Invitation
A poem by Alcaeus of Mytilene (c. 625/620 – c. 580 BC) Why wait we for the torches’ lights? Now let us drink while day invites. In mighty flagons hither bring The deep-red blood of many a vine, That we may largely quaff, and sing The praises of the god of wine, The son of Jove […]
A Banquet Song
A poem by Alcaeus of Mytilene (c. 625/620 – c. 580 BC) The rain of Zeus descends, and from high heaven A storm is driven: And on the running water-brooks the cold Lays icy hold; Then up: beat down the winter; make the fire Blaze high and higher; Mix wine as sweet as honey of the […]
The Wanderer
A poem by Alan Seeger (1888-1916) To see the clouds his spirit yearned toward so Over new mountains piled and unploughed waves, Back of old-storied spires and architraves To watch Arcturus rise or Fomalhaut, And roused by street-cries in strange tongues when day Flooded with gold some domed metropolis, Between new towers to waken […]
The Torture Of Cuauhtemoc
A poem by Alan Seeger (1888-1916) Their strength had fed on this when Death’s white arms Came sleeved in vapors and miasmal dew, Curling across the jungle’s ferny floor, Becking each fevered brain. On bleak divides, Where Sleep grew niggardly for nipping cold That twinged blue lips into a mouthed curse, Not back to Seville […]
The Sultans Palace
A poem by Alan Seeger (1888-1916) My spirit only lived to look on Beauty’s face, As only when they clasp the arms seem served aright; As in their flesh inheres the impulse to embrace, To gaze on Loveliness was my soul’s appetite. I have roamed far in search; white road and plunging bow Were […]
The Deserted Garden
A poem by Alan Seeger (1888-1916) I know a village in a far-off land Where from a sunny, mountain-girdled plain With tinted walls a space on either hand And fed by many an olive-darkened lane The high-road mounts, and thence a silver band Through vineyard slopes above and rolling grain, Winds off to that dim […]
Sonnet Xvi Who Shall Invoke Her
A poem by Alan Seeger (1888-1916) Who shall invoke her, who shall be her priest, With single rites the common debt to pay? On some green headland fronting to the East Our fairest boy shall kneel at break of day. Naked, uplifting in a laden tray New milk and honey and sweet-tinctured wine, Not without […]
Sonnet Ix
A poem by Alan Seeger (1888-1916) Amid the florid multitude her face Was like the full moon seen behind the lace Of orchard boughs where clouded blossoms part When Spring shines in the world and in the heart. As the full-moon-beams to the ferny floor Of summer woods through flower and foliage pour, So to […]
Sonnet 06
A poem by Alan Seeger (1888-1916) Oh, you are more desirable to me Than all I staked in an impulsive hour, Making my youth the sport of chance, to be Blighted or torn in its most perfect flower; For I think less of what that chance may bring Than how, before returning into fire, To […]
Kyrenaikos
A poem by Alan Seeger (1888-1916) Lay me where soft Cyrene rambles down In grove and garden to the sapphire sea; Twine yellow roses for the drinker’s crown; Let music reach and fair heads circle me, Watching blue ocean where the white sails steer Fruit-laden forth or with the wares and news Of merchant cities […]
Juvenilia An Ode To Natural Beauty
A poem by Alan Seeger (1888-1916) There is a power whose inspiration fills Nature’s fair fabric, sun- and star-inwrought, Like airy dew ere any drop distils, Like perfume in the laden flower, like aught Unseen which interfused throughout the whole Becomes its quickening pulse and principle and soul. Now when, the drift of old desire […]
The Wanderer
A poem by Alan Seeger (1888-1916) To see the clouds his spirit yearned toward so Over new mountains piled and unploughed waves, Back of old-storied spires and architraves To watch Arcturus rise or Fomalhaut, And roused by street-cries in strange tongues when day Flooded with gold some domed metropolis, Between new towers to waken […]
The Torture Of Cuauhtemoc
A poem by Alan Seeger (1888-1916) Their strength had fed on this when Death’s white arms Came sleeved in vapors and miasmal dew, Curling across the jungle’s ferny floor, Becking each fevered brain. On bleak divides, Where Sleep grew niggardly for nipping cold That twinged blue lips into a mouthed curse, Not back to Seville […]
The Sultans Palace
A poem by Alan Seeger (1888-1916) My spirit only lived to look on Beauty’s face, As only when they clasp the arms seem served aright; As in their flesh inheres the impulse to embrace, To gaze on Loveliness was my soul’s appetite. I have roamed far in search; white road and plunging bow Were […]
The Deserted Garden
A poem by Alan Seeger (1888-1916) I know a village in a far-off land Where from a sunny, mountain-girdled plain With tinted walls a space on either hand And fed by many an olive-darkened lane The high-road mounts, and thence a silver band Through vineyard slopes above and rolling grain, Winds off to that dim […]
Sonnet Xvi Who Shall Invoke Her
A poem by Alan Seeger (1888-1916) Who shall invoke her, who shall be her priest, With single rites the common debt to pay? On some green headland fronting to the East Our fairest boy shall kneel at break of day. Naked, uplifting in a laden tray New milk and honey and sweet-tinctured wine, Not without […]
Sonnet Ix
A poem by Alan Seeger (1888-1916) Amid the florid multitude her face Was like the full moon seen behind the lace Of orchard boughs where clouded blossoms part When Spring shines in the world and in the heart. As the full-moon-beams to the ferny floor Of summer woods through flower and foliage pour, So to […]
Sonnet 06
A poem by Alan Seeger (1888-1916) Oh, you are more desirable to me Than all I staked in an impulsive hour, Making my youth the sport of chance, to be Blighted or torn in its most perfect flower; For I think less of what that chance may bring Than how, before returning into fire, To […]
Kyrenaikos
A poem by Alan Seeger (1888-1916) Lay me where soft Cyrene rambles down In grove and garden to the sapphire sea; Twine yellow roses for the drinker’s crown; Let music reach and fair heads circle me, Watching blue ocean where the white sails steer Fruit-laden forth or with the wares and news Of merchant cities […]
Juvenilia An Ode To Natural Beauty
A poem by Alan Seeger (1888-1916) There is a power whose inspiration fills Nature’s fair fabric, sun- and star-inwrought, Like airy dew ere any drop distils, Like perfume in the laden flower, like aught Unseen which interfused throughout the whole Becomes its quickening pulse and principle and soul. Now when, the drift of old desire […]
Champagne 1914 15
A poem by Alan Seeger (1888-1916) In the glad revels, in the happy fetes, When cheeks are flushed, and glasses gilt and pearled With the sweet wine of France that concentrates The sunshine and the beauty of the world, Drink sometimes, you whose footsteps yet may tread The undisturbed, delightful paths of Earth, To […]
Two Quits And Drum And Elegy Drinkers
A poem by Alan Dugan 1. ON ASPHALT: NO GREENS Quarry out the stone of land, cobble the beach, wall surf, name it “street,” allow no ground or green cover for animal sins, but let opacity of sand be glass to keep the heat outside, the senses in. Then, when time’s Drunk, reeling to […]
Two Quits And A Drum And Elegy For Drinkers
A poem by Alan Dugan 1. ON ASPHALT: NO GREENS Quarry out the stone of land, cobble the beach, wall surf, name it “street,” allow no ground or green cover for animal sins, but let opacity of sand be glass to keep the heat outside, the senses in. Then, when time’s Drunk, reeling to […]
Drunken Memories Of Anne Sexton
A poem by Alan Dugan The first and last time I met my ex-lover Anne Sexton was at a protest poetry reading against some anti-constitutional war in Asia when some academic son of a bitch, to test her reputation as a drunk, gave her a beer glass full of wine after our reading. She drank […]
A Young Soul
A poem by Alan Dugan by Al Mutanabbi A young soul in my ageing body plays, Though time’s sharp blades my weary visage raze. *** Hard biter in a toothless mouth is she, The will may wane, but she a winner stays. *** Spare me to win glory’s […]
The Poetry That Is Life
The theme of the traditional poet Was not of life. In the barren expanse of his imagination He conversed with his mistress and wine Living in an imaginary world He was a captive Held by a beloved’s funny tresses. As for others, They held, in one hand a cup In the other A mistress’s […]
One Word
by ahcene mariche Words are like bees They have honey and vemon Sometimes they are so sweet Sometimes as wounding as knives A word can bring you up Until you reach the top Then, you will know Fame and wealth Glory and power A word can knock you down The […]
Two Songs By Sitara Of Kashmir
A poem by Violet Nicolson, Lawrence Hope, Adela Florence Cory Nicolson (1865 – 1904) Beloved! your hair was golden As tender tints of sunrise, As corn beside the River In softly varying hues. I loved you for your slightness, Your melancholy sweetness, Your changeful eyes, that promised What your lips would still refuse. You […]
The Temple Dancing Girl
A poem by Violet Nicolson, Lawrence Hope, Adela Florence Cory Nicolson (1865 – 1904) You will be mine; those lightly dancing feet, Falling as softly on the careless street As the wind-loosened petals of a flower, Will bring you here, at the Appointed Hour. And all the Temple’s little links and laws Will not […]
The River Of Pearls At Fez Translation
A poem by Violet Nicolson, Lawrence Hope, Adela Florence Cory Nicolson (1865 – 1904) One evening we sat together By the river of Pearls at Fez, Stringing verses and sometimes singing. My gaze followed the beautiful boy Who, with a swift and delicate movement, Flung the wine-cup over his shoulder ; The ruby drops […]
The Regret Of The Ranee In The Hall Of Peacocks
A poem by Violet Nicolson, Lawrence Hope, Adela Florence Cory Nicolson (1865 – 1904) This man has taken my Husband’s life And laid my Brethren low, No sister indeed, were I, no wife, To pardon and let him go. Yet why does he look so young and slim As he weak and wounded lies? […]
The Bride
A poem by Violet Nicolson, Lawrence Hope, Adela Florence Cory Nicolson (1865 – 1904) Beat on the Tom-toms, and scatter the flowers, Jasmin, Hibiscus, vermillion and white, This is the day, and the Hour of Hours, Bring forth the Bride for her Lover’s delight. Maidens no more, as a maiden shall claim her, Near, […]
Surface Rights
A poem by Violet Nicolson, Lawrence Hope, Adela Florence Cory Nicolson (1865 – 1904) Drifting, drifting down the River, Tawny current and foam-flecked tide, Sorrowful songs of lonely boatmen, Mournful forests on either side. Thine are the outcrops’ glittering blocks, The quartz where the rich pyrites gleam, The golden treasure of unhewn rocks And […]
Song Of The Colours By Taj Mahomed
A poem by Violet Nicolson, Lawrence Hope, Adela Florence Cory Nicolson (1865 – 1904) _Rose-colour_ Rose Pink am I, the colour gleams and glows In many a flower; her lips, those tender doors By which, in time of love, love’s essence flows From him to her, are dyed in delicate Rose. Mine is the […]
Song Of Jasoda
A poem by Violet Nicolson, Lawrence Hope, Adela Florence Cory Nicolson (1865 – 1904) Had I been young I could have claimed to fold thee For many days against my eager breast; But, as things are, how can I hope to hold thee Once thou hast wakened from this fleeting rest? Clear shone the […]
Song Of Faiz Ulla
A poem by Violet Nicolson, Lawrence Hope, Adela Florence Cory Nicolson (1865 – 1904) Just at the time when Jasmins bloom, most sweetly in the summer weather, Lost in the scented Jungle gloom, one sultry night we spent together We, Love and Night, together blent, a Trinity of tranced content. Yet, while your lips […]
Oh Unforgotten And Only Lover
Oh, unforgotten and only lover, Many years have swept us apart, But none of the long dividing seasons Slay your memory in my heart. In the clash and clamour of things unlovely My thoughts drift back to the times that were, When I, possessing thy pale perfection, Kissed the eyes and caressed the hair. […]
Oh Life I Have Taken You For My Lover
Oh, Life, I have taken you for my Lover, I rent your veils and I found you fair ; If a fault or failing my eyes discover, I will not see it; it is not there ! I know, if I knew, I should hold you dearer, Should understand, if I understood, For I […]
Malaria
He lurks among the reeds, beside the marsh, Red oleanders twisted in His hair, His eyes are haggard and His lips are harsh, Upon His breast the bones show gaunt and bare. The green and stagnant waters lick His feet, And from their filmy, iridescent scum Clouds of mosquitoes, gauzy in the heat, Rise […]
In The Early Pearly Morning
Song by Valgovind The fields are full of Poppies, and the skies are very blue, By the Temple in the coppice, I wait, Beloved, for you. The level land is sunny, and the errant air is gay, With scent of rose and honey; will you come to me to-day? From carven walls above me, […]