14 Line Poems

Table of Contents

1. Ozymandias of Egypt

   by Percy Bysshe Shelley | Total Words: 111, Lines: 14

   
   

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   I met a traveller from an antique land
   Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
   Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
   Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown
   And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
   Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
   Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
   The hand that mock'd them and the heart that fed;
   And on the pedestal these words appear:
   

   'My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
   Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!'
   Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
   Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
   The lone and level sands stretch far away;"

2. Try Again

   If at first you don't succeed,
   Try, try again;
   

   - Anonymous
   Try, Try Again

   “

   by William E. Hickson | Total Words: 119, Lines: 14

   
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   'T is a lesson you should heed,
   Try, try again;
   If at first you don't succeed,
   Try, try again;
   Then your courage should appear,
   For, if you will persevere,
   You will conquer, never fear;
   Try, try again.
   

   Once or twice though you should fail,
   Try, try again;
   If you would at last prevail,
   Try, try again;
   If we strive, 'tis no disgrace
   Though we do not win the race;
   What should you do in the case?
   Try, try again.
   

   If you find your task is hard,
   Try, try again;
   Time will bring you your reward,
   Try, try again.
   All that other folks can do,
   Why, with patience, should not you?
   Only keep this rule in view:
   Try, try again.
   

   “I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.”

   – Thomas Edison quote on failure

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3. My Friend

   by Ella Wheeler Wilcox | Total Words: 128, Lines: 14

   
   

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   When first I looked upon the face of Pain
   I shrank repelled, as one shrinks from a foe
   Who stands with dagger poised, as for a blow.
   I was in search of Pleasure and of Gain;
   I turned aside to let him pass: in vain;
   He looked straight in my eyes and would not go.
   "Shake hands," he said, "our paths are one, and so
   We must be comrades on the way, 'tis plain."
   

   I felt the firm clasp of his hand on mine;
   Through all my veins it sent a strengthening glow.
   I straightway linked my arm in his, and lo!
   He led me forth to joys almost divine;
   With God's great truths enriched me in the end,
   And now I hold him as my dearest friend.
   

4. Remember

   by Christina Georgina Rossetti | Total Words: 111, Lines: 14

   Remember me when I am gone away,
   Gone far away into the silent land;
   When you can no more hold me by the hand,
   Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay.
   Remember me when no more day by day
   You tell me of our future that you plann'd:
   Only remember me; you understand
   It will be late to counsel then or pray.
   Yet if you should forget me for a while
   And afterwards remember, do not grieve:
   For if the darkness and corruption leave
   A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,
   Better by far you should forget and smile
   Than that you should remember and be sad.
   

5. Forgiveness

   by John Greenleaf Whittier

   My heart was heavy, for its trust had been
   Abused, its kindness answered with foul wrong;
   So, turning gloomily from my fellow-men,
   One summer Sabbath day I strolled among
   The green mounds of the village burial-place;
   Where, pondering how all human love and hate
   Find one sad level; and how, soon or late,
   Wronged and wrongdoer, each with meekened face,
   And cold hands folded over a still heart,
   Pass the green threshold of our common grave,
   Whither all footsteps tend, whence none depart,
   Awed for myself, and pitying my race,
   Our common sorrow, like a mighty wave,
   Swept all my pride away, and trembling I forgave!
   

6. The Soldier

   by Rupert Brooke. Total Words: 115 | Total Lines: 14. Rupert Brooke, a brilliant, impassioned young Englishman, was one of the first to take arms when Great Britain went to war. He died in the Dardanelles expedition, April 23, 1915. A few days before, he had sent from the Aegean Sea to the English-speaking peoples the poem by which he is best known:

   
   

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   If I should die, think only this of me:
   That there’s some corner of a foreign field
   That is for ever England. There shall be
   In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;
   A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,
   Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam,
   A body of England’s, breathing English air,
   Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.
   

   And think, this heart, all evil shed away,
   A pulse in the eternal mind, no less
   Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;
   Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;
   And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,
   In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.
   

7. The Sleeping Beauty

   by Mathilde Blind

   
   

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   There was intoxication in the air;
   The wind, keen blowing from across the seas,
   O'er leagues of new-ploughed land and heathery leas,
   Smelt of wild gorse whose gold flamed everywhere.
   An undertone of song pulsed far and near,
   The soaring larks filled heaven with ecstasies,
   And, like a living clock among the trees,
   The shouting cuckoo struck the time of year.
   

   For now the Sun had found the earth once more,
   And woke the Sleeping Beauty with a kiss;
   Who thrilled with light of love in every pore,
   Opened her flower-blue eyes, and looked in his.
   Then all things felt life fluttering at their core—
   The world shook mystical in lambent bliss.
   

8. Milkweed

   by Helen Hunt Jackson

   
   

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   O, patient creature with a peasant face,
   Burnt by the summer sun, begrimed with stains,
   And standing humbly in the dusty lanes!
   There seems a mystery in thy work and place,
   Which crowns thee with significance and grace;
   Whose is the milk that fills thy faithful veins?
   What royal nursling comes at night and drains
   Unscorned the food of the plebeian race?
   By day I mark no living thing which rests
   On thee save butterflies of gold and brown,
   Who turn from flowers that are more fair, more sweet,
   And crowding eagerly sink fluttering down
   And hang, like jewels flashing in the heat,
   Upon thy splendid rounded purple breasts.
   

9. Good Seed

   by Dudley Hughes Davis

   
   

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   Good seed sown on the earth
   Shall ever bloom in heaven;
   And while eternity rolls on
   Grow more beautiful and lovely,
   Variegating its tints
   With the golden skies
   Of the heavenly world,
   While the everlasting fountain,
   Which flows from the throne of God,
   Shall lift its golden spray
   In heavenly clouds,
   To fall like dew-drops
   On the never withering bloom
   Which shall live forever and ever.
   

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