Women’s Song Of The Corn poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry

How beautiful are the corn rows, Stretching to the morning sun, Stretching to the evening sun. Very beautiful, the long rows of corn. How beautiful is the white corn, I husk it, I grind it. Very beautiful, my white corn. How beautiful is the red corn, I gather it and make fine meal, […]

Women’s Harvest Song poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry

I am waving a ripe sunflower, I am scattering sunflower pollen to the four world-quarters. I am joyful because of my melons, I am joyful because of my beans, I am joyful because of my squashes. The sunflower waves. So did the corn wave When the wind blew against it, So did my […]

Women’s Song Of The Corn poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry

How beautiful are the corn rows, Stretching to the morning sun, Stretching to the evening sun. Very beautiful, the long rows of corn. How beautiful is the white corn, I husk it, I grind it. Very beautiful, my white corn. How beautiful is the red corn, I gather it and make fine meal, […]

Women’s Harvest Song poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry

I am waving a ripe sunflower, I am scattering sunflower pollen to the four world-quarters. I am joyful because of my melons, I am joyful because of my beans, I am joyful because of my squashes. The sunflower waves. So did the corn wave When the wind blew against it, So did my […]

White Currants poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry

Shall I give you white currants? I do not know why, but I have a sudden fancy for this fruit. At the moment, the idea of them cherishes my senses, And they seem more desirable than flawless emeralds. Since I am, in fact, empty-handed, I might have chosen gems out of India, But […]

Two Lacquer Prints poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry

The Emperor’s Garden ONCE, in the sultry heat of midsummer, An Emperor caused the miniature mountains in his garden To be covered with white silk, That so crowned, They might cool his eyes With the sparkle of snow. Meditation A wise man, Watching the stars pass across the sky, Remarked: In the upper […]

The Travelling Bear poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry

GRASS-BLADES push up between the cobblestones And catch the sun on their flat sides Shooting it back, Gold and emerald, Into the eyes of passers-by. And over the cobblestones, Square-footed and heavy, Dances the trained bear. The cobbles cut his feet, And he has a ring in his nose But still he dances, […]

Towns in Colour poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry

I Red Slippers Red slippers in a shop-window, and outside in the street, flaws of grey, windy sleet! Behind the polished glass, the slippers hang in long threads of red, festooning from the ceiling like stalactites of blood, flooding the eyes of passers-by with dripping colour, jamming their crimson reflections against the windows […]

The Travelling Bear poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry

GRASS-BLADES push up between the cobblestones And catch the sun on their flat sides Shooting it back, Gold and emerald, Into the eyes of passers-by. And over the cobblestones, Square-footed and heavy, Dances the trained bear. The cobbles cut his feet, And he has a ring in his nose But still he dances, […]

The Swans poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry

The swans float and float Along the moat Around the Bishop’s garden, And the white clouds push Across a blue sky With edges that seem to draw in and harden. Two slim men of white bronze Beat each with a hammer on the end of a rod The hours of God. Striking a […]

The Starling poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry

Forever the impenetrable wall Of self confines my poor rebellious soul, I never see the towering white clouds roll Before a sturdy wind, save through the small Barred window of my jail. I live a thrall With all my outer life a clipped, square hole, Rectangular; a fraction of a scroll Unwound and […]

The Poet poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry

What instinct forces man to journey on, Urged by a longing blind but dominant! Nothing he sees can hold him, nothing daunt His never failing eagerness. The sun Setting in splendour every night has won His vassalage; those towers flamboyant Of airy cloudland palaces now haunt His daylight wanderings. Forever done With simple […]

The Letter poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry

Little cramped words scrawling all over the paper Like draggled fly’s legs, What can you tell of the flaring moon Through the oak leaves? Or of my uncertain window and the bare floor Spattered with moonlight? Your silly quirks and twists have nothing in them Of blossoming hawthorns, And this paper is dull, […]

The Garden By Moonlight poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry

A black cat among roses, Phlox, lilac-misted under a first-quarter moon, The sweet smells of heliotrope and night-scented stock. The garden is very still, It is dazed with moonlight, Contented with perfume, Dreaming the opium dreams of its folded poppies. Firefly lights open and vanish High as the tip buds of the golden […]

The Dinner-Party poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry

Fish “So . . .” they said, With their wine-glasses delicately poised, Mocking at the thing they cannot understand. “So . . .” they said again, Amused and insolent. The silver on the table glittered, And the red wine in the glasses Seemed the blood I had wasted In a foolish cause. Game […]

The Cremona Violin poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry

Part First Frau Concert-Meister Altgelt shut the door. A storm was rising, heavy gusts of wind Swirled through the trees, and scattered leaves before Her on the clean, flagged path. The sky behind The distant town was black, and sharp defined Against it shone the lines of roofs and towers, Superimposed and flat […]

The Country House poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry

Did the door move, or was it always ajar? The gladioli on the table are pale mauve. I smell pale mauve and blue, Blue soft like bruises-putrid-oozing- The air oozes blue-mauve- And the door with the black line where it does not shut! I must pass that door to go to bed, Or […]

The Artist poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry

Why do you subdue yourself in golds and purples? Why do you dim yourself with folded silks? Do you not see that I can buy brocades in any draper’s shop, And that I am choked in the twilight of all these colours. How pale you would be, and startling, How quiet; But your […]

Orange Of Midsummer poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry

You came to me in the pale starting of Spring, And I could not see the world For the blue mist of wonder before my eyes. You beckoned me over a rainbow bridge, And I set foot upon it, trembling. Through pearl and saffron I followed you, Through heliotrope and rose, Iridescence after […]

In Excelsis poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry

You – you – Your shadow is sunlight on a plate of silver; Your footsteps, the seeding-place of lilies; Your hands moving, a chime of bells across a windless air. The movement of your hands is the long, golden running of light from a rising sun; It is the hopping of birds upon […]

In A Time Of Dearth poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry

Before me, On either side of me, I see sand. If I turn the corner of my house, I see sand, Long, brown Lines and levels of flat Sand. If I could only see a caravan Heave over the edge of it: The camels wobbling and swaying, Stepping like ostriches, With rocking palanquins […]

Granadilla poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry

I cut myself upon the thought of you And yet I come back to it again and again, A kind of fury makes me want to draw you out From the dimness of the present And set you sharply above me in a wheel of roses. Then, going obviously to inhale their fragrance, I […]

Flute-Priest Song For Rain poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry

Whistle under the water, Make the water bubble to the tones of the flute. I call the bluebirds song into the water: Wee-kee! Wee-kee-kee! Dawn is coming, The morning star shines upon us. Bluebird singing to the West clouds, Bring the humming rain. Water-rattles shake, Flute whistles, Star in Heaven shines. I blow […]

Wind poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry

He shouts in the sails of the ships at sea, He steals the down from the honeybee, He makes the forest trees rustle and sing, He twirls my kite till it breaks its string. Laughing, dancing, sunny wind, Whistling, howling, rainy wind, North, South, East and West, Each is the wind I like the best. […]

White and Green poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry

Hey! My daffodil-crowned, Slim and without sandals! As the sudden spurt of flame upon darkness So my eyeballs are startled with you, Supple-limbed youth among the fruit-trees, Light runner through tasselled orchards. You are an almond flower unsheathed Leaping and flickering between the budded branches. *** More poems by Amy Lowell […]

Vintage poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry

I will mix me a drink of stars, — Large stars with polychrome needles, Small stars jetting maroon and crimson, Cool, quiet, green stars. I will tear them out of the sky, And squeeze them over an old silver cup, And I will pour the cold scorn of my Beloved into it, So that […]

Venus Transiens poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry

Tell me, Was Venus more beautiful Than you are, When she topped The crinkled waves, Drifting shoreward On her plaited shell? Was Botticelli’s vision Fairer than mine; And were the painted rosebuds He tossed his lady Of better worth Than the words I blow about you To cover your too great loveliness As with […]