Poetry
I live, but not in myself, and I have such hope that I die because I do not die. I no longer live within myself and I cannot live without God, for having neither him …
The Three Witches Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn and caldron bubble. Fillet of a fenny snake, In the caldron boil and bake; Eye of newt and toe of frog, Wool of bat and …
Autumn A touch of cold in the Autumn night— I walked abroad, And saw the ruddy moon lean over a hedge Like a red-faced farmer. I did not stop to speak, but nodded, And round …
A Brook in the City The farmhouse lingers, though averse to square With the new city street it has to wear A number in. But what about the brook That held the house as in …
October: pilot waves to the brakeman... chilly sundown October... jelly jar upside-down by the lettuce Solstice: spinning sun moves on from the model trains One stone on the high bridge--I ponder... pocket it? Forlorn... the …
Remorse For Any Death Free of memory and of hope, limitless, abstract, almost future, the dead man is not a dead man: he is death. Like the God of the mystics, of Whom anything that …
Autumn I love to see, when leaves depart, The clear anatomy arrive, Winter, the paragon of art, That kills all forms of life and feeling Save what is pure and will survive. Already now the …
Call It a Good Marriage Call it a good marriage — For no one ever questioned Her warmth, his masculinity, Their interlocking views; Except one stray graphologist Who frowned in speculation At her h’s and …
Manhattan On a bad day you can’t see anything Beyond the Hudson and Jersey side of things: The grey arroyos of steel, concrete, and glass Seem brittle as paper houses in Japan. On a good …
The Poet’s Corner Here where the end of bone is no end of song And the earth is bedecked with immortality In what was poetry And now is pride beside And nationality, Here is a …
Not Waving but Drowning Nobody heard him, the dead man, But still he lay moaning: I was much further out than you thought And not waving but drowning. Poor chap, he always loved larking And …
Adventure Sun and wind and beat of sea, Great lands stretching endlessly… Where be bonds to bind the free? All the world was made for me! Doom Peter stands by the gate, And Michael by …
Epigram I.90 Bassa, I never saw you hang with guys— Nobody whispered that you had a beau. Girls surrounded you at every turn; They did your errands, with no attendant males. And so, I guess …
Hymn to Jupiter What force, what sudden impulse thus can make The laurel-branch, and all the temple shake! Depart ye souls profane; hence, hence! O fly Far from this holy place! Apollo’s nigh; He knocks …
Why Nobody Pets the Lion at the Zoo The morning that the world began The Lion growled a growl at Man. And I suspect the Lion might (If he’d been closer) have tried a bite. …
A Promise to California A promise to California, Also to the great Pastoral Plains, and for Oregon: Sojourning east a while longer, soon I travel toward you, to remain, to teach robust American love; For …