To stand up straight and tread the turning mill,To lie flat and know nothing and be still,Are the two trades of man; and which is worseI know not, but I know that both are ill.

Even when poetry has a meaning, as it usually has, it may be inadvisable to draw it out. Perfect understanding will sometimes almost extinguish pleasure.

When I examine my mind and try to discern clearly in the matter, I cannot satisfy myself that there are any such things as poetical ideas. No truth, it seems to me, is too precious,...

Nature, not content with denying him the ability to think, has endowed him with the ability to write.

…And friends abroad must bear in mindFriends at home they leave behind.Oh, I shall be stiff and coldWhen I forget you, hearts of gold;The land where I shall mind you notIs the land where all’s...

There pass the careless peopleThat call their souls their own:Here by the road I loiter,How idle and alone.Ah, past the plunge of plummet,In seas I cannot sound,My heart and soul and senses,World without end, are...

If it chance your eye offends you,Pluck it out lad, and be sound:’Twill hurt, but here are salves to friend you,And many a balsam grows on ground.And if your hand or foot offend you,Cut it...

White in the moon the long road lies,The moon stands blank above;White in the moon the long road liesThat leads me from my love.Still hangs the hedge without a gust,Still, still the shadows stay:My feet...

Tis the old wind in the old anger,But then it threshed another wood.

June suns, you cannot store themTo warm the winter’s cold,The lad that hopes for heavenShall fill his mouth with mould.

It nods and curtseys and recoversWhen the wind blows above,The nettle on the graves of loversThat hanged themselves for love.The nettle nods, the wind blows over,The man, he does not move,The lover of the grave,...

Ale, man, Ale’s the stuff to drink,for fellows whom it hurts to think.

Others, I am not the first,Have willed more mischief than they durst:If in the breathless night I tooShiver now, ’tis nothing new.More than I, if truth were told,Have stood and sweated hot and cold,And through...

When I Was One-And-TwentyWhen I was one-and-twenty I heard a wise man say,`Give crowns and pounds and guineas But not your heart away;Give pearls away and rubies But keep your fancy free.’But I was one-and-twenty...

Lie you easy, dream you light,And sleep you fast for aye;And luckier may you find the nightThan ever you found the day.

Up, lad: thews that lie and cumberSunlit pallets never thrive;Morns abed and daylight slumberWere not meant for man alive.

The thoughts of othersWere light and fleeting,Of lovers’ meetingOr luck or fame.Mine were of trouble,And mine were steady;So I was readyWhen trouble came.

Now hollow fires burn out to black,And lights are fluttering low:Square your shoulders, lift your packAnd leave your friends and go.O never fear, lads, naught’s to dread,Look not left nor right: In all the endless...

IVREVEILLEWake: the silver dusk returningUp the beach of darkness brims,And the ship of sunrise burningStrands upon the eastern rims.Wake: the vaulted shadow shaatters,Trampled to the floor it spanned,And the tent of night in tatters Straws...

The sum of things to be known is inexhaustible, and however long we read, we shall never come to the end of our story-book.”(Introductory lecture as professor of Latin at University College, London, 3 October...

In my own shire, if I was sadHomely comforters I had:The earth, because my heart was sore,Sorrowed for the son she bore;And standing hills, long to remain,Shared their short-lived comrade’s pain.And bound for the same...

Life, to be sure, is nothing much to lose,But young men think it is, and we were young.

Who made the world I cannot tell;’Tis made, and here I am in hell.

Wanderers eastward, wanderers west, Know you why you cannot rest?’Tis that every mother’s sonTravails with a skeleton.Lie down in the bed of dust;Bear the fruit that bear you must;Bring the eternal seed to light,And morn...

All knots that lovers tieAre tied to sever.Here shall your sweetheart lie,Untrue for ever.

You smile upon your friend to-day,To-day his ills are over;You hearken to the lover’s say,And happy is the lover.’Tis late to hearken, late to smile, But better late than never:I shall have lived a little...

Stars, I have seen them fall,But when they drop and dieNo star is lost at allFrom all the star-sown sky.The toil of all that beHelps not the primal fault;It rains into the seaAnd still the...

Epitaph on an Army of Mercenaries These, in the day when heaven was falling, The hour when earth’s foundations fled,Followed their mercenary callingAnd took their wages and are dead. Their shoulders held the sky suspended;They...

The stars have not dealt me the worst they could do:My pleasures are plenty, my troubles are two.But oh, my two troubles they reave me of rest,The brains in my head and the heart in...

The Laws Of God, The Laws Of ManThe laws of God, the laws of manHe may keep that will and can;Not I: Let God and man decreeLaws for themselves and not for me;And if my...

Give me a land of boughs in leafA land of trees that stand;Where trees are fallen there is grief;I love no leafless land.

Oh fair enough are sky and plain,But I know fairer far:Those are as beautiful againThat in the water are;The pools and rivers wash so cleanThe trees and clouds and air,The like on earth was never...

How clear, how lovely bright,How beautiful to sight Those beams of morning play;How heaven laughs out with gleeWhere, like a bird set free,Up from the eastern sea Soars the delightful day.To-day I shall be strong,No...

Therefore, since the world has stillMuch good, but much less good than ill,And while the sun and moon endureLuck’s a chance, but trouble’s sure,I’d face it as a wise man would,And train for ill and...

I to my perilsOf cheat and charmerCame clad in armourBy stars benign.Hope lies to mortalsAnd most believe her,But man’s deceiver Was never mine.The thoughts of othersWere light and fleeting,Of lovers’ meetingOr luck or fame.Mine were...

Be still, my soul, be still; the arms you bear are brittle,Earth and high heaven are fixt of old and founded strong.Think rather,–call to thought, if now you grieve a little,The days when we had...

They say my verse is sad: no wonder.Its narrow measure spansRue for eternity, and sorrowNot mine, but man’sThis is for all ill-treated fellowsUnborn and unbegot,For them to read when they’re in troubleAnd I am not.

Along the field as we came byA year ago, my love and I,The aspen over stile and stoneWas talking to itself alone.’Oh who are these that kiss and pass?A country lover and his lass;Two lovers...

Because I liked you betterThan suits a man to say,It irked you, and I promisedI’d throw the thought away.To put the world between usWe parted stiff and dry:’Farewell,’ said you, ‘forget me.”Fare well, I will,’...

Great literature should do some good to the reader: must quicken his perception though dull, and sharpen his discrimination though blunt, and mellow the rawness of his personal opinions.

Westward on the high-hilled plainsWhere for me the world began, Still, I think, in newer veinsFrets the changeless blood of man….There, when hueless is the westAnd the darkness hushes wide,Where the lad lies down to...

When the lad for longing sighs,Mute and dull of cheer and pale,If at death’s own door he lies,Maiden, you can heal his ail.Lovers’ ills are all to buy:The wan look, the hollow tone,The hung head,...

The half-moon westers low, my love,And the wind brings up the rain;And wide apart lie we, my love,And seas between the twain.I know not if it rains, my love, In the land where you do...