The Best of Poetry Quotes

“The Night Has a Thousand Eyes By Francis William Bourdillon (1852-1921)   The night has a thousand eyes, And the day but one; Yet the light of the bright world dies With the dying of the sun.   The mind has a thousand eyes, And the heart but one; Yet the light of a whole life dies When love is done.”
― Rudolph Amsel, The Best of Poetry: Thoughts that Breathe and Words that Burn: In Two Hundred Poems

“To see a World in a Grain of Sand And a Heaven in a Wild Flower, Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand And Eternity in an hour.”
― Rudolph Amsel, The Best of Poetry: Thoughts that Breathe and Words that Burn: In Two Hundred Poems

“The Eagle By Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892)   He clasps the crag with crooked hands; Close to the sun in lonely lands, Ring'd with the azure world, he stands. The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls; He watches from his mountain walls, And like a thunderbolt he falls.”
― Rudolph Amsel, The Best of Poetry: Thoughts that Breathe and Words that Burn: In Two Hundred Poems

“Annabel Lee By Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849)   It was many and many a year ago, In a kingdom by the sea, That a maiden there lived whom you may know By the name of Annabel Lee; And this maiden she lived with no other thought Than to love and be loved by me.   I was a child and she was a child, In this kingdom by the sea; But we loved with a love that was more than love- I and my Annabel Lee; With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven Coveted her and me.   And this was the reason that, long ago, In this kingdom by the sea, A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling My beautiful Annabel Lee; So that her highborn kinsman came And bore her away from me, To shut her up in a sepulchre In this kingdom by the sea.   The angels, not half so happy in heaven, Went envying her and me — Yes! — that was the reason (as all men know, In this kingdom by the sea) That the wind came out of the cloud by night, Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.   But our love it was stronger by far than the love Of those who were older than we — Of many far wiser than we — And neither the angels in heaven above, Nor the demons down under the sea, Can ever dissever my soul from the soul Of the beautiful Annabel Lee.   For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams Of the beautiful Annabel Lee; And the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes Of the beautiful Annabel Lee; And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side Of my darling — my darling — my life and my bride, In the sepulchre there by the sea, In her tomb by the sounding sea.”
― Rudolph Amsel, The Best of Poetry: Thoughts that Breathe and Words that Burn: In Two Hundred Poems

“The Walrus and the Carpenter By Lewis Carroll (1832–1898)”
― Elsinore Books, The Best of Poetry: Thoughts that Breathe and Words that Burn: In Two Hundred Poems

“As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame; As tumbled over rim in roundy wells Stones ring; like each tucked string tells, each hung bell’s Bow swung finds tongue to fling out broad its name; Each mortal thing does one thing and the same: Deals out that being indoors each one dwells; Selves—goes itself; myself it speaks and spells, Crying What I do is me: for that I came. I say more: the just man justices; Keeps grace: that keeps all his goings graces; Acts in God’s eye what in God’s eye he is— Christ—for Christ plays in ten thousand places, Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his To the Father through the features of men’s faces.”
― Rudolph Amsel, The Best of Poetry: Thoughts that Breathe and Words that Burn: In Two Hundred Poems

“A truth that’s told with bad intent Beats all the Lies you can invent.”
― Rudolph Amsel, The Best of Poetry: Thoughts that Breathe and Words that Burn: In Two Hundred Poems

“The question, O me! so sad, recurring — What good amid these, O me, O life?   Answer: That you are here—that life exists and identity, That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.”
― Rudolph Amsel, The Best of Poetry: Thoughts that Breathe and Words that Burn: In Two Hundred Poems

“Let My Country Awake By Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941)   Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high; Where knowledge is free; Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls; Where words come out from the depth of truth; Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection; Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit; Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action — Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.”
― Rudolph Amsel, The Best of Poetry: Thoughts that Breathe and Words that Burn: In Two Hundred Poems

“Happy the Man Horace (65BCE- 8BCE); trans. John Dryden   Happy the man, and happy he alone, He who can call today his own: He who, secure within, can say, Tomorrow do thy worst, for I have lived today. Be fair or foul, or rain or shine The joys I have possessed, in spite of fate, are mine. Not Heaven itself, upon the past has power, But what has been, has been, and I have had my hour.”
― Rudolph Amsel, The Best of Poetry: Thoughts that Breathe and Words that Burn: In Two Hundred Poems

“flooding in, the main.   And not by eastern windows only, When daylight comes, comes in the light; In front the sun climbs slow, how slowly! But westward, look, the land is bright! Barter By Sara Teasdale (1884-1933)   Life has loveliness to sell, All beautiful and splendid things, Blue waves whitened on a cliff, Soaring fire that sways and sings, And children's faces looking up Holding wonder like a cup.   Life has loveliness to sell, Music like a curve of gold, Scent of pine trees in the rain, Eyes that love you, arms that hold, And for your spirit's still delight, Holy thoughts that star the night.   Spend all you have for loveliness, Buy it and never count the cost; For one white singing hour of peace Count many a year of strife well lost, And for a breath of ecstasy Give all you have been, or could be.”
― Rudolph Amsel, The Best of Poetry: Thoughts that Breathe and Words that Burn: In Two Hundred Poems

“Tell”
― Rudolph Amsel, The Best of Poetry: Thoughts that Breathe and Words that Burn: In Two Hundred Poems

“If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too: If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies, Or being hated don't give way to hating, And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;   If you can dream — and not make dreams your master; If you can think — and not make thoughts your aim; If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster And”
― Rudolph Amsel, The Best of Poetry: Thoughts that Breathe and Words that Burn: In Two Hundred Poems

“O world, I cannot hold thee close enough!   Thy winds, thy wide grey skies!   Thy mists, that roll and rise! Thy woods, this autumn day, that ache and sag And all but cry with colour! That gaunt crag To crush! To lift the lean of that black bluff! World, World, I cannot get thee close enough!   Long have I known a glory in it all,   But never knew I this;   Here such a passion is As stretcheth me apart, – Lord, I do fear Thou’st made the world too beautiful this year; My soul is all but out of me, – let fall No burning leaf; prithee, let no bird call.”
― Rudolph Amsel, The Best of Poetry: Thoughts that Breathe and Words that Burn: In Two Hundred Poems

“The Little Dog’s Day By Rupert Brooke (1887-1915)”
― Rudolph Amsel, The Best of Poetry: Thoughts that Breathe and Words that Burn: In Two Hundred Poems

“Poetry is the spontaneous outflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origins from emotion recollected in tranquillity. William Wordsworth”
― Rudolph Amsel, The Best of Poetry: Thoughts that Breathe and Words that Burn: In Two Hundred Poems