Thomas Lodge Poems

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Thomas Lodge
Thomas Lodge (c. 1558–1625) was an English dramatist and writer of the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods. He was born about 1558 at West Ham, the second son of Sir Thomas Lodge, who was Lord Mayor of London in 1562–1563. He was educated at Merchant Taylors' School and Trinity College, Oxford; taking his BA in 1577 and MA in 1581. In 1578 he entered Lincoln's Inn, where, as in the other Inns of Court, a love of letters and a crop of debts were common. Lodge, disregarding the wishes of his family, took up literature. When the penitent Stephen Gosson had (in 1579) published his Schoole of Abuse, Lodge responded with Defence of Poetry, Music and Stage Plays (1579 or 1580), which shows a certain restraint, though both forceful and learned. The pamphlet was banned, but appears to have been circulated privately. It was answered by Gosson in his Playes Confuted in Five Actions; and Lodge retorted with his Alarum Against Usurers (1584) a tract for the times which may have resulted from personal experience. In the same year he produced the first tale written by him on his own account in prose and verse, The Delectable History of Forbonius and Prisceria, both published and reprinted with the Alarum.

the cross of snow
 
 
In the long, sleepless watches of the night,
A gentle face -- the face of one long dead --... [read poem]
the children's hour
 
 
Between the dark and the daylight,
When the night is beginning to lower,
Comes a pause... [read poem]
divina commedia
 
 
Written March 29, 1864.

Oft have I seen at some cathedral door
A laborer, pausi... [read poem]
invictus
 
 
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whateve... [read poem]
the jewish cemetery at newport
 
 
How strange it seems! These Hebrews in their graves,
Close by the street of this fair seapo... [read poem]
the ladder of st. augustine
 
 
Saint Augustine! well hast thou said,
That of our vices we can frame
A ladder, if we w... [read poem]
a psalm of life
 
 
Tell me not, in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream! --
For the soul is dead ... [read poem]
sir humphrey gilbert
 
 
Southward with fleet of ice
Sailed the corsair Death;
Wild and gast blew the blast,
A... [read poem]
the wreck of the hesperus
 
 
It was the schooner Hesperus,
That sailed the wintry sea;
And the skipper had taken hi... [read poem]
shakespeare
 
 
A vision as of crowded city streets,
With human life in endless overflow;
Thunder ... [read poem]
seaweed
 
 
When descends on the Atlantic
The gigantic
Storm-wind of the equinox,
Landward in... [read poem]
the arrow and the song
 
 
I shot an arrow into the air,
It fell to earth, I knew not where;
For, so swiftly it flew,... [read poem]
the old clock on the stairs
 
 
Somewhat back from the village street
Stands the old-fashioned country-seat.
Across its an... [read poem]
the skeleton in armor
 
 
"Speak! speak! thou fearful guest!
Who, with thy hollow breast
Still in rude armor drest,... [read poem]
the tide rises, the tide falls
 
 
The tide rises, the tide falls,
The twilight darkens, the curlew calls;
Along the sea-sand... [read poem]
excelsior
 
 
The shades of night were falling fast,
As through an Alpine village passed
A youth, who bo... [read poem]
mezzo cammin
 
 
Half of my life is gone, and I have let
The years slip from me and have not fulfilled
... [read poem]
the day is done
 
 
The day is done, and the darkness
Falls from the wings of Night,
As a feather is wafte... [read poem]
the landlord's tale. paul revere's ride
 
 
Listen, my children, and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighte... [read poem]
my lost youth
 
 
Often I think of the beautiful town
That is seated by the sea;
Often in thought go up ... [read poem]
nature
 
 
As a fond mother, when the day is o'er,
Leads by the hand her little child to bed,
... [read poem]
snow-flakes
 
 
Out of the bosom of the Air,
Out of the cloud-folds of her garments shaken,
Over the w... [read poem]
hymn to the night
 
 
Aspasie, trillistos.

I heard the trailing garments of the Night
Sweep through h... [read poem]
margaritae sorori
 
 
A late lark twitters from the quiet skies:
And from the west,
Where the sun, his day's wor... [read poem]
like to the clear in highest sphere
 
 
Like to the clear in highest sphere
Where all imperial glory shines,
Of selfsame colour is... [read poem]
there was a little girl
 
 
There was a little girl,
Who had a little curl,
Right in the middle of her forehea... [read poem]
the evening star
 
 
Lo! in the painted oriel of the West,
Whose panes the sunken sun incarnadines,
Lik... [read poem]
the arsenal at springfield
 
 
This is the Arsenal. From floor to ceiling,
Like a huge organ, rise the burnished arms;... [read poem]
the rain and the wind
 
 
The rain and the wind, the wind and the rain --
They are with us like a disease:
They ... [read poem]
the building of the ship
 
 
"Build me straight, O worthy Master!
Stanch and strong, a goodly vessel,
That shall laugh ... [read poem]

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