When I was 17, it was a very good yearIt was a very good year for small town girlsAnd soft summer nightsWe'd hide from the lightsOn the village greenWhen I was 17 When I was 21, it was a very good yearIt was a very good year for city girlsWho lived up the stairsWith all … Continue reading Poem – “It Was a Very Good Year”
Poetry
Poem – “Christmas”
The bells of waiting Advent ring,The Tortoise stove is lit againAnd lamp-oil light across the nightHas caught the streaks of winter rainIn many a stained-glass window sheenFrom Crimson Lake to Hookers Green. The holly in the windy hedgeAnd round the Manor House the yewWill soon be stripped to deck the ledge,The altar, font and arch … Continue reading Poem – “Christmas”
Poem – “The Nightmare Before Christmas”
It was late one fall in Halloweenland,And the air had quite a chill.Against the moon a skeleton sat,Alone upon a hill. He was tall and thin with a bat bow tie;Jack Skellington was his name.He was tired and bored in Halloweenland -Everything was always the same. "I'm sick of the scaring, the terror, the fright.I'm … Continue reading Poem – “The Nightmare Before Christmas”
Poem – “To Solitude”
O Solitude! if I must with thee dwell,Let it not be among the jumbled heapOf murky buildings: climb with me the steep,—Nature's observatory—whence the dell,In flowery slopes, its river's crystal swell,May seem a span; let me thy vigils keep'Mongst boughs pavilioned, where the deer's swift leapStartles the wild bee from the foxglove bell.But though I'll … Continue reading Poem – “To Solitude”
Poetry – “Prometheus”
Titan! to whose immortal eyes The sufferings of mortality, Seen in their sad reality,Were not as things that gods despise;What was thy pity's recompense?A silent suffering, and intense;The rock, the vulture, and the chain,All that the proud can feel of pain,The agony they do not show,The suffocating sense of woe, Which speaks but in its loneliness,And then is … Continue reading Poetry – “Prometheus”
Poem – “A Psalm of Life”
Tell me not, in mournful numbers,Life is but an empty dream!For the soul is dead that slumbers, And things are not what they seem. Life is real! Life is earnest! And the grave is not its goal;Dust thou art, to dust returnest, Was not spoken of the soul. Not enjoyment, and not sorrow, Is our destined end or way;But … Continue reading Poem – “A Psalm of Life”
Poem – “The Song of the Strange Ascetic”
If I had been a Heathen,I'd have praised the purple vine,My slaves should dig the vineyards,And I would drink the wine.But Higgins is a Heathen,And his slaves grow lean and grey,That he may drink some tepid milkExactly twice a day. If I had been a Heathen,I'd have crowned Neaera's curls,And filled my life with love … Continue reading Poem – “The Song of the Strange Ascetic”
Poem – “Song of Saul Before His Last Battle”
Warriors and chiefs! should the shaft or the swordPierce me in leading the host of the Lord,Heed not the corse, though a king's, in your path:Bury your steel in the bosoms of Gath! Thou who are bearing my buckler and bow,Should the soldiers of Saul look away from the foe,Stretch me that moment in blood … Continue reading Poem – “Song of Saul Before His Last Battle”
Poem – From ‘An Essay on Man’
Say first, of God above, or man belowWhat can we reason but from what we know?Of man, what see we but his station,From which to reason, or to which refer?Through worlds unnumbered though the God be known,'Tis ours to trace him only in our own.He who through vast immensity can pierce,See worlds on worlds compose … Continue reading Poem – From ‘An Essay on Man’
Poem – “Halloween in a Suburb”
The steeples are white in the wild moonlight,And the trees have a silver glare;Past the chimneys high see the vampires fly,And the harpies of upper air,That flutter and laugh and stare. For the village dead to the moon outspreadNever shone in the sunset’s gleam,But grew out of the deep that the dead years keepWhere the … Continue reading Poem – “Halloween in a Suburb”
Serpent's Den 