Martha Washington by Sidney Lanier
Martha Washington by Sidney Lanier Written for the “Martha Washington Court Journal”. Down cold snow-stretches of our bitter time, When windy shams and the rain-mocking sleet Of Trade have cased us in such icy rime That hearts are scarcely hot enough to beat, Thy fame, O Lady of the lofty eyes, Doth fall along the […]
Marsh Hymns by Sidney Lanier
Marsh Hymns by Sidney Lanier Between Dawn and Sunrise. Were silver pink, and had a soul, Which soul were shy, which shyness might A visible influence be, and roll Through heaven and earth — ’twere thou, O light! O rhapsody of the wraith of red, O blush but yet in prophecy, O sun-hint that hath […]
Laus Mariae by Sidney Lanier
Laus Mariae by Sidney Lanier Across the brook of Time man leaping goes On stepping-stones of epochs, that uprise Fixed, memorable, midst broad shallow flows Of neutrals, kill-times, sleeps, indifferencies. So twixt each morn and night rise salient heaps: Some cross with but a zigzag, jaded pace From meal to meal: some with convulsive leaps […]
Laughter In The Senate by Sidney Lanier
Laughter In The Senate by Sidney Lanier In the South lies a lonesome, hungry Land; He huddles his rags with a cripple’s hand; He mutters, prone on the barren sand, What time his heart is breaking. He lifts his bare head from the ground; He listens through the gloom around: The winds have brought him […]
June Dreams, In January by Sidney Lanier
June Dreams, In January by Sidney Lanier “So pulse, and pulse, thou rhythmic-hearted Noon That liest, large-limbed, curved along the hills, In languid palpitation, half a-swoon With ardors and sun-loves and subtle thrills; “Throb, Beautiful! while the fervent hours exhale As kisses faint-blown from thy finger-tips Up to the sun, that turn him passion-pale And […]
Jones’s Porvate Argyment by Sidney Lanier
Jones’s Porvate Argyment by Sidney Lanier That air same Jones, which lived in Jones, He had this pint about him: He’d swear with a hundred sighs and groans, That farmers MUST stop gittin’ loans, And git along without ’em: That bankers, warehousemen, and sich Was fatt’nin’ on the planter, And Tennessy was rotten-rich A-raisin’ meat […]
Ireland. by Sidney Lanier
Ireland. by Sidney Lanier Written for the Art Autograph during the Irish Famine, 1880. Heartsome Ireland, winsome Ireland, Charmer of the sun and sea, Bright beguiler of old anguish, How could Famine frown on thee? As our Gulf-Stream, drawn to thee-ward, Turns him from his northward flow, And our wintry western headlands Send thee summer […]
In The Foam. by Sidney Lanier
In The Foam. by Sidney Lanier Life swelleth in a whitening wave, And dasheth thee and me apart. I sweep out seaward: — be thou brave. And reach the shore, Sweetheart. Beat back the backward-thrusting sea. Thy weak white arm his blows may thwart, Christ buffet the wild surge for thee Till thou’rt ashore, Sweetheart. […]
In Absence. by Sidney Lanier
In Absence. by Sidney Lanier I. The storm that snapped our fate’s one ship in twain Hath blown my half o’ the wreck from thine apart. O Love! O Love! across the gray-waved main To thee-ward strain my eyes, my arms, my heart. I ask my God if e’en in His sweet place, Where, by […]
Hymns Of The Marshes. by Sidney Lanier
Hymns Of The Marshes. by Sidney Lanier I. Sunrise. In my sleep I was fain of their fellowship, fain Of the live-oak, the marsh, and the main. The little green leaves would not let me alone in my sleep; Up-breathed from the marshes, a message of range and of sweep, Interwoven with waftures of wild […]
From The Flats. by Sidney Lanier
From The Flats. by Sidney Lanier What heartache — ne’er a hill! Inexorable, vapid, vague and chill The drear sand-levels drain my spirit low. With one poor word they tell me all they know; Whereat their stupid tongues, to tease my pain, Do drawl it o’er again and o’er again. They hurt my heart with […]
Corn by Sidney Lanier
Corn by Sidney Lanier To-day the woods are trembling through and through With shimmering forms, that flash before my view, Then melt in green as dawn-stars melt in blue. The leaves that wave against my cheek caress Like women’s hands; the embracing boughs express A subtlety of mighty tenderness; The copse-depths into little noises start, […]
Control by Sidney Lanier
Control by Sidney Lanier O Hunger, Hunger, I will harness thee And make thee harrow all my spirit’s glebe. Of old the blind bard Herve sang so sweet He made a wolf to plow his land. ————— The End And that’s the End of the Poem © Poetry Monster, 2021. Poems by topic and subject. Poetry […]
Clover by Sidney Lanier
Clover by Sidney Lanier Inscribed to the Memory of John Keats. Dear uplands, Chester’s favorable fields, My large unjealous Loves, many yet one — A grave good-morrow to your Graces, all, Fair tilth and fruitful seasons! Lo, how still! The midmorn empties you of men, save me; Speak to your lover, meadows! None can hear. […]
Barnacles by Sidney Lanier
Barnacles by Sidney Lanier My soul is sailing through the sea, But the Past is heavy and hindereth me. The Past hath crusted cumbrous shells That hold the flesh of cold sea-mells About my soul. The huge waves wash, the high waves roll, Each barnacle clingeth and worketh dole And hindereth me from sailing! Old […]
Baby Charley. by Sidney Lanier
Baby Charley. by Sidney Lanier He’s fast asleep. See how, O Wife, Night’s finger on the lip of life Bids whist the tongue, so prattle-rife, Of busy Baby Charley. One arm stretched backward round his head, Five little toes from out the bed Just showing, like five rosebuds red, — So slumbers Baby Charley. Heaven-lights, […]
At First. To Charlotte Cushman. by Sidney Lanier
At First. To Charlotte Cushman. by Sidney Lanier My crippled sense fares bow’d along His uncompanioned way, And wronged by death pays life with wrong And I wake by night and dream by day. And the Morning seems but fatigued Night That hath wept his visage pale, And the healthy mark ‘twixt dark and light […]
An Evening Song. by Sidney Lanier
An Evening Song. by Sidney Lanier Look off, dear Love, across the sallow sands, And mark yon meeting of the sun and sea, How long they kiss in sight of all the lands. Ah! longer, longer, we. Now in the sea’s red vintage melts the sun, As Egypt’s pearl dissolved in rosy wine, And Cleopatra […]
Acknowledgment. by Sidney Lanier
Acknowledgment. by Sidney Lanier I. O Age that half believ’st thou half believ’st, Half doubt’st the substance of thine own half doubt, And, half perceiving that thou half perceiv’st, Stand’st at thy temple door, heart in, head out! Lo! while thy heart’s within, helping the choir, Without, thine eyes range up and down the time, […]
A Sunrise Song. by Sidney Lanier
A Sunrise Song. by Sidney Lanier Young palmer sun, that to these shining sands Pourest thy pilgrim’s tale, discoursing still Thy silver passages of sacred lands, With news of Sepulchre and Dolorous Hill, Canst thou be he that, yester-sunset warm, Purple with Paynim rage and wrack desire, Dashed ravening out of a dusty lair of […]
A Song Of The Future. by Sidney Lanier
A Song Of The Future. by Sidney Lanier Sail fast, sail fast, Ark of my hopes, Ark of my dreams; Sweep lordly o’er the drowned Past, Fly glittering through the sun’s strange beams; Sail fast, sail fast. Breaths of new buds from off some drying lea With news about the Future scent the sea: My […]
A Song Of Eternity In Time by Sidney Lanier
A Song Of Eternity In Time by Sidney Lanier Once, at night, in the manor wood My Love and I long silent stood, Amazed that any heavens could Decree to part us, bitterly repining. My Love, in aimless love and grief, Reached forth and drew aside a leaf That just above us played the thief […]
A Sea-Shore Grave. To M. J. L. by Sidney Lanier
A Sea-Shore Grave. To M. J. L. by Sidney Lanier By Sidney and Clifford Lanier. O wish that’s vainer than the plash Of these wave-whimsies on the shore: “Give us a pearl to fill the gash — God, let our dead friend live once more!” O wish that’s stronger than the stroke Of yelling wave […]
A Florida Sunday. by Sidney Lanier
A Florida Sunday. by Sidney Lanier From cold Norse caves or buccaneer Southern seas Oft come repenting tempests here to die; Bewailing old-time wrecks and robberies, They shrive to priestly pines with many a sigh, Breathe salutary balms through lank-lock’d hair Of sick men’s heads, and soon — this world outworn — Sink into saintly […]
A Florida Ghost. by Sidney Lanier
A Florida Ghost. by Sidney Lanier Down mildest shores of milk-white sand, By cape and fair Floridian bay, Twixt billowy pines — a surf asleep on land — And the great Gulf at play, Past far-off palms that filmed to nought, Or in and out the cunning keys That laced the land like fragile patterns […]
A Dedication. To Charlotte Cushman. by Sidney Lanier
A Dedication. To Charlotte Cushman. by Sidney Lanier As Love will carve dear names upon a tree, Symbol of gravure on his heart to be, So thought I thine with loving text to set In the growth and substance of my canzonet; But, writing it, my tears begin to fall — This wild-rose stem for […]
A Birthday Song. To S. G. by Sidney Lanier
A Birthday Song. To S. G. by Sidney Lanier For ever wave, for ever float and shine Before my yearning eyes, oh! dream of mine Wherein I dreamed that time was like a vine, A creeping rose, that clomb a height of dread Out of the sea of Birth, all filled with dead, Up to […]
A Ballad Of The Trees And The Master by Sidney Lanier
A Ballad Of The Trees And The Master by Sidney Lanier Into the woods my Master went, Clean forspent, forspent. Into the woods my Master came, Forspent with love and shame. But the olives they were not blind to Him, The little gray leaves were kind to Him: The thorn-tree had a mind to Him […]
I stood musing in a black world by Stephen Crane
I stood musing in a black world, Not knowing where to direct my feet. And I saw the quick stream of men Pouring ceaselessly, Filled with eager faces, A torrent of desire. I called to them, “Where do you go? What do you see?” A thousand voices called to me. A thousand fingers pointed. “Look! […]
I saw a man pursuing the horizon by Stephen Crane
I saw a man pursuing the horizon; Round and round they sped. I was disturbed at this; I accosted the man. “It is futile,” I said, “You can never -“ “You lie,” he cried, And ran on. ————— The End And that’s the End of the Poem © Poetry Monster, 2021. Poems by topic and subject. […]
I met a seer by Stephen Crane
I met a seer. He held in his hands The book of wisdom. “Sir,” I addressed him, “Let me read.” “Child — ” he began. “Sir,” I said, “Think not that I am a child, For already I know much Of that which you hold. Aye, much.” He smiled. Then he opened the book And […]
I looked here by Stephen Crane
I looked here; I looked there; Nowhere could I see my love. And — this time — She was in my heart. Truly, then, I have no complaint, For though she be fair and fairer, She is none so fair as she In my heart. ————— The End And that’s the End of the Poem […]
I explain the silvered passing of a ship at night, by Stephen Crane
I explain the silvered passing of a ship at night, The sweep of each sad lost wave, The dwindling boom of the steel thing’s striving, The little cry of a man to a man, A shadow falling across the greyer night, And the sinking of the small star; Then the waste, the far waste of […]
God lay dead in heaven by Stephen Crane
God lay dead in heaven; Angels sang the hymn of the end; Purple winds went moaning, Their wings drip-dripping With blood That fell upon the earth. It, groaning thing, Turned black and sank. Then from the far caverns Of dead sins Came monsters, livid with desire. They fought, Wrangled over the world, A morsel. But […]
God fashioned the ship of the world carefully. by Stephen Crane
God fashioned the ship of the world carefully. With the infinite skill of an All-Master Made He the hull and the sails, Held He the rudder Ready for adjustment. Erect stood He, scanning His work proudly. Then — at fateful time — a wrong called, And God turned, heeding. Lo, the ship, at this opportunity, […]
Friend, your white beard sweeps the ground by Stephen Crane
Friend, your white beard sweeps the ground. Why do you stand, expectant? Do you hope to see it In one of your withered days? With your old eyes Do you hope to see The triumphal march of justice? Do not wait, friend! Take your white beard And your old eyes To more tender lands. ————— […]
Forth went the candid man by Stephen Crane
Forth went the candid man And spoke freely to the wind — When he looked about him he was in a far strange country. Forth went the candid man And spoke freely to the stars — Yellow light tore sight from his eyes. “My good fool,” said a learned bystander, “Your operations are mad.” “You […]
Each small gleam was a voice, by Stephen Crane
Each small gleam was a voice, A lantern voice — In little songs of carmine, violet, green, gold. A chorus of colours came over the water; The wondrous leaf-shadow no longer wavered, No pines crooned on the hills, The blue night was elsewhere a silence, When the chorus of colours came over the water, Little […]
A man went before a strange God by Stephen Crane
A man went before a strange God — The God of many men, sadly wise. And the deity thundered loudly, Fat with rage, and puffing. “Kneel, mortal, and cringe And grovel and do homage To My Particularly Sublime Majesty.” The man fled. Then the man went to another God — The God of his inner […]
A man toiled on a burning road by Stephen Crane
A man toiled on a burning road, Never resting. Once he saw a fat, stupid ass Grinning at him from a green place. The man cried out in rage, “Ah! Do not deride me, fool! I know you — All day stuffing your belly, Burying your heart In grass and tender sprouts: It will not […]