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").

The Ballad Of William Sycamore [1790-1871]

My father, he was a mountaineer,His fist was a knotty hammer;He was quick on his feet as a running deer,And he spoke with a Yankee stammer.My mother..

© Stephen Vincent Benet

1936

All night they marched, the infantrymen under pack,But the hands gripping the rifles were naked boneAnd the hollow pits of the eyes stared, vacant..

© Stephen Vincent Benet

Dedication

To W. R. B.And so, to you, who always werePerseus, D'Artagnan, LancelotTo me, I give these weedy rhymesIn memory of earlier times.Now all those..

© Stephen Vincent Benet

The Lover In Hell

Eternally the choking steam goes upFrom the black pools of seething oil. . . .How merryThose little devils are! They've stolen the pitchforkFrom Bel..

© Stephen Vincent Benet

American Names

I have fallen in love with American names,The sharp names that never get fat,The snakeskin-titles of mining-claims,The plumed war-bonnet of Medicine..

© Stephen Vincent Benet

Poor Devil!

Well, I was tired of life; the silly folk,The tiresome noises, all the common thingsI loved once, crushed me with an iron yoke.I longed for the cool..

© Stephen Vincent Benet

Army Of Northern Virginia

Army of Northern Virginia, army of legend,Who were your captains that you could trust them so surely?Who were your battle-flags?Call the shapes from..

© Stephen Vincent Benet

Before An Examination

The little letters dance across the page,Flaunt and retire, and trick the tired eyes;Sick of the strain, the glaring light, I riseYawning and..

© Stephen Vincent Benet

Difference

My mind’s a map. A mad sea-captain drew itUnder a flowing moon until he knew it;Winds with brass trumpets, puffy-cheeked as jugs,And states..

© Stephen Vincent Benet

Music

My friend went to the piano; spun the stoolA little higher; left his pipe to cool;Picked up a fat green volume from the chest;And propped it..

© Stephen Vincent Benet

Metropolitan Nightmare

I rained quite a lot, that spring. You woke in the morningAnd saw the sky still clouded, the streets still wet,But nobody noticed so much, except the..

© Stephen Vincent Benet

Dinner In A Quick Lunch Room

Soup should be heralded with a mellow horn,Blowing clear notes of gold against the stars;Strange entrees with a jangle of glass barsFantastically..

© Stephen Vincent Benet

Ghosts Of A Lunatic Asylum

Here, where men's eyes were empty and as brightAs the blank windows set in glaring brick,When the wind strengthens from the sea -- and nightDrops..

© Stephen Vincent Benet

May Morning

I lie stretched out upon the window-seatAnd doze, and read a page or two, and doze,And feel the air like water on me close,Great waves of sunny air..

© Stephen Vincent Benet

A Minor Poet

I am a shell. From me you shall not hearThe splendid tramplings of insistent drums,The orbed gold of the viol's voice that comes,Heavy with radiance..

© Stephen Vincent Benet

Going Back To School

The boat ploughed on. Now Alcatraz was pastAnd all the grey waves flamed to red againAt the dead sun's last glimmer. Far and vastThe Sausalito lights..

© Stephen Vincent Benet

Lonely Burial

There were not many at that lonely place,Where two scourged hills met in a little plain.The wind cried loud in gusts, then low again.Three pines..

© Stephen Vincent Benet

Love In Twilight

There is darkness behind the light -- and the pale light dripsCold on vague shapes and figures, that, half-seen loomLike the carven prows of proud..

© Stephen Vincent Benet

Elegy For An Enemy

(For G. H.)Say, does that stupid earthWhere they have laid her,Bind still her sullen mirth,Mirth which betrayed her?Do the lush grasses hold,Greenly..

© Stephen Vincent Benet

A Poem To His Magesty, Presented To The Lord Keeper. To The Right Hon. Sir John Somers, Lord Keeper

If yet your thoughts are loose from state affairs,Nor feel the burden of a kingdom's cares;If yet your time and actions are your own;Receive the..

© Joseph Addison

To Mr. Dryden

How long, great Poet, shall thy sacred laysProvoke our wonder, and transcend our praise?Can eneither injuries of time, or age,Damp thy poetic heat..

© Joseph Addison

An Ode For St. Cecilia's Day

I.Prepare the hallow'd strain, My Muse,Thy softest sounds and sweetest numbrs chuse;the bright Cecilia's praise rehearse,In warbling words,a nd..

© Joseph Addison

An Account Of The Greatest English Poets

Since, dearest Harry, you will needs requestA short account of all the Muse possest,That, down from Chaucer's days to Dryden's Times,Have spent their..

© Joseph Addison

Prologue To Steele's Tender Husband

In the first rise and infancy of farce,When fools were many, and when plays were scarceThe raw unpractis'd authors could, with ease,A young and..

© Joseph Addison

When All Thy Mercies, O My God

When all Thy mercies, O my God,My rising soul surveys,Transported with the view, I’m lostIn wonder, love and praise.Thy Providence my life..

© Joseph Addison