All Poems
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Epitaph At Thermopylae
© Simonides
Four thousand of us fought three million.
When you visit Sparta, tell them:
Here, the soldiers kept their word.
Dream Song 22: Of 1826
© John Berryman
I am the little man who smokes & smokes.
I am the girl who does know better but.
I am the king of the pool.
I am so wise I had my mouth sewn shut.
I am a government official & a goddamned fool.
I am a lady who takes jokes.
An everywhere of silver,
© Emily Dickinson
An everywhere of silver,
With ropes of sand
To keep it from effacing
The track called land.
Dream Song 24: Oh servant Henry lectured till
© John Berryman
Oh servant Henry lectured till
the crows commenced and then
he bulbed his voice & lectured on some more.
This happened again & again, like war,â
the Indian p.a.'s, such as they were,
a weapon on his side, for the birds.
Stanzas To Jessy
© George Gordon Byron
There is a mystic thread of life
So dearly wreath'd with mine alone,
That Destiny's relentless knife
At once must sever both, or none.
Dream Song 112: My framework is broken, I am coming to an end
© John Berryman
My framework is broken, I am coming to an end,
God send it soon. When I had most to say
my tongue clung to the roof
I mean of my mouth. It is my Lady's birthday
which must be honoured, and has been. God send
it soon.
The Legend of King Arthur
© Thomas Percy
Of Brutus' blood, in Brittaine borne,
King Arthur I am to name;
Through Christendome and Heathynesse
Well knowne is my worthy fame.
Dream Song 36: The high ones die, die. They die
© John Berryman
The high ones die, die. They die. You look up and who's there?
âEasy, easy, Mr Bones. I is on your side.
I smell your grief.
âI sent my grief away. I cannot care
forever. With them all align & again I died
and cried, and I have to live.
Sonnet 104 - A spot of poontang on a five-foot piece
© John Berryman
And cuff her silly-hot again, mouth hot
And wet her small round writhingbut this screams
Suddenly awake, unreal as alkahest,
My god, this isn't what I want!You tot
The harrow-days you hold me to, black dreams,
The dirty water to get off my chest.
The Glimpse
© William Watson
Just for a day you crossed my life's dull track,
Put my ignobler dreams to sudden shame,
Went your bright way, and left me to fall back
On my own world of poorer deed and aim;
Dream Song 104: Welcome, grinned Henry, welcome, fifty-one!
© John Berryman
Welcome, grinned Henry, welcome, fifty-one!
I never cared for fifty, when nothing got done.
The hospitals were fun
in certain ways, and an honour or so,
but on the whole fifty was a mess as though
heavy clubs from below
Dream Song 43: 'Oyez, oyez!' The Man Who Did Not Deliver
© John Berryman
'Oyez, oyez!' The Man Who Did Not Deliver
is before you for his deliverance, my lords.
He stands, as charged
for This by banks, That cops, by lawyers, by
publishingers for Them. I doubt he'll make
old bones.
Dream Song 55: Peter's not friendly. He gives me sideways looks
© John Berryman
Peter's not friendly. He gives me sideways looks.
The architecture is far from reassuring.
I feel uneasy.
A pity,âthe interview began so well:
I mentioned fiendish things, he waved them away
and sloshed out a martini
Dream Song 38: The Russian grin bellows his condolence
© John Berryman
The Russian grin bellows his condolence
tó the family: ah but it's Kay,
& Ted, & Chris & Anne,
Henry thinks of: who eased his fearful way
from here, in here, to there. This wants thought.
I won't make it out.
Dream Song 20: The Secret of the Wisdom
© John Berryman
When worst got things, how was you? Steady on?
Wheedling, or shockt her &
you have been bad to your friend,
whom not you writing to. You have not listened.
A pelican of lies
you loosed: where are you?
The Call Of The Christian
© John Greenleaf Whittier
Not always as the whirlwind's rush
On Horeb's mount of fear,
Dream Song 4: Filling her compact & delicious body
© John Berryman
Filling her compact & delicious body
with chicken páprika, she glanced at me
twice.
Fainting with interest, I hungered back
and only the fact of her husband & four other people
kept me from springing on her
Dream Song 128: A hemorrhage of his left ear of Good Friday
© John Berryman
A hemorrhage of his left ear of Good Fridayâ
so help me Jesusâthen made funny too
the other, further one.
There must have been a bit. Sheets scrubbed away
soon all but three nails. Doctors in this city O
will not (his wife cried) come.
Genesis BK XIII
© Caedmon
The sleep of death and fiends' seduction; death and hell and
exile and damnation - these were the fatal fruit whereon they
feasted. And when the apple worked within him and touched his
heart, then laughed aloud the evilhearted fiend, capered about,
and gave thanks to his lord for both:
