CLASSIC POETRY

La vie

                A ma filleO mon enfant, tu vois, je me soumets.Fais comme moi : vis du monde éloignée ;Heureuse ? non ; triomphante ? jamais.— Résignée ! — Sois bonne et douce, et lève un front pieux.Comme le jour dans les cieux met sa flamme,Toi, mon enfant, dans l’azur de tes yeuxMets...Read More »

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My Teddy bear

            My Teddy bear I shot an arrow into the air,It fell to earth, I knew not where;For, so swiftly it flew, the sightCould not follow it in its flight. I breathed a song into the air,It fell to earth, I knew not where;For who has sight so keen and strong,That it can...Read More »

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Hymns to the daylight

    Daylight and Moonlight In broad daylight, and at noon,Yesterday I saw the moonSailing high, but faint and white,As a schoolboy’s paper kite. In broad daylight, yesterday,I read a poet’s mystic lay;And it seemed to me at mostAs a phantom, or a ghost. But at length the feverish dayLike a passion died away,And the...Read More »

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Hymns to the night

                        Hymns to the night Over I journeyAnd for each painA pleasant sting onlyShall one day remain.Yet in a few momentsThen free am I,And intoxicatedIn Love’s lap lie.Life everlastingLifts, wave-like, at me,I gaze from its summitDown after thee.Your lustre must vanishYon mound underneath —A shadow will bring theeThy cooling wreath.Oh draw at...Read More »

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Lovely one

                  Lovely one Lovely one,Just as on the cool stoneOf the spring, the waterOpens a wide flash of foam,So is the smile of your face,Lovely one. Lovely one, With delicate hands and slender feetLike a silver pony,Walking, flower of the world,Thus I see you,Lovely one. Lovely one, With a nest of copper entangledOn your head, a...Read More »

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Tree at my window

Although it was only the end of July, my Pihlaja tree became already “orange”: the first sign that the summer left the country…When Pihlaja will become red, then it will be full Autumn, like mid September. But, a wild guess, this year, by mid August , my Pihlaja will be...Read More »

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Sea fever

                        Sea fever   I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky, And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by, And the wheel’s kick and the wind’s song and the white sail’s shaking, And a grey mist on the...Read More »

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Hope is the thing with feathers

            Hope is the thing with feathers   “Hope” is the thing with feathers –That perches in the soul –And sings the tune without the words –And never stops – at all – And sweetest – in the Gale – is heard –And sore must be the storm –That could abash the little BirdThat...Read More »

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The sound of the sea

                                The sound of the sea  The sea awoke at midnight from its sleep,And round the pebbly beaches far and wideI heard the first wave of the rising tideRush onward with uninterrupted sweep;A voice out of the silence of the deep,A sound mysteriously multipliedAs of a cataract from the mountain’s side,Or roar...Read More »

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A red red rose

  A red red Rose O my Luve’s like a red, red roseThat’s newly sprung in June;O my Luve’s like the melodieThat’s sweetly played 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...Read More »

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