The Last Department

Related poetry:

1. My Hundred Books A thousand books my library Contains; And all are primed, it seems to me With brains. Mine are so few I scratch in thought My head; For just a hundred of the lot I’ve read. A hundred books, but of the best, I can With wisdom savour and digest And scan. Yet when afar from […]...
2. The Puzzler The Celt in all his variants from Builth to Ballyhoo, His mental processes are plain one knows what he will do, And can logically predicate his finish by his start; But the English ah, the English! they are quite a race apart. Their psychology is bovine, their outlook crude and raw. They abandon vital matters […]...
3. To Lucy, Countess of Bedford, with John Donne's Satires Lucy, you brightness of our sphere, who are Life of the Muses’ day, their morning star! If works, not th’ author’s, their own grace should look, Whose poems would not wish to be your book? But these, desir’d by you, the maker’s ends Crown with their own. Rare poems ask rare friends. Yet satires, since […]...
4. Behind, perhaps, let the sea blow Behind, perhaps, let the sea blow. Let some word blow Outside every destination of slime, rust. Perhaps ointments from Avicenna, Forests of embraces, Crops, swarms, humid implications. Or, perhaps, the same. It sits up. It gets dressed. It goes. The grass stands up again. At his step everything seems to find Inside itself a certain […]...
5. Twelve O'Clock Mother, I do want to leave off my lessons now. I have been at my Book all the morning. You say it is only twelve o’clock. Suppose it isn’t any later; Can’t you ever think it is afternoon when it is only twelve O’clock? I can easily imagine now that the sun has reached the […]...
6. Amoretti LXXV: One Day I Wrote Her Name One day I wrote her name upon the strand, But came the waves and washed it away: Again I wrote it with a second hand, But came the tide, and made my pains his prey. “Vain man,” said she, “that dost in vain assay, A mortal thing so to immortalize; For I myself shall like […]...
7. Sonnet 75 One day I wrote her name upon the strand, But came the waves and washed it away: Agayne I wrote it with a second hand, But came the tyde, and made my paynes his pray. “Vayne man,” sayd she, “that doest in vaine assay. A mortall thing so to immortalize, For I my selve shall […]...
8. The Riddle Shall I love God for causing me to be? I was mere utterance; shall these words love me? Yet when I caused His work to jar and stammer, And one free subject loosened all His grammar, I love Him that He did not in a rage Once and forever rule me off the page, But, […]...
9. Sonnet CXXIV If my dear love were but the child of state, It might for Fortune’s bastard be unfather’d’ As subject to Time’s love or to Time’s hate, Weeds among weeds, or flowers with flowers gather’d. No, it was builded far from accident; It suffers not in smiling pomp, nor falls Under the blow of thralled discontent, […]...
10. Sonnet 124: If my dear love were but the child of state If my dear love were but the child of state, It might for Fortune’s bastard be unfathered, As subject to Time’s love or to Time’s hate, Weeds among weeds, or flowers with flowers gathered. No, it was builded far from accident; It suffers not in smiling pomp, nor falls Under the blow of thralled discontent, […]...
11. The Thousandth Man One man in a thousand, Solomon says, Will stick more close than a brother. And it’s worth while seeking him half your days If you find him before the other. Nine nundred and ninety-nine depend On what the world sees in you, But the Thousandth man will stand your friend With the whole round world […]...
12. From Far, From Eve and Morning From far, from eve and morning And yon twelve-winded sky, The stuff of life to knit me Blew hither: here am I. Now for a breath I tarry Nor yet disperse apart Take my hand quick and tell me, What have you in your heart. Speak now, and I will answer; How shall I help […]...
13. Pi The admirable number pi: Three point one four one. All the following digits are also just a start, Five nine two because it never ends. It can’t be grasped, six five three five, at a glance, Eight nine, by calculation, Seven nine, through imagination, Or even three two three eight in jest, or by comparison […]...
14. Rice Pudding What is the matter with Mary Jane? She’s crying with all her might and main, And she won’t eat her dinner – rice pudding again – What is the matter with Mary Jane? What is the matter with Mary Jane? I’ve promised her dolls and a daisy-chain, And a book about animals – all in […]...
15. A Light exists in Spring A Light exists in Spring Not present on the Year At any other period When March is scarcely here A Color stands abroad On Solitary Fields That Science cannot overtake But Human Nature feels. It waits upon the Lawn, It shows the furthest Tree Upon the furthest Slope you know It almost speaks to you. […]...
16. Arithmetic on the Frontier A great and glorious thing it is To learn, for seven years or so, The Lord knows what of that and this, Ere reckoned fit to face the foe The flying bullet down the Pass, That whistles clear: “All flesh is grass.” Three hundred pounds per annum spent On making brain and body meeter For […]...
17. Life As late I journey’d o’er the extensive plain Where native Otter sports his scanty stream, Musing in torpid woe a Sister’s pain, The glorious prospect woke me from the dream. At every step it widen’d to my sight – Wood, Meadow, verdant Hill, and dreary Steep, Following in quick succession of delight, – Till all […]...
18. Sonnet XL MArk when she smiles with amiable cheare, And tell me whereto can ye lyken it: When on each eyelid sweetly doe appeare, An hundred Graces as in shade to sit. Lykest it seemeth in my simple wit Vnto the fayre sunshine in somers day: That when a dreadfull storme away is flit, Thrugh the broad […]...
19. SMILE, YOU ARE ON CCTV Even the charity shops boast of the surveillance Mr Average is caught on camera a hundred times a day To provide unending footage for reality TV But in a decade where will we all be? Big Brother’s eye will see our every step, The blink of every eye, the tears we cry....
20. Whitsunday Listen sweet Dove unto my song, And spread thy golden wings in me; Hatching my tender heart so long, Till it get wing, and fly away with thee. Where is that fire which once descended On thy Apostles? thou didst then Keep open house, richly attended, Feasting all comers by twelve chosen men. Such glorious […]...
21. His Confidence Undying love to buy I wrote upon The corners of this eye All wrongs done. What payment were enough For undying love? I broke my heart in two So hard I struck. What matter? for I know That out of rock, Out of a desolate source, Love leaps upon its course....
22. Vespers In your extended absence, you permit me Use of earth, anticipating Some return on investment. I must report Failure in my assignment, principally Regarding the tomato plants. I think I should not be encouraged to grow Tomatoes. Or, if I am, you should withhold The heavy rains, the cold nights that come So often here, […]...
23. The Tree: An Old Man's Story I Its roots are bristling in the air Like some mad Earth-god’s spiny hair; The loud south-wester’s swell and yell Smote it at midnight, and it fell. Thus ends the tree Where Some One sat with me. II Its boughs, which none but darers trod, A child may step on from the sod, And twigs […]...
24. Style Flaubert wanted to write a novel About nothing. It was to have no subject And be sustained upon the style alone, Like the Holy Ghost cruising above The abyss, or like the little animals In Disney cartoons who stand upon a branch That breaks, but do not fall Till they look down. He never wrote […]...
25. Hiawathas' photographing ( Part IV) Next to him the eldest daughter: She suggested very little Only asked if he would take her With her look of ‘passive beauty-‘ Her idea of passive beauty Was a squinting of the left-eye, Was a drooping of the right-eye, Was a smile that went up Sideways To the corner of the nostrils. Hiawatha, when […]...
26. Love's Usury For every hour that thou wilt spare me now I will allow, Usurious God of Love, twenty to thee, When with my brown my gray hairs equal be; Till then, Love, let my body reign, and let Me travel, sojourn, snatch, plot, have, forget, Resume my last year’s relic: think that yet We’had never met. […]...
27. The Man Who Could Write Boanerges Blitzen, servant of the Queen, Is a dismal failure is a Might-have-been. In a luckless moment he discovered men Rise to high position through a ready pen. Boanerges Blitzen argued therefore “I, With the selfsame weapon, can attain as high.” Only he did not possess when he made the trial, Wicked wit of C-lv-n, […]...
28. Indifference I said,-for Love was laggard, O, Love was slow to come,- “I’ll hear his step and know his step when I am warm in bed; But I’ll never leave my pillow, though there be some As would let him in-and take him in with tears!” I said. I lay,-for Love was laggard, O, he came […]...
29. A Tenant of Mrs. Van Kleeck My very good landlady, Mistress Van Kleeck, (For the tears that o’erwhelm me I scarcely can speak) I know that I promis’d you hogs two or three (But who knows his destiny? Certain not me!) That I promis’d three hogs I don’t mean to deny (I can prove that I had five or six upon […]...
30. Nancy Knapp Well, don’t you see this was the way of it: We bought the farm with what he inherited, And his brothers and sisters accused him of poisoning His fathers mind against the rest of them. And we never had any peace with our treasure. The murrain took the cattle, and the crops failed. And lightning […]...
31. Our New Horse The boys had come back from the races All silent and down on their luck; They’d backed ’em, straight out and for places, But never a winner they’s struck. They lost their good money on Slogan, And fell most uncommonly flat When Partner, the pride of the Bogan, Was beaten by Aristocrat. And one said, […]...
32. Anna Who Was Mad Anna who was mad, I have a knife in my armpit. When I stand on tiptoe I tap out messages. Am I some sort of infection? Did I make you go insane? Did I make the sounds go sour? Did I tell you to climb out the window? Forgive. Forgive. Say not I did. Say […]...
33. Psalm 48 part 2 v.10-14 S. M. The beauty of the church; or, Gospel worship and order. Far as thy name is known, The world declares thy praise; Thy saints, O Lord, before thy throne, Their songs of honor raise. With joy let Judah stand On Zion’s chosen hill, Proclaim the wonders of thy hand, And counsels of thy […]...
34. Georgine Sand Miner A step-mother drove me from home, embittering me. A squaw-man, a flaneur and dilettante took my virtue. For years I was his mistress no one knew. I learned from him the parasite cunning With which I moved with the bluffs, like a flea on a dog. All the time I was nothing but “very private” […]...
35. The Wife “Tell Annie I’ll be home in time To help her with her Christmas-tree.” That’s what he wrote, and hark! the chime Of Christmas bells, and where is he? And how the house is dark and sad, And Annie’s sobbing on my knee! The page beside the candle-flame With cruel type was overfilled; I read and […]...
36. I saw Old General at Bay I SAW old General at bay; (Old as he was, his grey eyes yet shone out in battle like stars;) His small force was now completely hemm’d in, in his works; He call’d for volunteers to run the enemy’s lines-a desperate emergency; I saw a hundred and more step forth from the ranks-but two or […]...
37. Ballad of the Army Carts The carts squeak and trundle, the horses whinny, the conscripts go by, each With a bow and arrows at his waist. Their fathers, mothers, wives, and children Run along beside them to see them off. The Hsien-yang Bridge cannot be seen for Dust. They pluck at the men’s clothes, stamp their feet, or stand in […]...
38. Since Nine O'Clock Half past twelve. Time has gone by quickly Since nine o’clock when I lit the lamp And sat down here. I’ve been sitting without reading, Without speaking. Completely alone in the house, Whom could I talk to? Since nine o’clock when I lit the lamp The shade of my young body Has come to haunt […]...
39. Salome's Dancing-Lesson She that begs a little boon (Heel and toe! Heel and toe!) Little gets – and nothing, soon. (No, no, no! No, no, no!) She that calls for costly things Priceless finds her offerings- What’s impossible to kings? (Heel and toe! Heel and toe!) Kings are shaped as other men. (Step and turn! Step and […]...
40. I read my sentence steadily I read my sentence steadily Reviewed it with my eyes, To see that I made no mistake In its extremest clause The Date, and manner, of the shame And then the Pious Form That “God have mercy” on the Soul The Jury voted Him I made my soul familiar with her extremity That at the […]...