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1. Wine Bibber I would rather drink than eat, And though I superbly sup, Food, I feel, can never beat Delectation of the cup. Wine it is that crowns the feast; Fish and fowl and fancy meat Are of my delight the least: I would rather drink than eat. Though no Puritan I be, And have doubts of […]...
2. Sweet Briars of the Stairways We are happy all the time Even when we fight: Sweet briars of the stairways, Gay fairies of the grime; We, who are playing to-night. “Our feet are in the gutters, Our eyes are sore with dust, But still our eyes are bright. The wide street roars and mutters – We know it works because […]...
3. The Wedding Ring I pawned my sick wife’s wedding ring, To drink and make myself a beast. I got the most that it would bring, Of golden coins the very least. With stealth into her room I crept And stole it from her as she slept. I do not think that she will know, As in its place […]...
4. Awakening THE LIGHTS shone down the street In the long blue close of day: A boy’s heart beat sweet, sweet, As it flowered in its dreamy clay. Beyond the dazzling throng And above the towers of men The stars made him long, long, To return to their light again. They lit the wondrous years And his […]...
5. The Legend of Evil I This is the sorrowful story Told when the twilight fails And the monkeys walk together Holding their neighbours’ tails: “Our fathers lived in the forest, Foolish people were they, They went down to the cornland To teach the farmers to play. “Our fathers frisked in the millet, Our fathers skipped in the wheat, Our […]...
6. Curse of a Rich Polish Peasant on His Sister Who Ran Away With a Wild Man FELIKSOWA has gone again from our house and this time for good, I hope. She and her husband took with them the cow father gave them, and they sold it. She went like a swine, because she called neither on me, her brother, nor on her father, before leaving for those forests. That is where […]...
7. Slumber Songs I Sleep, little eyes That brim with childish tears amid thy play, Be comforted! No grief of night can weigh Against the joys that throng thy coming day. Sleep, little heart! There is no place in Slumberland for tears: Life soon enough will bring its chilling fears And sorrows that will dim the after years. […]...
8. Sonnet XXIIII WHen I behold that beauties wonderment, And rare perfection of each goodly part; Of natures skill the only complement, I honor and admire the makers art. But when I feele the bitter balefull smart, Which her fayre eyes vnwares doe worke in mee: That death out of theyr shiny beames doe dart, I thinke that […]...
9. John Ballard In the lust of my strength I cursed God, but he paid no attention to me: I might as well have cursed the stars. In my last sickness I was in agony, but I was resolute And I cursed God for my suffering; Still He paid no attention to me; He left me alone, as […]...
10. The Hog, The Sheep, And Goat, Carrying To A FAIR Who does not wish, ever to judge aright, And, in the Course of Life’s Affairs, To have a quick, and far extended Sight, Tho’ it too often multiplies his Cares? And who has greater Sense, but greater Sorrow shares? This felt the Swine, now carrying to the Knife; And whilst the Lamb and silent Goat […]...
11. My Job I’ve got a little job on ‘and, the time is drawin’ nigh; At seven by the Captain’s watch I’m due to go and do it; I wants to ‘ave it nice and neat, and pleasin’ to the eye, And I ‘opes the God of soldier men will see me safely through it. Because, you see, […]...
12. Bonehead Bill I wonder ‘oo and wot ‘e was, That ‘Un I got so slick. I couldn’t see ‘is face because The night was ‘ideous thick. I just made out among the black A blinkin’ wedge o’ white; Then biff! I guess I got ‘im crack The man I killed last night. I wonder if account o’ […]...
13. The Fathers Our fathers all were poor, Poorer our fathers’ fathers; Beyond, we dare not look. We, the sons, keep store Of tarnished gold that gathers Around us from the night, Record it in this book That, when the line is drawn, Credit and creditor gone, Column and figure flown, Will open into light. Archaic fevers shake […]...
14. Infidelity Three Triangles TRIANGLE ONE My husband put some poison in my beer, And fondly hoped that I would drink it up. He would get rid of me – no bloody fear, For when his back was turned I changed the cup. He took it all, and if he did not die, Its just because he’s […]...
15. His Boys “I’m going, Billy, old fellow. Hist, lad! Don’t make any noise. There’s Boches to beat all creation, the pitch of a bomb away. I’ve fixed the note to your collar, you’ve got to get back to my Boys, You’ve got to get back to warn ’em before it’s the break of day.” The order came […]...
16. Sam Hookey I ran away from home with the circus, Having fallen in love with Mademoiselle Estralada, The lion tamer. One time, having starved the lions For more than a day, I entered the cage and began to beat Brutus And Leo and Gypsy. Whereupon Brutus sprang upon me, And killed me. On entering these regions I […]...
17. The Wonderer I wish that I could understand The moving marvel of my Hand; I watch my fingers turn and twist, The supple bending of my wrist, The dainty touch of finger-tip, The steel intensity of grip; A tool of exquisite design, With pride I think: “It’s mine! It’s mine!” Then there’s the wonder of my Eyes, […]...
18. The Junior God The Junior God looked from his place In the conning towers of heaven, And he saw the world through the span of space Like a giant golf-ball driven. And because he was bored, as some gods are, With high celestial mirth, He clutched the reins of a shooting star, And he steered it down to […]...
19. A Hero Three times I had the lust to kill, To clutch a throat so young and fair, And squeeze with all my might until No breath of being lingered there. Three times I drove the demon out, Though on my brow was evil sweat. . . . And yet I know beyond a doubt He’ll get […]...
20. My Friends The man above was a murderer, the man below was a thief; And I lay there in the bunk between, ailing beyond belief; A weary armful of skin and bone, wasted with pain and grief. My feet were froze, and the lifeless toes were purple and green and gray; The little flesh that clung to […]...
21. Alabama Song Show me the way to the next whisky bar Oh, don’t ask why, oh, don’t ask why Show me the way to the next whisky bar Oh, don’t ask why, oh, don’t ask why For if we don’t find the next whisky bar I tell you we must die I tell you we must die […]...
22. Sonnet Not with vain tears, when we’re beyond the sun, We’ll beat on the substantial doors, nor tread Those dusty high-roads of the aimless dead Plaintive for Earth; but rather turn and run Down some close-covered by-way of the air, Some low sweet alley between wind and wind, Stoop under faint gleams, thread the shadows, find […]...
23. Anthem For Good Fryday See sinfull soul thy Saviours suffering see, His Blessed hands and feet fix’t fast to tree: Observe what Rivulets of blood stream forth His painful pierced side, each drop more worth Than tongue of men and Angels can express: Hast to him, cursed Caitiffe, and confess All thy misdeeds, and sighing say, ‘Twas I That […]...
24. The Garden She is coming, my own, my sweet; Were it ever so airy a tread, My heart would hear her and beat, Were it earth in an earthy bed; My dust would hear her and beat, Had I lain for a century dead, Would start and tremble under her feet, And blossom in purple and red....
25. Tears TEARS! tears! tears! In the night, in solitude, tears; On the white shore dripping, dripping, suck’d in by the sand; Tears-not a star shining-all dark and desolate; Moist tears from the eyes of a muffled head: -O who is that ghost?-that form in the dark, with tears? What shapeless lump is that, bent, crouch’d there […]...
26. A Far Cry From Africa A wind is ruffling the tawny pelt Of Africa, Kikuyu, quick as flies, Batten upon the bloodstreams of the veldt. Corpses are scattered through a paradise. Only the worm, colonel of carrion, cries: “Waste no compassion on these separate dead!” Statistics justify and scholars seize The salients of colonial policy. What is that to the […]...
27. Psalm 49 part 1 v.6-14 C. M. Pride and death; or, The vanity of life and riches. Why doth the man of riches grow To insolence and pride, To see his wealth and honors flow With every rising tide? [Why doth he treat the poor with scorn, Made of the self-same clay, And boast as though his flesh was […]...
28. That V. C ‘Twas in the days of front attack; This glorious truth we’d yet to learn it That every “front” has got a back. And French was just the man to turn it. A wounded soldier on the ground Was lying hid behind a hummock; He proved the good old proverb sound An army travels on its […]...
29. The Punisher I have fetched the tears up out of the little wells, Scooped them up with small, iron words, Dripping over the runnels. The harsh, cold wind of my words drove on, and still I watched the tears on the guilty cheek of the boys Glitter and spill. Cringing Pity, and Love, white-handed, came Hovering about […]...
30. Felix Randal Felix Randal the farrier, O he is dead then? my duty all ended, Who have watched his mould of man, big-boned and hardy-handsome Pining, pining, till time when reason rambled in it and some Fatal four disorders, fleshed there, all contended? Sickness broke him. Impatient he cursed at first, but mended Being anointed and all; […]...
31. Swinging the Lead Said the soldier to the Surgeon, “I’ve got noises in me head And a kind o’ filled up feeling after every time I’m fed; I can sleep all night on picket, but I can’t sleep in my bed”. And the Surgeon said, “That’s Lead!” Said the soldier to the Surgeon, “Do you think they’ll send […]...
32. A Fairly Sad Tale I think that I shall never know Why I am thus, and I am so. Around me, other girls inspire In men the rush and roar of fire, The sweet transparency of glass, The tenderness of April grass, The durability of granite; But me – I don’t know how to plan it. The lads I’ve […]...
33. The Lady's First Song I turn round Like a dumb beast in a show. Neither know what I am Nor where I go, My language beaten Into one name; I am in love And that is my shame. What hurts the soul My soul adores, No better than a beast Upon all fours....
34. Even Because Because it all just breaks apart, and the pieces scatter and rearrange without much fanfare or notice. Because you can’t and don’t remember the step that kicked up dust and left this planet-you’d give up even more now. Because the body itself-the heart’s Not dead but deeper, wrapped up in curtains, a different color, among […]...
35. Middle Aged Lovers, II You open to me A little, Then grow afraid And close again, A small boy Fearing to be hurt, A toe stubbed In the dark, A finger cut On paper. I think I am free Of fears, Enraptured, abandoned To the call Of the Bacchae, My own siren, Tied to my own Mast, Both Circe […]...
36. Lift Every Voice and Sing Lift ev’ry voice and sing, Till earth and heaven ring, Ring with the harmonies of Liberty; Let our rejoicing rise High as the list’ning skies, Let it resound loud as the rolling sea. Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us, Sing a song full of the hope that […]...
37. The Bean-Stalk Ho, Giant! This is I! I have built me a bean-stalk into your sky! La,-but it’s lovely, up so high! This is how I came,-I put Here my knee, there my foot, Up and up, from shoot to shoot- And the blessed bean-stalk thinning Like the mischief all the time, Till it took me rocking, […]...
38. Aaron Stark Withal a meagre man was Aaron Stark, Cursed and unkempt, shrewd, shrivelled, and morose. A miser was he, with a miser’s nose, And eyes like little dollars in the dark. His thin, pinched mouth was nothing but a mark; And when he spoke there came like sullen blows Through scattered fangs a few snarled words […]...
39. My Spectre Around Me My spectre around me night and day Like a wild beast guards my way. My emanation far within Weeps incessantly for my sin. A fathomless and boundless deep, There we wander, there we weep; On the hungry craving wind My spectre follows thee behind. He scents thy footsteps in the snow, Wheresoever thou dost go […]...
40. Gods In The Gutter I dreamed I saw three demi-gods who in a cafe sat, And one was small and crapulous, and one was large and fat; And one was eaten up with vice and verminous at that. The first he spoke of secret sins, and gems and perfumes rare; And velvet cats and courtesans voluptuously fair: “Who is […]...