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Contagion
Contagion Elephants are contagious! Be careful how you tread. An Elephant that's been trodden on Should be confined to bed! Leopards are contagious too. Be careful tiny tots. Th…
Feelings
Feelings There must be a wound! No one can be this hurt and not bleed. How could she injure me so? No marks No bruise Worse! People say 'My, you're looking well' .....God help m…
Bazonka
Bazonka Say Bazonka every day That's what my grandma used to say It keeps at bay the Asian Flu' And both your elbows free from glue. So say Bazonka every day (That's what my gra…
A Silly Poem
A Silly Poem Said Hamlet to Ophelia, I'll draw a sketch of thee, What kind of pencil shall I use? B or not B?
Wind in the Beechwood
Wind in the Beechwood The glorying forest shakes and swings with glancing Of boughs that dip and strain; young, slanting sprays Beckon and shift like lissom creatures dancing, W…
Wisdom
Wisdom When Wisdom tells me that the world’s a speck Lost on the shoreless blue of God’s To-Day... I smile, and think, ‘For every man his way: The world’s my ship, and I’m alone…
Villon
Villon They threw me from the gates: my matted hair Was dank with dungeon wetness; my spent frame O’erlaid with marish agues: everywhere Tortured by leaping pangs of frost and f…
What the Captain Said at the Point-to-Point
What the Captain Said at the Point-to-Point I’ve had a good bump round; my little horse Refused the brook first time, Then jumped it prime; And ran out at the double, But of cou…
Tree and Sky
Tree and Sky Let my soul, a shining tree, Silver branches lift towards thee, Where on a hallowed winter’s night The clear-eyed angels may alight. And if there should be tempests…
Twelve Months After
Twelve Months After Hullo! here’s my platoon, the lot I had last year. ‘The war’ll be over soon.’ ‘What ’opes?’ ‘No bloody fear!’ Then, ‘Number Seven, ’shun! All present and cor…
Today
Today This is To-day, a child in white and blue Running to meet me out of Night who stilled The ghost of Yester-eve; this is fair Morn The mother of To-morrow. And these clouds…
To My Brother
To My Brother Give me your hand, my brother, search my face; Look in these eyes lest I should think of shame; For we have made an end of all things base. We are returning by the…
To His Dead Body
To His Dead Body When roaring gloom surged inward and you cried, Groping for friendly hands, and clutched, and died, Like racing smoke, swift from your lolling head phantoms of…
To a Very Wise Man
To a Very Wise Man I Fires in the dark you build; tall quivering flames In the huge midnight forest of the unknown. Your soul is full of cities with dead names, And blind-faced,…
Their Frailty
Their Frailty He's got a Blighty wound. He’s safe; and then War’s fine and bold and bright. She can forget the doomed and prisoned men Who agonize and fight. He’s back in France…
Thrushes
Thrushes Tossed on the glittering air they soar and skim, Whose voices make the emptiness of light A windy palace. Quavering from the brim Of dawn, and bold with song at edge of…
The Troops
The Troops Dim, gradual thinning of the shapeless gloom Shudders to drizzling daybreak that reveals Disconsolate men who stamp their sodden boots And turn dulled, sunken faces t…
The Road
The Road The road is thronged with women; soldiers pass And halt, but never see them; yet they’re here— A patient crowd along the sodden grass, Silent, worn out with waiting, si…
The One-Legged Man
The One-Legged Man Propped on a stick he viewed the August weald; Squat orchard trees and oasts with painted cowls; A homely, tangled hedge, a corn-stalked field, And sound of b…
The Rear-Guard
The Rear-Guard Groping along the tunnel, step by step, He winked his prying torch with patching glare From side to side, and sniffed the unwholesome air. Tins, boxes, bottles, s…
The Last Meeting
The Last Meeting I Because the night was falling warm and still Upon a golden day at April’s end, I thought; I will go up the hill once more To find the face of him that I have…
The Investiture
The Investiture GOD with a Roll of Honour in His hand Sits welcoming the heroes who have died, While sorrowless angels ranked on either side Stand easy in Elysium’s meadow-land.…
The Goldsmith
The Goldsmith This job’s the best I’ve done.’ He bent his head Over the golden vessel that he’d wrought. A bird was singing. But the craftsman’s thought Is a forgotten language,…
The Heritage
The Heritage Cry out on Time that he may take away Your cold philosophies that give no hint Of spirit-quickened flesh; fall down and pray That Death come never with a face of fl…