Favourite Poems - Miscellaneous

Oh Captain! My Captain! - Walt Whitman

O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done;
The ship has weather'd every rack, the prize we sought is won; 
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting, 
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring: 
   But O heart! heart! heart! 
     O the bleeding drops of red, 
       Where on the deck my Captain lies, 
         Fallen cold and dead. 
 
O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells; 
Rise up - for you the flag is flung - for you the bugle trills;  
For you bouquets and ribbon'd wreaths - for you the shores a-crowding; 
For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning: 
   Here Captain! dear father! 
     This arm beneath your head; 
       It is some dream that on the deck 
         You've fallen cold and dead.
 
My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still; 
My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse oor will; 
The ship is anchor'd safe and sound, its voyage closed and done. 
From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won: 
    Exult, O shores, and ring, O bells! 
      But I, with mournful tread, 
        Walk the deck my Captain lies, 
          Fallen cold and dead. 
		  

Ozymandias - Percy Bysshe Shelly

If-- - Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you 
  Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust youself when all men doubt you,
  But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
  Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
  And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream--and not make dreams your master;
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
  And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
  Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
  And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
  And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
  And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
  To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
  Except the Will which says to them:  "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
  Or walk with kings--not lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
  If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
  With sixty seconds' worth of distance run--
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
  And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!

Richard Cory - Edwin Arlington Robinson

Whenever Richard Cory went down town,
We people on the pavement looked at him:
He was a gentleman from sole to crown,
Clean favored, and imperially slim.

And he was always quietly arrayed,
And he was always human when he talked;
But still he fluttered pulses when he said,
"Good-morning," and he glittered when he walked.

And he was rich--yes, richer than a king--
And admirably schooled in every grace:
In fine, we thought he was everything
To make us wish that we were in his place.

So on we worked, and waited for the light,
And went without the meat, and cursed the bread;
And Richard Cory, one calm summer night,
Went home and put a bullet through his head.

Flight One -Gwendolyn MacEwen

Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen
This is your Captain speaking.

We are flying at an unknown altitude
At an incalculable speed.
The temperature outside is beyond words.

If you look our your windows you will see 
Many ruined cities and enduring seas
But if you wish to sleep please close the blinds.

My navigator has been ill for many years
And we are on Automatic Pilot; regrettably
I cannot foresee our ultimate destination.

Have a pleasant trip.
You may smoke, you may drink, you may dance
You may die.
We may even land one day.

Nobody's Perfect -Jill Wolf

When you catch the little things
But overlook the BIG mistakes
When everything takes longer
Than what it usually takes,
When nothing goes according to
The best-laid plans you make,
Just remember no one's perfect-
So give yourself a break.

When the stress of your success
Makes your head and stomach ache,
When everything you touch falls through,
Fouls up, goes bad, or breaks,
Please remember that you're human
For your sanity's own sake,
And relax-nobody's perfect,
So give yourself a break.