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O May I Join the Choir Invisible!
by George Eliot, Percy Bysshe Shelley,
Robert Browning, Elizabeth Barrett Browning
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This book is mistakenly titled as authored by George Eliot; it's a collection of a few poems, by various authors, loved by one of them - Elizabeth Barrett Browning - and the title is taken from that of a poem by George Eliot.
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O MAY I JOIN THE CHOIR INVISIBLE!
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She begins well,
"O may I join the choir invisible
"Of those immortal dead who live again
"In minds made better by their presence; live
"In pulses stirred to generosity,
"In deeds of daring rectitude, in scorn
"Of miserable aims that end with self,
"In thoughts sublime that pierce the night like stars,
"And with their mild persistence urge men’s minds
"To vaster issues."
- but then gets belaboured after the first stanza.
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October 01, 2021 - October 01, 2021.
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HOW THEY BROUGHT THE GOOD NEWS FROM GHENT TO AIX.
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If one knew history enough to know what is being described, one woukd get far more; but even as it is, while one does get a vague idea of the background, the ride described touches heart.
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November 12, 2021 - November 12, 2021.
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MOTHER AND POET.
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"Dead! one of them shot by the sea in the east,
"And one of them shot in the west by the sea.
"Dead! both my boys!
"When you sit at the feast
"And are wanting a great song for Italy free,
"Let none look at me!
"Yet I was a poetess only last year,
"And good at my art for a woman, men said,
"But this woman, this, who is agonized here,
"The east sea and west sea rhyme on in her head
"Forever instead."
....
"Both boys dead! but that’s out of nature. We all
"Have been patriots, yet each house must always keep one.
"‘Twere imbecile hewing out roads to a wall,
"And when Italy’s made, for what end is it done
"If we have not a son?
.....
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October 01, 2021 - October 01, 2021.
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NATURE’S LADY.
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"Three years she grew in sun and shower,
"Then Nature said, "“A lovelier flower
"On earth was never sown;
"This child I to myself will take,
"She shall be mine, and
"I will make A lady of my own."
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October 01, 2021 - October 01, 2021.
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TO A SKYLARK.
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One has been always, somehow, aware of this one - and now, reading it so late in life, one instantly knows why! It's pure honey-wine, the sweetness of this poem, yet nothing sticky or alkaline; it's as if the brilliant poet managed to catch all beauty and it's essence is forever captured in this poem! Could one memorize it, now, and enjoy recalling it any time one likes? Don't know, but fortunately, this book isn't so long, and one can read it on ones phone! Thank you for this one -
"Hail to thee, blithe spirit—
"Bird thou never wert—
"That from heaven or near it
"Pourest thy full heart In profuse strains of unpremeditated art.
"Higher still and higher
"From the earth thou springest,
"Like a cloud of fire;
"The blue deep thou wingest,
"And singing still dost soar, and soaring ever singest.
"In the golden lightning
"Of the sunken sun,
"O’er which clouds art bright’ning,
"Thou dost float and run,
"Like an unbodied joy whose race is just begun.
"The pale purple even
"Melts around thy flight;
"Like a star of heaven,
"In the broad daylight
"Thou art unseen, but yet I hear thy shrill delight—
"Keen as are the arrows
"Of that silver sphere
"Whose intense lamp narrows
"In the white dawn clear
"Until we hardly see, we feel, that it is there.
"All the earth and air
"With thy voice is loud,
"As, when night is bare,
"From one lonely cloud
"The moon rains out her beams, and heaven is overflowed.
"What thou art we know not;
"What is most like thee?
"From rainbow-clouds there flow not
"Drops so bright to see
"As from thy presence showers a rain of melody:—
"Like a poet hidden
"In the light of thought,
"Singing hymns unbidden,
"Till the world is wrought
"To sympathy with hopes and fears it heeded not;
"Like a high-born maiden
"In a palace tower,
"Soothing her love-laden
"Soul in secret hour
"With music sweet as love which overflows her bower;
"Like a glow-worm golden
"In a dell of dew,
"Scattering unbeholden
"Its aerial hue
"Among the flowers and grass which screen it from the view;
"Like a rose embowered
"In its own green leaves,
"By warm winds deflowered,
"Till the scent it gives
"Makes faint with too much heat these heavy-winged thieves;
"Thou art unseen, but yet I hear they shrill delight
"Sound of vernal showers
"On the twinkling grass,
"Rain-awakened flowers—
"All that ever was Joyous and clear and fresh—thy music doth surpass.
"Teach us, sprite or bird,
"What sweet thoughts are thine:
"I have never heard
"Praise of love or wine
"That panted forth a flood of rapture so divine.
"Chorus hymeneal,
"Or triumphal chaunt,
"Matched with thine, would be all
"But an empty vaunt—
"A thing wherein we feel there is some hidden want.
"What objects are the fountains
"Of the happy strain?
"What fields, or waves or mountains?
"What shapes of sky or plain?
"What love of thine own kind? what ignorance of pain?
"With thy clear keen joyance
"Languor cannot be:
"Shadow of annoyance
"Never came near thee:
"Thou lovest, but ne’er knew love’s sad satiety.
"Waking or asleep,
"Thou of death must deem
"Things more true and deep
"Than we mortals dream,
"Or how could thy notes flow in such a crystal stream?
"We look before and after,
"And pine for what is not;
"Our sincerest laughter
"With some pain is fraught;
"Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought.
"Yet, if we could scorn
"Hate and pride and fear,
"If we were things born
"Not to shed a tear,
"I know not how thy joy we ever should come near.
"Better than all measures
"Of delightful sound,
"Better than all treasures
"That in books are found,
"Thy skill to poet were, thou scorner of the ground!
"Teach me half the gladness
"That thy brain must know,
"Such harmonious madness
"From my lips would flow
"The world should listen then as I am listening now.
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November 12, 2021 - November 12, 2021.
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October 01, 2021 - November 12, 2021.
Purchased January 21, 2021.
Kindle Edition, 44 pages
Published (first published 1884)
Original Title
O May I Join the Choir Invisible!
And Other Favourite Poems
ASIN:- B004TRQ8QK
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