Alexander VI Dines with the Cardinal of Capua by Stephen Vincent Benet
Alexander VI Dines with the Cardinal of Capua by Stephen Vincent Benet Next, then, the peacock, gilt With all its feathers. Look, what gorgeous dyes Flow in the eyes! And how deep, lustrous greens are splashed and spilt Along the back, that like a sea-wave’s crest Scatters soft beauty o’er th’ emblazoned breast! A strange […]
A Minor Poet by Stephen Vincent Benet
A Minor Poet by Stephen Vincent Benet I am a shell. From me you shall not hear The splendid tramplings of insistent drums, The orbed gold of the viol’s voice that comes, Heavy with radiance, languorous and clear. Yet, if you hold me close against the ear, A dim, far whisper rises clamorously, The thunderous […]
The Pleasures Of Friendship by Stevie Smith
The Pleasures Of Friendship by Stevie Smith The pleasures of friendship are exquisite, How pleasant to go to a friend on a visit! I go to my friend, we walk on the grass, And the hours and moments like minutes pass. ————— The End And that’s the End of the Poem © Poetry Monster, 2021. Poems […]
The Jungle Husband by Stevie Smith
The Jungle Husband by Stevie Smith Dearest Evelyn, I often think of you Out with the guns in the jungle stew Yesterday I hittapotamus I put the measurements down for you but they got lost in the fuss It’s not a good thing to drink out here You know, I’ve practically given it up dear. […]
Tenuous And Precarious by Stevie Smith
Tenuous And Precarious by Stevie Smith Tenuous and Precarious Were my guardians, Precarious and Tenuous, Two Romans. My father was Hazardous, Hazardous Dear old man, Three Romans. There was my brother Spurious, Spurious Posthumous, Spurious was Spurious, Was four Romans. My husband was Perfidious, He was Perfidious Five Romans. Surreptitious, our son, Was Surreptitious, He […]
Sunt Leones by Stevie Smith
Sunt Leones by Stevie Smith The lions who ate the Christians on the sands of the arena By indulging native appetites played was now been seen a Not entirely negligible part In consolidating at the very start The position of the Early Christian Church. Initiatory rights are always bloody In the lions, it appears From […]
Pad, Pad by Stevie Smith
Pad, Pad by Stevie Smith I always remember your beautiful flowers And the beautiful kimono you wore When you sat on the couch With that tigerish crouch And told me you loved me no more. What I cannot remember is how I felt when you were unkind All I know is, if you were unkind […]
Our Bog Is Dood by Stevie Smith
Our Bog Is Dood by Stevie Smith Our Bog is dood, our Bog is dood, They lisped in accents mild, But when I asked them to explain They grew a little wild. How do you know your Bog is dood My darling little child? We know because we wish it so That is enough, they […]
Not Waving But Drowning by Stevie Smith
Not Waving But Drowning by Stevie Smith Nobody heard him, the dead man, But still he lay moaning: I was much further out than you thought And not waving but drowning. Poor chap, he always loved larking And now he’s dead It must have been too cold for him his heart gave way, They said. […]
Nor We Of Her To Him by Stevie Smith
Nor We Of Her To Him by Stevie Smith He said no word of her to us Nor we of her to him, But oh it saddened us to see How wan he grew and thin. We said: she eats him day and night And draws the blood from him, We did not know but […]
Never Again by Stevie Smith
Never Again by Stevie Smith Never again will I weep And wring my hands And beat my head against the wall Because Me nolentem fata trahunt But When I have had enough I will arise And go unto my Father And I will say to Him: Father, I have had enough. ————— The End And […]
My Heart Was Full by Stevie Smith
My Heart Was Full by Stevie Smith My heart was full of softening showers, I used to swing like this for hours, I did not care for war or death, I was glad to draw my breath. ————— The End And that’s the End of the Poem © Poetry Monster, 2021. Poems by topic and subject. […]
My Heart Goes Out by Stevie Smith
My Heart Goes Out by Stevie Smith My heart goes out to my Creator in love Who gave me Death, as end and remedy. All living creatures come to quiet Death For him to eat up their activity And give them nothing, which is what they want although When they are living they do not […]
Mother, Among The Dustbins by Stevie Smith
Mother, Among The Dustbins by Stevie Smith Mother, among the dustbins and the manure I feel the measure of my humanity, an allure As of the presence of God, I am sure In the dustbins, in the manure, in the cat at play, Is the presence of God, in a sure way He moves there. […]
Infelice by Stevie Smith
Infelice by Stevie Smith Walking swiftly with a dreadful duchess, He smiled too briefly, his face was pale as sand, He jumped into a taxi when he saw me coming, Leaving my alone with a private meaning, He loves me so much, my heart is singing. Later at the Club when I rang him in […]
In The Night by Stevie Smith
In The Night by Stevie Smith I longed for companionship rather, But my companions I always wished farther. And now in the desolate night I think only of the people i should like to bite. ————— The End And that’s the End of the Poem © Poetry Monster, 2021. Poems by topic and subject. Poetry Monster […]
I Remember by Stevie Smith
I Remember by Stevie Smith It was my bridal night I remember, An old man of seventy-three I lay with my young bride in my arms, A girl with t.b. It was wartime, and overhead The Germans were making a particularly heavy raid on Hampstead. What rendered the confusion worse, perversely Our bombers had chosen […]
I Do Not Speak by Stevie Smith
I Do Not Speak by Stevie Smith I do not ask for mercy for understanding for peace And in these heavy days I do not ask for release I do not ask that suffering shall cease. I do not pray to God to let me die To give an ear attentive to my cry To […]
Happiness by Stevie Smith
Happiness by Stevie Smith Happiness is silent, or speaks equivocally for friends, Grief is explicit and her song never ends, Happiness is like England, and will not state a case, Grief, like Guilt, rushes in and talks apace. ————— The End And that’s the End of the Poem © Poetry Monster, 2021. Poems by topic and […]
Freddy by Stevie Smith
Freddy by Stevie Smith Nobody knows what I feel about Freddy I cannot make anyone understand I love him sub specie aet ernitaties I love him out of hand. I don’t love him so much in the restaurants that’s a fact To get him hobnob with my old pub chums needs too much tact He […]
Exeat by Stevie Smith
Exeat by Stevie Smith I remember the Roman Emperor, one of the cruellest of them, Who used to visit for pleasure his poor prisoners cramped in dungeons, So then they would beg him for death, and then he would say: Oh no, oh no, we are not yet friends enough. He meant they were not […]
Edmonton, thy cemetery by Stevie Smith
Edmonton, thy cemetery by Stevie Smith Edmonton, thy cemetery In which I love to tread Has roused in me a dreary thought For all the countless dead, Ah me, the countless dead. Yet I believe that one is one And shall for ever be, And while I hold to this belief I walk, oh cemetery, […]
Drugs Made Pauline Vague by Stevie Smith
Drugs Made Pauline Vague by Stevie Smith Drugs made Pauline vague. She sat one day at the breakfast table Fingering in a baffled way The fronds of the maidenhair plant. Was it the salt you were looking for dear? said Dulcie, exchanging a glance with the Brigadier. Chuff chuff Pauline what’s the matter? Said the […]
Deeply Morbid by Stevie Smith
Deeply Morbid by Stevie Smith Deeply morbid deeply morbid was the girl who typed the letters Always out of office hours running with her social betters But when daylight and the darkness of the office closed about her Not for this ah not for this her office colleagues came to doubt her It was that […]
Conviction (iv) by Stevie Smith
Conviction (iv) by Stevie Smith I like to get off with people, I like to lie in their arms I like to be held and lightly kissed, Safe from all alarms. I like to laugh and be happy With a beautiful kiss, I tell you, in all the world There is no bliss like this. […]
Conviction (iii) by Stevie Smith
Conviction (iii) by Stevie Smith The shadow was so black, I thought it was a cat, But once in to it I knew it No more black Than a shadow’s back. Illusion is a freak Of mind; The cat’s to seek. ————— The End And that’s the End of the Poem © Poetry Monster, 2021. Poems […]
Conviction (ii) by Stevie Smith
Conviction (ii) by Stevie Smith I walked abroad in Easter Park, I heard the wild dog’s distant bark, I knew my Lord was risen again, – Wild dog, wild dog, you bark in vain. ————— The End And that’s the End of the Poem © Poetry Monster, 2021. Poems by topic and subject. Poetry Monster — […]
Conviction (i) by Stevie Smith
Conviction (i) by Stevie Smith Christ died for God and me Upon the crucifixion tree For God a spoken Word For me a Sword For God a hymn of praise For me eternal days For God an explanation For me salvation. ————— The End And that’s the End of the Poem © Poetry Monster, 2021. Poems […]
Bag-Snatching In Dublin by Stevie Smith
Bag-Snatching In Dublin by Stevie Smith Sisely Walked so nicely With footsteps so discreet To see her pass You’d never guess She walked upon the street. Down where the Liffey waters’ turgid flood Churns up to greet the ocean-driven mud, A bruiser in fix Murdered her for 6/6. ————— The End And that’s the End […]
Away, Melancholy by Stevie Smith
Away, Melancholy by Stevie Smith Away, melancholy, Away with it, let it go. Are not the trees green, The earth as green? Does not the wind blow, Fire leap and the rivers flow? Away melancholy. The ant is busy He carrieth his meat, All things hurry To be eaten or eat. Away, melancholy. Man, too, […]
Autumn by Stevie Smith
Autumn by Stevie Smith He told his life story to Mrs. Courtly Who was a widow. ‘Let us get married shortly’, He said. ‘I am no longer passionate, But we can have some conversation before it is too late.’ ————— The End And that’s the End of the Poem © Poetry Monster, 2021. Poems by topic […]
Alone In The Woods by Stevie Smith
Alone In The Woods by Stevie Smith Alone in the woods I felt The bitter hostility of the sky and the trees Nature has taught her creatures to hate Man that fusses and fumes Unquiet man As the sap rises in the trees As the sap paints the trees a violent green So rises the […]
Zoo-Keeper’s Wife by Sylvia Plath
I can stay awake all night, if need be — Cold as an eel, without eyelids. Like a dead lake the dark envelops me, Blueblack, a spectacular plum fruit. No air bubbles start from my heart. I am lungless And ugly, my belly a silk stocking Where the heads and tails of my sisters decompose. […]
You’re by Sylvia Plath
Clownlike, happiest on your hands, Feet to the stars, and moon-skulled, Gilled like a fish. A common-sense Thumbs-down on the dodo’s mode. Wrapped up in yourself like a spool, Trawling your dark, as owls do. Mute as a turnip from the Fourth Of July to All Fools’ Day, O high-riser, my little loaf. Vague as […]
Yadwigha, On A Red Couch, Among Lillies by Sylvia Plath
Yadwigha, the literalists once wondered how you Came to be lying on this baroque couch Upholstered in red velvet, under the eye Of uncaged tigers and a tropical moon, Set in intricate wilderness of green Heart-shaped leaves, like catalpa leaves, and lillies Of monstrous size, like no well-bred lilies It seems teh consistent critics wanted […]
Yaddo : The Grand Manor by Sylvia Plath
Woodsmoke and a distant loudspeaker Filter into this clear Air, and blur. The red tomato’s in, the green bean; The cook lugs a pumpkin From the vine For pies. The fir tree’s thick with grackles. Gold carp loom in the pools. A wasp crawls Over windfalls to sip cider-juice. Guests in the studios Muse, compose. […]
Wreath For A Bridal by Sylvia Plath
What though green leaves only witness Such pact as is made once only; what matter That owl voice sole ‘yes’, while cows utter Low moos of approve; let sun surpliced in brightness Stand stock still to laud these mated ones Whose stark act all coming double luck joins. Couched daylong in cloisters of stinging nettle […]
Words Heard, By Accident, Over The Phone by Sylvia Plath
O mud, mud, how fluid! — Thick as foreign coffee, and with a sluggy pulse. Speak, speak! Who is it? It is the bowel-pulse, lover of digestibles. It is he who has achieved these syllables. What are these words, these words? They are plopping like mud. O god, how shall I ever clean the phone […]
A Winter’s Tale by Sylvia Plath
On Boston Common a red star Gleams, wired to a tall Ulmus Americana. Magi near The domed State House. Old Joseph holds an alpenstock. Two waxen oxen flank the Child. A black sheep leads the shepherds’ flock. Mary looks mild. Angels-more feminine and douce Than models from Bonwit’s or Jay’s, Haloes lustrous as Sirius- Gilt […]
Winter Landscape, With Rooks by Sylvia Plath
Water in the millrace, through a sluice of stone, plunges headlong into that black pond where, absurd and out-of-season, a single swan floats chaste as snow, taunting the clouded mind which hungers to haul the white reflection down. The austere sun descends above the fen, an orange cyclops-eye, scorning to look longer on this landscape […]