the most recent poem you have read

[free]

I have been reading about a constellation and wondered how many poets were interested to write about particular stars. Here is one.

THE STAR SIRIUS by George Meredith

Bright Sirius! that when Orion pales
To dotlings under moonlight still art keen
With cheerful fervour of a warrior's mien
Who holds in his great heart the battle-scales:
Unquenched of flame though swift the flood assails,
Reducing many lustrous to the lean:
Be thou my star, and thou in me be seen
To show what source divine is, and prevails.
Long watches through, at one with godly night,
I mark thee planting joy in constant fire;
And thy quick beams, whose jets of life inspire
Life to the spirit, passion for the light,
Dark Earth since first she lost her lord from sight
Has viewed and felt them sweep her as a lyre.

[NikolaiI]

It is Good, by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

IN Paradise while moonbeams play'd,

Jehovah found, in slumber deep,
Adam fast sunk; He gently laid

Eve near him,--she, too, fell asleep.
There lay they now, on earth's fair shrine,
God's two most beauteous thoughts divine.--
When this He saw, He cried:--'Tis Good!
And scarce could move from where He stood.

No wonder, that our joy's complete
While eye and eye responsive meet,
When this blest thought of rapture moves us--
That we're with Him who truly loves us,
And if He cries:--Good, let it be!
'Tis so for both, it seems to me.
Thou'rt clasp'd within these arms of mine,
Dearest of all God's thoughts divine!

[cacian]

Emily Dickinson
My Life had stood--a Loaded Gun--

My Life had stood - a Loaded Gun -
In Corners - till a Day
The Owner passed - identified -
And carried Me away -
And now We roam in Sovereign Woods -
And now We hunt the Doe -
And every time I speak for Him -
The Mountains straight reply -

And do I smile, such cordial light
Upon the Valley glow -
It is as a Vesuvian face
Had let its pleasure through -

And when at Night - Our good Day done -
I guard My Master's Head -
'Tis better than the Eider-Duck's
Deep Pillow - to have shared -

To foe of His - I'm deadly foe -
None stir the second time -
On whom I lay a Yellow Eye -
Or an emphatic Thumb -

Though I than He - may longer live
He longer must - than I -
For I have but the power to kill,
Without--the power to die--

[Margarethe]

A poem of Goethe, very good

[free]

The Dove



Dove, both love and spirit

Who engendered Jesus Christ,

Like you I love a Mary.

And so with her I marry.


Guillaume Apollinaire

[Sospira]

Suicide in the Trenches
By Siegfried Sassoon

I knew a simple soldier boy
Who grinned at life in empty joy,
Slept soundly through the lonesome dark,
And whistled early with the lark.

In winter trenches, cowed and glum,
With crumps and lice and lack of rum,
He put a bullet through his brain.
No one spoke of him again.

* * * * *

You smug-faced crowds with kindling eye
Who cheer when soldier lads march by,
Sneak home and pray you'll never know
The hell where youth and laughter go.

[YesNo]

I found this on opening "The Riverside Anthology of Literature" at a used book sale.

Dorothy Parker

Thought for a Sunshiny Morning

It costs me never a stab nor squirm
To tread by chance upon a worm.
"Aha, my little dear," I say,
"Your clan will pay me back one day."

[Ecurb]

Crime Club, by Weldon Kees

No butler, no second maid, no blood upon the stair.
No eccentric aunt, no gardener, no family friend
Smiling among the bric-a-brac and murder.
Only a suburban house with the front door open
And a dog barking at a squirrel, and the cars
Passing. The corpse quite dead. The wife in Florida.

Consider the clues: the potato masher in a vase,
The torn photograph of a Wesleyan basketball team,
Scattered with check stubs in the hall;
The unsent fan letter to Shirley Temple,
The Hoover button on the lapel of the deceased,
The note: "To be killed this way is quite all right with me."

Small wonder that the case remains unsolved,
Or that the sleuth, Le Roux, is now incurably insane,
And sits alone in a white room in a white gown,
Screaming that all the world is mad, that clues
Lead nowhere, or to walls so high their tops cannot be seen;
Screaming all day of war, screaming that nothing can be solved.

[Pierre Menard]

Wallace Stevens - To the Roaring Wind


What syllable are you seeking,
Vocalissimus,
In the distances of sleep?
Speak it.

[Lykren]

Wallace Stevens is amazing.

[cacian]

''Tam o' Shanter" is a narrative poem written by the Scottish poet Robert Burns in 1790. First published in 1791, it is one of Burns's longer poems, and employs a mixture of Scots and English.
not all of it is posted here.


When chapman billies leave the street,
And drouthy neibors, neibors, meet;
As market days are wearing late,
And folk begin to tak the gate,
While we sit bousing at the nappy,
An' getting fou and unco happy,
We think na on the lang Scots miles,
The mosses, waters, slaps and stiles,
That lie between us and our hame,
Where sits our sulky, sullen dame,
Gathering her brows like gathering storm,
Nursing her wrath to keep it warm.

[Pierre Menard]

Wallace Stevens is amazing.

Yeah, a wonderful poet The Library of America collected works edition of Stevens is one of my all-time favourite books.

[Lykren]

Why that edition in particular? I have a 2005 Knopf edition, it doesn't have such thin pages as LoA. Are there great notes in your edition? Mine doesn't have any notes.

[mona amon]

Ooh, I love Robert Burns!

[Pierre Menard]

Why that edition in particular? I have a 2005 Knopf edition, it doesn't have such thin pages as LoA. Are there great notes in your edition? Mine doesn't have any notes.

A few reasons. One, I love the thin pages, reminds me of The Bible (a purely personal enjoyment). More importantly, it collects all of his poetry as well as his prose (which is very much worth reading, it's wonderful); letters, journal entries, plays, responses to other writers, all of his major non-fiction. There's an abundance of notes too, they're simple, but very helpful (clearing up obscure references, alternative versions of poems, etc). All really scholarly stuff. And finally, I find LoA editions beautiful. Love the hardcover, love the pages, and the presentation is just beautiful.

It's largely just a personal response. Other editions I'm sure are also very good, I just happen to thoroughly enjoy LoA editions.