Short Poems

Sweet, sweet, is sleep, — Ah! sweeter, to be stone,
Whilst wrong & shame exist & grow;
Not to see, not to feel, is a boon;
Then, not to wake me, pray speak low!
Michelangelo

Fortune and Hope! I've made my port,
Farewell ye twin deceivers!
You've trained me many a weary chase,
Go cozen new believers.
Prudentius

Teach your child to earn his meal,
Or you bring him up to steal.
Jean Chardin

Wilt thou life's best elixir drain?
Be lowliest of the lowly found;
The sweetest drop of the sugar-cane
Grows nearest to the ground.
Feisi

For two rewards, & nought beside,
A prudent man the world would ride;
His friend with benefits to crown
And put his adversary down.
Ibn Jemin

Unbar the door, since thou the Opener art,
Show me the forward way, since thou art guide,
I put no faith in pilot or in chart,
Since they are transient, & thou dost abide.
Omar Khayyam

The pain of love's a better fate
Than the body's best estate.
Saadi

A friend is he, who, hunted as a foe,
So much the kindlier shows him than before;
Throw stones at him, or ruder javelins throw,
He builds with stone and steel a firmer floor.

Whilst I disdain the populace,
I find no peer in higher place.
Friend is a word of royal tone,
Friend is a poem all alone.
Wisdom is like the elephant,
Lofty and rare inhabitant:
He dwells in deserts or in courts;
With hucksters he has no resorts.

O'er the garden water goes the wind alone
To rasp and to polish the cheek of the wave;
The fire is quenched on the dear hearth-stone,
But it burns again on the tulips brave.