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").
Two Centuries
Two centuries' winter storms have lashed the changing sands of Falmouth's shore,Deep-voiced, the winds, swift winged, wild, have echoed there the..
© Katharine Lee Bates
War Profits
THE horns of the moon are tippedWith pearl. Her lover, wooedBy charms and won, Endymion,Inherits quietude.White the gleamOf the dreamOn his eyes.The..
© Katharine Lee Bates
This Tattered Catechism
THIS tattered catechism weaves a spell,Invoking from the Long Ago a childWho deemed her fledgling soul so sin-defiledShe practised with a..
© Katharine Lee Bates
Wild Europe
WILD Europe, red with Woden's dreadful dew,On fire with Loki's hate, more savage thanBeasts that we shame by likening to man,Was it toward this the..
© Katharine Lee Bates
Playmates
SUMMER fervors slacken;Sumac torches dim;There's bronze upon the bracken;September has a whimFor carmine, pearl and amberTouches on her green;Busy..
© Katharine Lee Bates
Out Of Siberia
SHAKERAGS, cripples, gaunt and dazed,Prison-broken hosts on hosts,Torture-scarred and dungeon-crazed,Down the convict road they pour,More and more..
© Katharine Lee Bates
Lydd
For the Reunion of the Bates Family at Quincy, August 3, 1916FAR away on the sunny levelsWhere Kent lies drowsing beside the sea,Where over the..
© Katharine Lee Bates
Our President
GOD help him! Ay, and let us help him, too,Help him with our one hundred million mindsMolded to loyalty, so that he findsThe faith of the Republic..
© Katharine Lee Bates
To My Country
O dear my Country, beautiful and dear,Love cloth not darken sight.God looketh through Love's eyes, whose vision clearBeholds more flaws than keenest..
© Katharine Lee Bates
Man Overboard
YOUNG, the naked stoker who wentMad with the fires and leapt to the sea,Boyhood still in the voice that sentOne shrill cry back from..
© Katharine Lee Bates
Not Yet
NOT yet hath Nature, lovely colorist,Bestirred her from creative dream to flingSoft flame upon the woods, —nay, not to dipOne pleading maple-tipIn..
© Katharine Lee Bates
Jerusalem
AT last, at last the CrescentFalls back before the Cross.Great spirits, incandescentWith longing and with loss,Gleam from the clouds, crusadersWho..
© Katharine Lee Bates
My Lady Of Whims
(A medieval Spanish legend slanderously setting forth the utter unreason of woman.)ROMAQUIA sat and wept herLace mantilla full of tears.King Abit..
© Katharine Lee Bates
The Purple Thread
'The priests distributed various coloured silken threads to weave for the veil of the sanctuary; and it fell to Mary's lot to weave purple.'—The Book..
© Katharine Lee Bates
In A Northern Wood
FRAGRANT are the cedar-boughs stretching green and level,Feasting-halls where waxwings flit at their spicy revel,But O the pine, the questing pine..
© Katharine Lee Bates
The Falmouth Bell
Never was there lovelier townThan our Falmouth by the sea.Tender curves of sky look downOn her grace of knoll and lea.Sweet her nestled Mayflower..
© Katharine Lee Bates
The Horses
'Thus far 80,000 horses have been shipped from the United States to the European belligerents.'WHAT was our share in the sinning,That we must share..
© Katharine Lee Bates
Only Mules
'The submarine was quite within its rights in sinking the cargo of the Armenian,—1,422 mules valued at $191,400.'No matter; we are only mulesAnd slow..
© Katharine Lee Bates
New Roads
FAR road for words that rush,Arrowing space,Swifter than meteors flushStar-road in race.Wireless! Tireless, leaping the wave!Roger Bacon laughs in..
© Katharine Lee Bates
Mist
ON the mountain side they fashion,Those rifting shreds of storm,A figure of strange passion,A winged and sworded form.Majestic, wild, colossal,With..
© Katharine Lee Bates
Our First War-Christmas
HARD to wait for the postman's trampUp the snowy walk, for the hand that gropesDeep in his pack, while the children teaseFor the rainbow-ribboned..
© Katharine Lee Bates
Russia
WHAT sudden voice peals to the Caucasus,To Finland and the bitter Caspian,To those Siberian prisons whither manShall seek as to a shrine, that..
© Katharine Lee Bates
Spain
Across New England snowsFlash visions from afar,Lithe gipsies on their toesDancing to gay guitar;With gesture fierce, bizarre,They lilt some old..
© Katharine Lee Bates
To Heavy Hearts
HEAVY hearts, your jubileeDroops about the Christmas Tree.Sudden sighs cut off the laughter,For a haunting pain comes afterAll your gallant glee,—..
© Katharine Lee Bates
Three Steps
THREE steps there are our human life must climb.The first is Force.The savage struggled to it from the slimeAnd still it is our last, ashamed..
© Katharine Lee Bates