Lucifer in Starlight
George Meredith (1828–1909)
ON a starr’d night Prince Lucifer uprose.
Tir’d of his dark dominion swung the fiend
Above the rolling ball in cloud part screen’d,
Where sinners hugg’d their spectre of repose.
Poor prey to his hot fit of pride were those.
And now upon his Western wing he lean’d,
Now his huge bulk o’er Africa careen’d,
Now the black planet shadow’d Arctic snows.
Soaring through wider zones that prick’d his scars
With memory of the old revolt from Awe,
He reach’d a middle height, and at the stars,
Which are the brain of heaven, he look’d, and sank.
Around the ancient track march’d, rank on rank,
The army of unalterable law.
"A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool."- William Shakespeare
My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lips' red;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damask'd, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound;
I grant I never saw a goddess go;
My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground:
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare.
I think I may be in love with Shakespeare...alot of good that will do me!
5 comments Posted by Melissa at 9:19 AMVenus and Adonis
I'll be a park, and thou shalt be my dear;
Feed where thou wilt, on the mountians or in dale;
Graze on my lips, and if those hills be dry,
Stray lower, where the pleasant fountains lie.
Yes, that Shakespeare class turned me from a girl who kind of got what he was saying to the girl who reads his words and thinks 'If only he were alive today, I'd so make that man mine!'
Happy sunday my friends!
"A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool."- William Shakespeare
Robert Frost...not just the guy who wrote the poem at the beginning of Eclipse(Fire and Ice)
2 comments Posted by Melissa at 12:05 AM
A book of John Donne and some green tea and I'm a happy camper!
5 comments Posted by Melissa at 2:24 PMThe Sun Rising
by John Donne
Busy old fool, unruly Sun,
Why dost thou thus,
Through windows, and through curtains, call on us?
Must to thy motions lovers' seasons run?
Saucy pedantic wretch, go chide
Late school-boys and sour prentices,
Go tell court-huntsmen that the king will ride,
Call country ants to harvest offices;
Love, all alike, no season knows nor clime,
Nor hours, days, months, which are the rags of time.
Thy beams so reverend, and strong
Why shouldst thou think?
I could eclipse and cloud them with a wink,
But that I would not lose her sight so long.
If her eyes have not blinded thine,
Look, and to-morrow late tell me, Whether both th' Indias of spice and mine
Be where thou left'st them, or lie here with me.
Ask for those kings whom thou saw'st yesterday,
And thou shalt hear, "All here in one bed lay."
She's all states, and all princes I;
Nothing else is;
Princes do but play us ; compared to this,
All honour's mimic, all wealth alchemy.
Thou, Sun, art half as happy as we, In that the world's contracted thus;
Thine age asks ease, and since thy duties be
To warm the world, that's done in warming us.
Shine here to us, and thou art everywhere;
This bed thy center is, these walls thy sphere.
"A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool."- William Shakespeare