|
Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Searching... Author: LOWELL, ROBERT Matches Found: 326 Lowell, Robert Poet's Biography 317 poems available by this author #################################################################################################### First Line: Where two or three were flung together, or fifty Last Line: That helped me stagger to my feet, and flee Subject(s): Social Protest; Vietnamese Conflict, 1961-1975 1930S First Line: After my marriage, I found myself in constant Last Line: A genius temperament should be handled with care 1930S First Line: The circular moon saw-wheels through the oak grove Last Line: We can have faith, at least, the hand decayed 1930S First Line: Humble in victory, chivalrous in defeat Last Line: Two burnt-out, pinhead, black and popping eyes 1930S First Line: My legs hinge on my foreshortened bathtub Last Line: Mists my windshield, soothes the eye with milk 1930S First Line: The boys come, each year more gallant, playing chicken Last Line: Clinging to a thistle, too clean to mate 1930S First Line: Shake of the electric fan above our village Last Line: Stiff, a broken clamshell labeled man 1930S First Line: The vaporish closeness of this two-month fog Last Line: Gone like the summer in their yellow bus ABRAHAM LINCOLN First Line: All day I bang and bang at you in thought Last Line: And the squealing pig darts sidewise from his foot AFTER THE CONVENTION First Line: Life, hope, they conquer death, generally, always AFTER THE SURPRISING CONVERSIONS Poem Text First Line: September twenty-second, sir: today / I answer Subject(s): Edwards, Jonathan (1703-1758); Revivals; Suicide; Religious Revivals AFTER THE SURPRISING CONVERSIONS First Line: September twenty-second, sir: today %I answer Last Line: Cracks with unpicked apples, and at dawn %the small-mouth bass breaks water, gorged with spawn Subject(s): Edwards, Jonathan (1703-1758); Revivals; Suicide ALEXANDER First Line: His sweet moist eye missed nothing -- the vague guerrilla Last Line: In this life only is our hope in christ ALFRED CORNING CLARK (1916-1961) Poem Text First Line: You read the new york times Subject(s): Clark, Alfred Corning (1916-1961); Friendship; New York Times (newspaper) ALFRED CORNING CLARK (1916-1961) First Line: You read the new york times Last Line: Motionless %as a lizard in the sun Subject(s): Clark, Alfred Corning (1916-1961); Friendship; New York Times (newspaper) ANGLING First Line: Withdrawn to a third your size, and frowning doubts Last Line: I am swallowed up alive - I am ANNE DICK 1. 1936 First Line: Father's letter to your father said Last Line: Idling in the station wagon, no retreat ANNE DICK 2. 1936 First Line: Longer ago than I had lived till then Last Line: Turning the word forgiveness to a sword ARTIST'S MODEL First Line: If it were done, twere well it were done quickly Last Line: I come on walking off-stage backwards AS A PLANE TREE BY THE WATER Poem Text First Line: Darkness has called to darkness, and disgrace Subject(s): Decay; Rot; Decadence AS A PLANE TREE BY THE WATER First Line: Darkness has called to darkness, and disgrace Last Line: Sing for the resurrection of the king. %flies, flies are on the plane tree, on the streets Subject(s): Decay AT THE INDIAN KILLER'S GRAVE First Line: Behind king's chapel what the earth has kept Last Line: As through the trellis peers the sunken bridegroom ATTILA, HITLER First Line: Hitler had fingertips of apprehension Last Line: Old tins, dead vermin, ashes, eggshells, youth BEETHOVEN First Line: Our cookbook is bound like whitman's leaves of grass Last Line: For a good voice hearing is a torture BETWEEN THE PORCH AND THE ALTAR: 1. MOTHER AND SON First Line: Meeting his mother makes him lose ten years Last Line: A little golden snake that mouths a hook BETWEEN THE PORCH AND THE ALTAR: 2. ADAM AND EVE First Line: The farmer sizzles on his shaft all day Last Line: Scales glitter on our bodies as we fall. %the farmer melts upon his pedestal BETWEEN THE PORCH AND THE ALTAR: 3. KATHERINE'S DREAM First Line: It must have been a friday Last Line: Against a padlocked bulkhead in a yard %where faces redden and the snow is hard BETWEEN THE PORCH AND THE ALTAR: 4. AT THE ALTAR First Line: I sit at a gold table with my girl Last Line: He watches me for mother, and will turn %the bier and baby-carriage where I burn BEYOND THE ALPS (ON THE TRAIN FROM ROME TO PARIS, 1950) First Line: Reading how even the swiss had thrown the sponge Last Line: Now paris, our black classic, breaking up %like killer king s on an etruscan cup BLESSED VIRGIN AND THE INFANT JESUS First Line: Say, o sweet mary, with how much desire Last Line: Must place in my good jesus all desire BOBBY DELANO First Line: The labor to breathe that younger, rawer air Last Line: Odious, unknowable, inspired as ajax BOOK OF WISDOM First Line: Can I go on loving anyone at fifty Last Line: Hymns of the terrible organ in decay Subject(s): Bible; Religion BOSWORTH FIELD First Line: In a minute, two inches of rain stream through my dry Last Line: Saying: it's better to have lived, than live BRINGING A TURTLE HOME First Line: On the road to bangor, we spotted a domed stone Last Line: Sandpaper turtle, scratching your pail for water BUENOS AIRES First Line: In my room at the hotel continental Last Line: With frowning, starch-collared crowds CADET-PICTURE OF RILKE'S FATHER First Line: There's absence in the eyes. The brow's in touch Last Line: In my more slowly disappearing hand CARELESS NIGHT First Line: So country-alone, and o so very friendly Last Line: And each morning waking up glad we wake CHARLES RIVER: 1 First Line: The sycamores throw shadows on the charles Last Line: Infinite small stars would break like fish Subject(s): Rivers CHARLES THE FIFTH AND THE PEASANT Poem Text First Line: Elected kaiser, burgher and a knight Last Line: His ark drown in the deluge of the king Subject(s): Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (155-1558) CHARLES THE FIFTH AND THE PEASANT First Line: Elected kaiser, burgher and a knight Last Line: Against a bucket, rocks and never hears %his ark drown in the deluge of the king Subject(s): Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (155-1558) CHARLES V BY TITIAN First Line: But we cannot go back to charles v Last Line: And carried enemies with him in a cage CHILD'S SONG Poem Text First Line: My cheap toy lamp Subject(s): Children; Childhood CHILD'S SONG First Line: My cheap toy lamp Last Line: Sometimes the little muddler %can't stand itself CHILDREN OF LIGHT First Line: Our fathers wrung their bread from stocks and stones Last Line: Abd light is where the landless blood of cain %is burning, burning the unburied grain CHRISTMAS First Line: The tedium and deja-vu of home Last Line: Swims the true shark, the shadow of departure CHRISTMAS First Line: All too often now your voice is too bright Last Line: Because I waiver, am counted with the living CHRISTMAS EVE UNDER HOOKER'S STATUE Poem Text First Line: Tonight a blackout. Twenty years ago Subject(s): Christmas; Nativity, The CHRISTMAS EVE UNDER HOOKER'S STATUE First Line: Tonight a blackout. Twenty years ago Last Line: Till christ again turn wanderer and child Subject(s): Christmas CHRISTMAS TREE First Line: Twenty or more big cloth roses, pale rose or scarlet Last Line: Because I lacked ambition, men thought me mad CICERO, THE SACRIFICIAL KILLING First Line: It's somewhere, somewhere, thought beats stupidly Last Line: If infirmity has a color, it isn't yellow COLERIDGE First Line: Coleridge stands, he flamed for the one friend Last Line: Power without strength, an involuntary imposter COLERIDGE AND RICHARD II First Line: Coleridge wasn't flatter-blinded by Last Line: The one poet who blamed his failure on himself COLLOQUY IN BLACK ROCK Poem Text First Line: Here the jack-hammer jabs into the ocean; Subject(s): Mud; Redligion; Martyrs COLLOQUY IN BLACK ROCK First Line: Here the jack-hammer jabs into the ocean Last Line: The blue kingfisher dives on you in fire COUPLE First Line: Twice in the past two weeks I think I met Last Line: We were talking like sisters - you did not exist DAMES DU TEMPS JADIS First Line: Say in what country, where Last Line: Where, mother of god, is last year's snow DANTE 3. BUONCONTE First Line: No one prays for me - giovanna or the others Last Line: And loosened my arms I'd folded like the cross DAS EWIG WEIBLICHE First Line: Birds have a finer body and tinier brain Last Line: My wife in her wooden crib of seed and feed DEAD IN EUROPE First Line: After the planes unloaded, we fell down Last Line: O mary, marry earth, sea, air, and fire; %our sacred earth in our day is our curse Subject(s): World War Ii DEAR SORROW First Line: We never see him now, except at dinner Last Line: Fired by my second alcohol, remorse DEATH AND THE BRIDGE; FROM A LANDSCAPE BY FRANK PARKER First Line: Death gallops up the bridge of red railties and girder Last Line: God's ways are dark and very seldom pleasant DEATH OF ALEXANDER First Line: The young man's numinous eye is like the sun Last Line: He alone had the greatness of heart to repent DEATH OF ANNE BOLEYN First Line: Summer hail flings crystals on the window Last Line: The scene was open to any englishman DEATH OF COUNT ROLAND First Line: King marsilius of saragossa Last Line: On the green grass, he has fallen back, has fainted DEATH OF THE SHERIFF (NOLI ME TANGERE) First Line: We park and stare. A full sky of the stars Last Line: The thirsty dipper on the arc of night DOLPHIN Poem Text First Line: My dolphin, you only guide me by surprise Subject(s): Racine, Jean (1639-1699); Conduct Of Life DOLPHIN First Line: My dolphin, you only guide me by surprise Last Line: My eyes have seen what my hand did DOUBLE VISION First Line: I tie a second necktie over the first Last Line: Where is caroline? And you are caroline DOWN THE NILE First Line: Two in the afternoon. The restlessness Last Line: We aging downstream faster than a scepter can check DRINKER First Line: The man is killing time -- there's nothing else Last Line: Their oilskins yellow as forsythia DRUNKEN FISHERMAN First Line: Wallowing in this bloody sty Last Line: My bloodstream to its stygian term - %on water the man-fisher walks Subject(s): Fishing And Fishermen DUNBARTON First Line: When uncle devereux died %daddy was still on sea-duty in the pacific Last Line: My grandfather found %his grandchild's fogbound solitudes sweeter than human society EIGHT MONTHS LATER: 1. EIGHT MONTHS LATER First Line: The flower I took away and wither and fear Last Line: Who will live the year back, cat on the ladder EIGHT MONTHS LATER: 2. DIE GOLD ORANGEN First Line: I see the country where the lemon blossoms Last Line: And steams out the footprints that led us on ELIZABETH First Line: An unaccustomed ripeness in the wood Last Line: But to be old, do nothing, type and think Subject(s): Love END OF A YEAR First Line: These conquered kings pass furiously away Last Line: Bright sky, bright sky, carbon scarred with ciphers END OF CAMP ALAMOOSOOK (HARRIET) First Line: Less than a score, the dregs of the last day Last Line: Singing 'do we love it? We love it' EPILOGUE Poem Text First Line: Those blessed structures, plot and rhyme Subject(s): Poetry & Poets EPILOGUE First Line: Those blessed structures, plot and rhyme Last Line: Each figure in the photograph %his living name Subject(s): Poetry And Poets EXILE'S RETURN First Line: There mounts in squalls a sort of rusty mire Last Line: Voi ch' entrate, and your life is in your hands EYE AND TOOTH Poem Text First Line: My whole eye was sunset red Subject(s): Sight EYE AND TOOTH First Line: My whole eye was sunset red Subject(s): Sight EZRA POUND Poem Text First Line: Horizontal in a deckchair on the bleak ward Subject(s): Poetry & Poets; Pound, Ezra (1885-1972) EZRA POUND First Line: Horizontal in a deckchair on the bleak ward Last Line: You, 'I began with a swelled head and end with swelled feet' Subject(s): Poetry And Poets; Pound, Ezra (1885-1972) FALL 1961 Poem Text First Line: Back and forth, back and forth Subject(s): War FALL 1961 First Line: Back and forth, back and forth Last Line: Is the orange and black %oriole's swinging nest! Subject(s): War FALL WEEKEND AT MILGATE First Line: The day says nothing, and lacks for nothing - god Last Line: Or, by losing legs and wings, take flight FALLING ASLEEP OVER THE AENEID Poem Text First Line: The sun is blue and scarlet on my page, Subject(s): Reading; Mythology; Dreams; Funerals; Poetry & Poets; Nightmares; Burials FALLING ASLEEP OVER THE AENEID First Line: The sun is blue and scarlet on my page Last Line: It scowls into my glasses at itself FAT MAN IN THE MIRROR First Line: What's filling up the mirror? O, it is not I Last Line: Bursts the mirror. O, it is not I FATHER First Line: There was rebellion, father, and the door was slammed Last Line: As far from us as her young breasts will stretch FATHER IN A DREAM First Line: We were at the faculty dining table Last Line: You answered, 'doesn't love begin at the beginning?' FATHER'S BEDROOM First Line: In my father's bedroom Last Line: Porthole in a storm Variant Title(s): Life Studies: Father's Bedroo FIRST LOVE First Line: Two grades above me, though two inches shorter Last Line: The mania for phrases enlarged his heart FIRST THINGS First Line: Worse things could happen, life is insecure Last Line: The irregular and certain flight to art FISHNET First Line: Any clear thing that blinds us with surprise Last Line: Nailed like illegible bronze on the futureless future FLAW First Line: A seal swims like a poodle through the sheet Last Line: How will you hear my answer in the dark FLIGHT First Line: If I cannot love myself, can lyou Last Line: The runway growing wintry and distinct FLORENCE First Line: I long for the black ink Last Line: Like a lantern in the victor's hand FLOUNDER First Line: In a day we pass from the northern lights Last Line: At sea, they bite like fleas whatever we toss FOR AUNT SARAH First Line: You never had the constitution to quarrel Last Line: Wish to stand in our shoes before we've left them FOR EUGENE MCCARTHY First Line: I love you so - gone? Who will swear you wouldn't Last Line: To smash the ball past those who bought the park FOR GEORGE SANTAYANA (1863-1952) Poem Text First Line: In the heydays of forty-five Subject(s): Santayana, George (1863-1952) FOR GEORGE SANTAYANA (1863-1952) First Line: In the heydays of forty-five Last Line: Refined by bile as yellow as a lump of gold Subject(s): Santayana, George (1863-1952) FOR JOHN BERRYMAN, 1 First Line: I feel I know what you have worked through, you Last Line: Abraham sired with less expectancy, %heaven his friend, the earth his follower FOR ROBERT KENNEDY 1925-68 First Line: Here in my workroom, in its listlessness Last Line: Forever approaching your maturity FOR SALE First Line: Poor sheepish plaything Last Line: As if she had stayed on a train %one stop past her destination Variant Title(s): Life Studies: For Sal FOR SHERIDAN First Line: We only live between %before we are and what we were Last Line: And must be done better FOR THE UNION DEAD Poem Text Recitation First Line: The old south boston aquarium stands Variant Title(s): Colonel Shaw And The Massachusetts 54 Subject(s): African Americans - Military; American Civil War; Boston; Duty; Heroism; Massachusetts; Monuments; Racism; Saint-gaudens, Augustus (1848-1907); Shaw, Robert Gould (1847-1863); Soldiers; United States - History; Heroes; Heroines; Racial Prejudice; Bigotry FOR THE UNION DEAD First Line: The old south boston aquarium stands Last Line: A savage servility %slides by on grease Variant Title(s): Colonel Shaw And The Massachusetts 5 Subject(s): African Americans - Military; American Civil War; Boston; Duty; Heroism; Massachusetts; Monuments; Racism; Saint-gaudens, Augustus (1848-1907); Shaw, Robert Gould (1847-1863); Soldiers; U.s. - History FORD MADDOX FORD (1873-1939) Poem Text First Line: The lobbed ball plops, then dribbles to the cup Subject(s): Ford, Ford Madox (1873-1939) FORD MADDOX FORD (1873-1939) First Line: The lobbed ball plops, then dribbles to the cup Last Line: Your lies that made the great your equals. Ford, %you were a kind man and you died in want Subject(s): Ford, Ford Madox (1873-1939) FOXFUR First Line: I met ivan in a marvelous foxfur coat Last Line: More when I do. Nothing new to say GRADUATE (ELIZABETH) First Line: Transylvania's greek revival chapel Last Line: Though your wind was short, and you stopped smoking GROWTH (HARRIET) First Line: I'm talking the whole idea of life, and boys Last Line: On the telephone, they say, 'we're tired, aren't you?' HARD WAY (HARRIET) First Line: Don't hate your parents, or your children will hire Last Line: The ice is broken by another wave HARRIET First Line: Half a year, then a year and a half, then Last Line: A face, clock-white, still friendly to the earth HARRIET (1) First Line: Spring moved to summer - the rude cold rain Last Line: To yourself, more dangerous to others? Variant Title(s): Harrie HARRIET (2) First Line: A repeating fly, blueback, thumbthick - so gross Subject(s): Flies HARRIET (2) First Line: A repeating fly, blueback, thumbthick - so gross Last Line: Under the carpet, wrinkling to fulfillment Subject(s): Flies HARRIET'S DREAM First Line: The broom trees twirped by our rosewood bungalow Last Line: To answer if I had ever hurt HAWTHORNE First Line: Follow its lazy main street lounging Last Line: From meditation on the true %and insignificant HER DEAD BROTHER First Line: The lion of st. Mark's upon the glass HISTORY Poem Text First Line: History has to live with what was here Subject(s): History; Historians HISTORY First Line: History has to live with what was here Last Line: Drenched with the silver salvage of the mornfrost HOLY INNOCENTS First Line: Listen, the hay-bells tinkle as the cart Last Line: Lamb of the shepherds, child, how still you lie Subject(s): Christmas HOME AFTER THREE MONTHS AWAY Poem Text First Line: Gone now the baby's nurse Variant Title(s): Life Studies: Home After Three Months Away Subject(s): Fathers & Daughters HOME AFTER THREE MONTHS AWAY First Line: Gone now the baby's nurse Last Line: I keep no rank nor station. %cured, I am frizzled, stale and small Variant Title(s): Life Studies: Home After Three Months Awa Subject(s): Fathers And Daughters HOMECOMING Poem Text First Line: What was is...Since 1930 Subject(s): Relationships HOMECOMING First Line: What was it since 1930 IN MEMORY OF ARTHUR WINSLOW: 1. DEATH FROM CANCER Poem Text First Line: This easter, arthur winslow, less than dead Subject(s): Cancer (disease) IN MEMORY OF ARTHUR WINSLOW: 1. DEATH FROM CANCER First Line: This easter, arthur winslow, less than dead Last Line: Where the wide waters and their voyager are one Subject(s): Cancer (disease) IN MEMORY OF ARTHUR WINSLOW: 2. DUNBARTON First Line: The stones are yellow and the grass is gray Last Line: Their sunken landmarks echo what our fathers preached IN MEMORY OF ARTHUR WINSLOW: 3. FIVE YEARS LATER First Line: This easter, arthur winslow, five years gone Last Line: Could give back life to men who whipped or backed the king? IN MEMORY OF ARTHUR WINSLOW: 4. A PRAYER FOR MY GRANDFATHER First Line: Mother, for these three hundred years or more Last Line: Mother, run to the chalice, and bring back %blood on your finger-tips for lazarus who was poor IN THE CAGE First Line: The lifers file into the hall Last Line: The yellow chirper, beaks its cage IN THE MAIL First Line: Planes, trains, lorries simmer through the garden Last Line: And has your familiar human aspect munching IN THE WARD First Line: Ten years older in an hour INAUGURATION DAY: JANUARY 1953 Poem Text First Line: The snow had buried stuyvesant Subject(s): Elections; Presidents, United States; Stevenson, Adlai (1900-1965); Voting; Voters; Suffrage INAUGURATION DAY: JANUARY 1953 First Line: The snow had buried stuyvesant Last Line: The mausoleum in her heart Subject(s): Elections; Presidents, United States; Stevenson, Adlai (1900-1965) INFINITE First Line: That hill pushed off by itself was always dear Last Line: It is sweet to destroy my mind, and drown in this sea IT DID First Line: Luck, we've had it; our character the public's IVANA First Line: Small-soul-pleasing, loved with condescension Last Line: And lifelong wonder what was the perfect age JOINVILLE AND LOUIS IX First Line: Given my pilgrim's scarf and staff, I left Last Line: If I should leave jerusalem, who will remain JONATHAN EDWARDS IN WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS Poem Text First Line: Edwards' great millstone and rock Subject(s): Edwards, Jonathan (1703-1758)' Hope; Faith; Belief; Creed JONATHAN EDWARDS IN WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS First Line: Edwards' great millstone and rock Last Line: That have swallowed up my mind JULY IN WASHINGTON Poem Text Subject(s): Washington, D.c.; Politics & Government; Summer JULY IN WASHINGTON First Line: The stiff spokes of this wheel %touch the sore spots of the earth Last Line: We no longer control could drag us back LADY RALEGH'S LAMENT Poem Text First Line: Sir walter, oh, oh, my own sir walter -- Subject(s): Raleigh, Sir Walter (1552-1618) LADY RALEGH'S LAMENT First Line: Sir walter, oh, oh, my own sir walter -- Last Line: Down and down; the compass needle dead on terror Subject(s): Raleigh, Sir Walter (1552-1618) LAST THINGS, BLACK PINES AT 4 A.M. First Line: Imperfect enough once for all at thirty Last Line: Valery %and trollope the huntsman are happ to drop out LATE SUMMER AT MILGATE First Line: An air of lateness blows through the redone bedroom Last Line: Stays green through new year -- I, my wife, our children LEAF-LACE DRESS First Line: Leaf-lace, a simple intricate design Last Line: My feet off, be asleep with you - asleep and young LEFT OUT OF VACATION First Line: Some fathers may have some consideration Last Line: Forever rehearsing for the perfect comeback LESSON First Line: No longer to lie reading tess of the d'urbervilles Last Line: The same thorn hurts. The leaf repeats the lesson LIFE STUDIES: COMMANDER LOWELL First Line: There were no undesirables or girls in my set Last Line: He was 'the old man' of a gunboat on the yangtze LIFE STUDIES: DUNBARTON First Line: My grandfather found Last Line: While he scouted about the chattering greenwood stove LIFE STUDIES: DURING FEVER First Line: All night the crib creaks Last Line: Still had her freudian papa and maids LIFE STUDIES: GRANDPARENTS First Line: They're altogether otherworldly now Last Line: Mustaches on the last russian czar LONG SUMMER First Line: At dawn, the crisp goodbye of friends; at night Last Line: Hurt when he kicked aside the last dead bottle LONG SUMMERS First Line: Up north here, in my own country, and free Last Line: One model, dynasties of faithless copies LONG SUMMERS First Line: Two in the afternoon. The restlessness Last Line: I never thought scorn of things; struck fear in no man LONG SUMMERS First Line: Months of it, and the inarticulate mist so thick Last Line: Stop, bury the runner on the cleated field LOST FISH First Line: My heavy step is treacherous in the shallows Last Line: The mud we stirred sinks in the lap of plenty LOST TUNE First Line: As I grow older, I must admit with terror Last Line: And his singer left the greenroom with her voice MAD NEGRO SOLDIER CONFINED AT MUNICH First Line: We're all americans, except the doc Last Line: Each subnormal boot- %black heart is pulsing to its ant-egg dole MAN AND WIFE Poem Text First Line: Tamed by miltown, we lie on mother's bed Variant Title(s): Life Studies: Man And Wife Subject(s): Marriage; Weddings; Husbands; Wives MAN AND WIFE First Line: Tamed by miltown, we lie on mother's bed Last Line: Breaks like the atlantic ocean on my head Variant Title(s): Life Studies: Man And Wif Subject(s): Marriage MAN AND WOMAN First Line: The sheep start galloping in moon-blind wheels Last Line: With my wife -- your slow pulse, my outrageous eye MARCH I; FOR DWIGHT MACDONALD First Line: Under the too white marmoreal lincoln memorial Last Line: His new-fangled rifle, his green new steel helmet Subject(s): Social Protest; Vietnamese Conflict, 1961-1975 MARCUS CATO 234-149 B.C. First Line: My live telephone swings crippled to solitude Last Line: Rome, if built at all, must be built in a day MARCUS CATO 95-42 B.C. First Line: As a boy he was brought to sulla's villa, the tombs Last Line: One roman who died, perhaps, for rome MARGARET FULLER DROWNED First Line: You had everything to rattle the men who wrote Last Line: The life, the life, o my god, will life never be sweet MARLOWE First Line: Vain surety of man's mind so near to death Last Line: My plays are stamped in bronze, my life in tabloid MARY STUART First Line: They ran for their lives up nightslope, gained the car Last Line: The bloodiest hands were joined and took no blood MARY WINSLOW First Line: Her irish maids could never spoon out mush Last Line: Come, mary winslow, come; I bell thee home' MEMORIES OF WEST STREET AND LEPKE Poem Text First Line: Only teaching on tuesdays, book-worming Variant Title(s): Life Studies: Memories Of West Street And Lepke Subject(s): Boston; Conscientious Objectors; Lepke, Louis (1897-1944); Prisons & Prisoners; World War Ii; Convicts; Second World War MEMORIES OF WEST STREET AND LEPKE First Line: Only teaching on tuesdays, book-worming Last Line: Hanging like an oasis in his air %of lost connections Variant Title(s): Life Studies: Memories Of West Street And Lepk Subject(s): Boston; Conscientious Objectors; Lepke, Louis (1897-1944); Prisons And Prisoners; World War Ii MERMAID First Line: I have learned what I wanted from the mermaid Last Line: Like god, I almost doubt if you exist MERMAID EMERGING First Line: The institutions of society Last Line: Tough-weather fish, who cuts your nets and chains MEXICO: 1 First Line: The difficulties, the impossibilites Last Line: The hand a knife-edge pressed against the future MEXICO: 10 First Line: Poor child, you were kissed so much you thought you were Last Line: Short of turning into a criminal MEXICO: 3 First Line: The lizard rusty as a leaf rubbed rough Last Line: Till the spaniards, by reflex, finished them MEXICO: 4 First Line: South of boston, south of washington Last Line: What is history? What you cannot touch MEXICO: 5 First Line: Midwinter in cuernavaca, tall red flowers Last Line: Each minute of the hour, each second of the minute MEXICO: 6 First Line: As if we chewed dry twigs and salt grasses Last Line: Devotion hikes uphill in iron shoes MEXICO: 7 First Line: We're knotted together in innocence and guile Last Line: To face the poverty all men must face at the hour of death MEXICO: 8 First Line: Three pillows, end on end, rolled in a daybed Last Line: The soul groans and laughs at its lack of stature MEXICO: 9 First Line: No artist perhaps, you go beyond their phrases Last Line: Feeding our minds - the mind which is also flesh MIDDLE AGE First Line: Now the midwinter grind Last Line: Where I must walk MILLS OF THE KAVANAUGHS First Line: The heron warps its neck, a broken pick Last Line: Whatever brought me gladness to the grave MOHAMMED First Line: Like henry viii, mohammed got religion Last Line: As the thirsty frog desires the rain MOTHER AND FATHER: 1 First Line: If the clock had stopped in 1936 Last Line: Coronary - never to be effaced MOTHER AND FATHER: 2 First Line: This glorious oversleeping half through sunday Last Line: By them once, given existence now by me MOTHER MARIE THERESE First Line: Old sisters at our maris stella house Last Line: My mother's hollow sockets fill with tears MOTHER, 1972 First Line: More than once taking both roads one night Last Line: To keep me safe a generation after your death MOUTH OF THE HUDSON First Line: A single man stands like a bird-watcher Last Line: Of the unforgivable landscape Subject(s): Americans; United States MR. EDWARDS AND THE SPIDER Poem Text Recitation First Line: I saw the spiders marching through the air Subject(s): Calvinists; Death; Edwards, Jonathan (1703-1758); God; Insects; Sin; Spiders; Dead, The; Bugs MR. EDWARDS AND THE SPIDER First Line: I saw the spiders marching through the air Last Line: To die and know it. This is the black widow, death Subject(s): Calvinists; Death; Edwards, Jonathan (1703-1758); God; Insects; Sin; Spiders MY HEAVENLY SHINER (ELIZABETH) First Line: The world atop maine and our heads is north Last Line: We were kind of religious, we thought in images MY LAST AFTERNOON WITH UNCLE DEVEREUX WINSLOW Poem Text First Line: I won't go with you. I want to stay with grandpa!' Variant Title(s): Life Studies: My Last Afternoon With Uncle Devereux Winslow Subject(s): Family Life; Grandparents; Relatives; Grandmothers; Grandfathers; Great Grandfathers; Great Grandmothers MY LAST AFTERNOON WITH UNCLE DEVEREUX WINSLOW First Line: I won't go with you. I want to stay with grandpa!' Last Line: Uncle devereux would blend to the one color Variant Title(s): Life Studies: My Last Afternoon With Uncle Devereux Winslo Subject(s): Family Life; Grandparents MYOPIA: A NIGHT First Line: Bed, glasses off, and all's Last Line: Saying 'this was a night' NAPOLEON First Line: Boston's used bookshops, anachronisms from london Last Line: All gone like the smoke of his own artillery NEAR THE OCEAN First Line: The house is filled. The last heartthrob Last Line: Monster loved for what you are, %till time, that buries us, lay bare Variant Title(s): Near The Ocean: 5. Near The Ocea NEAR THE OCEAN: 2. FOURTH OF JULY IN MAINE First Line: Another summer! Our independence Last Line: Our backs, and feel the whiskey burn NEAR THE OCEAN: 3. THE OPPOSITE HOUSE First Line: All day the opposite house Last Line: Deterrent terror %viva la muerte NEAR THE OCEAN: 4. CENTRAL PARK First Line: Scaling small rocks, exhaling smog Last Line: Hides a policeman with a club NEO-CLASSICAL URN First Line: I rub my head and find a turtle shell Last Line: And hobble humpbacked through the grizzled grass NEW YEAR'S DAY Poem Text First Line: Again and then again ... The year is born Subject(s): Christmas; Holidays; New Year; Nativity, The NEW YEAR'S DAY First Line: Again and then again ... The year is born Last Line: The child is born in blood, o child of blood Subject(s): Christmas; Holidays; New Year NEW YORK 1962: FRAGMENT First Line: This might be nature -- twenty stories high Last Line: That sets the wooden workhorse working here below NIGHT SWEAT First Line: Work-table, litter, books and standing lamp Last Line: This world's dead weight and cycle on your back NIHILIST AS HERO First Line: All our french poets can turn an inspired line Last Line: And yet gaze the everlasting hills to rubble NO HEARING First Line: Discovering, discovering trees light up green at night Last Line: Small deer trembly and steel in your wet nest NO HEARING [1] First Line: Belief in god is an inclination to listen Last Line: Is life, the rough, the smooth, the bright, the drear Variant Title(s): No Hearin NO MESSIAH First Line: Sometime I must try to write the truth Last Line: Echoed elsewhere by a louder drop NORTH SEA UNDERTAKER'S COMPLAINT First Line: Now south and south and south the mallard heads Last Line: Of one more blue-lipped priest; the phosphorous %melted the hammer of his heart to fire NOTICE First Line: The resident doctor said NOW WEEKENDS FOR THE GODS NOW, WARS Poem Text NOW WEEKENDS FOR THE GODS NOW, WARS Last Line: Busy about the tree of life Subject(s): Environment; Trees NUNC EST BIBENDUM, CLEOPATRA'S DEATH First Line: Nunc est bibendum, nunc pede liberum Last Line: No queen now, but a private woman much humbled OBIT First Line: Our love will not come back on fortune's wheel Last Line: You for eternity, and have no other choice? OLD FLAME First Line: My old flame, my wife! Last Line: As it tossed off the snow %to the side of the road OLD SNAPSHOT FROM VENICE 1952 First Line: From the salt age, yes from the salt age Last Line: Eternity, you - a future told by tealeaves OUR AFTERLIFE [FOR PETER TAYLOR] Poem Text First Line: Southbound - / a couple in passage Last Line: Our rust the color of the chameleon Subject(s): Relationships OUR TWENTIETH WEDDING ANNIVERSARY (ELIZABETH) First Line: Leaves espaliered jade on our barn's loft window Last Line: A house eats up the wood that made it OUTLIVERS (HARRIET AND ELIZABETH) First Line: If we could reverse the world to what it changed Last Line: Not yet ripe for self-determination OVERHANGING CLOUD First Line: This morning the overhanging clouds are piecrust Last Line: We are many, our bed smells of hay PHAEDRA, SELS. First Line: Here is theramenes. Where is my boy Last Line: Before the gods. I never can atone PLANE TICKET First Line: A virus and its hash of knobby aches Last Line: Not wholly happy, of having been reborn PLOTTED First Line: Planes are like arrows through the highest sky Last Line: Death's not an event in life, it's not lived through PUBLIC GARDEN First Line: Burnished, burned-out, still burning as the year Last Line: The fountain's failing waters flash around %the garden. Nothing catches fire Subject(s): Boston; Parks QUAKER GRAVEYARD IN NANTUCKET First Line: A brackish reach of shoal off madaket Last Line: The lord survives the rainbow of his will Subject(s): Sea; Whales RANDALL JARRELL Poem Text First Line: The dream went like a rake of sliced bamboo, Subject(s): Jarrell, Randall (1914-1965); Death; Life; Dead, The RANDALL JARRELL: 2 First Line: I grizzle the embers of our onetime life Last Line: Greeting the cars, and approving -- your harsh luminosity RANDALL JARRELL: 3 First Line: The dream went like a rake of sliced bamboo Last Line: Cal, why did we live? Why do we die RANDALL JARRELL: A. OCTOBER 1965 First Line: Sixty, seventy, eighty: I would see you mellow Last Line: Apples redden to ripeness on the whiplash bough READING MYSELF First Line: Like thousands, I took just pride and more than just Last Line: This open book - my open coffin RECORDS First Line: I was playing records on sunday Last Line: Love vanquished by his mysterious carelessness REMBRANDT First Line: His faces crack - if mine could crack and breathe Last Line: The strange new idol for the marketplace RETURNING First Line: If, mother and daddy, you were to visit us Last Line: Childhood, closer to me than what I love RETURNING TURTLE First Line: Weeks hitting the road, one fasting in the bathtub Last Line: A turtle looking back at us, and blinking ROBERT FROST Poem Text First Line: Robert frost at midnight, the audience gone Subject(s): Frost, Robert (1874-1963); Poetry & Poets ROBERT FROST First Line: Robert frost at midnight, the audience gone Last Line: How little good my health did anyone near me. Subject(s): Frost, Robert (1874-1963); Poetry And Poets ROBERT SHERIDAN LOWELL First Line: Your midnight ambulances, the first knife-saw Last Line: We have escaped our death-struggle with our lives ROBESPIERRE AND MOZART AS STAGE First Line: Robespierre could live with himself: the republic Subject(s): Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus (1756-1791); Robespierre, Maximilien De (1758-1794) ROBESPIERRE AND MOZART AS STAGE First Line: Robespierre could live with himself: the republic Last Line: Cut the gold thread of the suffocating curtain Subject(s): Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus (1756-1791); Robespierre, Maximilien De (1758-1794) SAILING HOME FROM RAPALLO Poem Text First Line: Your nurse could only speak italian, Variant Title(s): Life Studies: Sailing Home From Rapallo Subject(s): Italy; Mothers; Death; Sea Voyages; Cemeteries; Fathers; Italians; Dead, The; Graveyards SAILING HOME FROM RAPALLO First Line: Your nurse could only speak italian Last Line: Was wrapped like panettone in italian tinfoil Variant Title(s): Life Studies: Sailing Home From Rapall SAINT-JUST 1767-93 First Line: Saint-just: his name seems stolen from the missal Last Line: He did, the scaffold, je sais ou je vais SALEM Poem Text First Line: In salem seasick spindrift drifts or skips Subject(s): Salem, Massachusetts SALEM First Line: In salem seasick spindrift drifts or skips Last Line: Who quartered the leviathan's fat flanks %and fought the british lion to his knees? Subject(s): Salem, Massachusetts SEALS First Line: If we must live again, not us; we might Last Line: Green ice in a greenland never grass SEARCHING First Line: I look back to you, and cherish what I wanted Last Line: Like a dirty word across my bare, blond desk SERPENT First Line: When I was changed from a feeble cosmopolite Last Line: A covenant of swords without the word SERPENT First Line: In my dream, my belly is yellow, panels Last Line: Wherever it opens, wherever it happens to open SHIFTING COLORS First Line: I fish until the clouds turn blue Last Line: To find a style that made writing impossible SICK First Line: I wake now to find myself this long alone Last Line: We are weak enough to enter heaven SIR THOMAS MORE First Line: Holbein's more, my patron saint as a convert Last Line: As for coming down, I'll shift for myself SKUNK HOUR; FOR ELIZABETH BISHOP Poem Text Recitation First Line: Nautilus island's hermit / heiress still lives through winter in her spartan Variant Title(s): Life Studies: Skunk Hour Subject(s): Maine (state); Skunks SKUNK HOUR; FOR ELIZABETH BISHOP First Line: Nautilus island's hermit %heiress still lives through winter in her spartan Last Line: Drops her ostrich tail, %will not scare Variant Title(s): Life Studies: Skunk Hou Subject(s): Maine (state); Skunks SLEEPLESS First Line: Home for the night on my ten years' workbed Last Line: Rivals seldom lavish on a brother SNAKE First Line: One of god's creatures, just as much as you Last Line: My little whip of wisdom, lamb in wolf-skin SOFT WOOD (FOR HARRIET WINSLOW) First Line: Sometimes I have supposed seals Last Line: Each drug that numbs alerts another nerve to pain STALIN Poem Text First Line: Winds on the stems make them creak like manmade things Subject(s): Stalin, Joseph (1879-1953) STALIN First Line: Winds on the stems make them creak like manmade things Last Line: Joke cruelly, seriously, and be himself Subject(s): Stalin, Joseph (1879-1953) SUNRISE First Line: There is always enough daylight in hell to blind Last Line: For eighteen hours you died with your hand in hers SYMPTOMS First Line: I fear my conscience because it makes me lie Last Line: What I really have against myself T.S. ELIOT Poem Text First Line: Caught between two streams of traffic, in the gloom Subject(s): Eliot, Thomas Stearns (1888-1965); Eliot, T. S. T.S. ELIOT First Line: Caught between two streams of traffic, in the gloom Last Line: Humor and honor from the evelasting dross Subject(s): Eliot, Thomas Stearns (1888-1965) TENTH MUSE First Line: Tenth muse, oh my heart-felt sloth Last Line: Beginning in wisdom, dying in doubt TERMINAL DAYS AT BEVERLY FARMS First Line: At beverly farms, a portly, uncomfortable boulder Last Line: His last words to mother were: I feel awful THANKSGIVING'S OVER First Line: Thanksgiving night: third avenue was dead Last Line: And ground them. Miserere? Not a sound THE BOOK OF WISDOM Poem Text First Line: Can I go on loving anyone at fifty Subject(s): Bible; Religion; Theology THE CHARLES RIVER: 1 Poem Text First Line: The sycamores throw shadows on the charles Subject(s): Rivers THE DEAD IN EUROPE Poem Text First Line: After the planes unloaded, we fell down Subject(s): World War Ii; Second World War THE DRUNKEN FISHERMAN Poem Text First Line: Wallowing in this bloody sty Subject(s): Fish & Fishing; Anglers THE EXILE'S RETURN Poem Text First Line: There mounts in squalls a sort of rusty mire Subject(s): Homecoming THE FAT MAN IN THE MIRROR Poem Text First Line: What's filling up the mirror? O, it is not I Subject(s): Mirrors; Food & Eating; Obesity THE HOLY INNOCENTS Poem Text First Line: Listen, the hay-bells tinkle as the cart Subject(s): Christmas; Nativity, The THE MARCH I; FOR DWIGHT MACDONALD Poem Text First Line: Under the too white marmoreal lincoln memorial Subject(s): Social Protest; Vietnamese Conflict, 1961-1975 THE MARCH: 2 Poem Text First Line: Where two or three were flung together, or fifty Subject(s): Social Protest; Vietnamese Conflict, 1961-1975 THE MOUTH OF THE HUDSON Poem Text Recitation First Line: A single man stands like a bird-watcher Subject(s): Americans; United States; America THE PUBLIC GARDEN Poem Text Recitation First Line: Burnished, burned-out, still burning as the year Subject(s): Boston; Parks THE QUAKER GRAVEYARD IN NANTUCKET Poem Text First Line: A brackish reach of shoal off madaket Subject(s): Sea; Whales; Ocean THESE WINDS (HARRIET) First Line: I see these winds, these are the tops of trees Last Line: In these too, the unreliable touch of the all THIS GOLDEN SUMMER Last Line: Could cut bare feet Subject(s): Summer THOSE BEFORE US First Line: They are all outline, uniformly gray Last Line: We have stopped watching them. They have stopped watching THREE POEMS FOR KADDISH First Line: Brothers, we glory in this building hour TO DADDY First Line: I think, though I don't believe it, you were my airhole Last Line: That mother not warn me to put my socks on before my shoes TO DELMORE SCHWARTZ First Line: We couldn't even keep the furnace lit Last Line: Foot, like a candle, in a quart of gin we'd killed TO FRANK PARKER Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: Forty years ago we were here Subject(s): Friendship; Paintings & Painters TO SPEAK OF WOE THAT IS IN MARRIAGE' Poem Text First Line: The hot night makes us keep our bedroom windows open Variant Title(s): "life Studies: ""to Speak Of Woe That Is In Marriage""; Subject(s): Love - Marital; Marriage; Wedded Love; Marriage - Love; Weddings; Husbands; Wives TO SPEAK OF WOE THAT IS IN MARRIAGE' First Line: The hot night makes us keep our bedroom windows open Last Line: He stalls above me like an elephant Variant Title(s): Life Studies: "to Speak Of Woe That Is In Marriage Subject(s): Love - Marital; Marriage TWO WALLS (1968, MARTIN LUTHER KING'S MURDER) First Line: Somewhere a white wall faces a white wall Last Line: I lie here, heavily breathing, the soul of new york VERDUN First Line: I bow down to the great goiter of verdun Last Line: For berlin and paris, twin cities saved at verdun VIOLENCE First Line: From the first cave, the first farm, the first sage WAKING EARLY SUNDAY MORNING Poem Text First Line: O to break loose, like the chinook Last Line: In our monotonous sublime Subject(s): Sabbath; Waking; God WAKING EARLY SUNDAY MORNING First Line: O to break loose, like the chinook Last Line: In our monotonous sublime Variant Title(s): Near The Ocean: 1. Waking Early Sunday Mornin WAKING IN THE BLUE Poem Text First Line: The night attendant, a b. U. Sophomore Variant Title(s): Life Studies: Waking In The Blue Subject(s): Depression, Mental; Insanity; Mentally Depressed; Mental Distress; Madness; Mental Illness WAKING IN THE BLUE First Line: The night attendant, a b. U. Sophomore Last Line: Each of us holds a locked razor Variant Title(s): Life Studies: Waking In The Blu Subject(s): Depression, Mental; Insanity WATCHMAKER GOD First Line: Say life is the one-way trip, the one-way flight Last Line: Stood off shrouded in his loneliness WATCHMAKER'S GOD Poem Text First Line: Say life is the one-way trip, the one-way flight Subject(s): God WATER Poem Text Recitation First Line: It was a maine lobster town Subject(s): Maine (state); Sea; Ocean WATER First Line: It was a maine lobster town Last Line: In the end %the water was too cold for us Subject(s): Maine (state); Sea WATERLOO First Line: A thundercloud hung on the mantel of our summer Last Line: La gloire fading to sauve qui peut and merde WHERE THE RAINBOW ENDS First Line: I saw the sky descending, black and white Last Line: The dove has brought an olive branch to eat WILDROSE First Line: A mongrel image for all summer, our scene at breakfast Last Line: How do I know I can keep any of us alive WILL NOT COME BACK First Line: Dark swallows will doubtless come back killing Last Line: Don't blind yourself, you'll not be loved like that WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS First Line: Who loved more? William carlos williams Last Line: Attractive to girls than when I was seventeen WINDOW First Line: Tops of the midnight trees move helter-skelter Last Line: The tops of the moving trees move helter-skelter WITHDRAWAL First Line: Only today and just for this minute Last Line: Until the wristwatch is taken from the wrist WORDS FOR HART CRANE Poem Text First Line: When the pulitzers showered on some dope Subject(s): Crane, Hart (1899-1932); Poetry & Poets WORDS FOR HART CRANE First Line: When the pulitzers showered on some dope Last Line: Who asks for me, the shelley of my age, %must lay his heart out for my bed and board Subject(s): Crane, Hart (1899-1932); Poetry And Poets WORDS FOR MUFFIN, A GUINEA-PIG First Line: Of late they leave the light on in my entry Last Line: This short pound god threw on the scales, found wanting WORST SINNER, JONATHAN EDWARDS' GOD First Line: The earliest sportsman in the earliest dawn Last Line: The best man in the best world possible Lowell, Robert Traill Spence Poet's Biography 9 poems available by this author AS WHILE ABOUT SOME RESTFUL, WIDE-SHORED BAY Subject(s): U.s. - History CAPITALIST'S MEDITATION BY THE CIVIL WAR MONUMENT First Line: Tonight the blackout. Twenty years ago CHRIST IS HERE Poem Text First Line: Carol, christians! Christ is here Last Line: Who love others, they love him. Subject(s): Jesus Christ LOVE DISPOSED OF Poem Text First Line: Here goes love! Now cut him clear Last Line: Now that he is gone. Subject(s): Love - Loss Of; Sailing & Sailors; Seamen; Sails MASSACHUSETTS LINE First Line: Still first, as long and long ago Subject(s): War THE AFTER-COMERS Poem Text First Line: Those earlier men that owned our earth Last Line: In canvas, stone, or written pages. THE BRAVE OLD SHIP, THE ORIENT Poem Text First Line: Woe for the brave ship orient! Last Line: Such a ship as nevermore will be. THE RELIEF OF LUCKNOW (SEPTEMBER 25, 1857) Poem Text First Line: O, that last day in lucknow fort! Last Line: As the pipes played auld lang syne Subject(s): Lucknow, India; War TO OUR LADY ON THE EVE OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION First Line: Mother of god, whose burly love |
|