blossomreader

      THOUGHTS IN A GARDEN                                   -ANDREW MARVELL   How vainly men themselves amaze To win the palm, the oak, or bays; And their uncessant labours see Crowed from some single herb or tree. Whose short and narrow-verged shade Does prudently their toils upbraid While all flowers and all trees do close To weave the garlands of repose.   Fair Quiet, have I found thee here, And Innocence thy sister dear! Mistaken long, I sought you then In busy companies of men. Your sacred plants, if here below, Only among the plants will grow. Society is all but rude, To this delicious solitude.   No white nor red was ever seen So am’rous as this lovely green. Found lovers, cruel as their flame, Cut in these trees their mistress; name. Little, ...

     CORINNA’S GOING A-MAYING                                      -HERRICH ROBBERT   Get up, get up for shame, the blooming morn    Upon her wings presents the god unshorn.    See how Aurora throws her fir    Fresh-quilted colours through the air:    Get up, sweet slug-a-bed, and see    The dew bespangling herb and tree. Each flower has wept, and bowed toward the east, Above an hour since; yet you not dress’d ;    Nay! Not so much as out of bed?    When all the birds have matins said    And sung their thankfull hymns, ‘tis sin,    Nay, profanation, to keep in, Whereas a thousand virigins on this day Spring sooner than the lark, to fetch in may.   Rise and put on your foliage, and be seen To come forth, like the spring-time, fresh and green, ...

         TO DAFFODILS                -ROBERT HERRICK   Fair daffodils, We weep to see   You haste away so soon; As yet the early-rising sun   Has not attained his noon.            Stay, stay,   Until the hasting day            Has run   But to the evensong; And, having prayed together, we   Will go with you along.   We have short time to stay, as you,   We have as short a spring; As quick a growth to meet decay,   As you, or anything.            We die,   As your hours do, and dry              Away,   Like to the summer’s rain; Or as the pearls of morning’s dew   Ne’er to be found again.

       ULYSSES AND THE                                 SIREN -        SAMUEL DANIEL   SIREN. Come worthly greek! Ulysses, come;   Possess these shores with me! The winds and seas are troublesome   And here we may be free. Here may we sit and view their toil   That travail in the deep, And joy the day in mirth the while   And spend the night in sleep.     ULYSSES. Fair nymph, if fame, or honour were   To be attained with ease Then would I come, and rest me there,   And leave such toils as these. But here it dwells, and here must I   With danger seek it forth, To spend the time luxuriously   Becomes not men of worth.   SIREN. Ulysses, O ! be not deceived   With that unreal...

  MY MIND TO ME A KINGDOM IS                                 - SIR EDWARD DYER   My mind to me a kingdom is   Such present joys therein I find, That it excels all other bliss   That earth affords or grows by kind Though much I want which most would have, Yet still my mind forbids to crave.   No princely pomp, no wealthy store,   No force to win the victory, No wily wit to salve a sore,   No shape to feed a loving eye; To none of these I yield as thrall For why my mind doth serve for all.   I see how plenty suffers oft;   And hasty climbers soon do fall; I see that those which are aloft   Mishap doth threaten most of all; They get with toil, they keep with fear: Such cares my mind could never bear.   Content I live, this is my stay, ...

  ON SEEING A WHITE FLAG   ACROSS A BY-ROAD                                     (SRI LANKA)                                                  -   Kamala Wijeratne      Only that white flag    bedraggled    rain-sodden,    announces your arrival.    The sealed box    Has defied    all identity;    has even stopped    speculation    about the way you died.    Your mother,    Shocked,    Benumbed,    Whimpers in dull agony    Your sister    Her years crippled    Stoops by the dimming c...

 #POEM TEXT                                                          GODS CAN DIE                                     (SINGAPORE)                                                  -EDWIN THUMBOO                I have seen powerful men                Undo themselves, keep two realities                One for minor friends, one for the powers that be,                The really powerful. such people take a role           ...