A Character

I marvel how Nature could ever find space 

For so many strange contrasts in one human face: 
There's thought and no thought, and there's paleness and bloom 
And bustle and sluggishness, pleasure and gloom. 

There's weakness, and strength both redundant and vain; 

Such strength as, if ever affliction and pain 
Could pierce through a temper that's soft to disease, 
Would be rational peace--a philosopher's ease. 

There's indifference, alike when he fails or succeeds, 

And attention full ten times as much as there needs; 
Pride where there's no envy, there's so much of joy; 
And mildness, and spirit both forward and coy. 

There's freedom, and sometimes a diffident stare

Of shame scarcely seeming to know that she's there, 
There's virtue, the title it surely may claim, 
Yet wants heaven knows what to be worthy the name. 

This picture from nature may seem to depart, 

Yet the Man would at once run away with your heart; 
And I for five centuries right gladly would be 
Such an odd such a kind happy creature as he. 

By William Wordsworth
 A Crazed Girl

THAT crazed girl improvising her music. 

Her poetry, dancing upon the shore, 

Her soul in division from itself

Climbing, falling She knew not where, 

Hiding amid the cargo of a steamship, 

Her knee-cap broken, that girl I declare

A beautiful lofty thing, or a thing

Heroically lost, heroically found. 

No matter what disaster occurred

She stood in desperate music wound, 

Wound, wound, and she made in her triumph

Where the bales and the baskets lay

No common intelligible sound

But sang, 'O sea-starved, hungry sea.' 

By William Butler Yeats 

 A dog is A Dog

Now dogs pretend they like to fight; 

They often bark, more seldom bite; 

But yet a Dog is, on the whole, 

What you would call a simple soul. 

Of course I'm not including Pekes, 

And such fantastic canine freaks. 

The usual Dog about the Town 

Is much inclined to play the clown 

And far from showing too much pride 

Is frequently undignified. 

He's very easily taken in- 

Just chuck him underneath the chin

Or slap his back or shake his paw, 

And he will gambol and guffaw. 

He's such an easy-going lout, 

He'll answer any hail or shout. 

Again I must remind you that 

A Dog's a Dog - A CAT'S A CAT. 

By Thomas Stearns Eliot

 A Dream within A Dream

Take this kiss upon the brow! 

And, in parting from you now, 
Thus much let me avow-
You are not wrong, who deem
That my days have been a dream; 
Yet if hope has flown away
In a night, or in a day, 
In a vision, or in none, 
Is it therefore the less gone? 
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream. 

I stand amid the roar

Of a surf-tormented shore, 
And I hold within my hand
Grains of the golden sand-
How few! yet how they creep
Through my fingers to the deep, 
While I weep- while I weep! 
O God! can I not grasp
Them with a tighter clasp? 
O God! can I not save
One from the pitiless wave? 
Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream? 

By Edgar Allan Poe

 A Fairy Song

Over hill, over dale, 

Thorough bush, thorough brier, 

Over park, over pale, 

Thorough flood, thorough fire! 

I do wander everywhere, 

Swifter than the moon's sphere; 

And I serve the Fairy Queen, 

To dew her orbs upon the green; 

The cowslips tall her pensioners be; 

In their gold coats spots you see; 

Those be rubies, fairy favours; 

In those freckles live their savours; 

I must go seek some dewdrops here, 

And hang a pearl in every cowslip's ear. 

By William Shakespeare 
 A Friend From Above

I prayed for you before we met…

Not knowing what you’d be, 
I asked the Lord to send a friend. 
One chosen just for me… 

I asked that they’d be Godly

With wisdom of his ways. 
A friend to help and guide me
In the troubles of these days… 

So often in life, we need someone

To listen while we talk. 
Someone who will not condemn or judge
But encourage us as we walk. 

The narrow road we choose to follow

May sometimes make us stumble. 
But to have a friend to catch our fall
Teaches us to be humble. 

When I asked The Lord to send a friend

Though many came and went…
He gave much more than I asked
For you are the friend HE sent. 

By Anonymous 
 A Grain Of Sand

If starry space no limit knows

And sun succeeds to sun, 
There is no reason to suppose
Our earth the only one. 

'Mid countless constellations cast

A million worlds may be, 
With each a God to bless or blast
And steer to destiny. 

Just think! A million gods or so

To guide each vital stream, 
With over all to boss the show
A Deity supreme. 

Such magnitudes oppress my mind; 

From cosmic space it swings; 
So ultimately glad to find
Relief in little things. 

For look! Within my hollow hand, 

While round the earth careens, 
I hold a single grain of sand
And wonder what it means. 

Ah! If I had the eyes to see, 

And brain to understand, 
I think Life's mystery might be
Solved in this grain of sand. 

By Robert William Service 

 A Green Cornfield : 

The earth was green, the sky was blue: 

I saw and heard one sunny morn

A skylark hang between the two, 

A singing speck above the corn; 

A stage below, in gay accord, 

White butterflies danced on the wing, 

And still the singing skylark soared

And silent sank, and soared to sing. 

The cornfield stretched a tender green

To right and left beside my walks; 

I knew he had a nest unseen

Somewhere among the million stalks: 

And as I paused to hear his song

While swift the sunny moments slid, 

Perhaps his mate sat listening long, 

And listened longer than I did. 

By Christina Rossetti 
 A Night in June

The sun has long been set. 

The stars are out by twos and threes. 

The little birds are piping yet

Among the bushes and trees. 

There’s a cuckoo and one or two thrushes

And a far-off wind that rushes

And a sound of water that gushes

And the cuckoo’s sovereign cry

Fills all the hollow of the sky. 

William Wordsworth 

A Red Red Rose : 

 O my Luve's like a red, red rose

That's newly sprung in June; 

O my Luve's like the melodie

That's sweetly play'd in tune. 

As fair art thou, my bonnie lass, 

So deep in luve am I: 

And I will luve thee still, my dear, 

Till a' the seas gang dry: 

Till a' the seas gang dry, my dear, 

And the rocks melt wi' the sun: 

I will luve thee still, my dear, 

While the sands o' life shall run. 

And fare thee well, my only Luve

And fare thee well, a while! 

And I will come again, my Luve, 

Tho' it were ten thousand mile. 

By Robert Burns