Requiem for the Plantagenet Kings

Related poetry:

1. Alexandrian Kings The Alexandrians were gathered To see Cleopatra’s children, Caesarion, and his little brothers, Alexander and Ptolemy, whom for the first Time they lead out to the Gymnasium, There to proclaim kings, In front of the grand assembly of the soldiers. Alexander they named him king Of Armenia, Media, and the Parthians. Ptolemy they named him […]...
2. A Curse for Kings A curse upon each king who leads his state, No matter what his plea, to this foul game, And may it end his wicked dynasty, And may he die in exile and black shame. If there is vengeance in the Heaven of Heavens, What punishment could Heaven devise for these Who fill the rivers of […]...
3. Requiem Not under foreign skies Nor under foreign wings protected – I shared all this with my own people There, where misfortune had abandoned us. [1961] INSTEAD OF A PREFACE During the frightening years of the Yezhov terror, I Spent seventeen months waiting in prison queues in Leningrad. One day, somehow, someone ‘picked me out’. On […]...
4. Remarks About Kings “God said I am tired of kings.” EMERSON God said, “I am tired of kings,” But that was a long while ago! And meantime man said, “No, I like their looks in their robes and rings.” So he crowned a few more, And they went on playing the game as before, Fighting and spoiling things. […]...
5. The Two Kings King Eochaid came at sundown to a wood Westward of Tara. Hurrying to his queen He had outridden his war-wasted men That with empounded cattle trod the mire, And where beech-trees had mixed a pale green light With the ground-ivy’s blue, he saw a stag Whiter than curds, its eyes the tint of the sea. […]...
6. Requiem Under the wide and starry sky Dig the grave and let me lie. Glad did I live and gladly die, And I laid me down with a will. This be the verse you grave for me; “Here he lies where he longed to be, Home is the sailor, home from sea, And the hunter home […]...
7. Requiem There was a young belle of Natchez Whose garments were always in patchez. When comment arose On the state of her clothes, She drawled, When Ah itchez, Ah scratchez!...
8. Requiem for the Croppies The pockets of our greatcoats full of barley… No kitchens on the run, no striking camp… We moved quick and sudden in our own country. The priest lay behind ditches with the tramp. A people hardly marching… on the hike… We found new tactics happening each day: We’d cut through reins and rider with the […]...
9. Kings Must Die Alphonso Rex who died in Rome Was quite a fistful as a kid; For when I visited his home, That gorgeous palace in Madrid, The grinning guide-chap showed me where He rode his bronco up the stair. That stairway grand of marbled might, The most majestic in the land, In statured splendour, flight on flight, […]...
10. The Unfading Beauty HE that loves a rosy cheek, Or a coral lip admires, Or from star-like eyes doth seek Fuel to maintain his fires: As old Time makes these decay, So his flames must waste away. But a smooth and steadfast mind, Gentle thoughts and calm desires, Hearts with equal love combined, Kindle never-dying fires. Where these […]...
11. Kings (For the Rev. James B. Dollard) The Kings of the earth are men of might, And cities are burned for their delight, And the skies rain death in the silent night, And the hills belch death all day! But the King of Heaven, Who made them all, Is fair and gentle, and very small; He […]...
12. The Three Kings Three Kings came riding from far away, Melchior and Gaspar and Baltasar; Three Wise Men out of the East were they, And they travelled by night and they slept by day, For their guide was a beautiful, wonderful star. The star was so beautiful, large, and clear, That all the other stars of the sky […]...
13. From: A King Of Kings, A King Among The Kings Come, let us rejoice in James Joyce, in the greatness of this poet, king, and king of poets For he is our poor dead king, he is the monarch and Caesar of English, he is the veritable King of the King’s English The English of the life of the city, and the English of music; […]...
14. Beggars And Kings In the evening All the hours that weren’t used Are emptied out And the beggars are waiting to gather them up To open them To find the sun in each one And teach it its beggar’s name And sing to it It is well Through the night But each of us Has his own kingdom […]...
15. Do They Know? Do they know? At the turn to the straight Where the favourites fail, And every last atom of weight Is telling its tale; As some grim old stayer hard-pressed Runs true to his breed, And with head in front of the rest Fights on in the lead; When the jockeys are out with the whips, […]...
16. Life What is our life? A play of passion, Our mirth the music of division, Our mother’s wombs the tiring-houses be, Where we are dressed for this short comedy. Heaven the judicious sharp spectator is, That sits and marks still who doth act amiss. Our graves that hide us from the setting sun Are like drawn […]...
17. The Bellman From noise of scare-fires rest ye free, From murders Benedicite. From all mischances that may fright Your pleasing slumbers in the night : Mercy secure ye all, and keep The goblin from ye while ye sleep. Past one o’clock, and almost two, My masters all, good-day to you....
18. The Matrimonial Stakes I wooed her with a steeplechase, I won her with a fall, I made her heartstrings quiver on the flat When the pony missed his take-off, and we crached into the wall; Well, she simply had to have me after that! It awoke a thrill of int’rest when they pulled me out for dead From […]...
19. Aaron Holiness on the head, Light and perfection on the breast, Harmonious bells below, raising the dead To led them unto life and rest. Thus are true Aarons dressed. Profaneness in my head, Defects and darkness in my breast, A noise of passions ringing me for dead Unto a place where is no rest. Poor priest […]...
20. London I wander thro’ each charter’d street. Near where the charter’d Thames does flow A mark in every face I meet Marks of weakness, marks of woe. In every cry of every Man. In every Infants cry of fear. In every voice; in every ban. The mind-forg’d manacles I hear How the Chimney-sweepers cry Every blackening […]...
21. Disdain Returned He that loves a rosy cheek, Or a coral lip admires, Or from starlike eyes doth seek Fuel to maintain his fires; As old Time makes these decay, So his flames must waste away. But a smooth and steadfast mind, Gentle thoughts and calm desires, Hearts with equal love combined, Kindle never-dying fires. Where these […]...
22. The Civil War I am torn in two But I will conquer myself. I will dig up the pride. I will take scissors And cut out the beggar. I will take a crowbar And pry out the broken Pieces of God in me. Just like a jigsaw puzzle, I will put Him together again With the patience of […]...
23. The Mirror Seeing is believing. Whatever was thought or said, These persistent, inexorable deaths Make faith as such absent, Our humanness a question, A disgust for what we are. Whatever the hope, Here it is lost. Because we coveted our difference, Here is the cost....
24. One crown that no one seeks One crown that no one seeks And yet the highest head Its isolation coveted Its stigma deified While Pontius Pilate lives In whatsoever hell That coronation pierces him He recollects it well....
25. To Minna Do I dream? can I trust to my eye? My sight sure some vapor must cover? Or, there, did my Minna pass by My Minna and knew not her lover? On the arm of the coxcomb she crossed, Well the fan might its zephyr bestow; Herself in her vanity lost, That wanton my Minna? Ah, […]...
26. Ode To The Artichoke The artichoke With a tender heart Dressed up like a warrior, Standing at attention, it built A small helmet Under its scales It remained Unshakeable, By its side The crazy vegetables Uncurled Their tendrills and leaf-crowns, Throbbing bulbs, In the sub-soil The carrot With its red mustaches Was sleeping, The grapevine Hung out to dry […]...
27. Dove in the Arch Cursed! Be the father of the bride Of the blacksmith who forged the iron for the axe With which the woodsman hacked down the oak From which the bed was carved In which was conceived the great-grandfather Of the man who was driving the carriage In which your mother met your father....
28. Praise it 'tis dead Praise it ’tis dead It cannot glow Warm this inclement Ear With the encomium it earned Since it was gathered here Invest this alabaster Zest In the Delights of Dust Remitted since it flitted it In recusance august....
29. Psalm 49 The rich sinner’s death, and the saint’s resurrection. Why do the proud insult the poor, And boast the large estates they have? How vain are riches to secure Their haughty owners from the grave! They can’t redeem one hour from death, With all the wealth in which they trust; Nor give a dying brother breath, […]...
30. On King Arthur’s Round Table at Winchester Where Venta’s Norman castle still uprears Its rafter’d hall, that o’er the grassy foss, And scatter’d flinty fragments clad in moss, On yonder steep in naked state appears; High hung remains, the pride of war-like years, Old Arthur’s board: on the capacious round Some British pen has sketch’d the names renown’d, In marks obscure, of […]...
31. In Memoriam Paul Celan Lay these words into the dead man’s grave Next to the almonds and black cherries – Tiny skulls and flowering blood-drops, eyes, And Thou, O bitterness that pillows his head. Lay these words on the dead man’s eyelids Like eyebrights, like medieval trumpet flowers That will flourish, this time, in the shade. Let the beheaded […]...
32. Ode to Reflection O THOU, whose sober precepts can controul The wild impatience of the troubled soul, Sweet Nymph serene! whose all-consoling pow’r Awakes to calm delight the ling’ring hour; O hear thy suppliant’s ardent pray’r! Chase from my pensive mind corroding care, Steal thro’ the heated pulses of the brain, Charm sorrow to repose­and lull the throb […]...
33. Passing away, saith the World Passing away, saith the World, passing away: Chances, beauty and youth, sapp’d day by day: Thy life never continueth in one stay. Is the eye waxen dim, is the dark hair changing to grey That hath won neither laurel nor bay? I shall clothe myself in Spring and bud in May: Thou, root-stricken, shalt not […]...
34. The Chrysolites and Rubies Bacchus Brings The chrysolites and rubies Bacchus brings To crown the feast where swells the broad-vein’d brow, Where maidens blush at what the minstrel sings, They who have coveted may covet now. Bring me, in cool alcove, the grape uncrush’d, The peach of pulpy cheek and down mature, Where every voice (but bird’s or child’s) is hush’d, […]...
35. VANITAS! VANITATUM VANITAS! MY trust in nothing now is placed, Hurrah! So in the world true joy I taste, Hurrah! Then he who would be a comrade of mine Must rattle his glass, and in chorus combine, Over these dregs of wine. I placed my trust in gold and wealth, Hurrah! But then I lost all joy and […]...
36. In Memoriam A. H. H.: 54. Oh, yet we Trust that somehow Goo Oh, yet we trust that somehow good Will be the final end of ill, To pangs of nature, sins of will, Defects of doubt, and taints of blood; That nothing walks with aimless feet; That not one life shall be destroy’d, Or cast as rubbish to the void, When God hath made the pile complete; […]...
37. Alabaster LIKE this alabaster box whose art Is frail as a cassia-flower, is my heart, Carven with delicate dreams and wrought With many a subtle and exquisite thought. Therein I treasure the spice and scent Of rich and passionate memories blent Like odours of cinnamon, sandal and clove, Of song and sorrow and life and love....
38. Sonnet. Inscribed to Her Grace the Duchess of Devonshire ‘TIS NOT thy flowing hair of orient gold, Nor those bright eyes, like sapphire gems that glow; Nor cheek of blushing rose, nor breast of snow, The varying passions of the heart could hold: Those locks, too soon, shall own a silv’ry ray, Those radiant orbs their magic fires forego; Insatiate TIME shall steal those […]...
39. Late Evening Song For a while Let it be enough: The responsive smile, Though effort goes into it. Across the warm room Shared in candlelight, This look beyond shame, Possible now, at night, Goes out to yours. Hidden by day And shaped by fires Grown dead, gone gray, That burned in other rooms I knew Too long ago […]...
40. Psalm 65 part 3 The blessings of the spring; or, God gives rain. A Psalm for the husbandman. Good is the Lord, the heav’nly King, Who makes the earth his care; Visits the pastures ev’ry spring, And bids the grass appear. The clouds, like rivers raised on high, Pour out at thy command Their wat’ry blessings from the sky, […]...