‘For each ecstatic instant’ by Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) For each ecstatic instant We must an anguish pay In keen and quivering ratio To the ecstasy. For each beloved hour Sharp pittances of years, Bitter contested farthings And coffers heaped with tears. We have now arrived at Ratio or the…

‘Are They Shadows’ by Samuel Daniel (1562–1619) Are they shadows that we see? And can shadows pleasure give? Pleasures only shadows be Cast by bodies we conceive And are made the things we deem In those figures which they seem. But these pleasures vanish fast Which by shadows are expressed; …

‘The Swimmers’ (excerpt) Louis Untermeyer (1885–1977) Then the swift plunge into the cool, green dark — The windy waters rushing past me, through me; Filled with a sense of some heroic lark, Exulting in a vigor clean and roomy. Swiftly I rose to meet the feline sea That sprang upon…

‘About the numbers’ by Johanna Kinkel, (1810–1858), née Maria Johanna Mockel One deedledum, two deedledum, Three four five six deedledum, Sev’n deedledum, eight deedledum, Nine deedledum, ten deedledum, Eleven deedledum, twelve deedle deedle, Deedle deedledum, twelve deedledum, Eleven deedledum, ten deedledum, Nine deedledum, eight deedledum, Sev’n six five four deedledum, …

‘Благословляю вас, леса’ by Count Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy (1817–1875) Благословляю вас, леса, Долины, нивы, горы, воды! Благословляю я свободу И голубые небеса! И посох мой благословляю, И эту бедную суму, И степь от краю и до краю, И солнца свет, и ночи тьму, И одинокую тропинку, По коей, нищий, я…

Attraction by Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850–1919) The meadow and the mountain with desire Gazed on each other, till a fierce unrest Surged ‘neath the meadow’s seemingly calm breast, And all the mountain’s fissures ran with fire. A mighty river rolled between them there. What could the mountain do but gaze…

‘Forever’ by Charles-Jean Grandmougin (1850–1930) You ask me to be silent, To flee far from you for ever And to go my way alone, Forgetting whom I loved! Rather ask the stars To fall into infinity, The night to lose its veils, The day to lose its light! Ask the…

‘To the stanch Dust’ by Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) To the stanch Dust We safe commit thee — Tongue if it hath, Inviolate to thee — Silence — denote — And Sanctity — enforce thee — Passenger — of Infinity — And so we arrive at the notion of Infinity…

‘Autumn Journal’ (excerpts) by Frederick Louis MacNeice, (1907–1963) Good-bye now, Plato and Hegel, The shop is closing down; They don’t want any philosopher-kings in England, There ain’t no universals in this man’s town. But certainly it was fun while it lasted And I got my honours degree And was stamped…