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The Giant Book of Poetry

Page 61

by William H. Roetzheim, Editor

My love is as a fever, longing still

  49

  My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun

  47

  My mother said, “Of course

  488

  My pen moves along the page

  562

  My poem would eat nothing

  603

  My toe tips look unusually far away

  506

  My true-love hath my heart, and I have his

  40

  My wife is dead and I am free

  226

  Never the time and the place

  190

  Nobody heard him, the dead man

  435

  Not in that wasted garden

  303

  Not marble, nor the gilded monuments

  46

  Not slowly wrought, nor treasured for their form

  462

  Not, I’ll not, carrion comfort, Despair, not feast on thee

  279

  Nothing is plumb, level or square

  471

  Nothing matters

  595

  Nothing. When we realized you weren’t here

  599

  November, angry at the capital

  223

  Now it is autumn and the falling fruit

  405

  Now that I know

  432

  Now, when he and I meet, after all these years

  479

  Nuns fret not at their convent’s narrow room

  71

  O blush not so! O blush not so!

  137

  O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done

  210

  O generation of the thoroughly smug

  412

  O God, take the sun from the sky!

  362

  O Rose, thou art sick!

  63

  Of all the people in the mornings at the mall

  618

  Of all the questions you might want to ask

  568

  Off work and going upslope for a look

  641

  Oft as I hear thee, wrapt in heavenly art

  278

  Oh father, let us hence—for hark

  107

  Oh Galuppi Baldassare

  185

  Oh, but it is dirty!

  439

  Old Davis owned a solid mica mountain

  322

  Old Eben Flood, climbing alone one night

  310

  Old mare whose eyes

  510

  “O’Melia, my dear, this does everything crown!

  270

  On the then-below-zero day, it was on

  591

  Once Allen Ginsberg stopped to pee

  570

  Once upon a midnight dreary

  175

  Once, when I wandered in the woods alone

  307

  Once, years after your death, I dreamt

  487

  One afternoon the last week in April

  500

  One fallen flower

  40

  One must have a mind of winter

  393

  One of my wishes is that those dark trees

  342

  One of those great, garishly emerald flies that always

  523

  Others taught me with having knelt at well-curbs

  336

  Out of the morning land

  35

  Out of the night that covers me

  283

  Out walking in the frozen swamp one gray day

  350

  Over and over they used to ask me

  303

  Over my head, I see the bronze butterfly

  486

  Ploughman, whose gnarly hand yet kindly wheeled

  277

  Rain has beaded the panes

  540

  Remember me when I am gone away

  262

  Rememberest thou, my sweet, that summer’s day

  218

  Rest Master, for we be a-weary, weary

  412

  River’s old look

  483

  “Schweigen and tanzen” are word spoken by Elektra near the

  475

  September rain falls on a house

  444

  Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?

  45

  She asks me for an admissions card

  573

  She is purposeless as a cyclone; she must move

  396

  She reclines, more or less

  533

  She risked her all, they told me, bravely sinking

  388

  She walks in beauty, like the night

  102

  She was a girl

  529

  Side by side, their faces blurred

  464

  Since there’s no help, come let us kiss and part

  43

  so much depends

  400

  So we’ll go no more a-roving

  103

  Some man unworthy to be possessor

  52

  Some say the world will end in fire

  336

  Somehow none of us knew exactly

  647

  Something startles me where I thought I was safest

  215

  Something there is that doesn’t love a wall

  343

  Strange that I did not know him then

  307

  Sweet are the thoughts that savor of content

  42

  Talking in bed ought to be easiest

  465

  Taped to my wall are 47 pictures: 47 black

  503

  Tell me not, Sweet, I am unkind

  60

  Terence, this is stupid stuff

  288

  Thank Heaven! the crisis

  172

  That night your great guns, unawares

  267

  that rips paper from the walls

  643

  That’s my last duchess painted on the wall

  188

  The apparition of these faces in the crowd

  410

  The art of losing isn’t hard to master

  443

  The back, the yoke, the yardage. Lapped seams

  543

  The Boy died in my alley

  456

  The bud

  484

  The business man the acquirer vast

  210

  The buzz-saw snarled, and rattled in the yard

  320

  The calm

  435

  The ceaseless rain is falling fast

  165

  The cicadas were loud and what looked like a child’s bracelet

  629

  The class has dropped its books. The janitor’s

  666

  The clouds have gathered, and gathered

  36

  The cool that came off sheets just off the line

  538

  The day is cold, and dark, and dreary

  164

  The earth keeps some vibration going

  304

  The farm house lingers, though averse to square

  321

  The feel of it was hairy and coarse

  593

  The first goal is to see the thing itself

  542

  The flower that smiles today

  104

  The grey sea and the long black land

  188

  The house had gone to bring again

  347

  The illustration

  418

  The last night that she lived

  241

  The lead and zinc company

  582

  The lions who ate the Christians

  436

  The little toy dog is covered with dust

  284

  The living come with grassy tread

  342

  The mail is slow here. If
I died, I wouldn’t find out

  511

  The man of life upright

  50

  The man who stood beside me

  493

  the meek have taken

  602

  The miller’s wife had waited long

  316

  The moon drops one or two feathers into the fields

  486

  The moving finger writes; and, having writ

  40

  The murmurs were the first to go

  653

  The name of the author is the first to go

  562

  The night of my cousin’s wedding

  495

  The old priest Peter Gilligan

  299

  The old woman sits on a bench before the door

  416

  The older women wise and tell Anna

  605

  The Owl and the Pussy-cat went to sea

  205

  The pockets of our greatcoats full of barley

  540

  The praisers of women

  428

  The Props assist the House

  242

  The rain set early in tonight

  191

  The river brought down

  470

  The riverbed, dried-up, half full of leaves

  540

  The same old baffling questions! O my friend

  169

  The scene is a monastically bare cell in a Catholic detox center

  560

  The ship you’ve boarded

  660

  The summer morn is bright and fresh

  115

  The sun was shining on the sea

  264

  The telephone poles

  478

  The thirsty earth soaks up the rain

  59

  The time will come

  502

  The time you won your town the race

  290

  The tree the tempest with a crash of wood

  345

  The twilight is sad and cloudy

  166

  The ultimate

  527

  The unconsecrated foe entered my courts

  31

  The valentine of desire is pasted over my heart

  565

  The warden said to me the other day

  504

  The Way I read a Letter’s—this

  242

  The young bloods come round less often now

  33

  There are only two things now

  405

  There are some powerful odors that can pass

  224

  There are strange things done in the midnight sun

  377

  There came a Wind like a Bugle

  243

  There is a drear and lonely tract of hell

  313

  There is a music for lonely hearts nearly always

  392

  There is skill to it

  644

  There was a man whom Sorrow named his Friend

  301

  There was Claw-fingered Kitty and Windy Ike

  370

  There were some dirty plates

  399

  There were the roses, in the rain

  398

  There will come soft rains and the smell of the ground

  404

  There’s a way out

  483

  There’s a certain Slant of light

  244

  “There’s machinery in the butterfly

  392

  They fuck you up, your mum and dad

  466

  They left my hands like a printer’s

  607

  They say my verse is sad: no wonder.

  290

  They shut the road through the woods

  296

  They talk of short-lived pleasure—be it so—

  108

  They were building a house in the Dry Tortugas

  651

  This admirable gadget, when it is wound on a string

  459

  This elderly poet, unpublished for five decades

  480

  This is the time of year

  446

  This Life, which seems so fair

  55

  This living hand, now warm and capable

  138

  This morning we shall spend a few minutes

  460

  This Quiet morning light

  401

  This saying good-by on the edge of the dark

  337

  This strange thing must have crept

  530

  This the last rose of summer

  101

  Thou still unravished bride of quietness

  139

  Thou who abruptly as a knife

  229

  Thou, who wouldst wear the name

  114

  Three men I saw beside a bar

  384

  Three Silences there are: the first of speech

  164

  Three weeks gone and the combatants gone

  458

  Tiger! Tiger! Burning bright

  63

  To him who in the love of nature holds

  109

  To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee

  245

  To see a world in a grain of sand

  64

  Today there is the kind of sunshine old men love

  581

  Today, a coed with a black eye

  657

  Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow

  49

  Traveling through the dark I found a deer

  453

  Turn, turn, my wheel! Turn round and round

  161

  Twelve o’clock

  418

  Two roads diverged in a yellow wood

  349

  Under that embrace of wild saplings held fast

  594

  Under the wide and starry sky

  286

  Vengeful across the cold November moors

  317

  Very fine is my valentine.

  390

  Walking through a field with my little brother Seth

  667

  Walking with you and another lady

  537

  Wan Chu, my adoring husband

  639

  We are wrapped around each other in

  620

  We grow accustomed to the Dark

  245

  We have the picture of you in mind

  400

  We sat around a fire and drank Merlot

  652

  We sat within the farm-house old

  153

  We stripped in the first warm spring night

  492

  We tied branches to our helmets

  608

  We were in love and his uncle had a farm

  656

  We were supposed to do a job in Italy

  610

  Wee, modest, crimson-tipped flow’r

  68

  Well I remember how you smiled

  100

  What happens to a dream deferred?

  434

  What is a modern Poet’s fate?

  141

  What is this life if, full of care

  319

  What the neighbors bring to her kitchen

  476

  What weakness of mind

  647

  Whatever their personal faith

  437

  When all the world is young, lad

  207

  When I am dead, my dearest

  263

  When I consider how my light is spent

  58

  When I go up through the mowing field

  327

  When I heard the learn’d astronomer

  217

  When I see birches bend to left and right

  329

  When I was young they had alrea
dy been

  640

  When Jane felt well enough for me to leave her

  491

 

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