The ship starting

The Ship Starting

by Walt Whitman

LO! THE unbounded sea!
On its breast a
Ship starting, spreading all her sails--an ample
Ship, carrying even her moonsails;
The pennant is flying aloft,
as she speeds, she speeds so stately--
below, emulous waves press forward,
They surround the
Ship, with shining curving motions, and foam

The lady's Second Song

The Lady's Second Song

by William Butler Yeats

WHAT sort of man is coming
To lie between your feet?
What matter, we are but women.
Wash; make your body sweet;
I have cupboards of dried fragrance.
I can strew the sheet.
i{The Lord have mercy upon us.}

He shall love my soul as though
Body were not at all,
He shall love your body
Untroubled by the soul,
Love cram love's two divisions
Yet keep his substance whole.
i{The Lord have mercy upon us.}

Soul must learn a love that is
proper to my breast, Limbs a
Love in common
With every noble beast.
If soul may look and body touch,
Which is the more blest?
i{The Lord have mercy upon us.}

Fragmentary Blue

Fragmentary Blue

by Robert Lee Frost
Why make so much of fragmentary blue
In here and there a bird, or butterfly,
Or flower, or wearing-stone, or open eye,
When heaven presents in sheets the solid hue?
Since earth is earth, perhaps, not heaven (as yet)--
Though some savants make earth include the sky;
And blue so far above us comes so high,
It only gives our wish for blue a whet.

The Best Thing in the World,

by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

What's the best thing in the world?
June-rose, by May-dew impearled;
Sweet south-wind, that means no rain;
Truth, not cruel to a friend;
Pleasure, not in haste to end;
Beauty, not self-decked and curled
Till its pride is over-plain;
Love, when, so, you're loved again.
What's the best thing in the world? --
Something out of it, I think.