the archivist June 22, 2006

Prospective Immigrants Please Note Adrienne Rich Either you will go through this door or you will not go through. If you go through there is always the risk of remembering your name. Things look at you doubly and you must look back and let them happen. If you do not go through it is possible […]

the archivist June 18, 2006

X Elizabeth Barrett Browning Yet, love, mere love, is beautiful indeed And worthy of acceptation. Fire is bright, Let temple burn, or flax; an equal light Leaps in the flame from cedar-plank or weed: And love is fire. And when I say at need I love thee . . . mark! . . . I […]

the archivist June 17, 2006

The Light of Stars Henry Wadsworth Longfellow The night is come, but not too soon; And sinking silently, All silently, the little moon Drops down behind the sky. There is no light in earth or heaven But the cold light of stars; And the first watch of the night is given To the red planet […]

the archivist June 16, 2006

Acquainted with the Night Robert Frost I have been one acquainted with the night. I have walked out in rain–and back in rain. I have outwalked the furthest city light. I have looked down the saddest city lane. I have passed by the watchman on his beat And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain. I […]

the archivist June 12, 2006

e. e. cummings yours is the music for no instrument yours the preposterous colour unbeheld –mine the unbought contemptuous intent till this our flesh merely shall be excelled by speaking flower (if I have made songs it does not greatly matter to the sun, nor will rain care cautiously who prolongs unserious twilight) shadows have […]

the archivist June 10, 2006

Узник Александр Пушкин Сижу за решёткой в темнице сырой. Вскормлённый в неволе орел молодой, Мой грустный товарищ, махая крылом, Кровавую пищу клюёт под окном, Клюёт, и бросает, и смотрит в окно, Как будто со мною задумал одно. Зовёт меня взглядом и криком своим И вымолвить хочет: “Давай улетим! Мы вольные птицы; пора, брат, пора! Туда, […]

the archivist June 9, 2006

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 […]

the archivist June 5, 2006

The Great Lover Rupert Brooke I have been so great a lover: filled my days So proudly with the splendour of Love’s praise, The pain, the calm, and the astonishment, Desire illimitable, and still content, And all dear names men use, to cheat despair, For the perplexed and viewless streams that bear Our hearts at […]

the archivist June 4, 2006

Sonnet XLI: Having This Day My Horse Sir Philip Sidney Having this day my horse, my hand, my lance Guided so well that I obtain’d the prize, Both by the judgment of the English eyes And of some sent from that sweet enemy France; Horsemen my skill in horsemanship advance, Town folks my strength; a […]

the archivist June 3, 2006

Nocturne Dorothy Parker Always I knew that it could not last (Gathering clouds, and the snowflakes flying), Now it is part of the golden past (Darkening skies, and the night-wind sighing); It is but cowardice to pretend. Cover with ashes our love’s cold crater- Always I’ve known that it had to end Sooner or later. […]

the archivist June 2, 2006

Love (III) George Herbert Love bade me welcome. Yet my soul drew back                               Guilty of dust and sin. But quick-eyed Love, observing me grow slack                              From […]

the archivist May 31, 2006

Sometimes with One I Love Walt Whitman 34. SOMETIMES with one I love, I fill myself with rage, for fear I effuse unreturn’d love; But now I think there is no unreturn’d love—the pay is certain, one way or another; (I loved a certain person ardently, and my love was not return’d; Yet out of […]

the archivist May 30, 2006

XL. Stephen Crane And you love me I love you. You are, then, cold coward. Aye; but, beloved, When I strive to come to you, Man’s opinions, a thousand thickets, My interwoven existence, My life, Caught in the stubble of the world Like a tender veil — This stays me. No strange move can I […]

the archivist May 27, 2006

Dolor Theodore Roethke I have known the inexorable sadness of pencils, Neat in their boxes, dolor of pad and paper-weight, All the misery of manilla folders and mucilage, Desolation in immaculate public places, Lonely reception room, lavatory, switchboard, The unalterable pathos of basin and pitcher, Ritual of multigraph, paper-clip, and comma, Endless duplication of lives […]

the archivist May 25, 2006

A Blessing James Wright Just off the highway to Rochester, Minnesota, Twilight bounds softly forth onto the grass. And the eyes of those two Indian ponies Darken with kindness. They have come gladly out of the willows To welcome my friend and me. We step over the barbed wire into the pasture Where they have […]