All Things Human

A Renunciation
by Henry King (1692-1669)
We, that did nothing study but the way
To love each other, with which thoughts the day
Rose with delight to us and with them set,
Must learn the hateful art, how to forget.
We, that did nothing wish that Heaven could give
Beyond ourselves, nor did desire to live
Beyond that wish, all these now cancel [...]

In Praise of His Loving and Best-Beloved Fawnia
by Robert Greene (1558?-1592)
Ah, were she pitiful as she is fair,
Or but as mild as she is seeming so,
Then were my hopes greater than my despair,
Then all the world were Heaven, nothing woe.
Ah, were her heart relenting as her hand,
[...]

The Stranger
by Edwin Keppel Bennett (1887-1958)
The room grows silent, and the dead return:
Whispering faintly in the corridor,
They try the latch and steal across the floor
Towards my chair; and in the hush I turn
Eagerly to the shadows, and discern
The ghosts of friends whom I shall see no more,
Come back, come back from some Lethean shore
To the [...]

The Burdens of All
by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (1825-1911)
We may sigh o

Maternity
by Alice Meynell (1847-1922)
One wept whose only child was dead,
New-born, ten years ago.