BACKGROUND POEMS

A Girl 7,449 Miles Away

At night the only thing that draws my attention is lights,
 streets', clubs', and skyscrapers'.

Because they are there,
.....

Lolita

In Praise Of Limestone

If it form the one landscape that we, the inconstant ones,
Are consistently homesick for, this is chiefly
Because it dissolves in water. Mark these rounded slopes
With their surface fragrance of thyme and, beneath,
.....

W. H. Auden

Undine

Spirit of Como, whose rhythmical call
Murmurs caressingly under my wall,
Why are thy feet, though the hour be late,
Mounting the moon-silvered steps of my gate?
.....

John L. Stoddard

The Learning Tree

a long caste fountain
into the background sky
singular in stature
in winds breeze wave
.....

Joseph Mayo Wristen

Advertisement For The Waldorf-astoria

Fine living . . . a la carte?
Come to the Waldorf-Astoria!

LISTEN HUNGRY ONES!
.....

Langston Hughes

Cragwell End

I

There's nothing I know of to make you spend
A day of your life at Cragwell End.
.....

R. C. Lehmann

Beauty

Even as on some black background full of night
And hollow storm in cloudy disarray,
The forceful brush of some great master may
More brilliantly evoke a higher light;
.....

Mathilde Blind

Address At The Opening Of The California Theatre, San Francisco, January 19, 1870

Brief words, when actions wait, are well:
The prompter's hand is on his bell;
The coming heroes, lovers, kings,
Are idly lounging at the wings;
.....

Bret Harte

Epilogue [english]

I
The sun, less hot, looks from a sky more clear;
The roses in their sleepy loveliness
Nod to the cradling wind. The atmosphere
.....

Paul Verlaine

God's Funeral

I
I saw a slowly-stepping train --
Lined on the brows, scoop-eyed and bent and hoar --
Following in files across a twilit plain
.....

Thomas Hardy

A Background In Music

and not just twangy tunes that rhyme southern drawls
with guitar strings, though it's true i knew charlie pride
before charlie parker, but music, music, music, broadway
numbers (one! . . .) broadcast over speakers in the park,
.....

Evie Shockley

Eurunderee

There are scenes in the distance where beauty is not,
On the desolate flats where gaunt appletrees rot.
Where the brooding old ridge rises up to the breeze
From his dark lonely gullies of stringy-bark trees,
.....

Henry Lawson

Culture And Cops

Five nights agone I lay at rest
On my suburban couch.
My trousers on the bedpost hung,
Red gold within their pouch.
.....

Clarence Michael James Stanislaus Dennis

A Face

If one could have that little head of hers
Painted upon a background of pure gold,
Such as the Tuscan's early art prefers!
No shade encroaching on the matchless mould
.....

Robert Browning

Zone

At last you're tired of this elderly world

Shepherdess O Eiffel Tower this morning the bridges are bleating

.....

Guillaume Apollinaire

A German Christmas Eve (prose)

A German Christmas Eve



.....

Michael Fairless

The Months: A Pageant

PERSONIFICATIONS.

Boys. Girls.
January. February.
.....

Christina Rossetti

Untitled :rosy Mirror

Rosy mirror: an ugly image

That appears in the black background,

.....

Georg Trakl

The Jewish Cemetery At Newport

How strange it seems! These Hebrews in their graves,
Close by the street of this fair seaport town,
Silent beside the never-silent waves,
At rest in all this moving up and down!
.....

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Scenes From “politian.”

AN UNPUBLISHED DRAMA.

I.

.....

Edgar Allan Poe

Pain's Purpose

How blind is he who prays that God will send
All pain from earth. Pain has its use and place;
Its ministry of holiness and grace.
The darker tones upon the canvas blend
.....

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

The Cranes Of Ibycus

Once to the song and chariot-fight,
Where all the tribes of Greece unite
On Corinth's isthmus joyously,
The god-loved Ibycus drew nigh.
.....

Friedrich Schiller

The Spagnoletto

DRAMATIS PERSONAE.
DON JOHN of AUSTRIA.
JOSEF RIBERA, the Spagnoletto.
LORENZO, noble young Italian artist, pupil of Ribera.
.....

Emma Lazarus

The Faithful One

So many play with you,
You play with the many,
But you never see me
There in the background,
.....

Franz Werfel

The Hunter In The Snow

The over-all picture is winter
icy mountains
in the background the return
from the hunt it is toward evening
.....

William Carlos Williams

Epitaph On A Disturber Of His Times

We expected the violin's finger on the upturned nerve;
Its importunate cry, too laxly curved:
And you drew us an oboe-outline, clean and acute;
Unadorned statement, accurately carved.
.....

Arthur Seymour John Tessimond

Hunters In The Snow

The over-all picture is winter
icy mountains
in the background the return
from the hunt it is toward evening
.....

William Carlos Williams

Portrait Of My Father As A Young Man

In the eyes: dream. The brow as if it could feel
something far off. Around the lips, a great
freshness--seductive, though there is no smile.
Under the rows of ornamental braid
.....

Rainer Maria Rilke

The Radiant Christ

I

Arise, O master artist of the age,
And paint the picture which at once shall be
.....

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

The Myth Of Arthur

O learned man who never learned to learn,
Save to deduce, by timid steps and small,
From towering smoke that fire can never burn
And from tall tales that men were never tall.
.....

G. K. Chesterton

This Is A Photograph Of Me

It was taken some time ago
At first it seems to be
a smeared
print: blurred lines and grey flecks
.....

Margaret Atwood

Scenes From 'politian.' (an Unpublished Drama)

I.

ROME., A Hall in a Palace. ALESSANDRA and CASTIGLIONE

.....

Edgar Allan Poe

Andrea Del Sarto - Called The "faultless Painter"

But do not let us quarrel any more,
No, my Lucrezia; bear with me for once:
Sit down and all shall happen as you wish.
You turn your face, but does it bring your heart?
.....

Robert Browning

The Postern Gate

I chose me a lovely garden,
Beneath whose ivied wall
A lake's blue wavelets murmur
As evening shadows fall,-
.....

John L. Stoddard

Arabesque

On a background of pale gold
I would trace with quaint design,
Penciled fine,
Brilliant-colored, Moorish scenes,
.....

Emma Lazarus

Grandeur

Dedicated to the mountains of the San Juan district,
Colorado, as seen from the summit of Mt. Wilson.


.....

Alfred Castner King

The Happiest Day

It was early May, I think
a moment of lilac or dogwood
when so many promises are made
it hardly matters if a few are broken.
.....

Linda Pastan

Magical Mystery Tour

I am in this low-slung sports car
painted a deep, rich yellow
driving under an Italian sun.
I have a British accent.
.....

Charles Bukowski

A Royal Princess

I, a princess, king-descended, decked with jewels, gilded, drest,
Would rather be a peasant with her baby at her breast,
For all I shine so like the sun, and am purple like the west.

.....

Christina Rossetti

As A Strong Bird On Pinious Free

AS a strong bird on pinions free,
Joyous, the amplest spaces heavenward cleaving,
Such be the thought I'd think to-day of thee, America,
Such be the recitative I'd bring to-day for thee.
.....

Walt Whitman

Beautiful Aberfoyle

The mountains and glens of Aberfoyle are beautiful to sight,
Likewise the rivers and lakes are sparkling and bright;
And its woods were frequented by the Lady of the Lake,
And on its Lakes many a sail in her boat she did take.
.....

William Topaz Mcgonagall

Unknown Country

Here, in this other world, they come and go
With easy dream-like movements to and fro.
They stare through lovely eyes, yet do not seek
An answering gaze, or that a man should speak.
.....

Harold Monro

I'm Still Just A Child

O Lord, tear me to pieces.
I'm still just a child.
And dare to sing
And call upon you
.....

Franz Werfel

To A Child

Dear child! how radiant on thy mother's knee,
With merry-making eyes and jocund smiles,
Thou gazest at the painted tiles,
Whose figures grace,
.....

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Part 3 Of Trout Fishing In America

SEA, SEA RIDER


The man who owned the bookstore was not magic. He was not a
.....

Richard Brautigan

At Eventide

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.....

John Greenleaf Whittier

Harbor Moonrise

There is never a wind to sing o'er the sea
On its dimpled bosom that holdeth in fee
Wealth of silver and magicry;
And the harbor is like to an ebon cup
.....

Lucy Maud Montgomery

A Brown Study

LET them sing of their primrose and cowslip,
Their daffodil-gold-coloured hair,
Their bluebells, blue eyes, and white violets,
All the pale dreamy things they find fair;
.....

Edith Nesbit

The Myth Of Arthur

O learned man who never learned to learn,
Save to deduce, by timid steps and small,
From towering smoke that fire can never burn
And from tall tales that men were never tall.
.....

Gilbert Keith Chesterton

Part 1 Of Trout Fishing In America

THE COVER FOR

TROUT FISHING IN AMERICA

.....

Richard Brautigan