Inferential
Although I saw before me there the face
Of one whom I had honored among men
The least, and on regarding him again
Would not have had him in another place,
He fitted with an unfamiliar grace
The coffin where I could not see him then
As I had seen him and appraised him when
I deemed him unessential to the race.
For there was more of him than what I saw.
And there was on me more than the old awe
That is the common genius of the dead.
I might as well have heard him: “Never mind;
If some of us were not so far behind,
The rest of us were not so far ahead.”





Related poetry:
- 16-bit Intel 8088 chip with an Apple Macintosh You can’t run Radio Shack programs In its disc drive. Nor can a Commodore 64 Drive […]...
- Lisette and Eileen “When he was here alive, Eileen, There was a word you might have said; So never mind what I have […]...
- To Himself Now will you rest forever, My tired heart. Dead is the last Deception, That I thought eternal. Dead. Well I […]...
- Sardis (Revelations, iii. 1-6) “Write to Sardis,” saith the Lord, “And write what He declares, He whose Spirit, and whose word, […]...
- An Address to the Rev. George Gilfillan All hail to the Rev. George Gilfillan of Dundee, He is the greatest preacher I did ever hear or see. […]...
- Indifference When I am dead I will not care Forever more, If sky be radiantly fair Or tempest roar. If my […]...
- 1887 From Clee to heaven the beacon burns, The shires have seen it plain, From north and south the sign returns […]...
- Maya Through an ascending emptiness of night, Leaving the flesh and complacent mind Together in their suffciency behind, The soul of […]...
- Genius Genius, like gold and precious stones, Is chiefly prized because of its rarity. Geniuses are people who dash of weird, […]...
- The Song Of The Pacifist What do they matter, our headlong hates, when we take the toll of our Dead? Think ye our glory and […]...
- Sympathy My Muse is simple, yet it’s nice To think you don’t need to think twice On words I write. I […]...
- Supremacy There is a drear and lonely tract of hell From all the common gloom removed afar: A flat, sad land […]...
- Sestina I wandered o’er the vast green plains of youth, And searched for Pleasure. On a distant height Fame’s silhouette stood […]...
- A Canvas For A Crust Aye, Montecelli, that’s the name. You may have heard of him perhaps. Yet though he never savoured fame, Of those […]...
- Shakespeare Would that in body and spirit Shakespeare came Visible emperor of the deeds of Time, With Justice still the genius […]...
- Poor Poet ‘A man should write to please himself,’ He proudly said. Well, see his poems on the shelf, Dusty, unread. When […]...
- Unlyric Love Song It is time to give that-of-myself which I could not at first: To offer you now at last my least […]...
- The Little Box The little box gets her first teeth And her little length Little width little emptiness And all the rest she […]...
- The White Lady I cannot rest, I cannot rest In straight and shiny wood, My woven hands upon my breast The dead are […]...
- Willard Fluke My wife lost her health, And dwindled until she weighed scarce ninety pounds. Then that woman, whom the men Styled […]...
- Carbonara eyes Nicky said I couldn’t write, she’s got a charming Sense of social etiquette – given she’s a bitch (the canine […]...
- My Boss My Boss keeps sporty girls, they say; His belly’s big with cheer. He squanders in a single day What I […]...
- There Are Not Many Kingdoms Left I write the lips of the moon upon her shoulders. In a Temple of silvery farawayness I guard her to […]...
- Aaron Holiness on the head, Light and perfection on the breast, Harmonious bells below, raising the dead To led them unto […]...
- 365. Lines on Fergusson, the Poet ILL-FATED genius! Heaven-taught Fergusson! What heart that feels and will not yield a tear, To think Life’s sun did set […]...
- To The Genius Of Africa O thou who from the mountain’s height Roll’st down thy clouds with all their weight Of waters to old Niles […]...
- Noon I bend to the ground To catch Something whispered, Urgent, drifting Across the ditches. The heaviness of Flies stuttering In […]...
- Elegy Before Death There will be rose and rhododendron When you are dead and under ground; Still will be heard from white syringas […]...
- Walt Whitman The master-songs are ended, and the man That sang them is a name. And so is God A name; and […]...
- In My Craft Or Sullen Art In my craft or sullen art Exercised in the still night When only the moon rages And the lovers lie […]...
- Father Death Blues (Don't Grow Old, Part V) Hey Father Death, I’m flying home Hey poor man, you’re all alone Hey old daddy, I know where I’m going […]...
- Authorship You say that father write a lot of books, but what he write I don’t Understand. He was reading to […]...
- The Red Blaze is the Morning The Red Blaze is the Morning The Violet is Noon The Yellow Day is falling And after that is none […]...
- Robert Burns Immortal Robert Burns of Ayr, There’s but few poets can with you compare; Some of your poems and songs are […]...
- At leisure is the Soul At leisure is the Soul That gets a Staggering Blow The Width of Life before it spreads Without a thing […]...
- The Wicked Postman Why do you sit there on the floor so quiet and silent, tell me, Mother dear? The rain is coming […]...
- The Pity of the Leaves Vengeful across the cold November moors, Loud with ancestral shame there came the bleak Sad wind that shrieked, and answered […]...
- The Hawk Thou dost not fly, thou art not perched, The air is all around: What is it that can keep thee […]...
- How many schemes may die How many schemes may die In one short Afternoon Entirely unknown To those they most concern The man that was […]...
- To E I have remembered beauty in the night, Against black silences I waked to see A shower of sunlight over Italy […]...