Short Poems

He begged and shuffled on;
Sometimes he stopped to throw
A bit and benison
To sparrows in the snow,
And clap a frozen ear
And curse the bitter cold.
God send the good man cheer
And quittal hundredfold.

My deerest Mistrisse, let us live and love,
And care not what old doting fooles reprove.
Let us not feare their sensures, nor esteeme,
What they of us and of our loves shall deeme.
Old ages critticke and sensorious brow
Cannot of youthfull dalliance alow,
Nor never could endure that wee should tast,
Of those delights which they themselves are past.

My hand from my Beloved's skirt I cannot take away,
Though with a sword she smite me sharp, and, in her anger, slay:
I have no place of sheltering, no refuge half so sweet;
If I should fly 'twould only be to creep back to her feet.

Weary perhaps of dolorous love,
The cat has stol'n a bit to eat.

Therefore the hand of God
Thy sentence with His finger
Hath written, and this tribunal
Consigneth it now straightway
Unto the secular arm.

A poor woman at a shuttle, tears on her cheeks,
Weaves winter cloth for her husband.
Come morning, she tears a strip for a tax officer;
No sooner one leaves than another comes.

a man enters
the room, disturbing the scent

In this small fort, besieged with snow,
When every studious pulse beats low,
What does my wish require?
Some sprightly girls beneath my roof,
Some friends sincere and winter-proof,
A bottle and a fire.

A cold rain blurs the edges of the river.
Night enters Wu.
In the level brightness of dawn
I saw my friend start alone for the Ch'u Mountain.
He gave me this message for his friends and relations at Lo Yang:
My heart is a piece of ice in a jade cup.
Written by L I H AI-KU , 19th Century Composed by Wang C H'ANG-LING

Mother of gods and men! to thee the lay,
The tuneful Muse, daughter of Jove, shall pay:
To thee, whose ears in loudest sounds rejoice,
The echoing cymbal and the trumpet's voice,
The wolf whose howlings shake the mountains hoar,
And the tremendous lion's awful roar.—
Thee, with each heavenly goddess in thy train,
Thy votary hails in tributary strain.