"The Valley of Unrest"

By: Edgar Allan Poe

Once it smiled a silent dell

Where the people did not dwell;

They had gone unto the wars

Trusting to the mild-eyed stars,

Nightly from their azure towers,

To keep watch above the flowers,

In the midst of which all day

The red sun-light lazily lay.

Now each visitor shall confess

The sad valley of restlessness.

Nothing there is motionless-

Nothing save the airs that brood

Over the magic solitude

Ah, by no wind are stirred those trees

That palpitate like the chilling seas

Around the misty Hebrides!

Ah, by no wind those cluds are driven

Taht rustle through the unquiet Heaven

Uneasily, from morn til even,

Over the violets that there lie

In myriad types of the human eye-

Over the lillies there that wave

And weep above a nameless grave!

They wave: - from out their fragrant tops

Eternal dews come down in drops.

They weep: - from off their delicate stems

Perenial tears descend in gems.

"High Flight"

By: John Gillespie Magee

Oh, I have slipped the surely bonds of earth,

And danced the skies on laughter silvered wings;

Sunward I've climbed and joined the tumbling mirth

Of sun-split clouds - and done a hundred things

I've topped the wind-swepted heights with easy grace,

Where never lark or even eagle flew;

And while with silent, lifting mind I've trod.

The high, untrespassed sanctity of space,

Put out my hand, and touched the face of god.

"Night"

By: Lois Weakley McKay

My kitten walks on velvet feet,

And makes no sound at all;

And in the doorway nightly sits,

To watch the darkness fall,

I think he loves the lady night,

And feels akin to her

Whose footsteps are as still as his,

Whos touch, as soft as fur

"Good Night"

By: Rose Fyleman

The rabbits play no more,

The little brids are weary,

The buttercups are folded up-

Good night, good night, my dearie

The children in the country,

The children in the city,

Go to their beds with nodding heads-

Good night, good night, my pretty

"Irony"

By: James O'Barr

The tides of sin draw tighter and brighter

The hours become heavier and weighted

And the shadows smile, dark and wild

This is when hope and desire collapse,

The arc of the dream descends into despair,

When innocent lovers dance like angels on fire

This is when the night comes down,

A hammer on an anvil

And the only absolution accepted,

Is a legacy of brutality

A single note rings on and on and on

"Despair"

By: James O'Barr

Here dwells a snake,

One thousand miles long

Coiled, one thousand miles deep

Eyes like candy

Hard and blue, but soft as kittens feet

Out of sight or in the element of light

It could be a devil, it could be and angel

With spiders inside a vision from hell

Its spine is a vertical scream

Slow as concrete