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SARA TEASDALE
I feel the spring far off, far off, The faint, far scent of bud and leaf Oh, how can spring take heart to come To a world in grief, Deep grief? The sun turns north, the days grow long, Later the evening star grows bright How can the daylight linger on For men to fight, Still fight? ...
Spring in War-Time
Modern
Love
IVOR GURNEY
Lying in dug-outs, joking idly, wearily; Watching the candle guttering in the draught; Hearing the great shells go high over us, eerily Singing; how often have I turned over, and laughed With pity and pride, photographs of all colours, All sizes, subjects: khaki brothers in France; Or mother's faces w...
Photographs
Modern
Love
WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS
I went out to the hazel wood, Because a fire was in my head, And cut and peeled a hazel wand, And hooked a berry to a thread; And when white moths were on the wing, And moth-like stars were flickering out, I dropped the berry in a stream And caught a little silver trout. When I had laid it on the floor I wen...
The Song of Wandering Aengus
Modern
Love
LOUISE BOGAN
Now that I know That passion warms little Of flesh in the mold, And treasure is brittle, Ill lie here and learn How, over their ground, Trees make a long shadow And a light sound. August 1922
Knowledge
Modern
Love
GERTRUDE STEIN
Gertrude Stein, Idem the Same: A Valentine to Sherwood Anderson from A Stein Reader. Copyright 1993 by Gertrude Stein. Reprinted by permission of David Higham: Estate of Gertrude Stein .
Idem the Same: A Valentine to Sherwood Anderson
Modern
Love
EZRA POUND
Ezra Pound, "Canto IV" from The Cantos of Ezra Pound. Copyright 1993 by Ezra Pound. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corporation.
Canto IV
Modern
Love
EZRA POUND
Ezra Pound, "Canto XXXVI" from The Cantos of Ezra Pound. Copyright 1993 by Ezra Pound. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corporation.
Canto XXXVI
Modern
Love
JAMES JOYCE
from Dana, 1904
Song
Modern
Love
PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR
The moon has left the sky, love, The stars are hiding now, And frowning on the world, love, Night bares her sable brow. The snow is on the ground, love, And cold and keen the air is. Im singing here to you, love; Youre dreaming there in Paris. But this is Natures law, love, Though just it may not seem, Th...
Night of Love
Modern
Love
PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR
Thou art my lute, by thee I sing, My being is attuned to thee. Thou settest all my words a-wing, And meltest me to melody. Thou art my life, by thee I live, From thee proceed the joys I know; Sweetheart, thy hand has power to give The meed of lovethe cup of woe. Thou art my love, by th...
Thou Art My Lute
Modern
Love
WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS
Wine comes in at the mouth And love comes in at the eye; Thats all we shall know for truth Before we grow old and die. I lift the glass to my mouth, I look at you, and I sigh.
A Drinking Song
Modern
Love
CARL SANDBURG
Bilbea, I was in Babylon on Saturday night. I saw nothing of you anywhere. I was at the old place and the other girls were there, But no Bilbea. Have you gone to another house? or city? Why dont you write? I was sorry. I walked home half-sick. Tell me how it goes. Send me some kind of a letter. And take ca...
Bilbea
Modern
Love
CARL SANDBURG
How much do you love me, a million bushels? Oh, a lot more than that, Oh, a lot more. And tomorrow maybe only half a bushel? Tomorrow maybe not even a half a bushel. And is this your heart arithmetic? This is the way the wind measures the weather.
How Much?
Modern
Love
E. E. CUMMINGS
E.E. Cummings, [as freedom is a breakfastfood] from Complete Poems 1904-1962, edited by George J. Firmage. Copyright 1926, 1954, 1991 by the Trustees for the E.E. Cummings Trust. Copyright 1985 by George James Firmage. Reprinted with the permission of Liveright Publishing Corporation.
[as freedom is a breakfastfood]
Modern
Love
E. E. CUMMINGS
E.E. Cummings, [love is more thicker than forget] from Complete Poems 1904-1962, edited by George J. Firmage. Copyright 1926, 1954, 1991 by the Trustees for the E.E. Cummings Trust. Copyright 1985 by George James Firmage. Reprinted with the permission of Liveright Publishing Corporation.
[love is more thicker than forget]
Modern
Love
ELINOR WYLIE
1 When the world turns completely upside down You say well emigrate to the Eastern Shore Aboard a river-boat from Baltimore; Well live among wild peach trees, miles from town, Youll wear a coonskin cap, and I a gown Homespun, dyed butternuts dark gold color. Lost, like your l...
Wild Peaches
Modern
Love
KENNETH FEARING
Kenneth Fearing, "Aphrodite Metropolis (2)" from Collected Poems of Kenneth Fearing. Published by Random House, 1940. Reprinted by the permission of Russell & Volkening, Inc., as agents for the author. Copyright 1994 by Jubal Fearing and Phoebe Fearing.
Aphrodite Metropolis (2)
Modern
Love
KENNETH FEARING
Kenneth Fearing, "X Minus X" from Collected Poems of Kenneth Fearing. Published by Random House, 1940. Reprinted by the permission of Russell & Volkening, Inc., as agents for the author. Copyright 1994 by Jubal Fearing and Phoebe Fearing.
X Minus X
Modern
Love
EZRA POUND
Suddenly discovering in the eyes of the very beautiful Normande cocotte The eyes of the very learned British Museum assistant.
Pagani's, November 8
Modern
Love
WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS
We sat together at one summers end, That beautiful mild woman, your close friend, And you and I, and talked of poetry. I said, A line will take us hours maybe; Yet if it does not seem a moments thought, Our stitching and unstitching has been naught. Better go down upon your marrow-bones And scrub a k...
Adam's Curse
Modern
Love
HART CRANE
I wanted you, nameless Woman of the South, No wraith, but utterlyas still more alone The Southern Cross takes night And lifts her girdles from her, one by one High, cool, wide from the slowly smoldering fire Of lower heavens, vaporous scars! Eve! Magdalene! or Mary, you? Whatever callfalls vainly on the w...
from The Bridge: Southern Cross
Modern
Love
SARA TEASDALE
Originally published in Poetry, March 1914.
Debt
Modern
Love
WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS
Down by the salley gardens my love and I did meet; She passed the salley gardens with little snow-white feet. She bid me take love easy, as the leaves grow on the tree; But I, being young and foolish, with her would not agree. In a field by the river my love and I did stand, And on my leaning...
Down By the Salley Gardens
Modern
Love
LOUISE BOGAN
Louise Bogan, Epitaph for a Romantic Woman from Body of this Death: Poems (New York: Robert M. McBride, 1923). Copyright 1923 by Louise Bogan. Reprinted with the permission of the Estate of Louise Bogan.
Epitaph for a Romantic Woman
Modern
Love
GERTRUDE STEIN
Gertrude Stein, [The house was twinkling in the moon light] from Baby Precious Always Shines: Selected Love Notes Between Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas (St. Martins Press, 1999). Reprinted with the permission of the Estate of Gertrude Stein.
[The house was just twinkling in the moon light]
Modern
Love
WALLACE STEVENS
You dweller in the dark cabin, To whom the watermelon is always purple, Whose garden is wind and moon, Of the two dreams, night and day, What lover, what dreamer, would choose The one obscured by sleep? Here is the plantain by your door And the best cock of red feather That crew before the clock...
Hymn from a Watermelon Pavilion
Modern
Love
E. E. CUMMINGS
[i carry your heart with me(i carry it in] Copyright 1952, 1980, 1991 by the Trustees for the E. E. Cummings Trust, from Complete Poems: 1904-1962 by E. E. Cummings, edited by George J. Firmage. Used by permission of Liveright Publishing Corporation.
[i carry your heart with me(i carry it in]
Modern
Love
PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR
Come when the nights are bright with stars Or come when the moon is mellow; Come when the sun his golden bars Drops on the hay-field yellow. Come in the twilight soft and gray, Come in the night or come in the day, Come, O love, wheneer you may, And you are welcome, welcome. You are sweet, O Love, dear Love, ...
Invitation to Love
Modern
Love
LOUISE BOGAN
Louise Bogan, Juans Song from The Blue Estuaries: Poems 1923-1968. Copyright 1968 by Louise Bogan. Used by permission of Farrar, Straus & Giroux, LLC, http://us.macmillan.com/fsg. All rights reserved.
Juans Song
Modern
Love
EZRA POUND
Originally published in Poetry, August 1914.
Ladies
Modern
Love
LOUISE BOGAN
Originally published in Poetry, August 1922.
Leave-Taking
Modern
Love
MICHAEL ANANIA
Michael Anania, Motet from Selected Poems. Copyright 1994 by Michael Anania. Used by permission of Asphodel Press/Acorn Alliance.
Motet
Modern
Love
KENNETH SLESSOR
Kenneth Slessor, New Magic from Selected Poems, published by HarperCollins Publishers Australia. Used by permission.
New Magic
Modern
Love
ASIL BUNTING
Basil Bunting, 30. The Orotava Road from Complete Poems, edited by Richard Caddel. Reprinted with the permission of Bloodaxe Books Ltd., www.bloodaxebooks.com.
from Odes: 30. The Orotava Road
Modern
Love
SARA TEASDALE
Originally published in Poetry, March 1914.
Old Love and New
Modern
Love
SARA TEASDALE
Originally published in Poetry, March 1914.
Over the Roofs
Modern
Love
EZRA POUND
While my hair was still cut straight across my forehead I played about the front gate, pulling flowers. You came by on bamboo stilts, playing horse, You walked about my seat, playing with blue plums. And we went on living in the village of Chokan: Two small people, without dislike or suspicion. At fourteen I marr...
The River-Merchants Wife: A Letter
Modern
Love
SARA TEASDALE
Since there is no escape, since at the end My body will be utterly destroyed, This hand I love as I have loved a friend, This body I tended, wept with and enjoyed; Since there is no escape even for me Who love life with a love too sharp to bear: The scent of orchards in the rain, the sea And hours alone too stil...
Since There Is No Escape
Modern
Love
LOUISE BOGAN
Louise Bogan, Song for the Last Act from The Blue Estuaries: Poems 1923-1968. Copyright 1968 by Louise Bogan. Used by permission of Farrar, Straus & Giroux, LLC, http://us.macmillan.com/fsg. All rights reserved.
Song for the Last Act
Modern
Love
D. H. LAWRENCE
Originally published in Poetry, December 1914.
Song (Love has crept...)
Modern
Love
LOUISE BOGAN
Originally published in Poetry, August 1922.
To a Dead Lover
Modern
Love
JAMES JOYCE
Originally published in Poetry, May 1917.
Tutto Sciolto
Modern
Love
ELINOR WYLIE
Too high, too high to pluck My heart shall swing. A fruit no bee shall suck, No wasp shall sting. If on some night of cold It falls to ground In apple-leaves of gold Ill wrap it round. And I shall seal it up With spice and salt, In a carven silver cup, In a deep vault. Before my eyes are blind And my...
Valentine
Modern
Love
MARJORIE PICKTHALL
When the first dark had fallen around them And the leaves were weary of praise, In the clear silence Beauty found them And shewed them all her ways. In the high noon of the heavenly garden Where the angels sunned with the birds, Beauty, before their hearts could harden, Had taught them heavenly words. When ...
Adam and Eve
Modern
Love
D. H. LAWRENCE
My love looks like a girl to-night, But she is old. The plaits that lie along her pillow Are not gold, But threaded with filigree silver, And uncanny cold. She looks like a young maiden, since her brow Is smooth and fair, Her cheeks are very smooth, her eyes are closed. She slee...
The Bride
Modern
Love
WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS
The jester walked in the garden: The garden had fallen still; He bade his soul rise upward And stand on her window-sill. It rose in a straight blue garment, When owls began to call: It had grown wise-tongued by thinking Of a quiet and light footfall; But the young queen would not listen; She rose in her pa...
The Cap and Bells
Modern
Love
D. H. LAWRENCE
What large, dark hands are those at the window Lifted, grasping the golden light Which weaves its way through the creeper leaves To my heart's delight? Ah, only the leaves! But in the west, In the west I see a redness come Over the evening's burning breast 'Tis the wound of love goes home! T...
Cruelty and Love
Modern
Love
SARA TEASDALE
Supper comes at five o'clock, At six, the evening star, My lover comes at eight o'clock But eight o'clock is far. How could I bear my pain all day Unless I watched to see The clock-hands laboring to bring Eight o'clock to me.
Eight O'Clock
Modern
Love
EZRA POUND
Go, dumb-born book, Tell her that sang me once that song of Lawes: Hadst thou but song As thou hast subjects known, Then were there cause in thee that should condone Even my faults that heavy upon me lie And build her glories their longevity. Tell her that sheds Such treasure in the air, Recking naught else ...
Envoi
Modern
Love
SARA TEASDALE
They came to tell your faults to me, They named them over one by one; I laughed aloud when they were done, I knew them all so well before, Oh, they were blind, too blind to see Your faults had made me love you more.
Faults
Modern
Love
LOUIS UNTERMEYER
I never knew the earth had so much gold The fields run over with it, and this hill Hoary and old, Is young with buoyant blooms that flame and thrill. Such golden fires, such yellowlo, how good This spendthrift world, and what a lavish God! This fringe of wood, Blazing with buttercup and goldenrod. You too, ...
Feuerzauber
Modern
Love
D. H. LAWRENCE
When she rises in the morning I linger to watch her; She spreads the bath-cloth underneath the window And the sunbeams catch her Glistening white on the shoulders, While down her sides the mellow Golden shadow glows as She stoops to the sponge, and her swung breasts Sway like full-blown yellow Gloire de Dijon ...
Gloire de Dijon
Modern
Love
LOUIS UNTERMEYER
Louis Untermeyer, Infidelity from The New Poetry: An Anthology of Twentieth Century Verse in English, ed. Harriet Monroe (New York: Macmillan, 1936). Permission is granted by arrangement with the Estate of Louis Untermeyer, Norma Anchin Untermeyer c/o Professional Publishing Services. The reprint is granted with the ex...
Infidelity
Modern
Love
D. H. LAWRENCE
Version 1 (1921) Yours is the shame and sorrow, But the disgrace is mine; Your love was dark and thorough, Mine was the love of the sun for a flower He creates with his shine. I was diligent to explore you, Blossom you stalk by stalk, Till my fire of creation bore you Shrivelling down in the final dour Angu...
Last Words to Miriam
Modern
Love
SARA TEASDALE
Strephon kissed me in the spring, Robin in the fall, But Colin only looked at me And never kissed at all. Strephon's kiss was lost in jest, Robin's lost in play, But the kiss in Colin's eyes Haunts me night and day.
The Look
Modern
Love
T. S. ELIOT
Let us go then, you and I, When the evening is spread out against the sky Like a patient etherized upon a table; Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets, The muttering retreats Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells: Streets that follow like a tedious arg...
The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
Modern
Love
EDGAR LEE MASTERS
I went to the dances at Chandlerville, And played snap-out at Winchester. One time we changed partners, Driving home in the moonlight of middle June, And then I found Davis. We were married and lived together for seventy years, Enjoying, working, raising the twelve children, Eight of whom we lost Ere I had reac...
Lucinda Matlock
Modern
Love
PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR
Seen my lady home las' night, Jump back, honey, jump back. Hel' huh han' an' sque'z it tight, Jump back, honey, jump back. Hyeahd huh sigh a little sigh, Seen a light gleam f'om huh eye, An' a smile go flittin' by Jump back, honey, jump back. Hyeahd de win' blow thoo de pine, Jump back, honey, jump back. M...
A Negro Love Song
Modern
Love
PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR
W'en daih's chillun in de house, Dey keep on a-gittin' tall; But de folks don' seem to see Dat dey's growin' up at all, 'Twell dey fin' out some fine day Dat de gals has 'menced to grow, W'en dey notice as dey pass Dat de front gate's saggin' low. W'en de hinges creak an' cry, An' de bahs go slantin' down, ...
The Old Front Gate
Modern
Love
SARA TEASDALE
I saw her in a Broadway car, The woman I might grow to be; I felt my lover look at her And then turn suddenly to me. Her hair was dull and drew no light And yet its color was as mine; Her eyes were strangely like my eyes Tho' love had never made them shine. Her body was a thing grown thin, Hungry for love ...
The Old Maid
Modern
Love
WALLACE STEVENS
I Just as my fingers on these keys Make music, so the selfsame sounds On my spirit make a music, too. Music is feeling, then, not sound; And thus it is that what I feel, Here in this room, desiring you, Thinking of your blue-shadowed silk, Is music. It is like the s...
Peter Quince at the Clavier
Modern
Love
T. S. ELIOT
I Among the smoke and fog of a December afternoon You have the scene arrange itself as it will seem to do With "I have saved this afternoon for you"; And four wax candles in the darkened room, Four rings of light upon the ceiling overhead, An atmosphere of Juliet's tomb Prepared for all the things to be said, o...
Portrait of a Lady
Modern
Love
EDGAR LEE MASTERS
Maurice, weep not, I am not here under this pine tree. The balmy air of spring whispers through the sweet grass, The stars sparkle, the whippoorwill calls, But thou grievest, while my soul lies rapturous In the blest Nirvana of eternal light! Go to the good heart that is my husband, Who broods upon what he calls ...
Sarah Brown
Modern
Love
MARJORIE PICKTHALL
I shall not go with pain Whether you hold me, whether you forget My little loss and my immortal gain. O flower unseen, O fountain sealed apart! Give me one look, one look remembering yet, Sweet heart. I shall not go with grief, Whether you call me, whether you deny The crowning vintage and the golden sheaf. ...
Song
Modern
Love
PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR
Wintah, summah, snow er shine, Hit's all de same to me, Ef only I kin call you mine, An' keep you by my knee. Ha'dship, frolic, grief er caih, Content by night an' day, Ef only I kin see you whaih You wait beside de way. Livin', dyin', smiles er teahs, My soul will still be free, Ef only thoo de comin' ye...
Song (Wintah, summah, snow er shine)
Modern
Love
LOUISE BOGAN
This youth too long has heard the break Of waters in a land of change. He goes to see what suns can make From soil more indurate and strange. He cuts what holds his days together And shuts him in, as lock on lock: The arrowed vane announcing weather, The tripping racket of a clock; Seeking, I think, a light...
A Tale
Modern
Love
D. H. LAWRENCE
Making his advances He does not look at her, nor sniff at her, No, not even sniff at her, his nose is blank. Only he senses the vulnerable folds of skin That work beneath her while she sprawls along In her ungainly pace, Her folds of skin that work and row Beneath the earth-soiled hovel in which she moves. ...
Tortoise Gallantry
Modern
Love
D. H. LAWRENCE
I thought he was dumb, I said he was dumb, Yet I've heard him cry. First faint scream, Out of life's unfathomable dawn, Far off, so far, like a madness, under the horizon's dawning rim, Far, far off, far scream. Tortoise in extremis. Why were we crucified into sex? Why were we not left rounded off, and f...
Tortoise Shout
Modern
Love
SARA TEASDALE
With the man I love who loves me not, I walked in the street-lamps' flare; We watched the world go home that night In a flood through Union Square. I leaned to catch the words he said That were light as a snowflake falling; Ah well that he never leaned to hear The words my heart was calling. And on we walke...
Union Square
Modern
Love
HART CRANE
Hart Crane, "Voyages I, II, III, IV, V, VI" from The Complete Poems of Hart Crane, edited by Marc Simon. Copyright 1933, 1958, 1966 by Liveright Publishing Corporation. Copyright 1986 by Marc Simon. Used by permission of Liveright Publishing.
Voyages
Modern
Love
WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS
When you are old and grey and full of sleep, And nodding by the fire, take down this book, And slowly read, and dream of the soft look Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep; How many loved your moments of glad grace, And loved your beauty with love false or true, But one man loved the pilgrim soul in yo...
When You Are Old
Modern
Love
CARL SANDBURG
Give me hunger, O you gods that sit and give The world its orders. Give me hunger, pain and want, Shut me out with shame and failure From your doors of gold and fame, Give me your shabbiest, weariest hunger! But leave me a little love, A voice to speak to me in the day end, A hand to touch me in the dark roo...
At a Window
Modern
Love
RICHARD ALDINGTON
Potuia, potuia White grave goddess, Pity my sadness, O silence of Paros. I am not of these about thy feet, These garments and decorum; I am thy brother, Thy lover of aforetime crying to thee, And thou hearest me not. I have whispered thee in thy solitudes Of our loves in Phrygia, The far ecstasy of burni...
To a Greek Marble
Modern
Love