There Will Come Soft Rains

There Will Come Soft Rains Sara Teasdale There will come soft rains and the smell of the ground, And swallows circling with their shimmering sound;

And frogs in the pools singing at night, And wild plum trees in tremulous white;

Robins will wear their feathery fire, Whistling their whims on a low fence-wire;

And not one will know of the war, not one Will care at last when it is done.

Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree, If mankind perished utterly;

And Spring herself, when she woke at dawn Would scarcely know that we were gone.

My Papa's Waltz Theodore Roethke

The whiskey on your breath Could make a small boy dizzy; But I hung on like death: Such waltzing was not easy. We romped until the pans Slid from the kitchen shelf; My mother's countenance Could not unfrown itself. The hand that held my wrist Was battered on one knuckle; At every step you missed My right ear scraped a buckle. You beat time on my head With a palm caked hard by dirt, Then waltzed me off to bed Still clinging to your shirt. The Limit of the Universe Katherine Foreman

We are closest when we are apart. Each takes tiny steps back when We are finally together again, Forced away by the Thoughts of closeness risen from solitude. Lonely alone Lonely together This is not what I had in mind. Where fear is the driving force Fear must be of each other too, A wedge forever standing Until we need not be afraid Which in this stifling, frowning Disallowing world Must never happen.

Mirror, Mirror Katherine Foreman

My game face is blue. I must put it back on, see How much of my glory was real And how much fever. I see drawn eyes, too much marring, A suit of swan feathers Without the matching shape. And however I imagine lights, No straw spins to gold. I see as I have been seen, Not radiant, but ashine in hope Yet to see a finish.

When I heard the Learn’d Astronomer Walt Whitman

When I heard the learn’d astronomer; When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me; When I was shown the charts and the diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them; When I, sitting, heard the astronomer, where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room,

How soon, unaccountable, I became tired and sick; 5 Till rising and gliding out, I wander’d off by myself, In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time, Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars.

To An Athlete Dying Young A. E. Housman

THE time you won your town the race We chaired you through the market-place; Man and boy stood cheering by, And home we brought you shoulder-high.

To-day, the road all runners come, 5 Shoulder-high we bring you home, And set you at your threshold down, Townsman of a stiller town.

Smart lad, to slip betimes away From fields where glory does not stay, 10 And early though the laurel grows It withers quicker than the rose.

Eyes the shady night has shut Cannot see the record cut, And silence sounds no worse than cheers 15 After earth has stopped the ears:

Now you will not swell the rout Of lads that wore their honours out, Runners whom renown outran And the name died before the man. 20

So set, before its echoes fade, The fleet foot on the sill of shade, And hold to the low lintel up The still-defended challenge-cup.

And round that early-laurelled head 25 Will flock to gaze the strengthless dead, And find unwithered on its curls The garland briefer than a girl's. The Final Flight Don't grieve for me, for now I'm free, I'm following the path God laid for me. I took his hand when I heard his call, I turned my back and left it all. I could not stay another day, To laugh, to love, to work, to play. Tasks left undone must stay that way, I've found that peace at the end of the day. If my parting has left a void, Then fill it with remembered joy. A friendship shared, a laugh, a kiss, Ah, yes, these things too I will miss. Be not burdened with times of sorrow, I wish you the sunshine of tomorrow. My Life's been full, I savoured much, Good friends, good times, a loved one' touch. Perhaps my time seemed all too brief, Don't lengthen it now with undue grief. Lift up your heart and share with me, God wanted me now, He set me free. "Lullaby"

Days feel harder, night grows longer Summer says its goodbyes Darkness covers, we find shelter Our own place to hide

Oh as the light goes out Thoughts turn to angels on the run Oh as the night comes in Dreams start their drifting and you hear a lullaby Lullaby You and I

Trees touch windows say their hellos Hear this house as it settles in Worry slips away it don't know your name It don't know where to find us

Oh as the light goes out Thoughts turn to angels on the run Oh as the night comes in Dreams start their drifting and you hear a lullaby A lullaby You and I, you and I