Poetry

Grade 6
Term 2

Contentment Autumn
by Edward Dyer by Thomas Hood
My mind to me a kingdom is; The autumn is old;
Such perfect joy therein I find The sear leaves are flying;
As far excels all earthly bliss He hath gathered up gold
That God or Nature hath assigned; And now he is dying:
Though much I want that most would have, Old age, begin sighing!
Yet still my mind forbids to crave.
The vintage is ripe;
Content I live; this is my stay,— The harvest is heaping;
I seek no more than may suffice. But some that have sowed
I press to bear no haughty sway; Have no riches for reaping:—
Look, what I lack my mind supplies. Poor wretch, fall a-weeping!
Lo, thus I triumph like a king,
Content with that my mind doth bring. The year's in the wane;
There is nothing adorning;
I laugh not at another's loss, The night has no eve,
I grudge not at another's gain; And the day has no morning;
No worldly wave my mind can toss; Cold winter gives warning.
I brook that is another's bane.
I fear no foe, nor fawn on friend; The rivers run chill;
I loathe not life, nor dread mine end. The red sun is sinking;
And I am grown old,
My wealth is health and perfect ease; And life is fast shrinking;
My conscience clear my chief defense; Here's enow for sad thinking!
I never seek by bribes to please
Nor by desert to give offense.
Thus do I live, thus will I die;
Would all did so as well as I!
The Laughing Heart
by Charles Bukowski
Your life is your life
Don’t let it be clubbed into dank submission.
Be on the watch.
There are ways out.
There is light somewhere.
It may not be much light but
It beats the darkness.
Be on the watch.
The gods will offer you chances.
Know them.
Take them.
You can’t beat death but
You can beat death in life, sometimes.
And the more often you learn to do it,
They looked like frightened Beads, I thought—
The more light there will be.
Your life is your life.
Know it while you have it.
You are marvelous
The gods wait to delight
In you.
A Bird came down the
walk
by Emily Dickenson
A Bird came down the Walk—
He did not know I saw—
He bit an Angleworm in halves
And ate the fellow, raw,
And then he drank a Dew
From a convenient Grass—
And then hopped sidewise to the Wall
To let a Beetle pass—
He glanced with rapid eyes
That hurried all around—
He stirred his Velvet Head
Like one in danger, Cautious,
I offered him a Crumb
And he unrolled his feathers
And rowed him softer home—
Than Oars divide the Ocean,
Too silver for a seam—
Or Butterflies, off Banks of Noon
Leap, plashless as they swim.