Great poems

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Grace

© John Crowe Ransom

WHO is it beams the merriest
At killing a man, the laughing one?
You are the one I nominate,
God of the rivers of Babylon.

'On Active Service'; American Expeditionary Force (R. S., August 12, 1918)

© Edith Wharton

HE is dead that was alive.
How shall friendship understand?
Lavish heart and tireless hand
Bidden not to give or strive,
Eager brain and questing eye
Like a broken lens laid by.

O splendid, spacious day, irradiate
With flaming dawns, when earth shows yet more fair
Her ardent beauty, proud, without alloy;
And wakening life breathes out her perfume rare
So potently, that, all intoxicate,
Our ravished being rushes upon joy!

After-Strain

© Francis Thompson

Now with wan ray that other sun of Song
Sets in the bleakening waters of my soul:
One step, and lo! the Cross stands gaunt and long
'Twixt me and yet bright skies, a presaged dole.

On The 100th Anniversary Of Anna Akhmatova

© Joseph Brodsky

The fire and the page, the hewed hairs and the swords,
The grains and the millstone, the whispers and the clatter --
God saves all that -- especially the words
Of love and pity, as His only way to utter.

Brer Rabbit You's de Cutes' of 'Em All

© James Weldon Johnson

"Brer Wolf am mighty cunnin',
Brer Fox am mighty sly,
Brer Terrapin an' 'Possum kinder small;
Brer Lion's mighty vicious,
Brer B'ar he's sorter 'spicious,
Brer Rabbit, you's de cutes' of 'em all."

Cautionary Tales by Mark Vinz : American Life in Poetry #229 Ted Kooser, U.S. Poet Laureate 2004-200

© Ted Kooser

For over forty years, Mark Vinz, of Moorhead, Minnesota-poet, teacher, publisher-has been a prominent advocate for the literature of the Upper Great Plains. Here’s a recent poem that speaks to growing older.
Cautionary Tales

Beyond the field of grazing, gazing cows

To the Memory of a young Commander slain in a Battle with the Indians, 1724.

© Mather Byles

I.
While rosey Cheeks their Bloom confess,
And Youth thy Bosom warms,
Let Vertue, and let Knowledge dress,
Thy Mind in brighter Charms.

In Hospital

© Robert Laurence Binyon

I
Nothing of itself is in the still'd mind, only
A still submission to each exterior image,
Still as a pool, accepting trees and sky,

Address ToThe Devil

© Robert Burns

O thou! whatever title suit thee,-
Auld Hornie, Satan, Nick, or Clootie!
Wha in yon cavern, grim an' sootie,
Clos'd under hatches,

Sonnet: Political Greatness

© Percy Bysshe Shelley

Nor happiness, nor majesty, nor fame,
Nor peace, nor strength, nor skill in arms or arts,
Shepherd those herds whom tyranny makes tame;
Verse echoes not one beating of their hearts,

Daylight Dreamer

© Sheldon Allan Silverstein

Here's the half-finished painting of a girl that I started last December
Here's the first three pages of my novel bout I don't really remember
Here's my Martin guitar that I never quite learned how to play
That's the daylight dreamer wishful thinker's way

A True Tale

© Mary Barber

Of Scripture--Heroes she would tell,
Whose Names they lisp'd, ere they could spell:
The Mother then, delighted, smiles;
And shews the Story on the Tiles.

Don Juan: Dedication

Bob Southey! You're a poet-Poet-laureate,

And representative of all the race;

A Faith On Trial

On the morning of May,

Ere the children had entered my gate

Prayer For His Ladys Life

© Ezra Pound

FROM PROPERTIUS, ELEGIAE, LIB. III, 26
Here let thy clemency, Persephone, hold firm,
Do thou, Pluto, bring here no greater harshness.
So many thousand beauties are gone down to Avernus,
Ye might let one remain above with us.