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").
Father Gerard Hopkins, S. J.
Why didst thou carve thy speech laboriously,And match and blend thy words with curious art?For Song, one saith, is but a human heartSpeaking aloud..
© Alfred Joyce Kilmer
Folly
(For A. K. K.)What distant mountains thrill and glowBeneath our Lady Folly's tread?Why has she left us, wise in woe,Shrewd, practical, uncomforted?We..
© Alfred Joyce Kilmer
A Blue Valentine
(For Aline)Monsignore,Right Reverend Bishop Valentinus,Sometime of Interamna, which is called Ferni,Now of the delightful Court of Heaven,I..
© Alfred Joyce Kilmer
Mount Houvenkopf
Serene he stands, with mist serenely crowned,And draws a cloak of trees about his breast.The thunder roars but cannot break his restAnd from his..
© Alfred Joyce Kilmer
Mid-Ocean In War-Time
The fragile splendour of the level sea,The moon's serene and silver-veiled face,Make of this vessel an enchanted placeFull of white mirth and golden..
© Alfred Joyce Kilmer
Martin
When I am tired of earnest men,Intense and keen and sharp and clever,Pursuing fame with brush or penOr counting metal disks forever,Then from the..
© Alfred Joyce Kilmer
Main Street
(For S.M.L.)I like to look at the blossomy track of the moon upon the sea,But it isn't half so fine a sight as Main Street used to beWhen it all was..
© Alfred Joyce Kilmer
Multiplication
I take my leave, with sorrow, of Him I love so well;I look my last upon His small and radiant prison-cell;O happy lamp! to serve Him with never..
© Alfred Joyce Kilmer
Apology
For blows on the fort of evilThat never shows a breach,For terrible life-long racesTo a goal no foot can reach,For reckless leaps into darknessWith..
© Alfred Joyce Kilmer
Ballade Of My Lady's Beauty
Squire Adam had two wives, they say,Two wives had he, for his delight,He kissed and clypt them all the dayAnd clypt and kissed them all the night.Now..
© Alfred Joyce Kilmer
As Winds That Blow Against A Star
(For Aline)Now by what whim of wanton chanceDo radiant eyes know sombre days?And feet that shod in light should danceWalk weary and laborious..
© Alfred Joyce Kilmer
Houses
When you shall die and to the skySerenely, delicately go,Saint Peter, when he sees you there,Will clash his keys and say:'Now talk to her, Sir..
© Alfred Joyce Kilmer
Memorial Day
The bugle echoes shrill and sweet,But not of war it sings today.The road is rhythmic with the feetOf men-at-arms who come to pray.The rose blossoms..
© Alfred Joyce Kilmer
Yorick
Hard by an excavated street one satIn solitary session on the sand;And ever and anon he spake and spatAnd spake again-a yellow skull in hand,To which..
© Ambrose Bierce
Ye Idyll Of Ye Hippopopotamus
With a Methodist hymn in his musical throat,The Sun was emitting his ultimate note;His quivering larynx enwrinkled the seaLike an Ichthyosaurian..
© Ambrose Bierce
Y'E Foe To Cathaye
O never an oathe sweares he,And never a pig-taile jerkes;With a brick-batte he ne lurkesFor to buste y'e crust, perdie,Of y'e man from over..
© Ambrose Bierce
Woman In Politics
What, madam, run for School Director? You?And want my vote and influence? Well, well,That beats me! Gad! where _are_ we drifting to?In all my life I..
© Ambrose Bierce
With Mine Own Petard
Time was the local poets sang their songsBeneath their breath in terror of the thongsI snapped about their shins. Though mild the strokeBards, like..
© Ambrose Bierce
With A Book
Words shouting, singing, smiling, frowning--Sense lacking.Ah, nothing, more obscure than Browning,Save blacki
© Ambrose Bierce
Weather
Once I dipt into the future far as human eye could see,And I saw the Chief Forecaster, dead as any one can be--Dead and damned and shut in Hades as a..
© Ambrose Bierce
Visions Of Sin
KRASLAJORSK, SIBERIA, March 29.'My eyes are better, and I shall travel slowly toward home.'DANENHOWER.From the regions of the Night,Coming with..
© Ambrose Bierce
Vice Versa
Down in the state of Maine, the story goes,A woman, to secure a lapsing pension,Married a soldier-though the good Lord knowsThat very common act..
© Ambrose Bierce
Vanished At Cock-Crow
'I've found the secret of your charm,' I said,Expounding with complacency my guess.Alas! the charm, even as I named it, fled,For all its secret was..
© Ambrose Bierce
Unexpounded
On Evidence, on Deeds, on Bills,On Copyhold, on Loans, on Wills,Lawyers great books indite;The creaking of their busy quillsI've never heard on Right.
© Ambrose Bierce
Uncoloneled
Though war-signs fail in time of peace, they say,Two awful portents gloom the public mind:All Mexico is arming for the frayAnd Colonel Mark McDonald..
© Ambrose Bierce