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Poems I Wish I'd Written
Lines Inscribed Upon a Cup Formed from a Skull Lord Byron, 1808 Start not - nor deem my spirit fled; In me behold the only skull From which, unlike a living head, Whatever flows is never dull. I lived, I loved, I quaffed, like thee: I died: let earth my bones resign; Fill up - thou canst not injure me; The worm hath fouler lips than thine. Better to hold the sparkling grape, Than nurse the earth-worm's slimy brood; And circle in the goblet's shape The drink of gods, than reptile's food. Where once my wit, perchance, hath shone, In aid of others' let me shine; And when, alas! our brains are gone, What nobler substitute than wine? Quaff while thou canst: another race, When thou and thine, like me, are sped, May rescue thee from earth's embrace, And rhyme and revel with the dead. Why not? since through life's little day Our heads such sad effects produce; Redeemed from worms and wasting clay, This chance is theirs, to be of use. - - - - - - - - - - The More Loving One W. H. Auden Looking up at the stars, I know quite well That, for all they care, I can go to hell, But on earth indifference is the least We have to dread from man or beast. How should we like it were stars to burn With a passion for us we could not return? If equal affection cannot be, Let the more loving one be me. Admirer as I think I am Of stars that do not give a damn, I cannot, now I see them, say I missed one terribly all day. Were all stars to disappear or die, I should learn to look at an empty sky And feel its total dark sublime, Though this might take me a little time. - - - - - - - - - - Nothing Gold Can Stay Robert Frost Nature's first green is gold, Her hardest hue to hold. Her early leaf's a flower; But only so an hour. Then leaf subsides to leaf. So Eden sank to grief, So dawn goes down to day. Nothing gold can stay. - - - - - - - - - - 406 Emily Dickinson Some - Work for Immortality - The Chiefer part, for Time - He - Compensates - immediately - The former - Checks - on Fame - Slow Gold - but Everlasting - The Bullion of Today - Contrasted with the Currency Of Immortality - A Beggar - Here and There - Is gifted to discern Beyone the Broker's insight - One's - Money - One's - the Mine - - - - - - - - - - - Tomorrow Wendy Andy Prieboy It is complete now two ends of time are neatly tied a one-way street she's walkin to the end of the line and there she meets the faces she keeps in her heart and mind they say goodbye tomorrow, wendy, you're going to die underneath the chilly grey november sky we can make-believe that kennedy is still alive we're shooting for the moon and smiling, jackie's driving by they say good try tomorrow, wendy is going to die i told the priest don't count on any second coming god got his ass kicked the first time he came down here slumming he had the balls to come the gall to die and then forgive us no, i don't wonder why i wonder what he thought it would get us hey, hey, goodbye tomorrow, wendy is going to die only god says jump so i set the time cause if he ever saw it it was through these eyes of mine and if he ever suffered it was me who did his crying hey, hey, goodbye tomorrow, wendy is going to die
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