Sympathy Poems
The Poor Singing Dame
by Mary Darby Robinson
Beneath an old wall, that went round an old Castle,
For many a year, with brown ivy o'erspread;
A neat little Hovel, its lowly roof raising,
Defied the wild winds that howl'd over its shed:
The turrets, that frown'd on the poor simple dwelling,
Were rock'd to and fro, when the Tempest would roar,
And the river, that down the rich valley was swelling,
Flow'd swiftly beside the green step of its door.
The Summer Sun, gilded the rushy-roof slanting,
......
Among School Children
by William Butler Yeats
I WALK through the long schoolroom questioning;
A kind old nun in a white hood replies;
The children learn to cipher and to sing,
To study reading-books and histories,
To cut and sew, be neat in everything
In the best modern way -- the children's eyes
In momentary wonder stare upon
A sixty-year-old smiling public man.
I dream of a Ledaean body, bent
Above a sinking fire. a tale that she
......
Sympathy
by Eileen Myles
She's rubbing his shoulder
and he's reading about
Western birds. There's a scoop
of light just above my knee
it resembles the world, the one I know
a layer of smoke spread thin, a shelf
my mind returns again &
again to the picture
......
Three Years She Grew In Sun And Shower,
by William Wordsworth
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.
"Myself will to my darling be
Both law and impulse: and with me
The Girl, in rock and plain
......
Condolence
by Dorothy Parker
They hurried here, as soon as you had died,
Their faces damp with haste and sympathy,
And pressed my hand in theirs, and smoothed my knee,
And clicked their tongues, and watched me, mournful-eyed.
Gently they told me of that Other Side-
How, even then, you waited there for me,
And what ecstatic meeting ours would be.
Moved by the lovely tale, they broke, and cried.
And when I smiled, they told me I was brave,
......
Losing a husband
by Sharon Morgan
A hand that is held tight,
a silent kiss
A cup of tea, a hearty meal
Someone to laugh with
and to chatter without breaks
A hug, a squeeze
Before you wake and remember
that you were dreaming of what was
A smile, a silent glance
......
After the funeral
by Sharon Morgan
After the aroma of the floral displays of the day
The seamless trail of cars in tow
Accompanying the shiny black hearse
Which proudly transported
An honoured guest
In a coffin that was like no other
Preceding an entourage of fellow mourners,
Tissues wiping tears from sullen faces,
A glimpse caught through the reflection
......
To A Silent Friend
by Otha Gwabe
I see you
I hear you
But no voice is heard
We speak but not with words
Every movement has meaning
A blink, twitch or crack of a knuckle
All can be read from a code unsaid
They look at us like we're crazy
But all we're doing is speaking
Speaking in silence.
......
Blooming Beauty
by Bhaskaranand Jha Bhaskar
Almost withered, the lean, leafless flower
Smiles in half of twigless green
Like an aged woman
Banished from the heaven of beauty--
Smiling as a gesture to shower, in vain,
The sprinkles of youthfulness of expired skin,
Rusting in ageing bony pits
As if left in lurch like an exploded balloon!
......
I Sing The Body Electric
by Walt Whitman
I SING the Body electric;
The armies of those I love engirth me, and I engirth them;
They will not let me off till I go with them, respond to them,
And discorrupt them, and charge them full with the charge of the
Soul.
Was it doubted that those who corrupt their own bodies conceal
themselves;
And if those who defile the living are as bad as they who defile the
dead?
......
