Christian Poetry Considered

Tag: 19th century

  • ‘Heaven Haven’ by Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889)

    I have desired to goWhere springs not fail,To fields where flies no sharp and sided hailAnd a few lilies blow.And I have asked to beWhere no storms come.Where the green swell is in the havens dumb,And out of the swing of the sea. Considering the Poem Apart from telling us something we didn’t know, or…

  • ‘The Snake’ by Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)

    A narrow fellow in the grass Occasionally rides; You may have met him, – did you not, His notice sudden is. The grass divides as with a comb, 5 A spotted shaft is seen; And then it closes at your feet And opens further on. He likes a boggy acre, A floor too cool for…

  • ‘Twice’ by Christina Rossetti (1830-1894)

    I took my heart in my hand (O my love, O my love), I said: Let me fall or stand, Let me live or die, But this once hear me speak (O my love, O my love)— Yet a woman’s words are weak; You should speak, not I. 8 You took my heart in your…

  • ‘When Malindy Sings’ by Paul Lawrence Dunbar (1872-1906)

    G’way an’ quit dat noise, Miss Lucy— Put dat music book away; What’s de use to keep on tryin’? Ef you practise twell you’re gray, You cain’t sta’t no notes a-flyin’ Lak de ones dat rants and rings F’om de kitchen to de big woods When Malindy sings. 8 You ain’t got de nachel o’gans…

  • ‘Crossing the Bar’ by Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892)

    Sunset and evening star, And one clear call for me! And may there be no moaning of the bar, When I put out to sea, But such a tide as moving seems asleep, Too full for sound and foam, When that which drew from out the boundless deep Turns again home. Twilight and evening bell,…

  • ‘The Divine Image’ by William Blake (1757-1827)

    To Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love All pray in their distress; And to these virtues of delight Return their thankfulness. For Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love Is God, our father dear, And Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love Is Man, his child and care. For Mercy has a human heart, Pity a human face, And Love,…

  • ‘The Toys’ by Coventry Patmore (1823-1896)

    My little son, who looked from thoughtful eyes And moved and spoke in quiet grown-up wise, Having my law the seventh time disobeyed, I struck him, and dismissed With hard words and unkissed, 5 His mother, who was patient, being dead. Then, fearing lest his grief should hinder sleep, I visited his bed, But found…

  • ‘Bury Me in a Free Land’ by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (1825-1911)

    Make me a grave where’er you will,In a lowly plain or a lofty hill,Make it among earth’s humbled graves,But not in land where men are slaves. I could not rest if around my graveI heard the steps of a trembling slave:His shadow above my silent tombWould make it a place of fearful gloom. 8I could…