Poetry Explorer

Search Classic and Contemporary Poetry

Search Results

Back to search

Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Searching...
Author: davies, john
Matches Found: 203


Davies (1565-1618), John   
Alternate Author Name(s): Welsh Poet; Davies Of Hereford, John
9 poems available by this author


ALTHOUGH WE DO NOT ALL THE GOOD WE LOVE    Poem Text    
First Line: Although we do not all the good we love,
Last Line: Is love that burns, but burns like painted fire.


BUTTERED PIPPIN-PIES    Poem Text    
First Line: If there were, oh! An hellespont of cream
Last Line: Which having found, if they tobacco kept, %the smoke should dry me well before I slept
Variant Title(s): The Author Loving These Homely Meats Specially, Viz.: Cream, Pancakes
Subject(s): Food And Eating


GULLING SONNETS: AS WHEN THE BRIGHT CERULIAN FIRMAMENT       
Last Line: One scurvy thought infecteth all the rest


ORCHESTRA OR A POEM OF DANCING (EXCERPT)       
First Line: Where lives the man that never yet did hear
Last Line: Your better parts must dance with them forever


REMEMBRANCE OF MY FRIEND MR. THOMAS MORLEY       
First Line: Death hath deprived me of my dearest friend
Last Line: That nature wrought must unto dust be brought


SOME BLAZE THE PRECIOUS BEAUTIES OF THEIR LOVES    Poem Text    
First Line: Some blaze the precious beauties of their loves
Last Line: So say, she is, and wond'ring owe the rest.


TO MY BROWNE, YET BRIGHTEST SWAIN / THAT WOONS, OR ... PLAIN    Poem Text    
First Line: Pipe on, sweet swain, till joy, in bliss, sleep waking
Last Line: Dum carmen gratulatorium.
Subject(s): Browne, William (1591-1645)


TO OUR ENGLISH TERENCE, MR. WILL. SHAKESPEARE       
First Line: Some say, good will, (which I in sport sing)
Subject(s): Dramatists; Plays And Playwrights; Poetry And Poets; Shakespeare, William (1564-1616)


WIT'S PILGRIMAGE, SELS.       



Davies (1569-1626), John   
133 poems available by this author


ALLUSION TO THESEUS VOYAGE TO CRETE    Poem Text    
First Line: My love is sail'd against dislike to fight


CANZONET       
First Line: Praise, pleasure, profite, is that threefold band


CHARLES HIS WAINE       
First Line: Brittaine doth under those bright starres remaine


CONTENTION BETWEEN FOUR MAIDS CONCERNING ... ADDED MOST PERFECTION    Poem Text    
First Line: Our fairest garland, made of beauty's flowers
Last Line: If not, she 's rich because she is content.
Subject(s): Perfection; Virtue; Wealth; Riches; Fortunes


CONTENTION BETWIXT A WIFE, A WIDOW, AND A MAID       
First Line: Widow, well met; whither go you today
Subject(s): Marriage; Widows And Widowers


DANCE OF LOVE       
First Line: This is true love, by that true cupid got


DANCING       
First Line: Of all their ways I love meander's path
Subject(s): Dancing And Dancers


DANCING OF THE AIR       
First Line: For that brave sun the father of the day
Variant Title(s): Antinous Praises Dancing Before Queen Penelop
Subject(s): Dancing And Dancers


DRESSING CUPID       
First Line: The sacred muse that firste made love devine
Last Line: And socks of sullennes excedinge sweete
Variant Title(s): Gulling Sonne


ELEGIE CALL EPISTLE ON SIR JOHN DAVIS DEATH       
First Line: Morgan! To call thee sadd and discontente


ELEGY IN PRAISE OF MARRIAGE, SELS.       
First Line: When the first man from paradise was driven


ENTERTAINMENT OF Q. ELIZABETH AT HAREFIELD       
First Line: Why, how now, joane! Are you heere?


EPIGRAM       
First Line: He that doth ask st. James they say, shall speed


EPIGRAM: AD MUSAM       
First Line: Fly, merry muse unto that merry towne


EPIGRAM: AS MUSAM       
First Line: Peace, idle muse, have done! For it is time


EPIGRAM: HEALTH       
First Line: Health is a jewel true, which when we buy


EPIGRAM: IN AFRAM       
First Line: The smell-feast afer, trauailes to the burse


EPIGRAM: IN AMOROSUM       
First Line: A wife you wisht me (sir) rich, fair and young


EPIGRAM: IN BRUNUM       
First Line: Brunus, which deems himselfe a faire sweet youth


EPIGRAM: IN CASTOREM       
First Line: Of speaking well why doe we learne the skill


EPIGRAM: IN CINEAM (1)       
First Line: Thou dogged cineas, hated like a dogge


EPIGRAM: IN CINEAM (2)       
First Line: When cineas comes amoungst his friends in morning


EPIGRAM: IN CIPRUM       
First Line: The fine young ciprius is more tierse and neate


EPIGRAM: IN COSMUM       
First Line: Cosmus hath more discoursing in his head


EPIGRAM: IN CRASSUM       
First Line: Crassus his lyes are not pernicious lyes


EPIGRAM: IN DACUM       
First Line: Dacus with some good colour and pretence


EPIGRAM: IN DACUM       
First Line: Amongst the poets dacus numbred is


EPIGRAM: IN DECIUM       
First Line: Audacious painters have nine worthies made


EPIGRAM: IN FASTUM       
First Line: That youth,' saith faustus, 'hath a lyon seene'


EPIGRAM: IN FAUSTUM       
First Line: Faustus, nor lord, nor knight, nor wise, nor old


EPIGRAM: IN FLACCUM       
First Line: The false knave flaccus one a bribe I gave


EPIGRAM: IN FRANCUM       
First Line: When francus comes to solace with his whore
Last Line: I envy him not, but wish I had the power %to make myself his wench but one half hour
Variant Title(s): Francu
Subject(s): Erotic Love


EPIGRAM: IN FUSCUM       
First Line: Fuscus is free, and hath the world at will


EPIGRAM: IN GALLUM       
First Line: Gallas hath beene this summer-time in friesland


EPIGRAM: IN GELLAM       
First Line: If gella's beauty be examined


EPIGRAM: IN GELLAM       
First Line: Gella, if thou dost love thy selfe, take heed


EPIGRAM: IN GERONTEM       
First Line: Geron's mouldy memory corrects


EPIGRAM: IN HAYWODUM       
First Line: Haywood, that did in epigrams excell


EPIGRAM: IN KATUM       
First Line: Kate being pleased wisht that her pleasure could


EPIGRAM: IN LEUCAM       
First Line: Leuca, in presense, once, a fart did let


EPIGRAM: IN LIBRUM       
First Line: Liber doth vaunt how chastly he hath liv'd


EPIGRAM: IN LICUM       
First Line: Lycus, which lately is to venice gone


EPIGRAM: IN MACRUM       
First Line: Thou canst not speake yet, macer, for to speake


EPIGRAM: IN MARCUM       
First Line: Why dost thou, marcus, in thy misery


EPIGRAM: IN MARCUM       
First Line: When marcus comes from minnes, hee still doth sweare


EPIGRAM: IN MEDONTEM       
First Line: Great captaine maedon weares a chaine of gold


EPIGRAM: IN PAULUM       
First Line: By lawful mart, and by unlawful stealth


EPIGRAM: IN PHILONEM       
First Line: Philo the lawyer and the fortune-teller


EPIGRAM: IN PLURIMOS       
First Line: Faustinus, sextus, cinnae, ponticus


EPIGRAM: IN PRISCUMJ       
First Line: When priscus, rais'd from low to high estate


EPIGRAM: IN PUBLIUM       
First Line: Publius student at the common-law


EPIGRAM: IN QUINTUM       
First Line: Quintus his wit infused into his brain


EPIGRAM: IN QUINTUM       
First Line: Quintus the dancer useth evermore


EPIGRAM: IN RUFFUM       
First Line: Rufus the courtier at the theatre


EPIGRAM: IN SEPTIMIUM       
First Line: Septimus lives, and is like garlick seene


EPIGRAM: IN SEVERUM       
First Line: The puritan severus oft doth read


EPIGRAM: IN SILLAM (1)       
First Line: Who dares affirme that silla dare not fight?


EPIGRAM: IN SILLAM (2)       
First Line: When I this proposition had defended


EPIGRAM: IN SUPERBIAM       
First Line: I tooke the wall, one thrust me rudely by


EPIGRAM: IN SYLLAM       
First Line: Sylla is often challenged to the field


EPIGRAM: IN TITAM       
First Line: Titas, the brave and valorous young gallant


EPIGRAM: MEDITATIONS OF A GULL       
First Line: See, yonder melancholy gentleman


EPIGRAM: OF A GULL       
First Line: Oft in my laughing rimes, I name a gull


EPIGRAM: OF TOBACCO       
First Line: Homer, of moly and nepenthe sings


EPIGRAM: SNOW, 9, CROW       
First Line: I think that the winter's daughter am


EPIGRAM: WESTMINSTER       
First Line: Westminster is a mill that grinds all causes


EPIGRAMS; PHILO THE GENTLEMAN, THE FORTUNE TELLER       
Last Line: And philo to such patients giveth physic


EPIGRAMS; TITUS THE BRAVE AND VALOROUS GALLANT       
Last Line: He hath been in the counter all this while


GULLING SONNETS: WHAT EAGLE CAN BEHOLD HER SUNBRIGHT EYE       
Last Line: That honour you, and never were his foes


GULLING SONNETS: 1       
First Line: The lover under burden of his mistress' live
Last Line: By their decree he soon transformed was %into a patient burden-bearing ass


GULLING SONNETS: 2       
First Line: As when ye brighte cerulian firmament


GULLING SONNETS: 3       
First Line: What eagle can behould her funbrighte eye


GULLING SONNETS: 4       
First Line: The hardness of her heart and truth of mine
Last Line: And to put out with snuffers of her pride %the lamp of love which else had never died


GULLING SONNETS: 5       
First Line: Mine eye, mine ear, my will, my wit, my heart
Last Line: So that my heart, my wit, will, ear, and eye %doth grieve, lament, sorrow, despair and die


GULLING SONNETS: 6       
First Line: The sacred muse that first made love divine


GULLING SONNETS: 7       
First Line: Into the midle temple of my harte


GULLING SONNETS: 8       
First Line: My case is this, I love zepheria bright
Last Line: Then which the law affords I only crave %her heart for mine in withernam to have


GULLING SONNETS: 9       
First Line: To love my lord I doe knightes feruice owe


GULLING [GULLINGE] SONNETS, SELS.       


HYMN 21. OF THE INNUMERABLE VIRTUES OF HER MINDE       
First Line: Ere thou proceed in this sweet paines


HYMNES TO ASTRAEA, SELS.       
Variant Title(s): Hymnes Of Astraea, In Acrosticke Vers


KINGES WELCOME       
First Line: O now or never, gentle muse, be gaye


LOVE ELEGIE, SELS.       
First Line: But those impressions by this forme are staynde


LOVE-FLIGHT       
First Line: Black mayel, complayne not yet I flye


LOVE-LINES       
First Line: Stay lovely boy! Why flyest thou mee


LUCINDA VIS OCULOS TENERI PERSTRINXIT AMANTIS       


MARINER'S SONG       
First Line: Cynthia, queen of seas and lands
Variant Title(s): The Lotter


MINE EYE, MYNE EARE, MY WILL, MY WITT, MY HARTE       
First Line: Mine eye, myne eare, my will, my witt, my harte,
Last Line: Doth greive, lament, sorrowe, dispaire and dye.


MIRA LOQUOR SOL OCCUBUIT NOX NULLA SECUTA EST       
First Line: By that eclipse which darkned our appollo


MUSE REVIVING       
First Line: Like as the divers-fretchled butterfly
Variant Title(s): Elegies Of Lov


NOSCE TEIPSUM, SELS.       


NOSCE TEIPSUM: AFFLICTION    Poem Text    
First Line: If aught can teach us aught, affliction's looks
Last Line: Which is a proud, and yet a wretched thing.
Subject(s): Affliction


NOSCE TEIPSUM: DEDICATION 1. TO QUEEN ELIZABETH       
First Line: To that clear majesty which in the north
Variant Title(s): To My Most Gracious Dread Soveraign
Subject(s): Elizabeth I, Queen Of England (1533-1603


NOSCE TEIPSUM: DEDICATION 2. TO PRINCE HENRY       
First Line: The strongest and the noblest argument


NOSCE TEIPSUM: IN WHAT MANNER THE SOULE IS UNITED TO THE BODY       
First Line: But how shall we this union well express?
Last Line: So from th' eternall light the soule doth spring, %though in the body she her powers doe show
Variant Title(s): The Soul And The Bod


NOSCE TEIPSUM: OF HUMAN KNOWLEDGE       
First Line: Why did my parents send me to the schools
Last Line: Which is a proud, and yet a wretched thing
Variant Title(s): The Folly Of Knowledge; Man (1
Subject(s): Knowledge


NOSCE TEIPSUM: WHICH IS A PROUD, AND YET A WRETCHED THING    Poem Text    
First Line: I know my body's of so frail a kind
Last Line: Which is a proud, and yet a wretched thing.
Variant Title(s): A Proud And Yet A Wretched Thing
Subject(s): Bodies; Self


OF FAITH THE FIRST THEOLOGICALL VERTUE       
First Line: Faith is a sunbeame of th' aeternall light


OF HIS MISTRESSE SICKNESS AND RECOVERY,FR.SONETS TO PHILOMEL       
First Line: Pale death himselfe did love my philomell


OF THE NAME OF CHAROLUS, BEING THE DIMINATIVE OF CHARUS       
First Line: The name of charles, darlinge signifies


OF THE SOUL OF MAN AND THE IMMORTALITY THEREOF       
First Line: The lights of heav'n (which are the world's fair eies)


ON A PAIR OF GARTERS       
First Line: Go, lovely wood-bine, clip with lovely grace
Subject(s): Garters


ON THE DEATH OF LORD CHANCELLOR ELLESMERE'S SECOND WIFE       
First Line: You, in that judgement passion never show


ORCHESTRA; A POEM OF DANCING: DEDICATION 1. TO RICHARD MARTIN       
First Line: To whom shall I this dancing poem send


ORCHESTRA; A POEM OF DANCING: DEDICATION 2. TO THE PRINCE       
First Line: Sir, whatsoever you are pleas'd to do


ORCHESTRA; A POEM OF DANCING: STANZA 1       
First Line: Where lives the man that never yet did heare
Last Line: And ten yeere in the midland-sea did stray


ORCHESTRA; A POEM OF DANCING: STANZA 2       
First Line: Homer, to whom the muses did carouse
Last Line: Became the welspring of all poetry


ORCHESTRA; A POEM OF DANCING: STANZA 3       
First Line: Homer doth tell in his aboundant verse
Last Line: That neptune monsters had his carcasse torne


ORCHESTRA; A POEM OF DANCING: STANZA 4       
First Line: All this he tells, but one thing he forgot
Last Line: A sweeter burden for his muses wings


ORCHESTRA; A POEM OF DANCING: STANZA 5       
First Line: The courtly love antinous did make
Last Line: Homer forgot as if it had not beene


ORCHESTRA; A POEM OF DANCING: STANZA 6       
First Line: Sing then his terpsichore, my light muse sing
Last Line: To my rude eare doth yield the sweetest sound


REASON'S MOANE       
First Line: When I peruse heaven's auncient written storie


SONNETS TO PHILOMEL, SELS.       


SONNETS TO PHILOMEL: 1       
First Line: Oft did I hear our eyes the passage were


SONNETS TO PHILOMEL: 2       
First Line: Sickness, intending my love to betray


SONNETS TO PHILOMEL: 3       
First Line: Once did my philomel reflect on me
Variant Title(s): Upon Her Looking Secretl


SONNETS TO PHILOMEL: 4       
First Line: If you would know the love which I you bear
Last Line: And yet increaseth in the purifying.
Variant Title(s): If You Would Know The Love Which I You Bea


SOUL       
First Line: Again, low can she but immortal be


SOUL COMPARED TO A VIRGIN WOOED IN MARRIAGE       
First Line: As a king's daughter, being in person sought


THE DANCING OF THE AIR    Poem Text    
First Line: And now behold your tender nurse, the air
Last Line: As two at once encumber not the place.
Subject(s): Air; Nature


TITYRUS TO HIS FAIRE PHILLIS       
First Line: The silly swaine whose love breedes discontent


TO FAIRE LADYES       
First Line: Ladyes of founthill, I am come to seeke


TO GEORGE CHAPMAN ON HIS OVID       
First Line: Onely that eye which for true love doth weepe
Subject(s): Chapman, George (1559-1634); Ovid (43 B.c.-17 A.d.)


TO HIS GOOD FRIEND SIR ANTH. COOKE       
First Line: Here my camelion muse her selfe doth chaunge


TO HIS LADY       
First Line: In this sweet book, the treasury of wit


TO THE KINGE       
First Line: O now or never, gentle muse, be gaye


TO THE QUEEN       
First Line: What musicke shall we make to you?


TO THE QUEEN AT THE SAME TIME       
First Line: If wee in peace had not received the king


UPON A COFFIN BY S.J.D       
First Line: There was a man bespake a thing


VERSES SENT TO THE KING WITH FIGGES       
First Line: To add unto the first man's happiness


VISITORS       
First Line: Whiles in my soul I feel the soft warm hand


WHAT IS THIS KNOWLEDGE? FR. NOSCE TEIPSUM       
Subject(s): Knowledge


YET OTHER TWELVE WONDERS OF THE WORLD       
First Line: Long have I liv'd in court, yet learn'd not all this while



Davies, John+(3)   
58 poems available by this author


AT CARVER'S PLACE       
First Line: Mouth open
Last Line: You chose right, guessed wrong


BEACH       
First Line: My son: eight years old so he ran


BIKERS       
First Line: At the village with no car park
Last Line: Fill roaring with yourself


BIOGRAPHY       
First Line: Larkin was here
Last Line: Sang him has let him be %song only


BLUEGRASS       
First Line: A foggy mountain breakthrough, sun's all-change
Last Line: Sky-blueness and grassgreen


BORROWING THE MAUSER       
First Line: Let's shoot, he says
Last Line: The sun to small bright pieces


BRAVEHEART       
First Line: Stranded in middle age
Last Line: I'd find a bullfighter's cape


CASTING       
First Line: Past the weir where steelwater
Last Line: Netted, bulging with this hour


CAVE       
First Line: It seems, with pools broken open silver
Last Line: The one cave world and you are in its mouth


CHARLES TUNNICLIFFE       
First Line: The last white of day is brushed through dark
Last Line: Up to the point where art leaves information behind


CLIMBING WITH THE WRONG PERSON       
First Line: Greenscapes terminally beautiful wince
Last Line: Miles, the burial mound at tomen-y-mur


COTTONWOOD WALTZ       
First Line: They held dances at the schoolhouse
Last Line: Someone would know who


DISAPPEARED       
First Line: Montgomery place commands
Last Line: Verbs, the made-to-disappear


DRIVING THE PROVO RIVER       
First Line: Leaving the car, horn bellowing
Last Line: Now the lights come on like lights
Subject(s): Mormons


EMPTYING THE LAKE       
First Line: You row the lake again
Last Line: It turns mainland overnight


FARMLAND       
First Line: Inland from the english-speaking sea
Last Line: And gulls guarding clutches of pebbles %turned into people briefly then flew off


FLIGHT PATTERNS       
First Line: Off route 101 near spanaway your father's duck farm


FOOTPRINTS       
First Line: O.S. Maps are fine except in forestry
Last Line: And times takes a lot of ignorance


FOR THE WELSH MORMONS       
First Line: Roads under snapped peaks have eased us
Last Line: Changing and not changing to stay intact
Subject(s): Mormons


GOLD       
First Line: Whatever the place is called
Last Line: Dirt roads assay their worth


IN PORT TALBOT       
First Line: By now it's like returning to a foreign town, especially
Last Line: Then old south wales will have to start a new. Meanwhile %reverberations still, slow leavings, long


JOB       
First Line: Floundering at low tide
Last Line: Then left it wide open


LEANING TREE       
First Line: It's the annual welsh play and our daughter has a line


LIFT THAT       
First Line: Tonight I thought of the old man, seventy
Last Line: Him. It was him. Then I replaced it


LORD PENSLATE'S CASTLE       
First Line: From a mile off, his quarries emptied
Last Line: That will not settle


MISSIONARIES       
First Line: Past drifts of shoppers
Last Line: Keen in the unblinking dark


MOUNTAINS, VALLEYS       
First Line: These whirled nights, slate
Last Line: Climate everyone's the weather


MR. ROBERTS       
First Line: A city rigged with mountains
Last Line: House, his tunnel with one chair


MY BROTHER KEEPS MOVING       
First Line: And sometimes I catch up
Last Line: Hovering, he raised his rod %took aim


NEWS FROM TOKYO       
First Line: I stayed with my brother in new york
Last Line: If we remembered what they were


POET ON TOUR       
First Line: As if in some cupboard he's found
Last Line: Always, the slow death of his poems


PORTMEIRION       
First Line: Cloud has new domes to deliver
Last Line: Brought in for once, not shipped out


QUARRY       
First Line: Out on the ridge
Last Line: Someone had scrawled 'wrong'


R. S. THOMAS       
First Line: Some comfortable harbour, say
Last Line: Is new land opened


RAY'S BIRDS       
First Line: Lunchtime, the way he tells it
Last Line: Don't tell him I told you this


READING THE COUNTRY, SELS.       


REGROUPING       
First Line: As a boy joe washington had cigarettes
Last Line: As though inside might be someone or %something I'd half-known and lost


RIDERS, WALKERS       
First Line: Damp, cold, dust? They were for the pack
Last Line: Of art, shown to an antechamber, in an unfree state


SEA, HEADLAND, CLOUDS       
First Line: I stayed with my aunt
Last Line: Flags semaphoring green


SHERIFF       
First Line: When silver was found, a few of the boys
Last Line: By the moment's shine that lit you also


SHORT HISTORY OF THE NORTH WALES COAST       
First Line: All right, agreed, just a low shelf
Last Line: Has started up the porrot school


SILTING       
First Line: Is going on, you can tell
Last Line: Wrong angle, south from middle age


SOURCES       
First Line: Sometime I'd like to go to crisfield, maryland
Last Line: Sometime I'd like to see lake edward


STARTING PLACE       
First Line: Where you started from didn't stop because you left


SUNDAY FISHING       
First Line: Dunes strumming high thin rhythms


TALACRE'S BIG SLEEP       
First Line: It's january
Last Line: What can you say %'arrest the rain'?


UNDERGROUND STORE       
First Line: Near the swansea mine, in foothills
Last Line: Still from the underground store


VIEWS FROM THE WORKSHED: 1       
First Line: Quick. A squirrel
Last Line: Before it is a skylark


VIEWS FROM THE WORKSHED: 2       
First Line: Beyond trees: rooftopple
Last Line: Then it's start again


VIEWS FROM THE WORKSHED: 3       
First Line: And another
Last Line: And won't sink lower


VIEWS FROM THE WORKSHED: 4       
First Line: I think of wendell gilley
Last Line: His barn owl, you were looking up


VIEWS FROM THE WORKSHED: 5       
First Line: The wasatch whittlers' annual bash was packed
Last Line: And persp- anyway, it never added up


VIEWS FROM THE WORKSHED: 6       
First Line: The sky is blank paper
Last Line: By my screwed-down branch %might do


VIEWS FROM THE WORKSHED: 7       
First Line: Lots of ways, yes
Last Line: Overall %carving's easier


VISITOR'S BOOK, SELS.       


WALKING THE LINE       
First Line: From one tie to another
Last Line: Fresh, and working


WHAT DOESN'T END WHEN THE YEAR BEGINS       
First Line: It's over, the goodwill season, and even
Last Line: Been crushed into one small part of the country %white and only once this once
Subject(s): Mormons


WHERE YOU ARE       
First Line: What to do with slate or life but shape it
Last Line: Is dark. I wish you multitudes of green



Davies, John+(4)   
3 poems available by this author


SAY HELLO TO PHOENIX: 1       
First Line: Our lights beat their white wings
Last Line: Now the moon is newcomer too, hello %moon I am from ho chi minh city


SAY HELLO TO PHOENIX: 2       
First Line: My niece is a bird, get up
Last Line: Red like the car. %I said no and walked away


SAY HELLO TO PHOENIX: 3       
First Line: I think going measures what returning
Last Line: But hummingbirds spin and I praise this other %life that flies through to outlast us