With breath indrawn and every nerve alert,As at the brink of some profound abyss,I love on my bare arm, capricious flirt,To feel the chilly and incisive kiss Of your lithe tongue that forks its swift caressBetween the folded slumber of your fangs,And half reveals the nacreous recessWhere death upon those dainty hinges hangs. Our lonely … Continue reading Poem – “To a Pet Cobra”
Poetry
Poem – “Boots”
INFANTRY COLUMNS We're foot—slog—slog—slog—sloggin' over Africa —Foot—foot—foot—foot—sloggin' over Africa —(Boots—boots—boots—boots—movin' up an' down again!) There's no discharge in the war! Seven—six—eleven—five—nine-an'-twenty mile to-day —Four—eleven—seventeen—thirty-two the day before —(Boots—boots—boots—boots—movin' up an' down again!) There's no discharge in the war! Don't—don't—don't—don't—look at what's … Continue reading Poem – “Boots”
Poem – “Character of the Happy Warrior”
Who is the happy Warrior? Who is heThat every man in arms should wish to be?—It is the generous Spirit, who, when broughtAmong the tasks of real life, hath wroughtUpon the plan that pleased his boyish thought:Whose high endeavours are an inward lightThat makes the path before him always bright;Who, with a natural instinct to … Continue reading Poem – “Character of the Happy Warrior”
Poem – “An American to Mother England”
England! My England! Can the surging seaThat lies between us tear my heart from thee?Can distant birth and distant dwelling drainTh’ ancestral blood that warms the loyal vein?Isle of my Fathers! hear the filial songOf him whose sources but to thee belong!World-conquering Mother! by thy mighty handWas carv’d from savage wilds my native land:Thy matchless … Continue reading Poem – “An American to Mother England”
Poem – “The Truce of the Bear”
Yearly, with tent and rifle, our careless white men goBy the Pass called Muttianee, to shoot in the vale below.Yearly by Muttianee he follows our white men in—Matun, the old blind beggar, bandaged from brow to chin. Eyeless, noseless, and lipless - toothless, broken of speech,Seeking a dole at the doorway he mumbles his tale … Continue reading Poem – “The Truce of the Bear”
Poem – The Prayer of the Proud in Purgatory
Our Father in Heaven, not by Heaven boundedBut there indwelling for the greater loveThou bear'st Thy first works in the realm first-founded, Hallowed be Thy name, hallowed Thy PowerBy every creature as its nature grants itTo praise Thy quickening breath in its brief hour. Let come to us the sweet peace of Thy reign,For if … Continue reading Poem – The Prayer of the Proud in Purgatory
Poem – “O Sacred Head, Surrounded”
O Sacred Head, surroundedby crown of piercing thorn!O bleeding Head, so wounded,reviled and put to scorn!Our sins have marred the gloryof Thy most Holy Face,yet angel hosts adore Theeand tremble as they gaze I see Thy strength and vigorall fading in the strife,and death with cruel rigor,bereaving Thee of life;O agony and dying!O love to … Continue reading Poem – “O Sacred Head, Surrounded”
Poem – “The Hollow Men”
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 … Continue reading Poem – “The Hollow Men”
Poem – “Silver”
Slowly, silently, now the moonWalks the night in her silver shoon;This way, and that, she peers, and seesSilver fruit upon silver trees;One by one the casements catchHer beams beneath the silvery thatch;Couched in his kennel, like a log,With paws of silver sleeps the dog;From their shadowy cote the white breasts peepOf doves in a silver-feathered … Continue reading Poem – “Silver”
Poem – “To Those That Mourn”
Lift up your heads: in life, in death,God knoweth his head was high.Quit we the coward's broken breathWho watched a strong man die. If we must say, 'No more his peerCometh; the flag is furled.'Stand not too near him, lest he hearThat slander on the world. The good green earth he loved and trodIs still, … Continue reading Poem – “To Those That Mourn”
Serpent's Den 