We talk of taxes, and I call you friend;Well, such you are,–but well enough we knowHow thick about us root, how rankly growThose subtle weeds no man has need to tend,That flourish through neglect, and soon must sendPerfume too sweet upon us and overthrowOur steady senses; how such matters goWe are aware, and how such […]

I looked in my heart while the wild swans went over.And what did I see I had not seen before?Only a question less or a question more;Nothing to match the flight of wild birds flying.Tiresome heart, forever living and dying,House without air, I leave you and lock your door.Wild swans, come over the town, come […]

Cherish you then the hope I shall forgetAt length, my lord, Pieria?–put awayFor your so passing sake, this mouth of clayThese mortal bones against my body set,For all the puny fever and frail sweatOf human love,–renounce for these, I say,The Singing Mountain’s memory, and betrayThe silent lyre that hangs upon me yet?Ah, but indeed, some […]

As to some lovely temple, tenantlessLong since, that once was sweet with shivering brass,Knowing well its altars ruined and the grassGrown up between the stones, yet from excessOf grief hard driven, or great loneliness,The worshiper returns, and those who passMarvel him crying on a name that was,–So is it now with me in my distress.Your […]

Oh, my beloved, have you thought of this:How in the years to come unscrupulous Time,More cruel than Death, will tear you from my kiss,And make you old, and leave me in my prime?How you and I, who scale together yetA little while the sweet, immortal heightNo pilgrim may remember or forget,As sure as the world […]

Let you not say of me when I am old,In pretty worship of my withered handsForgetting who I am, and how the sandsOf such a life as mine run red and goldEven to the ultimate sifting dust, “Behold,Here walketh passionless age!”–for there expandsA curious superstition in these lands,And by its leave some weightless tales are […]

And you as well must die, beloved dust,And all your beauty stand you in no stead;This flawless, vital hand, this perfect head,This body of flame and steel, before the gustOf Death, or under his autumnal frost,Shall be as any leaf, be no less deadThan the first leaf that fell,–this wonder fled.Altered, estranged, disintegrated, lost.Nor shall […]

When I too long have looked upon your face,Wherein for me a brightness unobscuredSave by the mists of brightness has its place,And terrible beauty not to be endured,I turn away reluctant from your light,And stand irresolute, a mind undone,A silly, dazzled thing deprived of sightFrom having looked too long upon the sun.Then is my daily […]