White Currants poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
Shall I give you white currants? I do not know why, but I have a sudden fancy for this fruit. At the moment, the idea of them cherishes my senses, And they seem more desirable than flawless emeralds. Since I am, in fact, empty-handed, I might have chosen gems out of India, But […]
Vespers poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
Last night, at sunset, The foxgloves were like tall altar candles. Could I have lifted you to the roof of the greenhouse, my Dear, I should have understood their burning. Amy LowellAmy Lawrence Lowell (1874 – 1925) was an American poetess that belonged to the informal imagist, an early modernist movement, […]
Two Lacquer Prints poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
The Emperor’s Garden ONCE, in the sultry heat of midsummer, An Emperor caused the miniature mountains in his garden To be covered with white silk, That so crowned, They might cool his eyes With the sparkle of snow. Meditation A wise man, Watching the stars pass across the sky, Remarked: In the upper […]
Twenty-Four Hokku On A Modern Theme poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
I Again the larkspur, Heavenly blue in my garden. They, at least, unchanged. II How have I hurt you? You look at me with pale eyes, But these are my tears. III Morning and evening– Yet for us once long ago Was no division. IV I hear many words. Set an hour when […]
Twenty-Four Hokku On A Modern Theme poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
I Again the larkspur, Heavenly blue in my garden. They, at least, unchanged. II How have I hurt you? You look at me with pale eyes, But these are my tears. III Morning and evening– Yet for us once long ago Was no division. IV I hear many words. Set an hour when […]
The Travelling Bear poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
GRASS-BLADES push up between the cobblestones And catch the sun on their flat sides Shooting it back, Gold and emerald, Into the eyes of passers-by. And over the cobblestones, Square-footed and heavy, Dances the trained bear. The cobbles cut his feet, And he has a ring in his nose But still he dances, […]
Towns in Colour poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
I Red Slippers Red slippers in a shop-window, and outside in the street, flaws of grey, windy sleet! Behind the polished glass, the slippers hang in long threads of red, festooning from the ceiling like stalactites of blood, flooding the eyes of passers-by with dripping colour, jamming their crimson reflections against the windows […]
To-Morrow To Fresh Woods And Pastures New poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
As for a moment he stands, in hardy masculine beauty, Poised on the fircrested rock, over the pool which below him Gleams in the wavering sunlight, waiting the shock of his plunging. So for a moment I stand, my feet planted firm in the present, Eagerly scanning the future which is so soon […]
To A Husband poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
Brighter than fireflies upon the Uji River Are your words in the dark, Beloved. Amy LowellAmy Lawrence Lowell (1874 – 1925) was an American poetess that belonged to the informal imagist, an early modernist movement, which promoted a return to classical values. She posthumously won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in […]
The Travelling Bear poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
GRASS-BLADES push up between the cobblestones And catch the sun on their flat sides Shooting it back, Gold and emerald, Into the eyes of passers-by. And over the cobblestones, Square-footed and heavy, Dances the trained bear. The cobbles cut his feet, And he has a ring in his nose But still he dances, […]
The Swans poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
The swans float and float Along the moat Around the Bishop’s garden, And the white clouds push Across a blue sky With edges that seem to draw in and harden. Two slim men of white bronze Beat each with a hammer on the end of a rod The hours of God. Striking a […]
The Starling poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
Forever the impenetrable wall Of self confines my poor rebellious soul, I never see the towering white clouds roll Before a sturdy wind, save through the small Barred window of my jail. I live a thrall With all my outer life a clipped, square hole, Rectangular; a fraction of a scroll Unwound and […]
The Pond poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
Cold, wet leaves Floating on moss-coloured water And the croaking of frogs- Cracked bell-notes in the twilight. Amy LowellAmy Lawrence Lowell (1874 – 1925) was an American poetess that belonged to the informal imagist, an early modernist movement, which promoted a return to classical values. She posthumously won the Pulitzer Prize […]
The Poet poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
What instinct forces man to journey on, Urged by a longing blind but dominant! Nothing he sees can hold him, nothing daunt His never failing eagerness. The sun Setting in splendour every night has won His vassalage; those towers flamboyant Of airy cloudland palaces now haunt His daylight wanderings. Forever done With simple […]
The Letter poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
Little cramped words scrawling all over the paper Like draggled fly’s legs, What can you tell of the flaring moon Through the oak leaves? Or of my uncertain window and the bare floor Spattered with moonlight? Your silly quirks and twists have nothing in them Of blossoming hawthorns, And this paper is dull, […]
The Great Adventure Of Max Breuck poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
1 A yellow band of light upon the street Pours from an open door, and makes a wide Pathway of bright gold across a sheet Of calm and liquid moonshine. From inside Come shouts and streams of laughter, and a snatch Of song, soon drowned and lost again in mirth, The clip of […]
The Garden By Moonlight poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
A black cat among roses, Phlox, lilac-misted under a first-quarter moon, The sweet smells of heliotrope and night-scented stock. The garden is very still, It is dazed with moonlight, Contented with perfume, Dreaming the opium dreams of its folded poppies. Firefly lights open and vanish High as the tip buds of the golden […]
The Dinner-Party poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
Fish “So . . .” they said, With their wine-glasses delicately poised, Mocking at the thing they cannot understand. “So . . .” they said again, Amused and insolent. The silver on the table glittered, And the red wine in the glasses Seemed the blood I had wasted In a foolish cause. Game […]
The Cremona Violin poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
Part First Frau Concert-Meister Altgelt shut the door. A storm was rising, heavy gusts of wind Swirled through the trees, and scattered leaves before Her on the clean, flagged path. The sky behind The distant town was black, and sharp defined Against it shone the lines of roofs and towers, Superimposed and flat […]
The Country House poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
Did the door move, or was it always ajar? The gladioli on the table are pale mauve. I smell pale mauve and blue, Blue soft like bruises-putrid-oozing- The air oozes blue-mauve- And the door with the black line where it does not shut! I must pass that door to go to bed, Or […]
The Artist poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
Why do you subdue yourself in golds and purples? Why do you dim yourself with folded silks? Do you not see that I can buy brocades in any draper’s shop, And that I am choked in the twilight of all these colours. How pale you would be, and startling, How quiet; But your […]
Prayer For Lightning poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
My corn is green with red tassels, I am praying to the lightning to ripen my corn, I am praying to the thunder which carries the lightning. Corn is sweet where lightning has fallen. I pray to the six-coloured clouds. Amy LowellAmy Lawrence Lowell (1874 – 1925) was an American poetess […]
Prayer For A Profusion Of Sunflowers poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
Send sunflowers! With my turkey-bone whistle I am calling the birds To sing upon the sunflowers. For when the clouds hear them singing They will come quickly, And rain will fall upon our fields. Send sunflowers! Amy LowellAmy Lawrence Lowell (1874 – 1925) was an American poetess that belonged to the […]
Orange Of Midsummer poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
You came to me in the pale starting of Spring, And I could not see the world For the blue mist of wonder before my eyes. You beckoned me over a rainbow bridge, And I set foot upon it, trembling. Through pearl and saffron I followed you, Through heliotrope and rose, Iridescence after […]
A Lover poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
If I could catch the green lantern of the firefly I could see to write you a letter. Amy LowellAmy Lawrence Lowell (1874 – 1925) was an American poetess that belonged to the informal imagist, an early modernist movement, which promoted a return to classical values. She posthumously won the Pulitzer […]
In Excelsis poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
You – you – Your shadow is sunlight on a plate of silver; Your footsteps, the seeding-place of lilies; Your hands moving, a chime of bells across a windless air. The movement of your hands is the long, golden running of light from a rising sun; It is the hopping of birds upon […]
In A Time Of Dearth poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
Before me, On either side of me, I see sand. If I turn the corner of my house, I see sand, Long, brown Lines and levels of flat Sand. If I could only see a caravan Heave over the edge of it: The camels wobbling and swaying, Stepping like ostriches, With rocking palanquins […]
Granadilla poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
I cut myself upon the thought of you And yet I come back to it again and again, A kind of fury makes me want to draw you out From the dimness of the present And set you sharply above me in a wheel of roses. Then, going obviously to inhale their fragrance, I […]
Free Fantasia On Japanese Themes poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
All the afternoon there has been a chirping of birds, And the sun lies warm and still on the western sides of swollen branches. There is no wind; Even the little twigs at the ends of the branches do not move, And the needles of the pines are solid Bands of inarticulated blackness […]
Flute-Priest Song For Rain poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
Whistle under the water, Make the water bubble to the tones of the flute. I call the bluebirds song into the water: Wee-kee! Wee-kee-kee! Dawn is coming, The morning star shines upon us. Bluebird singing to the West clouds, Bring the humming rain. Water-rattles shake, Flute whistles, Star in Heaven shines. I blow […]
Aliens poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
The chatter of little people Breaks on my purpose Like the water-drops which slowly wear the rocks to powder. And while I laugh My spirit crumbles at their teasing touch. Amy LowellAmy Lawrence Lowell (1874 – 1925) was an American poetess that belonged to the informal imagist, an early modernist movement, […]
A Lover poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
If I could catch the green lantern of the firefly I could see to write you a letter. Amy LowellAmy Lawrence Lowell (1874 – 1925) was an American poetess that belonged to the informal imagist, an early modernist movement, which promoted a return to classical values. She posthumously won the Pulitzer […]
Wind poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
He shouts in the sails of the ships at sea, He steals the down from the honeybee, He makes the forest trees rustle and sing, He twirls my kite till it breaks its string. Laughing, dancing, sunny wind, Whistling, howling, rainy wind, North, South, East and West, Each is the wind I like the best. […]
White and Green poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
Hey! My daffodil-crowned, Slim and without sandals! As the sudden spurt of flame upon darkness So my eyeballs are startled with you, Supple-limbed youth among the fruit-trees, Light runner through tasselled orchards. You are an almond flower unsheathed Leaping and flickering between the budded branches. *** More poems by Amy Lowell […]
Vintage poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
I will mix me a drink of stars, — Large stars with polychrome needles, Small stars jetting maroon and crimson, Cool, quiet, green stars. I will tear them out of the sky, And squeeze them over an old silver cup, And I will pour the cold scorn of my Beloved into it, So that […]
Venus Transiens poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
Tell me, Was Venus more beautiful Than you are, When she topped The crinkled waves, Drifting shoreward On her plaited shell? Was Botticelli’s vision Fairer than mine; And were the painted rosebuds He tossed his lady Of better worth Than the words I blow about you To cover your too great loveliness As with […]
Venetian Glass poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
As one who sails upon a wide, blue sea Far out of sight of land, his mind intent Upon the sailing of his little boat, On tightening ropes and shaping fair his course, Hears suddenly, across the restless sea, The rhythmic striking of some towered clock, And wakes from thoughtless idleness to time: Time, […]
Two Travellers in the Place Vendome poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
Reign of Louis Philippe A great tall column spearing at the sky With a little man on top. Goodness! Tell me why? He looks a silly thing enough to stand up there so high. What a strange fellow, like a soldier in a play, Tight-fitting coat with the tails cut away, High-crowned hat which […]
To John Keats poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
Great master! Boyish, sympathetic man! Whose orbed and ripened genius lightly hung From life’s slim, twisted tendril and there swung In crimson-sphered completeness; guardian Of crystal portals through whose openings fan The spiced winds which blew when earth was young, Scattering wreaths of stars, as Jove once flung A golden shower from heights cerulean. […]
To Elizabeth Ward Perkins poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
Dear Bessie, would my tired rhyme Had force to rise from apathy, And shaking off its lethargy Ring word-tones like a Christmas chime. But in my soul’s high belfry, chill The bitter wind of doubt has blown, The summer swallows all have flown, The bells are frost-bound, mute and still. Upon the crumbling boards […]