Short Poems

Affluence—define it as:
pickled greens,
rice for supper,
wine, one container,
modest but never empty.

Lutheran, Popish, Calvinistic, all these creeds and doctrines three
Extant are; but still the doubt is, where Christianity may be.

O God, we pray Thee for those who come after us, for our children, and the children of our friends, and for all the young lives that are marching up from the gates of birth, pure and eager, with the morning sunshine on their faces. We remember with a pang that these will live in the world we are making for them. We are wasting the resources of the earth in our headlong greed, and they will suffer want. We are building sunless houses and joyless cities for our profit, and they must dwell therein.

Llangollen's brown ale is with malt and hop rife;
'Tis good; but don't quaff it from evening till dawn;
For too much of that ale will incline you to strife;
Too much of that ale has caused knives to be drawn.

He who satire loves to sing,
On himself will satire bring.

Brodir, gnawd ynddi prydydd;
Heb ganu ni bu ni bydd.
A hospitable country, in which a poet is a thing of course. It has never been and will never be without song.

Would'st thou on good terms with friars live,
Ever be humble and admiring;
All they ask of thee freely give,
And in return be nought requiring.

I knew a chaste man, without pity,
I knew the veriest bawd in all this city.
And she was very tender, very kind—
She was most after God's mind.

Though infant years no pompous honours claim,
The vain parade of monumental fame,
To better praise the last great day shall rear
The spotless innocence that slumbers here.

I will sing of dainty Eros
Decked with many-coloured garlands:
He is master of the Immortals,
He is victor over men!