Category: Lead Poems

Tears, Idle Tears -Alfred Lord Tennyson

Tears, idle tears, I know not what they mean, Tears from the depth of some divine despair Rise in the heart, and gather to the eyes, In looking on the happy autumn-fields, And thinking of the days that are no more. Fresh as the first beam glittering on a sail,...

A Divine Image -William Blake

Cruelty has a human heart, And Jealousy a human face; Terror the human form divine, And Secresy the human dress. The human dress is forged iron, The human form a fiery forge, The human face a furnace sealed, The human heart its hungry gorge.

Dream Variation -Langston Hughes

To fling my arms wide In some place of the sun, To whirl and to dance Till the white day is done. Then rest at cool evening Beneath a tall tree While night comes on gently, Dark like me– That is my dream! To fling my arms wide In the...

Who Has Bid Thee Ask No More -Hafiz

Beloved, who has bid thee ask no more How fares my life? to play the enemy And ask not where he dwells that was thy friend? Thou art the breath of mercy passing over The whole wide world, and the offender I; Ah, let the rift my tears have channelled...

Work Without Hope -Samuel Taylor Coleridge

All Nature seems at work. Slugs leave their lair– The bees are stirring–birds are on the wing– And WINTER slumbering in the open air, Wears on his smiling face a dream of Spring ! And I, the while, the sole unbusy thing, Nor honey make, nor pair, nor build, nor...

Three Poems -Jalaluddin Rumi

Any lifetime that is spent without seeing the master Is either death in disguise or a deep sleep. The water that pollutes you is poison; The poison that purifies you is water. ******** Any soul that drank the nectar of your passion was lifted. From that water of life he...

The Props assist the House -Emily Dickinson

The Props assist the House Until the House is built And then the Props withdraw And adequate, erect, The House support itself And cease to recollect The Auger and the Carpenter— Just such a retrospect Hath the perfected Life— A past of Plank and Nail And slowness—then the Scaffolds drop...

I Am Alone -Rabia Al Basri

O my Lord, the stars glitter and the eyes of men are closed. Kings have locked their doors and each lover is alone with his love. Here, I am alone with you. Reality In love, nothing exists between heart and heart. Speech is born out of longing, True description from...

Lead Poem

Lead Poem

Carl Sandburg I Am the People, the Mob I am the people—the mob—the crowd—the mass. Do you know that all the great work of the world is done through me? I am the workingman, the inventor, the maker of the world’s food and clothes. I am the audience that witnesses history. The...

Lead Poem

Jalaluddin Rumi My Hart Is In Constant Fervour Now sleeping, now awake, my hart is in constant fervour. It is a covered saucepan, placed on fire. O you! who have offered us from a cup a silencing wine; Each moment a new tale is shouting to be told in silence....

Loveliest of Trees -A. E. Housman

Loveliest of trees, the cherry now Is hung with bloom along the bough, And stands about the woodland ride Wearing white for Eastertide. Now, of my threescore years and ten, Twenty will not come again, And take from seventy springs a score, It only leaves me fifty more. And since...

In Silence -Jalaluddin Rumi

A Guide has entered this life, in silence. His message is only heard, in silence. Take a sip of His precious wine And lose yourself. Don’t insult the greatness of His love, for he helps all those who suffer, in silence. Polish the mirror between the breaths. Go with Him,...

Beat! Beat! Drums! -Walt Whitman

Beat! Beat! Drums! -Walt Whitman

Beat! beat! drums!–blow! bugles! blow! Through the windows–through doors–burst like a ruthless force, Into the solemn church, and scatter the congregation, Into the school where the scholar is studying; Leave not the bridegroom quiet–no happiness must he have now with his bride, Nor the peaceful farmer any peace, ploughing his...

Because I cannot sleep -Jalaluddin Rumi

Because I cannot sleep -Jalaluddin Rumi

Because I cannot sleep I make music at night. I am troubled by the one whose face has the color of spring flowers. I have neither sleep nor patience, neither a good reputation nor disgrace. A thousand robes of wisdom are gone. All my good manners have moved a thousand...

Lead Poem

Lead Poem

Matthew Arnold Growing Old What is it to grow old? Is it to lose the glory of the form, The lustre of the eye? Is it for beauty to forego her wreath? Yes, but not for this alone. Is it to feel our strength – Not our bloom only, but...

Lead Poem

Allama Muhammad Iqbal THE WITHERED ROSE O withered rose! How can I still call you a rose? How can I call you the longing of nightingale’s heart? Once the zephyr’s movement was your rocking cradle In the garden’s expanse joyous rose was your name The morning breeze acknowledged your benevolence...

One Swaying Being -Rumi

Love is not condescension, never that, nor books, nor any marking on paper, nor what people say of each other. Love is a tree with branches reaching into eternity and roots set deep in eternity, and no trunk! Have you seen it? The mind cannot. Your desiring cannot. The longing...

Metamorphosis -May Sarton

Always it happens when we are not there — The tree leaps up alive in the air, Small open parasols of Chinese green Wave on each twig. But who has ever seen The latch sprung, the bud as it burst? Spring always manages to get there first. Lovers of wind,...

I Have Come So That -Jalaluddin Rumi

I have come so that, tugging your ear, I may draw you to me, unheart and unself you, plant you in my heart and soul. Rosebush, I have come a sweet springtide unto you, to seize you very gently in my embrace and squeeze you. I have come to adorn...