The Rooks

On the first of March
The craws begin to search.
By the first o April
They are sitting still.
By the first o May,
They're a flown away,
Croupin greedy back again
Wi October's wind and rain.

Omnia Somnia

Go, silly worm, drudge, trudge, and travel,
Despising pain,
So thou may'st gain
Some honour, or some golden gravel:
But Death the while (to fill his number)
With sudden call
Takes thee from all,
To prove thy days but dream and slumber.

Open Sesame

Oh, for a book and a shady nook
Either in-a-door or out,
With the green leaves whispering overhead
Or the street cry all about,
Where I may read all at my ease,
Both of the new and old;
For a jolly good book whereon to look
Is better to me than gold.

Manila

OD EWEY was the morning upon the first of May.
And Dewey was the Admiral down in Manila Bay;
And Dewey were the Regent's eyes, them orbs of royal blue!
And Dewey feel discouraged? I Dew not think we Dew.

Song

Oh, bid my tongue be still,
Oh, bid mine eyes be dry:
And I will force them till
They seem to mean a lie.
But bid me not forget:
Thought is nor tongue nor eye:
Or, if thou bid me yet,
Then dost thou bid me die.

Climbing to the Top of the City Walls at Kan-yü

The ocean air is heavy in autumn;
the west wind pummels the islands, cold!
Past and present? — both water, flowing by.
Between heaven and earth, I lean here on this railing.
Clouds rise, as far as the towers of paradise;
mists return, following the brilliant phoenix.
Foggy waves hide thousands of miles:
which way is the capital?

Fragment

O thou immortal deity
Whose throne is in the depth of human thought,
I do adjure thy power and thee
By all that man may be, by all that he is not,
By all that he has been and yet must be!

Full Moon

Off in the twilight hung the low full moon,
And all the women stood before it grave,
As round an altar. Thus at holy times
The Cretan damsels dance melodiously
With delicate feet about the sacrifice,
Trampling the tender bloom of the soft grass.

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