The Imprisoned Innocents (Paul Hamilton Hayne Poems)
ONE morning I said to my wife,Near the time when the heavens are rifeWith the Equinoctial strife,"Arabella, the weather looks ...
ONE morning I said to my wife,Near the time when the heavens are rifeWith the Equinoctial strife,"Arabella, the weather looks ...
DEDICATED BY A CONTRIBUTOR TO THE COLLEGIAN,1830, TO THE EDITORS OF THE HARVARD ADVOCATE, 1876.'T WAS on the famous trotting-ground,The ...
-A RhapsodyOf all the various lots around the ball,Which fate to man distributes, absolute;Avert, ye gods! that of the Muse's ...
"'I loosened the bonds which bindThe Pestilence, my slave;I sent him forth as the wind,I bade him stand in the ...
As A fair nymph, when rising from her bed, With sparkling diamonds dresses not her head, But without gold, or pearl, or ...
Mater ait, tacta est dea Nomine Matris.Ovid--- Utinam modo dicere PossemCarmina digna dea, certe est dea carmine digna.VirgilLet hireling Poets ...
'Ceste insignefable et tragicque comedie' RABELMS.IThe sun was down, and twilight greyFilled half the air; but in the room,Whose curtain ...
Place me once more, my daughter, where the sunMay shine upon my old and time-worn head,For the last time, perchance. ...
BLOW, LONG TRADE WINDS of American speech,Over this land where we can rise, unfurlOur new and untried sails, and drive ...
DEAR SIR,--Your letter come to han' Requestin' me to please be funny;But I ain't made upon a plan Thet knows wut's comin', ...
Appolinus his lev{.e} tok,To God and al the lond betokWith al the poeple long and brod,That he no lenger there ...
What Mortal man can with his Span mete out Eternity?Or fathom it by depth of Wit, or strength of Memory?The ...
What festival is ancient Rome preparing? Where flow the crowds in noisy waves?Why these aromas, myrrh's sweet smoke And censers all around ...
NOW had the season returned, when the nights grow colder and longer,And the retreating sun the sign of the Scorpion ...
'Tis a grove-circled dwelling Set close to a hill, Where the branches are telling Strange legends of ill; Over timbers ...
The wind had blown away the rainThat all day long had soaked the level plain.Against the horizon's fiery wrack,The sheds ...
There's a rather indistinct human anxiety all around in the day's light:on streets, in alleys, on tram line tracks and ...
Argument:Three wise men of GothamWent to sea in a bowl;If the bowl had been strongerMy story had been longer.Sir Valence, ...
Well; I may now receive, and die. My sin Indeed is great, but yet I have been in A purgatory, such as ...
'It is the voice of years that are gone!they roll before me with all their deeds.'~OSSIANNewstead! fast-falling, once-resplendent dome! Religion's shrine! ...
All man's acts,Serious or trivial, all man's thoughts perchancePass not unmarked of angel eye, or God's.We know in daytime there ...
Your naturally beautiful reflection will gain entry into the clear waters of theGambhira River, as into a clear mind. Therefore ...
"Set thine house in order, for thou shalt die." - Isaiah xxxviii.What! and no more? — Is this, my soul, ...
A TALE OF THE PENAL COLONY OF WEST AUSTRALIA."I'LL have it, I tell you! Curse you!-there!"The long knife glittered, was ...
Oh ! how I love to stand on some high rock, And gaze upon the foaming wild abyss Of Ocean — all ...
With the thirty pieces of silver,They bought the Potter's Field;For none would have the blood-moneyAnd the interest it might yield.The ...
1. E. LarionovaE. Larionova. Brunette. A colonel'sand a typist's daughter. Lookedat you like someone studying a clockface.She tried to help ...
Sir,As once a twelvemonth to the priest,Holy at Rome, here Antichrist,The Spanish king presents a jennetTo show his love, -- ...
WHILE, born to bring the Muse's happier days,A patriot's hand protects a poet's lays,While nurs'd by you she sees her ...
. 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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