All Poems
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From Doctor Faustus ("Was this the face that launched a thousand ships?")
© Christopher Marlowe
Was this the face that launched a thousand shipsAnd burned the topless towers of Illium?Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss:Her lips suck forth my soul, see where it flies
Lincoln, Man of the People [1922 version]
© Edwin Markham
When the Norn Mother saw the Whirlwind HourGreatening and darkening as it hurried on,She left the Heaven of Heroes and came downTo make a man to meet the mortal need
A Leaf from the Devil’s Jest-Book
© Edwin Markham
Beside the sewing-table chained and bent, They stitch for the lady, tyrannous and proud -- For her a wedding-gown, for them a shroud;They stitch and stitch, but never mend the rentTorn in life's golden curtains
Le Sonneur
© Stéphane Mallarme
Cependant que la cloche éveille sa voix claireA l'air pur et limpide et profond du matinEt passe sur l'enfant qui jette pour lui plaireUn angelus parmi la lavande et le thym,
L'Azur
© Stéphane Mallarme
De l'éternel azur la sereine ironieAccable, belle indolemment comme les fleurs,Le poëte impuissant qui maudit son génieA travers un désert stérile de Douleurs.
High Flight
© John Gillespie Magee
Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of EarthAnd danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirthof sun-split clouds, -- and done a hundred thingsYou have not dreamed of -- wheeled and soared and swungHigh in the sunlit silence
Very Sad Song
© Macpherson Jay
I cannot claim I rise to weep,But oh, the burden of my dayWould make an angel turn away:I’d rather be in bed asleep.
Substitutions
© Macpherson Jay
Tedward was aWoolworth’s bear,Filling in forOne not there(Parents’ attic?Thrown away?Long-dulled need re-vived one day):Lost the arche-typal ted,Friendly TedwardDid instead.
Some Ghosts & Some Ghouls
© Macpherson Jay
While we loved those who never read our poems,Answered our letters, said the simple things weWaited so long for, and were too polite to See we were crying,
Poets & Muses
© Macpherson Jay
Poets are such bad employers,Muses ought to Organize:Time off, sick pay, danger wages --Come, ye wretched of the skies!
Old Age of the Teddy-bear
© Macpherson Jay
Ted getting shabby --skull beneath skin?No, but as matting,bare patches, begin,nameless maimed babypeers out from within.
The Island
© Macpherson Jay
No man alone an island: weStand circled with a lapping sea.I break the ring and let you go:Above my head the waters flow.
Eurynome
© Macpherson Jay
Come all old maids that are squeamishAnd afraid to make mistakes,Don't clutter your lives up with boyfriends:The nicest girls marry snakes.
The Day-Labourer
© Macpherson Jay
Time is a labourer on God’s farm,And keeps His living things from harm
Abominable Snowman
© Macpherson Jay
The guardian stalking his eternal snowsWith backward tread and never any soundAfflicts the mind with horror more profoundThan caves and chasms among which he goes.
Villanelle of Mutton
© MacInnes Tom
Very sick and tired am I Of stewed prunes, and apples dried,And this our mutton that once was lamb!
