The White Peacock by Stephen Vincent Benet
The White Peacock by Stephen Vincent Benet (France — Ancient Regime.) I. Go away! Go away; I will not confess to you! His black biretta clings like a hangman’s cap; under his twitching fingers the beads shiver and click, As he mumbles in his corner, the shadow deepens upon him; I will not confess! . […]
The Quality of Courage by Stephen Vincent Benet
The Quality of Courage by Stephen Vincent Benet Black trees against an orange sky, Trees that the wind shook terribly, Like a harsh spume along the road, Quavering up like withered arms, Writhing like streams, like twisted charms Of hot lead flung in snow. Below The iron ice stung like a goad, Slashing the torn […]
The Innovator by Stephen Vincent Benet
The Innovator by Stephen Vincent Benet (A Pharaoh Speaks.) I said, “Why should a pyramid Stand always dully on its base? I’ll change it! Let the top be hid, The bottom take the apex-place!” And as I bade they did. The people flocked in, scores on scores, To see it balance on its tip. They […]
The Hemp by Stephen Vincent Benet
The Hemp by Stephen Vincent Benet (A Virginia Legend.) The Planting of the Hemp. Captain Hawk scourged clean the seas (Black is the gap below the plank) From the Great North Bank to the Caribbees (Down by the marsh the hemp grows rank). His fear was on the seaport towns, The weight of his hand […]
The General Public by Stephen Vincent Benet
The General Public by Stephen Vincent Benet “Ah, did you once see Shelley plain?” — Browning. “Shelley? Oh, yes, I saw him often then,” The old man said. A dry smile creased his face With many wrinkles. “That’s a great poem, now! That one of Browning’s! Shelley? Shelley plain? The time that I remember best […]
The Fiddling Wood by Stephen Vincent Benet
The Fiddling Wood by Stephen Vincent Benet Gods, what a black, fierce day! The clouds were iron, Wrenched to strange, rugged shapes; the red sun winked Over the rough crest of the hairy wood In angry scorn; the grey road twisted, kinked, Like a sick serpent, seeming to environ The trees with magic. All the […]
The Drug-Shop, or, Endymion in Edmonstoun by Stephen Vincent Benet
The Drug-Shop, or, Endymion in Edmonstoun by Stephen Vincent Benet “Oh yes, I went over to Edmonstoun the other day and saw Johnny, mooning around as usual! He will never make his way.” Letter of George Keats, 18– Night falls; the great jars glow against the dark, Dark green, dusk red, and, like a coiling […]
The City Revisited by Stephen Vincent Benet
The City Revisited by Stephen Vincent Benet The grey gulls drift across the bay Softly and still as flakes of snow Against the thinning fog. All day I sat and watched them come and go; And now at last the sun was set, Filling the waves with colored fire Till each seemed like a jewelled […]
The Breaking Point by Stephen Vincent Benet
The Breaking Point by Stephen Vincent Benet It was not when temptation came, Swiftly and blastingly as flame, And seared me white with burning scars; When I stood up for age-long wars And held the very Fiend at grips; When all my mutinous body rose To range itself beside my foes, And, like a greyhound […]
Talk by Stephen Vincent Benet
Talk by Stephen Vincent Benet Tobacco smoke drifts up to the dim ceiling From half a dozen pipes and cigarettes, Curling in endless shapes, in blue rings wheeling, As formless as our talk. Phil, drawling, bets Cornell will win the relay in a walk, While Bob and Mac discuss the Giants’ chances; Deep in a […]
Road and Hills by Stephen Vincent Benet
Road and Hills by Stephen Vincent Benet I shall go away To the brown hills, the quiet ones, The vast, the mountainous, the rolling, Sun-fired and drowsy! My horse snuffs delicately At the strange wind; He settles to a swinging trot; his hoofs tramp the dust. The road winds, straightens, Slashes a marsh, Shoulders out […]
Rain After a Vaudeville Show by Stephen Vincent Benet
Rain After a Vaudeville Show by Stephen Vincent Benet The last pose flickered, failed. The screen’s dead white Glared in a sudden flooding of harsh light Stabbing the eyes; and as I stumbled out The curtain rose. A fat girl with a pout And legs like hams, began to sing “His Mother”. Gusts of bad […]
Portrait of a Boy by Stephen Vincent Benet
Portrait of a Boy by Stephen Vincent Benet After the whipping he crawled into bed, Accepting the harsh fact with no great weeping. How funny uncle’s hat had looked striped red! He chuckled silently. The moon came, sweeping A black, frayed rag of tattered cloud before In scorning; very pure and pale she seemed, Flooding […]
Portrait of a Baby by Stephen Vincent Benet
Portrait of a Baby by Stephen Vincent Benet He lay within a warm, soft world Of motion. Colors bloomed and fled, Maroon and turquoise, saffron, red, Wave upon wave that broke and whirled To vanish in the grey-green gloom, Perspectiveless and shadowy. A bulging world that had no walls, A flowing world, most like the […]
Poor Devil! by Stephen Vincent Benet
Poor Devil! by Stephen Vincent Benet Well, I was tired of life; the silly folk, The tiresome noises, all the common things I loved once, crushed me with an iron yoke. I longed for the cool quiet and the dark, Under the common sod where louts and kings Lie down, serene, unheeding, careless, stark, Never […]
Nos Immortales by Stephen Vincent Benet
Nos Immortales by Stephen Vincent Benet Perhaps we go with wind and cloud and sun, Into the free companionship of air; Perhaps with sunsets when the day is done, All’s one to me — I do not greatly care; So long as there are brown hills — and a tree Like a mad prophet in […]
Music by Stephen Vincent Benet
Music by Stephen Vincent Benet My friend went to the piano; spun the stool A little higher; left his pipe to cool; Picked up a fat green volume from the chest; And propped it open. Whitely without rest, His fingers swept the keys that flashed like swords, . . . And to the brute drums […]
May Morning by Stephen Vincent Benet
May Morning by Stephen Vincent Benet I lie stretched out upon the window-seat And doze, and read a page or two, and doze, And feel the air like water on me close, Great waves of sunny air that lip and beat With a small noise, monotonous and sweet, Against the window — and the scent […]
Love in Twilight by Stephen Vincent Benet
Love in Twilight by Stephen Vincent Benet There is darkness behind the light — and the pale light drips Cold on vague shapes and figures, that, half-seen loom Like the carven prows of proud, far-triumphing ships — And the firelight wavers and changes about the room, As the three logs crackle and burn with a […]
Lonely Burial by Stephen Vincent Benet
Lonely Burial by Stephen Vincent Benet There were not many at that lonely place, Where two scourged hills met in a little plain. The wind cried loud in gusts, then low again. Three pines strained darkly, runners in a race Unseen by any. Toward the further woods A dim harsh noise of voices rose and […]
Going Back to School by Stephen Vincent Benet
Going Back to School by Stephen Vincent Benet The boat ploughed on. Now Alcatraz was past And all the grey waves flamed to red again At the dead sun’s last glimmer. Far and vast The Sausalito lights burned suddenly In little dots and clumps, as if a pen Had scrawled vague lines of gold across […]
Ghosts of a Lunatic Asylum by Stephen Vincent Benet
Ghosts of a Lunatic Asylum by Stephen Vincent Benet Here, where men’s eyes were empty and as bright As the blank windows set in glaring brick, When the wind strengthens from the sea — and night Drops like a fog and makes the breath come thick; By the deserted paths, the vacant halls, One may […]
Elegy for an Enemy by Stephen Vincent Benet
Elegy for an Enemy by Stephen Vincent Benet (For G. H.) Say, does that stupid earth Where they have laid her, Bind still her sullen mirth, Mirth which betrayed her? Do the lush grasses hold, Greenly and glad, That brittle-perfect gold She alone had? Smugly the common crew, Over their knitting, Mourn her — as […]
Dinner in a Quick Lunch Room by Stephen Vincent Benet
Dinner in a Quick Lunch Room by Stephen Vincent Benet Soup should be heralded with a mellow horn, Blowing clear notes of gold against the stars; Strange entrees with a jangle of glass bars Fantastically alive with subtle scorn; Fish, by a plopping, gurgling rush of waters, Clear, vibrant waters, beautifully austere; Roast, with a […]
Dedication by Stephen Vincent Benet
Dedication by Stephen Vincent Benet To W. R. B. And so, to you, who always were Perseus, D’Artagnan, Lancelot To me, I give these weedy rhymes In memory of earlier times. Now all those careless days are not. Of all my heroes, you endure. Words are such silly things! too rough, Too smooth, they boil […]
Colors by Stephen Vincent Benet
Colors by Stephen Vincent Benet (For D. M. C.) The little man with the vague beard and guise Pulled at the wicket. “Come inside!” he said, “I’ll show you all we’ve got now — it was size You wanted? — oh, dry colors! Well” — he led To a dim alley lined with musty bins, […]
Before an Examination by Stephen Vincent Benet
Before an Examination by Stephen Vincent Benet The little letters dance across the page, Flaunt and retire, and trick the tired eyes; Sick of the strain, the glaring light, I rise Yawning and stretching, full of empty rage At the dull maunderings of a long dead sage, Fling up the windows, fling aside his lies; […]
Alexander VI Dines with the Cardinal of Capua by Stephen Vincent Benet
Alexander VI Dines with the Cardinal of Capua by Stephen Vincent Benet Next, then, the peacock, gilt With all its feathers. Look, what gorgeous dyes Flow in the eyes! And how deep, lustrous greens are splashed and spilt Along the back, that like a sea-wave’s crest Scatters soft beauty o’er th’ emblazoned breast! A strange […]
A Minor Poet by Stephen Vincent Benet
A Minor Poet by Stephen Vincent Benet I am a shell. From me you shall not hear The splendid tramplings of insistent drums, The orbed gold of the viol’s voice that comes, Heavy with radiance, languorous and clear. Yet, if you hold me close against the ear, A dim, far whisper rises clamorously, The thunderous […]
Yet Gentle Will the Griffin Be by Vachel Lindsay
(What Grandpa told the Children) The moon? It is a griffin’s egg, Hatching to-morrow night. And how the little boys will watch With shouting and delight To see him break the shell and stretch And creep across the sky. The boys will laugh. The little girls, I fear, may hide and cry. Yet gentle will […]
Yankee Doodle by Vachel Lindsay
This poem is intended as a description of a sort of Blashfield mural painting on the sky. To be sung to the tune of Yankee Doodle, yet in a slower, more orotund fashion. It is presumably an exercise for an entertainment on the evening of Washington’s Birthday. Dawn this morning burned all red Watching them […]
Written for a Musician by Vachel Lindsay
HUNGRY for music with a desperate hunger I prowled abroad, I threaded through the town; The evening crowd was clamoring and drinking, Vulgar and pitiful–my heart bowed down– Till I remembered duller hours made noble By strangers clad in some suprising grace. Wait, wait my soul, your music comes ere midnight Appearing in some unexpected […]
With a Bouquet of Twelve Roses by Vachel Lindsay
I saw Lord Buddha towering by my gate Saying: “Once more, good youth, I stand and wait.” Saying: “I bring you my fair Law of Peace And from your withering passion full release; Release from that white hand that stabbed you so. The road is calling. With the wind you go, Forgetting her imperious disdain […]
Why I Voted the Socialist Ticket by Vachel Lindsay
I am unjust, but I can strive for justice. My life’s unkind, but I can vote for kindness. I, the unloving, say life should be lovely. I, that am blind, cry out against my blindness. Man is a curious brute — he pets his fancies — Fighting mankind, to win sweet luxury. So he will […]
Who Knows? by Vachel Lindsay
They say one king is mad. Perhaps. Who knows? They say one king is doddering and grey. They say one king is slack and sick of mind, A puppet for hid strings that twitch and play. Is Europe then to be their sprawling-place? Their mad-house, till it turns the wide world’s bane? Their place of […]
Where Is the Real Non-Resistant by Vachel Lindsay
(Matthew V, 38-48.) Who can surrender to Christ, dividing his best with the stranger, Giving to each what he asks, braving the uttermost danger All for the enemy, MAN? Who can surrender till death His words and his works, his house and his lands, His eyes and his heart and his breath? Who can surrender […]
Where Is David, the Next King of Israel? by Vachel Lindsay
Where is David? . . . O God’s people, Saul has passed, the good and great. Mourn for Saul the first-anointed — Head and shoulders o’er the state. He was found among the Prophets: Judge and monarch, merged in one. But the wars of Saul are ended And the works of Saul are done. Where […]
When Gassy Thompson Struck It Rich by Vachel Lindsay
He paid a Swede twelve bits an hour Just to invent a fancy style To spread the celebration paint So it would show at least a mile. Some things they did I will not tell. They’re not quite proper for a rhyme. But I will say Yim Yonson Swede Did sure invent a sunflower time. […]
When Bryan Speaks by Vachel Lindsay
When Bryan speaks, the town’s a hive. From miles around, the autos drive. The sparrow chirps. The rooster crows. The place is kicking and alive. When Bryan speaks, the bunting glows. The raw procession onward flows. The small dogs bark. The children laugh A wind of springtime fancy blows. When Bryan speaks, the wigwam shakes. […]
What the Sexton Said by Vachel Lindsay
Your dust will be upon the wind Within some certain years, Though you be sealed in lead to-day Amid the country’s tears. When this idyllic churchyard Becomes the heart of town, The place to build garage or inn, They’ll throw your tombstone down. Your name so dim, so long outworn, Your bones so near to […]