Past Ruin’d Ilion by Walter Savage Landor

Past ruin’d Ilion Helen lives,
Alcestis rises from the shades;
Verse calls them forth; ’tis verse that gives
Immortal youth to mortal maids. 

Soon shall Oblivion’s deepening veil
Hide all the peopled hills you see,
The gay, the proud, while lovers hail
These many summers you and me.

 

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Death Stands Above Me by Walter Savage Landor

Death stands above me, whispering low
…I know not what into my ear:
Of his strange language all I know
…Is, there is not a word of fear.

 

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On Seeing A Hair Of Lucretia Borgia by Walter Savage Landor

Borgia, thou once wert almost too august
And high for adoration; now thou’rt dust;
All that remains of thee these plaits unfold,
Calm hair, meandering in pellucid gold.

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Rose Aylmer by Walter Savage Landor

Ah, what avails the sceptred race,
…Ah, what the form divine!
What every virtue, every grace!
…Rose Aylmer, all were thine.
Rose Aylmer, whom these wakeful eyes
…May weep, but never see,
A night of memories and of sighs
…I consecrate to thee.

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This quote is in An Anthology of Famous English and American Poetry
about the poem: “It was inspired by news of the death in India of Rose,
the daughter of Henry, Baron Aylmer, who had been Landor’s devoted
friend during the poet’s early years in Wales.”

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Mother, I Cannot Mind My Wheel by Walter Savage Landor

Mother, I cannot mind my wheel;
…My fingers ache, my lips are dry:
Oh! if you felt the pain I feel!
…But oh, who ever felt as I! 

No longer could I doubt him true,
…All other men may use deceit;
He always said my eyes were blue,
…And often swore my lips were sweet.

 

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Dying Speech Of An Old Philosopher by Walter Savage Landor

 

 

Dying Speech Of An Old Philosopher 

I strove with none, for none was worth my strife:
   Nature I loved, and, next to Nature, Art:
I warm’d both hands before the fire of Life;
   It sinks; and I am ready to depart.

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photo by Jasper Greek Lao Golangco at http://www.rgbstock.com/photo/myzKAnq/fire

 

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Two Epigrams by Walter Savage Landor

No Truer Word

No truer word, save God’s, was ever spoken,
Than that the largest heart is soonest broken.

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On Every Human Thing

On love, on grief, on every human thing,
Time sprinkles Lethe’s water with his wing.

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*Lethe’s water – “afterworld river of forgetfulness”

 

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