Animal poems
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Five Visions of Captain Cook
© Kenneth Slessor
Two chronometers the captain had,
One by Arnold that ran like mad,
One by Kendal in a walnut case,
Poor devoted creature with a hangdog face.
Atlantic Oil
© Cesare Pavese
The drunk mechanic is happy to be in the ditch.
From the tavern, five minutes through the dark field
Balloon
© John Kinsella
It didn’t happen in that order—
the endless growl of what will turn out to be
Autumn Wealth
© Kristijonas Donelaitis
Of course, there is no lack of faithful Christians ,too.
Most of Lithuanians are men of good character;
They love their families, obey the will of God.
Each day live saintly lives, steer clear of all misdeeds,
And rule their modest homes with kind parental care.
My Little Lovelies
© Arthur Rimbaud
A tearful tincture washes
Cabbage-green skies;
Beneath the dribbling bushes
Your raincoats lie;
Aux champs
© Victor Marie Hugo
Je me penche attendri sur les bois et les eaux,
Rêveur, grand-père aussi des fleurs et des oiseaux ;
J'ai la pitié sacrée et profonde des choses ;
J'empêche les enfants de maltraiter les roses ;
Der Freischutz
© Madison Julius Cawein
He? why, a tall Franconian strong and young,
Brown as a walnut the first frost hath hulled;
In Country Sleep
© Dylan Thomas
Night and the reindeer on the clouds above the haycocks
And the wings of the great roc ribboned for the fair!
The leaping saga of prayer! And high, there, on the hare-
Heeled winds the rooks
Cawing from their black bethels soaring, the holy books
Of birds! Among the cocks like fire the red fox
Two Riddles. -- 1710
© Matthew Prior
Sphinx was a monster that would eat
Whatever stranger she could get,
Unless his ready wit disclosed
The subtile riddle she proposed.
Lovesong
© Ted Hughes
He loved her and she loved him.
His kisses sucked out her whole past and future or tried to
The Progress Of Refinement. Part I.
© Henry James Pye
Rous'd by those honors cull'd by Glory's hand
To dress the Victor on the Olympic sand,
With active toil each ardent stripling tries
To bind his forehead with the immortal prize;
Hence strength and beauty deck the Grecian race,
And manly labor gives them manly grace.
The Crossing by Ruth Moose: American Life in Poetry #135 Ted Kooser, U.S. Poet Laureate 2004-2006
© Ted Kooser
The road is wide
but he is called
by something
that knows him
on the other side.
American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation (www.poetryfoundation.org), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright �© 2004 by Ruth Moose, whose most recent book of poetry is âThe Sleepwalker,â? Main Street Rag, 2007. Reprinted from â75 Poems on Retirement,â? edited by Robin Chapman and Judith Strasser, published by University of Iowa Press, 2007, by permission of the author and publisher. Introduction copyright © 2009 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction's author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006. We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.
All For Herself; Shakey
© Eli Siegel
Darkly, between two worlds,
Darkly, impeded;
What it might joy at
Not seen as needed.
The Conversation In The Drawing Room
© Weldon Kees
That spot of blood on the drawing room wall,
No larger than a thumbnail when I looked a moment ago,
Is spreading, Cousin Agatha, and growing brighter.
Adam: A Sacred Drama. Act 5.
© William Cowper
Adam. Restrain, restrain thy step
Whoe'er thou art, nor with thy songs inveigle
Him, who has only cause for ceaseless tears.
It Was Winter
© Czeslaw Milosz
This is not a place where you sit under a café awning
On a marble piazza, watching the crowd,
Or play the flute at a window over a narrow street
While childrens sandals clatter in the vaulted entryway.
The Minstrel
© Arthur Henry Adams
An Incident in One Act.
PERSONS. THE KING, THE QUEEN, EARL ATHULF, THE MINSTREL.
Heralds, Pages, Men-at-Arms, Sentries. TIME: THE PAST.
SCENE:
