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Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Searching... Author: ROETHKE, THEODORE Matches Found: 339 Roethke, Theodore Poet's Biography 339 poems available by this author A ROUSE FOR STEVENS Poem Text First Line: Wallace stevens, what's he done? Subject(s): Stevens, Wallace (1879-1955) A WHEEZE FOR WYSTAN Poem Text First Line: If auden's aunt could love a plant Subject(s): Auden, Wystan Hugh (1907-1973) ABYSS First Line: Is the stair here Last Line: Being, not doing, is my first joy ABYSS, SELS: 2 First Line: I have been spoken to variously %but heard little Last Line: But a mole winding through earth, %a night-fishing otter Subject(s): Poetry And Poets; Whitman, Walt (1819-1891) ACADEMIC First Line: The stethoscope tells what everyone fears Last Line: And the style of your prose growing limper and limper ADAMANT First Line: Thought does not crush to stone Last Line: The core lies sealed AGAINST DISASTER Poem Text First Line: Now I am out of element Subject(s): Despair AGAINST DISASTER First Line: Now I am out of element Last Line: And rout the specter of alarm ALL THE EARTH, ALL THE AIR First Line: I stand with standing stones Last Line: Would not rejoice APPARITION First Line: My pillow won't tell me Last Line: He walks by. He walks by Subject(s): Love AUCTION First Line: Once on returning home, purse-proud and hale BALLAD OF THE CLAIRVOYANT WIDOW First Line: A kindly widow lady, who lived upon a hill Last Line: The green comes up forever in the fields of our country BAT First Line: By day the bat is cousin to the mouse Last Line: For something is amiss or out of place %when mice with wings can wear a human face Subject(s): Animals; Supernatural BEAST First Line: I came to a great door Last Line: And I wept there, alone BIG WIND Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: Where were the greenhouses going Subject(s): Wind BIG WIND First Line: Where were the greenhouses going Last Line: She sailed until the calm morning %carrying her full cargo of roses Subject(s): Wind BOUND Poem Text First Line: Negative tree, you are belief Subject(s): Birds; Inertia BOY AND THE BUSH First Line: A boy who had gumption and push Last Line: So they talked and they talked and they talked BRING THE DAY Poem Text First Line: Bees and lilies there were Subject(s): Religion; Theology BRING THE DAY First Line: Bees and lilies there were Subject(s): Religion CARNATIONS First Line: Pale blossoms, each balanced on a single jointed stem Last Line: The windless perpetual morning above a september cloud CEILING First Line: Suppose the ceiling went outside Subject(s): Houses CENTAUR First Line: The centaur does not need a horse CHAIR First Line: A funny thing about a chair Last Line: You sometimes have to go and sit CHANGELING First Line: She with her thighs harder than hooves Last Line: To pierce a cloud %a cloud CHILD ON TOP OF A GREENHOUSE Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: The wind billowing out the seat of my britches Subject(s): Greenhouses CHILD ON TOP OF A GREENHOUSE First Line: The wind billowing out the seat of my britches Last Line: And everyone, everyone pointing up and shouting Subject(s): Greenhouses CHUMS First Line: Some are in prison; some are dead Last Line: I'm grateful for that COMING OF THE COLD First Line: The late peach yields a subtle musk Last Line: Winds bring a fine and bitter snow COMING OF THE COLD First Line: The late peach yields a subtle musk COMING OF THE COLD First Line: The ribs of leaves lie in the dust Subject(s): Christmas COW First Line: There once was a cow with a double udder Last Line: She had to be milked by a man and his wife CUTTINGS First Line: Sticks-in-a-drowse droop over sugary loam Last Line: Its pale tendrilous horn CUTTINGS (LATER) First Line: This urge, wrestle, resurrection of dry sticks Last Line: I quail, lean to beginnings, sheath-wet CYCLE First Line: Dark water, underground Last Line: Under a river's source %under primeval stone DARK ANGEL First Line: In the dead middle of the sweating night DEATH PIECE Poem Text First Line: Invention sleeps within a skull Subject(s): Death; Dead, The DEATH-PIECE First Line: Invention sleeps within a skull Last Line: Insentient to shock DECISION First Line: What shakes the eye but the invisible Last Line: As a man turns to face on-coming snow Subject(s): Religion DINKY First Line: O what's the weather in a beard? Last Line: You may be dirty dinky DOLOR Poem Text Recitation First Line: I have known the inexorable sadness of pencils Variant Title(s): Dolour Subject(s): Depression, Mental; Grief; Office Employees; Social Protest; Mentally Depressed; Mental Distress; Sorrow; Sadness; Clerks DOLOR First Line: I have known the inexorable sadness of pencils Last Line: Dropping a fine film on nails and delicate eyebrows, %glazing the pale hair, the duplicate grey stan Variant Title(s): Dolou Subject(s): Depression, Mental; Grief; Office Employees; Social Protest DONKEY First Line: I had a donkey, that was all right Subject(s): Donkeys DOUBLE FEATURE First Line: With buck still tied to the log, on comes the light Last Line: And remember there was something else I was hoping %for DREAM First Line: I met her as a blossom on a stem Last Line: I came to love, I came into my own Subject(s): Dreams; Love DUET Poem Text First Line: O when you were little, you were really big Subject(s): Kierkegaard, Soren (1813-1855) DUET First Line: O when you were little, you were really big Last Line: We'll give each other a box on the ear, %- in honor of father kierkegaard Subject(s): Kierkegaard, Soren (1813-1855) DYING MAN First Line: I heard a dying man Last Line: Against the immense immeasurable emptiness of things ELEGY Poem Text First Line: Her face like a rain-beaten stone on the day she rolled ELEGY First Line: Should every creature be as I have been Last Line: That god that god leans down his heart to hear ELEGY First Line: Her face like a rain-beaten stone on the day she rolled Last Line: Bearing down, with two steady eyes, %on the quaking butcher Subject(s): Mourning ELEGY FOR JANE Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: I remember the neckcurls, limp and damp as tendrils Subject(s): Accidents; Death; Fathers & Daughters; Labor & Laborers; Youth; Dead, The; Work; Workers ELEGY FOR JANE First Line: I remember the neckcurls, limp and damp as tendrils Last Line: I, with no rights in this matter, %neither father nor lover Subject(s): Accidents; Death; Fathers And Daughters; Labor And Laborers; Youth EPIDERMAL MACABRE Poem Text First Line: Indelicate is he who loathes Subject(s): Hate EPIDERMAL MACABRE First Line: Indelicate is he who loathes Last Line: To sleep immodestly, a most %incarnadine and carnal ghost Subject(s): Hate ESSAY First Line: Those celebrators of the brain confined EXORCISM First Line: The grey sheep came. I ran Last Line: Cold, in my own dead salt FAVORITE First Line: A knave who scampered through the needle's eye Last Line: And longed to feel the impact of defeat FEUD First Line: Corruption reaps the young; you dread Last Line: Until the dead have been subdued FIELD OF LIGHT First Line: Came to lakes; came to dead water Last Line: I moved with the morning FLOWER DUMP First Line: Cannas shiny as slag Last Line: Over the dying, the newly dead FOLLIES OF ADAM First Line: Read me euripides Last Line: He laughed, once more Subject(s): Bible; Religion FOR AN AMOROUS LADY Poem Text First Line: The pensive gnu, the staid aardvark, Subject(s): Women; Animals; Love FOR AN AMOROUS LADY First Line: The pensive gnu, the staid aardvark FORCING HOUSE First Line: Vines tougher than wrists FOUR FOR SIR JOHN DAVIES: 1. THE DANCE First Line: Is that dance slowing in the mind of man Last Line: That came to be the bears and yeats would know FOUR FOR SIR JOHN DAVIES: 2. THE PARTNER First Line: Between such animal and human neat Last Line: In that dark world where gods have lost their way FOUR FOR SIR JOHN DAVIES: 3. THE WRAITH First Line: Incomprehensible gaiety and dread Last Line: Impaled on light, and whirling slowly down FOUR FOR SIR JOHN DAVIES: 4. THE VIGIL First Line: Dante attained the purgatorial hill Last Line: The word outleaps the world, and light is all FRAU BAUMAN, FRAU SCHMIDT, AND FRAU SCHWARTZE Poem Text First Line: Gone the three ancient ladies Subject(s): Greenhouses; Labor & Laborers; Old Age; Women; Work; Workers FRAU BAUMAN, FRAU SCHMIDT, AND FRAU SCHWARTZE First Line: Gone the three ancient ladies Last Line: And their snuff-laden breath blowing %lightly over me in my first sleep Subject(s): Greenhouses; Labor And Laborers; Old Age; Women FUGITIVE Poem Text First Line: The supple virtue of her mind Subject(s): Women FUGITIVE First Line: Her flesh is quick: a furious vein GENESIS First Line: This elemental force Last Line: New meaning grows immense GENIUS First Line: His strength is coiled about a core GENTLE First Line: Delicate the syllables that release the repression Last Line: The sleep was not deep, but the waking is slow GERANIUM First Line: When I put her out, once, by the garbage pail Last Line: But I sacked the presumptuous hag the next week %I was that lonely GIVE WAY, YE GATES First Line: Believe me, knot of gristle, I bleed like a tree Last Line: What slides away %provides GNU First Line: There's this to remember about the gnu Last Line: He closely resembles -- but I can't tell you GOB MUSIC First Line: I do not have a fiddle so Last Line: Will bring a good man down GOO-GIRL First Line: Poor myrtle would sigh, sweet my coz Last Line: And they'll soon stay away in great bunches HAPPY THREE First Line: Inside, my darling wife Last Line: Three in the sun HARSH COUNTRY First Line: There was a hardness of stone Last Line: In a country of bright stone HEARD IN A VIOLENT WARD Poem Text First Line: In heaven, too, / you'd be institutionalized Subject(s): Depression, Mental; Mentally Depressed; Mental Distress HEARD IN A VIOLENT WARD First Line: In heaven, too Last Line: And that sweet man, john clare Subject(s): Depression, Mental HEARD IN A VIOLENT WARD First Line: In heaven, too, %you'd be institutionalized Last Line: And that sweet man, john clare Subject(s): Insanity; Poetry And Poets HER LONGING First Line: Before this longing Last Line: Or beating against the black clouds of the storm, %protecting the sea-cliffs HER RETICENCE First Line: If I could send him only Last Line: When the wind sighs HER TIME First Line: When all %my waterfall Last Line: I'm one to follow %to follow HER WORDS First Line: A young mouth laughs at a gift Last Line: The storm, the storm of a kiss HER WRATH First Line: Dante himself endured Last Line: From another beatrice HERON First Line: The heron stands in water where the swamp Last Line: A single ripple starts from where he stood Subject(s): Birds; Herons HIGHWAY: MICHIGAN First Line: Here from the field's edge we survey HIPPO First Line: A head or tail -- which does he lack Last Line: Some time I think I'll live that way HIS FOREBODING First Line: The shoal rocks with the sea Last Line: The winds and waters meet I CRY, LOVE! LOVE! First Line: Went weeping, little bones. But where? Last Line: We never enter %alone I KNEW A WOMAN Poem Text First Line: I knew a woman, lovely in her bones Subject(s): Desire; Love; Men; Women I KNEW A WOMAN First Line: I knew a woman, lovely in her bones Last Line: These old bones live to learn her wanton ways %(I measure time by how a body sways) Subject(s): Desire; Love; Men; Women I NEED, I NEED First Line: A deep dish. Lumps in it Last Line: I know another fire %has roots I WAITED First Line: I waited for the wind to move the dust Last Line: And all the winds came toward me. I was glad IDYLL First Line: Now as from maple to elm the flittermice skitter and twirl Last Line: Unmindful of terror and headlines, of speeches and guns IN A DARK TIME Poem Text First Line: In a dark time, the eye begins to see Subject(s): Despair; Insanity; Night; Madness; Mental Illness; Bedtime IN A DARK TIME First Line: In a dark time, the eye begins to see Last Line: And one is one, free in the tearing wind Subject(s): Despair; Insanity; Night IN EVENING AIR First Line: A dark theme keeps me here Last Line: How slowly dark comes down on what we do IN PRAISE OF PRAIRIE First Line: The elm tree is our highest mountain peak Last Line: The feud we kept with space comes to an end INFIRMITY Poem Text First Line: In purest song one plays the constant fool Subject(s): Self INFIRMITY First Line: In purest song one plays the constant fool Last Line: How body spirit slowly does unwind %until we are pure spirit at the end Subject(s): Self INTERLUDE First Line: The element of air was out of hand Last Line: What we had hoped for had not come to pass INTERLUDE First Line: The element of air was out of hand Last Line: What we had hoped for had not come to pass JOURNEY INTO THE INTERIOR Poem Text First Line: In the long journey out of the self, Subject(s): Travel; Landscape; Journeys; Trips JUDGE NOT Poem Text First Line: Faces greying faster than loam-crumbs on a harrow Subject(s): Bible; Religion; Theology JUDGE NOT First Line: Faces greying faster than loam-crumbs on a harrow Last Line: I said: on all these, death, with gentleness, come down Subject(s): Bible; Religion KITTY-CAT BIRD First Line: The kitty-cat bird, he sat on a fence Last Line: Or you'll end like the kitty-cat bird LADY AND THE BEAR First Line: A lady came to a bear by a stream Last Line: As he went on fishing his way LAMB First Line: The lamb just says, I am Last Line: Are you? You're jumping too LAST WORDS First Line: Solace of kisses and cookies and cabbage Last Line: Enshroud me with light! O whirling! O terrible love! LIGHT BREATHER First Line: The spirit moves Last Line: A small thing, %singing LIGHT COMES BRIGHTER First Line: The light comes brighter from the east; the caw Last Line: And young shoots spread upon our inner world LIGHT LISTENED First Line: O what could be more nice Last Line: Light listened when she sang LIGHT POEM First Line: Wren-song in trellis: a light ecstasy of butterflies courting Last Line: Wanting the quiet of old wood or stone without water LINES UPON LEAVING A SANITARIUM First Line: Self-contemplation is a curse Last Line: It operates on other men LIZARD First Line: He too has eaten well Last Line: Older than I, or the cockroach LIZARD First Line: The time to tickle a lizard Last Line: At an intimate place like his gizzard LONG ALLEY First Line: A river glides out of the grass. A river or a serpent Last Line: I moved with the morning LONG LIVE THE WEEDS Poem Text First Line: Long live the weeds that overwhelm Subject(s): Weeds LONG LIVE THE WEEDS First Line: Long live the weeds that overwhelm Last Line: These shape the creature that is I LONG LIVE THE WEEDS THAT OVERWHELM LOST SON First Line: At woodlawn I heard the dead cry Last Line: Be still. %wait Subject(s): Fathers And Sons LOST SON: 1. THE FLIGHT First Line: At woodlawn I heard the dead cry Last Line: Just under the water %it usually goes LOST SON: 2. THE PIT First Line: Where do the roots go? Last Line: Nibble again, fish nerves LOST SON: 3. THE GIBBER First Line: At the wood's mouth Last Line: Kiss me, ashes, I'm falling through a dark swirl LOST SON: 4. THE RETURN First Line: The way to the boiler was dark Last Line: Moved in a slow up-sway LOST SON: 5 First Line: It was beginning winter Last Line: Be still %wait LOVE'S PROGRESS First Line: The possibles we dare Last Line: For I would drown in fire LULL (NOVEMBER 1939) First Line: The winds of hatred blow Last Line: Still stares the wish to love MANIFESTATION First Line: Many arrivals make us live: the tree becoming Last Line: We come to something without knowing why MARROW First Line: The wind from off the sea says nothing new Last Line: I bleed my bones, their marrow to bestow %upon that god who knows what I would know MEDITATION IN HYDROTHERAPY First Line: Six hours a day I lay me down Last Line: I soon will be myself again MEDITATIONS OF AN OLD WOMAN Poem Text First Line: On love's worst ugly day Subject(s): Old Age; Women MEDITATIONS OF AN OLD WOMAN First Line: On love's worst ugly day Last Line: In such times, lacking a god %I am still happy Subject(s): Old Age; Women MEMORY First Line: In the slow world of dream Last Line: The grass changes to stone MID-COUNTRY BLOW First Line: All night and all day the wind roared in the trees Last Line: But my ear still kept the sound of the sea like a shell MINIMAL First Line: I study the lives on a leaf; the little Last Line: Cleaning and caressing, %creeping and healing Subject(s): Insects MISTAKE First Line: He left his pants upon a chair Last Line: But he was apprehended, bare, %by one who rose up from the dead MOMENT First Line: We passed the ice of pain Last Line: What else to say? - %we end in joy MONOTONY SONG First Line: A donkey's tail is very nice Last Line: Unless you're hugh or harry MOSS-GATHERING Poem Text First Line: To loosen with all ten fingers held wide and limber Subject(s): Moss MOSS-GATHERING First Line: To loosen with all ten fingers held wide and limber Last Line: As if I had committed, against the whole scheme of life, a desecration Subject(s): Moss MOTION First Line: The soul has many motions, body one Last Line: O, motion o, our chance is still to be MY DIM-WIT COUSIN First Line: My dim-wit cousin, saved by a death-bed quaver Last Line: My shaving hand jerked back in sudden terror: %I heard your laughter rumble from my belly MY PAPA'S WALTZ Poem Text Recitation First Line: The whiskey on your breath / could make a small boy dizzy Subject(s): Alcoholism & Alcoholics; Dancing & Dancers; Fathers; Men; Night; Play; Drunkards; Alcohol Abuse; Bedtime MY PAPA'S WALTZ First Line: The whiskey on your breath %could make a small boy dizzy Last Line: Then waltzed me off to bed %still clinging to your shirt Subject(s): Alcoholics And Alcoholism; Dancing And Dancers; Fathers; Men; Night; Play MYRTLE First Line: There once was a girl named myrtle Last Line: These poets, they write like I sneeze MYRTLE'S COUSIN First Line: And then there was myrtle's cousin Last Line: What her friends couldn't eat at those lunches NIGHT CROW First Line: When I saw that clumsy crow Last Line: Into a moonless black, %deep in the brain, far back NIGHT JOURNEY Poem Text First Line: Now as the train bears west Subject(s): Railroads; Travel; Railways; Trains; Journeys; Trips NIGHT JOURNEY First Line: Now as the train bears west Last Line: I stay up half the night %to see the land I love Subject(s): Railroads; Travel NO BIRD First Line: Now here is peace for one who knew Last Line: No bird awakens her NORTH AMERICAN SEQUENCE: JOURNEY TO THE INTERIOR First Line: In the long journey out of the self Subject(s): Self NORTH AMERICAN SEQUENCE: JOURNEY TO THE INTERIOR First Line: In the long journey out of the self Last Line: And the dead begin from their dark to sing in my sleep Subject(s): Self NORTH AMERICAN SEQUENCE: MEDITATION AT OYSTER RIVER First Line: Over the low, barnacled, elephant-colored rocks Subject(s): Seashore; Beach; Coast; Shore NORTH AMERICAN SEQUENCE: MEDITATION AT OYSTER RIVER First Line: Over the low, barnacled, elephant-colored rocks Last Line: In the first of the moon %all's a scattering, %a shining Subject(s): Seashore NORTH AMERICAN SEQUENCE: THE FAR FIELD First Line: I dream of journeys repeatedly Last Line: Winding around the waters of the world NORTH AMERICAN SEQUENCE: THE LONG WATERS First Line: Whether the bees have thoughts, we cannot say Last Line: I am gathered together once more; %I embrace the world NORTH AMERICAN SEQUENCE: THE LONGING First Line: On things asleep, no balm Last Line: I'll be an indian. %ogalala? %iroquois NORTH AMERICAN SEQUENCE: THE ROSE First Line: There are those to whom place is unimportant Subject(s): Flowers; Nature; Roses NORTH AMERICAN SEQUENCE: THE ROSE First Line: There are those to whom place is unimportant Last Line: Gathering to itself sound and silence - %mine and the sea-wind's Subject(s): Flowers; Nature; Roses O LULL ME, LULL ME Poem Text First Line: One sigh stretches heaven Subject(s): Singing & Singers; Consolation; Songs O LULL ME, LULL ME First Line: One sigh stretches heaven Last Line: I see what sings %what sings O, THOU OPENING, O Poem Text First Line: I'll make it, but it may take me O, THOU OPENING, O First Line: I'll make it; but it may take me Last Line: I'm near %be true %skin OLD FLORIST First Line: That hump of a man bunching chrysanthemums Subject(s): Labor & Laborers; Work; Workers OLD FLORIST First Line: That hump of a man bunching chrysanthemums Last Line: Or stand all night watering roses, his feet blue in rubber boots Subject(s): Labor And Laborers OLD FLORIST First Line: That hump of a man bunching chrysanthemums Last Line: Or stand all night watering roses, his feet blue in rubber %boots OLD LADY'S WINTER WORDS First Line: To seize, to seize Last Line: In the cold air %the spirit %hardens ON THE QUAY First Line: What they say on the quay is Last Line: There's two more to drown ON THE ROAD TO WOODLAWN First Line: I miss the polished brass, the powerful black horses Last Line: And the eyes, still vivid, looking up from a sunken room ONCE MORE, THE ROUND First Line: What's greater, pebble or pond Last Line: As we dance on, dance on, dance on OPEN HOUSE First Line: My secrets cry aloud Last Line: Nothing would give up life: %even the dirt kept breathing a small breath OPEN HOUSE First Line: My secrets cry aloud Last Line: Rage warps my clearest cry %to witless agony ORCHIDS Poem Text First Line: They lean over the path Subject(s): Orchids ORCHIDS First Line: They lean over the path Last Line: Loose ghostly mouths %breathing Subject(s): Orchids ORDERS FOR THE DAY Poem Text First Line: Hands, hard and veined all over Subject(s): Body, Human ORDERS FOR THE DAY First Line: Hands, hard and veined all over Last Line: Breath, turn the old blood over OTHER First Line: What is she, while I live Last Line: Yet still laugh in my sleep OTTO First Line: He was the youngest son of a strange brood Last Line: O world so far away! O my lost world PHILANDER First Line: A man named philander s. Goo Last Line: Oh what! Oh what what can I do PICKLE BELT Poem Text First Line: The fruit rolled by all day. Subject(s): Pickles PICKLE BELT First Line: The fruit rolled by all day Last Line: Of sixteen-year-old lust PIKE First Line: The river turns Last Line: The pike strikes Subject(s): Sports PIPLING Poem Text First Line: Behold the critic, pitched like the castrati Subject(s): Critics & Criticism; Hate PIPLING First Line: Behold the critic, pitched like the castrati Last Line: Some cannot praise him: I am one of those Subject(s): Critics And Criticism; Hate PLAINT First Line: Day after somber day Last Line: And I delight in sleep POETASTER First Line: Hero of phantasies and catcher of chills Last Line: O fortunate he whose mamma pays the bills PRAISE TO THE END First Line: It's dark in this wood, soft mocker PRAYER First Line: If I must of my senses lose Last Line: Let light attend me to the gravel PRAYER BEFORE STUDY First Line: Constricted by my tortured thought Last Line: Deliver me, o lord, from all %activity centripetal PREMONITION First Line: Walking this field I remember Last Line: Was lost in a maze of water PREMONITION First Line: Walking this field I remember Last Line: But when he stood up, that face %was lost in a maze of water Subject(s): Nostalgia PROGNOSIS Poem Text First Line: Diffuse the outpourings of the spiritual coward Subject(s): Life PROGNOSIS First Line: Diffuse the outpourings of the spiritual coward Last Line: The nightmare silence is broken. We are not lost PURE FURY First Line: Stupor of knowledge lacking inwardness Last Line: As the thick shade of the long night comes on RECKONING First Line: All profits disappear: the gain Last Line: The penny that usurps the poor REMINDER First Line: I remember the crossing-tender's geranium border Last Line: A cheap clock ticking in ghostly cicada voice RENEWAL First Line: What glories would we? Motions of the soul? Last Line: I find that love, and I am everywhere REPLY First Line: Bird, bird, don't edge me in Last Line: And, like you, bird, I sing, %a man, a man alive Subject(s): Birds; Life REPLY TO A LADY EDITOR First Line: Reply to a lady editor Last Line: As I dance to my poem called poem REPLY TO CENSURE First Line: Repulse the staring eye Last Line: And quiet at the core REPLY TO CESNURE Poem Text First Line: Repulse the staring eye Subject(s): Self-reliance RESTORED First Line: In a hand like a bowl Last Line: Of my last midnight RETURN First Line: I circled on leather paws Last Line: Bared for a hunter's boot RIGHT THING First Line: Let others probe the mystery if they can Last Line: The right thing happens to the happy man RIVER INCIDENT First Line: A shell arched under my toes Last Line: In the dark, in the rolling water ROOT CELLAR Poem Text First Line: Nothing would sleep in that cellar, dank as a ditch Subject(s): Cellars; Basements ROOT CELLAR First Line: Nothing would sleep in that cellar, dank as a ditch Last Line: Even the dirt kept breathing a small breath Subject(s): Cellars ROSE: 1 First Line: There are those to whom place is unimportant Last Line: The first rain gathered? ROSE: 2 First Line: As when a ship sails with a light wind Last Line: With that man, and those roses? ROSE: 3 First Line: What do they tell us, sound and silence? Last Line: Like the eye of a new-caught fish ROSE: 4 First Line: I live with the rocks, their weeds Last Line: Mine and the sea-wind's ROUSE FOR STEVENS First Line: Wallace stevens, what's he done? Last Line: Brother, he's our father! Subject(s): Stevens, Wallace (1879-1955) RUNNING LIGHTLY OVER SPONGY GROUND Last Line: Just under the water %it usually goes SAGINAW SONG First Line: In saginaw, in saginaw Last Line: All women, o, are beautiful %when they are half-undressed SALE Poem Text First Line: For sale: by order of the remaining heirs Subject(s): Estate Sales SALE First Line: For sale: by order of the remaining heirs Last Line: And the taint in a blood that was running too thin SECOND SHADOW Poem Text First Line: Cast on the field from that full height Subject(s): Time SENSIBILITY! O LA! Poem Text First Line: I'm the serpent of somebody else SENSIBILITY! O LA! First Line: I'm the serpent of somebody else Last Line: I'm somewhere else %I insist %I am SENSUALISTS First Line: There is no place to turn, she said Last Line: Into the world of men SENTENTIOUS MAN First Line: Spirit and nature beat in one breast-bone Last Line: And the weak bridegroom strengthens in his bride SEQUEL First Line: Was I too glib about eternal things Last Line: I feel the autumn fail - and all that slow fire %denied in me, who has denied desire SERPENT First Line: There was a serpent who had to sing Last Line: As the birds flew off to the end of next week Subject(s): Animals; Snakes SHAPE OF THE FIRE First Line: What's this? A dish for fat lips Last Line: Still holding and feeding the stem of the contained flower SHE Poem Text First Line: I think the dead are tender. Shall we kiss? Subject(s): Mourning; Bereavement SHE First Line: I think the dead are tender. Shall we kiss? Last Line: Stayed by what was, and pulled by what would be Subject(s): Mourning SHIMMER OF EVIL First Line: The weather wept, and all the trees bent down Last Line: There was no light; there was no light at all SHY MAN First Line: The full moon was shining upon the broad sea Last Line: As we kiss by the high sea-wall Subject(s): Hearts; Kisses; Love SIGNALS First Line: Often I meet, on walking from a door Last Line: The things the eye or hand cannot possess SILENCE First Line: There is a noise within the brow SISKINS First Line: The bank swallows veer and dip Last Line: In my eyes follow after %their sunlit leaping SLOTH First Line: In moving slow he has no peer Last Line: And you just know he knows he knows Subject(s): Sloths SLOW SEASON Poem Text First Line: Now light is less; noon skies are wide and deep; SLOW SEASON First Line: Now light is less; noon skies are wide and deep Last Line: Our vernal wisdom moves through ripe to sere SLUG Poem Text First Line: How I loved one like you when I was little! Subject(s): Blake, William (1757-1827); Slugs SLUG First Line: How I loved one like you when I was little! Last Line: But as for you, most odious - %would blake call you holy? Subject(s): Blake, William (1757-1827); Slugs SMALL First Line: The small birds swirl around Last Line: And things throw light on things, %and all the stones have wings SNAKE First Line: I saw a young snake glide Last Line: And I may be, some time Subject(s): Animals; Snakes SOMETHING TOLD THE WILD GEESE First Line: Something told the wild geese Last Line: Winter in their cry SONG First Line: This fair parcel of summer's Last Line: And the great leaves cancel their stems %and sinuosity %saves SONG First Line: From whence cometh song Last Line: The wind shifting south SONG First Line: My wrath, where's the edge Last Line: Tell me now, tell me now SONG First Line: Under a southern wind Last Line: All things bring me to love SONG First Line: I met a ragged man Last Line: Mouth upon mouth, we sang, %my lips pressed upon stone SONG FOR THE SQUEEZE BOX Poem Text Subject(s): Drinks & Drinking; Gambling; Money; Loss; Unemployment; Wine; Wagering; Betting SONG FOR THE SQUEEZE BOX First Line: It wasn't ernest; it wasn't scott Last Line: To help me eat up her money STORM First Line: Against the stone breakwater Last Line: And the hurricane drives the dead straw into the living pine tree SUMMER SCHOOL MARMS Poem Text First Line: Their antics could invite the easy sneer Subject(s): Gossip SUPPER WITH LINDSAY Poem Text First Line: I deal in wisdom, not in dry desire Subject(s): Poetry & Poets SUPPER WITH LINDSAY First Line: I deal in wisdom, not in dry desire Last Line: With that, he hitched his pants and humped away SURLY ONE First Line: When true love broke my heart in half Last Line: That start from my own feet SWAN First Line: I study out a dark similitude Last Line: Sing of that nothing of which all is made, %or listen into silence, like a god Subject(s): Native Americans - Pre-columbian THE ABYSS: 2 Poem Text First Line: I have been spoken to variously / but heard little THE ADAMANT Poem Text First Line: Thought does not crush to stone. Subject(s): Truth THE ALLIGATOR Poem Text First Line: The alligator chased his tail Subject(s): Alligators THE APPARITION Poem Text First Line: My pillow won't tell me Subject(s): Love THE AUCTION Poem Text First Line: Once on returning home, purse-proud and hale Subject(s): Home; Auctions; Property; Possessions THE BAT Poem Text First Line: By day the bat is cousin to the mouse Subject(s): Animals; Supernatural THE BRINGER OF TIDINGS Poem Text First Line: An early bearer of the news Subject(s): Messages & Messangers THE CEILING Poem Text First Line: Suppose the ceiling went outside Subject(s): Houses THE CHAIR Poem Text First Line: A funny thing about a chair: Subject(s): Chairs THE COMING OF THE COLD Poem Text First Line: The ribs of leaves lie in the dust THE DECISION Poem Text First Line: What shakes the eye but the invisible Subject(s): Religion; Theology THE DONKEY Poem Text First Line: I had a donkey, that was all right Subject(s): Donkeys; Burros THE DREAM Poem Text First Line: I met her as a blossom on a stem Subject(s): Dreams; Love; Nightmares THE FAR FIELD Poem Text First Line: I dream of journeys repeatedly Subject(s): Travel; Rivers; Death; Journeys; Trips; Dead, The THE FOLLIES OF ADAM Poem Text First Line: Read me euripides Subject(s): Bible; Religion; Theology THE GERANIUM Poem Text First Line: When I put her out, once, by the garbage pail, Subject(s): Geraniums THE GOSSIPS Poem Text First Line: The vulturine necks stretch out; the mean eyes bunch Subject(s): Schools; Summer; Students THE HERON Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: The heron stands in water where the swamp Subject(s): Birds; Herons THE HIPPO Poem Text Subject(s): Hippopotamuses THE LIZARD Poem Text First Line: The time to tickle a lizard Subject(s): Lizards THE LONG ALLEY Poem Text First Line: A river glides out of the grass. A river or a serpent THE LOST SON Poem Text First Line: At woodlawn I heard the dead cry Subject(s): Fathers & Sons THE MINIMAL Poem Text First Line: I study the lives on a leaf; the little Subject(s): Insects; Bugs THE MOMENT Poem Text First Line: We passed the ice of pain Subject(s): Happiness; Love - Erotic; Joy; Delight THE PAUSE Poem Text First Line: I have walked past my widest range Subject(s): Explorers; Exploring; Discovery; Discoverers THE PIKE Poem Text First Line: The river turns Subject(s): Sports THE PREMONITION Poem Text First Line: Walking this field I remember THE RECKONING Poem Text First Line: All profits disappear; the gain Subject(s): Money; Problems THE REMINDER Poem Text First Line: I remember the crossing-tender's geranium border Subject(s): Memory THE REPLY Poem Text First Line: Bird, bird, don't edge me in Subject(s): Birds; Life THE RETURN Poem Text First Line: I circled on leather paws Subject(s): Home THE SERPENT Poem Text First Line: There was a serpent who had to sing Subject(s): Animals; Snakes; Serpents; Vipers THE SHY MAN Poem Text First Line: The full moon was shining upon the broad sea Subject(s): Hearts; Kisses; Love THE SIGNALS Poem Text First Line: Often I meet, on walking from a door THE SLOTH Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: In moving slow he has no peer Subject(s): Sloths THE SMALL Poem Text First Line: The small birds swirl around; Subject(s): Birds; Size & Shape; Height THE SNAKE Poem Text First Line: I saw a young snake glide Subject(s): Animals; Snakes; Serpents; Vipers THE STORM Poem Text First Line: Against the stone breakwater, Subject(s): Hurricanes THE SUMMONS Poem Text First Line: Now all who love the best Subject(s): Human Behavior; Conduct Of Life; Human Nature THE SWAN Poem Text First Line: I study out a dark similitude Subject(s): Native Americans - Pre-columbian THE THING Poem Text First Line: Suddenly they came flying, like a long scarf of smoke Subject(s): Birds THE UNEXTINGUISHED Poem Text First Line: Clouds glow like coals just fresh from fire, a flare Subject(s): Fire; Light THE VISITANT Poem Text First Line: A cloud moved close. The bulk of the wind shifted Subject(s): Love - Loss Of THE WAKING Poem Text First Line: I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow Subject(s): Men; Night; Religion; Sleep; Waking; Bedtime; Theology THE WAKING (2) Poem Text First Line: I strolled across / an open field Subject(s): Fate; Waking; Destiny THEY SING (A DYING MAN SPEAKS) First Line: All women loved dance in a dying light Last Line: Who stops being a bird, yet beats his wings %against the wide abyss, the gray waste nothingness of t THING First Line: Suddenly they came flying, like a long scarf of smoke Last Line: And the blue air darkened Subject(s): Birds TO AN ANTHROPOLOGIST Poem Text First Line: Yes, even the devil should have his due Subject(s): Books; Reading TO MY SISTER First Line: O my sister rememer the stars the tears the trains Last Line: Remain secure from pain preserve thy hate thy heart TRANCED First Line: We counted several flames in one small fire Last Line: And what died with us was the will to die TRANSPLANTING Poem Text Recitation First Line: Watching hands transplanting Subject(s): Flowers; Gardens & Gardening TRANSPLANTING First Line: Watching hands transplanting Last Line: The whole flower extending outward, %stretching and reaching Subject(s): Flowers; Gardens And Gardening TREE, THE BIRD First Line: Uprose, uprose, the stony fields uprose Last Line: The dire dimension of a final thing UNEXTINGUISHED First Line: Clouds glow like coals just fresh from fire, a flare Last Line: Until thought crackles white across the brain UNFOLD! LUNFOLD! First Line: By snails, by leaps of frog, I came here, spirit Last Line: In their harsh thickets %the dead thrash %they help VERNAL SENTIMENT Poem Text First Line: Though the crocuses poke up their heads in the usual places Subject(s): Spring VERNAL SENTIMENT First Line: Though the crocuses poke up their heads in the usual places Last Line: I rejoice in the spring, as though no spring had been Subject(s): Spring VERSE WITH ALLUSIONS First Line: Thrice happy they whose world is spanned Last Line: Much logic in their gluttony VISITANT First Line: A cloud moved close. The bulk of the wind shifted Last Line: The tree, the close willow, swayed Subject(s): Love - Loss Of VOICE First Line: One feather is a bird Last Line: Like any summer day WAGTAIL First Line: Who knows how the wagtail woos Last Line: He comes calling without wiping his shoes WAKING First Line: I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow Last Line: I learn by going where I have to go Subject(s): Men; Night; Religion; Sleep; Waking WAKING (2) First Line: I strolled across %an open field Last Line: Sang in my veins %that summer day Subject(s): Fate; Waking WALK IN LATE SUMMER First Line: A gull rides on the ripples of a dream WALK IN LATE SUMMER: 1 First Line: A gull rides on the ripples of a dream Last Line: On the long banks, in the soft summer air WALK IN LATE SUMMER: 2 First Line: What is there for the soul to understand? Last Line: My moments linger-that's eternity WALK IN LATE SUMMER: 3 First Line: A late rose ravages the casual eye Last Line: Reminds me I am dying with the year WALK IN LATE SUMMER: 4 First Line: A tree arises on a central plain Last Line: The evening wraps me, steady as a flame WEED PULLER Poem Text First Line: Under the concrete benches Subject(s): Flowers; Gardens & Gardening WEED PULLER First Line: Under the concrete benches Last Line: Crawling on all fours, %alive, in a slippery grave Subject(s): Flowers; Gardens And Gardening WHALE First Line: There was a most monstrous whale Last Line: The best he could do was jiggle his blubber WHERE KNOCK IS OPEN WIDE First Line: A kitten can Last Line: Maybe god has a house %but not here WHERE KNOCK IS OPEN WIDE First Line: A kitten can %bite with his feet Last Line: Maybe god has a house. %but not here WISH FOR A YOUNG WIFE Poem Text First Line: My lizard, my lively writher Subject(s): Life Change Events; Love WISH FOR A YOUNG WIFE First Line: My lizard, my lively writher Last Line: When I am no one Subject(s): Life Change Events; Love WORDS FOR THE WIND First Line: Love, love, a lily's my care, %she's sweeter than a tree Last Line: And see and suffer myself %in another being, at last WORDS IN THE VIOLENT WARD Poem Text First Line: In heaven, too Subject(s): Insanity; Poetry & Poets; Madness; Mental Illness YAK First Line: There was amost odious yak Last Line: And go humping off, yicketty-yak YOUNG GIRL First Line: What can the spirit believe Last Line: My bird-blood ready |
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