Section: «Poems»
Verse (ancient Greek ὁ στίχος — row, structure), a term in versification used in several meanings:
artistic speech organized by division into rhythmically commensurate segments; poetry in the narrow sense; in particular, it implies the properties of versification of a particular tradition ("antique verse", "Akhmatova's verse", etc.);
a line of poetic text organized according to a certain rhythmic pattern ("My uncle of the most honest rules").
Holy Sonnet X: Death Be Not Proud
Death, be not proud, though some have callèd theeMighty and dreadful, for thou art not so;For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrowDie not..
© John Donne
A Lecture Upon The Shadow
Stand still, and I will read to theeA lecture, love, in love's philosophy.These three hours that we have spent,Walking here, two shadows wentAlong..
© John Donne
The Flea
Mark but this flea, and mark in this,How little that which thou deny'st me is;It sucked me first, and now sucks thee,And in this flea, our two bloods..
© John Donne
A Burnt Ship
Out of a fired ship, which by no wayBut drowning could be rescued from the flame,Some men leap'd forth, and ever as they cameNear the foes' ships..
© John Donne
A Fever
Oh do not die, for I shall hateAll women so, when thou art gone,That thee I shall not celebrate,When I remember, thou wast one.But yet thou canst not..
© John Donne
Daybreak
STAY, O sweet and do not rise!The light that shines comes from thine eyes;The day breaks not: it is my heart, Because that you and I must..
© John Donne
Go And Catch A Falling Star
Go and catch a falling star,Get with child a mandrake root,Tell me where all past years are,Or who cleft the devil's foot,Teach me to hear mermaids..
© John Donne
Confined Love
Some man unworthy to be possessorOf old or new love, himself being false or weak,Thought his pain and shame would be lesserIf on womankind he might..
© John Donne
Good Morrow
I wonder, by my truth, what thou and IDid, till we loved; were we not weaned till then,But sucked on country pleasures, childishly?Or snorted we in..
© John Donne
A Lame Beggar
I am unable, yonder beggar cries,To stand, or move; if he say true, he lies.
© John Donne
Air And Angels
Twice or thrice had I loved thee,Before I knew thy face or name;So in a voice, so in a shapeless flame,Angels affect us oft, and worshipped be;Still..
© John Donne
The Sun Rising
Busy old fool, unruly Sun,Why dost thou thus,Through windows, and through curtains, call onus?Must to thy motions lovers' seasons run?Saucy pedantic..
© John Donne
A Hymn To God The Father
Wilt thou forgive that sin where I begun,Which was my sin, though it were done before?Wilt thou forgive that sin, through which I run,And do run..
© John Donne
For Whom The Bell Tolls
PERCHANCE he for whom this bell tolls may be so ill, as that heknows not it tolls for him; and perchance I may think myself somuch better than I am..
© John Donne
A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning
As virtuous men pass mildly away,And whisper to their souls, to go,Whilst some of their sad friends do say,'The breath goes now,' and some say..
© John Donne
Death Be Not Proud
Death be not proud, though some have called theeMighty and dreadfull, for, thou art not soe,For, those, whom thou think'st, thou dost overthrow,Die..
© John Donne
No Man Is An Island
No man is an island,Entire of itself,Every man is a piece of the continent,A part of the main.If a clod be washed away by the sea,Europe is the..
© John Donne
Observing The Mute Cat
Clean water in the housebut the cat laps up clay wateroutside. Drinking the earth.His pile, being perfect,ignores the misting rain.A charcoal..
© Les Murray
To Fly In Just Your Suit
Humans are flown, or fall;humans can't fly.We're down with the gravity-stemmers,rare, thick-boned, often basso.Most animals above the tides are..
© Les Murray
Photographing Aspirations
Fume-glossed, unbearably shrill,this car is dilated with a glazethat will vanish before standstill—and here's the youth swimming in spaceabove his..
© Les Murray
Holland's Nadir
Men around a submarinemoored in Sydney Harbourclose to the end of wartimeshowed us below, down intotheir oily, mesh-lit gangwayof bunks atop..
© Les Murray
The Head-Spider
Where I lived once, a roller coaster's rangeof timber hills peaked just by our backyard cliffand cats undulated scream-driven round its..
© Les Murray
Bottles in the Bombed City
They gave the city a stroke. Its memoriesare cordoned off. They could collapse on you.Water leaks into bricks of the Workers' centuryand every..
© Les Murray
Vertigo
Last time I fell in a shower roomI bled like a tumbril dandyand the hotel longed to be rid of me.Taken to the town clinic, Idescribed how I tripped..
© Les Murray
Self and Dream Self
Routines of decaying timefade, and your waking lifegets laborious as science.You huddle in, becomingthe deathless younger selfwho will survive your..
© Les Murray