Dictionary Poems

When I attended Mass todayA coloured maid sat down by me,And as I watched her kneel and pray,Her reverence was good to see.For whether there may be or no’A merciful and mighty God,The love for Him is like a glowThat glorifies the meanest clod. And then a starched and snotty dameWho sat the other side … Continued

Sounds of the winter too,Sunshine upon the mountains–many a distant strainFrom cheery railroad train–from nearer field, barn, house,The whispering air–even the mute crops, garner’d apples, corn,Children’s and women’s tones–rhythm of many a farmer and of flail,An old man’s garrulous lips among the rest, Think not we give out yet,Forth from these snowy hairs we keep … Continued

A noiseless patient spider,I mark’d where on a little promontory it stood isolated,Mark’d how to explore the vacant vast surrounding,It launch’d forth filament, filament, filament out of itself,Ever unreeling them, ever tirelessly speeding them. And you O my soul where you stand,Surrounded, detached, in measureless oceans of space,Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing, seeking the spheres to … Continued

O, were I loved as I desire to be!What is there in the great sphere of the earth,Or range of evil between death and birth,That I should fear, – if I were loved by thee!All the inner, all the outer world of pain,Clear love would pierce and cleave, if thou wert mine;As I have heard … Continued

I would if I could chooseAge and die outwards as a tulip does;Not as this iris drawing in, in-coilingIts complex strange taut inflorescence, willingItself a bud again – though all achieved isNo more than a clenched sadness, The tears of gum not flowing.I would choose the tulips reckless way of going;Whose petals answer light, altering … Continued

An altered look about the hills;A Tyrian light the village fills;A wider sunrise in the dawn;A deeper twilight on the lawn;A print of a vermilion foot;A purple finger on the slope;A flippant fly upon the pane;A spider at his trade again;An added strut in chanticleer;A flower expected everywhere;An axe shrill singing in the woods;Fern-odors on … Continued

Is it, then, regret for buried time ; ; ; ;That keenlier in sweet April wakes, ; ; ; ;And meets the year, and gives and takesThe colours of the crescent prime?Not all: the songs, the stirring air, ; ; ; ;The life re-orient out of dust, ; ; ; ;Cry thro’ the sense to … Continued

Dip down upon the northern shore,O sweet new-year, delaying long;Thou doest expectant Nature wrong,Delaying long, delay no more. What stays thee from the clouded noons,Thy sweetness from its proper place?Can trouble live with April days,Or sadness in the summer moons? Bring orchis, bring the fox-glove spire,The little speedwell’s darling blue,Deep tulips dashed with fiery dew,Laburnums, … Continued

O WHAT has made that sudden noise?What on the threshold stands?It never crossed the sea becauseJohn Bull and the sea are friends;But this is not the old seaNor this the old seashore.What gave that roar of mockery,That roar in the sea’s roar?The ghost of Roger CasementIs beating on the door. John Bull has stood for … Continued

Give me my daily bread.It seems so odd,When all is done and said,This plea to God.To pray for cake might beThe thing to do;But bread, it seems to me,Is just our due. Give me my daily toil,I ought to say –(If from life’s cursed coilI’d time to pray.)Give me my daily sweat,My body sore,So that … Continued