Author: Stephen Vincent Benet

After the whipping he crawled into bed, Accepting the harsh fact with no great weeping. How funny uncle’s hat had […]

Eternally the choking steam goes up From the black pools of seething oil. . . . How merry Those little […]

Perhaps we go with wind and cloud and sun, Into the free companionship of air; Perhaps with sunsets when the […]

My friend went to the piano; spun the stool A little higher; left his pipe to cool; Picked up a […]

The little letters dance across the page, Flaunt and retire, and trick the tired eyes; Sick of the strain, the […]

I am a shell. From me you shall not hear The splendid tramplings of insistent drums, The orbed gold of […]

The moon, a sweeping scimitar, dipped in the stormy straits, The dawn, a crimson cataract, burst through the eastern gates, […]

I shall go away To the brown hills, the quiet ones, The vast, the mountainous, the rolling, Sun-fired and drowsy! […]

Here, where men’s eyes were empty and as bright As the blank windows set in glaring brick, When the wind […]

(A Pharaoh Speaks.) I said, “Why should a pyramid Stand always dully on its base? I’ll change it! Let the […]

“But, sir,” I said, “they tell me the man is like to die!” The Canon shook his head indulgently. “Young […]

(For G. H.) Say, does that stupid earth Where they have laid her, Bind still her sullen mirth, Mirth which […]

Gods, what a black, fierce day! The clouds were iron, Wrenched to strange, rugged shapes; the red sun winked Over […]

Black trees against an orange sky, Trees that the wind shook terribly, Like a harsh spume along the road, Quavering […]

(A Virginia Legend.) The Planting of the Hemp. Captain Hawk scourged clean the seas (Black is the gap below the […]

The last pose flickered, failed. The screen’s dead white Glared in a sudden flooding of harsh light Stabbing the eyes; […]

(For D. M. C.) The little man with the vague beard and guise Pulled at the wicket. “Come inside!” he […]

(France Ancient Regime.) I. Go away! Go away; I will not confess to you! His black biretta clings like a […]

Tobacco smoke drifts up to the dim ceiling From half a dozen pipes and cigarettes, Curling in endless shapes, in […]

I lie stretched out upon the window-seat And doze, and read a page or two, and doze, And feel the […]

There is darkness behind the light and the pale light drips Cold on vague shapes and figures, that, half-seen loom […]

“Ah, did you once see Shelley plain?” Browning. “Shelley? Oh, yes, I saw him often then,” The old man said. […]

The boat ploughed on. Now Alcatraz was past And all the grey waves flamed to red again At the dead […]

He lay within a warm, soft world Of motion. Colors bloomed and fled, Maroon and turquoise, saffron, red, Wave upon […]

Well, I was tired of life; the silly folk, The tiresome noises, all the common things I loved once, crushed […]

Soup should be heralded with a mellow horn, Blowing clear notes of gold against the stars; Strange entrees with a […]

The grey gulls drift across the bay Softly and still as flakes of snow Against the thinning fog. All day […]

It was not when temptation came, Swiftly and blastingly as flame, And seared me white with burning scars; When I […]

There were not many at that lonely place, Where two scourged hills met in a little plain. The wind cried […]

Next, then, the peacock, gilt With all its feathers. Look, what gorgeous dyes Flow in the eyes! And how deep, […]