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").
A Portrait
HER glance is equable, serene;She looks at life with level brow;She strides through circumstance—a queen!To compromise she cannot bow—Even to love..
© Arthur Henry Adams
And Yet
THEY drew him from the darkened room,Where, swooning in a peace profound,Beneath a heavy fragrance drownedHer grey form glimmered in the gloom.Death..
© Arthur Henry Adams
Written In Australia
THE WIDE sun stares without a cloud:Whipped by his glances truculentThe earth lies quivering and cowed.My heart is hot with discontent:I hate this..
© Arthur Henry Adams
After Long Years
“AND have I changed?” she asked, and as she spokeThe old smile o'er her pale face bravely broke,And in her eyes dead worlds of pathos woke.Changed?..
© Arthur Henry Adams
The Weakling
I AM a weakling. God, who madeThe still, strong man, made also me.The God who could the tiger plan,In his lithe splendour unafraid—A thing of flame..
© Arthur Henry Adams
The Australian
ONCE more this Autumn-earth is ripe,Parturient of another type.While with the Past old nations mergeHis foot is on the Future’s verge.They watch him..
© Arthur Henry Adams
Fleet Street
BENEATH this narrow jostling street,Unruffled by the noise of feet,Like a slow organ-note I hearThe pulses of the great world beat.Unseen beneath the..
© Arthur Henry Adams
Rain In The Bush
The steady soaking of the rain,The bush all sad and sombre;The trees are weeping in their pain,Dank leaves the ground encumber.A dismal ghost of..
© Arthur Henry Adams
The Pleiades
LAST night I saw the Pleiades again,Faint as a drift of steamFrom some tall chimney-stack;And I remembered you as you were then:Awoke dead worlds of..
© Arthur Henry Adams
Bayswater.W.
About me leagues of houses lie,Above me, grim and straight and high,They climb; the terraces lean upLike long grey reefs against the sky.Packed tier..
© Arthur Henry Adams
China 1899
She lies, a grave disdain all her defence,Too imperturbable for scorn. She hearsOnly the murmur of the flowing yearsThat thunder slowly on her shores..
© Arthur Henry Adams
Nemesis
All things must fade. There is for cities tallThe same tomorrow as for daffodils:Time's wind, that casts the seed, the petal spills.Grim London's..
© Arthur Henry Adams
Civilisation
One moment mankind rides the crested wave,A moment glorious, beyond recall;And then the wave, with slow and massive fall,Obliterates the beauty that..
© Arthur Henry Adams
Lovers
I thought, because we had been friends so long,That I knew all your dear lips dared intendBefore they dawned to speech. Our thoughts would blend,I..
© Arthur Henry Adams
A Spring Sonnet
Last night beneath the mockery of the moonI heard the sudden startled whisperingsOf wakened birds settling their restless wings;The North-east..
© Arthur Henry Adams
Sydney
In her grey majesty of ancient stoneShe queens it proudly, though the sun's caressHer piteous cheeks, ravished of bloom, confess,And her dark eyes..
© Arthur Henry Adams
A Pair Of Lovers In The Street
A PAIR of lovers in the street!I dare not mock: with reverence meetMy unforgetting heart I cheat.Ah, God, spare me—so soon againAt the barred door to..
© Arthur Henry Adams
Holy Russia
CROUCHED in the terrible land,The circle of pitiless ice,With frozen bloody feetAnd her pestilential summer'sFever-throb in her brow,Look, in her..
© Francis William Lauderdale Adams
Fling Out The Flag
(For the Australian Labour Federation)FLING out the Flag! Let her flap and rise in the rush of the eager air,With the ring of the wild swan's wings..
© Francis William Lauderdale Adams
Belgravia By Night
'Move on!''THE foxes have holes,And the birds of the air have nests,But where shall the heads of the sons of menBe laid, be laid?''Where the cold..
© Francis William Lauderdale Adams
Hagar
SHE went along the road,Her baby in her arms,The night and its alarmsMade deadlier her load.Her shrunken breasts were dry;She felt the hunger..
© Francis William Lauderdale Adams
Father Abe
(Song of the American Sons of Labour)The SongO WE knew so well, dear Father,When we answered to your call,And the Southern Moloch strickenShook and..
© Francis William Lauderdale Adams
Analogy
(To ——)HAD you lived when a tyrant KingStrove to make all the slaves of one,With Nobles and with Churchmen youHad stood unflinching, pure and true,To..
© Francis William Lauderdale Adams
Farewell To The Children
IN the early summer morningI stand and watch them come,The Children to the School-house;They chatter and laugh and hum.The little boys with..
© Francis William Lauderdale Adams
In The Sea-Gardens
(Sydney)'The Man of the Nation'YONDER the band is playingAnd the fine Young People walk.They are envying each other and talkingTheir pretty empty..
© Francis William Lauderdale Adams