe housbonde was a revelour 26

  My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains 635

  My house, I say. But hark to the sunny doves 799

  My Love is of a birth as rare 371

  My lute, awake! Perfourme the last 81

  My luve is like a red, red rose 544

  My pensive Sara! thy soft cheek reclined 542

  My prime of youth is but a froste of cares 106

  My Son, these maxims make a rule 525

  My son was killed while laughing at some jest. I would I knew 862

  My sweetest Lesbia, let us live and love 183

  My true love hath my hart, and I have his 108

  Myne owne John Poyntz, sins ye delight to kn
ow 83

  Nature, and Nature’s Laws lay hid in Night 459

  Nature selects the longest way 817

  Naughty Paughty Jack-a-Dandy 435

  Nay, Ivy, nay, hyt shal not be, iwys 49

  ‘Needy Knife-grinder! whither are you going? 545

  Ne’er fash your thumb what gods decree 518

  Nell 899

  Never seek to tell thy love 537

  Never weather-beaten Saile more willing bent to shore 211

  Nightmare of beasthood, snorting, how to wake 1024

  No, no; for my Virginity 427

  No, no, go not to Lethe, neither twist 639

  No, no, no, I know I was not important as I moved 981

  Nobody heard him, the dead man 977

  Not a line of her writing have I 823

  Not every man has gentians in his house 907

  Not marble, nor the guilded monuments 194

  Not mine owne feares, nor the prophetick soule 196

  Not only how far away, but the way that you say it 949

  Nothing but No and I, and I and No 163

  Nothing so true as what you once let fall 454

  Now as at all times I can see in the mind’s eye 838

  Now bygynneth Glotoun for to go to shryfte 17

  Now fades the last long streak of snow 716

  Now, God be thanked Who has matched us with His hour 841

  Now, I gain the Mountain’s Brow 436

  Now is Jonas the Jwe jugged to drowne 31

  Now is the time for the burning of the leaves 957

  Now Israel 301

  Now mirk December’s dowie face 509

  Now rides this renk thurgh the ryalme of Logres 33

  ‘Now sleeps the crimson petal, now the white 709

  Now the leaves are falling fast 917

  Now welcome, somer, with thy sonne softe 11

  Now Westward Sol had spent the richest Beames 285

  ‘Now when King Offa was alive and dead’ 1026

  Now winter nights enlarge 220

  Nowe, Parott, my swete byrde, speke owte yet ons agayn 76

  O DAVID, highest in the list 491

  O happy dames, that may embrace 89

  ‘O ladyis fair of Troy and Grece, attend’ 54

  O Love, be fed with apples while you may 899

  O luely, luely cam she in 914

  O perfite light, quhilk schaid away 163

  O ragyng Seas 93

  O Rose thou art sick 539

  O roving Muse, recal that wond’rous Year 423

  O sweet incendiary! shew here thy art 312

  O tender time that love thinks long to see 783

  O wha’s the bride that cairries the bunch 890

  O what a strange parcel of creatures are we 528

  O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms 640

  O where ha’ you been, Lord Randal my son? 578

  O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn’s being 642

  O zummer clote! when the brook’s a-glidèn 698

  Oblique light on the trite, on brick and tile 1077