Poetry Flashcards
“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.”
Psalm 23 (Bible)
“As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?”
Psalm 42 (Bible)
“Out of the depths I cry to you, Lord; Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy.”
Psalm 130 (Bible)
“By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion. There on the poplars we hung our harps, for there our captors asked us for songs, our tormentors demanded songs of joy; they said, ‘Sing us one of the songs of Zion!’”
Psalm 137 (Bible)
“Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm; for love is as strong as death, its jealousy unyielding as the grave. It burns like blazing fire, like a mighty flame. Many waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot sweep it away. If one were to give all the wealth of one’s house for love, it would be utterly scorned.”
The Song of Solomon (Bible)
“Often the solitary one
finds grace for himself
the mercy of the Lord,
although he, sorry-hearted,
must for a long time
row with his hands the ice-cold sea,
tread the paths of exile.”
“The Wanderer”
“For him the tossing of waves
would become the play of the swans,
the drinking of the gannets, feasting,
the singing of seabirds his calling;
the sea-mew’s laughter, clamorousness,
would take the place of the laughter of men,
the wailing of gulls, the icicles’
cold, the music of a harp.”
“The Seafarer”
“Now must we praise
the Guardian of the heavenly kingdom,
the might of the Creator, and his purpose,
the work of the Father of glory
— how each of the wonders of the Eternal Lord,
the beginning established it.”
“Caedmon’s Hymn”
“I sing of a maiden
That is makeless;
King of all kings
To her Son she ches.”
“I Sing of a Maiden”
“O lang, lang may the ladies sit
Wi’ their fans into their hand
Or e’er they see Sir Patrick Spens
Come sailing to the land.”
Sir Patrick Spens”
“Lully, lullay, thou little tiny child,
Bye, bye, lully, lullay.”
“The Corpus Christi Carol”
“Western wind, when wilt thou blow,
The small rain down can rain?
Christ, that my love were in my arms,
And I in my bed again.”
“Western Wind”
“Whoso list to hunt, I know where is an hind,
But as for me, hélas, I may no more.
The vain travail hath wearied me so sore,
I am of them that farthest cometh behind.”
(Wyatt) “Whoso List to Hunt”
“If all the world and love were young,
And truth in every shepherd’s tongue,
These pretty pleasures might me move
To live with thee and be thy love.”
(Raleigh) “The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd”
“Loving in truth, and fain in verse my love to show,
That she, dear she, might take some pleasure of my pain,—
Pleasure might cause her read, reading might make her know,
Knowledge might pity win, and pity grace obtain,—”
(Sidney) “Astrophel and Stella”
“For God’s sake hold your tongue, and let me love,
Or chide my palsy, or my gout,
My five gray hairs, or ruin’d fortune flout,
With wealth your state, your mind with arts improve,
(Donne) “The Canonization”
“And now good-morrow to our waking souls,
Which watch not one another out of fear;
For love all love of other sights controls,
And makes one little room an everywhere.”
(Donne) “The Good-Morrow”
“As virtuous men pass mildly away,
And whisper to their souls to go,
Whilst some of their sad friends do say,
‘Now his breath goes,’ and some say, ‘No.’”
(Donne) “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning”
“Death, be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so;
For those whom thou think’st thou dost overthrow
Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.”
(Donne) Holy Sonnet 10
“Batter my heart, three-personed God, for you
As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend;
That I may rise and stand, o’erthrow me, and bend
Your force to break, blow, burn, and make me new.”
(Donne) Holy Sonnet 14
“Farewell, thou child of my right hand, and joy;
My sin was too much hope of thee, loved boy.
Seven years thou’wert lent to me, and I thee pay,
Exacted by thy fate, on the just day.”
(Jonson) “On My First Son”
“Thou art not, Penshurst, built to envious show,
Of touch or marble, nor canst boast a row
Of polished pillars, or a roof of gold;
Thou hast no lantern whereof tales are told,”
(Jonson) “To Penshurst”
“Queen and huntress, chaste and fair,
Now the sun is laid to sleep,
Seated in thy silver chair,
State in wonted manner keep:”
(Jonson) “Queen and Huntress, Sweet and Fair”
“Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old Time is still a-flying;
And this same flower that smiles today,
Tomorrow will be dying.”
(Herrick) “To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time”
“Get up, get up for shame! The blooming morn
Upon her wings presents the god unshorn.
See how Aurora throws her fair
Fresh-quilted colors through the air:
Get up, sweet slug-a-bed, and see
The dew bespangling herb and tree.”
(Herrick) “Corinna’s Going A-Maying”
“A broken ALTAR, Lord, thy servant rears,
Made of a heart and cemented with tears:
Whose parts are as thy hand did frame;
No workman’s tool hath touch’d the same.”
(Herbert) “The Altar”
“Sweet day, so cool, so calm, so bright,
The bridal of the earth and sky:
The dew shall weep thy fall tonight;
For thou must die.”
(Herbert) “Virtue”
“When God at first made man,
Having a glass of blessings standing by;
‘Let us,’ said he, ‘pour on him all we can:
Let the world’s riches, which dispersèd lie,”
(Herbert) “The Pulley”
“I struck the board, and cried, ‘No more;
I will abroad!
What? shall I ever sigh and pine?
My lines and life are free, free as the road,”
(Herbert) “The Collar”
“With thee
O let me rise
As larks, harmoniously,
And sing this day thy victories:
Then shall the fall further the flight in me.”
(Herbert) “Easter Wings”
“Love bade me welcome. Yet my soul drew back
Guilty of dust and sin.
But quick-eyed Love, observing me grow slack
From my first entrance in,”
(Herbert) “Love (III)”
“I saw Eternity the other night,
Like a great ring of pure and endless light,
All calm, as it was bright;
And round beneath it, Time in hours, days, years,
Driv’n by the spheres
Like a vast shadow moved; in which the world
And all her train were hurled.”
(Vaughn) “The World”
“Yet once more, O ye laurels, and once more
Ye myrtles brown, with ivy never sere,
I come to pluck your berries harsh and crude,
And with forced fingers rude
Shatter your leaves before the mellowing year.”
(Milton) “Lycidas”
“This is the month, and this the happy morn,
Wherein the Son of Heaven’s eternal King,
Of wedded Maid and Virgin Mother born,
Our great redemption from above did bring;”
(Milton) “On the Morning of Christ’s Nativity”
“How soon hath Time, the subtle thief of youth,
Stolen on his wing my three-and-twentieth year!
My hasting days fly on with full career,
But my late spring no bud or blossom shew’th.”
(Milton) “How Soon Hath Time”
“When I consider how my light is spent
Ere half my days in this dark world and wide,
And that one talent which is death to hide
Lodged with me useless, though my soul more bent”
(Milton) “When I Consider How My Light is Spent”
“Had we but world enough and time,
This coyness, lady, were no crime.
We would sit down, and think which way
To walk, and pass our long love’s day.”
(Marvell) “To His Coy Mistress”
“Meanwhile the mind, from pleasure less,
Withdraws into its happiness;
The mind, that ocean where each kind
Does straight its own resemblance find,”
(Marvell) “The Garden”
“The curfew tolls the knell of parting day,
The lowing herd wind slowly o’er the lea,
The ploughman homeward plods his weary way,
And leaves the world to darkness and to me.”
(Gray) “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard”
“Little Lamb, who made thee?
Dost thou know who made thee?
Gave thee life, and bid thee feed
By the stream and o’er the mead;
Gave thee clothing of delight,”
(Blake) “The Lamb”
“Tyger Tyger, burning bright,
In the forests of the night;
What immortal hand or eye,
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?”
(Blake) “The Tyger”
“I wander thro’ each charter’d street,
Near where the charter’d Thames does flow.
And mark in every face I meet
Marks of weakness, marks of woe.”
(Blake) “London”
“O Rose thou art sick.
The invisible worm,
That flies in the night
In the howling storm:”
(Blake) “The Sick Rose”
“Five years have passed; five summers, with the length
Of five long winters! and again I hear
These waters, rolling from their mountain-springs
With a sweet inland murmur.”
(Wordsworth) “Tintern Abbey”
