Family poems

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43

The Life of Lincoln West

© Gwendolyn Brooks

Ugliest little boy
that everyone ever saw.
That is what everyone said.

An American Poem

© Eileen Myles

I was born in Boston in

1949. I never wanted

The Tennis Court Oath

© John Ashbery

The mulatress approached in the hall—the
lettering easily visible along the edge of the Times
in a moment the bell would ring but there was time
for the carnation laughed here are a couple of “other”

The Return

© Frank Bidart

As the retreating Bructeri began to burn their own
possessions, to deny to the Romans every sustenance but
ashes,

Northumberland House

© Stevie Smith

I was always a thoughtful youngster,
Said the lady on the omnibus,
I remember Father used to say,
You are more thoughtful than us.

No Classes!

© Wilcox Ella Wheeler

No classes here! Why, that is idle talk.
The village beau sneers at the country boor;
The importuning mendicants who walk
Our cites streets despise the parish poor.

Plaint Of The Missouri 'Coon In The Berlin Zoological Gardens

© Eugene Field

Friend, by the way you hump yourself you're from the States, I know,

And born in old Mizzourah, where the 'coons in plenty grow;

My Last Afternoon with Uncle Devereux Winslow

© Robert Lowell

a black pile and a white pile....
Come winter,
Uncle Devereux would blend to the one color.

Loitering in a country town, 'cos I had some time to spare
I went into an antique shop, to see what was there.
Bikes and pumps, and kero lamps, the old shop had it all,
then I was taken prisoner, by the Anzac on the wall.

The Sorcerer: Act II

© William Schwenck Gilbert

Scene-Exterior of Sir Marmaduke's mansion by moonlight. All the
peasantry are discovered asleep on the ground, as at the end
of Act I.

The Thirteenth Olympic Ode Of Pindar

© Henry James Pye

To Xenophon of Corinth, on his Victory in the Stadic Course, and Pentathlon, at Olympia. ARGUMENT. The Poet begins his Ode, by complimenting the family of Xenophon, on their successes in the Olympic Games, and their hospitality; and then celebrates their country, Corinth, for it's good government, and for the quick genius of it's inhabitants, in the invention of many useful and ornamental Arts. He then implores Jupiter to continue his blessings on them, and to remain propitious to Xenophon; whose exploits he enumerates, together with those of Thessalus and Ptodorus, his father and grandfather. He then launches out again in praise of Corinth and her Citizens, and relates the story of Bellerophon. He then, checking himself for digressing so far, returns to his Hero, relates his various success in the inferior Games of Greece, and concludes with a Prayer to Jupiter.

STROPHE I.

Against Gregariousness

© Clive James

Facing the wind, the hovering stormy petrels
Tap-dance on the water.
They pluck the tuna hatchlings
As Pavlova, had she been in a tearing hurry,
Might once have picked up pearls
From a broken necklace.

The Pleasures of Imagination: Book The Second

© Mark Akenside

Till all its orbs and all its worlds of fire
Be loosen'd from their seats; yet still serene,
The unconquer'd mind looks down upon the wreck;
And ever stronger as the storms advance,
Firm through the closing ruin holds his way,
Where nature calls him to the destin'd goal.

Still Life in Landscape

© Sharon Olds

It was night, it had rained, there were pieces of cars and

half-cars strewn, it was still, and bright,

The Windy City [sections 1 and 6]

Early the red men gave a name to the river,
the place of the skunk,
the river of the wild onion smell,
Shee-caw-go.

Paradise Regain'd: Book III (1671)

SO spake the Son of God, and Satan stood

A while as mute confounded what to say,

© Sylvia Plath

Rigged poker -stiff on her back
With a granite grin
This antique museum-cased lady
Lies, companioned by the gimcrack
Relics of a mouse and a shrew
That battened for a day on her ankle-bone.