Poems by Henry David Thoreau

In English – En Français – На Русском Языке – Bilingual

American Literature – Children Books – American Poetry – Henry David Thoreau – Poems by Henry David Thoreau

In English

A River Scene
The river swelleth more and more,
Like some sweet influence stealing o’er
The passive town; and for a while … Continue Reading …

A Winter Scene
The rabbit leaps,
The mouse out-creeps,
The flag out-peeps … Continue Reading …

Boat Song
Thus, perchance, the Indian hunter,
Many a lagging year agone,
Gliding o’er thy rippling waters, … Continue Reading …

Conscience
Conscience is instinct bred in the house,
Feeling and Thinking propagate the sin
By an unnatural breeding in and in. … Continue Reading …

Delay
No generous action can delay
Or thwart our higher, steadier aims; … Continue Reading …

Ding Dong
When the world grows old by the chimney-side,
Then forth to the youngling nooks I glide,
Where over the water and over the land … Continue Reading …

Free Love
My love must be as free
As is the eagle’s wing,
Hovering o’er land and sea … Continue Reading …

Friendship
Let such pure hate still underprop
Our love, that we may be
Each other’s conscience, … Continue Reading …

Greece
When life contracts into a vulgar span,
And human nature tires to be a man,
I thank the Gods for Greece, … Continue Reading …

Haze
Woof of the sun, ethereal gauze,
Woven of Nature’s richest stuffs,
Visible heat, air-water, and dry sea, … Continue Reading …

Independence
My life more civil is and free
Than any civil polity. … Continue Reading …

Inspiration
Whate’er we leave to God, God does,
And blesses us;
The work we choose should be our own, … Continue Reading …

Inspiration (Quatrain)
If thou wilt but stand by my ear,
When through the field thy anthem’s rung, … Continue Reading …

Lines
Though all the Fates should prove unkind,
Leave not your native land behind.
The ship, becalmed, at length stands still; … Continue Reading …

Lines
All things are current found
On earthly ground,
Spirits and elements … Continue Reading …

Mission
I’ve searched my faculties around,
To learn why life to me was lent: … Continue Reading …

Mist
Low-anchored cloud,
Newfoundland air,
Fountain-head and source of rivers, … Continue Reading …

Mountains
With frontier strength ye stand your ground,
With grand content ye circle round,
Tumultuous silence for all sound, … Continue Reading …

My Prayer
Great God, I ask thee for no meaner pelf
Than that I may not disappoint myself;
That in my action I may soar as high … Continue Reading …

Nature
O Nature! I do not aspire
To be the highest in thy quire,—
To be a meteor in the sky, … Continue Reading …

Nature’s Child
I am the autumnal sun,
With autumn gales my race is run;
When will the hazel put forth its flowers, … Continue Reading …

Omnipresence
Who equaleth the coward’s haste,
And still inspires the faintest heart; … Continue Reading …

Pilgrims
‘Have you not seen
In ancient times
Pilgrims pass by … Continue Reading …

Poverty
If I am poor,
It is that I am proud;
If God has made me naked and a boor, … Continue Reading …

Prayer
Great God! I ask thee for no meaner pelf
Than that I may not disappoint myself;
That in my action I may soar as high … Continue Reading …

River Song
Ply the oars! away! away!
In each dew-drop of the morning
Lies the promise of a day. … Continue Reading …

Rumours From An Æolian Harp
There is a vale which none hath seen,
Where foot of man has never been,
Such as here lives with toil and strife, … Continue Reading …

Sic Vita
I am a parcel of vain strivings tied
By a chance bond together,
Dangling this way and that, their links … Continue Reading …

Smoke
Light-winged Smoke, Icarian bird,
Melting thy pinions in thy upward flight;
Lark without song, and messenger of dawn, … Continue Reading …

Smoke In Winter
The sluggish smoke curls up from some deep dell,
The stiffened air exploring in the dawn,
And making slow acquaintance with the day; … Continue Reading …

Some Tumultuous Little Rill
Some tumultuous little rill,
Purling round its storied pebble,
Tinkling to the selfsame tune, … Continue Reading …

Stanzas
‘Before each van
Prick forth the aery knights, and couch their spears
Till thickest legions close; with feats of arms … Continue Reading …

Stanzas
Nature doth have her dawn each day,
But mine are far between;
Content, I cry, for, sooth to say, … Continue Reading …

Stanzas Written At Walden
When Winter fringes every bough
With his fantastic wreath,
And puts the seal of silence now … Continue Reading …

Sympathy
Lately, alas! I knew a gentle boy,
Whose features all were cast in Virtue’s mould,
As one she had designed for Beauty’s toy, … Continue Reading …

The Atlantides
The smothered streams of love, which flow
More bright than Phlegethon, more low,
Island us ever, like the sea, … Continue Reading …

The Aurora Of Guido
The god of day his car rolls up the slopes,
Reining his prancing steeds with steady hand;
The lingering moon through western shadows gropes, … Continue Reading …

The Crow
Thou dusky spirit of the wood,
Bird of an ancient brood,
Flitting thy lonely way, … Continue Reading …

The Departure
In this roadstead I have ridden,
In this covert I have hidden;
Friendly thoughts were cliffs to me, … Continue Reading …

The Fall Of The Leaf
Thank God who seasons thus the year,
And sometimes kindly slants his rays;
For in his winter he’s most near … Continue Reading …

The Fisher’s Boy
My life is like a stroll upon the beach,
As near the ocean’s edge as I can go;
My tardy steps its waves sometimes o’erreach, … Continue Reading …

The Funeral Bell
One more is gone
Out of the busy throng
That tread these paths; … Continue Reading …

The Inward Morning
Packed in my mind lie all the clothes
Which outward nature wears,
And in its fashion’s hourly change … Continue Reading …

The Moon
‘Time wears her not; she doth his chariot guide;
Mortality below her orb is placed.’—Raleigh. … Continue Reading …

The Poet’s Delay
In vain I see the morning rise,
In vain observe the western blaze,
Who idly look to other skies, … Continue Reading …

The Respectable Folks
The respectable folks,—
Where dwell they?
They whisper in the oaks, … Continue Reading …

The Summer Rain
My books I’d fain cast off, I cannot read,
’Twixt every page my thoughts go stray at large
Down in the meadow, where is richer feed, … Continue Reading …

The Thaw
I saw the civil sun drying earth’s tears,
Her tears of joy that only faster flowed. … Continue Reading …

The Vireo
Upon the lofty elm-tree sprays
The vireo rings the changes sweet, … Continue Reading …

To A Stray Fowl
Poor bird! destined to lead thy life
Far in the adventurous west,
And here to be debarred to-night … Continue Reading …

To My Brother
Brother, where dost thou dwell?
What sun shines for thee now?
Dost thou indeed fare well, … Continue Reading …

To The Maiden In The East
Low in the eastern sky
Is set thy glancing eye;
And though its gracious light … Continue Reading …

True Kindness
True kindness is a pure divine affinity,
Not founded upon human consanguinity. … Continue Reading …

Winter Memories
Within the circuit of this plodding life
There enter moments of an azure hue,
Untarnished fair as is the violet … Continue Reading …

Bilingual

American Literature – Children Books – American Poetry – Henry David Thoreau – Poems by Henry David Thoreau