Great poems
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Pear Tree
© Hilda Doolittle
no flower ever opened
so staunch a white leaf,
no flower ever parted silver
from such rare silver;
Oread
© Hilda Doolittle
Whirl up, sea
Whirl your pointed pines.
Splash your great pines
On our rocks.
Hurl your green over us
Cover us with your pools of fir.
Evadne
© Hilda Doolittle
Still between my arm and shoulder,
I feel the brush of his hair,
and my hands keep the gold they took,
as they wandered over and over,
that great arm-full of yellow flowers.
Cities
© Hilda Doolittle
And in these dark cells,
packed street after street,
souls live, hideous yet --
O disfigured, defaced,
with no trace of the beauty
men once held so light.
Cassandra
© Hilda Doolittle
O Hymen king. Hymen, O Hymen king,
what bitter thing is this?
what shaft, tearing my heart?
what scar, what light, what fire
When Tulips Bloom
© Henry Van Dyke
When tulips bloom in Union Square,
And timid breaths of vernal air
Go wandering down the dusty town,
Like children lost in Vanity Fair;
At Baia
© Hilda Doolittle
"Flower sent to flower;
for white hands, the lesser white,
less lovely of flower-leaf,"
A Coarse Morning
© Augusta Davies Webster
OH the yellow boisterous sea,
The surging, chafing, murderous sea!
The Initiate
© Charles Simic
St. John of the Cross wore dark glasses
As he passed me on the street.
St. Theresa of Avila, beautiful and grave,
Turned her back on me.
Errata
© Charles Simic
Where it says snow
read teeth-marks of a virgin
Where it says knife read
you passed through my bones
Belisarius. (Birds Of Passage. Flight The Fourth)
© Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
I am poor and old and blind;
The sun burns me, and the wind
Blows through the city gate
And covers me with dust
From the wheels of the august
Justinian the Great.
Transfiguration
© Louisa May Alcott
Mysterious death! who in a single hour
Life's gold can so refine
And by thy art divine
Change mortal weakness to immortal power!
An American in Europe
© Henry Van Dyke
'Tis fine to see the Old World, and travel up and down
Among the famous palaces and cities of renown,
To admire the crumbly castles and the statues of the kings, -
But now I think I've had enough of antiquated things.
The Rock and The Bubble
© Louisa May Alcott
Oh! a bare, brown rock
Stood up in the sea,
The waves at its feet
Dancing merrily.
The Lay of a Golden Goose
© Louisa May Alcott
Long ago in a poultry yard
One dull November morn,
Beneath a motherly soft wing
A little goose was born.
A Dutch Proverb
© Matthew Prior
Fire, Water, Woman, are Man's Ruin;
Says wise Professor Vander Bruin.
Soliloquy
© Francis Ledwidge
When I was young I had a care
Lest I should cheat me of my share
Of that which makes it sweet to strive
For life, and dying still survive,
A name in sunshine written higher
Than lark or poet dare aspire.
