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").
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
Psalm 23 : The Lord My Pasture Shall Prepare
The Lord my pasture shall prepareAnd feed me with a shepherd's care;His presence shall my wants supplyAnd guard me with a watchful eye;My noonday..
© Joseph Addison
The Spacious Firmament
The Spacious Firmament on high,With all the blue Ethereal Sky,And spangled Heav'ns, a Shining Frame,Their great Original proclaim:Th' unwearied Sun..
© Joseph Addison
A Song For St. Cecilia's Day, At Oxford
I.Cecilia, whose exalted hymnsWith joy and wonder fill the blest,In choirs of warbling seraphimsKnown and distinguish'd fom the rest;Attend..
© Joseph Addison
Spacious Firmament On High, The
The spacious firmament on high,With all the blue ethereal sky,And spangled heavens, a shining frameTheir great Original proclaim.Th’unwearied sun..
© Joseph Addison
The Spacious Firmament On High
The Spacious Firmament on high,With all the blue Ethereal Sky,And spangled Heav'ns, a Shining Frame,Their great Original proclaim:Th' unwearied Sun..
© Joseph Addison