Despair Poems
Inchcape Rock
by Robert Southey
No stir in the air, no stir in the sea,
The Ship was still as she could be;
Her sails from heaven received no motion,
Her keel was steady in the ocean.
Without either sign or sound of their shock,
The waves flow’d over the Inchcape Rock;
So little they rose, so little they fell,
They did not move the Inchcape Bell.
......
The Man With The Hoe (Written After Seeing Millet's World-Famous Painting)
by Edwin Markham
Bowed by the weight of centuries he leans
Upon his hoe and gazes on the ground,
The emptiness of ages in his face,
And on his back the burden of the world.
Who made him dead to rapture and despair,
A thing that grieves not and that never hopes,
Stolid and stunned, a brother to the ox?
Who loosened and let down this brutal jaw?
Whose was the hand that slanted back this brow?
Whose breath blew out the light within this brain?
......
Carry On
by Robert William Service
It's easy to fight when everything's right,
And you're mad with the thrill and the glory;
It's easy to cheer when victory's near,
And wallow in fields that are gory.
It's a different song when everything's wrong,
When you're feeling infernally mortal;
When it's ten against one, and hope there is none,
Buck up, little soldier, and chortle:
Carry on! Carry on!
......
Ozymandias
by Percy Bysshe Shelley
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: 'Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear --
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
......
Tears, Idle Tears
by Alfred Lord Tennyson
Tears, idle tears, I know not what they mean,
Tears from the depth of some divine despair
Rise in the heart, and gather to the eyes,
In looking on the happy Autumn-fields,
And thinking of the days that are no more.
Fresh as the first beam glittering on a sail,
That brings our friends up from the underworld,
Sad as the last which reddens over one
That sinks with all we love below the verge;
......
Checkmate
by Lauren Tilley
I am a disaster,
Wallowing in self pity.
Delusions strong,
Paranoia in overdrive,
I am stalemate.
Stagnant.
Watching life pass
And I cannot move.
No dreams nor nightmares,
Lite hurts.
......
Despairing Exaltation
by Alexander Palmer
I slept beside the devil
her wax flesh melted into mine
the air was rust, long dried blood,
the air was fine red wine,
she was a god in her own right
a transgression divine.
desperation, our preservation,
etched into my skin
prayer marks, satanic symbols,
......
Metal Man
by Icerus S
Heavy would the heart be that could hold up this empty vessel.
Robotic mighty standing as Atlas under the great weight of the cosmos on his back.
Broken countless times, yet reforged, made stronger by life's burning flames.
Sleep evades the psyche, dreams, imaginations flitter back and forth from present to past lastly disappeared.
Focus lost at every turn, where did the fae go, where did the years go, where did the dreams go.
......
Infinity
by Michael R. Burch
These are poems about relationships, including poems about mothers and their children, and poems for mothers and their children: i.e., the closest relationships of all. Also, poems about children and poems for children.
Infinity
by Michael R. Burch
Have you tasted the bitterness of tears of despair?
Have you watched the sun sink through such pale, balmless air
that your soul sought its shell like a crab on a beach,
then scuttled inside to be safe, out of reach?
......
She Has To Choose
by Frangipani Rhett
There was a girl
Turned 23 last year
Only a year ago
She knew something had to change
So she wracked her brain
Looked for an answer
Her river of hope ran dry
They all turned a blind eye
......
