Dictionary Poems

There once was a Square, such a square little Square,And he loved a trim Triangle;But she was a flirt and around her skirtVainly she made him dangle.Oh he wanted to wed and he had no dreadOf domestic woes and wrangles;For he thought that his fate was to procreateCute little Squares and Triangles. Now it happened … Continued

Sweet is the swamp with its secrets, Until we meet a snake;‘T is then we sigh for houses, And our departure takeAt that enthralling gallop That only childhood knows.A snake is summer’s treason, And guile is where it goes. – A SNAKE – Sweet is the swamp with its secrets by Emily Dickinson

I know I amThe Negro ProblemBeing wined and dined,Answering the usual questionsThat come to white mindWhich seeks demurelyTo Probe in polite wayThe why and wherewithalOf darkness U.S.A.–Wondering how things got this wayIn current democratic night,Murmuring gentlyOver fraises du bois,I’m so ashamed of being white. The lobster is delicious,The wine divine,And center of attentionAt the damask … Continued

ALTHOUGH I can see him still.The freckled man who goesTo a grey place on a hillIn grey Connemara clothesAt dawn to cast his flies,It’s long since I beganTo call up to the eyesThis wise and simple man.All day I’d looked in the faceWhat I had hoped ‘twould beTo write for my own raceAnd the reality;The … Continued

How neatly a cat sleeps,sleeps with its paws and its posture,sleeps with its wicked claws,and with its unfeeling blood,sleeps with all the rings–a series of burnt circles–which have formed the odd geologyof its sand-colored tail. I should like to sleep like a cat,with all the fur of time,with a tongue rough as flint,with the dry … Continued

God gave you guts: don’t let Him down;Brace up, be worthy of His giving.The road’s a rut, the sky’s a frown;I know you’re plumb fed up with living.Fate birches you, and wry the rod . . .Snap out, you fool! Don’t let down God. Oh, yes, you’re on misfortune’s shift,And weary is the row your … Continued

One of the ones that Midas touched,Who failed to touch us all,Was that confiding prodigal,The blissful oriole. So drunk, he disavows itWith badinage divine;So dazzling, we mistake himFor an alighting mine. A pleader, a dissembler,An epicure, a thief, —Betimes an oratorio,An ecstasy in chief; The Jesuit of orchards,He cheats as he enchantsOf an entire attarFor … Continued

When voices of children are heard on the green, And whisperings are in the dale, The days of my youth rise fresh in my mind, My face turns green and pale. Then come home, my children, the sun is gone down, And the dews of night arise; Your spring and your day are wasted in … Continued

I hear it was charged against me that I sought to destroy institutions,But really I am neither for nor against institutions,(What indeed have I in common with them? or what with the destruction of them?)Only I will establish in the Mannahatta and in every city of these States inland and seaboard,And in the fields and … Continued

Apple orchards, the trees all cover’d with blossoms;Wheat fields carpeted far and near in vital emerald green;The eternal, exhaustless freshness of each early morning;The yellow, golden, transparent haze of the warm afternoon sun;The aspiring lilac bushes with profuse purple or white flowers. – Out of May’s Shows Selected by Walt Whitman