The Columbiad: Book X (Joel Barlow Poems)
The vision resumed, and extended over the whole earth. Present character of different nations. Future progress of society with respect ...
The vision resumed, and extended over the whole earth. Present character of different nations. Future progress of society with respect ...
When Yankies, skill'd in martial rule,First put the British troops to school;Instructed them in warlike trade,And new manoeuvres of parade,The ...
And now the Angel, from the trembling sight,Veil'd the wide world-when sudden shades of nightMove o'er the ethereal vault; the ...
Now warm with ministerial ire,Fierce sallied forth our loyal 'Squire,And on his striding steps attendsHis desperate clan of Tory friends.When ...
(1)Lying and stealing is the white man's game;For rights of God nor man he has no shame(A practice of his ...
The Sun's in its orbit, yet I feel morbid.Act 1PrologueLadies and gentlemen and the day!All ye made of sweet human clay!Let ...
In one of earth'sHead cities, awaiting this, the effect unknown,Of evil, not, truly, all--wise, we towerlike rise;With eminent but indifferent ...
Man is a creature of a thousand whims;The slave of hope and fear and circumstance.Through toil and martyrdom a million ...
SCEN. 1.Acanthus, Anthophotus.An. Thou speak'st of things beyond beleefe, Acanthus.Ac. Too true it is, I shrewdly feare, For every circumstance makes it appeare That Rhodon ...
PRELUDEALONG the roadside, like the flowers of goldThat tawny Incas for their gardens wrought,Heavy with sunshine droops the golden-rod,And the ...
DEPARTED shade of MARY, much reproach'd,How oft I've view'd thy sufferings severe,With faults contrasted: in my mind revolv'd,And them arranged ...
All priests are not the same, be understood!Priests are, like other folks, some bad, some good.What's vice or virtue, sure ...
As Rochefoucauld his maxims drewFrom Nature, I believe 'em true:They argue no corrupted mindIn him; the fault is in mankind.This ...
VESEY, of Verse the judge and friend,Awhile my idle strain attend:Not with the days of early Greece,I mean to ope ...
Wintertime, er Summertime, Of late years I notice I'm, Kindo'-like, more subjec' to What the _weather_ is. Now, you Folks 'at lives in town, I ...
There stands a City,-- neither large nor small,Its air and situation sweet and pretty;It matters very little -- if at ...
I thank ye, my frien's, for the warmth o' your greetin':Ther' 's few airthly blessin's but wut's vain an' fleetin';But ...
Once git a smell o' musk into a draw,An' it clings hold like precerdents in law;Your gra'ma'am put it there,—when, ...
Wha was ance like Willie Gairlace, Wha in neeboring town or farm?Beauty's bloom shone in his fair face, Deadly strength was in ...
I am a man of forty, sirs, a native of East Haddam,And have some reason to surmise that I descend ...
Surging like a vast current of salmon or sheatfish,Coiling up and down like an iron serpentThat rears now its torso, ...
IIn a nation of one hundred fine, mob-hearted, lynching, relenting, repenting millions,There are plenty of sweeping, swinging, stinging, gorgeous things ...
1I am a great AmericanI am almost nationalistic about it!I love America like a madness!But I am afraid to return ...
Written for the Celebration of the Fourth Anniversary of President Lincoln's Emancipation ProclamationTo P. A. BELL, Esq., A PIONEER IN ...
How long, oh gracious God! how long Shall power lord it over right?The feeble, trampled by the strong, Remain in slavery's gloomy ...
(March 4, 1913)Thine aid, O Muse, I consciously beseech;I crave thy succour, ask for thine assistanceThat men may cry: 'Some ...
18th March celebrates the birth of a fine poet and soldier Wilfred OwenMarch 18th celebrates the birthday of a man. ...
Burgum, I thank thee, thou hast let me seeThat Bristol has impress'd her stamp on thee,Thy generous spirit emulates the ...
Sir,As once a twelvemonth to the priest,Holy at Rome, here Antichrist,The Spanish king presents a jennetTo show his love, -- ...
. IN THE BACKS. As I was strolling lonely in the Backs, I met a woman whom I did not like. I did not like the way the woman walked: Loose-hipped, big-boned, disjointed, angular. If her anatomy comprised a waist, I did not notice it: she had a face With eyes and lips adjusted thereunto, But round her mouth no pleasing shadows stirred, Nor did her eyes invite a second glance. Her dress was absolutely colourless, Devoid of taste or shape or character; Her boots were rather old, and rather large, And rather shabby, not precisely matched. Her hair was very far from beautiful And not abundant: she had such a hat As neither merits nor expects remark. She was not clever, I am very sure, Nor witty nor amusing: well-informed She may have been, and kind, perhaps, of heart; But gossip was writ plain upon her face. And so she stalked her dull unthinking way; Or, if she thought of anything, it was That such a one had got a second class, Or Mrs So-and-So a second child. I did not want to see that girl again: I did not like her: and I should not mind If she were done away with, killed, or ploughed. She did not seem to serve a useful end: And certainly she was not beautiful.. ON THE KING'S PARADE. As I was waiting for the tardy tram, I met what purported to be a man. What seemed to pass for its material frame, The semblance of a suit of clothes had on, Fit emblem of the grand sartorial art And worthy of a more sublime abode. Its coat and waistcoat were of weird design Adapted to the fashion's latest whim. I think it wore an Athenæum tie. White flannels draped its too ethereal limbs And in its vacant eye there glared a glass. In vain for this poor derelict of flesh, Void of the spirit it was built to house, Have classic poets tuned their deathless lyre, Astute historians fingered mouldering sheets And reared a palace of sententious truth. In vain has y been added unto x, In vain the mighty decimal unrolled, Which strives indefinitely to be π In vain the palpitating frog has groaned Beneath the licensed knife: in vain for this The surreptitious corpse been disinterred And forced, amid the disinfectant fumes, To yield its secrets to philosophy. In vain the stress and storm of politics Beat round this empty head: in vain the priest Pronounces loud anathemas: the fool In vain remarks upon the fact that God Is missing in the world of his belief. Vain are the problems whether space, or time, Or force, or matter can be said to be: Vain are the mysteries of Melchisedec, And vain Methuselah's unusual years. It had a landlady I make no doubt; A friend or two as vacant as itself; A kitchen-bill; a thousand cigarettes; A dog which knew it for the fool it was. Perhaps it was a member of the Union, Who votes as often as he does not speak, And "recommends" as wildly as he spells. Its income was as much beyond its merits As less than its inane expenditure. Its conversation stood to common sense As stands the Sporting Times (its favourite print) To wit or humour. It was seldom drunk, But seldom sober when it went to bed. The mean contents of these superior clothes Were they but duly trained by careful hands, And castigated with remorseless zeal, Endowed with purpose, gifted with a mind, And taught to work, or play, or talk, or laugh, Might possibly aspire—I do not know— To pass, in time, for what they dare to scorn, An ordinary undergraduate. What did this thing crawling 'twixt heaven and earth, Amid the network of our grimy streets? What end was it intended to subserve, What lowly mission fashioned to neglect? It did not seem to wish for a degree, And what its object was I do not know, Unless it was to catch the tardy tram. (James Kenneth Stephen)
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