Dictionary Poems

I HAVE been watching the war map slammed up for advertising in front of the newspaper office.Buttons–red and yellow buttons–blue and black buttons– are shoved back and forth across the map. A laughing young man, sunny with freckles,Climbs a ladder, yells a joke to somebody in the crowd,And then fixes a yellow button one inch … Continued

THE splendour falls on castle walls ; And snowy summits old in story: ; The long light shakes across the lakes, ; And the wild cataract leaps in glory. Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying, Blow, bugle; answer, echoes, dying, dying, dying. ; O hark, O hear! how thin and clear, ; And … Continued

I thought of Thee, my partner and my guide, As being past away. -Vain sympathies! For backward, Duddon! as I cast my eyes, I see what was, and is, and will abide; Still glides the Stream, and shall not cease to glide; The Form remains, the Function never dies; While we, the brave, the mighty, … Continued

I CAN’T tell you, but you feel it–Nor can you tell me,Saints with vanished slate and pencilSolve our April day. Sweeter than a vanished FrolicFrom a vanished Green!Swifter than the hoofs of HorsemenRound a ledge of Dream! Modest, let us walk among it,With our faces veiled,As they say polite ArchangelsDo, in meeting God. Not for … Continued

I thought of Thee, my partner and my guide,As being past away. -Vain sympathies!For backward, Duddon! as I cast my eyes,I see what was, and is, and will abide;Still glides the Stream, and shall not cease to glide;The Form remains, the Function never dies;While we, the brave, the mighty, and the wise,We Men, who in … Continued

Musings of a Police Reporter in the Identification Bureau YOU have loved forty women, but you have only one thumb.You have led a hundred secret lives, but you mark only one thumb.You go round the world and fight in a thousand wars and win all the world’s honors, but when you come back home the … Continued

THE overtakelessness of thoseWho have accomplished Death,Majestic is to me beyondThe majesties of Earth. The soul her not at HomeInscribes upon the flesh,And takes her fair aerial gaitBeyond the hope of touch. – THE overtakelessness of those by Emily Dickinson

On silver sand where ripples curledI counted sea-gulls seven;Shy, secret screened from all the world,And innocent as heaven.They did not of my nearness know,For dawn was barely bright,And they were still, like spots of snowIn that pale, pearly light. Then one went forth unto the seaThat rippled up in gold,And there were rubies flashing freeFrom … Continued

I guess folks think I’m mighty dumb Since Jack and Jim and JoeHave hit the trail to Kingdom Come And left me here below:Since Death, the bastard, bowled them out, And left me faced with–Doubt. My pals have all passed out on me And I am by my lone;Old Bill was last, and now I … Continued

The face of all the world is changed, I think,Since first I heard the footsteps of thy soulMove still, oh, still, beside me, as they stoleBetwixt me and the dreadful outer brinkOf obvious death, where I, who thought to sink,Was caught up into love, and taught the wholeOf life in a new rhythm. The cup … Continued