Death poems
/ page 5 of 560 /
For Murray Hunter, M.D.
© Zitner Sheldon
Hair and skin one whiteness, eyelids locked,his stillness is the stillness of the bedclothes;his words, not speech but systems emptying out:Death is taking back the small distinctionsbetween man and man and man and anything
209. Song-M’Pherson’s Farewell
© Robert Burns
FAREWELL, ye dungeons dark and strong,
The wretch’s destinie!
M’Pherson’s time will not be long
On yonder gallows-tree.
198. Song-Braving Angry Winer’s Storms
© Robert Burns
WHERE, braving angry winter’s storms,
The lofty Ochils rise,
The Animals Sick of the Plague
© Wright Elizur
The sorest ill that Heaven hath Sent on this lower world in wrath,-- The plague (to call it by its name,) One single day of which Would Pluto's ferryman enrich,-- Waged war on beasts, both wild and tame
137. Song-Farewell to the Banks of Ayr
© Robert Burns
THE GLOOMY night is gath’ring fast,
Loud roars the wild, inconstant blast,
Song at the Feast of Brougham Castle upon the Restoration of Lord Clifford, the Shepherd, to the Estates and Honours of his Ancestors
© William Wordsworth
High in the breathless Hall the Minstrel sate,And Emont's murmur mingled with the Song.--The words of ancient time I thus translate,A festal strain that hath been silent long:--
The Prelude: Book 2: School-time (Continued)
© William Wordsworth
Thus far, O Friend! have we, though leaving muchUnvisited, endeavour'd to retraceMy life through its first years, and measured backThe way I travell'd when I first beganTo love the woods and fields; the passion yetWas in its birth, sustain'd, as might befal,By nourishment that came unsought, for still,From week to week, from month to month, we liv'dA round of tumult: duly were our gamesProlong'd in summer till the day-light fail'd;No chair remain'd before the doors, the benchAnd threshold steps were empty; fast asleepThe Labourer, and the old Man who had sate,A later lingerer, yet the revelryContinued, and the loud uproar: at last,When all the ground was dark, and the huge cloudsWere edged with twinkling stars, to bed we went,With weary joints, and with a beating mind
Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood
© William Wordsworth
The child is father of the man;And I could wish my days to be Bound each to each by natural piety. (Wordsworth, "My Heart Leaps Up")
The Suburbs
© Humbert Wolfe
Because they are so many and the same,The little houses row on weary row;Because they are so loveless and so lameIt were a bitter thing to tell them so
Love and Fame and Death
© Charles Bukowski
the way to end a poem
like this
is to become suddenly
quiet.
Will and Testament
© Isabella Whitney
The Aucthour (though loth to leave the Citie)vpon her Friendes procurement, is constrainedto departe: wherfore (she fayneth as she would die)and maketh her WYLL and Testæment, as foloweth:With large Legacies of such Goods and richeswhich she moste aboundantly hath left behind her:and therof maketh LONDON sole executor to seher Legacies performed
From The Duchess of Malfi (“O let us howl, some heavy note”)
© John Webster
O let us howl, some heavy note, Some deadly-dogged howl,Sounding as from the threat'ning throat Of beasts and fatal fowl
The Drunkard's Child
© Frances Ellen Watkins Harper
He stood beside his dying child, With a dim and bloodshot eye;They'd won him from the haunts of vice To see his first-born die
Aunt Chloe
© Frances Ellen Watkins Harper
1.1I remember, well remember,1.2 That dark and dreadful day,1.3When they whispered to me, "Chloe,1.4 Your children's sold away!"
The Study of a Spider
© Warren John Byrne Leicester
From holy flower to holy flowerThou weavest thine unhallowed bower
Albion's England
© William Warner
The Brutons thus departed hence, seven kingdoms here begun,--Where diversely in divers broils the Saxons lost and won,--King Edel and king Adelbright in Diria jointly reign;In loyal concord during life these kingly friends remain
The Cup
© Jones Very
The bitterness of death is on me now,Before me stands its dark unclosing door;Yet to Thy will submissive still I bow,And follow Him who for me went before;The tomb cannot contain me though I die,For His strong love awakes its sleeping dead,And bids them through Himself ascend on highTo Him who is of all the living Head;I gladly enter through the gloomy walls,Where they have passed who loved their Master here;The voice they heard, to me it onward calls,And can when faint my sinking spirit cheer;And from the joy on earth it now has given,Lead on to joy eternal in the heaven
