Short Poems

Like a cobweb hung upon the tree

Like a cobweb hung upon the tree
A prey to wind and sunlight!
Who will say that we are safe and strong?

Are the fallen stars

Are the fallen stars
Returning up the sky?
The dews on the grass.

Opposition Is True Friendship -

I have always found that Angels have the vanity to speak of themselves as the only wise; this they do with a confident insolence sprouting from systematic reasoning:
Thus Swedenborg boasts that what he writes is new: tho' it is only the Contents or Index of already publish'd books

Chorus -

Chorus
Let the Priests of the Raven of dawn, no longer in deadly black. with hoarse
note curse the sons of joy. Nor his accepted brethren whom, tyrant, he calls
free: lay the bound or build the roof. Nor pale religious letchery call that
virginity, that wishes but acts not!

For every thing that lives is Holy

A Memorable Fancy

As I was walking among the fires of hell, delighted with the enjoyments of Genius, which to Angels look like torment and insanity, I collected some of their Proverbs; thinking that as the sayings used in a nation mark its character, so the Proverbs of Hell shew the nature of Infernal Wisdom better than any description of buildings or garments.
When I came home: on the abyss of the five senses, where a flat sided steep
frowns over the present world, I saw a mighty Devil folded in black clouds,

In the moon as Phebus stood over his oriental Gardening

From Chap 3d
In the Moon as Phebus stood over his Oriental Gardening O ay come Ill sing you a song said the Cynic. the trumpeter shit in his hat said the Epicurean & clapt it on his head said the Pythagorean
Ill begin again said the Cynic
Little Phebus came strutting in
With his fat belly & his round chin
What is it you would please to have
Ho Ho
I wont let it go at only so & so

The Invocation

The Wrath of Peleus Son, O Muse, resound;
Whose dire Effects the Grecian Army found:
And many a Heroe, King, and hardy Knight,
Were sent, in early Youth, to Shades of Night:
Their Limbs a Prey to Dogs and Vulturs made;
So was the Sov'reign Will of Jove obey'd:
From that ill-omen'd Hour when Strife begun,
Betwixt Atrides Great, and Thetis God-like Son.

I Strove With None -

I strove with none, for none was worth my strife:
Nature I loved, and next to Nature, Art:
I warmed both hands before the fire of Life;
It sinks; and I am ready to depart.

War ships, cold tides

War ships, cold tides,
ancient troops of clouds,
crows like crazy dots of ink
splashed against the dying sun:
here, on the west bank of the Yangtze,
at Ju-hsü entrenchment,
as the spring waters start to rise
I say farewell to you.

Li Hsü of Ch'ien-chou is an old friend of mine

Li Hsü of Ch'ien-chou is an old friend of mine.
Once, when you were drunk, you insulted him to his face!
Two officials who were on the scene told me what happened,
and I could only hang my head, and feel ashamed inside.