Art poems

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Ode to the end of Summer

© Phyllis McGinley

It fades--this green this lavish interval
This time of flowers and fruits,
Of melon ripe along the orchard wall,
Of sun and sails and wrinkled linen suits;
Time when the world seems rather plus than minus
And pollen tickles the allergic sinus.

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A Vision of Poesy - Part 01

© Henry Timrod

In a far country, and a distant age,
Ere sprites and fays had bade farewell to earth,
A boy was born of humble parentage;
The stars that shone upon his lonely birth
Did seem to promise sovereignty and fame -
Yet no tradition hath preserved his name.

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A Miller, His Son, And Their Ass

© Anne Kingsmill Finch

THO' to Antiquity the Praise we yield
Of pleasing Arts; and Fable's earli'st Field
Own to be fruitful Greece; yet not so clean
Those Ears were reap'd, but still there's some to glean;
And from the Lands of vast Invention come
Daily new Authors, with Discov'ries home.

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Metropolitan Nightmare

© Stephen Vincent Benet

Until, one day, a somnolent city-editor
Gave a new cub the termite yarn to break his teeth on.
The cub was just down from Vermont, so he took the time.
He was serious about it. He went around.
He read all about termites in the Public Library
And it made him sore when they fired him.

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Paradise Lost : Book II.

© John Milton


High on a throne of royal state, which far

Outshone the wealth or Ormus and of Ind,

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art school

© Rg Gregory

each sunset is unique
so others tell usfools - with flowers
of envy pushingthrough their teeth
i think differentlya feeble skill that

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the ordinary again

© Rg Gregory

you are not interested in me
a receiver of food and a giver of shit
my brain knuckled under

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Wealth

© Ralph Waldo Emerson

Who shall tell what did befall,

Far away in time, when once,

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haunting the quark

© Rg Gregory

(I)
if you can’t scientifically explain it
dawkins says it has no value – some hope
inside the mechanical framework of a guess
(as far as any fact can truly grope)
doubts roam – mere looking can’t attain it

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natural therapy

© Rg Gregory

the great thing about the tall white daisy
is that it knows how to laugh at itselfsome flowers for all their rich displays
won't preen themselves without a primnessin their sap - nor let their stalks abide
bending this way that way in the thick windthe large daisy is happy to be slapdash

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a reader’s de profundis

© Rg Gregory

in my reading of the moment i have learned
the figure next to christ in da vinci’s last supper
(a painting i have actually seen in a milan church
fragilely restored) is a woman – an honour earned
by mary magdalene who (according to research)
turns out to be christ’s wife – hang on what a whopper

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The Grave

© Robert Blair

While some affect the sun, and some the shade,
Some flee the city, some the hermitage;
Their aims as various, as the roads they take
In journeying through life;—the task be mine,

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Oxford

© Lionel Pigot Johnson

  OVER, the four long years! And now there rings
  One voice of freedom and regret: Farewell!
  Now old remembrance sorrows, and now sings:
  But song from sorrow, now, I cannot tell.

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Dedication

© Stephen Vincent Benet

And so, to you, who always were
Perseus, D'Artagnan, Lancelot
To me, I give these weedy rhymes
In memory of earlier times.
Now all those careless days are not.
Of all my heroes, you endure.

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Alexander VI Dines with the Cardinal of Capua

© Stephen Vincent Benet

Next, then, the peacock, gilt
With all its feathers. Look, what gorgeous dyes
Flow in the eyes!
And how deep, lustrous greens are splashed and spilt
Along the back, that like a sea-wave's crest
Scatters soft beauty o'er th' emblazoned breast!

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A Terre

© Wilfred Owen


Sit on the bed; I'm blind, and three parts shell,
Be careful; can't shake hands now; never shall.
Both arms have mutinied against me -- brutes.
My fingers fidget like ten idle brats.

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The Tearful Tale Of Captain Dan

© Ellis Parker Butler

A sinner was old Captain Dan;
His wives guv him no rest:
He had one wife to East Skiddaw
And one to Skiddaw West.

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The Vanity Of Human Wishes

© Michael Wigglesworth

I walk'd and did a little Mole-hill view

Full peopled with a most industrious crew

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Democracy

© John Greenleaf Whittier

BEARER of Freedom's holy light,
Breaker of Slavery's chain and rod,
The foe of all which pains the sight,
Or wounds the generous ear of God!