Fragments

    I am the monarch of the Sea,
    The ruler of the Queen's Navee,--
    When at anchor here I ride,
    My bosom swells with pride,
    And I snap my fingers at a foeman's taunts.


    And so do his sisters, and his cousins, and his aunts
    His sisters and his cousins!
    Whom he reckons by the dozens,
    And his aunts!


    "I am the lowliest tar
    That sails the water.
    And you, proud maiden, are
    My captain's daughter."


    "Refrain, audacious tar.
    Your suit from pressing;
    Remember what you are,
    And whom addressing."



    For I am called Little Buttercup,--dear Little Buttercup,
    Though I never could tell why;
    But still I'm called Buttercup,--poor Little Buttercup,
    Sweet Little Buttercup I!



    Fair moon, to thee I sing
    Bright regent of the heavens;
    Say, why is every thing
    Either at sixes or at sevens!



    He is an Englishman!
    For he himself has said it,
    And it's greatly to his credit
    That he is an Englishman.

Louisa May Alcott

Louisa May Alcott was an American novelist and poet best known as the author of the novel 'Little Women' and its sequels 'Little Men' and 'Jo's Boys.' Born in Germantown, Pennsylvania, she grew up in Massachusetts. She was an abolitionist and a feminist and was active in both the Transcendentalist and suffragist movements. Alcott began writing to support her family and went on to publish numerous works that have had a lasting impact on American literature.

Louisa May Alcott

Not A Sparrow Falleth But Its God Doth Know,

Louisa May Alcott, Simple Poetry

Healfast, Healfast, Ye Hero Wounds

Louisa May Alcott, Simple Poetry

O Lion, Grand

Louisa May Alcott, Simple Poetry

Gingerbread

Louisa May Alcott, Simple Poetry

English

Suggested Poems

Explore a curated selection of verses that share themes, styles, and emotional resonance with the poem you've just read.

A Fairy Cavalier.

By a mushroom in the moon,
White as bud from budded berry,
Silver buckles on my shoon, -
Ho! the moon shines merry.

Here I sit and drink my grog, -
Stocks and tunic ouphen yellow,
Skinned from belly of a frog, -
Quite a fine, fierce fellow.

My good cloak a bat's wing gave,
And a beetle's wings my bonnet,
And a moth's head grew the brave,
Gallant feather on it.

Faith! I have rich jewels rare,
Rings and carcanets all studded
Thick with spiders' eyes, that glare
Like great rubies blooded.

And I swear, sirs, by my blade,
"Sirrah, a good stabbing hanger!" -
From a hornet's stinger made, -
When I am in anger.

Fill the lichen pottles up!
Honey pressed from hearts of roses;
Cheek by jowl, up with each cup

Madison Julius Cawein

Fragments from "Under The Lilacs".

    "So he took up his bow,
    And he feathered his arrow,
    And said, 'I will shoot
    This little cock-sparrow.'"

**    *    *

    "'Tis good to make all duty sweet,
    To be alert and kind;
    'Tis good, like Littie Mabel,
    To have a willing mind."

**    *    *    *

    "Benny had a little dog,
    His fleece was white as snow,
    And everywhere that Benny went,
    The dog was sure to go.


    He went into the School one day,
    which was against the rule;
    It made the children laugh and play
    To see a dog --"

**    *    *    *

Louisa May Alcott

Chronicle, The: A Ballad

Margarita first possess'd,
If I remember well, my breast,
    Margarita, first of all;
But when a while the wanton maid
With my restless heart had play'd,
    Martha took the flying ball.

Martha soon did it resign
To the beauteous Catharine.
    Beauteous Catharine gave place
(Though loth and angry she to part
With the possession of my heart)
    To Eliza's conquering face.

Eliza till this hour might reign,
Had she not evil counsel ta'en:
    Fundamental laws she broke,
And still new favourites she chose,
Till up in arms my passions rose,
    And cast away her yoke.

Mary then and gentle Anne,
Both to reign at once began,
    Alternately they swayed:
And sometimes Mary was the fair,
And sometimes Anne the crown di...

Abraham Cowley

When Love, Who Ruled.

When Love, who ruled as Admiral o'er
Has rosy mother's isles of light,
Was cruising off the Paphian shore,
    A sail at sunset hove in sight.
"A chase, a chase! my Cupids all,"
Said Love, the little Admiral.

Aloft the winged sailors sprung,
    And, swarming up the mast like bees,
The snow-white sails expanding flung,
    Like broad magnolias to the breeze.
"Yo ho, yo ho, my Cupids all!"
Said Love, the little Admiral.

The chase was o'er--the bark was caught,
    The winged crew her freight explored;
And found 'twas just as Love had thought,
    For all was contraband aboard.
"A prize, a prize, my Cupids all!"
Said Love, the little Admiral.

Safe stowed in many a package there,
    And labelled slyly o'er, as "Glass,"
Were ...

Thomas Moore

A Queen Five Summers Old.

("Elle est toute petite.")

[Bk. XXVI.]


She is so little - in her hands a rose:
A stern duenna watches where she goes,
What sees Old Spain's Infanta - the clear shine
Of waters shadowed by the birch and pine.
What lies before? A swan with silver wing,
The wave that murmurs to the branch's swing,
Or the deep garden flowering below?
Fair as an angel frozen into snow,
The royal child looks on, and hardly seems to know.

As in a depth of glory far away,
Down in the green park, a lofty palace lay,
There, drank the deer from many a crystal pond,
And the starred peacock gemmed the shade beyond.
Around that child all nature shone more bright;
Her innocence was as an added light.
Rubies and diamonds strewed the grass she trode,
An...

Victor-Marie Hugo

Lady Maggie

You must not call me Maggie, you must not call me Dear,
    For I'm Lady of the Manor now stately to see;
And if there comes a babe, as there may some happy year,
    'Twill be little lord or lady at my knee.

Oh, but what ails you, my sailor cousin Phil,
    That you shake and turn white like a cockcrow ghost?
You're as white as I turned once down by the mill,
    When one told me you and ship and crew were lost:

Philip my playfellow, when we were boy and girl
    (It was the Miller's Nancy told it to me),
Philip with the merry life in lip and curl,
    Philip my playfellow drowned in the sea!

I thought I should have fainted, but I did not faint;
    I stood stunned at the moment, scarcely sad,
Till I raised my wail of desolate complaint
    For y...

Christina Georgina Rossetti