The darkness crumbles away It is the same old druid Time as ever, Only a live thing leaps my hand, A queer sardonic rat, As I pull the parapet’s poppy To stick behind my ear. Droll rat, they would shoot you if they knew Your cosmopolitan sympathies, Now you have touched this English hand You [...]
Archive of posts filed under the Classic Poems category.
The Beach — Weldon Kees
Squat, unshaven, full of gas, Joseph Samuels, former clerk in four large cities, out of work, waits in the darkened underpass. In sanctuary, out of reach, he stares at the fading light outside: the rain beginning: hears the tide that drums along the empty beach. When drops first fell at six o’clock, the bathers left. [...]
January — Helen Hunt Jackson
O Winter! frozen pulse and heart of fire, What loss is theirs who from thy kingdom turn Dismayed, and think thy snow a sculptured urn Of death! Far sooner in midsummer tire The streams than under ice. June could not hire Her roses to forego the strength they learn In sleeping on thy breast. No [...]
On Fame — John Keats
Fame, like a wayward girl, will still be coy To those who woo her with too slavish knees, But makes surrender to some thoughtless boy, And dotes the more upon a heart at ease; She is a Gypsy,—will not speak to those Who have not learnt to be content without her; A Jilt, whose ear [...]
For the Moment — Pierre Reverdy
Life is simple and gay The bright sun rings with a quiet sound The sound of the bells has quieted down This morning the light hits it all The footlights of my head are lit again And the room I live in is finally bright Just one beam is enough Just one burst of laughter [...]
The Donkey — G.K. Chesterton
When forests walked and fishes flew And figs grew upon thorn, Some moment when the moon was blood, Then, surely, I was born. With monstrous head and sickening bray And ears like errant wings— The devil’s walking parody Of all four-footed things: The battered outlaw of the earth Of ancient crooked will; Scourge, beat, deride [...]
A Slash of Blue — Emily Dickinson
A slash of Blue – A sweep of Gray – Some scarlet patches on the way, Compose an Evening Sky – A little purple — slipped between – Some Ruby Trousers hurried on – A Wave of Gold – A Bank of Day – This just makes out the Morning Sky.
The Beach — Weldon Kees
Squat, unshaven, full of gas, Joseph Samuels, former clerk in four large cities, out of work, waits in the darkened underpass. In sanctuary, out of reach, he stares at the fading light outside: the rain beginning: hears the tide that drums along the empty beach. When drops first fell at six o’clock, the bathers left. [...]
At the British Museum — Richard Aldington
I turn the page and read: “I dream of silent verses where the rhyme Glides noiseless as an oar.” The heavy musty air, the black desks, The bent heads and the rustling noises In the great dome Vanish … And The sun hangs in the cobalt-blue sky, The boat drifts over the lake shallows, The [...]
A Dream Within a Dream — Edgar Allen Poe
Take this kiss upon the brow! And, in parting from you now, Thus much let me avow– You are not wrong, who deem That my days have been a dream; Yet if hope has flown away In a night, or in a day, In a vision, or in none, Is it therefore the less gone? [...]
