Works

Father is quite the greatest poet
That ever lived anywhere.
You say you're going to write great music,
I chose that first: it's unfair.
Besides, now I can't be the greatest painter and...

Having certain cares to drown,
To the sea I took them down:

And I threw them in the wave,
That engulfed them like a grave.

Swiftly then I plied the oar
With a light heart to the shore.
...

Quinquireme of Nineveh from distant Ophir,
Rowing home to haven in sunny Palestine,
With a cargo of ivory,
And apes and peacocks,
Sandalwood, cedarwood, and sweet white wine.
...

I look upon my lady's face,
And, in the world about me, see
No face like hers in any place:
Therefore it is I sing her praise.

It is not made, as others sing
Of their dear loves, like ivory,...

In the suburb, in the town,
On the railway, in the square,
Came a beam of goodness down
Doubling daylight everywhere:
Peace now each for malice takes,
Beauty for his sinful weeds,...

The press of the Spoon River Clarion was wrecked,
And I was tarred and feathered,
For publishing this on the day the
Anarchists were hanged in Chicago:
"l saw a beautiful woman with bandaged eyes...

Last night I knelt low at my lady's feet.
One soft, caressing hand played with my hair,
And one I kissed and fondled. Kneeling there,
I deemed my meed of happiness complete.
...

La Gitanilla! tall dragoons
In Andalusian afternoons,
With ogling eye and compliment
Smiled on you, as along you went
Some sleepy street of old Seville;
Twirled with a military skill...

Dellius, that car which, night and day,
Lightnings and thunders arm and scourge,
Tumultuous down the Appian Way,
Be slow to urge.

Though reckless Lydia bid thee fly,
And Telephus o'ertaking jeer,...

MDCCCLIII.



"Qucquid agunt homines, nostri est farrago libelli."

Acris hyems jam venit: hyems genus omne perosa
Foemineum, et senibus glacies non aequa rotundis:...

Thy elder Look, Great Janus, cast
Into the long Records of Ages past:
Review the Years in fairest Action drest
With noted White, Superior to the rest;
Aera's deriv'd, and Chronicles begun...

Passa per gli occhi.


Swift through the eyes unto the heart within
All lovely forms that thrall our spirit stray;
So smooth and broad and open is the way
That thousands and not hundreds enter in....

Passa per gli occhi.


Swift through the eyes unto the heart within
All lovely forms that thrall our spirit stray;
So smooth and broad and open is the way
That thousands and not hundreds enter in...

Jungle, the cave
human reservoir & cistern ... .
quagmire and bog, but no alpine meadow,
fairest glance of goodness in
soiled wildflower under winter snows.

Pebbles into a cesspool,...

Death, winged with fire of hate from deathless hell
Wherein the souls of anarchs hiss and die,
With stroke as dire has cloven a heart as high
As twice beyond the wide sea's westward swell...

With our hearts like drifting suns, had we but walked,
As often before, the April fields till star - light
Silkened over with viewless gauze the darkness
Under the cliff, our trysting place in the wood,...

'A perfect woman, nobly planned,
To warn, to comfort, and command.'

The priests and the Levites went forth, to feast at the courts of the Kings;...

Come closer to me;
Push close, my lovers, and take the best I possess;
Yield closer and closer, and give me the best you possess.

This is unfinish'd business with me--How is it with you?...

Carol of the Christmas morn--
Carol of the Christ-child born--
Carol to the list'ning sky
Till it echoes back again
"Glory be to God on high,
Peace on earth, good will tow'rd men!"

Earth, round, rolling, compact--suns, moons, animals--all these are words to be said;
Watery, vegetable, sauroid advances--beings, premonitions, lispings of the future,
Behold! these are vast words to be said.
...