Dictionary Poems

He dreamed away his hours in school;He sat with such an absent air,The master reckoned him a fool,And gave him up in dull despair. When other lads were making hayYou’d find him loafing by the stream;He’d take a book and slip away,And just pretend to fish . . . and dream. His brothers passed him … Continued

On this long storm the rainbow rose,On this late morn the sun;The clouds, like listless elephants,Horizons straggled down. The birds rose smiling in their nests,The gales indeed were done;Alas! how heedless were the eyesOn whom the summer shone! The quiet nonchalance of deathNo daybreak can bestir;The slow archangel’s syllablesMust awaken her. – On this long … Continued

They laid their hands upon my head,They stroked my cheek and brow;And time could heal a hurt, they said,And time could dim a vow. And they were pitiful and mildWho whispered to me then,The heart that breaks in April, child,Will mend in May again. Oh, many a mended heart they knew.So old they were, and … Continued

One dignity delays for all,One mitred afternoon.None can avoid this purple,None evade this crown. Coach it insures, and footmen,Chamber and state and throng;Bells, also, in the village,As we ride grand along. What dignified attendants,What service when we pause!How loyally at partingTheir hundred hats they raise! How pomp surpassing ermine,When simple you and IPresent our meek … Continued

ALL things uncomely and broken, all things worn out and old,The cry of a child by the roadway, the creak of a lumbering cart,The heavy steps of the ploughman, splashing the wintry mould,Are wronging your image that blossoms a rose in the deeps of my heart.The wrong of unshapely things is a wrong too great … Continued

Spades take up leavesNo better than spoons,And bags full of leavesAre light as balloons. I make a great noiseOf rustling all dayLike rabbit and deerRunning away. But the mountains I raiseElude my embrace,Flowing over my armsAnd into my face. I may load and unloadAgain and againTill I fill the whole shed,And what have I then? … Continued

They told to Marie Antoinette: The beggers at your gateHave eyes too sad for tears to wet, And for your pity wait.But Marie only laughed and said: My heart they will not ache:If people starve for want of bread Let them eat cake. The Court re-echoed her bon mot; It rang around the land,Till masses … Continued

YOU never come back.I say good-by when I see you going in the doors,The hopeless open doors that call and waitAnd take you then for–how many cents a day?How many cents for the sleepy eyes and fingers? I say good-by because I know they tap your wrists,In the dark, in the silence, day by day,And … Continued

Let’s make him a sailor, said Father,And he will adventure the sea.A soldier, said Mother, is ratherWhat I would prefer him to be.A lawyer, said Father, would please me,For then he could draw up my will.A doctor, said Mother, would ease me;Maybe he could give me a pill. Said Father: Let’s make him a curate,A … Continued

Yet, love, mere love, is beautiful indeedAnd worthy of acceptation. Fire is bright,Let temple burn, or flax; an equal lightLeaps in the flame from cedar-plank or weed:And love is fire. And when I say at needI love thee . . . mark! . . . I love thee–in thy sightI stand transfigured, glorified aright,With conscience … Continued