Modern American Poetry

Produced by Richard Tonsing, David Starner, Stephen Hope and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was produced from scanned images of publi...

The end of the Civil War marked the end of a literary epoch. The New England group, containing (if Poe could be added) all the great names of the ante-bellum period, began to di...

I tell you that we, While you are smirking And lying and shirking Life’s duty of duties, Honest sincerity, We are in verity Free! Free to rejoice In blisses and beauties! Free a...

The new poets have won their way by their differences as well as by their chance similarities. They belong to no one school, represent no single tendency and, differing widely f...

So, my gentle gazelles, thar’s my answer, And here stays Banty Tim: He trumped Death’s ace for me that day, And I’m not goin’ back on him! You may rezoloot till the cows come ho...

As the marsh-hen secretly builds on the watery sod, Behold I will build me a nest on the greatness of God: I will fly in the greatness of God as the marsh-hen flies In the freed...

Is this the Thing the Lord God made and gave To have dominion over sea and land; To trace the stars and search the heavens for power; To feel the passion of Eternity? Is this th...

Yea! She forgets the arm that was wont to go Around her waist. She wears a buckle whose pin Galleth the crook of her young man’s elbow. I forget not, for I that youth have been!...

Over the shoulders and slopes of the dune I saw the white daisies go down to the sea, A host in the sunshine, an army in June, The people God sends us to set our hearts free.

Streets of the roaring town, Hush for him; hush, be still! He comes, who was stricken down Doing the word of our will. Hush! Let him have his state. Give him his soldier’s crown...

I went to the dances at Chandlerville, And played snap-out at Winchester. One time we changed partners, Driving home in the moonlight of middle June, And then I found Davis. We...

Guy Wetmore Carryl, son of Charles Edward Carryl (see page 34), was born in New York City, March 4, 1873. He graduated from Columbia University in 1895, was editor of _Munsey’s...

Miss Lowell obtained her early education through private tuition and travel abroad. These European journeys were the background upon which much of Miss Lowell’s later work is un...

Mary sat musing on the lamp-flame at the table Waiting for Warren. When she heard his step, She ran on tip-toe down the darkened passage To meet him in the doorway with the news...

Meanwhile the newspaperman was having a hard struggle to keep the poet alive. Until he was thirty-six years old, Sandburg was totally unknown to the literary world. In 1914 a gr...

“’Tis thirty years,” I said. “And then the war came on Apace, and our young King had need Of men to serve him oversea Against the heathen. For their greed, Puffed up at Tunis, t...

When he who flouted the Church, or doubted, would find his neck fast in hempen ruff, And saint and sinner thought eggs for dinner and beer for breakfast the proper stuff; When m...

And lo, as he grew ugly, gaunt, And gnarled his way into a man, What wisdom came to feed his want, What worlds came near to let him scan! And as he fathomed through and through...

Clark is one of the few men who have lived to see their work become part of folk-lore; many of his songs having been adapted and paraphrased by the cowboys who have made them th...

_Love Songs_ (1917) is a collection of Miss Teasdale’s previous melodies for the _viola d’amore_ together with several new tunes. The new poems emphasize the way in which this p...

Back on the curving beach I stood again, Facing the bath-house, when a group of men, Stumbling beneath some sort of weight, went by. I could not see the hidden thing they carrie...

Nor word nor touch nor sight Of lover, you Shall long through the night but for this: The roll of the full tide to cover you Without question, Without kiss.

Margaret Widdemer was born at Doylestown, Pennsylvania, and began writing in her childhood. After graduating from Drexel Institute Library School in 1909, she became a contribut...

Such little, puny things are words in rhyme: Poor feeble loops and strokes as frail as hairs; You see them printed here, and mark their chime, And turn to your more durable affa...

Her work divides itself into two distinct classes: the hackwork which she does for a living and the genuine poetry which she creates for its own sake. Her first volume _The Drum...

1. P. 378–380, one of the poems (Renascence) was different in the two otherwise identical editions, so both sets of pages were included. See the second set below. 2. Silently co...