I Have News For You by Tony Hoagland
There are people who do not see a broken playground swing as a symbol of ruined childhood and there are people who don’t interpret the behavior of a fly in a motel room as a mocking representation of their thought process. There are people who don’t walk past an empty swimming pool and think about […]
Heredity by Tony Harrison
Heredity by Tony Harrison How you became a poet’s a mystery! Wherever did you get your talent from? I say: I had two uncles, Joe and Harry- one was a stammerer, the other dumb. ————— The End And that’s the End of the Poem © Poetry Monster, 2021. Poems by topic and subject. Poetry Monster — […]
Grammar by Tony Hoagland
Maxine, back from a weekend with her boyfriend, smiles like a big cat and says that she’s a conjugated verb. She’s been doing the direct object with a second person pronoun named Phil, and when she walks into the room, everybody turns: some kind of light is coming from her head. Even the geraniums look […]
Don’t Tell Anyone by Tony Hoagland
We had been married for six or seven years when my wife, standing in the kitchen one afternoon, told me that she screams underwater when she swims— that, in fact, she has been screaming for years into the blue chlorinated water of the community pool where she does laps every other day. Buttering her toast, […]
Disappointment by Tony Hoagland
I was feeling pretty religious standing on the bridge in my winter coat looking down at the gray water: the sharp little waves dusted with snow, fish in their tin armor. That’s what I like about disappointment: the way it slows you down, when the querulous insistent chatter of desire goes dead calm and the […]
Coming and Going by Tony Hoagland
My marriage ended in an airport long ago. I was not wise enough to cry while looking for my car, walking through the underground garage; jets were roaring overhead, and if I had been wise I would have looked up at those heavy-bellied cylinders and seen the wheelchairs and the frightened dogs inside; the kidneys […]
Book Ends by Tony Harrison
Book Ends by Tony Harrison I Baked the day she suddenly dropped dead we chew it slowly that last apple pie. Shocked into sleeplessness you’re scared of bed. We never could talk much, and now don’t try. You’re like book ends, the pair of you, she’d say, Hog that grate, say nothing, sit, sleep, stare… […]
Big Grab by Tony Hoagland
The corn chip engineer gets a bright idea, and talks to the corn chip executive and six months later at the factory they begin subtracting a few chips from every bag, but they still call it on the outside wrapper, The Big Grab, so the concept of Big is quietly modified to mean More or […]
Bible Study by Tony Hoagland
Who would have imagined that I would have to go a million miles away from the place where I was born to find people who would love me? And that I would go that distance and that I would find those people? In the dream JoAnne was showing me how much arm to amputate if […]
Beauty by Tony Hoagland
When the medication she was taking caused tiny vessels in her face to break, leaving faint but permanent blue stitches in her cheeks, my sister said she knew she would never be beautiful again. After all those years of watching her reflection in the mirror, sucking in her stomach and standing straight, she said it […]
At the Galleria Shopping Mall by Tony Hoagland
Just past the bin of pastel baby socks and underwear, there are some 49-dollar Chinese-made TVs; one of them singing news about a far-off war, one comparing the breast size of an actress from Hollywood to the breast size of an actress from Bollywood. And here is my niece Lucinda, who is nine and a […]
America by Tony Hoagland
Then one of the students with blue hair and a tongue stud Says that America is for him a maximum-security prison Whose walls are made of RadioShacks and Burger Kings, and MTV episodes Where you can’t tell the show from the commercials, And as I consider how to express how full of shit I think […]
A Color of the Sky by Tony Hoagland
Windy today and I feel less than brilliant, driving over the hills from work. There are the dark parts on the road when you pass through clumps of wood and the bright spots where you have a view of the ocean, but that doesn’t make the road an allegory. I should call Marie and apologize […]
To His Mistress In Absence by Torquato Tasso
FAR from thy dearest self, the scope Of all my aims, I waste in secret flames; And only live because I hope. O when will Fate restore The joys, in whose bright fire My expectation shall expire, That I may live because I hope no more! ————— The End And that’s the End of the […]
“What weeping, or what dewfall,” by Torquato Tasso
What weeping, or what dewfall, Whose then were those tears, Flung from night’s cloak, I saw, And the white face of the stars? Why was the white moon sowing A pure cloud’s crystal mass In the lap of fresh new grass? Why were the winds heard, blowing, Through the dark air, round and round, Till […]
“Once we were happy” by Torquato Tasso
Once we were happy, I Loving and beloved, You loved and loving, sweetly moved. Then you became the enemy Of love, and I to disdain Found youthful passion change. Disdain demands I speak, Disdain, that in my breast Keeps the shame of my neglected offering fresh: And from your laurel Tears the leaves, now dry, […]
“O you, far colder, whiter” by Torquato Tasso
O you, far colder, whiter Than she who makes less fair The stars with shining there: Her purest silver cannot dim Nor any cloud, or rain or wind, Your sweet brightness, lovely eyes. Would you but turn to me, with delight, I should be happy, and my life a dream. ————— The End And that’s […]
“Life of my life, you seem to me” by Torquato Tasso
Life of my life, you seem to me Like some pallid olive tree Or the faded rose I see: Nor do you lack beauty, But pleasing in every way to me, In shyness or in flattery, Whether you follow me or flee, Consume, destroy me softly. ————— The End And that’s the End of the […]
“Hedge, that divides the lovely” by Torquato Tasso
Hedge, that divides the lovely Garden, and myself from me, Never in you so fair a rose I see As she who is my lady, Loving, sweet and holy: Who as I stretch my hand to you Presses it, so softly, too. ————— The End And that’s the End of the Poem © Poetry Monster, 2021. […]
Jerusalem Delivered – Book 06 – part 07 by Torquato Tasso
LXXXV “Or else my tender bosom opened wide, And heart though pierced with his cruel blade, The bloody weapon in my wounded side Might cure the wound which love before had made; Then should my soul in rest and quiet slide Down to the valleys of the Elysian shade, And my mishap the knight perchance […]
Jerusalem Delivered – Book 06 – part 06 by Torquato Tasso
LXXI “O spotless virgin,” Honor thus began, “That my true lore observed firmly hast, When with thy foes thou didst in bondage won, Remember then I kept thee pure and chaste, At liberty now, where wouldest thou run, To lay that field of princely virtue waste, Or lost that jewel ladies hold so dear? Is […]
Jerusalem Delivered – Book 06 – part 05 by Torquato Tasso
LVII He honored her, served her, and leave her gave, And willed her go whither and when she list, Her gold and jewels had he care to save, And them restored all, she nothing missed, She, that beheld this youth and person brave, When, by this deed, his noble mind she wist, Laid ope her […]
Jerusalem Delivered – Book 06 – part 03 by Torquato Tasso
XXIX This youth was one of those, who late desired With that vain-glorious boaster to have fought, But Tancred chosen, he and all retired; Now when his slackness he awhile admired, And saw elsewhere employed was his thought, Nor that to just, though chosen, once he proffered, He boldly took that fit occasion offered. XXX […]
Jerusalem Delivered – Book 06 – part 02 by Torquato Tasso
XV “Say that a knight, who holds in great disdain To be thus closed up in secret new, Will with his sword in open field maintain, If any dare deny his words for true, That no devotion, as they falsely feign, Hath moved the French these countries to subdue; But vile ambition, and pride’s hateful […]
Jerusalem Delivered – Book 04 – part 04 by Torquato Tasso
XLIX “Three times the shape of my dear mother came, Pale, sad, dismayed, to warn me in my, Alas, how far from the same Whose eyes shone erst like Titan’s glorious beam: `Daughter,’ she says, `fly, fly, behold thy dame Foreshows the treasons of thy wretched eame, Who poison gainst thy harmless life provides:’ This […]
Jerusalem Delivered – Book 04 – part 03 by Torquato Tasso
XXXIII Thus passed she, praised, wished, and wondered at, Among the troops who there encamped lay, She smiled for, but well dissembled that, Her greedy eye chose out her wished prey; On all her gestures seeming sat, Toward the imperial tent she asked the way: With that she met a bold and lovesome knight, Lord […]
Jerusalem Delivered – Book 04 – part 01 by Torquato Tasso
THE ARGUMENT. Satan his fiends and assembleth all, And sends them forth to work the Christians woe, False Hidraort their aid from hell doth call, And sends Armida to entrap his foe: She tells her birth, her fortune, and her fall, Asks aid, allures and wins the worthies so That they consent her enterprise to […]
Jerusalem Delivered – Book 03 – part 05 by Torquato Tasso
LXI “Presages, ah too true:” with that a space He sighed for grief, then said, “Fain would I know The man in red, with such a knightly grace, A worthy lord he seemeth by his show, How like to Godfrey looks he in the face, How like in person! but some-deal more low.” “Baldwin,” quoth […]
Jerusalem Delivered – Book 03 – part 04 by Torquato Tasso
XLVI Three times he strove to view Heaven’s golden ray, And raised him on his feeble elbow thrice, And thrice he tumbled on the lowly lay, And three times closed again his dying eyes, He speaks no word, yet makes his signs to pray; He sighs, he faints, he groans, and then he dies; Argantes […]
Jerusalem Delivered – Book 03 – part 03 by Torquato Tasso
XXXI The villain flies, he, full of rage and ire, Pursues, she stood and wondered on them both, But yet to follow them showed no desire, To stray so far she would perchance be loth, But quickly turned her, fierce as flaming fire, And on her foes wreaked her anger wroth, On every side she […]
Jerusalem Delivered – Book 02 – part 07 by Torquato Tasso
LXXXVI “But if our sins us of his help deprive, Of his high justice let no mercy fall; Yet should our deaths us some contentment give, To die, where Christ received his burial, So might we die, not envying them that live; So would we die, not unrevenged all: Nor Turks, nor Christians, if we […]
Jerusalem Delivered – Book 02 – part 06 by Torquato Tasso
LXVI “True labour in the vineyard of thy Lord, Ere prime thou hast the imposed day-work done, What armies conquered, perished with thy sword? What cities sacked? what kingdoms hast thou won? All ears are mazed while tongues thine acts record, Hands quake for fear, all feet for dread do run, And though no realms […]
Jerusalem Delivered – Book 02 – part 05 by Torquato Tasso
XLVI “Sir King,” quoth she, “my name Clorinda hight, My fame perchance has pierced your ears ere now, I come to try my wonted power and might, And will defend this land, this town, and you, All hard assays esteem I eath and light, Great acts I reach to, to small things I bow, To […]
Jerusalem Delivered – Book 02 – part 04 by Torquato Tasso
XXXI Thus spake the nymph, yet spake but to the wind, She could not alter his well-settled thought; O miracle! O strife of wondrous kind! Where love and virtue such contention wrought, Where death the victor had for meed assigned; Their own neglect, each other’s safety sought; But thus the king was more provoked to […]
Jerusalem Delivered – Book 02 – part 03 by Torquato Tasso
XXI It was amazement, wonder and delight, Although not love, that moved his cruel sense; “Tell on,” quoth he, “unfold the chance aright, Thy people’s lives I grant for recompense.” Then she, “Behold the faultier here in sight, This hand committed that supposed offence, I took the image, mine that fault, that fact, Mine be […]
Jerusalem Delivered – Book 02 – part 02 by Torquato Tasso
XI But when the angry king discovered not What guilty hand this sacrilege had wrought, His ireful courage boiled in vengeance hot Against the Christians, whom he falters thought; All ruth, compassion, mercy he forgot, A staff to beat that dog he long had sought, “Let them all die,” quoth he, “kill great and small, […]
Jerusalem Delivered – Book 02 – part 01 by Torquato Tasso
THE ARGUMENT. Ismeno conjures, but his charms are vain; Aladine will kill the Christians in his ire: Sophronia and Olindo would be slain To save the rest, the King grants their desire; Clorinda hears their fact and fortunes plain, Their pardon gets and keeps them from the fire: Argantes, when Aletes’ speeches are Despised, defies […]
Jerusalem Delivered – Book 01 – part 07 by Torquato Tasso
LXXXVI “I see,” quoth he, “some expectation vain, In these false Christians, and some new content, Our common loss they trust will be their gain, They laugh, we weep; they joy while we lament; And more, perchance, by treason or by train, To murder us they secretly consent, Or otherwise to work us harm and […]
Jerusalem Delivered – Book 01 – part 06 by Torquato Tasso
LXXI Aurora bright her crystal gates unbarred, And bridegroom-like forth stept the glorious sun, When trumpets loud and clarions shrill were heard, And every one to rouse him fierce begun, Sweet music to each heart for war prepared, The soldiers glad by heaps to harness run; So if with drought endangered be their grain, Poor […]
Jerusalem Delivered – Book 01 – part 03 by Torquato Tasso
XXVI “Turks, Persians conquered, Antiochia won, Be glorious acts, and full of glorious praise, By Heaven’s mere grace, not by our prowess done: Those conquests were achieved by wondrous ways, If now from that directed course we run The God of Battles thus before us lays, His loving kindness shall we lose, I doubt, And […]