"Man Was Made for Joy and Woe" - excerpt from Auguries of Innocence

Listen to:

Man Was Made for Joy and Woe

by William Blake

performed by Bob Gonzalez, rhapsode

Man was made for joy and woe;

And when this we rightly know

Through the world we safely go.

Joy and woe are woven fine,

A clothing for the soul divine.

Under every grief and pine

Runs a joy with silken twine.

Every Night & every Morn

Some to Misery are Born 

Every Morn and every Night

Some are Born to sweet delight 

Some are Born to sweet delight 

Some are Born to Endless Night 

God Appears & God is Light

To those poor Souls who dwell in Night 

But does a Human Form Display

To those who Dwell in Realms of day

Everything That Grows

Listen to:

Everything That Grows (Sonnet 15) (:53)

by William Shakespeare

performed by Bob Gonzalez, rhapsode

When I consider every thing that grows

Holds in perfection but a little moment,

That this huge stage presenteth nought but shows

Whereon the stars in secret influence comment;

When I perceive that men as plants increase,

Cheered and checked even by the self-same sky,

Vaunt in their youthful sap, at height decrease,

And wear their brave state out of memory;

Then the conceit of this inconstant stay

Sets you most rich in youth before my sight,

Where wasteful Time debateth with decay

To change your day of youth to sullied night,

And all in war with Time for love of you,

As he takes from you, I engraft you new.

Thirst and Immortality

Listen to:

Thirst and Immortality (:42)

by Emily Dickinson

performed by Bob Gonzalez, rhapsode

THIRST

We thirst at first, -- 't is Nature's act;

  And later, when we die,

A little water supplicate

  Of fingers going by.

It intimates the finer want,

  Whose adequate supply

Is that great water in the west

  Termed immortality.

IMMORTALITY

It is an honorable thought,

  And makes one lift one's hat,

As one encountered gentlefolk

  Upon a daily street,

That we've immortal place,

  Though pyramids decay,

And kingdoms, like the orchard,

  Flit russetly away.

Eternity

Listen to:

Eternity

by William Blake

performed by Bob Gonzalez, rhapsode

He who binds to himself a joy

Does the winged life destroy;

He who kisses the joy as it flies

Lives in eternity’s sunrise.

The Conqueror Worm

Listen to:

The Conqueror Worm

by Edgar Allan Poe

performed by Bob Gonzalez, rhapsode

Lo! ’t is a gala night

   Within the lonesome latter years!  

An angel throng, bewinged, bedight

   In veils, and drowned in tears,  

Sit in a theatre, to see

   A play of hopes and fears,

While the orchestra breathes fitfully  

   The music of the spheres.

Mimes, in the form of God on high,  

   Mutter and mumble low,

And hither and thither fly—

   Mere puppets they, who come and go  

At bidding of vast formless things

   That shift the scenery to and fro,

Flapping from out their Condor wings

   Invisible Wo!

That motley drama—oh, be sure  

   It shall not be forgot!

With its Phantom chased for evermore  

   By a crowd that seize it not,

Through a circle that ever returneth in  

   To the self-same spot,

And much of Madness, and more of Sin,  

   And Horror the soul of the plot.

But see, amid the mimic rout,

   A crawling shape intrude!

A blood-red thing that writhes from out  

   The scenic solitude!

It writhes!—it writhes!—with mortal pangs  

The mimes become its food,

And seraphs sob at vermin fangs

   In human gore imbued.

Out—out are the lights—out all!  

   And, over each quivering form,

The curtain, a funeral pall,

   Comes down with the rush of a storm,  

While the angels, all pallid and wan,  

   Uprising, unveiling, affirm

That the play is the tragedy, “Man,”  

   And its hero, the Conqueror Worm.