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Best Famous Palestine Poems

Here is a collection of the all-time best famous Palestine poems. This is a select list of the best famous Palestine poetry. Reading, writing, and enjoying famous Palestine poetry (as well as classical and contemporary poems) is a great past time. These top poems are the best examples of palestine poems.

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Written by Wallace Stevens | Create an image from this poem

Sunday Morning

1
Complacencies of the peignoir, and late
Coffee and oranges in a sunny chair,
And the green freedom of a cockatoo
Upon a rug mingle to dissipate
The holy hush of ancient sacrifice.
She dreams a little, and she feels the dark
Encroachment of that old catastrophe,
As a calm darkens among water-lights.
The pungent oranges and bright, green wings
Seem things in some procession of the dead,
Winding across wide water, without sound.
The day is like wide water, without sound,
Stilled for the passion of her dreaming feet
Over the seas, to silent Palestine,
Dominion of the blood and sepulchre.

2
Why should she give her bounty to the dead?
What is divinity if it can come
Only in silent shadows and in dreams?
Shall she not find in the comforts of sun,
In pungent fruit and bright, green wings, or else
In any balm or beauty of the earth,
Things to be cherished like the thought of heaven?
Divinity must live within herself:
Passions of rain, or moods in falling snow;
Grievings in loneliness, or unsubdued
Elations when the forest blooms; gusty
Emotions on wet roads on autumn nights;
All pleasures and all pains, remembering
The bough of summer and the winter branch.
These are the measures destined for her soul.

3
Jove in the clouds had his inhuman birth.
No mother suckled him, no sweet land gave
Large-mannered motions to his mythy mind
He moved among us, as a muttering king,
Magnificent, would move among his hinds,
Until our blood, commingling, virginal,
With heaven, brought such requital to desire
The very hinds discerned it, in a star.
Shall our blood fail? Or shall it come to be
The blood of paradise? And shall the earth
Seem all of paradise that we shall know?
The sky will be much friendlier then than now,
A part of labor and a part of pain,
And next in glory to enduring love,
Not this dividing and indifferent blue.

4
She says, "I am content when wakened birds,
Before they fly, test the reality
Of misty fields, by their sweet questionings;
But when the birds are gone, and their warm fields
Return no more, where, then, is paradise?"
There is not any haunt of prophecy,
Nor any old chimera of the grave,
Neither the golden underground, nor isle
Melodious, where spirits gat them home,
Nor visionary south, nor cloudy palm
Remote as heaven's hill, that has endured
As April's green endures; or will endure
Like her rememberance of awakened birds,
Or her desire for June and evening, tipped
By the consummation of the swallow's wings.

5
She says, "But in contentment I still feel
The need of some imperishable bliss."
Death is the mother of beauty; hence from her,
Alone, shall come fulfillment to our dreams
And our desires. Although she strews the leaves
Of sure obliteration on our paths,
The path sick sorrow took, the many paths
Where triumph rang its brassy phrase, or love
Whispered a little out of tenderness,
She makes the willow shiver in the sun
For maidens who were wont to sit and gaze
Upon the grass, relinquished to their feet.
She causes boys to pile new plums and pears
On disregarded plate. The maidens taste
And stray impassioned in the littering leaves.

6
Is there no change of death in paradise?
Does ripe fruit never fall? Or do the boughs
Hang always heavy in that perfect sky,
Unchanging, yet so like our perishing earth,
With rivers like our own that seek for seas
They never find, the same receeding shores
That never touch with inarticulate pang?
Why set the pear upon those river-banks
Or spice the shores with odors of the plum?
Alas, that they should wear our colors there,
The silken weavings of our afternoons,
And pick the strings of our insipid lutes!
Death is the mother of beauty, mystical,
Within whose burning bosom we devise
Our earthly mothers waiting, sleeplessly.

7
Supple and turbulent, a ring of men
Shall chant in orgy on a summer morn
Their boisterous devotion to the sun,
Not as a god, but as a god might be,
Naked among them, like a savage source.
Their chant shall be a chant of paradise,
Out of their blood, returning to the sky;
And in their chant shall enter, voice by voice,
The windy lake wherein their lord delights,
The trees, like serafin, and echoing hills,
That choir among themselves long afterward.
They shall know well the heavenly fellowship
Of men that perish and of summer morn.
And whence they came and whither they shall go
The dew upon their feet shall manifest.

8
She hears, upon that water without sound,
A voice that cries, "The tomb in Palestine
Is not the porch of spirits lingering.
It is the grave of Jesus, where he lay."
We live in an old chaos of the sun,
Or old dependency of day and night,
Or island solitude, unsponsered, free,
Of that wide water, inescapable.
Deer walk upon our mountains, and the quail
Whistle about us their spontaneous cries;
Sweet berries ripen in the wilderness;
And, in the isolation of the sky,
At evening, casual flocks of pigeons make
Abiguous undulations as they sink,
Downward to darkness, on extended wings.


Written by John Betjeman | Create an image from this poem

Christmas

 The bells of waiting Advent ring,
The Tortoise stove is lit again
And lamp-oil light across the night
Has caught the streaks of winter rain
In many a stained-glass window sheen
From Crimson Lake to Hookers Green.

The holly in the windy hedge
And round the Manor House the yew
Will soon be stripped to deck the ledge,
The altar, font and arch and pew,
So that the villagers can say
'The church looks nice' on Christmas Day.

Provincial Public Houses blaze,
Corporation tramcars clang,
On lighted tenements I gaze,
Where paper decorations hang,
And bunting in the red Town Hall
Says 'Merry Christmas to you all'.

And London shops on Christmas Eve
Are strung with silver bells and flowers
As hurrying clerks the City leave
To pigeon-haunted classic towers,
And marbled clouds go scudding by
The many-steepled London sky.

And girls in slacks remember Dad,
And oafish louts remember Mum,
And sleepless children's hearts are glad.
And Christmas-morning bells say 'Come!'
Even to shining ones who dwell
Safe in the Dorchester Hotel.

And is it true,
This most tremendous tale of all,
Seen in a stained-glass window's hue,
A Baby in an ox's stall ?
The Maker of the stars and sea
Become a Child on earth for me ?

And is it true ? For if it is,
No loving fingers tying strings
Around those tissued fripperies,
The sweet and silly Christmas things,
Bath salts and inexpensive scent
And hideous tie so kindly meant,

No love that in a family dwells,
No carolling in frosty air,
Nor all the steeple-shaking bells
Can with this single Truth compare -
That God was man in Palestine
And lives today in Bread and Wine.
Written by Alice Walker | Create an image from this poem

When Golda Meir was in Africa

When Golda Meir
Was in Africa
She shook out her hair
And combed it
Everywhere she went.


According to her autobiography
Africans loved this.


In Russia, Minneapolis, London, Washington, D.C.,
Germany, Palestine, Tel Aviv and
Jerusalem
She never combed at all.
There was no point. In those
Places people said, "She looks like
Any other aging grandmother. She looks
Like a troll. Let's sell her cookery
And guns."


"Kreplach your cookery," said Golda.


Only in Africa could she finally
Settle down and comb her hair.
The children crept up and stroked it,
And she felt beautiful.


Such wonderful people, Africans
Childish, arrogant, self-indulgent, pompous,
Cowardly and treacherous-a great disappointment
To Israel, of course, and really rather
Ridiculous in international affairs
But, withal, opined Golda, a people of charm
And good taste. 
Written by John Masefield | Create an image from this poem

Cargoes

 QUINQUIREME of Nineveh from distant Ophir, 
Rowing home to haven in sunny Palestine, 
With a cargo of ivory, 
And apes and peacocks, 
Sandalwood, cedarwood, and sweet white wine. 

Stately Spanish galleon coming from the Isthmus, 
Dipping through the Tropics by the palm-green shores, 
With a cargo of diamonds, 
Emeralds, amythysts, 
Topazes, and cinnamon, and gold moidores. 

Dirty British coaster with a salt-caked smoke stack, 
Butting through the Channel in the mad March days, 
With a cargo of Tyne coal, 
Road-rails, pig-lead, 
Firewood, iron-ware, and cheap tin trays.
Written by John Milton | Create an image from this poem

The Hymn

 I

It was the Winter wilde,
While the Heav'n-born-childe, 
All meanly wrapt in the rude manger lies;
Nature in aw to him
Had doff't her gawdy trim,
With her great Master so to sympathize:
It was no season then for her
To wanton with the Sun her lusty Paramour.

II

Only with speeches fair
She woo'd the gentle Air
To hide her guilty front with innocent Snow,
And on her naked shame, 
Pollute with sinfull blame,
The Saintly Vail of Maiden white to throw,
Confounded, that her Makers eyes
Should look so near upon her foul deformities.

III

But he her fears to cease,
Sent down the meek-eyd Peace,
She crown'd with Olive green, came softly sliding
Down through the turning sphear
His ready Harbinger,
With Turtle wing the amorous clouds dividing, 
And waving wide her mirtle wand,
She strikes a universall Peace through Sea and Land.

IV

No War, or Battails sound
Was heard the World around,
The idle spear and shield were high up hung;
The hooked Chariot stood
Unstain'd with hostile blood,
The Trumpet spake not to the armed throng,
And Kings sate still with awfull eye,
As if they surely knew their sovran Lord was by. 

V

But peacefull was the night
Wherin the Prince of light
His raign of peace upon the earth began:
The Windes with wonder whist,
Smoothly the waters kist,
Whispering new joyes to the milde Ocean,
Who now hath quite forgot to rave,
While Birds of Calm sit brooding on the charmed wave.

VI

The Stars with deep amaze
Stand fit in steadfast gaze, 
Bending one way their pretious influence,
And will not take their flight,
For all the morning light,
Or Lucifer that often warned them thence;
But in their glimmering Orbs did glow,
Until their Lord himself bespake, and bid them go.

VII

And though the shady gloom
Had given day her room,
The Sun himself with-held his wonted speed,
And hid his head for shame, 
As his inferior flame,
The new enlightened world no more should need;
He saw a greater Sun appear
Then his bright Throne, or burning Axletree could bear.

VIII

The Shepherds on the Lawn,
Or ere the point of dawn,
Sate simply chatting in a rustic row;
Full little thought they than,
That the mighty Pan
Was kindly com to live with them below; 
Perhaps their loves, or els their sheep,
Was all that did their silly thoughts so busie keep.

IX

When such Musick sweet
Their hearts and ears did greet,
As never was by mortal finger strook,
Divinely-warbled voice
Answering the stringed noise,
As all their souls in blisfull rapture took:
The Air such pleasure loth to lose,
With thousand echo's still prolongs each heav'nly close. 

X

Nature that heard such sound
Beneath the hollow round
of Cynthia's seat the Airy region thrilling,
Now was almost won
To think her part was don
And that her raign had here its last fulfilling;
She knew such harmony alone
Could hold all Heav'n and Earth in happier union.

XI

At last surrounds their sight
A globe of circular light, 
That with long beams the shame faced night arrayed
The helmed Cherubim
And sworded Seraphim,
Are seen in glittering ranks with wings displaid,
Harping in loud and solemn quire,
With unexpressive notes to Heav'ns new-born Heir.

XII

Such Musick (as 'tis said)
Before was never made,
But when of old the sons of morning sung,
While the Creator Great
His constellations set, 
And the well-ballanc't world on hinges hung,
And cast the dark foundations deep,
And bid the weltring waves their oozy channel keep.

XIII

Ring out ye Crystall sphears,
Once bless our human ears,
(If ye have power to touch our senses so)
And let your silver chime
Move in melodious time;
And let the Base of Heav'ns deep Organ blow, 
And with your ninefold harmony
Make up full consort to th'Angelike symphony.

XIV

For if such holy Song
Enwrap our fancy long,
Time will run back, and fetch the age of gold,
And speckl'd vanity
Will sicken soon and die,
And leprous sin will melt from earthly mould,
And Hell it self will pass away
And leave her dolorous mansions to the peering day. 

XV

Yea Truth, and Justice then
Will down return to men,
Th'enameld Arras of the Rain-bow wearing,
And Mercy set between
Thron'd in Celestiall sheen,
With radiant feet the tissued clouds down stearing,
And Heav'n as at som festivall,
Will open wide the gates of her high Palace Hall.

XVI

But wisest Fate sayes no,
This must not yet be so, 
The Babe lies yet in smiling Infancy,
That on the bitter cross
Must redeem our loss;
So both himself and us to glorifie:
Yet first to those ychain'd in sleep,
The Wakeful trump of doom must thunder through the deep,

XVII

With such a horrid clang
As on Mount Sinai rang
While the red fire, and smouldring clouds out brake:
The aged Earth agast 
With terrour of that blast,
Shall from the surface to the center shake;
When at the worlds last session,
The dreadfull Judge in middle Air shall spread his throne.

XVIII

And then at last our bliss
Full and perfect is,
But now begins; for from this happy day
Th'old Dragon under ground
In straiter limits bound,
Not half so far casts his usurped sway, 
And wrath to see his Kingdom fail,
Swindges the scaly Horrour of his foulded tail.

XIX

The Oracles are dumm,
No voice or hideous humm
Runs through the arched roof in words deceiving.
Apollo from his shrine
Can no more divine,
With hollow shreik the steep of Delphos leaving.
No nightly trance, or breathed spell,
Inspire's the pale-ey'd Priest from the prophetic cell. 

XX

The lonely mountains o're,
And the resounding shore,
A voice of weeping heard, and loud lament;
From haunted spring, and dale
Edg'd with poplar pale
The parting Genius is with sighing sent,
With flowre-inwov'n tresses torn
The Nimphs in twilight shade of tangled thickets mourn.

XXI

In consecrated Earth,
And on the holy Hearth, 
The Lars, and Lemures moan with midnight plaint,
In Urns, and Altars round,
A drear, and dying sound
Affrights the Flamins at their service quaint;
And the chill Marble seems to sweat,
While each peculiar power forgoes his wonted seat.

XXII

Peor, and Baalim,
Forsake their Temples dim,
With that twise-batter'd god of Palestine,
And mooned Ashtaroth, 
Heav'ns Queen and Mother both,
Now sits not girt with Tapers holy shine,
The Libyc Hammon shrinks his horn,
In vain the Tyrian Maids their wounded Thamuz mourn.

XXIII

And sullen Moloch fled,
Hath left in shadows dred,
His burning Idol all of blackest hue,
In vain with Cymbals ring,
They call the grisly king,
In dismall dance about the furnace Blue; 
And Brutish gods of Nile as fast,
lsis and Orus, and the Dog Anubis hast.


Written by Kahlil Gibran | Create an image from this poem

Song of Man XXV

 I was here from the moment of the 
Beginning, and here I am still. And 
I shall remain here until the end 
Of the world, for there is no 
Ending to my grief-stricken being. 


I roamed the infinite sky, and 
Soared in the ideal world, and 
Floated through the firmament. But 
Here I am, prisoner of measurement. 


I heard the teachings of Confucius; 
I listened to Brahma's wisdom; 
I sat by Buddha under the Tree of Knowledge. 
Yet here I am, existing with ignorance 
And heresy. 


I was on Sinai when Jehovah approached Moses; 
I saw the Nazarene's miracles at the Jordan; 
I was in Medina when Mohammed visited. 
Yet I here I am, prisoner of bewilderment. 


Then I witnessed the might of Babylon; 
I learned of the glory of Egypt; 
I viewed the warring greatness of Rome. 
Yet my earlier teachings showed the 
Weakness and sorrow of those achievements. 


I conversed with the magicians of Ain Dour; 
I debated with the priests of Assyria; 
I gleaned depth from the prophets of Palestine. 
Yet, I am still seeking truth. 


I gathered wisdom from quiet India; 
I probed the antiquity of Arabia; 
I heard all that can be heard. 
Yet, my heart is deaf and blind. 


I suffered at the hands of despotic rulers; 
I suffered slavery under insane invaders; 
I suffered hunger imposed by tyranny; 
Yet, I still possess some inner power 
With which I struggle to great each day. 


My mind is filled, but my heart is empty; 
My body is old, but my heart is an infant. 
Perhaps in youth my heart will grow, but I 
Pray to grow old and reach the moment of 
My return to God. Only then will my heart fill! 


I was here from the moment of the 
Beginning, and here I am still. And 
I shall remain here until the end 
Of of world, for there is no 
Ending to my grief-stricken being.
Written by Mahmoud Darwish | Create an image from this poem

A Lover From Palestine

 Her eyes are Palestinian
Her name is Palestinian
Her dress and sorrow Palestinian
Her kerchief, her feet and body Palestinian
Her words and silence Palestinian
Her voice Palestinian
Her birth and her death Palestinian
Written by Sir Walter Scott | Create an image from this poem

It Was an English Ladye Bright

 It was an English ladye bright,
(The sun shines fair on Carlisle wall,)
And she would marry a Scottish knight,
For Love will still be lord of all.

Blithely they saw the rising sun
When he shone fair on Carlisle wall;
But they were sad ere day was done,
Though Love was still the lord of all.

Her sire gave brooch and jewel fine,
Where the sun shines fair on Carlisle wall; 
Her brother gave but a flask of wine,
For ire that Love was lord of all.

For she had lands both meadow and lea,
Where the sun shines fair on Carlisle wall,
And he swore her death, ere he would see
A Scottish knight the lord of all.

That wine she had not tasted well
(The sun shines fair on Carlisle wall,)
When dead, in her true love's arms, she fell,
For Love was still the lord of all!

He pierced her brother to the heart,
Where the sun shines fair on Carlisle wall:--
So perish all would true love part
That Love may still be lord of all!

And then he took the cross divine,
Where the sun shines fair on Carlisle wall,
And died for her sake in Palestine;
So Love was still the lord of all.

Now all ye lovers, that faithful prove,
(The sun shines fair on Carlisle wall,)
Pray for their souls who died for love,
For Love shall still be lord of all!
Written by John Milton | Create an image from this poem

Hymn on the Morning of Christs Nativity

 IT was the Winter wilde, 
While the Heav'n-born-childe, 
 All meanly wrapt in the rude manger lies; 
Nature in aw to him 
Had doff't her gawdy trim, 
 With her great Master so to sympathize: 
It was no season then for her 
To wanton with the Sun her lusty Paramour. 

Only with speeches fair 
She woo's the gentle Air 
 To hide her guilty front with innocent Snow, 
And on her naked shame, 
Pollute with sinfull blame, 
 The Saintly Vail of Maiden white to throw, 
Confounded, that her Makers eyes 
Should look so neer upon her foul deformities. 

But he her fears to cease, 
Sent down the meek-eyd Peace, 
 She crown'd with Olive green, came softly sliding 
Down through the turning sphear 
His ready Harbinger, 
 With Turtle wing the amorous clouds dividing, 
And waving wide her mirtle wand, 
She strikes a universall Peace through Sea and Land. 

No War, or Battails sound 
Was heard the World around, 
 The idle spear and shield were high up hung; 
The hooked Chariot stood 
Unstain'd with hostile blood, 
 The Trumpet spake not to the armed throng, 
And Kings sate still with awfull eye, 
As if they surely knew their sovran Lord was by. 

But peacefull was the night 
Wherin the Prince of light 
 His raign of peace upon the earth began: 
The Windes with wonder whist, 
Smoothly the waters kist, 
 Whispering new joyes to the milde Ocean, 
Who now hath quite forgot to rave, 
While Birds of Calm sit brooding on the charmeed wave. 

The Stars with deep amaze 
Stand fixt in stedfast gaze, 
 Bending one way their pretious influence, 
And will not take their flight, 
For all the morning light, 
 Or Lucifer that often warn'd them thence; 
But in their glimmering Orbs did glow, 
Untill their Lord himself bespake, and bid them go. 

And though the shady gloom 
Had given day her room, 
 The Sun himself with-held his wonted speed, 
And hid his head for shame, 
As his inferiour flame, 
 The new enlightn'd world no more should need; 
He saw a greater Sun appear 
Then his bright Throne, or burning Axletree could bear. 

The Shepherds on the Lawn, 
Or ere the point of dawn, 
 Sate simply chatting in a rustick row; 
Full little thought they than, 
That the mighty Pan 
 Was kindly com to live with them below; 
Perhaps their loves, or els their sheep, 
Was all that did their silly thoughts so busie keep. 

When such musick sweet 
Their hearts and ears did greet, 
 As never was by mortall finger strook, 
Divinely-warbled voice 
Answering the stringed noise, 
 As all their souls in blisfull rapture took 
The Air such pleasure loth to lose, 
With thousand echo's still prolongs each heav'nly close. 

Nature that heard such sound 
Beneath the hollow round 
 Of Cynthia's seat, the Airy region thrilling, 
Now was almost won 
To think her part was don, 
 And that her raign had here its last fulfilling; 
She knew such harmony alone 
Could hold all Heav'n and Earth in happier union. 

At last surrounds their sight 
A Globe of circular light, 
 That with long beams the shame-fac't night array'd, 
The helmed Cherubim 
And sworded Seraphim, 
 Are seen in glittering ranks with wings displaid, 
Harping in loud and solemn quire, 
With unexpressive notes to Heav'ns new-born Heir. 

Such musick (as 'tis said) 
Before was never made, 
 But when of old the sons of morning sung, 
While the Creator Great 
His constellations set, 
 And the well-ballanc't world on hinges hung, 
And cast the dark foundations deep, 
And bid the weltring waves their oozy channel keep. 

Ring out ye Crystall sphears, 
Once bless our human ears, 
 (If ye have power to touch our senses so) 
And let your silver chime 
Move in melodious time; 
 And let the Base of Heav'ns deep Organ blow 
And with your ninefold harmony 
Make up full consort to th'Angelike symphony. 

For if such holy Song 
Enwrap our fancy long, 
 Time will run back, and fetch the age of gold, 
And speckl'd vanity 
Will sicken soon and die, 
 And leprous sin will melt from earthly mould, 
And Hell it self will pass away, 
And leave her dolorous mansions to the peering day. 

Yea Truth, and Justice then 
Will down return to men, 
 Th'enameld Arras of the Rain-bow wearing, 
And Mercy set between, 
Thron'd in Celestiall sheen, 
 With radiant feet the tissued clouds down stearing, 
And Heav'n as at som festivall, 
Will open wide the Gates of her high Palace Hall. 

But wisest Fate sayes no, 
This must not yet be so, 
 The Babe lies yet in smiling Infancy, 
That on the bitter cross 
Must redeem our loss; 
 So both himself and us to glorifie: 
Yet first to those ychain'd in sleep, 
The wakefull trump of doom must thunder through the deep, 

With such a horrid clang 
As on mount Sinai rang 
 While the red fire, and smouldring clouds out brake: 
The aged Earth agast 
With terrour of that blast, 
 Shall from the surface to the center shake; 
When at the worlds last session, 
The dreadfull Judge in middle Air shall spread his throne. 

And then at last our bliss 
Full and perfect is, 
 But now begins; for from this happy day 
Th'old Dragon under ground 
In straiter limits bound, 
 Not half so far casts his usurped sway, 
And wrath to see his Kingdom fail, 
Swindges the scaly Horrour of his foulded tail. 

The Oracles are dumm, 
No voice or hideous humm 
 Runs through the arched roof in words deceiving. 
Apollo from his shrine 
Can no more divine, 
 With hollow shreik the steep of Delphos leaving. 
No nightly trance, or breathed spell, 
Inspire's the pale-ey'd Priest from the prophetic cell. 

The lonely mountains o're, 
And the resounding shore, 
 A voice of weeping heard, and loud lament; 
From haunted spring, and dale 
Edg'd with poplar pale, 
 The parting Genius is with sighing sent, 
With flowre-inwov'n tresses torn 
The Nimphs in twilight shade of tangled thickets mourn. 

In consecrated Earth, 
And on the holy Hearth, 
 The Lars, and Lemures moan with midnight plaint, 
In Urns, and Altars round, 
A drear, and dying sound 
 Affrights the Flamins at their service quaint; 
And the chill Marble seems to sweat, 
While each peculiar power forgoes his wonted seat 

Peor, and Baalim, 
Forsake their Temples dim, 
 With that twise-batter'd god of Palestine, 
And mooned Ashtaroth, 
Heav'ns Queen and Mother both, 
 Now sits not girt with Tapers holy shine, 
The Libyc Hammon shrinks his horn, 
In vain the Tyrian Maids their wounded Thamuz mourn. 

And sullen Moloch fled, 
Hath left in shadows dred, 
 His burning Idol all of blackest hue, 
In vain with Cymbals ring, 
They call the grisly king, 
 In dismall dance about the furnace blue; 
The brutish gods of Nile as fast, 
Isis and Orus, and the Dog Anubis hast. 

Nor is Osiris seen 
In Memphian Grove, or Green, 
 Trampling the unshowr'd Grasse with lowings loud: 
Nor can he be at rest 
Within his sacred chest, 
 Naught but profoundest Hell can be his shroud, 
In vain with Timbrel'd Anthems dark 
The sable-stoled Sorcerers bear his worshipt Ark. 

He feels from Juda's Land 
The dredded Infants hand, 
 The rayes of Bethlehem blind his dusky eyn; 
Nor all the gods beside, 
Longer dare abide, 
 Not Typhon huge ending in snaky twine: 
Our Babe to shew his Godhead true, 
Can in his swadling bands controul the damned crew. 

So when the Sun in bed, 
Curtain'd with cloudy red, 
 Pillows his chin upon an Orient wave, 
The flocking shadows pale, 
Troop to th'infernall jail, 
 Each fetter'd Ghost slips to his severall grave, 
And the yellow-skirted Fayes, 
Fly after the Night-steeds, leaving their Moon-lov'd maze. 

But see the Virgin blest, 
Hath laid her Babe to rest. 
 Time is our tedious Song should here have ending, 
Heav'ns youngest teemed Star, 
Hath fixt her polisht Car, 
 Her sleeping Lord with Handmaid Lamp attending: 
And all about the Courtly Stable, 
Bright-harnest Angels sit in order serviceable.
Written by Helen Hunt Jackson | Create an image from this poem

A Calendar of Sonnets: April

 No days such honored days as these! While yet 
Fair Aphrodite reigned, men seeking wide 
For some fair thing which should forever bide 
On earth, her beauteous memory to set 
In fitting frame that no age could forget, 
Her name in lovely April's name did hide, 
And leave it there, eternally allied 
To all the fairest flowers Spring did beget. 
And when fair Aphrodite passed from earth, 
Her shrines forgotten and her feasts of mirth, 
A holier symbol still in seal and sign, 
Sweet April took, of kingdom most divine, 
When Christ ascended, in the time of birth 
Of spring anemones, in Palestine.

Book: Radiant Verses: A Journey Through Inspiring Poetry