Section: «Poems»

Verse (ancient Greek ὁ στίχος — row, structure), a term in versification used in several meanings: artistic speech organized by division into rhythmically commensurate segments; poetry in the narrow sense; in particular, it implies the properties of versification of a particular tradition ("antique verse", "Akhmatova's verse", etc.); a line of poetic text organized according to a certain rhythmic pattern ("My uncle of the most honest rules").

Lionel Johnson

There was a murkier tinge in London's airAs if the honest fog blushed black for shame.Fools sang of sin, for other fools' acclaim,And Milton's wreath..

© Alfred Joyce Kilmer

Madness

(For Sara Teasdale)The lonely farm, the crowded street,The palace and the slum,Give welcome to my silent feetAs, bearing gifts, I come.Last night a..

© Alfred Joyce Kilmer

Love's Lantern

(For Aline)Because the road was steep and longAnd through a dark and lonely land,God set upon my lips a songAnd put a lantern in my hand.Through..

© Alfred Joyce Kilmer

Kings

The Kings of the earth are men of might,And cities are burned for their delight,And the skies rain death in the silent night,And the hills belch..

© Alfred Joyce Kilmer

In Memory Of Rupert Brooke

In alien earth, across a troubled sea,His body lies that was so fair and young.His mouth is stopped, with half his songs unsung;His arm is still..

© Alfred Joyce Kilmer

Father Gerard Hopkins, S. J.

Why didst thou carve thy speech laboriously,And match and blend thy words with curious art?For Song, one saith, is but a human heartSpeaking aloud..

© Alfred Joyce Kilmer

Folly

(For A. K. K.)What distant mountains thrill and glowBeneath our Lady Folly's tread?Why has she left us, wise in woe,Shrewd, practical, uncomforted?We..

© Alfred Joyce Kilmer

A Blue Valentine

(For Aline)Monsignore,Right Reverend Bishop Valentinus,Sometime of Interamna, which is called Ferni,Now of the delightful Court of Heaven,I..

© Alfred Joyce Kilmer

Mount Houvenkopf

Serene he stands, with mist serenely crowned,And draws a cloak of trees about his breast.The thunder roars but cannot break his restAnd from his..

© Alfred Joyce Kilmer

Mid-Ocean In War-Time

The fragile splendour of the level sea,The moon's serene and silver-veiled face,Make of this vessel an enchanted placeFull of white mirth and golden..

© Alfred Joyce Kilmer

Martin

When I am tired of earnest men,Intense and keen and sharp and clever,Pursuing fame with brush or penOr counting metal disks forever,Then from the..

© Alfred Joyce Kilmer

Main Street

(For S.M.L.)I like to look at the blossomy track of the moon upon the sea,But it isn't half so fine a sight as Main Street used to beWhen it all was..

© Alfred Joyce Kilmer

Multiplication

I take my leave, with sorrow, of Him I love so well;I look my last upon His small and radiant prison-cell;O happy lamp! to serve Him with never..

© Alfred Joyce Kilmer

Apology

For blows on the fort of evilThat never shows a breach,For terrible life-long racesTo a goal no foot can reach,For reckless leaps into darknessWith..

© Alfred Joyce Kilmer

Ballade Of My Lady's Beauty

Squire Adam had two wives, they say,Two wives had he, for his delight,He kissed and clypt them all the dayAnd clypt and kissed them all the night.Now..

© Alfred Joyce Kilmer

As Winds That Blow Against A Star

(For Aline)Now by what whim of wanton chanceDo radiant eyes know sombre days?And feet that shod in light should danceWalk weary and laborious..

© Alfred Joyce Kilmer

Houses

When you shall die and to the skySerenely, delicately go,Saint Peter, when he sees you there,Will clash his keys and say:'Now talk to her, Sir..

© Alfred Joyce Kilmer

Memorial Day

The bugle echoes shrill and sweet,But not of war it sings today.The road is rhythmic with the feetOf men-at-arms who come to pray.The rose blossoms..

© Alfred Joyce Kilmer

Yorick

Hard by an excavated street one satIn solitary session on the sand;And ever and anon he spake and spatAnd spake again-a yellow skull in hand,To which..

© Ambrose Bierce

Ye Idyll Of Ye Hippopopotamus

With a Methodist hymn in his musical throat,The Sun was emitting his ultimate note;His quivering larynx enwrinkled the seaLike an Ichthyosaurian..

© Ambrose Bierce

Y'E Foe To Cathaye

O never an oathe sweares he,And never a pig-taile jerkes;With a brick-batte he ne lurkesFor to buste y'e crust, perdie,Of y'e man from over..

© Ambrose Bierce

Woman In Politics

What, madam, run for School Director? You?And want my vote and influence? Well, well,That beats me! Gad! where _are_ we drifting to?In all my life I..

© Ambrose Bierce

With Mine Own Petard

Time was the local poets sang their songsBeneath their breath in terror of the thongsI snapped about their shins. Though mild the strokeBards, like..

© Ambrose Bierce

With A Book

Words shouting, singing, smiling, frowning--Sense lacking.Ah, nothing, more obscure than Browning,Save blacki

© Ambrose Bierce

Weather

Once I dipt into the future far as human eye could see,And I saw the Chief Forecaster, dead as any one can be--Dead and damned and shut in Hades as a..

© Ambrose Bierce