Epic
I have lived in important places, times
When great events were decided, who owned
That half a rood of rock, a no-man’s land
Surrounded by our pitchfork-armed claims.
I heard the Duffys shouting “Damn your soul”
And old McCabe stripped to the waist, seen
Step the plot defying blue cast-steel-
“Here is the march along these iron stones”
That was the year of the Munich bother. Which
Was more important? I inclined
To lose my faith in Ballyrush and Gortin
Til Homer’s ghost came whispering to my mind
He said: I made the Iliad from such
A local row. Gods make their own importance.
(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)Related poetry:
- The Epic Stars The heroic stars spending themselves, Coining their very flesh into bullets for the lost battle, They must burn out at […]...
- Light Is More Important Than The Lantern Light is more important than the lantern, The poem more important than the notebook, And the kiss more important than […]...
- Conceit It is conceit that kills us And makes us cowards instead of gods. Under the great Command: Know thy self, […]...
- To lose one's faith surpass To lose one’s faith surpass The loss of an Estate Because Estates can be Replenished faith cannot Inherited with Life […]...
- What Then? His chosen comrades thought at school He must grow a famous man; He thought the same and lived by rule, […]...
- Pragmatic When young I was an Atheist, Yea, pompous as a pigeon No opportunity I missed To satirize religion. I sneered […]...
- By A Swimming Pool Outside Syracusa All afternoon I have been struggling To communicate in Italian With Roberto and Giuseppe, who have begun To resemble the […]...
- In Memory of Anyone Unknown to Me At this particular time I have no one Particular person to grieve for, though there must Be many, many unknown […]...
- On the desert On the desert A silence from the moon’s deepest valley. Fire rays fall athwart the robes Of hooded men, squat […]...
- EPITAPH As a boy, reserved and naughty; As a youth, a coxcomb and haughty; As a man, for action inclined; As […]...
- I Go Back To The House For A Book I turn around on the gravel And go back to the house for a book, Something to read at the […]...
- POPPIES ON LUDLOW CASTLE THROUGH halls of vanished pleasure, And hold of vanished power, And crypt of faith forgotten, A came to Ludlow tower. […]...
- Soliloquy in Circles Being a father Is quite a bother. You are as free as air With time to spare, You’re a fiscal […]...
- Slumber Song Some day, if I should ever lose you, Will you be able then to go to sleep Without me softly […]...
- Telegram I SAW a telegram handed a two hundred pound man at a desk. And the little scrap of paper charged […]...
- Albert and the 'Eadsman On young Albert Ramsbottom’s birthday His parents asked what he’d like most; He said to see t’ Tower of London […]...
- A Ritual To Read To Each Other If you don’t know the kind of person I am And I don’t know the kind of person you are […]...
- Crazy Jane And Jack The Journeyman I know, although when looks meet I tremble to the bone, The more I leave the door unlatched The sooner […]...
- What the Bee Is To the Floweret What the bee is to the floweret, When he looks for honey-dew, Through the leaves that close embower it, That, […]...
- Poem (Faithful to your commands, o consciousness) Poem Faithful to your commands, o consciousness, o Beating wings, I studied The roses and the muses of reality, The […]...
- Man in a Window I don’t know man trust is a precious thing A kind of humility Offer it to a snake and get […]...
- Four-Feet “THE WOMAN IN HIS LIFE” I have done mostly what most men do, And pushed it out of my mind; […]...
- Manufactured Gods THEY put up big wooden gods. Then they burned the big wooden gods And put up brass gods and Changing […]...
- These Things these things that we support most well Have nothing to do with up, And we do with them Out of […]...
- My Vineyard To me at night the stars are vocal. They say: ‘Your planet’s oh so local! A speck of dust in […]...
- 298. Prologue spoken at the Theatre of Dumfries NO song nor dance I bring from yon great city, That queens it o’er our taste-the more’s the pity: Tho’ […]...
- Poetry I, too, dislike it: there are things that are important beyond all this fiddle. Reading it, however, with a perfect […]...
- Punctilio O LET me be in loving nice, Dainty, fine, and o’er precise, That I may charm my charmàd dear As […]...
- When Your Pants Begin to Go When you wear a cloudy collar and a shirt that isn’t white, And you cannot sleep for thinking how you’ll […]...
- TO THE MEMORY OF MY MOTHER This is one spring you will not see. The fifty roses of your spray Smelt soft across that February day […]...
- Cuba My eldest sister arrived home that morning In her white muslin evening dress. ‘Who the hell do you think you […]...
- The Gods of the Copybook Headings 1919 As I pass through my incarnations in every age and race, Make my proper prostrations to the Gods of […]...
- Escape Tell me, Tramp, where I may go To be free from human woe; Say where I may hope to find […]...
- From the Hymn of Empedocles IS it so small a thing To have enjoy’d the sun, To have lived light in the spring, To have […]...
- Sonnet Not with vain tears, when we’re beyond the sun, We’ll beat on the substantial doors, nor tread Those dusty high-roads […]...
- Public Waste By the Laws of the Family Circle ’tis written in letters of brass That only a Colonel from Chatham can […]...
- Me Imperturbe ME imperturbe, standing at ease in Nature, Master of all, or mistress of all-aplomb in the midst of irrational things, […]...
- Wimborne minster though there’s not much faith left And very little snow This scene of wimborne minster Still makes its christmas show […]...
- If Death be Good (Sappho LXXIV) If death be good, Why do the gods not die? If life be ill, Why do the gods […]...
- Out of Sight They held a polo meeting at a little country town, And all the local sportsmen came to win themselves renown. […]...