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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Separation

by Walter Savage Landor
 THERE is a mountain and a wood between us, 
Where the lone shepherd and late bird have seen us 
 Morning and noon and eventide repass. 
Between us now the mountain and the wood 
Seem standing darker than last year they stood, 
 And say we must not cross--alas! alas!...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...

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...

Soon O Ianthe! life is oer

by Walter Savage Landor
 Soon, O Ianthe! life is o'er,
And sooner beauty's heavenly smile:
Grant only (and I ask no more),
Let love remain that little while....Read more of this...

Lately our poets

by Walter Savage Landor
 Lately our poets loiter'd in green lanes,
Content to catch the ballads of the plains;
I fancied I had strength enough to climb
A loftier station at no distant time,
And might securely from intrusion doze
Upon the flowers thro' which Ilissus flows.
In those pale olive grounds all voices cease,
And from afar dust fills the paths of Greece.
My sluber broken and my doublet torn,
I...Read more of this...

F?sulan Idyl

by Walter Savage Landor
 Here, where precipitate Spring with one light bound
Into hot Summer's lusty arms expires;
And where go forth at morn, at eve, at night,
Soft airs, that want the lute to play with them,
And softer sighs, that know not what they want;
Under a wall, beneath an orange-tree
Whose tallest flowers could tell the lowlier ones
Of sights in Fiesole right up above,
While I was...Read more of this...

Twenty Years Hence

by Walter Savage Landor
 Twenty years hence my eyes may grow
If not quite dim, yet rather so,
Still yours from others they shall know
Twenty years hence.

Twenty years hence though it may hap
That I be called to take a nap
In a cool cell where thunderclap
Was never heard,

There breathe but o'er my arch of grass
A not too sadly sighed Alas,
And I shall catch, ere you can...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...

The Maids Lament

by Walter Savage Landor
 I loved him not; and yet, now he is gone,
I feel I am alone.
I check'd him while he spoke; yet, could he speak,
Alas! I would not check.
For reasons not to love him once I sought,
And wearied all my thought
To vex myself and him: I now would give
My love could he but live
Who lately lived for me, and, when he...Read more of this...

To Robert Browning

by Walter Savage Landor
 There is delight in singing, though none hear
Beside the singer; and there is delight
In praising, though the praiser sits alone
And see the praised far off him, far above.
Shakespeare is not our poet, but the world's,
Therefore on him no speech! and brief for thee,
Browning! Since Chaucer was alive and hale
No man hath walked along our roads with step
So active, so...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...

In Memory of Walter Savage Landor

by Algernon Charles Swinburne
 Back to the flower-town, side by side,
The bright months bring,
New-born, the bridegroom and the bride,
Freedom and spring.
The sweet land laughs from sea to sea,
Filled full of sun;
All things come back to her, being free;
All things but one.
In many a tender wheaten plot
Flowers that were dead
Live, and old suns revive; but not
That holier head.

By this white wandering waste of sea,
Far...Read more of this...

Proud Word You Never Spoke

by Walter Savage Landor
 Proud word you never spoke, but you will speak
Four not exempt from pride some future day.
Resting on one white hand a warm wet cheek,
Over my open volume you will say,
'This man loved me'—then rise and trip away....Read more of this...

You smiled you spoke and I believed

by Walter Savage Landor
 You smiled, you spoke, and I believed,
By every word and smile deceived.
Another man would hope no more;
Nor hope I what I hoped before:
But let not this last wish be vain;
Deceive, deceive me once again!...Read more of this...

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...

On Catullus

by Walter Savage Landor
 Tell me not what too well I know
About the bard of Sirmio.
Yes, in Thalia’s son
Such stains there are—as when a Grace
Sprinkles another’s laughing face
With nectar, and runs on....Read more of this...

Remain!

by Walter Savage Landor
 REMAIN, ah not in youth alone! 
 --Tho' youth, where you are, long will stay-- 
But when my summer days are gone, 
 And my autumnal haste away. 
'Can I be always by your side?' 
 No; but the hours you can, you must, 
Nor rise at Death's approaching stride, 
 Nor go when dust is gone to dust....Read more of this...

The Dragon-Fly

by Walter Savage Landor
 Life (priest and poet say) is but a dream;
I wish no happier one than to be laid
Beneath a cool syringa’s scented shade,
Or wavy willow, by the running stream,
Brimful of moral, where the dragon-fly,
Wanders as careless and content as I.

Thanks for this fancy, insect king,
Of purple crest and filmy wing,
Who with indifference givest up
The water-lily’s golden cup,
To come again and...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...

I Entreat You Alfred Tennyson

by Walter Savage Landor
 I entreat you, Alfred Tennyson, 
Come and share my haunch of venison. 
I have too a bin of claret, 
Good, but better when you share it. 
Tho' 'tis only a small bin, 
There's a stock of it within. 
And as sure as I'm a rhymer, 
Half a butt of Rudeheimer. 
Come; among the sons of men is one 
Welcomer...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...

Mother I cannot mind my Wheel

by Walter Savage Landor
 MOTHER, I cannot mind my wheel; 
 My fingers ache, my lips are dry: 
O, if you felt the pain I feel! 
 But O, 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...

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...

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...

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