Walter Savage Landor Poems

A collection of select Walter Savage Landor famous poems that were written by Walter Savage Landor or written about the poet by other famous poets. PoetrySoup is a comprehensive educational resource of the greatest poems and poets on history.

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The Evening Star

by Walter Savage Landor
 Smiles soon abate; the boisterous throes 
Of anger long burst forth; 
Inconstantly the south-wind blows, 
But steadily the north. 

Thy star, O Venus! often changes 
Its radiant seat above, 
The chilling pole-star never ranges -- 
'Tis thus with Hate and Love....Read more of this...

To Age

by Walter Savage Landor
 Welcome, old friend! These many years 
Have we lived door by door; 
The fates have laid aside their shears 
Perhaps for some few more. 

I was indocile at an age 
When better boys were taught, 
But thou at length hast made me sage, 
If I am sage in aught. 

Little I know from other men, 
Too little they know...Read more of this...

Verse

by Walter Savage Landor
 Past ruined Ilion Helen lives,
Alcestis rises from the shades.
Verse calls them forth; 'tis verse that gives
Immortal youth to mortal maids.

Soon shall oblivion's deepening veil
Hide all the peopled hills you see,
The gay, the proud, while lovers hail
These many summers you and me....Read more of this...

Finis

by Walter Savage Landor
 Now it's over, and now it's done; 
Why does everything look the same? 
Just as bright, the unheeding sun, -- 
Can't it see that the parting came? 
People hurry and work and swear, 
Laugh and grumble and die and wed, 
Ponder what they will eat and wear, -- 
Don't they know that our love is dead? 

Just as busy,...Read more of this...

Late Leaves

by Walter Savage Landor
 THE leaves are falling; so am I; 
The few late flowers have moisture in the eye; 
 So have I too. 
Scarcely on any bough is heard 
Joyous, or even unjoyous, bird 
 The whole wood through. 

Winter may come: he brings but nigher 
His circle (yearly narrowing) to the fire 
 Where old friends meet. 
Let him; now...Read more of this...

Who Ever Felt as I?

by Walter Savage Landor
 Mother, I cannot mind my wheel;
My fingers ache, my lips are dry:
Oh! if you felt the pain I feel!
But oh, who ever felt as I?

No longer could I doubt him true;
All other men may use deceit:
He always said my eyes were blue,
And often swore my lips were sweet....Read more of this...

Mild is the Parting Year

by Walter Savage Landor
 Mild is the parting year, and sweet 
The odour of the falling spray; 
Life passes on more rudely fleet, 
And balmless is its closing day. 

I wait its close, I court its gloom, 
But mourn that never must there fall 
Or on my breast or on my tomb 
The tear that would have soothed it all....Read more of this...

Corinna from Athens to Tanagra

by Walter Savage Landor
 Tanagra! think not I forget
Thy beautifully-storey’d streets;
Be sure my memory bathes yet
In clear Thermodon, and yet greets
The blythe and liberal shepherd boy,
Whose sunny bosom swells with joy
When we accept his matted rushes
Upheaved with sylvan fruit; away he bounds, and blushes.

I promise to bring back with me
What thou with transport wilt receive,
The only proper gift for thee,
Of which no mortal...Read more of this...

Finis

by Walter Savage Landor
 I STROVE with none, for none was worth my strife. 
Nature I loved and, next to Nature, Art: 
I warm'd both hands before the fire of life; 
It sinks, and I am ready to depart....Read more of this...

Very True the Linnets Sing

by Walter Savage Landor
 Very true, the linnets sing 
Sweetest in the leaves of spring: 
You have found in all these leaves 
That which changes and deceives, 
And, to pine by sun or star, 
Left them, false ones as they are. 
But there be who walk beside 
Autumn's, till they all have died, 
And who lend a patient ear 
To low notes from...Read more of this...

Well I Remember How You Smiled

by Walter Savage Landor
 Well I remember how you smiled
To see me write your name upon
The soft sea-sand . . . "O! what a child!
You think you're writing upon stone!"

I have since written what no tide
Shall ever wash away, what men
Unborn shall read o'er ocean wide
And find Ianthe's name again....Read more of this...

God Scatters Beauty

by Walter Savage Landor
 God scatters beauty as he scatters flowers 
O'er the wide earth, and tells us all are ours. 
A hundred lights in every temple burn, 
And at each shrine I bend my knee in turn....Read more of this...

In spring and summer winds may blow

by Walter Savage Landor
 In spring and summer winds may blow,
And rains fall after, hard and fast;
The tender leaves, if beaten low,
Shine but the more for shower and blast

But when their fated hour arrives,
When reapers long have left the field,
When maidens rifle turn'd-up hives,
And their last juice fresh apples yield,

A leaf perhaps may still remain
Upon some solitary tree,
Spite of the wind and of...Read more of this...

Why Why Repine

by Walter Savage Landor
 Why, why repine, my pensive friend, 
At pleasures slipp'd away? 
Some the stern Fates will never lend, 
And all refuse to stay. 

I see the rainbow in the sky, 
The dew upon the grass, 
I see them, and I ask not why 
They glimmer or they pass. 

With folded arms I linger not 
To call them back; 'twere vain;...Read more of this...

Ianthe

by Walter Savage Landor
 From you, Ianthe, little troubles pass
Like little ripples down a sunny river;
Your pleasures spring like daisies in the grass,
Cut down, and up again as blithe as ever....Read more of this...

To Zo?

by Walter Savage Landor
 Against the groaning mast I stand, 
The Atlantic surges swell, 
To bear me from my native land 
And Zo?'s wild farewell. 

From billow upon billow hurl'd 
I can yet hear her say, 
`And is there nothing in the world 
Worth one short hour's delay?' 

`Alas, my Zo?! were it thus, 
I should not sail alone, 
Nor seas nor fates...Read more of this...

Dying Speech of an Old Philosopher

by Walter Savage Landor
 I strove with none, for none was worth my strife:
Nature I loved, and, next to Nature, Art:
I warm'd both hands before the fire of Life;
It sinks; and I am ready to depart....Read more of this...

Alciphron and Leucippe

by Walter Savage Landor
 An ancient chestnut’s blossoms threw
Their heavy odour over two:
Leucippe, it is said, was one;
The other, then, was Alciphron.
‘Come, come! why should we stand beneath?’
This hollow tree’s unwholesome breath?’
Said Alciphron, ‘here’s not a blade
Of grass or moss, and scanty shade.
Come; it is just the hour to rove
In the lone dingle shepherds love;
There, straight and tall, the hazel twig
Divides the crook?ed...Read more of this...

On His Seventy-fifth Birthday

by Walter Savage Landor
 I strove with none, for none was worth my strife;
Nature I loved, and next to Nature, Art;
I warmed both hands before the fire of Life;
It sinks, and I am ready to depart....Read more of this...

One Lovely Name

by Walter Savage Landor
 One lovely name adorns my song, 
And, dwelling in the heart, 
Forever falters at the tongue, 
And trembles to depart....Read more of this...

The Chrysolites and Rubies Bacchus Brings

by Walter Savage Landor
 The chrysolites and rubies Bacchus brings 
To crown the feast where swells the broad-vein'd brow, 
Where maidens blush at what the minstrel sings, 
They who have coveted may covet now. 

Bring me, in cool alcove, the grape uncrush'd, 
The peach of pulpy cheek and down mature, 
Where every voice (but bird's or child's) is hush'd, 
And every thought, like...Read more of this...

Of Clementina

by Walter Savage Landor
 In Clementina’s artless mien
Lucilla asks me what I see,
And are the roses of sixteen
Enough for me?

Lucilla asks, if that be all,
Have I not cull’d as sweet before:
Ah yes, Lucilla! and their fall
I still deplore.

I now behold another scene,
Where Pleasure beams with Heaven’s own light,
More pure, more constant, more serene,
And not less bright.

Faith, on whose breast the Loves repose,
Whose chain...Read more of this...

Walter Savage Landor

by Dorothy Parker
 Upon the work of Walter Landor
I am unfit to write with candor.
If you can read it, well and good;
But as for me, I never could....Read more of this...

Resignation

by Walter Savage Landor
 WHY, why repine, my pensive friend, 
 At pleasures slipp'd away? 
Some the stern Fates will never lend, 
 And all refuse to stay. 

I see the rainbow in the sky, 
 The dew upon the grass; 
I see them, and I ask not why 
 They glimmer or they pass. 

With folded arms I linger not 
 To...Read more of this...

Autumn

by Walter Savage Landor
 Whoever has no house now will never have one.
 Whoever is alone will stay alone
 Will sit, read, write long letters through the evening
 And wander on the boulevards, up and down...

 - from Autumn Day, Rainer Maria Rilke


Its stain is everywhere.
The sharpening air
of late afternoon
is now the colour of tea.
Once-glycerined green leaves
burned by a summer sun
are brittle and...Read more of this...

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