PolyArchive

The Waking Theodore Roethke I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow. I feel my fate in what I cannot fear. I learn by going where I have to go. We think by feeling. What is there to know? I hear my being dance from ear to ear. I wake to sleep, and take […]

Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening Robert Frost Whose woods these are I think I know His house is in the village though; He will not see me stopping here To watch his woods fill up with snow. My little horse must think it queer To stop without a farmhouse near Between the woods […]

Now at Liberty Dorothy Parker Little white love, your way you’ve taken; Now I am left alone, alone. Little white love, my heart’s forsaken. (Whom shall I get by telephone?) Well do I know there’s no returning; Once you go out, it’s done, it’s done. All of my days are gray with yearning. (Nevertheless, a […]

Spotkanie Czesław Miłosz Jechaliśmy przed świtem po zamarzłych polach, Czerwone skrzydło wstawało, jeszcze noc. I zając przebiegł nagle tuż przed nami, A jeden z nas pokazał go ręką. To było dawno. Dzisiaj już nie żyją Ni zając, ani ten co go wskazywał. Miłości moja, gdzież są, dokąd idą Błysk ręki, linia biegu, szelest grud — […]

Compensation Frances Ridley Havergal (1836-1879) Oh, the compensating springs! Oh, the balance-wheels of life, Hidden away in the workings under the seeming strife! Slowing the fret and the friction, weighting the whirl and the force, Evolving the truest power from each unconscious source. How shall we gauge the whole, who can only guess a part? […]

The Hollow Men T. S. Eliot Mistah Kurtz–he dead A penny for the Old Guy I We are the hollow men We are the stuffed men Leaning together Headpiece filled with straw. Alas! Our dried voices, when We whisper together Are quiet and meaningless As wind in dry grass Or rats’ feet over broken glass […]

[i carry your heart with me(i carry it in] e. e. cummings i carry your heart with me(i carry it in my heart)i am never without it(anywhere i go you go, my dear; and whatever is done by only me is your doing, my darling) i fear no fate(for you are my fate, my sweet)i […]

THE BALL POEM
John Berryman

What is the boy now, who has lost his ball,
What, what is he to do? I saw it go
Merrily bouncing, down the street, and then
Merrily over–there it is in the water!
No use to say ‘O there are other balls’:
An ultimate shaking grief fixes the boy