Misc. Poems

And If .... Mihai Eminescu (1850-1889)

And if the boughs tap at the pane
And all the poplars quiver
It's so you come to mind again
I gently bring you closer.

And if the lakes pulse with star shine
To light their deep extremity
It's that they stroke away my pain
And leave me to serenity.

And if thick clouds desert the blue
And let the moonlight flow down free,
It's that I should remember you
And never let you go from me.

To Dante Guido Cavalcanti (1260-1300)

Returning from its daily quest,
my spirit changed thoughts
and vile in thee doth weep to find:
It grieves me that thy mild and gentle mind
Those ample virtues which it did inherit has lost.
Once thou didst loathe the multitude
Of blind and maddening men: I then loved thee --
I loved thy lofty songs, and that sweet mood
When thou wert faithful to thyself and men.
I dare not now, through thy degraded state,
Own the delight thy strains inspire -- in vain
I seek what once thou wert -- we cannot meet
As we were wont. Again and yet again
Ponder my words: so the false spirit shall fly,
And leave to thee thy true integrity.

Mutability Percy Bysshe Shelly (1792-1822)

We are as clouds that veil the midnight moon;
How restlessly they speed, and gleam, and quiver,
Streaking the darkness radiantly! -yet soon
Night closes round, and they are lost for ever:
Or like forgotten lyres, whose dissonant strings
Give various response to each varying blast,
To whose frail frame no second motion brings
One mood or modulation like the last.
We rest. -A dream has power to poison sleep;
We rise. -One wandering thought pollutes the day;
We feel, conceive or reason, laugh or weep;
Embrace fond woe, or cast our cares away:
It is the same! -For, be it joy or sorrow,
The path of its departure still is free:
Man's yesterday may ne'er be like his morrow;
Nought may endure but Mutability.