poems collected

Robert Browning

I

TRUTH is within ourselves; it takes no rise  
From outward things, whate’er you may believe.  
There is an inmost centre in us all,  
Where truth abides in fullness; and around,  
Wall upon wall, the gross flesh hems it in,          
This perfect, clear perception—which is truth.  
A baffling and perverting carnal mesh  
Binds it, and makes all error: and, to KNOW,  
Rather consists in opening out a way  
Whence the imprisoned splendour may escape,        
Than in effecting entry for a light  
Supposed to be without.  
 
II

I knew, I felt, (perception unexpressed,  
Uncomprehended by our narrow thought,  
But somehow felt and known in every shift        
And change in the spirit,—nay, in every pore  
Of the body, even,)—what God is, what we are  
What life is—how God tastes an infinite joy  
In infinite ways—one everlasting bliss,  
From whom all being emanates, all power        
Proceeds; in whom is life for evermore,  
Yet whom existence in its lowest form  
Includes; where dwells enjoyment there is he:  
With still a flying point of bliss remote,  
A happiness in store afar, a sphere        
Of distant glory in full view; thus climbs  
Pleasure its heights for ever and for ever.  
The centre-fire heaves underneath the earth,  
And the earth changes like a human face;  
The molten ore bursts up among the rocks,        
Winds into the stone’s heart, outbranches bright  
In hidden mines, spots barren river-beds,  
Crumbles into fine sand where sunbeams bask—  
God joys therein! The wroth sea’s waves are edged  
With foam, white as the bitten lip of hate,        
When, in the solitary waste, strange groups  
Of young volcanos come up, cyclops-like,  
Staring together with their eyes on flame—  
God tastes a pleasure in their uncouth pride.  
Then all is still; earth is a wintry clod:        
But spring-wind, like a dancing psaltress, passes  
Over its breast to waken it, rare verdure  
Buds tenderly upon rough banks, between  
The withered tree-roots and the cracks of frost,  
Like a smile striving with a wrinkled face;        
The grass grows bright, the boughs are swoln with blooms  
Like chrysalids impatient for the air,  
The shining dorrs are busy, beetles run  
Along the furrows, ants make their ade;  
Above, birds fly in merry flocks, the lark        
Soars up and up, shivering for very joy;  
Afar the ocean sleeps; white fishing-gulls  
Flit where the strand is purple with its tribe  
Of nested limpets; savage creatures seek  
Their loves in wood and plain—and God renews        
His ancient rapture. Thus He dwells in all,  
From life’s minute beginnings, up at last  
To man—the consummation of this scheme  
Of being, the completion of this sphere  
Of life: whose attributes had here and there        
Been scattered o’er the visible world before,  
Asking to be combined, dim fragments meant  
To be united in some wondrous whole,  
Imperfect qualities throughout creation,  
Suggesting some one creature yet to make,        
Some point where all those scattered rays should meet  
Convergent in the faculties of man.

John Keats

When I have fears that I may cease to be
   Before my pen has glean'd my teeming brain,
Before high-piled books, in charactery,
   Hold like rich garners the full ripen'd grain;
When I behold, upon the night's starr'd face,
   Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance,
And think that I may never live to trace
   Their shadows, with the magic hand of chance;
And when I feel, fair creature of an hour,
   That I shall never look upon thee more,
Never have relish in the faery power
   Of unreflecting love;--then on the shore
Of the wide world I stand alone, and think
Till love and fame to nothingness do sink.

Adam Zagajewski

Don't allow the lucid moment to dissolve
Let the radiant thought last in stillness
though the page is almost filled and the flame flickers
We haven't risen yet to the level of ourselves
Knowledge grows slowly like a wisdom tooth
The stature of a man is still notched
high up on a white door
From far off, the joyful voice of a trumpet
and of a song rolled up like a cat
What passes doesn't fall into a void
A stoker is still feeding coal into the fire
Don't allow the lucid moment to dissolve
On a hard dry substance
you have to engrave the truth