At the Mid Hour of Night by Thomas Moore

At the mid hour of night, when stars are weeping, I fly To the lone vale we loved, when life shone warm in thine eye; And I think oft, if spirits can steal from the regions of air, To revisit past scenes of delight, thou wilt come to me there, And tell me our love […]

As Vanquish’d Erin by Thomas Moore

As vanquish’d Erin wept beside The Boyne’s ill-fated river, She saw where Discord, in the tide, Had dropp’d his loaded quiver. “Lie hid,” she cried, “ye venom’d darts, Where mortal eye may shun you; Lie hid — the stain of manly hearts, That bled for me, is on you.” But vain her wish, her weeping […]

As Slow Our Ship by Thomas Moore

As slow our ship her foamy track Against the wind was cleaving, Her trembling pennant still look’d back To that dear isle ’twas leaving. So loath we part from all we love, From all the links that bind us; So turn our hearts as on we rove, To those we’ve left behind us. When, round […]

As a Beam O’er the Face of the Waters May Glow by Thomas Moore

As a beam o’er the face of the waters may glow While the tide runs in darkness and coldness below, So the cheek may be tinged with a warm sunny smile, Though the cold heart to ruin runs darkly the while. One fatal remembrance, one sorrow that throws Its bleak shade alike o’er our joys […]

And Doth Not a Meeting Like This by Thomas Moore

And doth not a meeting like this make amends For all the long years I’ve been wandering away — To see thus around me my youth’s early friends, As smiling and kind as in that happy day? Though haply o’er some of your brows, as o’er mine, The snow — fall of time may be […]

An Incantation by Thomas Moore

Come with me, and we will blow Lots of bubbles, as we go; Bubbles bright as ever Hope Drew from fancy — or from soap; Bright as e’er the South Sea sent from its frothy element! Come with me, and we will blow Lots of bubbles, as we go. Mix the lather, Johnny W–lks, Thou, […]

An Expostulation to Lord King by Thomas Moore

How can you, my Lord, thus delight to torment all The Peers of realm about cheapening their corn, When you know, if one hasn’t a very high rental, ‘Tis hardly worth while being very high born? Why bore them so rudely, each night of your life, On a question, my Lord, there’s so much to […]

An Argument by Thomas Moore

I’ve oft been told by learned friars, That wishing and the crime are one, And Heaven punishes desires As much as if the deed were done. If wishing damns us, you and I Are damned to all our heart’s content; Come, then, at least we may enjoy Some pleasure for our punishment! ————— The End […]

Alone in Crowds to Wander On by Thomas Moore

Alone in crowds to wander on, And feel that all the charm is gone Which voices dear and eyes beloved Shed round us once, where’er we roved — This, this the doom must be Of all who’ve loved, and loved to see The few bright things they thought would stay For ever near them, die […]

All In a Family Way by Thomas Moore

My banks are all furnished with rags, So thick, even Freddy can’t thin ’em; I’ve torn up my old money-bags, Having little or nought to put in ’em. My tradesman are smashing by dozens, But this is all nothing, they say; For bankrupts, since Adam, are cousins, So, it’s all in the family way. My […]

After the Battle by Thomas Moore

Night closed around the conqueror’s way, And lightnings show’d the distant hill, Where those who lost that dreadful day Stood few and faint, but fearless still. The soldier’s hope, the patriot’s zeal, For ever dimm’d, for ever crost — Oh! who shall say what heroes feel, When all but life and honour’s lost? The last […]

Which way does the wind blow? by Thomas J Camp

Which way, you ask? Do I perchance wish the wind would blow? S I prefer a Southerly. For me, the best one, don’t you know. The warmth of the Gulf Stream tampers the air of the brisk green sea, Still deeply cold there at the dark depths where the sun’s seeking rays seize to reflect, […]

Virgule by Thomas Lux

Virgule by Thomas Lux What I love about this little leaning mark is how it divides without divisiveness. The left or bottom side prying that choice up or out, the right or top side pressing down upon its choice: either/or, his/her. Sometimes called a slash (too harsh), a slant (a little dizzy, but the Dickinson […]

Unlike, For Example, The Sound Of A Riptooth Saw by Thomas Lux

Unlike, For Example, The Sound Of A Riptooth Saw by Thomas Lux gnawing through a shinbone, a high howl inside of which a bloody, slashed-by-growls note is heard, unlike that sound, and instead, its opposite: a barely sounded sound (put your nuclear ears on for it, your giant hearing horn, its cornucopia mouth wide) — […]

Torn Shades by Thomas Lux

Torn Shades by Thomas Lux How, in the first place, did they get torn-pulled down hard too many times: to hide a blow, or sex, or a man in stained pajamas? The tear blade-shaped, serrated, in tatters. And once, in a house flatside to a gas station, as snow fell at a speed and angle […]

The Road That Runs Beside The River by Thomas Lux

The Road That Runs Beside The River by Thomas Lux follows the river as it bends along the valley floor, going the way it must. Where water goes, so goes the road, if there’s room (not in a ravine, gorge), the river on your right or left. Left is better: when you’re driving, it’s over […]

The Progress of Poesy by Thomas Gray

The Progress of Poesy by Thomas Gray A Pindaric Ode Awake, Aeolian lyre, awake, And give to rapture all thy trembling strings. From Helicon’s harmonious springs A thousand rills their mazy progress take: The laughing flowers that round them blow Drink life and fragrance as they flow. Now the rich stream of Music winds along, […]

The Man Into Whose Yard You Should Not Hit Your Ball by Thomas Lux

The Man Into Whose Yard You Should Not Hit Your Ball by Thomas Lux each day mowed and mowed his lawn, his dry quarter acre, the machine slicing a wisp from each blade’s tip. Dust storms rose around the roar: 6:00 P.M., every day, spring, summer, fall. If he could mow the snow he would. […]

The Inheritance by Thomas J Camp

If you could own a book One you always wanted To consume or cherish, I wonder which that might be. I have seen my Robert Frost with a different type of Frosting. And yes, My Hemingway, I have seen it too. The title barely legible thru the grey misty mildew, A malicious mix of moldy […]

The Holy Mountain of Hope by Thomas Ziemer

There’s a great white light that dawns in the distance Burning bright amidst the dark skies, and the endless Confines of solitude, and hopeless laws of our romantic universal dreams The symphony of a fading delight Somewhere out there, a brilliant beam of hope Gleams from the soft and silent dreams of the golden lost […]

The Curse Upon Edward by Thomas Gray

The Curse Upon Edward by Thomas Gray WEAVE the warp, and weave the woof, The winding-sheet of Edward’s race. Give ample room, and verge enough The characters of hell to trace. Mark the year, and mark the night, When Severn shall re-echo with affright The shrieks of death, thro’ Berkley’s roofs that ring, Shrieks of […]

The Bard by Thomas Gray

The Bard by Thomas Gray Pindaric Ode “Ruin seize thee, ruthless King! Confusion on thy banners wait! Tho’ fanned by Conquest’s crimson wing, They mock the air with idle state. Helm, nor hauberk’s twisted mail, Nor e’en thy virtues, Tyrant, shall avail To save thy secret soul from nightly fears, From Cambria’s curse, from Cambria’s […]

Sonnet On The Death Of Mr Richard West by Thomas Gray

Sonnet On The Death Of Mr Richard West by Thomas Gray In vain to me the smiling mornings shine, And redd’ning Phoebus lifts his golden fire: The birds in vain their amorous descant join; Or cheerful fields resume their green attire: These ears, alas! for other notes repine, A different object do these eyes require: […]

Refrigerator, 1957 by Thomas Lux

Refrigerator, 1957 by Thomas Lux More like a vault — you pull the handle out and on the shelves: not a lot, and what there is (a boiled potato in a bag, a chicken carcass under foil) looking dispirited, drained, mugged. This is not a place to go in hope or hunger. But, just to […]

Red Planet Haiku by Thomas J Camp

Hostile Red planet What secrets do you conceal? Can we learn from you? Beautiful red sphere We know there are no Martians Secrets await still. Poetry In Englishwww.poetry.monster

Plague Victims Catapulted Over Walls Into Besieged City by Thomas Lux

Plague Victims Catapulted Over Walls Into Besieged City by Thomas Lux Early germ warfare. The dead hurled this way look like wheels in the sky. Look: there goes Larry the Shoemaker, barefoot, over the wall, and Mary Sausage Stuffer, see how she flies, and the Hatter twins, both at once, soar over the parapet, little […]

Ode On The Spring by Thomas Gray

Ode On The Spring by Thomas Gray Lo! where the rosy-bosomed Hours, Fair Venus’ train, appear, Disclose the long-expecting flowers, And wake the purple year! The Attic warbler pours her throat, Responsive to the cuckoo’s note, The untaught harmony of spring: While, whisp’ring pleasure as they fly, Cool Zephyrs thro’ the clear blue sky Their […]

Ode On The Pleasure Arising From Vicissitude by Thomas Gray

Ode On The Pleasure Arising From Vicissitude by Thomas Gray Now the golden Morn aloft Waves her dew-bespangled wing, With vermeil cheek and whisper soft She wooes the tardy Spring: Till April starts, and calls around The sleeping fragrance from the ground, And lightly o’er the living scene Scatters his freshest, tenderest green. New-born flocks, […]

Ode On A Distant Prospect Of Eton College by Thomas Gray

Ode On A Distant Prospect Of Eton College by Thomas Gray Ye distant spires, ye antique towers, That crown the watery glade, Where grateful Science still adores Her Henry’s holy shade; And ye, that from the stately brow Of Windsor’s heights th’ expanse below Of grove, of lawn, of mead survey, Whose turf, whose shade, […]

My Country Place by Thomas J Camp

Light Gray smoke hangs as a mist in the cold still air. The sweet smell of hickory can be found there. A harem of hens follows closely and pecks thru the brush A cackle or cluck, a scratch at the ground Is the only noise above the sound of a Thrush. The rooster moves carefully […]

Motel Seedy by Thomas Lux

Motel Seedy by Thomas Lux The artisans of this room, who designed the lamp base (a huge red slug with a hole where its heart should be) or chose this print of a butterscotch sunset, must have been abused in art class as children, forced to fingerpaint with a nose, or a tongue. To put […]

Monsters under the bed by Thomas J Camp

There are always monsters under the bed. Sometimes they are simply your wild imagination, But don’t fall asleep with a sense of dread. You can simply will them away as utter nonsense. Sleep with one eye open if you must. For some of them, you will need some preparation. Both spiritually and mentally. These are […]

Marine Snow At Mid-Depths And Down by Thomas Lux

Marine Snow At Mid-Depths And Down by Thomas Lux As you descend, slowly, falling faster past you this snow, ghostly, some flakes bio- luminescent (you plunge, and this lit snow doesn’t land at your feet but keeps falling below you): single-cell-plant chains, shreds of zooplankton’s mucus food traps, fish fecal pellets, radioactive fallouts, sand grains, […]

Lucky by Thomas Lux

Lucky by Thomas Lux One sweet pound of filet mignon sizzles on the roadside. Let’s say a hundred yards below the buzzard. The buzzard sees no cars or other buzzards between the mountain range due north and the horizon to the south and across the desert west and east no other creature’s nose leads him […]

Thomas Gray – Thomas Gray

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Hymn To Adversity by Thomas Gray

Hymn To Adversity by Thomas Gray Daughter of Jove, relentless Power, Thou tamer of the human breast, Whose iron scourge and tort’ring hour The Bad affright, afflict the Best! Bound in thy adamantine chain The Proud are taught to taste of pain, And purple Tyrants vainly groan With pangs unfelt before, unpitied and alone. When […]

Henry Clay’s Mouth by Thomas Lux

Henry Clay’s Mouth by Thomas Lux Senator, statesman, speaker of the House, exceptional dancer, slim, graceful, ugly. Proclaimed, before most, slavery an evil, broker of elections (burned Jackson for Adams), took a pistol ball in the thigh in a duel, delayed, by forty years, with his compromises, the Civil War, gambler (“I have always paid […]

He Has Lived In Many Houses by Thomas Lux

He Has Lived In Many Houses by Thomas Lux furnished rooms, flats, a hayloft, a tent, motels, under a table, under an overturned rowboat, in a villa (briefly) but not, as yet, a yurt. In these places he has slept, eaten, put his forehead to the window glass, looking out. He’s in a stilt-house now, […]

Gorgeous Surfaces by Thomas Lux

Gorgeous Surfaces by Thomas Lux They are, the surfaces, gorgeous: a master pastry chef at work here, the dips and whorls, the wrist-twist squeezes of cream from the tube to the tart, sweet bleak sugarwork, needlework toward the perfect lace doily where sit the bone-china teacups, a little maze of meaning maybe in their arrangement […]