Tag: English poems
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A Hymn to the Evening by Phillis Wheatley
Soon as the sun forsook the eastern mainThe pealing thunder shook the heav’nly plain;Majestic grandeur! From the zephyr’s wing,Exhales the incense of the blooming spring.Soft purl the streams, the birds renew their notes,And through the air their mingled music floats.Through all the heav’ns what beauteous dies are spread!But the west glories in the deepest red:So […]
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Songs of Sorrows by Kofi Awoonor
I. Dzogbese Lisa has treated me thusIt has led me among the sharps of the forestReturning is not possibleAnd going forward is a great difficultyThe affairs of this world are like the chameleon fecesInto which I have steppedWhen I clean it cannot go. I am on the world’s extreme corner,I am not sitting in the […]
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A Wake for Okigbo by Chinua Achebe
For whom are we searching?For whom are we searching?For Okigbo we are searching!Nzomalizo! Has he gone for firewood, let him return.Has he gone to fetch water, let him return.Has he gone to the marketplace, let him return.For Okigbo we are searching!Nzomalizo! For whom are we searching?For whom are we searching?For Okigbo we are searching!Nzomalizo! Has […]
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Love Cycle by Chinue Achebe
At dawn slowlythe sun withdraws hislong misty arms ofembrace. Happy lovers whose exertions leaveno aftertaste nor slushof love’s combustion; Earthperfumed in dewdropfragrance wakes to whispers ofsoft-eyed light…Later hewill wear out his temperploughing the vast acresof heaven and take it out of her in burningdarts of anger. Longaccustomed to such capriceshe waits patiently for evening when […]
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Night by Wole Soyinka
Your hand is heavy, Night, upon my brow.I bear no heart mercuric like the clouds,to dare.Exacerbation from your subtle plough.Woman as a clam, on the sea’s cresent.I saw your jealous eye quench the sea’sFlouorescence, dance on the pulse incessantOf the waves. And I stood, drainedSubmitting like the sands, blood and brineCoursing to the roots. Night, […]
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Telephone Conversation by Wole Soyinka
The price seemed reasonable,location Indifferent. The landlady swore she livedOff premises. Nothing remained But self-confession. ‘Madam’ I warned, ‘I hate a wasted journey – I am African.’ Silence. Silenced transmission of pressurized good-breeding. Voice, when it came, Lipstick coated, long gold-rolled Cigarette-holder pipped. Caught I was, foully. ‘How dark?’ I had not misheard. ‘Are you […]
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Ode on a Distance Prospect of Eton College by Thomas Gray
Ye distant spires, ye antique tow’rs, That crown the wat’ry glade, Where grateful Science still adores Her Henry’s holy Shade; And ye, that from the stately brow Of Windsor’s heights th’ expanse below Of grove, of lawn, of mead survey, Whose turf, whose shade, whose flowr’s among Wanders the hoary Thames along His silver-winding way. Ah, happy hills, ah, pleasing shade, Ah, fields belov’d in […]
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Love Letter from Inside Fatherhood by Fritz Ward
Inside the trap, I spend weeks remodeling the haven you’ll haunt. Not for the joy of it, but for the wonder that keeps snapping my neck. Come December, there’s a morning when the sun slathers the bare trees in saffron and I hold you more delicately than I’ve ever held myself. See how we’ve risen […]
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October 1803
By William Wordsworth These times strike monied world lings with dismay: Even rich men, brave by nature, taint the air With words of apprehension and despair: While tens of thousands, thinking on the affray, Men unto whom sufficient for the day And minds not stinted or untilled are given, […]
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Power of Music
By William Wordsworth AN Orpheus! an Orpheus! yes, Faith may grow bold,And take to herself all the wonders of old;–Near the stately Pantheon you’ll meet with the sameIn the street that from Oxford hath borrowed its name. His station is there; and he works on the crowd,He sways them with harmony merry and loud;He fills with his power all their hearts to the brim–Was aught ever heard like his fiddle and him? What an eager assembly! what an empire is this!The weary have life, and the hungry have bliss;The mourner is cheered, and the anxious have rest;And the guilt-burthened […]
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I Wondered Lonely as a Cloud
By William Wordsworth I wandered lonely as a cloudThat floats on high o’er vales and hills,When all at once I saw a crowd,A host, of golden daffodils;Beside the lake, beneath the trees,Fluttering and dancing in the breeze. Continuous as the stars that shineAnd twinkle on the milky way,They stretched in never-ending lineAlong the margin of […]
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An Anatomy of the World
By John Donne
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The sun rising
The Sun Rising by John Donne
POETISHES 