The Poets of the 19th Century: Volume IV – Mary Shelly to Akiko Yosano

By Percy Bysshe Shelley, Tagore and Ella Wheeler Wilcox

This is the century for the history books. (The Chinese curse of living in interesting times could not be more suited.)

A small island continued its expansion across the globe, bringing both good and evil in its march. Empires clashed. Revolution shook many. The Industrial age was upon us.

Poets spoke up against slavery, bringing social and political pressure upon an abominable horror.

It was also the age of the Romantics. Shelley, Keats, Byron lyrically rapture; Tennyson, Arnold, Browning rode a century of sweeping change, of dynamism and of great verse.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Portable Poetry
• Release date: Dec 12, 2023
• ISBN: 9781835470510

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) was one of the major English Romantic poets and is regarded by critics as one of the finest lyric poets in the English language.

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The Poets of the Nineteenth Century

Volume 4 – Mary Shelly to Akiko Yosano

This is the century for the history books.  (The Chinese curse of living in interesting times could not be more suited.) 

A small island continued its expansion across the globe, bringing both good and evil in its march. Empires clashed.  Revolution shook many.  The Industrial age was upon us. 

Poets spoke up against slavery, bringing social and political pressure upon an abominable horror.

It was also the age of the Romantics.  Shelley, Keats, Byron lyrically rapture; Tennyson, Arnold, Browning rode a century of sweeping change, of dynamism and of great verse.

Index of Contents

Stanzas by Mary Shelley

Love's Philosophy by Percy Bysshe Shelley

To a Skylark by Percy Bysshe Shelley

Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley

Ode to the West Wind by Percy Bysshe Shelley

The Witch of Atlas (An Extract) by Percy Bysshe Shelley

Worn Out by Elizabeth Siddal

Love and Hate by Elizabeth Siddal

Dead Love by Elizabeth Siddal

The House Was Quiet and the World Was Calm by Wallace Stevens

Six Significant Landscapes by Wallace Stevens

The Snow Man by Wallace Stevens

Not Ideas About The Thing But The Thing Itself by Wallace Stevens

The Vagabond by Robert Louis Stevenson

A Song of the Road by Robert Louis Stevenson

Where Go the Boats by Robert Louis Stevenson

From A Railway Carriage by Robert Louis Stevenson

To by Robert Louis Stevenson

A Match by Algernon Charles Swinburne

A Ballad of Death by Algernon Charles Swinburne

Four Songs For Four Seasons by Algernon Charles Swinburne

The Year of the Rose by Algernon Charles Swinburne

Queens by John Millington Synge

Unending Love by Tagore

The Journey by Tagore

The Rainy Day by Tagore

Give Me Strength by Tagore

On the Nature of Love by Tagore

My Mother by Ann Taylor

The Orphan by Ann Taylor

Mischief by Jane Taylor

Poverty by Jane Taylor

Ulysses by Alfred Lord Tennyson

The Charge of the Light Brigade by Alfred Lord Tennyson

In Memoriam (An extract from the Introduction) by Alfred Lord Tennyson

Break Break Break by Alfred Lord Tennyson

Tears Idle Tears (from The Princess) by Alfred Lord Tennyson

Casey at the Bat by Ernest L Thayer

Old Man by Edward Thomas

No One So Much As You by Edward Thomas

Cock Crow by Edward Thomas

Like the Touch of Rain by Edward Thomas

The Hound of Heaven by Francis Thompson

Rime O'Bat of My Syk-Em by Francis Thompson

The City of Dreadful Night (An extract) by James Thomson B V

In a Christian Churchyard by James Thomson B V

The Summer Rain by Henry David Thoreau

Woof of the Sun by Henry David Thoreau

Pray To What Earth Does This Sweet Cold Belong by Henry David Thoreau

A Moment by John Todhunter

In Westminster Abbey October 12th, 1892 by John Todhunter

St Patrick's Day with an Irish Shamrock by Charlotte Elizabeth Tonna

Creed by Mary Ashley Townsend

Idols by John Lucas Tupper

Women's Rights by John Lucas Tupper

O Lord Our Father by Mark Twain

These Annual Bills by Mark Twain

The Wind That Shakes the Barley by Katharine Tynan

Quiet Eyes by Kathaine Tynan

The Foggy Dew by Katharine Tynan

The End of the Day by Katharine Tynan

Indian Summer by Henry van Dyke

Master of Music by Henry van Dyke

Late Spring by Henry van Dyke

The Touch by Renee Vivien

Your Strange Hair by Renee Vivien

Prolong the Night by Renee Vivien

Undine by Renee Vivien

Young Laughters, And My Music by Augusta Davies Webster

The Sea Maid's Song by Augusta Davies Webster

A Grave by Edith Wharton

An Autumn Sunset by Edith Wharton

Experience by Edith Wharton

Song of Myself (An extract) by Walt Whitman

I Hear America Singing by Walt Whitman

Oh Captain, My Captain by Walt Whitman

To A Locomotive In Winter by Walt Whitman

I Sing The Body Electric by Walt Whitman

The Farewell of a Virginia Slave Mother by John Greenleaf Whittier

The Hunting of Men by John Greenleaf Whittier

Snow-Bound (The Sun That Brief December Day) by John Greenleaf Whittier

Courage by Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Optimism by Ella Wheeler Wilcox

A World Worth Living In by Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Be Not Weary by Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Solitude by Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Endymion by Oscar Wilde

Sonnet to Liberty by Oscar Wilde

Sonnet On Approaching Italy by Oscar Wilde

Serenade by Oscar Wilde

The Grave of Shelley by Oscar Wilde

from Education in Wales by Rowland Williams

My Beautiful Lady (An Extract) by Thomas Woolner

Bitter Rain by Wu Zao

Old Lines and New Songs by Wu Zao

For the Courtesan Ch'ing Lin by Wu Zao

The Lake Isle of Inisfree by W B Yeats

He Wishes For The Cloths of Heaven by W B Yeats

A Man Young and Old (Spring and Summer) by W B Yeats

Those Dancing Days Are Gone by W B Yeats

Death by W B Yeats

I Can Give Myself To Her by Akiko Yosano

In Praise of May by Akiko Yosano

Black Hair by Akiko Yosano

THE POETS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

VOLUME 4

Stanzas by Mary Shelley

Oh, come to me in dreams, my love!

I will not ask a dearer bliss;

Come with the starry beams, my love,

And press mine eyelids with thy kiss.

’Twas thus, as ancient fables tell,

Love visited a Grecian maid,

Till she disturbed the sacred spell,

And woke to find her hopes betrayed.

But gentle sleep shall veil my sight,

And Psyche’s lamp shall darkling be,

When, in the visions of the night,

Thou dost renew thy vows to me.

Then come to me in dreams, my love,

I will not ask a dearer bliss;

Come with the starry beams, my love,

And press mine eyelids with thy kiss.

Love's Philosophy by Percy Bysshe Shelley

The fountains mingle with the river

   And the rivers with the ocean,

The winds of heaven mix for ever

   With a sweet emotion;

Nothing in the world is single;

   All things by a law divine

In one spirit meet and mingle.

   Why not I with thine?—

See the mountains kiss high heaven

   And the waves clasp one another;

No sister-flower would be forgiven

   If it disdained its brother;

And the sunlight clasps the earth

   And the moonbeams kiss the sea:

What is all this sweet work worth

   If thou kiss not me?

To a Skylark by Percy Bysshe Shelley

Hail to thee, blithe Spirit!

Bird thou never wert,

That from Heaven, or near it,

Pourest thy full heart

In profuse strains of unpremeditated art.

Higher still and higher

From the earth thou springest

Like a cloud of fire;

The blue deep thou wingest,

And singing still dost soar, and soaring ever singest.

In the golden lightning

Of the sunken sun,

O'er which clouds are bright'ning,

Thou dost float and run;

Like an unbodied joy whose race is just begun.

The pale purple even

Melts around thy flight;

Like a star of Heaven,

In the broad day-light

Thou art unseen, but yet I hear thy shrill delight,

Keen as are the arrows

Of that silver sphere,

Whose intense lamp narrows

In the white dawn clear

Until we hardly see, we feel that it is there.

All the earth and air

With thy voice is loud,

As, when night is bare,

From one lonely cloud

The moon rains out her beams, and Heaven is overflow'd.

What thou art we know not;

What is most like thee?

From rainbow clouds there flow not

Drops so bright to see

As from thy presence showers a rain of melody.

Like a Poet hidden

In the light of thought,

Singing hymns unbidden,

Till the world is wrought

To sympathy with hopes and fears it heeded not:

Like a high-born maiden

In a palace-tower,

Soothing her love-laden

Soul in secret hour

With music sweet as love, which overflows her bower:

Like a glow-worm golden

In a dell of dew,

Scattering unbeholden

Its aëreal hue

Among the flowers and grass, which screen it from the view:

Like a rose embower'd

In its own green leaves,

By warm winds deflower'd,

Till the scent it gives

Makes faint with too much sweet those heavy-winged thieves:

Sound of vernal showers

On the twinkling grass,

Rain-awaken'd flowers,

All that ever was

Joyous, and clear, and fresh, thy music doth surpass.

Teach us, Sprite or Bird,

What sweet thoughts are thine:

I have never heard

Praise