Davideis Sacred Poem Troubles David Excerpt
BOOK I (excerpt) I sing the man who Judah’s sceptre bore In that right hand which held the crook before; Who from best poet, best of kings did grow; The two chief gifts Heav’n could on man bestow. Much danger first, much toil did he sustain, Whilst Saul and Hell cross’d his strong fate […]
Davideis A Sacred Poem Of The Troubles Of David Excerpt
BOOK I (excerpt) I sing the man who Judah’s sceptre bore In that right hand which held the crook before; Who from best poet, best of kings did grow; The two chief gifts Heav’n could on man bestow. Much danger first, much toil did he sustain, Whilst Saul and Hell cross’d his strong fate […]
Cousel
AH! what advice can I receive! No, satisfy me first; For who would physick-potions give To one that dies with thirst? A little puff of breath, we find, Small fires can quench and kill; But, when they’re great, the adverse wind Does make them greater still. Now whilst you speak, it moves me much, […]
Constantias Song
Time fly with greater speed away, Add feathers to thy wings, Till thy haste in flying brings That wished-for and expected Day. Comfort’s Son we then shall see, Though at first it darkened be With dangers yet, those clouds but gone, Our Day will put his lustre on. Then though Death’s sad night appear, […]
Constantia039s Song
Time fly with greater speed away, Add feathers to thy wings, Till thy haste in flying brings That wished-for and expected Day. Comfort’s Son we then shall see, Though at first it darkened be With dangers yet, those clouds but gone, Our Day will put his lustre on. Then though Death’s sad night appear, […]
Concealment
No; to what purpose should I speak? No, wretched heart! swell till you break. She cannot love me if she would; And, to say truth, ’twere pity that she should. No; to the grave thy sorrows bear; As silent as they will be there: Since that lov’d hand this mortal wound does give, So […]
Chronicle
A BALLAD. MARGARITA first possest, If I remember well, my brest, Margarita first of all; But when awhile the wanton maid With my restless heart had play’d, Martha took the flying ball. Martha soon did it resign To the beauteous Catharine. Beauteous Catharine gave place (Though loth and angry she to part With the […]
Change
LOVE in her sunny eyes does basking play; Love walks the pleasant mazes of her hair; Love does on both her lips for ever stray And sows and reaps a thousand kisses there. In all her outward parts Love’s always seen; But, oh, He never went within. Within Love’s foes, his greatest foes abide, […]
Beauty
LIBERAL Nature did dispence To all things Arms for their defence; And some she arms with sin’ewy force, And some with swiftness in the course; Some with hard Hoofs, or forked claws, And some with Horns, or tusked jaws. And some with Scales, and some with Wings, And some with Teeth, and some with […]
Bathing River
The fish around her crowded, as they do To the false light that treacherous fisher shew, And all with as much ease might taken be, As she at first took me; For ne’er did light so clear Among the waves appear, Though every night the sun himself set there. Why to mute fish shouldst […]
Bathing In The River
The fish around her crowded, as they do To the false light that treacherous fisher shew, And all with as much ease might taken be, As she at first took me; For ne’er did light so clear Among the waves appear, Though every night the sun himself set there. Why to mute fish shouldst […]
Answer Copy Verses Sent Me Jersey
As to a northern people (whom the sun Uses just as the Romish church has done Her prophane laity, and does assign Bread only both to serve for bread and wine) A rich Canary fleet welcome arrives; Such comfort to us here your letter gives, Fraught with brisk racy verses; in which we The […]
Anacreontics The Swallow
FOOLISH prater, what dost thou So early at my window do? Cruel bird, thou’st ta’en away A dream out of my arms to-day; A dream that ne’er must equall’d be By all that waking eyes may see. Thou this damage to repair Nothing half so sweet and fair, Nothing half so good, canst bring, […]
Anacreontics The Epicure
UNDERNEATH this myrtle shade, On flowerly beds supinely laid, With odorous oils my head o’erflowing, And around it roses growing, What should I do but drink away The heat and troubles of the day? In this more than kingly state Love himself on me shall wait. Fill to me, Love! nay, fill it up! […]
Anacreontics Drinking
THE thirsty earth soaks up the rain, And drinks and gapes for drink again; The plants suck in the earth, and are With constant drinking fresh and fair; The sea itself (which one would think Should have but little need of drink) Drinks twice ten thousand rivers up, So fill’d that they o’erflow the […]
An Answer To A Copy Of Verses Sent Me To Jersey
As to a northern people (whom the sun Uses just as the Romish church has done Her prophane laity, and does assign Bread only both to serve for bread and wine) A rich Canary fleet welcome arrives; Such comfort to us here your letter gives, Fraught with brisk racy verses; in which we The […]
Against Hope
HOPE, whose weak Being ruin’d is, Alike if it succeed, and if it miss ; Whom Good or Ill does equally confound, And both the Horns of Fates Dilemma wound. Vain shadow! which dost vanish quite, Both at full Noon, and perfect Night ! The Stars have not a possibility Of blessing Thee ; […]
Against Fruition
No; thou’rt a fool, I’ll swear, if e’er thou grant; Much of my veneration thou must want, When once thy kindness puts my ignorance out, For a learn’d age is always least devout. Keep still thy distance; for at once to me Goddess and woman too thou canst not be; Thou’rt queen of all […]
Wet City Night
Wet City Night by A. S. J. Tessimond Light drunkenly reels into shadow; Blurs, slurs uneasily; Slides off the eyeballs: The segments shatter. Tree-branches cut arc-light in ragged Fluttering wet strips. The cup of the sky-sign is filled too full; It slushes wine over. The street-lamps dance a tarentella And zigzag down the street: They […]
Unlyric Love Song
Unlyric Love Song by A. S. J. Tessimond It is time to give that-of-myself which I could not at first: To offer you now at last my least and my worst: Minor, absurd preserves, The shell’s end-curves, A document kept at the back of a drawer, A tin hidden under the floor, Recalcitrant prides and […]
Tube Station
Tube Station by A. S. J. Tessimond The tube lift mounts, sap in a stem, And blossoms its load, a black, untidy rose. The fountain of the escalator curls at the crest, breaks and scatters A winnow of men, a sickle of dark spray. Poetry Monster – Home A few random poems: External links […]
To Be Blind
To Be Blind by A. S. J. Tessimond Is it sounds converging, Sounds nearing, Infringement, impingement, Impact, contact With surfaces of the sounds Or surfaces without the sounds: Diagrams, skeletal, strange? Is it winds curling round invisible corners? Polyphony of perfumes? Antennae discovering an axis, erecting the architecture of a world? Is it orchestration of […]
The Man In The Bowler Hat
The Man In The Bowler Hat by A. S. J. Tessimond I am the unnoticed, the unnoticable man: The man who sat on your right in the morning train: The man who looked through like a windowpane: The man who was the colour of the carriage, the colour of the mounting Morning pipe smoke. I […]
the_children_look_at_the_parents.html
The Children Look At The Parents by A. S. J. Tessimond We being so hidden from those who Have quietly borne and fed us, How can we answer civilly Their innocent invitations? How can we say “we see you As but-for-God’s-grace-ourselves, as Our caricatures (we yours), with Time’s telescope between us”? How can we say […]
The British
The British by A. S. J. Tessimond We are a people living in shells and moving Crablike; reticent, awkward, deeply suspicious; Watching the world from a corner of half-closed eyelids, Afraid lest someone show that he hates or loves us, Afraid lest someone weep in the railway train. We are coiled and clenched like a […]
symphony_in_red.html
Symphony In Red by A. S. J. Tessimond Within the church The solemn priests advance, And the sunlight, stained by the heavy windows, Dyes a yet richer red the scarlet banners And the scarlet robes of the young boys that bear them, And the thoughts of one of these are far away, With carmined lips […]
seaport.html
Seaport by A. S. J. Tessimond Green sea-tarnished copper And sea-tarnished gold Of cupolas. Sea-runnelled streets Channelled by salt air That wears the white stone. The sunlight-filled cistern Of a dry-dock. Square shadows. Sun-slatted smoke above meticulous stooping of cranes. Water pressed up by ships’ prows Going, coming. City dust turned Back by the sea-wind’s […]
sea.html
Sea by A. S. J. Tessimond 1 (Windless Summer) Between the glass panes of the sea are pressed Patterns of fronds, and the bronze tracks of fishes. 2 (Winter) Foam-ropes lasso the seal-black shiny rocks, Noosing, slipping and noosing again for ever. 3 (Windy Summer) Over-sea going, under returning, meet And make a wheel, a […]
quickstep.html
Quickstep by A. S. J. Tessimond Acknowledge the drum’s whisper. Yield to its velvet Nudge. Cut a slow air- Curve. Then dip (hip to hip): Sway, swing, pedantically Poise. Now recover, Converting the coda To prelude of sway-swing- Recover. Acknowledge The drum-crack’s alacrity; Acrid exactitude – Catch it, then slacken, Then catch as cat catches […]
polyphony_in_a_cathedral.html
Polyphony In A Cathedral by A. S. J. Tessimond Music curls In the stone shells Of the arches, and rings Their stone bells. Music lips Each cold groove Of parabolas’ laced Warp and woof, And lingers round nodes Of the ribbed roof Chords open Their flowers among The stone flowers; blossom; Stalkless hang. Poetry Monster […]
one_almost_might.html
One Almost Might by A. S. J. Tessimond Wouldn’t you say, Wouldn’t you say: one day, With a little more time or a little more patience, one might Disentangle for separate, deliberate, slow delight One of the moment’s hundred strands, unfray Beginnings from endings, this from that, survey Say a square inch of the ground […]
nursery_rhyme_for_a_twenty_first_birthday.html
Nursery Rhyme For A Twenty-First Birthday by A. S. J. Tessimond You cannot see the walls that divide your hand From his or hers or mine when you think you touch it. You cannot see the walls because they are glass, And glass is nothing until you try to pass it. Beat on it if […]
not_love_perhaps.html
Not Love Perhaps by A. S. J. Tessimond This is not Love, perhaps, Love that lays down its life, that many waters cannot quench, nor the floods drown, But something written in lighter ink, said in a lower tone, something, perhaps, especially our own. A need, at times, to be together and talk, And then […]
night_piece.html
Night Piece by A. S. J. Tessimond Climb, claim your shelf-room, far Packed from inquisitive moon And cold contagious stars. Lean out, but look no longer, No further, than to stir Night with extended finger. Now fill the box with light, Flood full the shining block, Masonry against night. Let window, curtain, blind Soft-sieve and […]
never.html
Never by A. S. J. Tessimond Suddenly, desperately I thought, “No, never In millions of minutes Can I for one second Calm-leaving my own self Like clothes on a chair-back And quietly opening The door of one house (No, not one of all millions) Of blood, flesh and brain, Climb the nerve-stair and look From […]
music.html
Music by A. S. J. Tessimond This shape without space, This pattern without stuff, This stream without dimension Surrounds us, flows through us, But leaves no mark. This message without meaning, These tears without eyes This laughter without lips Speaks to us but does not Disclose its clue. These waves without sea Surge over us, […]
meeting.html
Meeting by A. S. J. Tessimond Dogs take new friends abruptly and by smell, Cats’ meetings are neat, tactual, caressive. Monkeys exchange their fleas before they speak. Snakes, no doubt, coil by coil reach mutual knowledge. We then, at first encounter, should be silent; Not court the cortex but the epidermis; Not work from inside […]
last_word_to_childhood.html
Last Word To Childhood by A. S. J. Tessimond Ice-cold fear has slowly decreased As my bones have grown, my height increased. Though I shiver in snow of dreams, I shall never Freeze again in a noonday terror. I shall never break, my sinews crumble As God-the-headmaster’s fingers fumble At the other side of unopening […]
june_sick_room.html
June Sick Room by A. S. J. Tessimond The birds’ shrill fluting Beats on the pink blind, Pierces the pink blind At whose edge fumble the sun’s Fingers till one obtrudes And stirs the thick motes. The room is a close box of pink warmth. The minutes click. A man picks across the street With […]
houses.html
Houses by A. S. J. Tessimond People who are afraid of themselves Multiply themselves into families And so divide themselves And so become less afraid. People who might have to go out Into clanging strangers’ laughter, Crowd under roofs, make compacts To no more than smile at each other. People who might meet their own […]