Middlesex

Related poetry:

1. Psalm 92 part 2 v.12ff L. M. The church is the garden of God. Lord, ’tis a pleasant thing to stand In gardens planted by thine hand; Let me within thy courts be seen, Like a young cedar, fresh and green. There grow thy saints in faith and love, Blest with thine influence from above; Not Lebanon with all […]...
2. Climbing High up in the apple tree climbing I go, With the sky above me, the earth below. Each branch is the step of a wonderful stair Which leads to the town I see shining up there. Climbing, climbing, higher and higher, The branches blow and I see a spire, The gleam of a turret, the […]...
3. An Encounter ONCE on the kind of day called “weather breeder,” When the heat slowly hazes and the sun By its own power seems to be undone, I was half boring through, half climbing through A swamp of cedar. Choked with oil of cedar And scurf of plants, and weary and over-heated, And sorry I ever left […]...
4. Washington McNeely Rich, honored by my fellow citizens, The father of many children, born of a noble mother, All raised there In the great mansion-house, at the edge of town. Note the cedar tree on the lawn! I sent all the boys to Ann Arbor, all of the girls to Rockford, The while my life went on, […]...
5. Beautiful Newport on the Braes o' the Silvery Tay Bonnie Mary, the Maid o’ the Tay, Come! Let’s go, and have a holiday In Newport, on the braes o’ the silvery Tay, ‘Twill help to drive dull care away. The scenery there is most enchanting to be seen, Especially the fine mansions with their shrubbery green; And the trees and ivy are beautiful to […]...
6. The Den o' Fowlis Beautiful Den o’ Fowlis, most charming to be seen In the summer season, when your trees are green; Especially in the bright and clear month of June, When your flowere and shrubberies are in full bloom. There visitors can enjoy themselves during the holidays, And be shaded by the trees from the sun’s rays, And […]...
7. THE INNOCENT EYE I struggled through streets of Bricked-up, boarded-up houses, Mostly burned-out, keeping To the middle of the road, Watching the abandoned gardens With here and there a house Still lived in, curtained Against the daylight and distantly I saw the iron railings of the school I’d taught in thirty years before. The same brick buildings, hop […]...
8. Down from the Mountain As down Mount Emerald at eve I came, The mountain moon went all the way with me. Backward I looked, to see the heights aflame With a pale light that glimmered eerily. A little lad undid the rustic latch As hand in hand your cottage we did gain, Where green limp tendrils at our cloaks […]...
9. First Day at School A millionbillionwillion miles from home Waiting for the bell to go. (To go where?) Why are they all so big, other children? So noisy? So much at home they Must have been born in uniform Lived all their lives in playgrounds Spent the years inventing games That don’t let me in. Games That are rough, […]...
10. Sunshine through a Cobwebbed Window What charm is yours, you faded old-world tapestries, Of outworn, childish mysteries, Vague pageants woven on a web of dream! And we, pushing and fighting in the turbid stream Of modern life, find solace in your tarnished broideries. Old lichened halls, sun-shaded by huge cedar-trees, The layered branches horizontal stretched, like Japanese Dark-banded prints. Carven […]...
11. Alone The noon’s greygolden meshes make All night a veil, The shorelamps in the sleeping lake Laburnum tendrils trail. The sly reeds whisper to the night A name her name- And all my soul is a delight, A swoon of shame....
12. I Remember, I Remember I Remember, I Remember I remember, I remember The house where I was born, The little window where the sun Came peeping in at morn; He never came a wink too soon Nor brought too long a day; But now, I often wish the night Had borne my breath away. I remember, I remember The […]...
13. A Song of Peach-Blossom River A fisherman is drifting, enjoying the spring mountains, And the peach-trees on both banks lead him to an ancient source. Watching the fresh-coloured trees, he never thinks of distance Till he comes to the end of the blue stream and suddenly – strange men! It’s a cave-with a mouth so narrow that he has to […]...
14. Drunk Too far away, oh love, I know, To save me from this haunted road, Whose lofty roses break and blow On a night-sky bent with a load Of lights: each solitary rose, Each arc-lamp golden does expose Ghost beyond ghost of a blossom, shows Night blenched with a thousand snows. Of hawthorn and of lilac […]...
15. Gravelly Run I don’t know somehow it seems sufficient To see and hear whatever coming and going is, Losing the self to the victory of stones and trees, Of bending sandpit lakes, crescent Round groves of dwarf pine: For it is not so much to know the self As to know it as it is known by […]...
16. Four Days In Vermont Window’s tree trunk’s predominant face A single eye-leveled hole where limb’s torn off Another larger contorts to swell growing in around Imploding wound beside a clutch of thin twigs Hold to one two three four five six dry twisted Yellowish brown leaves flat against the other Gray trees in back stick upright then the glimpse […]...
17. Warning When I am an old woman I shall wear purple With a red hat which doesn’t go, and doesn’t suit me. And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves And satin sandles, and say we’ve no money for butter. I shall sit down on the pavement when I’m tired And gobble up […]...
18. The Village of Tayport and Its Surroundings All ye pleasure-seekers, where’er ye be, I pray ye all be advised by me, Go and visit Tayport on the banks o’ the Tay, And there ye can spend a pleasant holiday. The village and its surroundings are magnificent to be seen, And the shops on the High Street are tidy and clean, And the […]...
19. To an Early Daffodil Thou yellow trumpeter of laggard Spring! Thou herald of rich Summer’s myriad flowers! The climbing sun with new recovered powers Does warm thee into being, through the ring Of rich, brown earth he woos thee, makes thee fling Thy green shoots up, inheriting the dowers Of bending sky and sudden, sweeping showers, Till ripe and […]...
20. Before Before the gate has been closed, Before the last quetion is posed, Before I am transposed. Before the weeds fill the gardens, Before there are no pardons, Before the concrete hardens. Before all the flute-holes are covered, Beore things are locked in then cupboard, Before the rules are discovered. Before the conclusion is planned, Before […]...
21. My Country My Country The love of field and coppice Of green and shaded lanes, Of ordered woods and gardens Is running in your veins. Strong love of grey-blue distance, Brown streams and soft, dim skies I know, but cannot share it, My love is otherwise. I love a sunburnt country, A land of sweeping plains, Of […]...
22. Edinburgh Beautiful city of Edinburgh! Where the tourist can drown his sorrow By viewing your monuments and statues fine During the lovely summer-time. I’m sure it will his spirits cheer As Sir Walter Scott’s monument he draws near, That stands in East Prince’s Street Amongst flowery gardens, fine and neat. And Edinburgh Castle is magnificent to […]...
23. The Castle of Mains Ancient Castle of the Mains, With your romantic scenery and surrounding plains, Which seem most beautiful to the eye, And the little rivulet running by, Which the weary traveller can drink of when he feels dry. And the heaven’s breath smells sweetly there, And scented perfumes fill the air, Emanating from the green trees and […]...
24. Ye Flags of Picadilly Ye flags of Piccadilly, Where I posted up and down, And wished myself so often Well away from you and town Are the people walking quietly And steady on their feet, Cabs and omnibuses plying Just as usual in the street? Do the houses look as upright As of old they used to be, And […]...
25. I Fellowed Sleep I fellowed sleep who kissed me in the brain, Let fall the tear of time; the sleeper’s eye, Shifting to light, turned on me like a moon. So, planning-heeled, I flew along my man And dropped on dreaming and the upward sky. I fled the earth and, naked, climbed the weather, Reaching a second ground […]...
26. Reconnaissance After the cloud embankments, The lamentation of wind And the starry descent into time, We came to the flashing waters and shaded our eyes From the glare. Alone with the shore and the harbor, The stems of the cocoanut trees, The fronds of silence and hushed music, We cried for the new revelation And waited […]...
27. Light Hearted William Light hearted William twirled His November moustaches And, half dressed, looked From the bedroom window Upon the spring weather. Heigh-ya! sighed he gaily Leaning out to see Up and down the street Where a heavy sunlight Lay beyond some blue shadows. Into the room he drew His head again and laughed To himself quietly Twirling […]...
28. In a Southern Garden WHEN the tall bamboos are clicking to the restless little breeze, And bats begin their jerky skimming flight, And the creamy scented blossoms of the dark pittosporum trees, Grow sweeter with the coming of the night. And the harbour in the distance lies beneath a purple pall, And nearer, at the garden’s lowest fringe, Loud […]...
29. From Citron-Bower From citron-bower be her bed, Cut from branch of tree a-flower, Fashioned for her maidenhead. From Lydian apples, sweet of hue, Cut the width of board and lathe, Carve the feet from myrtle-wood. Let the palings of her bed Be quince and box-wood overlaid With the scented bark of yew. That all the wood in […]...
30. The River of Leith As I stood upon the Dean Bridge and viewed the beautiful scenery, I felt fascinated and my heart was full of glee, And I exclaimed in an ecstasy of delight, In all my travels I never saw such a sight. The scenery is so enchanting to look upon That all tourists will say, “Dull care, […]...
31. Star Teachers EVEN as a bird sprays many-coloured fires, The plumes of paradise, the dying light Rays through the fevered air in misty spires That vanish in the heights. These myriad eyes that look on me are mine; Wandering beneath them I have found again The ancient ample moment, the divine, The God-root within men. For this, […]...
32. Modern Love XXI: We Three Are We three are on the cedar-shadowed lawn; My friend being third. He who at love once laughed, Is in the weak rib by a fatal shaft Struck through, and tells his passion’s bashful dawn And radiant culmination, glorious crown, When ‘this’ she said: went ‘thus’: most wondrous she. Our eyes grow white, encountering that we […]...
33. Palanquin Bearers Lightly, O lightly we bear her along, She sways like a flower in the wind of our song; She skims like a bird on the foam of a stream, She floats like a laugh from the lips of a dream. Gaily, O gaily we glide and we sing, We bear her along like a pearl […]...
34. Night: San Francisco Rain drenches the patio stones. All night was spent waiting For an earthquake, and instead Water stains sand with its pink foam. Yesterday’s steps fill in with gray crabs. Baritone of a fog horn. A misty light Warns tankers, which block the green After-sunset flash. My lover’s voice calls To others in his restless sleep. […]...
35. The Bull Moose Down from the purple mist of trees on the mountain, Lurching through forests of white spruce and cedar, Stumbling through tamarack swamps, Came the bull moose To be stopped at last by a pole-fenced pasture. Too tired to turn or, perhaps, aware There was no place left to go, he stood with the cattle. They, […]...
36. Beautiful Edinburgh Beautiful city of Edinburgh, most wonderful to be seen, With your ancient palace of Holyrood and Queen’s Park Green, And your big, magnificent, elegant New College, Where people from all nations can be taught knowledge. The New College of Edinburgh is certainly very grand Which I consider to be an honour to fair Scotland, Because […]...
37. Birches When I see birches bend to left and right Across the lines of straighter darker trees, I like to think some boy’s been swinging them. But swinging doesn’t bend them down to stay. Ice-storms do that. Often you must have seen them Loaded with ice a sunny winter morning After a rain. They click upon […]...
38. Flying Fish I HAVE lived in many half-worlds myself… and so I know you. I leaned at a deck rail watching a monotonous sea, the same circling birds and the same plunge of furrows carved by the plowing keel. I leaned so… and you fluttered struggling between two waves in the air now… and then under the […]...
39. Since Years Ago For Evermore SINCE years ago for evermore My cedar ship I drew to shore; And to the road and riverbed And the green, nodding reeds, I said Mine ignorant and last farewell: Now with content at home I dwell, And now divide my sluggish life Betwixt my verses and my wife: In vain; for when the lamp […]...
40. The Cockney Soul From Woolwich and Brentford and Stamford Hill, from Richmond into the Strand, Oh, the Cockney soul is a silent soul — as it is in every land! But out on the sand with a broken band it’s sarcasm spurs them through; And, with never a laugh, in a gale and a half, ’tis the Cockney […]...