These Beasts and the Benin Bronze by Margaret Danner
![Margaret Danner](/storage/poets/resize/500x500_7457bdbd6f397e6eed7d51eda4bf6543.jpeg)
“Africans are beasts.”
—The Reverend Carroll Dave Garroway’s Mr. J. Fred Muggs often thumps
quite a rhythmical thump with his feet,
Read Poem —The Reverend Carroll Dave Garroway’s Mr. J. Fred Muggs often thumps
quite a rhythmical thump with his feet,
0
New Yor I by Peter Davison
![Peter Davison](/storage/poets/resize/500x500_01619ce24bf23243218c38ca7bb8c171.jpg)
New Yor I! Graveyard bristling with monuments
and receptions for business purposes!
Has my right hand lost its cunning?
It can't remember how to spell your name:
unless I scowl, my keyboard won't offer
the K: it throws up I instead.
I was actually born on your streets,
Lexington at 76th. So was my mother.
Read Poem and receptions for business purposes!
Has my right hand lost its cunning?
It can't remember how to spell your name:
unless I scowl, my keyboard won't offer
the K: it throws up I instead.
I was actually born on your streets,
Lexington at 76th. So was my mother.
0
The Dance in Jinotega by Grace Paley
![Grace Paley](/storage/poets/resize/500x500_MfAEAbKlz9sNvsBXbWyXa6FrXeKtaFJa839UZDIw.jpeg)
In Jinotega women greeted us
with thousands of flowers roses
it was hard to tell the petals
on our faces and arms falling
then embraces and the Spanish language
which is a little like a descent of
petals pink and orange
Suddenly out of the hallway our
Read Poem with thousands of flowers roses
it was hard to tell the petals
on our faces and arms falling
then embraces and the Spanish language
which is a little like a descent of
petals pink and orange
Suddenly out of the hallway our
0
The Untold Witch by Keith Waldrop
![Keith Waldrop](/storage/poets/resize/500x500_sFdi3oDbMsRJOqa8nJFQqei3rE45Uvuhs78VUBPo.jpeg)
1
She would
sigh, if she
could think of
anything intolerable.
her numbers
fold, in
planes she can
Read Poem She would
sigh, if she
could think of
anything intolerable.
her numbers
fold, in
planes she can
0
Kalymnos: November 29, 1968 by Robert Lax
![Robert Lax](/storage/poets/resize/500x500_BGRl2wzmfFfEDeKIlc5YsQO1UYgHyU1M2vJAz8EQ.jpeg)
1
pavlos
looking out
to sea
explains:
son costa,
20, will be
coming home
went with a
sponge caiqui
Read Poem pavlos
looking out
to sea
explains:
son costa,
20, will be
coming home
went with a
sponge caiqui
0
Valentine by Paul Carroll
![Paul Carroll](/storage/poets/resize/500x500_5LRhwgTTtqGX2tSUDd0BmRjrTEnMr8bqw9PpbK9e.jpeg)
Our matchbox bedroom in the loft above your
sculpture factory
Turns magical at times
Behind its dark blue Druid door. Last night,
Inside you, sweetheart,
It felt as if I were coming from the soul itself.
And that Indian Summer Sunday afternoon a year
ago
Read Poem sculpture factory
Turns magical at times
Behind its dark blue Druid door. Last night,
Inside you, sweetheart,
It felt as if I were coming from the soul itself.
And that Indian Summer Sunday afternoon a year
ago
0
Beatitudes Visuales Mexicanas by Lawrence Ferlinghetti
![Lawrence Ferlinghetti](/storage/poets/resize/500x500_nfLfpvldp4ElMqRah6rxoOX3h3BMOxNvcXCHjmec.jpeg)
October–November 1975 Autobus on Paseo de la Reforma with destination signs: bellas artes insurgentes. Exactamente. Just what’s needed: Insurgent Arts. Poesía Insurgente. This is not it ...
1
Read Poem 1
0
Maggid by Marge Piercy
![Marge Piercy](/storage/poets/resize/500x500_3X0L4RTXEurXRuY78JWzi5zdeDMy3jsWwdK29E04.jpeg)
The courage to let go of the door, the handle.
The courage to shed the familiar walls whose very
stains and leaks are comfortable as the little moles
of the upper arm; stains that recall a feast,
a child’s naughtiness, a loud blattering storm
that slapped the roof hard, pouring through.
Read Poem The courage to shed the familiar walls whose very
stains and leaks are comfortable as the little moles
of the upper arm; stains that recall a feast,
a child’s naughtiness, a loud blattering storm
that slapped the roof hard, pouring through.
0
The Traveller-Heart by Vachel Lindsay
![Vachel Lindsay](/storage/poets/resize/500x500_WL3CwbEgTHhpBZjdjRjvAswo0VM3ONWUCTGfylb6.jpeg)
(To a Man who maintained that the Mausoleum is the Stateliest Possible Manner of Interment) I would be one with the dark, dark earth:—
Follow the plough with a yokel tread.
Read Poem Follow the plough with a yokel tread.
0
Charleston by Henry Timrod
![Henry Timrod](/storage/poets/resize/500x500_aSGVUCHCo3MOL2HR7q43dyIkCTkyOfnY4t8hcvQY.jpeg)
Calm as that second summer which precedes
The first fall of the snow,
In the broad sunlight of heroic deeds,
The City bides the foe.
As yet, behind their ramparts stern and proud,
Her bolted thunders sleep—
Dark Sumter, like a battlemented cloud,
Looms o’er the solemn deep.
No Calpe frowns from lofty cliff or scar
To guard the holy strand;
But Moultrie holds in leash her dogs of war
Above the level sand.
Read Poem The first fall of the snow,
In the broad sunlight of heroic deeds,
The City bides the foe.
As yet, behind their ramparts stern and proud,
Her bolted thunders sleep—
Dark Sumter, like a battlemented cloud,
Looms o’er the solemn deep.
No Calpe frowns from lofty cliff or scar
To guard the holy strand;
But Moultrie holds in leash her dogs of war
Above the level sand.
0
The College Colonel by Herman Melville
![Herman Melville](/storage/poets/resize/500x500_yEzHhPfMBSmeoXArDeTkZ1lP68lXBPzNXXFhP0AV.jpeg)
He rides at their head;
A crutch by his saddle just slants in view,
One slung arm is in splints, you see,
Yet he guides his strong steed—how coldly too.
He brings his regiment home—
Not as they filed two years before,
But a remnant half-tattered, and battered, and worn,
Like castaway sailors, who—stunned
By the surf’s loud roar,
Their mates dragged back and seen no more—
Again and again breast the surge,
And at last crawl, spent, to shore.
A still rigidity and pale—
Read Poem A crutch by his saddle just slants in view,
One slung arm is in splints, you see,
Yet he guides his strong steed—how coldly too.
He brings his regiment home—
Not as they filed two years before,
But a remnant half-tattered, and battered, and worn,
Like castaway sailors, who—stunned
By the surf’s loud roar,
Their mates dragged back and seen no more—
Again and again breast the surge,
And at last crawl, spent, to shore.
A still rigidity and pale—
0
From “Five Poems” by Edward Dahlberg
![Edward Dahlberg](/storage/poets/resize/500x500_Ma3dCOcnozDjWM51BeVshCcSty4UAT51ixM6MRo3.jpeg)
I
He who has never tasted the grapes of Canaan can only view them from Pisgah.
I have my tides, O sea-foamed Venus, dearer than watercress, pipkins, thyme and clymene. You once held me by the cord of my navel, but I have not died to live in Mahomet’s paradise.
Would that I could gather up my love to me as one does one’s fate, or measure her nature as God does the sea.
We are a weary race that hates seedtime. Poor Persephone, who is Maying springtime, and the coming up of flowers! We remember only what we seed, and Persephone goes down into the earth after Spring and Summer vegetation only because Pluto gave her pomegranate seeds to remember him, but if the seed perish, Persephone will die, and memory shall pass from the earth.
A man of humble blood, with a soul of Kidron, needs a Rachel, but I labored for years in the weary fields for Leah.II
The world is a wound in my soul, and I have sought the living waters in meditation, and the angelical fountains in the desert of Beersheba for solitude, for what health there is in friendship comes when one is alone.
I shed tears on the Mount of Olives because people no longer care for each other, but my friends have lacked the character for the vigil. There is no Cana wine in human affections that are not always awake, for people who do not trouble about each other are foes.
It is humiliating being the lamb and bleating to each passerby, “Feed me!” What is the use of saying that men are stones when I know I am going to try to turn them into bread.
I am afraid to say that people are truthful. When a man tells me he is honest I press my hand close to my heart where I keep my miserable wallet. If he says he has any goodness in him, I avoid him, for I trust nobody who has so little fear of the evils that grow and ripen in us while we imagine we have one virtuous trait. These demons lie in ambush in the thick, heady coverts of the blood, where hypocrisy and egoism fatten, waiting to mock or betray us in any moment of self-esteem.
I have no faith in a meek man, and regard anyone that shows a humble mien as one who is preparing to make an attack upon me, for there is some brutish, nether fault in starved vanity.
Yet once a friend leaned as gently on my coat as that disciple had on the bosom of the Saviour, and I went away, not knowing by his affection whether I was the John Christ was said to have loved most. I whispered thanks to my soul because he leaned upon me, for I shall never know who I am if I am not loved.
V
Much flesh walks upon the earth void of heart and warm liver, for it is the spirit that dies soonest.
Some men have marshland natures with mist and sea-water in their intellects, and are as sterile as the Florida earth which De Soto found in those meager, rough Indian settlements, and their tongues are fierce, reedy arrows. They wound and bleed the spirit, and their oaks and chestnut trees and acorns are wild, and a terrible, barren wind from the Atlantic blows through their blood as pitiless as the primitive rivers De Soto’s soldiers could not ford.
Do not attempt to cross these mad, tumid rivers, boreal and brackish, for water is unstable, and you cannot link yourself to it.
There are also inland, domestic men who are timid pulse and vetch, and though they may appear as stupid as poultry rooting in the mire, they are housed people, and they have orchards and good, tamed wine that makes men loving rather than predatory; go to them, and take little thought of their ignorance which brings forth good fruits, for here you may eat and not be on guard for the preservation of your soul.
People who have domestic animals are patient, for atheism and the stony heart are the result of traveling: sorrow never goes anywhere. Were we as content as our forefathers were with labor in the fallow, or as a fuller with his cloth, or a drayman with his horses and mules, we would stay where we are, and that is praying.
There are men that are birds, and their raiment is trembling feathers, for they show their souls to everyone, and everything that is ungentle or untutored or evil or mockery is as a rude stone cast at them, and they suffer all day long, or as Paul remarks they are slain every moment.
God forgive me for my pride; though I would relinquish my own birthright for that wretched pottage of lentils which is friendship, I mistrust every mortal.
Each day the alms I ask of heaven is not to have a new chagrin which is my daily bread.
December 1959
Read Poem He who has never tasted the grapes of Canaan can only view them from Pisgah.
I have my tides, O sea-foamed Venus, dearer than watercress, pipkins, thyme and clymene. You once held me by the cord of my navel, but I have not died to live in Mahomet’s paradise.
Would that I could gather up my love to me as one does one’s fate, or measure her nature as God does the sea.
We are a weary race that hates seedtime. Poor Persephone, who is Maying springtime, and the coming up of flowers! We remember only what we seed, and Persephone goes down into the earth after Spring and Summer vegetation only because Pluto gave her pomegranate seeds to remember him, but if the seed perish, Persephone will die, and memory shall pass from the earth.
A man of humble blood, with a soul of Kidron, needs a Rachel, but I labored for years in the weary fields for Leah.II
The world is a wound in my soul, and I have sought the living waters in meditation, and the angelical fountains in the desert of Beersheba for solitude, for what health there is in friendship comes when one is alone.
I shed tears on the Mount of Olives because people no longer care for each other, but my friends have lacked the character for the vigil. There is no Cana wine in human affections that are not always awake, for people who do not trouble about each other are foes.
It is humiliating being the lamb and bleating to each passerby, “Feed me!” What is the use of saying that men are stones when I know I am going to try to turn them into bread.
I am afraid to say that people are truthful. When a man tells me he is honest I press my hand close to my heart where I keep my miserable wallet. If he says he has any goodness in him, I avoid him, for I trust nobody who has so little fear of the evils that grow and ripen in us while we imagine we have one virtuous trait. These demons lie in ambush in the thick, heady coverts of the blood, where hypocrisy and egoism fatten, waiting to mock or betray us in any moment of self-esteem.
I have no faith in a meek man, and regard anyone that shows a humble mien as one who is preparing to make an attack upon me, for there is some brutish, nether fault in starved vanity.
Yet once a friend leaned as gently on my coat as that disciple had on the bosom of the Saviour, and I went away, not knowing by his affection whether I was the John Christ was said to have loved most. I whispered thanks to my soul because he leaned upon me, for I shall never know who I am if I am not loved.
V
Much flesh walks upon the earth void of heart and warm liver, for it is the spirit that dies soonest.
Some men have marshland natures with mist and sea-water in their intellects, and are as sterile as the Florida earth which De Soto found in those meager, rough Indian settlements, and their tongues are fierce, reedy arrows. They wound and bleed the spirit, and their oaks and chestnut trees and acorns are wild, and a terrible, barren wind from the Atlantic blows through their blood as pitiless as the primitive rivers De Soto’s soldiers could not ford.
Do not attempt to cross these mad, tumid rivers, boreal and brackish, for water is unstable, and you cannot link yourself to it.
There are also inland, domestic men who are timid pulse and vetch, and though they may appear as stupid as poultry rooting in the mire, they are housed people, and they have orchards and good, tamed wine that makes men loving rather than predatory; go to them, and take little thought of their ignorance which brings forth good fruits, for here you may eat and not be on guard for the preservation of your soul.
People who have domestic animals are patient, for atheism and the stony heart are the result of traveling: sorrow never goes anywhere. Were we as content as our forefathers were with labor in the fallow, or as a fuller with his cloth, or a drayman with his horses and mules, we would stay where we are, and that is praying.
There are men that are birds, and their raiment is trembling feathers, for they show their souls to everyone, and everything that is ungentle or untutored or evil or mockery is as a rude stone cast at them, and they suffer all day long, or as Paul remarks they are slain every moment.
God forgive me for my pride; though I would relinquish my own birthright for that wretched pottage of lentils which is friendship, I mistrust every mortal.
Each day the alms I ask of heaven is not to have a new chagrin which is my daily bread.
December 1959
0
The Peacock at Alderton by Geoffrey Hill
![Geoffrey Hill](/storage/poets/resize/500x500_EmSWbkEQFGrRDzyV7KsZeStB4AaWI84VBeox6pTr.jpeg)
Nothing to tell why I cannot write
in re Nobody; nobody to narrate this
latter acknowledgement: the self that counts
words to a line, accountable survivor
pain-wedged, pinioned in the cleft trunk,
less petty than a sprite, poisonous as Ariel
to Prospero's own knowledge. In my room
a vase of peacock feathers. I will attempt
to describe them, as if for evidence
on which a life depends. Except for the eyes
they are threadbare, the threads hanging
as from a luminate tough weed in February.
But those eyes—like a Greek letter,
omega, fossiled in an Indian shawl;
like a shaved cross section of living tissue,
Read Poem in re Nobody; nobody to narrate this
latter acknowledgement: the self that counts
words to a line, accountable survivor
pain-wedged, pinioned in the cleft trunk,
less petty than a sprite, poisonous as Ariel
to Prospero's own knowledge. In my room
a vase of peacock feathers. I will attempt
to describe them, as if for evidence
on which a life depends. Except for the eyes
they are threadbare, the threads hanging
as from a luminate tough weed in February.
But those eyes—like a Greek letter,
omega, fossiled in an Indian shawl;
like a shaved cross section of living tissue,
0
Ritual X. : The Evening Pair of Ales by Paul Blackburn
![Paul Blackburn](/storage/poets/resize/500x500_poet-image.jpeg)
EAST OF EDEN
is mountains & desert
until you cross the passes into India .
It is 3 o’clock in the afternoon or
twenty of 8 at night, depending
which clock you believe .
AND WEST IS WEST
It’s where the cups and saucers are,
Read Poem is mountains & desert
until you cross the passes into India .
It is 3 o’clock in the afternoon or
twenty of 8 at night, depending
which clock you believe .
AND WEST IS WEST
It’s where the cups and saucers are,
0
As the Dead Prey Upon Us by Charles Olson
![Charles Olson](/storage/poets/resize/500x500_6sVa59cEGI7Iqx0FCCHuYKKCRqG8G3qskuJ1kHzH.jpeg)
As the dead prey upon us,
they are the dead in ourselves,
awake, my sleeping ones, I cry out to you,
disentangle the nets of being!
I pushed my car, it had been sitting so long unused.
I thought the tires looked as though they only needed air.
But suddenly the huge underbody was above me, and the rear tires
were masses of rubber and thread variously clinging together
Read Poem they are the dead in ourselves,
awake, my sleeping ones, I cry out to you,
disentangle the nets of being!
I pushed my car, it had been sitting so long unused.
I thought the tires looked as though they only needed air.
But suddenly the huge underbody was above me, and the rear tires
were masses of rubber and thread variously clinging together
0
Indian River by Wallace Stevens
![Wallace Stevens](/storage/poets/resize/500x500_tu2O8WYSpbyhbVKKBpUeN1XXCx9mM84Am5LIatPu.jpeg)
The trade-wind jingles the rings in the nets around the racksby the docks on Indian River.
It is the same jingle of the water among roots under thebanks of the palmettoes,
It is the same jingle of the red-bird breasting the orange-treesout of the cedars.
Yet there is no spring in Florida, neither in boskage perdu, noron the nunnery beaches.
Read Poem It is the same jingle of the water among roots under thebanks of the palmettoes,
It is the same jingle of the red-bird breasting the orange-treesout of the cedars.
Yet there is no spring in Florida, neither in boskage perdu, noron the nunnery beaches.
0
In Oklahoma by Carter Revard
![Carter Revard](/storage/poets/resize/500x500_dY9eIWAma6rTKDnVQ1PStPvV1YVPhCFwuGRJGpeF.jpeg)
When you leave a Real City, as Gertrude Stein did, and go to Oakland, as she did, you can say, as she did, there is no there, there. When you are a Hartford insurance executive, as Wallace Stevens was, and you have never been to Oklahoma, as he had not, you can invent people to dance there, as he did, and you can name them Bonnie and Josie. But a THERE depends on how, in the beginning, the wind breathes upon its surface. Shh: amethyst, sapphire. Lead. Crystal mirror. See, a cow-pond in Oklahoma. Under willows now, so the Osage man fishing there is in the shade. A bobwhite whistles from his fencepost, a hundred yards south of the pond. A muskrat-head draws a nest of Vs up to the pond’s apex, loses them there in the reeds and sedges where a redwing blackbird, with gold and scarlet epaulets flashing, perches on the jiggly buttonwood branch. Purple martins skim the pond, dip and sip, veer and swoop, check, pounce, crisscross each other’s flashing paths. His wife in the Indian Hospital with cancer. Children in various unhappiness. White clouds sail slowly across the pure blue pond. Turtles poke their heads up, watch the Indian man casting, reeling, casting, reeling. A bass strikes, is hooked, fights, is reeled in, pulls away again, is drawn back, dragged ashore, put on the stringer. In Oklahoma, Wally, here is Josie’s father. Something that is going to be nothing, but isn’t. Watch: now he takes the bass home, cleans and fries it. Shall I tell you a secret, Gert? You have to be there before it’s there. Daddy, would you pass them a plate of fish? See friends, it’s not a flyover here. Come down from your planes and you’ll understand. Here.
Read Poem 0
Some San Francisco Poems: Sections 1-4 by George Oppen
![George Oppen](/storage/poets/resize/500x500_o2i579M7aKQewcymr8FkmAuOVWU5F5WXw0O1mkZg.jpeg)
1
Moving over the hills, crossing the irrigation
canals perfect and profuse in the mountains the
streams of women and men walking under the high-
tension wires over the brown hills
in the multiple world of the fly’s
multiple eye the songs they go to hear on
this occasion are no one’s own
Read Poem Moving over the hills, crossing the irrigation
canals perfect and profuse in the mountains the
streams of women and men walking under the high-
tension wires over the brown hills
in the multiple world of the fly’s
multiple eye the songs they go to hear on
this occasion are no one’s own
0
A Tribute to Chief Joseph (1840?-1904) by Duane Niatum
![Duane Niatum](/storage/poets/resize/500x500_eMHdnvCY8g0ecSD87Bm0KdLrwejiNlKxFkViT1FV.jpeg)
"God made me an Indian, but not a reservation Indian."—Sitting Bull Hin-Mah-Too-Yah-Lat-Ket: Thunder-rolling in-the-mountains,
Read Poem 0
It Is a Living Coral by William Carlos Williams
![William Carlos Williams](/storage/poets/resize/500x500_Pgis0pzavEuiiZmaekKbaaB3xwAybOrgrym29D4I.jpeg)
a trouble
archaically fettered
to produce
E Pluribus Unum an
island
in the sea a Capitol
surmounted
by Armed Liberty—
Read Poem archaically fettered
to produce
E Pluribus Unum an
island
in the sea a Capitol
surmounted
by Armed Liberty—
0
from The Task, Book IV: The Winter Evening by William Cowper
![William Cowper](/storage/poets/resize/500x500_EDZ5F2QwoYTgGTzGUo8Gloci5IysDzwK3OrAy8XG.jpeg)
(excerpt) Hark! ’tis the twanging horn! o’er yonder bridge,
That with its wearisome but needful length
Bestrides the wintry flood, in which the moon
Sees her unwrinkled face reflected bright;
Read Poem That with its wearisome but needful length
Bestrides the wintry flood, in which the moon
Sees her unwrinkled face reflected bright;
0
Night Wash by Anne Winters
![Anne Winters](/storage/poets/resize/500x500_poet-image.jpeg)
All seas are seas in the moon to these
lonely and full of light.
High above laundries and rooftops
the pinstriped silhouettes speak nightmare
as do the faces full of fire and orange peel.
Every citizen knows what’s the trouble: America’s longest
river is—New York; that’s what they say, and I say so.
Wonderful thing, electricity,
Read Poem lonely and full of light.
High above laundries and rooftops
the pinstriped silhouettes speak nightmare
as do the faces full of fire and orange peel.
Every citizen knows what’s the trouble: America’s longest
river is—New York; that’s what they say, and I say so.
Wonderful thing, electricity,
0
Quivira by Ronald Johnson
![Ronald Johnson](/storage/poets/resize/500x500_aiJQhP7LjbiadHziA2p77HKP4pbLvDqg1KtijDEP.jpeg)
I
Also reputed to be golden, Quivira:
Cibola, unknown
to Coronado, meant ‘buffalo’
to the Indians, but onward, to El Dorado, ‘The Gilded One’,
a country where
boats were incrusted with gold, where
golden bells hung from trees
Read Poem Also reputed to be golden, Quivira:
Cibola, unknown
to Coronado, meant ‘buffalo’
to the Indians, but onward, to El Dorado, ‘The Gilded One’,
a country where
boats were incrusted with gold, where
golden bells hung from trees
0
Let Me Die on the Prairie by Frances Jane Crosby Van Alstyne
![Frances Jane Crosby Van Alstyne](/storage/poets/resize/500x500_poet-image.jpeg)
Let me die on the prairie! and o’er my rude grave,
In the soft breeze of summer the tall grass shall wave;
I would breathe my last sigh as the bright hues of even
Are melting away in the blue arch of Heaven.
Let me die on the prairie! unwept and unknown,
I would pass from this fair Earth forgotten, alone;—
Yet no! – there are hearts I have learned to revere,
And methinks there is bliss in affection’s warm tear.
Oh, speak not to me of the green cypress shade;
I would sleep where the bones of the Indian are laid,
And the deer will bound o’er me with step light and free,
And the carol of birds will my requiem be.
Read Poem In the soft breeze of summer the tall grass shall wave;
I would breathe my last sigh as the bright hues of even
Are melting away in the blue arch of Heaven.
Let me die on the prairie! unwept and unknown,
I would pass from this fair Earth forgotten, alone;—
Yet no! – there are hearts I have learned to revere,
And methinks there is bliss in affection’s warm tear.
Oh, speak not to me of the green cypress shade;
I would sleep where the bones of the Indian are laid,
And the deer will bound o’er me with step light and free,
And the carol of birds will my requiem be.
0
Change by Letitia Elizabeth Landon
![Letitia Elizabeth Landon](/storage/poets/resize/500x500_iLrtwPToTpgPxreLCVCxSuxnIMdW7EKQs3dyku6Q.jpeg)
And this is what is left of youth! . . .
There were two boys, who were bred up together,
Shared the same bed, and fed at the same board;
Each tried the other’s sport, from their first chase,
Young hunters of the butterfly and bee,
To when they followed the fleet hare, and tried
The swiftness of the bird. They lay beside
The silver trout stream, watching as the sun
Read Poem There were two boys, who were bred up together,
Shared the same bed, and fed at the same board;
Each tried the other’s sport, from their first chase,
Young hunters of the butterfly and bee,
To when they followed the fleet hare, and tried
The swiftness of the bird. They lay beside
The silver trout stream, watching as the sun
0
Choosing A Profession by Mary Lamb
![Mary Lamb](/storage/poets/resize/500x500_RShAPxkWEZsQqrLxQLPRapmgpiqw9A8W7b1A8fgM.jpeg)
A Creole boy from the West Indies brought,
To be in European learning taught,
Some years before to Westminster he went,
To a Preparatory school was sent.
When from his artless tale the mistress found
The child had not one friend on English ground,
She ev’n as if she his own mother were,
Made the dark Indian her particular care.
Read Poem To be in European learning taught,
Some years before to Westminster he went,
To a Preparatory school was sent.
When from his artless tale the mistress found
The child had not one friend on English ground,
She ev’n as if she his own mother were,
Made the dark Indian her particular care.
0
The Indian Burying Ground by Philip Freneau
![Philip Freneau](/storage/poets/resize/500x500_W8JcDRllU2QkS8qpNh5noJL6VEqbZvvKZDpnOD39.jpeg)
In spite of all the learned have said,
I still my old opinion keep;
The posture, that we give the dead,
Points out the soul's eternal sleep.
Not so the ancients of these lands—
The Indian, when from life released,
Again is seated with his friends,
And shares again the joyous feast.
His imaged birds, and painted bowl,
And venison, for a journey dressed,
Bespeak the nature of the soul,
Activity, that knows no rest.
Read Poem I still my old opinion keep;
The posture, that we give the dead,
Points out the soul's eternal sleep.
Not so the ancients of these lands—
The Indian, when from life released,
Again is seated with his friends,
And shares again the joyous feast.
His imaged birds, and painted bowl,
And venison, for a journey dressed,
Bespeak the nature of the soul,
Activity, that knows no rest.
0
Joe by Emily Pauline Johnson
![Emily Pauline Johnson](/storage/poets/resize/500x500_poet-image.jpeg)
An Etching A meadow brown; across the yonder edge
A zigzag fence is ambling; here a wedge
Of underbush has cleft its course in twain,
Till where beyond it staggers up again;
Read Poem A zigzag fence is ambling; here a wedge
Of underbush has cleft its course in twain,
Till where beyond it staggers up again;
0
Sapphics: At the Mohawk-Castle, Canada. To Lieutenant Montgomery by Thomas Morris
![Thomas Morris](/storage/poets/resize/500x500_poet-image.jpeg)
Ease is the pray’r of him who, in a whaleboat
Crossing Lake Champlain, by a storm’s o’ertaken:
Not struck his blanket, not a friendly island
Near to receive him.
Ease is the wish too of the sly Canadian;
Ease the delight of bloody Caghnawagas;
Ease, Richard, ease, not to be bought with wampum,
Read Poem Crossing Lake Champlain, by a storm’s o’ertaken:
Not struck his blanket, not a friendly island
Near to receive him.
Ease is the wish too of the sly Canadian;
Ease the delight of bloody Caghnawagas;
Ease, Richard, ease, not to be bought with wampum,
0
“And Change, with hurried hand, has swept these scenes” by Frederick Goddard Tuckerman
![Frederick Goddard Tuckerman](/storage/poets/resize/500x500_tVB0XZRNBkhC3Z317RCvtAHTqGqxEbJzCQobgjz7.jpeg)
from Sonnets, Second Series
XVIII
And Change, with hurried hand, has swept these scenes:
The woods have fallen; across the meadow-lot
The hunter’s trail and trap-path is forgot;
And fire has drunk the swamps of evergreens!
Read Poem XVIII
And Change, with hurried hand, has swept these scenes:
The woods have fallen; across the meadow-lot
The hunter’s trail and trap-path is forgot;
And fire has drunk the swamps of evergreens!
0
Deerfield:1703 by Charles Reznikoff
![Charles Reznikoff](/storage/poets/resize/500x500_e49TogprfNp7GtWkf6dwmHTUf7NsD54WSBCdnXFT.jpeg)
Before the break of day the minister was awakened
by the sound of hatchets
breaking open the door and windows.
He ran towards the door:
about twenty Indians with painted faces
were coming into the house
howling.
Three Indians took hold of him,
Read Poem by the sound of hatchets
breaking open the door and windows.
He ran towards the door:
about twenty Indians with painted faces
were coming into the house
howling.
Three Indians took hold of him,
0
The Jain Bird Hospital in Delhi by William Meredith
![William Meredith](/storage/poets/resize/500x500_poet-image.jpeg)
Outside the hotel window, unenlightened pigeons
weave and dive like Stukas on their prey,
apparently some tiny insect brother.
(In India, the attainment of nonviolence
is considered a proper goal for human beings.)
If one of the pigeons should fly into the illusion
of my window and survive (the body is no illusion
when it’s hurt) he could be taken across town to the bird
Read Poem weave and dive like Stukas on their prey,
apparently some tiny insect brother.
(In India, the attainment of nonviolence
is considered a proper goal for human beings.)
If one of the pigeons should fly into the illusion
of my window and survive (the body is no illusion
when it’s hurt) he could be taken across town to the bird
0
New Nation by Charles Reznikoff
![Charles Reznikoff](/storage/poets/resize/500x500_e49TogprfNp7GtWkf6dwmHTUf7NsD54WSBCdnXFT.jpeg)
I
Land of Refuge
A mountain of white ice
standing still
in the water
here forty fathoms deep
and flowing swiftly
from the north;
Read Poem Land of Refuge
A mountain of white ice
standing still
in the water
here forty fathoms deep
and flowing swiftly
from the north;
0
Primer For Blacks by Gwendolyn Brooks
![Gwendolyn Brooks](/storage/poets/resize/500x500_dHhsyhscbv2ODa00W3z2Fev0pMbRh0uYIe3oXYc4.jpeg)
Blackness
is a title,
is a preoccupation,
is a commitment Blacks
are to comprehend—
and in which you are
to perceive your Glory.
The conscious shout
Read Poem is a title,
is a preoccupation,
is a commitment Blacks
are to comprehend—
and in which you are
to perceive your Glory.
The conscious shout
0
Looking Around by Charles Wright
![Charles Wright](/storage/poets/resize/500x500_bgqAfw5E9B5YnAyedikCwutjLecNTU3xWWXiH77X.jpeg)
I sit where I always sit, in back of the Buddha,
Red leather wing chair, pony skin trunk
under my feet,
Sky light above me, Chinese and Indian rugs on the floor.
1 March, 1998, where to begin again?
Over there's the ur-photograph,
Giorgio Morandi, glasses pushed up on his forehead,
Looking hard at four objects—
Two olive oil tins, one wine bottle, one flower vase,
A universe of form and structure,
The universe constricting in front of his eyes,
angelic orders
And applications scraped down
Read Poem Red leather wing chair, pony skin trunk
under my feet,
Sky light above me, Chinese and Indian rugs on the floor.
1 March, 1998, where to begin again?
Over there's the ur-photograph,
Giorgio Morandi, glasses pushed up on his forehead,
Looking hard at four objects—
Two olive oil tins, one wine bottle, one flower vase,
A universe of form and structure,
The universe constricting in front of his eyes,
angelic orders
And applications scraped down
0
America by Allen Ginsberg
![Allen Ginsberg](/storage/poets/resize/500x500_cYetyGlOg5NVTaoXX533HFSRX3hAVyxnjQ3T6l0r.jpeg)
America I’ve given you all and now I’m nothing.
America two dollars and twentyseven cents January 17, 1956.
I can’t stand my own mind.
America when will we end the human war?
Go fuck yourself with your atom bomb.
I don’t feel good don’t bother me.
I won’t write my poem till I’m in my right mind.
America when will you be angelic?
Read Poem America two dollars and twentyseven cents January 17, 1956.
I can’t stand my own mind.
America when will we end the human war?
Go fuck yourself with your atom bomb.
I don’t feel good don’t bother me.
I won’t write my poem till I’m in my right mind.
America when will you be angelic?
0
An Apology for the Revival of Christian Architecture in England by Geoffrey Hill
![Geoffrey Hill](/storage/poets/resize/500x500_EmSWbkEQFGrRDzyV7KsZeStB4AaWI84VBeox6pTr.jpeg)
the spiritual, Platonic old England …
S. T. COLERIDGE, Anima Poetae
‘Your situation’, said Coningsby, looking up the green and silent valley, ‘is absolutely poetic.’
‘I try sometimes to fancy’, said Mr Millbank, with a rather fierce smile, ‘that I am in the New World.’
BENJAMIN DISRAELI, Coningsby
Read Poem S. T. COLERIDGE, Anima Poetae
‘Your situation’, said Coningsby, looking up the green and silent valley, ‘is absolutely poetic.’
‘I try sometimes to fancy’, said Mr Millbank, with a rather fierce smile, ‘that I am in the New World.’
BENJAMIN DISRAELI, Coningsby
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A Ballad: The Lake of the Dismal Swamp by Thomas Moore
![Thomas Moore](/storage/poets/resize/500x500_n78aA5T8pOZjqRVGudt1tJdKrLvMoxS54iLxxrCc.jpeg)
Written at Norfolk, in Virginia “They made her a grave, too cold and damp
For a soul so warm and true;
Read Poem For a soul so warm and true;
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Fourth of July at Santa Ynez by John Haines
![John Haines](/storage/poets/resize/500x500_uhoEdHUhJNez1Q6KA6SJUhkLoZI9BNZ1XELhC6j5.jpeg)
I
Under the makeshift arbor of leaves
a hot wind blowing smoke and laughter.
Music out of the renegade west,
too harsh and loud, many dark faces
moved among the sweating whites.
II
Wandering apart from the others,
Read Poem Under the makeshift arbor of leaves
a hot wind blowing smoke and laughter.
Music out of the renegade west,
too harsh and loud, many dark faces
moved among the sweating whites.
II
Wandering apart from the others,
0
It’s Hard to Keep a Clean Shirt Clean by June Jordan
![June Jordan](/storage/poets/resize/500x500_myW8AlqGMnLWxnEcMkvRulxi853RzHxlLWisN0Ym.jpeg)
Poem for Sriram Shamasunder
And All of Poetry for the People It’s a sunlit morning
with jasmine blooming
Read Poem And All of Poetry for the People It’s a sunlit morning
with jasmine blooming
0
Money by Howard Nemerov
![Howard Nemerov](/storage/poets/resize/500x500_s6zOIJws3pZ6cNNpylJv7EWcupQKiDU5AVi96OkJ.jpeg)
an introductory lecture This morning we shall spend a few minutes
Upon the study of symbolism, which is basic
Read Poem Upon the study of symbolism, which is basic
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The Nabob by Kenneth Slessor
![Kenneth Slessor](/storage/poets/resize/500x500_poet-image.jpeg)
To the memory of William Hickey, Esq. Coming out of India with ten thousand a year
Exchanged for flesh and temper, a dry Faust
Read Poem Exchanged for flesh and temper, a dry Faust
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Poem for Nana by June Jordan
![June Jordan](/storage/poets/resize/500x500_myW8AlqGMnLWxnEcMkvRulxi853RzHxlLWisN0Ym.jpeg)
What will we do
when there is nobody left
to kill?
*
40,000 gallons of oil gushing into
the ocean
But I
sit on top this mountainside above
Read Poem when there is nobody left
to kill?
*
40,000 gallons of oil gushing into
the ocean
But I
sit on top this mountainside above
0
Santa Fe Trail by Barbara Guest
![Barbara Guest](/storage/poets/resize/500x500_FpbkyX3iqfYGftiAekdCa4X0IzVNWoG8NhdNm1p6.jpeg)
I go separately
The sweet knees of oxen have pressed a path for me
ghosts with ingots have burned their bare hands
it is the dungaree darkness with China stitched
where the westerly winds
and the traveler’s checks
the evensong of salesmen
the glistening paraphernalia of twin suitcases
Read Poem The sweet knees of oxen have pressed a path for me
ghosts with ingots have burned their bare hands
it is the dungaree darkness with China stitched
where the westerly winds
and the traveler’s checks
the evensong of salesmen
the glistening paraphernalia of twin suitcases
0
Seaman’s Ditty by Gary Snyder
![Gary Snyder](/storage/poets/resize/500x500_5n5yg85vZo1yHb84DsatAJ8QhtA53o8Ga5KwpCp6.jpeg)
I’m wondering where you are now
Married, or mad, or free:
Wherever you are you’re likely glad,
But memory troubles me.
We could’ve had us children,
We could’ve had a home—
But you thought not, and I thought not,
And these nine years we roam.
Read Poem Married, or mad, or free:
Wherever you are you’re likely glad,
But memory troubles me.
We could’ve had us children,
We could’ve had a home—
But you thought not, and I thought not,
And these nine years we roam.
0
September Midnight by Sara Teasdale
![Sara Teasdale](/storage/poets/resize/500x500_wppD0jYKwDMvCOrftlBETNUgIC1woLLRFJXqFI0I.jpeg)
Lyric night of the lingering Indian Summer,
Shadowy fields that are scentless but full of singing,
Never a bird, but the passionless chant of insects,
Ceaseless, insistent.
The grasshopper’s horn, and far-off, high in the maples,
The wheel of a locust leisurely grinding the silence
Under a moon waning and worn, broken,
Read Poem Shadowy fields that are scentless but full of singing,
Never a bird, but the passionless chant of insects,
Ceaseless, insistent.
The grasshopper’s horn, and far-off, high in the maples,
The wheel of a locust leisurely grinding the silence
Under a moon waning and worn, broken,
0
Skipper Ireson’s Ride by John Greenleaf Whittier
![John Greenleaf Whittier](/storage/poets/resize/500x500_ocRfET79ybyLajApkphDFWlpMdB4Ze5zamRRGyuM.jpeg)
Of all the rides since the birth of time,
Told in story or sung in rhyme, —
On Apuleius’s Golden Ass,
Or one-eyed Calender’s horse of brass,
Witch astride of a human back,
Islam’s prophet on Al-Borák, —
The strangest ride that ever was sped
Was Ireson’s, out from Marblehead!
Read Poem Told in story or sung in rhyme, —
On Apuleius’s Golden Ass,
Or one-eyed Calender’s horse of brass,
Witch astride of a human back,
Islam’s prophet on Al-Borák, —
The strangest ride that ever was sped
Was Ireson’s, out from Marblehead!
0
Songs from The Beggar’s Opera: Air XVI-“Over the Hills, and Far Away” by John Gay
![John Gay](/storage/poets/resize/500x500_5ORpcIxR1t7bM6iIJtI6ZAFHEcDaAVScLd6RsMsi.jpeg)
Act I, Scene xiii, Air XVI—“Over the Hills, and Far Away”
Mac. Were I laid on Greenland’s coast,
And in my arms embraced my lass,
Read Poem Mac. Were I laid on Greenland’s coast,
And in my arms embraced my lass,
0
Sonnets for Five Seasons by Anne Stevenson
![Anne Stevenson](/storage/poets/resize/500x500_tmMDOL1JP4cEc3r5UXE0xCmaToKiLIYzna1AC3Qt.jpeg)
(i.m. Charles Leslie Stevenson, 1909-79)
This House
Which represents you, as my bones do, waits,
all pores open, for the stun of snow. Which will come,
as it always does, between breaths, between nights
of no wind and days of the nulled sun.
And has to be welcome. All instinct wants to anticipate
faceless fields, a white road drawn
Read Poem This House
Which represents you, as my bones do, waits,
all pores open, for the stun of snow. Which will come,
as it always does, between breaths, between nights
of no wind and days of the nulled sun.
And has to be welcome. All instinct wants to anticipate
faceless fields, a white road drawn
0
The South by Emma Lazarus
![Emma Lazarus](/storage/poets/resize/500x500_CmgC2VgwGnPSpZAAwrjqLkkI1ejwtcnti5VX0prl.jpeg)
Night, and beneath star-blazoned summer skies
Behold the Spirit of the musky South,
A creole with still-burning, languid eyes,
Voluptuous limbs and incense-breathing mouth:
Swathed in spun gauze is she,
From fibres of her own anana tree.
Within these sumptuous woods she lies at ease,
Read Poem Behold the Spirit of the musky South,
A creole with still-burning, languid eyes,
Voluptuous limbs and incense-breathing mouth:
Swathed in spun gauze is she,
From fibres of her own anana tree.
Within these sumptuous woods she lies at ease,
0
To Elsie by William Carlos Williams
![William Carlos Williams](/storage/poets/resize/500x500_Pgis0pzavEuiiZmaekKbaaB3xwAybOrgrym29D4I.jpeg)
The pure products of America
go crazy—
mountain folk from Kentucky
or the ribbed north end of
Jersey
with its isolate lakes and
valleys, its deaf-mutes, thieves
old names
Read Poem go crazy—
mountain folk from Kentucky
or the ribbed north end of
Jersey
with its isolate lakes and
valleys, its deaf-mutes, thieves
old names
0
The Wheel by Vinda Karandikar
![Vinda Karandikar](/storage/poets/resize/500x500_lnO7y8ihhFnWHvUVh1XIkI6cGLTYScSyJ3SG7bPX.jpeg)
Someone is about to come but doesn't. Is about
to turn on the stairs but doesn't.
I button my shirt
come from the laundry with all its dazzling blots,
like one's peculiar fate.
I shut the door, sit quietly.
The fan begins to whirl
and turn the air into a whirlpool of fire,
making a noise bigger than the house.
Someone is about to come and doesn't.
It doesn't matter.
Calmly I lean against the wall,
become a wall.
A wounded bird on my shoulder laughs raucously,
laughs at the shoulder it perches on!
Read Poem to turn on the stairs but doesn't.
I button my shirt
come from the laundry with all its dazzling blots,
like one's peculiar fate.
I shut the door, sit quietly.
The fan begins to whirl
and turn the air into a whirlpool of fire,
making a noise bigger than the house.
Someone is about to come and doesn't.
It doesn't matter.
Calmly I lean against the wall,
become a wall.
A wounded bird on my shoulder laughs raucously,
laughs at the shoulder it perches on!
0
Occupation 1943 by Saadi Youssef
![Saadi Youssef](/storage/poets/resize/500x500_imY6XFbZ5t7qeNRXMJEPOE3xpN6sT0LEyp5cJWoP.jpeg)
We boys, the neighborhood’s barefoot
We boys, the neighborhood’s naked
We boys of stomachs bloated from eating mud
We boys of teeth porous from eating dates and pumpkin rind
We boys will line up from Hassan al-Basri’s mausoleum to the Ashar River’s source
to meet you in the morning waving green palm fronds
We will cry out: Long Live
We will cry out: Live to Eternity
Read Poem We boys, the neighborhood’s naked
We boys of stomachs bloated from eating mud
We boys of teeth porous from eating dates and pumpkin rind
We boys will line up from Hassan al-Basri’s mausoleum to the Ashar River’s source
to meet you in the morning waving green palm fronds
We will cry out: Long Live
We will cry out: Live to Eternity
0
Astrophil and Stella 92: Be your words made, good sir, of Indian ware by Sir Philip Sidney
![Sir Philip Sidney](/storage/poets/resize/500x500_rvqHZiYGbfxh5QX1LIPGofXsMb845SyzIwoqoivR.jpeg)
Be your words made, good sir, of Indian ware,
That you allow me them by so small rate?
Or do you cutted Spartans imitate?
Or do you mean my tender ears to spare,
That to my questions you so total are?
When I demand of Phoenix Stella's state,
You say, forsooth, you left her well of late:
O God, think you that satisfies my care?
I would know whether she did sit or walk;
How cloth'd, how waited on; sigh'd she, or smil'd;
Whereof, with whom, how often did she talk;
With what pastime time's journey she beguiled;
If her lips deign'd to sweeten my poor name.
Say all; and all well said, still say the same.
Read Poem That you allow me them by so small rate?
Or do you cutted Spartans imitate?
Or do you mean my tender ears to spare,
That to my questions you so total are?
When I demand of Phoenix Stella's state,
You say, forsooth, you left her well of late:
O God, think you that satisfies my care?
I would know whether she did sit or walk;
How cloth'd, how waited on; sigh'd she, or smil'd;
Whereof, with whom, how often did she talk;
With what pastime time's journey she beguiled;
If her lips deign'd to sweeten my poor name.
Say all; and all well said, still say the same.
0
A Blessing by James Wright
![James Wright](/storage/poets/resize/500x500_AJzJsVaQNEjw1zmGeJhTpUpocrnWX1CKNcBI4fZF.jpeg)
Just off the highway to Rochester, Minnesota,
Twilight bounds softly forth on the grass.
And the eyes of those two Indian ponies
Darken with kindness.
They have come gladly out of the willows
To welcome my friend and me.
We step over the barbed wire into the pasture
Where they have been grazing all day, alone.
Read Poem Twilight bounds softly forth on the grass.
And the eyes of those two Indian ponies
Darken with kindness.
They have come gladly out of the willows
To welcome my friend and me.
We step over the barbed wire into the pasture
Where they have been grazing all day, alone.
0
Bronzes by Carl Sandburg
![Carl Sandburg](/storage/poets/resize/500x500_xk3VAgf240a1ZC3vaMTDQNmxv9MRCZnvfqZbsmyE.jpeg)
I
The bronze General Grant riding a bronze horse in Lincoln Park
Shrivels in the sun by day when the motor cars whirr by in long processions going somewhere to keep apppointment for dinner and matineés and buying and selling
Though in the dusk and nightfall when high waves are piling
On the slabs of the promenade along the lake shore near by
I have seen the general dare the combers come closer
And make to ride his bronze horse out into the hoofs and guns of the storm.
II
I cross Lincoln Park on a winter night when the snow is falling.
Lincoln in bronze stands among the white lines of snow, his bronze forehead meeting soft echoes of the newsies crying forty thousand men are dead along the Yser, his bronze ears listening to the mumbled roar of the city at his bronze feet.
A lithe Indian on a bronze pony, Shakespeare seated with long legs in bronze, Garibaldi in a bronze cape, they hold places in the cold, lonely snow to-night on their pedestals and so they will hold them past midnight and into the dawn.
Read Poem The bronze General Grant riding a bronze horse in Lincoln Park
Shrivels in the sun by day when the motor cars whirr by in long processions going somewhere to keep apppointment for dinner and matineés and buying and selling
Though in the dusk and nightfall when high waves are piling
On the slabs of the promenade along the lake shore near by
I have seen the general dare the combers come closer
And make to ride his bronze horse out into the hoofs and guns of the storm.
II
I cross Lincoln Park on a winter night when the snow is falling.
Lincoln in bronze stands among the white lines of snow, his bronze forehead meeting soft echoes of the newsies crying forty thousand men are dead along the Yser, his bronze ears listening to the mumbled roar of the city at his bronze feet.
A lithe Indian on a bronze pony, Shakespeare seated with long legs in bronze, Garibaldi in a bronze cape, they hold places in the cold, lonely snow to-night on their pedestals and so they will hold them past midnight and into the dawn.
0
from Chanting at the Crystal Sea by Susan Howe
![Susan Howe](/storage/poets/resize/500x500_aGgkIQvbTsRcKAZmP7iNyEvc6wBL3I5RqXQd4jzo.jpeg)
All male Quincys are now dead, excepting one.
John Wheelwright, “Gestures to the Dead” 1
Vast oblong space
Read Poem John Wheelwright, “Gestures to the Dead” 1
Vast oblong space
0
Conscription Camp by Karl Shapiro
![Karl Shapiro](/storage/poets/resize/500x500_IA2UKP4YHA0OviFjowYTEORNqZjO3b5RrqdqjdnS.jpeg)
Your landscape sickens with a dry disease
Even in May, Virginia, and your sweet pines
Like Frenchmen runted in a hundred wars
Are of a child’s height in these battlefields.
For Wilson sowed his teeth where generals prayed
—High-sounding Lafayette and sick-eyed Lee—
The loud Elizabethan crashed your swamps
Like elephants and the subtle Indian fell.
Read Poem Even in May, Virginia, and your sweet pines
Like Frenchmen runted in a hundred wars
Are of a child’s height in these battlefields.
For Wilson sowed his teeth where generals prayed
—High-sounding Lafayette and sick-eyed Lee—
The loud Elizabethan crashed your swamps
Like elephants and the subtle Indian fell.
0
Fanny by Carolyn Kizer
![Carolyn Kizer](/storage/poets/resize/500x500_UMOMkBIwBTJZce5KwINx6ih4tBkN2bFkE3XJxm5w.jpeg)
Part Four of “Pro Femina” At Samoa, hardly unpacked, I commenced planting,
When I’d opened the chicken crates, built the Cochins a coop.
Read Poem When I’d opened the chicken crates, built the Cochins a coop.
0
A Farewell to Tobacco by Charles Lamb
![Charles Lamb](/storage/poets/resize/500x500_Oyoi6AxIo2lHN1so0YLouxdzZyFQiTnLfdNHFD1Y.jpeg)
May the Babylonish curse,
Strait confound my stammering verse,
If I can a passage see
In this word-perplexity,
Or a fit expression find,
Or a language to my mind,
(Still the phrase is wide or scant)
To take leave of thee, GREAT PLANT!
Or in any terms relate
Half my love, or half my hate:
For I hate, yet love, thee so,
That, whichever thing I shew,
The plain truth will seem to be
A constrained hyperbole,
0
Karenge ya Marenge by Countee Cullen
![Countee Cullen](/storage/poets/resize/500x500_6QmuOGEKl9LkJ3NNnvtAaMwm0FgIY55lGbzh6eRt.jpeg)
Wherein are words sublime or noble? What
Invests one speech with haloed eminence,
Makes it the sesame for all doors shut,
Yet in its like sees but impertinence?
Is it the hue? Is it the cast of eye,
The curve of lip or Asiatic breath,
Which mark a lesser place for Gandhi’s cry
Than “Give me liberty or give me death!”
Read Poem Invests one speech with haloed eminence,
Makes it the sesame for all doors shut,
Yet in its like sees but impertinence?
Is it the hue? Is it the cast of eye,
The curve of lip or Asiatic breath,
Which mark a lesser place for Gandhi’s cry
Than “Give me liberty or give me death!”
0
Magic by Louis Untermeyer
![Louis Untermeyer](/storage/poets/resize/500x500_9CWX5AAdfZCX9wzOoaG9OBaELeprRTVYuikhP5Zw.jpeg)
We passed old farmer Boothby in the field.
Rugged and straight he stood; his body steeled
With stubbornness and age. We met his eyes
That never flinched or turned to compromise,
And “Luck,” he cried, “good luck!”—and waved an arm,
Knotted and sailor-like, such as no farm
In all of Maine could boast of; and away
He turned again to pitch his new-cut hay...
Read Poem Rugged and straight he stood; his body steeled
With stubbornness and age. We met his eyes
That never flinched or turned to compromise,
And “Luck,” he cried, “good luck!”—and waved an arm,
Knotted and sailor-like, such as no farm
In all of Maine could boast of; and away
He turned again to pitch his new-cut hay...
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The Militance of a Photograph in the Passbook of a Bantu under Detention by Michael S. Harper
![Michael S. Harper](/storage/poets/resize/500x500_BKHLU4udG9PvowNPXPrDCiyhzxQeUPYi1ER5qunx.jpeg)
Peace is the active presence of Justice. The wrinkles on the brown face
of the carrying case
Read Poem of the carrying case
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Prometheus Unbound by Percy Bysshe Shelley
![Percy Bysshe Shelley](/storage/poets/resize/500x500_xz2mtB1hGQeRQbUbkLdzIRFInaK0vAwFPCJAo4Tq.jpeg)
(excerpt)
SCENE.—A Ravine of Icy Rocks in the Indian Caucasus. Prometheus is discovered bound to the Precipice. Panthea and Ione are seated at his feet. Time, night. During the Scene, morning slowly breaks. Prometheus.
Monarch of Gods and Dæmons, and all Spirits
But One, who throng those bright and rolling worlds
Which Thou and I alone of living things
Read Poem SCENE.—A Ravine of Icy Rocks in the Indian Caucasus. Prometheus is discovered bound to the Precipice. Panthea and Ione are seated at his feet. Time, night. During the Scene, morning slowly breaks. Prometheus.
Monarch of Gods and Dæmons, and all Spirits
But One, who throng those bright and rolling worlds
Which Thou and I alone of living things
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This Lime-tree Bower my Prison by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
![Samuel Taylor Coleridge](/storage/poets/resize/500x500_6fxj9dT3ypZ6Sizz74OJ4gPD38UfJCbfZr4GYbDs.jpeg)
[Addressed to Charles Lamb, of the India House, London] Well, they are gone, and here must I remain,
This lime-tree bower my prison! I have lost
Read Poem This lime-tree bower my prison! I have lost
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To His Coy Mistress by Andrew Marvell
![Andrew Marvell](/storage/poets/resize/500x500_YLotdEE1V7cQuXKCt8wDiy1N4A7TF8rJHiRqJgGk.jpeg)
Had we but world enough and time,
This coyness, lady, were no crime.
We would sit down, and think which way
To walk, and pass our long love’s day.
Thou by the Indian Ganges’ side
Shouldst rubies find; I by the tide
Of Humber would complain. I would
Love you ten years before the flood,
And you should, if you please, refuse
Till the conversion of the Jews.
My vegetable love should grow
Vaster than empires and more slow;
An hundred years should go to praise
Thine eyes, and on thy forehead gaze;
Two hundred to adore each breast,
Read Poem This coyness, lady, were no crime.
We would sit down, and think which way
To walk, and pass our long love’s day.
Thou by the Indian Ganges’ side
Shouldst rubies find; I by the tide
Of Humber would complain. I would
Love you ten years before the flood,
And you should, if you please, refuse
Till the conversion of the Jews.
My vegetable love should grow
Vaster than empires and more slow;
An hundred years should go to praise
Thine eyes, and on thy forehead gaze;
Two hundred to adore each breast,
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To Live Merrily, and to Trust to Good Verses by Robert Herrick
![Robert Herrick](/storage/poets/resize/500x500_FrQsofdlOp62E1BloNWR1iFClxg8LqX1ljHzBZBu.jpeg)
Now is the time for mirth,
Nor cheek or tongue be dumb;
For with the flow'ry earth
The golden pomp is come.
The golden pomp is come;
For now each tree does wear,
Made of her pap and gum,
Read Poem Nor cheek or tongue be dumb;
For with the flow'ry earth
The golden pomp is come.
The golden pomp is come;
For now each tree does wear,
Made of her pap and gum,
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To My Dear and Loving Husband by Anne Bradstreet
![Anne Bradstreet](/storage/poets/resize/500x500_ntyKN3DyCjlacVaJjnwt2jUjXNVdwCCkrgDPS4H3.jpeg)
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Yesterdays by Robert Creeley
![Robert Creeley](/storage/poets/resize/500x500_AINQ7WRT3NZx6zyyWypCqUSifxHPBAm9wOM6lT2M.jpeg)
Sixty-two, sixty-three, I most remember
As time W. C. Williams dies and we are
Back from a hard two years in Guatemala
Where the meager provision of being
Schoolmaster for the kids of the patrones
Of two coffee plantations has managed
Neither a life nor money. Leslie dies in
Horror of bank giving way as she and her
Read Poem As time W. C. Williams dies and we are
Back from a hard two years in Guatemala
Where the meager provision of being
Schoolmaster for the kids of the patrones
Of two coffee plantations has managed
Neither a life nor money. Leslie dies in
Horror of bank giving way as she and her
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