Poetry Explorer

Search Classic and Contemporary Poetry

Search Results

Back to search

Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Searching...
Author: cotter, joseph
Matches Found: 73


Cotter Jr., Joseph Seamon   
62 poems available by this author


A PRAYER    Poem Text    
First Line: As I lie in bed, / flat on my back
Last Line: O god, give me words to make my dream-children live.
Subject(s): Prayer; Religion; Theology


A WOMAN AT HER HUSBAND'S GRAVE    Poem Text    
First Line: Peace to his ashes!
Last Line: But never a lover.
Subject(s): Love - Marital; Wedded Love; Marriage - Love


AFRICA    Poem Text    
First Line: A thousand years of darkness in her face
Last Line: Of mankind's need and afric's gloried part.
Subject(s): Freedom; Liberty


AN APRIL DAY    Poem Text    
First Line: On such a day as this I think
Last Line: On such a day as this.
Subject(s): April; Kisses; Love


AND WHAT SHALL YOU SAY?    Poem Text    
First Line: Brother, come! / and let us go unto our god
Last Line: And, brother, what shall you say?
Subject(s): African Americans; Brotherhood; God; Religion; Social Protest; Negroes; American Blacks; Theology


COMPENSATION    Poem Text    
First Line: I plucked a rose from out a bower fair
Last Line: The song was made.
Subject(s): Pain; Thorns; Suffering; Misery


DOWN FROM THE GOLDEN STRINGS OF MY HEART'S LYRE       


EGO    Poem Text    
First Line: Day passeth day in sunshine or shadow
Last Line: Life but the urge, death but the balm.
Subject(s): Self


FULL WELL HE KNEW THE GALL OF BROKEN SPIRIT       


I SHALL NOT DIE    Poem Text    
First Line: Never shall I die
Last Line: And faith-embraced my soul shall lie.
Subject(s): Hope; Optimism


I'M A-WAITING AND A-WATCHING    Poem Text    
First Line: I'm a-waiting and a-watching for the day that has no end
Last Line: For the glory that shall greet me, for the life that knows no death.
Subject(s): Life


IMMORTALITY    Poem Text    
First Line: From your life's blood to coin a trenchant word
Last Line: That sounds within the changing hearts of men.
Subject(s): Future Life; Retribution; Eternity; After Life


INCONSTANCY    Poem Text    
First Line: Blue eyes, gray eyes
Last Line: Or is it love I love?
Subject(s): Love - Beginnings


IS IT BECAUSE I AM BLACK?    Poem Text    
First Line: Why do men smile when I speak
Last Line: Is it because I am black?
Subject(s): African Americans; Negroes; American Blacks


IS THIS THE PRICE OF LOVE?    Poem Text    
First Line: Never again the sight of her?
Last Line: Tell me, is this the price of love?
Subject(s): Love


LOOKING AT A PORTRAIT    Poem Text    
First Line: O why are there eyes like these
Last Line: O why are there arms like these?
Subject(s): Love - Complaints; Portraits


LOVE'S DEMESNE    Poem Text    
First Line: Old memories come trooping down
Last Line: In love's demesne.
Subject(s): Memory


MOLOCH    Poem Text    
First Line: Old moloch walks the way tonight
Last Line: It shames the hearts of men.
Subject(s): Old Age


MY LYRE IS STRUNG WITH GOLDEN THREADS OF LOVE       


NIGHT WINDS    Poem Text    
First Line: The slender moon in its silvery sheen
Last Line: For what should the night winds sigh?
Subject(s): Moon; Night; Sleep; Summer; Bedtime


NOVEMBER    Poem Text    
First Line: Old november, sere and brown
Last Line: With hope, faith and love alway.
Subject(s): Autumn; Holidays; November; Seasons; Thanksgiving; Fall


O LITTLE DAVID, PLAY ON YOUR HARP       


ODE TO DEMOCRACY    Poem Text    
First Line: Whither bound and how goeth?
Last Line: On freedom's holy land.
Subject(s): Democracy


ON HEARING HELEN HAGAN PLAY    Poem Text    
First Line: It seemed to me a little rivulet
Last Line: Its benediction sweet.
Subject(s): Music & Musicians


OUT OF THE SHADOWS: AN UNFINISHED SONNET-SEQUENCE 1    Poem Text    
First Line: The starlight crowns thee when thou standest there
Last Line: Tender thy smile and tender be thy heart.
Subject(s): Sonnet (as Literary Form)


OUT OF THE SHADOWS: AN UNFINISHED SONNET-SEQUENCE 10    Poem Text    
First Line: Purpled to softness comes the twilight hour
Last Line: Better it is than wield the conqueror's sword.
Subject(s): Passion


OUT OF THE SHADOWS: AN UNFINISHED SONNET-SEQUENCE 11    Poem Text    
First Line: Silent I love thee. When thou deignst to speak
Last Line: Morsels of heavenly fare, joys of my dreaming.
Subject(s): Love


OUT OF THE SHADOWS: AN UNFINISHED SONNET-SEQUENCE 12    Poem Text    
First Line: Gray veils of dusk bestrewed with purple threads
Last Line: When twilight visions crowd my happy way?
Subject(s): Love


OUT OF THE SHADOWS: AN UNFINISHED SONNET-SEQUENCE 13    Poem Text    
First Line: O love, my love, thou'rt in the passing crowd
Last Line: Thy blood-warm spirit to hearts bitter cold.
Subject(s): Hearts; Love; Solitude; Loneliness


OUT OF THE SHADOWS: AN UNFINISHED SONNET-SEQUENCE 14    Poem Text    
First Line: Life is a dream in the eternal sleep
Last Line: Heaven denied, mid depths of hell unknown.
Subject(s): Love; Sleep


OUT OF THE SHADOWS: AN UNFINISHED SONNET-SEQUENCE 15    Poem Text    
First Line: Beyond the lifted clouds the dark sweeps by
Last Line: Dawn's breath of glory for a moment's fare?
Subject(s): Love; Youth


OUT OF THE SHADOWS: AN UNFINISHED SONNET-SEQUENCE 16    Poem Text    
First Line: God knows the burdened soul's dark sorrowing
Last Line: To wake the murmurs of th' immortal soul?
Subject(s): God; Love


OUT OF THE SHADOWS: AN UNFINISHED SONNET-SEQUENCE 17    Poem Text    
First Line: It is not life's bright hope or hell's dark terrors
Last Line: Only that going I shall leave thee lone.
Subject(s): Absence; Separation; Isolation


OUT OF THE SHADOWS: AN UNFINISHED SONNET-SEQUENCE 18    Poem Text    
First Line: Remembered is your every trick of speech
Last Line: The splendored joy of love in faith enshrined.
Subject(s): Hope; Love; Optimism


OUT OF THE SHADOWS: AN UNFINISHED SONNET-SEQUENCE 19    Poem Text    
First Line: It was a child that walked my dreams last night
Last Line: That never was, nor is, nor e'er shall be.
Subject(s): Children - Lost


OUT OF THE SHADOWS: AN UNFINISHED SONNET-SEQUENCE 2    Poem Text    
First Line: Had I but known when first I saw thee there
Last Line: Thou dark-eyed child unto a woman grown?
Subject(s): Sonnet (as Literary Form)


OUT OF THE SHADOWS: AN UNFINISHED SONNET-SEQUENCE 3    Poem Text    
First Line: What of the old love?' cries my heart to me
Last Line: Found in love's bounty of the good and true?
Subject(s): Sonnet (as Literary Form)


OUT OF THE SHADOWS: AN UNFINISHED SONNET-SEQUENCE 4    Poem Text    
First Line: Why should I sing when every living voice
Last Line: Deep from the treasure of my heart to thee.
Subject(s): Love


OUT OF THE SHADOWS: AN UNFINISHED SONNET-SEQUENCE 5    Poem Text    
First Line: There is no rest where weary mortals dwell
Last Line: A fleeting moment from an hour of pain.
Subject(s): Desire; Hearts; Love; Passion


OUT OF THE SHADOWS: AN UNFINISHED SONNET-SEQUENCE 6    Poem Text    
First Line: These are the little things that stir the heart
Last Line: I have the vision and it shall not fade.
Subject(s): Grief; Memory; Sorrow; Sadness


OUT OF THE SHADOWS: AN UNFINISHED SONNET-SEQUENCE 7    Poem Text    
First Line: When you sit there the shadows come and go
Last Line: There gleams the starlight of a thousand skies.
Subject(s): Love


OUT OF THE SHADOWS: AN UNFINISHED SONNET-SEQUENCE 8    Poem Text    
First Line: When this gay earth whelmed with a mad desire
Last Line: Clad in the glory that is one with thee.
Subject(s): Desire


OUT OF THE SHADOWS: AN UNFINISHED SONNET-SEQUENCE 9    Poem Text    
First Line: Passion of fire that sears my hungry heart
Last Line: Letters of gold on god's eternal page.
Subject(s): Knights & Knighthood; Love


RAIN MUSIC    Poem Text    
First Line: On the dusty earth-drum
Last Line: Calling life anew.
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Rain


REMEMBRANCE    Poem Text    
First Line: Forget? / ah, never!
Last Line: That fate does hold for me.
Subject(s): Memory


REWARD    Poem Text    
First Line: Out of the silence / I come to you
Last Line: A light in your eye.
Subject(s): Love


SONNET    Poem Text    
First Line: And thou art one -- one with th' eternal hills
Last Line: "god in our creeds doth dwell and not in these?"


SONNET    Poem Text    
First Line: I would not tarry if I could be gone
Last Line: And guide his footsteps toward the larger life.


SONNET    Poem Text    
First Line: I sometimes wonder if the mighty god
Last Line: And god must heed, yea surely, god must care.


SONNET TO NEGRO SOLDIERS    Poem Text    
First Line: They shall go down unto life's borderland
Last Line: There breaks this day their dawn of liberty.
Subject(s): African Americans - Military; Soldiers' Writings


SUPPLICATION    Poem Text    
First Line: I am so tired and weary
Last Line: That I must journey on.
Subject(s): Rest


THE BAND OF GIDEON    Poem Text    
First Line: The band of gideon roam the sky
Last Line: "the sword of the lord and gideon."
Subject(s): Thunder; War


THE DESERTER    Poem Text    
First Line: I know not why or whence he came
Last Line: The house where faith is dead.
Subject(s): Absence; Love - Loss Of; Separation; Isolation


THE DOLLAR SPEAKS TO THE YOUNG NEGRO (TO EDITOR I. WILLIS COLE)    Poem Text    
First Line: Sable brother, are you clinging
Last Line: Wedding may-time to the years.
Subject(s): African Americans; Brotherhood; Negroes; American Blacks


THE GOAL    Poem Text    
First Line: I have found joy
Last Line: I have found thee.
Subject(s): Love


THE MULATTO TO HIS CRITICS    Poem Text    
First Line: Ashamed of my race?
Last Line: And puts sweet music into my soul.
Subject(s): African Americans; Negroes; American Blacks


THE TRAGEDY OF PETE    Poem Text    
First Line: There was a man
Last Line: From his head to his feet.


THEODORE ROOSEVELT    Poem Text    
First Line: Now with the dust that bore him he is one
Last Line: He stands anointed at jehovah's throne.
Subject(s): Presidents, United States; Roosevelt, Theodore (1858-1919)


TO FLORENCE    Poem Text    
First Line: Sister, when at the grassy mound I stand
Last Line: In god's own time, I lay me down to rest.
Subject(s): Memory


TO----    Poem Text    
First Line: Sunless days and starless nights
Last Line: And the starlight of your eyes.
Subject(s): Absence; Pain; Separation; Isolation; Suffering; Misery


WAY-SIDE WELL       
First Line: A fancy halts my feet at the way-side well
Last Line: Fancies clog the way to heaven, and saints miss %their crown


WHY?    Poem Text    
First Line: The little child across the street
Last Line: But what am I to her?
Subject(s): Peace



Cotter Sr., Joseph Seamon   
11 poems available by this author


ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE    Poem Text    
First Line: All earth is a poet
Last Line: Of the munificent ear.
Subject(s): Swinburne, Algernon Charles (1837-1909)


ANSWER TO DUNBAR'S 'AFTER A VISIT'    Poem Text    
First Line: So, you be'n to ole kentucky
Last Line: Of her hospitality.
Subject(s): Dunbar, Paul Laurence (1872-1906); Kentucky


DR. BOOKER T. WASHINGTON TO THE NATIONAL NEGRO BUSINESS LEAGUE    Poem Text    
First Line: Tis strange indeed to hear us plead
Last Line: When money clinks its story.
Subject(s): African Americans - History; Business; Washington, Booker T. (1856-1915); Black Heritage; Businessmen; Businesswomen


FREDERICK DOUGLASS    Poem Text    
First Line: O eloquent and cuastic sage
Last Line: They'll turn and underrate thee.
Subject(s): Douglass, Frederick (1817-1895)


NED'S PSALM OF LIFE FOR THE NEGRO    Poem Text    
First Line: Dis is ned dat am er-speakin'
Last Line: Wid er wukin' brain an' heart.


ON HEARING JAMES W. RILEY READ; FROM A KENTUCKY STANDPOINT    Poem Text    
First Line: To tell the truth, each piece he read
Last Line: But just come out and tell him so.
Subject(s): Riley, James Whitcomb (1849-1916)


THE BOOK'S CREED    Poem Text    
First Line: Reader, listen ere we go
Last Line: You will live this simple creed.
Subject(s): Books; Reading


THE DON'T-CARE NEGRO    Poem Text    
First Line: Neber min' what's in your cran'um
Last Line: So you's six foot under groun'.


THE TRAGEDY OF PETE    Poem Text    
First Line: There was a man
Last Line: From his head to his feet.


THE WAY-SIDE WELL    Poem Text    
First Line: A fancy halts my feet at the way-side well
Last Line: Fancies clog the way to heaven, and saints miss their crowns.
Subject(s): Wells


WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON    Poem Text    
First Line: His country seared its conscience through its gain
Last Line: "must train their liberty and make it free."
Subject(s): Garrison, William Lloyd (1805-1879)