Dirce

Stand close around, ye Stygian set,
With Dirce in one boat conveyed,
Or Charon, seeing, may forget
That he is old and she a shade.

Walter Savage Landor

Walter Savage Landor was an English writer, poet, and dramatist. He is best known for his prose work, the 'Imaginary Conversations,' but also wrote numerous poems and plays. Landor had a tempestuous character and often found himself in conflict with authorities and contemporaries. Despite his combative nature, he was highly regarded by other literary figures such as Charles Dickens and Robert Browning. His works reflect his classical education and strong individualism.

Walter Savage Landor

Ternissa! you are fled!

Walter Savage Landor, Simple Poetry

To Zoe

Walter Savage Landor, Simple Poetry

To Age

Walter Savage Landor, Simple Poetry

English

Suggested Poems

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Dirge

Stay, Death, Not mine the Christus-wand
Wherewith to charge thee and command:
I plead. Most gently hold the hand
Of her thou leadest far away;
Fear thou to let her naked feet
Tread ashes--but let mosses sweet
Her footing tempt, where'er ye stray.
Shun Orcus; win the moonlit land
Belulled--the silent meadows lone,
Where never any leaf is blown
From lily-stem in Azrael's hand.
There, till her love rejoin her lowly
(Pensive, a shade, but all her own)
On honey feed her, wild and holy;
Or trance her with thy choicest charm.
And if, ere yet the lover's free,
Some added dusk thy rule decree--
That shadow only let it be
Thrown in the moon-glade by the palm.

Herman Melville

Sailor And Shade

SAILOR

You, who have compassed land and sea,
Now all unburied lie;
All vain your store of human lore,
For you were doomed to die.
The sire of Pelops likewise fell,--
Jove's honored mortal guest;
So king and sage of every age
At last lie down to rest.
Plutonian shades enfold the ghost
Of that majestic one
Who taught as truth that he, forsooth,
Had once been Pentheus' son;
Believe who may, he's passed away,
And what he did is done.
A last night comes alike to all;
One path we all must tread,
Through sore disease or stormy seas
Or fields with corpses red.
Whate'er our deeds, that pathway leads
To regions of the dead.


SHADE

The fickle twin Illyrian gales
Overwhelmed me on the wave;
But you that live, ...

Eugene Field

The New Charon:

UPON THE DEATH OF HENRY, LORD HASTINGS.

The musical part being set by Mr. Henry Lawes.

THE SPEAKERS,

CHARON AND EUCOSMIA.

Euc. Charon, O Charon, draw thy boat to th' shore,
    And to thy many take in one soul more.
Cha. Who calls? who calls? Euc. One overwhelm'd with ruth;
    Have pity either on my tears or youth,
    And take me in who am in deep distress;
    But first cast off thy wonted churlishness.
Cha. I will be gentle as that air which yields
    A breath of balm along the Elysian fields.
    Speak, what art thou? Euc. One once that had a lover,
    Than which thyself ne'er wafted sweeter over.
    He was---- Cha. Say what? Euc. Ah me, my woes are deep.
Cha. Prithee rel...

Robert Herrick

Horace's "Sailor And Shade."

Sailor.

You, who have compassed land and sea
Now all unburied lie;
All vain your store of human lore,
For you were doomed to die.
The sire of Pelops likewise fell,
Jove's honored mortal guest--
So king and sage of every age
At last lie down to rest.
Plutonian shades enfold the ghost
Of that majestic one
Who taught as truth that he, forsooth,
Had once been Pentheus' son;
Believe who may, he's passed away
And what he did is done.
A last night comes alike to all--
One path we all must tread,
Through sore disease or stormy seas
Or fields with corpses red--
Whate'er our deeds that pathway leads
To regions of the dead.


Shade.

The fickle twin Illyrian gales
O'erwhelmed me on the wave--
But ...

Eugene Field

Horace II, 3.

Be tranquil, Dellius, I pray;
For though you pine your life away
With dull complaining breath,
Or speed with song and wine each day--
Still, still your doom is death.

Where the white poplar and the pine
In glorious arching shade combine
And the brook singing goes,
Bid them bring store of nard and wine
And garlands of the rose.

Let's live while chance and youth obtain--
Soon shall you quit this fair domain
Kissed by the Tiber's gold,
And all your earthly pride and gain
Some heedless heir shall hold.

One ghostly boat shall some time bear
From scenes of mirthfulness or care
Each fated human soul!--
Shall waft and leave his burden where
The waves of Lethe roll.

So come, I pri' thee, Dellius, mine--
Let's sing our...

Eugene Field

Don Juan In Hades
When Juan sought the subterranean flood,
And paid his obolus on the Stygian shore,
Charon, the proud and sombre beggar, stood
With one strong, vengeful hand on either oar.

With open robes and bodies agonised,
Lost women writhed beneath that darkling sky;
There were sounds as of victims sacrificed:
Behind him all the dark was one long cry.

And Sganarelle, with laughter, claimed his pledge;
Don Luis, with trembling finger in the air,
Showed to the souls who wandered in the sedge
The evil son who scorned his hoary hair.

Shivering with woe, chaste Elvira the while,
Near him untrue to all but her till now,
Seemed to beseech him for one farewell smile
Lit with the sweetness of the first soft vow.

And clad in armour, a tall man of stone
H...
Charles Baudelaire