Delphi Poetry Anthology: The World's Greatest Poems (Delphi Poets Series Book 50)

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Delphi Poetry Anthology: The World's Greatest Poems (Delphi Poets Series Book 50) Page 195

by Homer


  The Lady Of Shalott. Part I

  ON either side the river lie

  Long fields of barley and of rye,

  That clothe the wold and meet the sky;

  And thro’ the field the road runs by

  To many-tower’d Camelot; 5

  And up and down the people go,

  Gazing where the lilies blow

  Round an island there below,

  The island of Shalott.

  Willows whiten, aspens quiver, 10

  Little breezes dusk and shiver

  Thro’ the wave that runs for ever

  By the island in the river

  Flowing down to Camelot.

  Four gray walls, and four gray towers, 15

  Overlook a space of flowers,

  And the silent isle imbowers

  The Lady of Shalott.

  By the margin, willow-veil’d,

  Slide the heavy barges trail’d 20

  By slow horses; and unhail’d

  The shallop flitteth silken-sail’d

  Skimming down to Camelot:

  But who hath seen her wave her hand?

  Or at the casement seen her stand? 25

  Or is she known in all the land,

  The Lady of Shalott?

  Only reapers, reaping early

  In among the bearded barley,

  Hear a song that echoes cheerly 30

  From the river winding clearly,

  Down to tower’d Camelot:

  And by the moon the reaper weary,

  Piling sheaves in uplands airy,

  Listening, whispers ‘’Tis the fairy 35

  Lady of Shalott.’

  List of Poems in Alphabetical Order

  List of Poets in Alphabetical Order

  The Lady Of Shalott. Part II

  There she weaves by night and day

  A magic web with colours gay.

  She has heard a whisper say,

  A curse is on her if she stay 40

  To look down to Camelot.

  She knows not what the curse may be,

  And so she weaveth steadily,

  And little other care hath she,

  The Lady of Shalott. 45

  And moving thro’ a mirror clear

  That hangs before her all the year,

  Shadows of the world appear.

  There she sees the highway near

  Winding down to Camelot: 50

  There the river eddy whirls,

  And there the surly village-churls,

  And the red cloaks of market girls,

  Pass onward from Shalott.

  Sometimes a troop of damsels glad, 55

  An abbot on an ambling pad,

  Sometimes a curly shepherd-lad,

  Or long-hair’d page in crimson clad,

  Goes by to tower’d Camelot:

  And sometimes thro’ the mirror blue 60

  The knights come riding two and two:

  She hath no loyal knight and true,

  The Lady of Shalott.

  But in her web she still delights

  To weave the mirror’s magic sights, 65

  For often thro’ the silent nights

  A funeral, with plumes and lights,

  And music, went to Camelot:

  Or when the moon was overhead,

  Came two young lovers lately wed; 70

  ‘I am half sick of shadows,’ said

  The Lady of Shalott.

  List of Poems in Alphabetical Order

  List of Poets in Alphabetical Order

  The Lady Of Shalott. Part III

  A bow-shot from her bower-eaves,

  He rode between the barley-sheaves,

  The sun came dazzling thro’ the leaves, 75

  And flamed upon the brazen greaves

  Of bold Sir Lancelot.

  A red-cross knight for ever kneel’d

  To a lady in his shield,

  That sparkled on the yellow field, 80

  Beside remote Shalott.

  The gemmy bridle glitter’d free,

  Like to some branch of stars we see

  Hung in the golden Galaxy.

  The bridle bells rang merrily 85

  As he rode down to Camelot:

  And from his blazon’d baldric slung

  A mighty silver bugle hung,

  And as he rode his armour rung,

  Beside remote Shalott. 90

  All in the blue unclouded weather

  Thick-jewell’d shone the saddle-leather,

  The helmet and the helmet-feather

  Burn’d like one burning flame together,

  As he rode down to Camelot. 95

  As often thro’ the purple night,

  Below the starry clusters bright,

  Some bearded meteor, trailing light,

  Moves over still Shalott.

  His broad clear brow in sunlight glow’d; 100

  On burnish’d hooves his war-horse trode;

  From underneath his helmet flow’d

  His coal-black curls as on he rode,

  As he rode down to Camelot.

  From the bank and from the river 105

  He flash’d into the crystal mirror,

  ‘Tirra lirra,’ by the river

  Sang Sir Lancelot.

  She left the web, she left the loom,

  She made three paces thro’ the room, 110

  She saw the water-lily bloom,

  She saw the helmet and the plume,

  She look’d down to Camelot.

  Out flew the web and floated wide;

  The mirror crack’d from side to side; 115

  ‘The curse is come upon me!’ cried

  The Lady of Shalott.

  List of Poems in Alphabetical Order

  List of Poets in Alphabetical Order

  The Lady Of Shalott. Part IV

  In the stormy east-wind straining,

  The pale yellow woods were waning,

  The broad stream in his banks complaining, 120

  Heavily the low sky raining

  Over tower’d Camelot;

  Down she came and found a boat

  Beneath a willow left afloat,

  And round about the prow she wrote 125

  The Lady of Shalott.

  And down the river’s dim expanse —

  Like some bold seer in a trance,

  Seeing all his own mischance —

  With a glassy countenance 130

  Did she look to Camelot.

  And at the closing of the day

  She loosed the chain, and down she lay;

  The broad stream bore her far away,

  The Lady of Shalott. 135

  Lying, robed in snowy white

  That loosely flew to left and right —

  The leaves upon her falling light —

  Thro’ the noises of the night

  She floated down to Camelot: 140

  And as the boat-head wound along

  The willowy hills and fields among,

  They heard her singing her last song,

  The Lady of Shalott.

  Heard a carol, mournful, holy, 145

  Chanted loudly, chanted lowly,

  Till her blood was frozen slowly,

  And her eyes were darken’d wholly,

  Turn’d to tower’d Camelot;

  For ere she reach’d upon the tide 150

  The first house by the water-side,

  Singing in her song she died,

  The Lady of Shalott.

  Under tower and balcony,

  By garden-wall and gallery, 155

  A gleaming shape she floated by,

  Dead-pale between the houses high,

  Silent into Camelot.

  Out upon the wharfs they came,

  Knight and burgher, lord and dame, 160

  And round the prow they read her name,

  The Lady of Shalott.

  Who is this? and what is here?

  And in the lighted palace near

  Died the sound of r
oyal cheer; 165

  And they cross’d themselves for fear,

  All the knights at Camelot:

  But Lancelot mused a little space;

  He said, ‘She has a lovely face;

  God in His mercy lend her grace, 170

  The Lady of Shalott.’

  List of Poems in Alphabetical Order

  List of Poets in Alphabetical Order

  Sweet and Low

  Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892)

  SWEET and low, sweet and low,

  Wind of the western sea,

  Low, low, breathe and blow,

  Wind of the western sea!

  Over the rolling waters go, 5

  Come from the dying moon, and blow,

  Blow him again to me;

  While my little one, while my pretty one, sleeps.

  Sleep and rest, sleep and rest,

  Father will come to thee soon; 10

  Rest, rest, on mother’s breast,

  Father will come to thee soon;

  Father will come to his babe in the nest,

  Silver sails all out of the west

  Under the silver moon: 15

  Sleep, my little one, sleep, my pretty one, sleep.

  List of Poems in Alphabetical Order

  List of Poets in Alphabetical Order

  Tears, Idle Tears

  Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892)

  TEARS, idle tears, I know not what they mean,

  Tears from the depth of some divine despair

  Rise in the heart, and gather to the eyes,

  In looking on the happy Autumn-fields,

  And thinking of the days that are no more. 5

  Fresh as the first beam glittering on a sail,

  That brings our friends up from the underworld,

  Sad as the last which reddens over one

  That sinks with all we love below the verge;

  So sad, so fresh, the days that are no more. 10

  Ah, sad and strange as in dark summer dawns

  The earliest pipe of half-awakened birds

  To dying ears, when unto dying eyes

  The casement slowly grows a glimmering square;

  So sad, so strange, the days that are no more. 15

  Dear as remembered kisses after death,

  And sweet as those by hopeless fancy feigned

  On lips that are for others; deep as love,

  Deep as first love, and wild with all regret;

  O Death in Life, the days that are no more. 20

  List of Poems in Alphabetical Order

  List of Poets in Alphabetical Order

  Blow, Bugle, Blow

  Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892)

  THE SPLENDOUR falls on castle walls

  And snowy summits old in story:

  The long light shakes across the lakes,

  And the wild cataract leaps in glory.

  Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying, 5

  Blow, bugle; answer, echoes, dying, dying, dying.

  O hark, O hear! how thin and clear,

  And thinner, clearer, farther going!

  O sweet and far from cliff and scar

  The horns of Elfland faintly blowing! 10

  Blow, let us hear the purple glens replying:

  Blow, bugle; answer, echoes, dying, dying, dying.

  O love, they die in yon rich sky,

  They faint on hill or field or river:

  Our echoes roll from soul to soul, 15

  And grow for ever and for ever.

  Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying,

  And answer, echoes, answer, dying, dying, dying.

  List of Poems in Alphabetical Order

  List of Poets in Alphabetical Order

  Home They Brought Her Warrior Dead

  Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892)

  HOME they brought her warrior dead:

  She nor swooned, nor uttered cry:

  All her maidens, watching, said,

  ‘She must weep or she will die.’

  Then they praised him, soft and low, 5

  Called him worthy to be loved,

  Truest friend and noblest foe;

  Yet she neither spoke nor moved.

  Stole a maiden from her place,

  Lightly to the warrior stepped, 10

  Took the face-cloth from the face;

  Yet she neither moved nor wept.

  Rose a nurse of ninety years,

  Set his child upon her knee —

  Like summer tempest came her tears — 15

  ‘Sweet my child, I live for thee.’

  List of Poems in Alphabetical Order

  List of Poets in Alphabetical Order

  Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal

  Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892)

  NOW sleeps the crimson petal, now the white;

  Nor waves the cypress in the palace walk;

  Nor winks the gold fin in the porphyry font:

  The fire-fly wakens: waken thou with me.

  Now droops the milkwhite peacock like a ghost, 5

  And like a ghost she glimmers on to me.

  Now lies the Earth all Danaë to the stars,

  And all thy heart lies open unto me.

  Now slides the silent meteor on, and leaves

  A shining furrow, as thy thoughts in me. 10

  Now folds the lily all her sweetness up,

  And slips into the bosom of the lake:

  So fold thyself, my dearest, thou, and slip

  Into my bosom and be lost in me.

  List of Poems in Alphabetical Order

  List of Poets in Alphabetical Order

  O Swallow, Swallow

  Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892)

  O SWALLOW, Swallow, flying, flying South,

  Fly to her, and fall upon her gilded eaves,

  And tell her, tell her, what I tell to thee.

  O tell her, Swallow, thou that knowest each,

  That bright and fierce and fickle is the South, 5

  And dark and true and tender is the North.

  O Swallow, Swallow, if I could follow, and light

  Upon her lattice, I would pipe and trill,

  And cheep and twitter twenty million loves.

  O were I thou that she might take me in, 10

  And lay me on her bosom, and her heart

  Would rock the snowy cradle till I died.

  Why lingereth she to clothe her heart with love,

  Delaying as the tender ash delays

  To clothe herself, when all the woods are green? 15

  O tell her, Swallow, that thy brood is flown:

  Say to her, I do but wanton in the South,

  But in the North long since my nest is made.

  O tell her, brief is life but love is long,

  And brief the sun of summer in the North, 20

  And brief the moon of beauty in the South.

  O Swallow, flying from the golden woods,

  Fly to her, and pipe and woo her, and make her mine,

  And tell her, tell her, that I follow thee.

  List of Poems in Alphabetical Order

  List of Poets in Alphabetical Order

  Break, Break, Break

  Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892)

  BREAK, break, break,

  On thy cold grey stones, O Sea!

  And I would that my tongue could utter

  The thoughts that arise in me.

  O well for the fisherman’s boy, 5

  That he shouts with his sister at play!

  O well for the sailor lad,

  That he sings in his boat on the bay!

  And the stately ships go on

  To their haven under the hill; 10

  But O for the touch of a vanished hand,

  And the sound of a voice that is still!

  Break, break, break,

  At the foot of thy crags, O Sea!

  But the tender grace of a day that is dead 15

  Will never come back to me.


  List of Poems in Alphabetical Order

  List of Poets in Alphabetical Order

  In the Valley of Cauteretz

  Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892)

  ALL along the valley, stream that flashest white,

  Deepening thy voice with the deepening of the night,

  All along the valley, where thy waters flow,

  I walked with one I loved two and thirty years ago.

  All along the valley while I walked to-day, 5

  The two and thirty years were a mist that rolls away;

  For all along the valley, down thy rocky bed,

  Thy living voice to me was as the voice of the dead,

  And all along the valley, by rock and cave and tree,

  The voice of the dead was a living voice to me. 10

  List of Poems in Alphabetical Order

  List of Poets in Alphabetical Order

  Vivien’s Song

  Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892)

  ‘IN Love, if Love be Love, if Love be ours,

  Faith and unfaith can ne’er be equal powers:

  Unfaith in aught is want of faith in all.

  ‘It is the little rift within the lute,

  That by and by will make the music mute, 5

  And ever widening slowly silence all.

  ‘The little rift within the lover’s lute

  Or little pitted speck in garnered fruit,

  That rotting inward slowly moulders all.

 

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