Category: Poetry

Bluebird and Cardinal

17th September 2024
Poetry
0 Comment
  1. Things to Do in the Belly of the Whale
  2. From Blossoms
  3. Wild Geese
  4. The Peace of Wild Things
  5. My Gift to You
  6. Departing Spring
  7. The Skylark
  8. What a Strange Thing!
  9. Although The Wind …
  10. The Old Pond
  11. Spring Is Like A Perhaps Hand
  12. Hast thou 2 loaves of bread …
  13. Youth and Age
  14. A Postcard From the Volcano
  15. The Kraken
  16. He wishes for the Cloths of Heaven
  17. There Is a Solitude of Space
  18. Because I Could Not Stop for Death
  19. Mad Song
  20. Answer July
  21. Success Is Counted Sweetest
  22. Hope Is the Thing with Feathers
  23. The Bluebird
  24. A Vision of the End
  25. The Crying of Water
  26. A Rose Has Thorns As Well As Honey
  27. Winter
  28. The Dark Cavalier
  29. There is no Life or Death
  30. Sheep in Winter
  31. To a Snowflake
  32. Sextain
  33. A Crocodile
  34. Sea Fever
  35. The Giant Cactus of Arizona
  36. The Coming of Night
  37. Going to the Picnic
  38. Moon Tonight
  39. A Southern Night
  40. Greenness
  41. Twilight
  42. On the Wing
  43. In Summer
  44. Before Parting
  45. Sonnet
  46. The Red Wheelbarrow
  47. Acceptance
  48. At The Pool
  49. Incurable
  50. Bluebird and Cardinal
  51. [Say What You Will, And Scratch My Heart To Find] Scheduled for 24th September 2024
  52. The River Scheduled for 8th October 2024
Cardinal bird sitting on a tree branch overlooking a valley and a river at sunset

                                  I 
Thou winged symbol of the quiet mind,  
Thou straying violet, flying flower of spring,  
Heaven-hued and heaven-hearted! Thou dost sing  
As thou some sweet remembered thought didst find,  
And, counseling with thyself in musing kind,  
Didst softly say it over. Thy swift wing  
Knows but a quiet rhythm; thou a thing  
Of peace, to passion innocently blind. 

Thy russet breast means married love, long hope,  
Sheltered experience, small and sweet and sure.  
All of the brown earth’s natural purity;  
But something heavenly, beyond our scope,  
Steeped thy blue wing in color strange and pure,  
Intense and holy as the mirrored sky. 
                                  II 
Pulse of the gorgeous world, jubilant, strong,—
Thy song a whistled splendor, and thy coat  
A fiery song! From thy triumphant throat  
How I have heard it pouring, loud and long.  
Whipping the air as with a scarlet thong—  
The joyous lashing of thy triple note  
Which all the tamer noonday noises smote  
And clove a royal pathway through the throng! 

Thou singest joy of battle, joy of fame.  
Glory, and love of woman; joy of strife 
With life’s wild fates; and scorn’st, with jocund breath  
For prudence’ sake to dim thy feathered flame—  
Thou heart of fire, epitome of life,  
Full-throated flouter of vindictive death! 
                                  III 
And lo, among the leafy, hidden groves  
Within my heart, they both do flit and nest,  
Saintly blue wing and vaunting scarlet crest,  
Yea, all of life and all its myriad loves.  
Even as Nature holds them, sifts and proves  
And balances, so shall my soul find rest  
In Her large tolerance, which without rest  
Or lagging, toward some wide conclusion moves. 

So, though I weary sometimes of the stress,  
Leave me not, little lovers of the air.  
Dearest of Nature’s fine antitheses!  
Thou of the musing voice and heavenly dress.  
Thou, royal firebrand,—neither could I spare.  
My scarlet Passion, nor my winged Peace!
 

Karle Wilson Baker (1878 – 1960) was An American writer.

To read more poems, click here.

Incurable

10th September 2024
Poetry
0 Comment
  1. Things to Do in the Belly of the Whale
  2. From Blossoms
  3. Wild Geese
  4. The Peace of Wild Things
  5. My Gift to You
  6. Departing Spring
  7. The Skylark
  8. What a Strange Thing!
  9. Although The Wind …
  10. The Old Pond
  11. Spring Is Like A Perhaps Hand
  12. Hast thou 2 loaves of bread …
  13. Youth and Age
  14. A Postcard From the Volcano
  15. The Kraken
  16. He wishes for the Cloths of Heaven
  17. There Is a Solitude of Space
  18. Because I Could Not Stop for Death
  19. Mad Song
  20. Answer July
  21. Success Is Counted Sweetest
  22. Hope Is the Thing with Feathers
  23. The Bluebird
  24. A Vision of the End
  25. The Crying of Water
  26. A Rose Has Thorns As Well As Honey
  27. Winter
  28. The Dark Cavalier
  29. There is no Life or Death
  30. Sheep in Winter
  31. To a Snowflake
  32. Sextain
  33. A Crocodile
  34. Sea Fever
  35. The Giant Cactus of Arizona
  36. The Coming of Night
  37. Going to the Picnic
  38. Moon Tonight
  39. A Southern Night
  40. Greenness
  41. Twilight
  42. On the Wing
  43. In Summer
  44. Before Parting
  45. Sonnet
  46. The Red Wheelbarrow
  47. Acceptance
  48. At The Pool
  49. Incurable
  50. Bluebird and Cardinal
  51. [Say What You Will, And Scratch My Heart To Find] Scheduled for 24th September 2024
  52. The River Scheduled for 8th October 2024

And if my heart be scarred and burned,  
The safer, I, for all I learned;  
The calmer, I, to see it true  
That ways of love are never new—  
The love that sets you daft and dazed  
Is every love that ever blazed;  
The happier, I, to fathom this:  
A kiss is every other kiss.  
The reckless vow, the lovely name,  
When Helen walked, were spoke the same;  
The weighted breast, the grinding woe,  
When Phaon fled, were ever so.  
Oh, it is sure as it is sad  
That any lad is every lad,  
And what’s a girl, to dare implore  
Her dear be hers forevermore?  
Though he be tried and he be bold,  
And swearing death should he be cold,  
He’ll run the path the others went.… 
But you, my sweet, are different.
 

Dorothy Parker (1893 – 1967) was an American poet and writer of fiction, plays, and screenplays known for her caustic wisecracks.

To read more poems, click here.

At The Pool

3rd September 2024
Poetry
0 Comment
  1. Things to Do in the Belly of the Whale
  2. From Blossoms
  3. Wild Geese
  4. The Peace of Wild Things
  5. My Gift to You
  6. Departing Spring
  7. The Skylark
  8. What a Strange Thing!
  9. Although The Wind …
  10. The Old Pond
  11. Spring Is Like A Perhaps Hand
  12. Hast thou 2 loaves of bread …
  13. Youth and Age
  14. A Postcard From the Volcano
  15. The Kraken
  16. He wishes for the Cloths of Heaven
  17. There Is a Solitude of Space
  18. Because I Could Not Stop for Death
  19. Mad Song
  20. Answer July
  21. Success Is Counted Sweetest
  22. Hope Is the Thing with Feathers
  23. The Bluebird
  24. A Vision of the End
  25. The Crying of Water
  26. A Rose Has Thorns As Well As Honey
  27. Winter
  28. The Dark Cavalier
  29. There is no Life or Death
  30. Sheep in Winter
  31. To a Snowflake
  32. Sextain
  33. A Crocodile
  34. Sea Fever
  35. The Giant Cactus of Arizona
  36. The Coming of Night
  37. Going to the Picnic
  38. Moon Tonight
  39. A Southern Night
  40. Greenness
  41. Twilight
  42. On the Wing
  43. In Summer
  44. Before Parting
  45. Sonnet
  46. The Red Wheelbarrow
  47. Acceptance
  48. At The Pool
  49. Incurable
  50. Bluebird and Cardinal
  51. [Say What You Will, And Scratch My Heart To Find] Scheduled for 24th September 2024
  52. The River Scheduled for 8th October 2024
Forest pool

I like to stand right still awhile 
Beside some forest pool. 
The reeds around it smell so fresh, 
The waters look so cool! 
Sometimes I just hop in and wade, 
And have a lot of fun, 
Playing with bugs that dart across 
The water in the sun. 

They lodge here at this little pool—
All sorts of bugs and things 
That hop about its shady banks, 
Or dart along with wings,
Or scamper on the water top, 
As water-striders go, 
Or strange back-swimmers upside down, 
Using their legs to row, 
Or the stiff, flashing dragon flies, 
The gentle damoiselle, 
The clumsy, sturdy water-bugs,
And scorpions as well, 
That come on top to get fresh air
From homes beneath the pool, 
Where water-boatmen have their nooks, 
On pebbles, as a rule. 

And then, behold! Kingfisher comes, 
That great big royal bird! 
To him what is the dragon fly 
That kept the pool life stirred?
Or water-tigers terrible 
That murder bugs all day? 
Kingfisher comes, and each of these 
Would hide itself away! 

He swoops and swallows what he will,
A stone-fly or a frog. 
Wing’d things rush frightened through the air, 
Others to hole and log. 
The little pool that held them all 
I watch grow very bare, 
But fisher knows his hide and seek—
He’ll find some one somewhere!
 

Effie Lee Newsome (1885–1979) was a Harlem Renaissance writer who mainly wrote children’s poems.

To read more poems, click here.

Acceptance

13th August 2024
Poetry
0 Comment
  1. Things to Do in the Belly of the Whale
  2. From Blossoms
  3. Wild Geese
  4. The Peace of Wild Things
  5. My Gift to You
  6. Departing Spring
  7. The Skylark
  8. What a Strange Thing!
  9. Although The Wind …
  10. The Old Pond
  11. Spring Is Like A Perhaps Hand
  12. Hast thou 2 loaves of bread …
  13. Youth and Age
  14. A Postcard From the Volcano
  15. The Kraken
  16. He wishes for the Cloths of Heaven
  17. There Is a Solitude of Space
  18. Because I Could Not Stop for Death
  19. Mad Song
  20. Answer July
  21. Success Is Counted Sweetest
  22. Hope Is the Thing with Feathers
  23. The Bluebird
  24. A Vision of the End
  25. The Crying of Water
  26. A Rose Has Thorns As Well As Honey
  27. Winter
  28. The Dark Cavalier
  29. There is no Life or Death
  30. Sheep in Winter
  31. To a Snowflake
  32. Sextain
  33. A Crocodile
  34. Sea Fever
  35. The Giant Cactus of Arizona
  36. The Coming of Night
  37. Going to the Picnic
  38. Moon Tonight
  39. A Southern Night
  40. Greenness
  41. Twilight
  42. On the Wing
  43. In Summer
  44. Before Parting
  45. Sonnet
  46. The Red Wheelbarrow
  47. Acceptance
  48. At The Pool
  49. Incurable
  50. Bluebird and Cardinal
  51. [Say What You Will, And Scratch My Heart To Find] Scheduled for 24th September 2024
  52. The River Scheduled for 8th October 2024
A pond in a forest at sunset

When the spent sun throws up its rays on cloud 
And goes down burning into the gulf below, 
No voice in nature is heard to cry aloud 
At what has happened. Birds, at least, must know 
It is the change to darkness in the sky. 
Murmuring something quiet in its breast, 
One bird begins to close a faded eye; 
Or overtaken too far from its nest, 
Hurrying low above the grove, some waif 
Swoops just in time to his remembered tree. 
At most he thinks or twitters softly, “Safe! 
Now let the night be dark for all of me. 
Let the night be too dark for me to see 
Into the future. Let what will be be.”
 

Robert Frost (1874 – 1963) was an American poet and winner of four Pulitzer Prizes, most known for The Road Not Taken (a poem often read during graduation ceremonies), Fire and Ice, Mending Wall, Nothing Gold Can Stay, and Home Burial.

To read more poems, click here.

The Red Wheelbarrow

6th August 2024
Poetry
0 Comment
  1. Things to Do in the Belly of the Whale
  2. From Blossoms
  3. Wild Geese
  4. The Peace of Wild Things
  5. My Gift to You
  6. Departing Spring
  7. The Skylark
  8. What a Strange Thing!
  9. Although The Wind …
  10. The Old Pond
  11. Spring Is Like A Perhaps Hand
  12. Hast thou 2 loaves of bread …
  13. Youth and Age
  14. A Postcard From the Volcano
  15. The Kraken
  16. He wishes for the Cloths of Heaven
  17. There Is a Solitude of Space
  18. Because I Could Not Stop for Death
  19. Mad Song
  20. Answer July
  21. Success Is Counted Sweetest
  22. Hope Is the Thing with Feathers
  23. The Bluebird
  24. A Vision of the End
  25. The Crying of Water
  26. A Rose Has Thorns As Well As Honey
  27. Winter
  28. The Dark Cavalier
  29. There is no Life or Death
  30. Sheep in Winter
  31. To a Snowflake
  32. Sextain
  33. A Crocodile
  34. Sea Fever
  35. The Giant Cactus of Arizona
  36. The Coming of Night
  37. Going to the Picnic
  38. Moon Tonight
  39. A Southern Night
  40. Greenness
  41. Twilight
  42. On the Wing
  43. In Summer
  44. Before Parting
  45. Sonnet
  46. The Red Wheelbarrow
  47. Acceptance
  48. At The Pool
  49. Incurable
  50. Bluebird and Cardinal
  51. [Say What You Will, And Scratch My Heart To Find] Scheduled for 24th September 2024
  52. The River Scheduled for 8th October 2024
The red wheelbarrow in the rain with white chickens

so much depends

upon



a red wheel

barrow



glazed with rain

water



beside the white

chickens
 

William Carlos Williams (1883–1963) was an American poet and physician, closely associated with modernism and imagism. 

To read more poems, click here.

Sonnet

30th July 2024
Poetry
0 Comment
  1. Things to Do in the Belly of the Whale
  2. From Blossoms
  3. Wild Geese
  4. The Peace of Wild Things
  5. My Gift to You
  6. Departing Spring
  7. The Skylark
  8. What a Strange Thing!
  9. Although The Wind …
  10. The Old Pond
  11. Spring Is Like A Perhaps Hand
  12. Hast thou 2 loaves of bread …
  13. Youth and Age
  14. A Postcard From the Volcano
  15. The Kraken
  16. He wishes for the Cloths of Heaven
  17. There Is a Solitude of Space
  18. Because I Could Not Stop for Death
  19. Mad Song
  20. Answer July
  21. Success Is Counted Sweetest
  22. Hope Is the Thing with Feathers
  23. The Bluebird
  24. A Vision of the End
  25. The Crying of Water
  26. A Rose Has Thorns As Well As Honey
  27. Winter
  28. The Dark Cavalier
  29. There is no Life or Death
  30. Sheep in Winter
  31. To a Snowflake
  32. Sextain
  33. A Crocodile
  34. Sea Fever
  35. The Giant Cactus of Arizona
  36. The Coming of Night
  37. Going to the Picnic
  38. Moon Tonight
  39. A Southern Night
  40. Greenness
  41. Twilight
  42. On the Wing
  43. In Summer
  44. Before Parting
  45. Sonnet
  46. The Red Wheelbarrow
  47. Acceptance
  48. At The Pool
  49. Incurable
  50. Bluebird and Cardinal
  51. [Say What You Will, And Scratch My Heart To Find] Scheduled for 24th September 2024
  52. The River Scheduled for 8th October 2024
Tuscany Landscape Watercolor

Oh for a poet—for a beacon bright 
To rift this changeless glimmer of dead gray;  
To spirit back the Muses, long astray, 
And flush Parnassus with a newer light; 
To put these little sonnet-men to flight 
Who fashion, in a shrewd mechanic way,  
Songs without souls, that flicker for a day,  
To vanish in irrevocable night, 

What does it mean, this barren age of ours?  
Here are the men, the women, and the flowers,  
The seasons, and the sunset, as before. 
What does it mean? Shall there not one arise  
To wrench one banner from the western skies,  
And mark it with his name forevermore? 
 

Edwin Arlington Robinson (1869 – 1935) was an American poet and playwright.

To read more poems, click here.

Before Parting

23rd July 2024
Poetry
0 Comment
  1. Things to Do in the Belly of the Whale
  2. From Blossoms
  3. Wild Geese
  4. The Peace of Wild Things
  5. My Gift to You
  6. Departing Spring
  7. The Skylark
  8. What a Strange Thing!
  9. Although The Wind …
  10. The Old Pond
  11. Spring Is Like A Perhaps Hand
  12. Hast thou 2 loaves of bread …
  13. Youth and Age
  14. A Postcard From the Volcano
  15. The Kraken
  16. He wishes for the Cloths of Heaven
  17. There Is a Solitude of Space
  18. Because I Could Not Stop for Death
  19. Mad Song
  20. Answer July
  21. Success Is Counted Sweetest
  22. Hope Is the Thing with Feathers
  23. The Bluebird
  24. A Vision of the End
  25. The Crying of Water
  26. A Rose Has Thorns As Well As Honey
  27. Winter
  28. The Dark Cavalier
  29. There is no Life or Death
  30. Sheep in Winter
  31. To a Snowflake
  32. Sextain
  33. A Crocodile
  34. Sea Fever
  35. The Giant Cactus of Arizona
  36. The Coming of Night
  37. Going to the Picnic
  38. Moon Tonight
  39. A Southern Night
  40. Greenness
  41. Twilight
  42. On the Wing
  43. In Summer
  44. Before Parting
  45. Sonnet
  46. The Red Wheelbarrow
  47. Acceptance
  48. At The Pool
  49. Incurable
  50. Bluebird and Cardinal
  51. [Say What You Will, And Scratch My Heart To Find] Scheduled for 24th September 2024
  52. The River Scheduled for 8th October 2024
Night landscape with full moon

A month or twain to live on honeycomb  
Is pleasant; but one tires of scented time,  
Cold sweet recurrence of acceptance rhyme, 
And that strong purple under juice and foam  
Where the wine’s heart has burst; 
Nor feel the latter kisses like the first.  

Once yet, this poor one time; I will not pray  
Even to change the bitterness of it,  
The bitter taste ensuing on the sweet,  
To make your tears fall where your soft hair lay  
All blurred and heavy in some perfumed wise  
Over my face and eyes.  

And yet who knows what end the scythed wheat  
Makes of its foolish poppies’ mouths of red?  
These were not sown, these are not harvested, 
They grow a month and are cast under feet  
And none has care thereof,  
As none has care of a divided love.  

I know each shadow of your lips by rote,  
Each change of love in eyelids and eyebrows; 
The fashion of fair temples tremulous  
With tender blood, and colour of your throat; 
I know not how love is gone out of this,  
Seeing that all was his.  

Love’s likeness there endures upon all these: 
But out of these one shall not gather love.  
Day hath not strength nor the night shade enough  
To make love whole and fill his lips with ease, 
As some bee-builded cell  
Feels at filled lips the heavy honey swell.  

I know not how this last month leaves your hair  
Less full of purple colour and hid spice,  
And that luxurious trouble of closed eyes 
Is mixed with meaner shadow and waste care; 
And love, kissed out by pleasure, seems not yet  
Worth patience to regret. 
 

Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837 – 1909) was an English poet, playwright, novelist and critic.

To read more poems, click here.

In Summer

16th July 2024
Poetry
0 Comment
  1. Things to Do in the Belly of the Whale
  2. From Blossoms
  3. Wild Geese
  4. The Peace of Wild Things
  5. My Gift to You
  6. Departing Spring
  7. The Skylark
  8. What a Strange Thing!
  9. Although The Wind …
  10. The Old Pond
  11. Spring Is Like A Perhaps Hand
  12. Hast thou 2 loaves of bread …
  13. Youth and Age
  14. A Postcard From the Volcano
  15. The Kraken
  16. He wishes for the Cloths of Heaven
  17. There Is a Solitude of Space
  18. Because I Could Not Stop for Death
  19. Mad Song
  20. Answer July
  21. Success Is Counted Sweetest
  22. Hope Is the Thing with Feathers
  23. The Bluebird
  24. A Vision of the End
  25. The Crying of Water
  26. A Rose Has Thorns As Well As Honey
  27. Winter
  28. The Dark Cavalier
  29. There is no Life or Death
  30. Sheep in Winter
  31. To a Snowflake
  32. Sextain
  33. A Crocodile
  34. Sea Fever
  35. The Giant Cactus of Arizona
  36. The Coming of Night
  37. Going to the Picnic
  38. Moon Tonight
  39. A Southern Night
  40. Greenness
  41. Twilight
  42. On the Wing
  43. In Summer
  44. Before Parting
  45. Sonnet
  46. The Red Wheelbarrow
  47. Acceptance
  48. At The Pool
  49. Incurable
  50. Bluebird and Cardinal
  51. [Say What You Will, And Scratch My Heart To Find] Scheduled for 24th September 2024
  52. The River Scheduled for 8th October 2024
Hilly landscape at sunset

Photo by Claudio Testa on Unsplash edited by me

There were the black pine trees, 
        And the sullen hills 
        Frowning; there were trills 
        Of birds, and the sweet hot sun, 
        And little rills 
        Of water, everyone 
Singing and prattling; there were bees

Honey-laden, tuneful, a song
        Far-off, and a timid air 
        That sighed and kissed my hair, 
        My hair that the hot sun loves. 
        The day was very fair, 
        There was wooing of doves, 
And the shadows were not yet long. 

And I lay on the soft green grass, 
        And the smell of the earth was sweet,
        And I dipped my feet 
        In the little stream;
        And was cool as a flower is cool in the heat, 
        And the day lay still in a dream, 
And the hours forgot to pass. 

And you came, my love, so stealthily 
        That I saw you not 
        Till I felt that your arms were hot 
        Round my neck, and my lips were wet
        With your lips, I had forgot  
        How sweet you were. And lo! the sun has set, 
And the pale moon came up silently. 
 

Lord Alfred Douglas (1870 – 1945) was an English poet and journalist.

To read more poems, click here.

On the Wing

9th July 2024
Poetry
0 Comment
  1. Things to Do in the Belly of the Whale
  2. From Blossoms
  3. Wild Geese
  4. The Peace of Wild Things
  5. My Gift to You
  6. Departing Spring
  7. The Skylark
  8. What a Strange Thing!
  9. Although The Wind …
  10. The Old Pond
  11. Spring Is Like A Perhaps Hand
  12. Hast thou 2 loaves of bread …
  13. Youth and Age
  14. A Postcard From the Volcano
  15. The Kraken
  16. He wishes for the Cloths of Heaven
  17. There Is a Solitude of Space
  18. Because I Could Not Stop for Death
  19. Mad Song
  20. Answer July
  21. Success Is Counted Sweetest
  22. Hope Is the Thing with Feathers
  23. The Bluebird
  24. A Vision of the End
  25. The Crying of Water
  26. A Rose Has Thorns As Well As Honey
  27. Winter
  28. The Dark Cavalier
  29. There is no Life or Death
  30. Sheep in Winter
  31. To a Snowflake
  32. Sextain
  33. A Crocodile
  34. Sea Fever
  35. The Giant Cactus of Arizona
  36. The Coming of Night
  37. Going to the Picnic
  38. Moon Tonight
  39. A Southern Night
  40. Greenness
  41. Twilight
  42. On the Wing
  43. In Summer
  44. Before Parting
  45. Sonnet
  46. The Red Wheelbarrow
  47. Acceptance
  48. At The Pool
  49. Incurable
  50. Bluebird and Cardinal
  51. [Say What You Will, And Scratch My Heart To Find] Scheduled for 24th September 2024
  52. The River Scheduled for 8th October 2024

Photo by kilarov zaneit on Unsplash edited by me

Once in a dream (for once I dreamed of you) 
    We stood together in an open field; 
    Above our heads two swift-winged pigeons wheeled,  
Sporting at east and courting full in view:—
When loftier still a broadening darkness flew,  
    Down-swooping, and a ravenous hawk revealed; 
    Too weak to fight, too fond to fly, they yield; 
So farewell life and love and pleasures new.  
Then as their plumes fell fluttering to the ground,  
    Their snow-white plumage flecked with crimson drops,  
        I wept, and thought I turned towards you to weep: 
    But you were gone; while rustling hedgerow tops  
Bent in a wind which bore to me a sound 
        Of far-off piteous bleat of lambs and sheep.
 

Christina Rossetti (1830 – 1894) was one of the most important poets of the Victorian age in England.

To read more poems, click here.

Twilight

25th June 2024
Poetry
0 Comment
  1. Things to Do in the Belly of the Whale
  2. From Blossoms
  3. Wild Geese
  4. The Peace of Wild Things
  5. My Gift to You
  6. Departing Spring
  7. The Skylark
  8. What a Strange Thing!
  9. Although The Wind …
  10. The Old Pond
  11. Spring Is Like A Perhaps Hand
  12. Hast thou 2 loaves of bread …
  13. Youth and Age
  14. A Postcard From the Volcano
  15. The Kraken
  16. He wishes for the Cloths of Heaven
  17. There Is a Solitude of Space
  18. Because I Could Not Stop for Death
  19. Mad Song
  20. Answer July
  21. Success Is Counted Sweetest
  22. Hope Is the Thing with Feathers
  23. The Bluebird
  24. A Vision of the End
  25. The Crying of Water
  26. A Rose Has Thorns As Well As Honey
  27. Winter
  28. The Dark Cavalier
  29. There is no Life or Death
  30. Sheep in Winter
  31. To a Snowflake
  32. Sextain
  33. A Crocodile
  34. Sea Fever
  35. The Giant Cactus of Arizona
  36. The Coming of Night
  37. Going to the Picnic
  38. Moon Tonight
  39. A Southern Night
  40. Greenness
  41. Twilight
  42. On the Wing
  43. In Summer
  44. Before Parting
  45. Sonnet
  46. The Red Wheelbarrow
  47. Acceptance
  48. At The Pool
  49. Incurable
  50. Bluebird and Cardinal
  51. [Say What You Will, And Scratch My Heart To Find] Scheduled for 24th September 2024
  52. The River Scheduled for 8th October 2024
Twilight

Photo by Mohammad Alizade on Unsplash edited by me

There is an evening twilight of the heart,  
    When its wild passion-waves are lulled to rest,  
And the eye sees life’s fairy scenes depart,  
    As fades the day-beam in the rosy west.  
’Tis with a nameless feeling of regret 
    We gaze upon them as they melt away,  
And fondly would we bid them linger yet,  
    But Hope is round us with her angel lay,  
Hailing afar some happier moonlight hour; 
Dear are her whispers still, though lost their early power.  
In youth the cheek was crimsoned with her glow; 
    Her smile was loveliest then; her matin song 
Was heaven’s own music, and the note of woe 
    Was all unheard her sunny bowers among.  
Life’s little word of bliss was newly born; 
    We knew not, cared not, it was born to die, 
Flushed with the cool breeze and the dews of morn, 
    With dancing heart we gazed on the pure sky,  
And mocked the passing clouds that dimmed its blue, 
Like our own sorrows then—as fleeting and as few.  
And manhood felt her sway too—on the eye,  
    Half realized, her early dreams burst bright,  
Her promised bower of happiness seemed nigh,  
    Its days of joy, its vigils of delight; 
And though at times might lower the thunder-storm, 
    And the red lightnings threaten, still the air 
Was balmy with her breath, and her loved form, 
    The rainbow of the heart was hovering there.  
’Tis in life’s noontide she is nearest seen, 
Her wreath the summer flower, her robe of summer green.  
But though less dazzling in her twilight dress,  
    There’s more of heaven’s pure beam about her now; 
That angel-smile of tranquil loveliness,  
    Which the heart worships, glowing on her brow; 
That smile shall brighten the dim evening star  
    That points our destined tomb, nor e’er depart 
Till the faint light of life is fled afar,  
    And hushed the last deep beating of the heart; 
The meteor-bearer of our parting breath,  
A moonbeam in the midnight cloud of death. 
 

Fitz-Greene Halleck (1790 – 1867) was an American poet and member of the Knickerbocker Group

To read more poems, click here.