I am, in truth, a yellow fork
From tables in the sky
By inadvertent fingers dropped
The awful cutlery.
Of mansions never quite disclosed
And never quite concealed
The apparatus of the dark
To ignorance revealed.
--------------------- lightning, Emily Dickinson
Many-maned scud-thumper,
Maker of worn wood,
Shrub-ruster,
Sky-mocker,
Rave!
Portly pusher,
Wind-slave.
--------------------- John Updike
Make me thy lyre, even as the forests are.
What if my leaves fell like its own --
The tumult of thy mighty harmonies
Will take from both a deep autumnal tone.
--------------------- the west wind, Percy Bysshe Shelley
This darksome burn, horseback brown,
His rollock highroad roaring down,
In coop and in comb the fleece of his foam
Flutes and low to the body falls home.
--------------------- river, Gerard Manley Hopkins
I've measured it from side to side,
'Tis three feet long and two feet wide.
It is of compass small, and bare
To thirsty suns and parching air.
--------------------- the grave of a child, Wordsworth
My love, when I gaze on thy beautiful face,
Careering along, yet always in place --
The thought has often come into my mind
If I ever shall see thy glorious behind.
--------------------- the moon, Sir Edmund Gosse
Then all thy feculent majesty recalls
The nauseous mustiness of forsaken bowers,
The leprous nudity of deserted halls --
The positive nastiness of sullied flowers.
And I mark the colours, yellow and black,
That fresco thy lithe, dictatorial thighs.
--------------------- spider, Francis Saltus Saltus
When young, I am sweet in the sun.
When middle-aged, I make you gay.
When old, I am valued more than ever.
--------------------- wine
I am always hungry,
I must always be fed,
The finger I lick
Will soon turn red.
--------------------- fire
All about, but cannot be seen,
Can be captured, cannot be held,
No throat, but can be heard.
--------------------- Wind
I am only useful
When I am full,
Yet I am always
Full of holes.
--------------------- sieve (or sponge)
If you break me
I do not stop working,
If you touch me
I may be snared,
If you lose me
Nothing will matter.
--------------------- Heart
If a man carried my burden
He would break his back.
I am not rich,
But leave silver in my track.
--------------------- Snail
Until I am measured
I am not known,
Yet how you miss me
When I have flown.
--------------------- Time
I drive men mad
For love of me,
Easily beaten,
Never free.
--------------------- Gold
When set loose
I fly away,
Never so cursed
As when I go astray.
--------------------- A fart
I go around in circles
But always straight ahead,
Never complain
No matter where I am led.
--------------------- Wagon wheel
Lighter than what
I am made of,
More of me is hidden
Than is seen.
--------------------- iceberg
I turn around once,
What is out will not get in.
I turn around again,
What is in will not get out.
--------------------- stopcock
Each morning I appear
To lie at your feet,
All day I will follow
No matter how fast you run,
Yet I nearly perish
In the midday sun.
--------------------- Shadow
Bright as diamonds,
Loud as thunder,
Never still,
A thing of wonder.
--------------------- waterfall? (fireworks?)
My life can be measured in hours,
I serve by being devoured.
Thin, I am quick
Fat, I am slow
Wind is my foe.
--------------------- candle
To unravel me
You need a simple key,
No key that was made
By locksmith's hand,
But a key that only I
Will understand.
--------------------- cipher
I am seen in the water
If seen in the sky,
I am in the rainbow,
A jay's feather,
And lapis lazuli.
--------------------- blue
Glittering points
That downward thrust,
Sparkling spears
That never rust.
--------------------- icicle
You heard me before,
Yet you hear me again,
Then I die,
'Till you call me again.
--------------------- echo
Three lives have I.
Gentle enough to soothe the skin,
Light enough to caress the sky,
Hard enough to crack rocks.
--------------------- water
You can see nothing else
When you look in my face,
I will look you in the eye
And I will never lie.
--------------------- your reflection
Lovely and round,
I shine with pale light,
grown in the darkness,
A lady's delight.
--------------------- pearl
At the sound of me, men may dream
Or stamp their feet
At the sound of me, women may laugh
Or sometimes weep
--------------------- music
When I am filled
I can point the way,
When I am empty
Nothing moves me,
I have two skins
One without and one within.
--------------------- glove
My tines be long,
My tines be short
My tines end ere
My first report.
What am I?
--------------------- lightning
With thieves I consort,
With the vilest, in short,
I'm quite at ease in depravity;
Yet all divines use me,
And savants can't lose me,
For I am the center of gravity.
--------------------- The letter 'v'.
As a whole, I am both safe and secure.
Behead me, and I become a place of meeting.
Behead me again, and I am the partner of ready.
Restore me, and I become the domain of beasts.
What am I?
--------------------- stable
I sought my first in starry skies
Where shines the April sun;
My second came before my eyes,
And warned me to be done.
'Tis very hard to lose one's sight;
I'm blind as bat or mole;
Once hills and fields were my delight,
Now I'm no more my whole.
Solution ?
My first is high,
My second damp,
My whole a tie,
A writer's cramp.
Solution ?
A hundred and one
by fifty divide,
And if a cipher
is rightly applied,
The answer is one from nine.
Solution ?
What does man love more than life
Fear more than death or mortal strife
What the poor have, the rich require,
and what contented men desire,
What the miser spends and the spendthrift saves
And all men carry to their graves?
--------------------- nothing
I build up castles.
I tear down mountains.
I make some men blind,
I help others to see.
What am I?
--------------------- sand
Ripped from my mother's womb,
Beaten and burned,
I become a blood-thirsty slayer
What am I?
--------------------- iron ore
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