Poetry Books

INTRODUCTION One Spring day in London, long before the invention of freak verse and Freudism, I was standing in front of the Cafe Royal in Regent Street when there emerged from its portals the most famous young writer of the day, the Poet about whose latest work "The Book Bills of Narcissus" all literary London was then talking. Richard Le Gallienne was the first real poet I had ever laid eyes... more...

A JOLLY BOOK How can they put in black and whiteWhat little children think at night,When lights are out and prayers are said,And you are all tucked up in bed? Such funny dreams go dancing throughYour head, of things nobody knew,Or saw, or ever half believes!—They're all inside these singing leaves. And little children laugh and goA-ring-a-round-a-rosy-O;And birds sing gay—you'd almost... more...

The prologue   THe prudent problems / & the noble werkes Of the gentyll poetes in olde antyquyte Vnto this day hath made famous clerkes For the poetes Wrote nothynge in vanyte But grounded them on good moralyte Encensynge out the fayre dulcet fume Our langage rude to exyle and consume The ryght eloquent poete and monke of bery Made many fayre bookes / as it is probable From ydle derkenes / to... more...

“Arms and the man” was Virgil’s strain; But we propose in lighter vein To browse a crop from pastures (Green’s) Of England’s Evolution scenes. Who would from facts prognosticate The future progress of this State, Must own the chiefest fact to be Her escalator is the Sea.   HISTORIANS erudite and sage, When writing of the past stone age, Tell us man once was clothed in skins And tattooed... more...

A Hero and A Great Man They say knowledge is power.Power walks with ambition.Ambition will devourA man without vision. Through a turbid town,A great man walks.Through a troubled town,A great man talks. He tells tales of bravery.On attention he feeds.With speech most savoryHe boasts of great deeds. He is well respected.He enjoys much recognition.He hopes to be selectedFor a prestigious position. He... more...

WHEN YOU KNOW A FELLOW   When you get to know a fellow, know his joys    and know his cares,  When you've come to understand him and the    burdens that he bears,  When you've learned the fight he's making and    the troubles in his way,  Then you find that he is different than you    thought him yesterday.  You find his faults are trivial and there's not... more...

INTRODUCTION In the preface to each of his volumes of pastorals (Pastorals. After the simple Manner of Theocritus, 1717; Pastorals. viz. The Bashful Swain: and Beauty and Simplicity, 1717) Thomas Purney rushed into critical discussions with the breathlessness of one impatient to reveal his opinions, and, after touching on a variety of significant topics, cut himself short with the promise of a future... more...

A FROG HE WOULDA-WOOING GO         A Frog he would a-wooing go,            Heigho, says Rowley!Whether his Mother would let him or no.        With a rowley-powley, gammon and spinach,            Heigho, says Anthony Rowley! So off he set with his opera-hat,            Heigho, says Rowley!And on his way he met with a Rat.        With a rowley-powley, gammon and spinach, ... more...

In an old world garden dreaming,Where the flowers had human names,Methought, in fantastic seeming,They disported as squires and dames. Of old in Rosamond's Bower,With it's peacock hedges of yew,One could never find the flowerUnless one was given the clue;So take the key of the wicket,Who would follow my fancy free,By formal knot and clipt thicket,And smooth greensward so fair to see And while... more...

Second Fig   Safe upon the solid rock the ugly houses stand:  Come and see my shining palace built upon the sand! Recuerdo   We were very tired, we were very merry—  We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry.  It was bare and bright, and smelled like a stable—  But we looked into a fire, we leaned across a table,  We lay on a hill-top underneath the moon;  And the whistles... more...