Poetry

"Professor Gilbert Murray, another good poet and Grecian, has kindly sent me verses composed in the same rhythm, but in what he ... believes was Sappho’s manner. An old eagle, a blind eagle, who waits hungry and cold and still; He seeks nothing, he fears nothing: he stands lone on a lonely hill."

"The measure, as used by the early Greeks, is essentially lyrical and impassioned. Mingled with other metres, it was constantly serviceable in choral writing, to which it was believed to give a stormy and mysterious character."

"Here in Fez there be a great number of Poets, that make Songs on divers subjects, especially of Love, and Lovers, whom they openly name in their rimes, without rebuke or shame: All which Poets once every yeare, agane Mahomets birth-day, make rimes to his praise; meanewhile in the after noone of that festivall day, the whole Poets assembling in the market place, there is a Dasked chayre prepared for them, whereon they mount one after another to recite their verses in audience of all the people; and who by them is judged to be best, is esteemed all that yeare above the rest, having this Epithite the Prince of Poets, and is by the Vicegerent and Towne rewarded; But in the time of the Maennon Kings, the Prince on that day in his owne Pallace did conveine the whole Cittizens, in whose presence he made a solemne feast to all the best Poets; causing every one of them to recite the praise of Mahomet before his face, standing on a high scaffold: And to him that was thought to excell the rest, the King gave him 100. Sultans of gold, an horse, a woman slave, & the long Robe that was about him for the time: And to each one of the rest he caused give fifty Sultans, so that every one should have some recompense for their paines: [...]"

"Longfellow is like us, we've heard the truth of "peace on Earth good will to men" but we also live the truth that "hate is strong and mocks the song." The Christian message is that God the divine word leaped like a warrior to this earth to transform it so that you and I in the midst of a world that is broken, in the midst of the world where bells still ring even though cannons still boom, that we can still have hope."

"You are in my heart, There is no other who knows you, Only your son, Neferkheprure, Sole-one-of-Re [Akhenaten], Whom you have taught your ways and your might. [Those on] Earth come from your hand as you made them. When you have dawned they live. When you set they die; You yourself are lifetime, one lives by you. All eyes are on [your] beauty until you set. All labor ceases when you rest in the west; When you rise you stir [everyone] for the King, Every leg is on the move since you founded the Earth. You rouse them for your son who came from your body. The King who lives by Maat, the Lord of the Two Lands, Neferkheprure, Sole-one-of-Re, The Son of Re who lives by Maat. the Lord of crowns, Akhenaten, great in his lifetime; (And) the great Queen whom he loves, the Lady of the Two Lands, Nefer-nefru-Aten Nefertiti, living forever."

"How manifold it is, what thou hast made! They are hidden from the face (of man). O sole god, like whom there is no other! Thou didst create the world according to thy desire, Whilst thou wert alone: All men, cattle, and wild beasts, Whatever is on Earth, going upon (its) feet, And what is on high, flying with its wings."

"Arnold’s great project was a blank verse poem based loosely on the Lalitavistara Sutra. It ran for forty-one thousand words and was composed in eight volumes and published in 1879 as the Light of Asia: the Great Renunciation. The Light of Asia was an instant success and would capture the English speaking imagination. It would be reprinted numerous times in England and the United States. The best estimate I could find was sixty editions in England and another eighty in the US. The Light has also been translated into many languages, including Hindi. But, most importantly, it is generally credited as the first book to bring the life and teachings of Gautama Siddhartha broadly to the attention of the English speaking public."

"And, on a day found fortunate, the Prince"

""Acharya, I write," ...replied"

""Who is the wisest man, great sirs," he asked,"

"Now, when our Lord was come to eighteen years,"

"'Mongst the strangers came"

"...Thou wilt preach the Law and save all flesh"

"Delicious gardens round about them bloomed,"

"Dear to all gods and men for this great birth,"

""The dead that are to live, the live who die,"

"The Queen shall bear a boy, a holy child"

"The strong hills shook; the waves"

"With coral shields: the Angel of the North,"

"Below the highest sphere four Regents sit"

"Which the King marking, called his Ministers:"

"That night the wife of King Suddhodana,"

"The King gave order that his town should keep"

"Like everything the British poet Edwin Arnold wrote, The Light of Asia was quickly written: a poem in eight books of about five hundred lines each, mostly in blank verse, composed over a period of several months when Arnold was busy with other concerns. Immediately upon its publication in the summer of 1879, the poem began to sell copies and win attention. It was a life of Siddhartha Gautama, told from the point of view of “an Indian Buddhist” (so read the title page) in high English style. The immediate sensation surrounding The Light of Asia was remarkable: for some time on both sides of the Atlantic, newspapers and dining rooms were charged with discussion about the Buddha, his teaching, and Arnold’s presentation of Buddhism. The book’s success was also sustained. By 1885 the authorized English version had gone through thirty editions. Pirated editions, which went for as little as three cents in the U.S., make a count of the book’s circulation impossible, but it has been estimated at a million copies (not far short of Huckleberry Finn). After thirty years it had become one of the undisputed bestsellers of Victorian England and America, had been translated into a number of languages (German, Dutch, French, Czech, Italian, Swedish, Esperanto), and had inspired a stage version and even an opera."

"The Scripture of the Saviour of the World,"

": Fear not to swear; the winds carry the perjuries of lovers without effect over land and sea, thanks to Jupiter. The father of the gods himself has denied effect to what foolish lovers in their eagerness have sworn."

"Perjuria ridet amantium Jupiter et ventos irrita ferre jubet."

"Je ne vous aime pas, Hylas; Je n'en saurois dire la cause; Je sais seulement une chose. C'est que je ne vous aime pas."

": At lovers' perjuries Jove laughs and throws them idly to the winds."

"I love thee not, Nell But why I can't tell."

"Love is a flame to burn out human wills, Love is a flame to set the will on fire, Love is a flame to cheat men into mire."

"O, what are you waiting for here? young man! What are you looking for over the bridge?— A little straw hat with the streaming blue ribbons Is soon to come dancing over the bridge."

"I do not love thee, Dr. Fell. But why I cannot tell; But this I know full well, I do not love thee, Dr. Fell."

"At first, she loved nought else but flowers, And then—she only loved the rose; And then—herself alone; and then— She knew not what, but now—she knows."

"Nec jurare time; Veneris perjuria venti Irrita per terras et freta summa ferunt, Gratia magna Jovi; vetuit pater ipse valere, Jurasset cupide quicquid ineptus amor."

"Love is hurt with jar and fret; Love is made a vague regret."

"Werther had a love for Charlotte, Such as words could never utter; Would you know how first he met her? She was cutting bread and butter."

"This lass so neat, with smile so sweet, Has won my right good will, I'd crowns resign to call her mine, Sweet lass of Richmond Hill."

"Shall it not be scorn to me to harp on such a moulder'd string? I am shamed through all my nature to have lov'd so slight a thing."

"When Madelon comes out to serve us drinks, We always know she's coming by her song. And every man he tells his little tale, And Madelon, she listens all day long. Our Madelon is never too severe— A kiss or two is nothing much to her— She laughs us up to love and life and God— Madelon, Madelon, Madelon."

"Like to a wind-blown sapling grow I from The cliff, Sweet, of your skyward-jetting soul,— Shook by all gusts that sweep it, overcome By all its clouds incumbent; O be true To your soul, dearest, as my life to you! For if that soil grow sterile, then the whole Of me must shrivel, from the topmost shoot Of climbing poesy, and my life, killed through, Dry down and perish to the foodless root."

"Great men, Till they have gained their ends, are giants in Their promises, but, those obtained, weak pigmies In their performance. And it is a maxim Allowed among them, so they may deceive, They may swear anything; for the queen of love, As they hold constantly, does never punish, But smile, at lovers' perjuries."

"Come live with me, and be my love, And we will all the pleasures prove, That valleys, groves, or hills, or fields, Or woods and steepy mountains, yield."

"Why should we kill the best of passions, love? It aids the hero, bids ambition rise To nobler heights, inspires immortal deeds, Even softens brutes, and adds a grace to virtue."

"I loved you, and my love had no return, And therefore my true love has been my death."

"The warrior for the True, the Right, Fights in Love's name; The love that lures thee from that fight Lures thee to shame: That love which lifts the heart, yet leaves The spirit free,— That love, or none, is fit for one Man-shaped like thee."

"Love laid his sleepless head On a thorny rose bed: And his eyes with tears were red, And pale his lips as the dead."

"I that have love and no more Give you but love of you, sweet; He that hath more, let him give; He that hath wings, let him soar; Mine is the heart at your feet Here, that must love you to live."

"Not as all other women are Is she that to my soul is dear; Her glorious fancies come from far, Beneath the silver evening star, And yet her heart is ever near."

"O Love, O great god Love, what have I done, That thou shouldst hunger so after my death? My heart is harmless as my life's first day: Seek out some false fair woman, and plague her Till her tears even as my tears fill her bed."