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John Anderson, my Jo
An aged speaker addresses a lifelong companion whose black hair has turned to snow, recalls the hill they climbed together, and looks ahead to tottering down hand in hand and sleeping at its foot.
Gazing at the Remaining Snow on Zhongnan
The northern ridge of Zhongnan stands out fine; its banked snow floats at the edge of the clouds. Above the treetops the clearing sky brightens, and in the city the evening cold increases.
终南望余雪
The Conclusion
Eight lines describe Time as a trustee that takes youth and joy and repays only earth and dust, then turn in the closing couplet to the speaker's trust that God will raise him from that dust.
Virtue
Day, rose, and spring are each sentenced to die, while a virtuous soul is imagined to live most fully even as the world burns away.
The Tiger
Six stanzas of unanswered questions forge the tiger through hammer, chain, furnace, and anvil, ending by asking whether its maker also made the lamb.
To Electra
The speaker refuses to ask even for a kiss or a smile, and settles instead for kissing the air that has just touched the beloved.
To Mr. Lawrence
In muddy winter weather the speaker asks a friend where they may meet by the fire to redeem a sullen day with a light meal, wine, lute and song, concluding that one who can judge such delights and take them from time to time is not unwise.
A Hymn to God the Father
Three stanzas ask forgiveness for successive kinds of sin, each closing with the admission that God is still not done because more remains, until the fear of perishing at death is answered by a demanded oath and the refrain can end.
To the Virgins, to make much of Time
Flowers, the sun’s daily race, and passing age form a countdown toward the poem’s explicit counsel to marry before youth is spent.
To Spring
An address to Spring, urging the season to turn its eyes on the western isle, come over the eastern hills, and adorn a land described as lovesick and mourning in its absence.
To Daffodils
The speaker asks the daffodils to stay until evensong so the two can go together, then turns the address around to say that human lives run out as quickly as the flowers, the summer rain and the morning dew.
To Helen
Classical images of ships, Greece, Rome, and Psyche make beauty a guiding presence that leads a weary wanderer home.
Fragment of an Ode to Maia
The speaker asks in what manner he may sing to Maia, wishes for the old vigour of poets who died content leaving great verse to a small circle, and hopes his own song may die away unheard except by a primrose and a few ears.
To Violets
Violets are greeted as maids of honour who bring in the spring and are ranked ahead of the damask roses, until the last stanza notes that they will shortly lie neglected.
To the Muses
The speaker searches heaven, earth, air and sea for the Nine Muses and ends by complaining that since they left, poetry's strings barely move and its notes are few.
To Blossoms
Addressing blossoms falling too fast from a fruit tree, the speaker asks why they were made for an hour's delight and then reads in them how quickly showy things pass into the grave.
To Celia
Love becomes a toast made with the eyes, while a returned rose wreath is imagined to carry the beloved’s breath rather than its own scent.
To Cyriack Skinner
Addressing the grandson of a judge learned in the law, the speaker proposes to drown deep thoughts in a day of harmless mirth, setting aside Euclid, Archimedes and foreign politics, since knowing how to measure life means not refusing a cheerful hour when it is sent.
To the Western Wind
The speaker envies the west wind that has kissed Perenna's lip and fanned her hair, and offers to embalm its wings and set them with flowers in exchange for one such kiss.
To Amarantha, that she would dishevel her Hair
The speaker asks Amarantha to stop braiding her hair and let it fly loose like the wind's plaything, arguing that tangled tresses are best and that unbinding it will scatter daylight rather than cloud it.
To Lucasta, going beyond the Seas
Before a sea voyage the speaker argues that absence would only deserve pity if it truly left them apart, refuses to beg wind or wave for favour, and claims that their faith meets above the highest sphere as spirits greet.
Seeing Off Xin Jian at Hibiscus Tower
Cold rain merged with the river as we entered Wu by night; at first light I see my friend off, and the Chu hills stand alone. If kin and friends in Luoyang should ask about me, say a single piece of ice-clear heart is in a jade vessel.
芙蓉楼送辛渐
The Picture of Little T. C. in a Prospect of Flowers
Watching a child name and play among flowers, the speaker foresees her future power over lovers, asks for terms before her eyes learn to wound, and ends warning her to spare the buds lest Flora nip her in the blossom.
A Garden (excerpt from Upon Appleton House)
Flowers become regiments, stars a patrol, and bees armed sentinels before the passage laments a fallen island once imagined as the world’s garden.