greykit.poetry — #1880s
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1889
[alfred-lord-tennyson]
Crossing the Bar
Tennyson's valedictory lyric — written in a single sitting, placed by his own wish at the close of every volume of his work — hopes for no mourning when the tide bears him out, and to see his Pilot face to face.
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1889
[rudyard-kipling]
The Ballad of East and West
A border horse-thief and a colonel’s son meet as enemies and part as blood-brothers.
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1887
[robert-louis-stevenson]
Requiem
Stevenson's eight-line epitaph for himself — under the wide and starry sky, glad did I live and gladly die; home is the sailor; home from sea, and the hunter home from the hill.
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1885
[robert-louis-stevenson]
From a Railway Carriage
Faster than fairies, faster than witches — bridges, hedges, painted stations, a child gathering brambles, a tramp, a mill and a river: each a glimpse and gone for ever.
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1885
[robert-louis-stevenson]
The Swing
A child swings up in the air so blue — over the wall, over the countryside, down on the garden green — and up in the air and down.
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1881
[oscar-wilde]
Requiescat
Wilde's elegy for his sister Isola, who died aged nine — tread lightly, speak gently; all her bright golden hair tarnished with rust, all his life's buried here.