Just seen the bottom of the water
Just seen the bottom of the water—that's the way the small duck looks
A Dragonfly catches a fly
A dragonfly catches a fly under my hat
The Bottom of loneliness
The bottom of loneliness falls off in this sleet
Both fields and mountains
Both fields and mountains, robbed by the snow, having nothing left
Blackening the offing
Blackening the offing, the shower moves along
Now in the palace gardens warm with age
Now in the palace gardens warm with age,
On lawn and flower-bed this afternoon
The thin November-coloured foliage
Just as last year unfastens lilting down,
And round the terrace in gray attitude
The very statues are becoming sere
With long presentiment of solitude.
Most of the life that I have lived is here,
Here by the path and autumn's earthly grass
And chestnuts standing down the breadths of sky:
Indeed I know not how it came to pass,
The life I lived here so unhappily.
Yet blessing over all! I do not care
On lawn and flower-bed this afternoon
The thin November-coloured foliage
Just as last year unfastens lilting down,
And round the terrace in gray attitude
The very statues are becoming sere
With long presentiment of solitude.
Most of the life that I have lived is here,
Here by the path and autumn's earthly grass
And chestnuts standing down the breadths of sky:
Indeed I know not how it came to pass,
The life I lived here so unhappily.
Yet blessing over all! I do not care
Dull words that swim upon the page
Dull words that swim upon the page
Thro' filmy tears of joy and pain!
Poor silly words, my only gage!
Mere words, recurrent as refrain!
Ye prove me language less than nought
And all the loss of utterance.
Ye give me scraps of withered thought
And sounds that meet as by a chance.
If I should find ye once again,
If you should come again to me,
Dull words about my joy and pain,
Mere words, what would ye signify?
Thro' filmy tears of joy and pain!
Poor silly words, my only gage!
Mere words, recurrent as refrain!
Ye prove me language less than nought
And all the loss of utterance.
Ye give me scraps of withered thought
And sounds that meet as by a chance.
If I should find ye once again,
If you should come again to me,
Dull words about my joy and pain,
Mere words, what would ye signify?
Rimer
The rimer quenches his unheeded fires,
The sound surceases and the sense expires.
Then the domestic dog, to east and west,
Expounds the passions burning in his breast.
The rising moon o'er that enchanted land
Pauses to hear and yearns to understand.
The sound surceases and the sense expires.
Then the domestic dog, to east and west,
Expounds the passions burning in his breast.
The rising moon o'er that enchanted land
Pauses to hear and yearns to understand.
Gorgon
Who looked upon her awful brow.
We dig them out of ruins now,
And swear that workmanship so bad
Proves all the ancient sculptors mad.
We dig them out of ruins now,
And swear that workmanship so bad
Proves all the ancient sculptors mad.
Freedom
Freedom, as every schoolboy knows,
Once shrieked as Kosciusko fell;
On every wind, indeed, that blows
I hear her yell.
She screams whenever monarchs meet,
And parliaments as well,
To bind the chains about her feet
And toll her knell.
And when the sovereign people cast
The votes they cannot spell,
Upon the lung-impested blast
Her clamors swell.
For all to whom the power's given
To sway or to compel,
Among themselves apportion heaven
And give her hell.
Once shrieked as Kosciusko fell;
On every wind, indeed, that blows
I hear her yell.
She screams whenever monarchs meet,
And parliaments as well,
To bind the chains about her feet
And toll her knell.
And when the sovereign people cast
The votes they cannot spell,
Upon the lung-impested blast
Her clamors swell.
For all to whom the power's given
To sway or to compel,
Among themselves apportion heaven
And give her hell.