Great poems
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The Master
© George Essex Evans
In sea and air, in leaf and stone,
Whereer Truths magic words are writ,
Outside Fargo, North Dakota
© James Wright
Along the sprawled body of the derailed Great Northern freight car,
I strike a match slowly and lift it slowly.
No wind.
The Scarlet Cloak
© Roderic Quinn
ONE may go a-many leagues a-questing yon and hither;
One may look on queens and kings, and think the vision bliss;
But he who has the wholesome heart, as lightsome as a feather,
Can find a joy in everything, no matter what it is.
Simon Legree
© Vachel Lindsay
He wore hip-boots, and would wade all day
To capture his slaves that had fled away.
BUT HE WENT DOWN TO THE DEVIL.
No Resurrection
© Robinson Jeffers
Friendship, when a friend meant a helping sword,
Faithfulness, when power and life were its fruits, hatred, when
the hated
Held steel at your throat or had killed your children, were more
than metaphors.
Life and the world were as bright as knives.
The Angel Of The Doves.
© James Brunton Stephens
THE angels stood in the court of the King,
And into the midst, through the open door,
Of The Nature Of Things: Book V - Part 06 - Origins And Savage Period Of Mankind
© Lucretius
But mortal man
Was then far hardier in the old champaign,
A Vanished Joy
© Edgar Albert Guest
When I was but a little lad of six and seven and eight,
One joy I knew that has been lost in customs up-to-date,
Then Saturday was baking day and Mother used to make,
The while I stood about and watched, the Sunday pies and cake;
And I was there to have fulfilled a small boy's fondest wish,
The glorious privilege of youth--to scrape the frosting dish!
Anti-Apis
© James Russell Lowell
Praisest Law, friend? We, too, love it much as they that love it best;
'Tis the deep, august foundation, whereon Peace and Justice rest;
On the rock primeval, hidden in the Past its bases be,
Block by block the endeavoring Ages built it up to what we see.
Nathan The Wise - Act V
© Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
Here lies the money still, and no one finds
The dervis yet--he's probably got somewhere
Over a chess-board. Play would often make
The man forget himself, and why not, me.
Patience--Ha! what's the matter.
The Priesthood
© George Herbert
Blest Order, which in power dost so excell,
That with th' one hand thou liftest to the sky,
And with the other throwest down to hell
In thy just centures; fain would I draw nigh,
Fain put thee on, exchanging my lay-sword
For that of th' holy word.
The Two Coffins
© Eugene Field
In yonder old cathedral
Two lovely coffins lie;
In one, the head of the state lies dead,
And a singer sleeps hard by.
To Joy
© Sara Teasdale
Lo, I am happy, for my eyes have seen
Joy glowing here before me, face to face;
His wings were arched above me for a space,
I kissed his lips, no bitter came between.
Homage To Sextus Propertius - II
© Ezra Pound
Orgies of vintages, an earthern image of Silenus
Strengthened with rushes, Tegaean Pan,
The small birds of the Cytharean mother,
their Punic faces dyed in the Gorgon's lake;
Nine girls, from as many countrysides
