[ { "title": "Easter", "author": "Joyce Kilmer", "lines": [ "The air is like a butterfly", "With frail blue wings.", "The happy earth looks at the sky", "And sings." ], "linecount": "4" }, { "title": "The Cathedral of Rheims", "author": "Joyce Kilmer", "lines": [ "(From the French of Emile Verhaeren)", "", "He who walks through the meadows of Champagne", "At noon in Fall, when leaves like gold appear,", "Sees it draw near", "Like some great mountain set upon the plain,", "From radiant dawn until the close of day,", "Nearer it grows", "To him who goes", "Across the country. When tall towers lay", "Their shadowy pall", "Upon his way,", "He enters, where", "The solid stone is hollowed deep by all", "Its centuries of beauty and of prayer.", "Ancient French temple! thou whose hundred kings", "Watch over thee, emblazoned on thy walls,", "Tell me, within thy memory-hallowed halls", "What chant of triumph, or what war-song rings?", "Thou hast known Clovis and his Frankish train,", "Whose mighty hand Saint Remy's hand did keep", "And in thy spacious vault perhaps may sleep", "An echo of the voice of Charlemagne.", "For God thou has known fear, when from His side", "Men wandered, seeking alien shrines and new,", "But still the sky was bountiful and blue", "And thou wast crowned with France's love and pride.", "Sacred thou art, from pinnacle to base;", "And in thy panes of gold and scarlet glass", "The setting sun sees thousandfold his face;", "Sorrow and joy, in stately silence pass", "Across thy walls, the shadow and the light;", "Around thy lofty pillars, tapers white", "Illuminate, with delicate sharp flames,", "The brows of saints with venerable names,", "And in the night erect a fiery wall.", "A great but silent fervour burns in all", "Those simple folk who kneel, pathetic, dumb,", "And know that down below, beside the Rhine --", "Cannon, horses, soldiers, flags in line --", "With blare of trumpets, mighty armies come.", "Suddenly, each knows fear;", "Swift rumours pass, that every one must hear,", "The hostile banners blaze against the sky", "And by the embassies mobs rage and cry.", "Now war has come, and peace is at an end.", "On Paris town the German troops descend.", "They are turned back, and driven to Champagne.", "And now, as to so many weary men,", "The glorious temple gives them welcome, when", "It meets them at the bottom of the plain.", "At once, they set their cannon in its way.", "There is no gable now, nor wall", "That does not suffer, night and day,", "As shot and shell in crushing torrents fall.", "The stricken tocsin quivers through the tower;", "The triple nave, the apse, the lonely choir", "Are circled, hour by hour,", "With thundering bands of fire", "And Death is scattered broadcast among men.", "And then", "That which was splendid with baptismal grace;", "The stately arches soaring into space,", "The transepts, columns, windows gray and gold,", "The organ, in whose tones the ocean rolled,", "The crypts, of mighty shades the dwelling places,", "The Virgin's gentle hands, the Saints' pure faces,", "All, even the pardoning hands of Christ the Lord", "Were struck and broken by the wanton sword", "Of sacrilegious lust.", "O beauty slain, O glory in the dust!", "Strong walls of faith, most basely overthrown!", "The crawling flames, like adders glistening", "Ate the white fabric of this lovely thing.", "Now from its soul arose a piteous moan,", "The soul that always loved the just and fair.", "Granite and marble loud their woe confessed,", "The silver monstrances that Popes had blessed,", "The chalices and lamps and crosiers rare", "Were seared and twisted by a flaming breath;", "The horror everywhere did range and swell,", "The guardian Saints into this furnace fell,", "Their bitter tears and screams were stilled in death.", "Around the flames armed hosts are skirmishing,", "The burning sun reflects the lurid scene;", "The German army, fighting for its life,", "Rallies its torn and terrified left wing;", "And, as they near this place", "The imperial eagles see", "Before them in their flight,", "Here, in the solemn night,", "The old cathedral, to the years to be", "Showing, with wounded arms, their own disgrace." ], "linecount": "92" }, { "title": "Mid-ocean in War-time", "author": "Joyce Kilmer", "lines": [ "(For My Mother)", "", "The fragile splendour of the level sea,", "The moon's serene and silver-veiled face,", "Make of this vessel an enchanted place", "Full of white mirth and golden sorcery.", "Now, for a time, shall careless laughter be", "Blended with song, to lend song sweeter grace,", "And the old stars, in their unending race,", "Shall heed and envy young humanity.", "And yet to-night, a hundred leagues away,", "These waters blush a strange and awful red.", "Before the moon, a cloud obscenely grey", "Rises from decks that crash with flying lead.", "And these stars smile their immemorial way", "On waves that shroud a thousand newly dead!" ], "linecount": "15" }, { "title": "Gates and Doors", "author": "Joyce Kilmer", "lines": [ "(For Richardson Little Wright)", "", "There was a gentle hostler", "(And blessed be his name!)", "He opened up the stable", "The night Our Lady came.", "Our Lady and Saint Joseph,", "He gave them food and bed,", "And Jesus Christ has given him", "A glory round his head.", "So let the gate swing open", "However poor the yard,", "Lest weary people visit you", "And find their passage barred;", "Unlatch the door at midnight", "And let your lantern's glow", "Shine out to guide the traveler's", "feet", "To you across the snow.", "There was a courteous hostler", "(He is in Heaven to-night)", "He held Our Lady's bridle", "And helped her to alight;", "He spread clean straw before her", "Whereon she might lie down,", "And Jesus Christ has given him", "An everlasting crown.", "Unlock the door this evening", "And let your gate swing wide,", "Let all who ask for shelter", "Come speedily inside.", "What if your yard be narrow?", "What if your house be small?", "There is a Guest is coming", "Will glorify it all.", "There was a joyous hostler", "Who knelt on Christmas morn", "Beside the radiant manger", "Wherein his Lord was born.", "His heart was full of laughter,", "His soul was full of bliss", "When Jesus, on His Mother's lap,", "Gave him His hand to kiss.", "Unbar your heart this evening", "And keep no stranger out,", "Take from your soul's great portal", "The barrier of doubt.", "To humble folk and weary", "Give hearty welcoming,", "Your breast shall be to-morrow", "The cradle of a King." ], "linecount": "50" }, { "title": "Easter Week", "author": "Joyce Kilmer", "lines": [ "(In memory of Joseph Mary Plunkett)", "", "(\"Romantic Ireland's dead and gone,", "It's with O'Leary in the grave.\")", "", "William Butler Yeats.", "", "\"Romantic Ireland's dead and gone,", "It's with O'Leary in the grave.\"", "Then, Yeats, what gave that Easter dawn", "A hue so radiantly brave?", "There was a rain of blood that day,", "Red rain in gay blue April weather.", "It blessed the earth till it gave birth", "To valour thick as blooms of heather.", "Romantic Ireland never dies!", "O'Leary lies in fertile ground,", "And songs and spears throughout the years", "Rise up where patriot graves are found.", "Immortal patriots newly dead", "And ye that bled in bygone years,", "What banners rise before your eyes?", "What is the tune that greets your ears?", "The young Republic's banners smile", "For many a mile where troops convene.", "O'Connell Street is loudly sweet", "With strains of Wearing of the Green.", "The soil of Ireland throbs and glows", "With life that knows the hour is here", "To strike again like Irishmen", "For that which Irishmen hold dear.", "Lord Edward leaves his resting place", "And Sarsfield's face is glad and fierce.", "See Emmet leap from troubled sleep", "To grasp the hand of Padraic Pearse!", "There is no rope can strangle song", "And not for long death takes his toll.", "No prison bars can dim the stars", "Nor quicklime eat the living soul.", "Romantic Ireland is not old.", "For years untold her youth will shine.", "Her heart is fed on Heavenly bread,", "The blood of martyrs is her wine." ], "linecount": "40" }, { "title": "Father Gerard Hopkins, S. J.", "author": "Joyce Kilmer", "lines": [ "Why didst thou carve thy speech laboriously,", "And match and blend thy words with curious art?", "For Song, one saith, is but a human heart", "Speaking aloud, undisciplined and free.", "Nay, God be praised, Who fixed thy task for thee!", "Austere, ecstatic craftsman, set apart", "From all who traffic in Apollo's mart,", "On thy phrased paten shall the Splendour be!", "Now, carelessly we throw a rhyme to God,", "Singing His praise when other songs are done.", "But thou, who knewest paths Teresa trod,", "Losing thyself, what is it thou hast won?", "O bleeding feet, with peace and glory shod!", "O happy moth, that flew into the Sun!" ], "linecount": "14" }, { "title": "Thanksgiving", "author": "Joyce Kilmer", "lines": [ "(For John Bunker)", "", "The roar of the world is in my ears.", "Thank God for the roar of the world!", "Thank God for the mighty tide of fears", "Against me always hurled!", "Thank God for the bitter and ceaseless strife,", "And the sting of His chastening rod!", "Thank God for the stress and the pain of life,", "And Oh, thank God for God!" ], "linecount": "9" }, { "title": "Roses", "author": "Joyce Kilmer", "lines": [ "(For Katherine Bregy)", "", "I went to gather roses and twine them in a ring,", "For I would make a posy, a posy for the King.", "I got an hundred roses, the loveliest there be,", "From the white rose vine and the pink rose bush and from the red", "rose tree.", "But when I took my posy and laid it at His feet", "I found He had His roses a million times more sweet.", "There was a scarlet blossom upon each foot and hand,", "And a great pink rose bloomed from His side for the healing of the", "land.", "Now of this fair and awful King there is this marvel told,", "That He wears a crown of linked thorns instead of one of gold.", "Where there are thorns are roses, and I saw a line of red,", "A little wreath of roses around His radiant head.", "A red rose is His Sacred Heart, a white rose is His face,", "And His breath has turned the barren world to a rich and flowery", "place.", "He is the Rose of Sharon, His gardener am I,", "And I shall drink His fragrance in Heaven when I die." ], "linecount": "20" }, { "title": "Apology", "author": "Joyce Kilmer", "lines": [ "(For Eleanor Rogers Cox)", "", "For blows on the fort of evil", "That never shows a breach,", "For terrible life-long races", "To a goal no foot can reach,", "For reckless leaps into darkness", "With hands outstretched to a star,", "There is jubilation in Heaven", "Where the great dead poets are.", "There is joy over disappointment", "And delight in hopes that were vain.", "Each poet is glad there was no cure", "To stop his lonely pain.", "For nothing keeps a poet", "In his high singing mood", "Like unappeasable hunger", "For unattainable food.", "So fools are glad of the folly", "That made them weep and sing,", "And Keats is thankful for Fanny Brawne", "And Drummond for his king.", "They know that on flinty sorrow", "And failure and desire", "The steel of their souls was hammered", "To bring forth the lyric fire.", "Lord Byron and Shelley and Plunkett,", "McDonough and Hunt and Pearse", "See now why their hatred of tyrants", "Was so insistently fierce.", "Is Freedom only a Will-o'-the-wisp", "To cheat a poet's eye?", "Be it phantom or fact, it's a noble cause", "In which to sing and to die!", "So not for the Rainbow taken", "And the magical White Bird snared", "The poets sing grateful carols", "In the place to which they have fared;", "But for their lifetime's passion,", "The quest that was fruitless and long,", "They chorus their loud thanksgiving", "To the thorn-crowned Master of Song." ], "linecount": "41" }, { "title": "To a Blackbird and His Mate Who Died in the Spring", "author": "Joyce Kilmer", "lines": [ "(For Kenton)", "", "An iron hand has stilled the throats", "That throbbed with loud and rhythmic glee", "And dammed the flood of silver notes", "That drenched the world in melody.", "The blosmy apple boughs are yearning", "For their wild choristers' returning,", "But no swift wings flash through the tree.", "Ye that were glad and fleet and strong,", "Shall Silence take you in her net?", "And shall Death quell that radiant song", "Whose echo thrills the meadow yet?", "Burst the frail web about you clinging", "And charm Death's cruel heart with singing", "Till with strange tears his eyes are wet.", "The scented morning of the year", "Is old and stale now ye are gone.", "No friendly songs the children hear", "Among the bushes on the lawn.", "When babies wander out a-Maying", "Will ye, their bards, afar be straying?", "Unhymned by you, what is the dawn?", "Nay, since ye loved ye cannot die.", "Above the stars is set your nest.", "Through Heaven's fields ye sing and fly", "And in the trees of Heaven rest.", "And little children in their dreaming", "Shall see your soft black plumage gleaming", "And smile, by your clear music blest." ], "linecount": "29" }, { "title": "In Memory", "author": "Joyce Kilmer", "lines": [ "I", "Serene and beautiful and very wise,", "Most erudite in curious Grecian lore,", "You lay and read your learned books, and bore", "A weight of unshed tears and silent sighs.", "The song within your heart could never rise", "Until love bade it spread its wings and soar.", "Nor could you look on Beauty's face before", "A poet's burning mouth had touched your eyes.", "Love is made out of ecstasy and wonder;", "Love is a poignant and accustomed pain.", "It is a burst of Heaven-shaking thunder;", "It is a linnet's fluting after rain.", "Love's voice is through your song; above and under", "And in each note to echo and remain.", "", "II", "Because Mankind is glad and brave and young,", "Full of gay flames that white and scarlet glow,", "All joys and passions that Mankind may know", "By you were nobly felt and nobly sung.", "Because Mankind's heart every day is wrung", "By Fate's wild hands that twist and tear it so,", "Therefore you echoed Man's undying woe,", "A harp Aeolian on Life's branches hung.", "So did the ghosts of toiling children hover", "About the piteous portals of your mind;", "Your eyes, that looked on glory, could discover", "The angry scar to which the world was blind:", "And it was grief that made Mankind your lover,", "And it was grief that made you love Mankind.", "", "III", "Before Christ left the Citadel of Light,", "To tread the dreadful way of human birth,", "His shadow sometimes fell upon the earth", "And those who saw it wept with joy and fright.", "\"Thou art Apollo, than the sun more bright!\"", "They cried. \"Our music is of little worth,", "But thrill our blood with thy creative mirth", "Thou god of song, thou lord of lyric might!\"", "O singing pilgrim! who could love and follow", "Your lover Christ, through even love's despair,", "You knew within the cypress-darkened hollow", "The feet that on the mountain are so fair.", "For it was Christ that was your own Apollo,", "And thorns were in the laurel on your hair." ], "linecount": "45" }, { "title": "In Memory of Rupert Brooke", "author": "Joyce Kilmer", "lines": [ "In alien earth, across a troubled sea,", "His body lies that was so fair and young.", "His mouth is stopped, with half his songs unsung;", "His arm is still, that struck to make men free.", "But let no cloud of lamentation be", "Where, on a warrior's grave, a lyre is hung.", "We keep the echoes of his golden tongue,", "We keep the vision of his chivalry.", "So Israel's joy, the loveliest of kings,", "Smote now his harp, and now the hostile horde.", "To-day the starry roof of Heaven rings", "With psalms a soldier made to praise his Lord;", "And David rests beneath Eternal wings,", "Song on his lips, and in his hand a sword." ], "linecount": "14" }, { "title": "The New School", "author": "Joyce Kilmer", "lines": [ "(For My Mother)", "", "The halls that were loud with the merry tread of", "young and careless feet", "Are still with a stillness that is too drear to seem like holiday,", "And never a gust of laughter breaks the calm of the dreaming street", "Or rises to shake the ivied walls and frighten the doves away.", "The dust is on book and on empty desk, and the", "tennis-racquet and balls", "Lie still in their lonely locker and wait for a game that is never", "played,", "And over the study and lecture-room and the river and meadow falls", "A stern peace, a strange peace, a peace that War has made.", "For many a youthful shoulder now is gay with an", "epaulet,", "And the hand that was deft with a cricket-bat is defter with a sword,", "And some of the lads will laugh to-day where the trench is red and", "wet,", "And some will win on the bloody field the accolade of the Lord.", "They have taken their youth and mirth away", "from the study and playing-ground", "To a new school in an alien land beneath an alien sky;", "Out in the smoke and roar of the fight their lessons and games are", "found,", "And they who were learning how to live are learning how to die.", "And after the golden day has come and the war is", "at an end,", "A slab of bronze on the chapel wall will tell of the noble dead.", "And every name on that radiant list will be the name of a friend,", "A name that shall through the centuries in grateful prayers be said.", "And there will be ghosts in the old school,", "brave ghosts with laughing eyes,", "On the field with a ghostly cricket-bat, by the stream with a ghostly", "rod;", "They will touch the hearts of the living with a flame that sanctifies,", "A flame that they took with strong young hands", "from the altar-fires of God." ], "linecount": "36" }, { "title": "Trees", "author": "Joyce Kilmer", "lines": [ "(For Mrs. Henry Mills Alden)", "", "I think that I shall never see", "A poem lovely as a tree.", "A tree whose hungry mouth is prest", "Against the earth's sweet flowing breast;", "A tree that looks at God all day,", "And lifts her leafy arms to pray;", "A tree that may in Summer wear", "A nest of robins in her hair;", "Upon whose bosom snow has lain;", "Who intimately lives with rain.", "Poems are made by fools like me,", "But only God can make a tree." ], "linecount": "13" }, { "title": "As Winds That Blow Against A Star", "author": "Joyce Kilmer", "lines": [ "(For Aline)", "", "Now by what whim of wanton chance", "Do radiant eyes know sombre days?", "And feet that shod in light should dance", "Walk weary and laborious ways?", "But rays from Heaven, white and whole,", "May penetrate the gloom of earth;", "And tears but nourish, in your soul,", "The glory of celestial mirth.", "The darts of toil and sorrow, sent", "Against your peaceful beauty, are", "As foolish and as impotent", "As winds that blow against a star." ], "linecount": "13" }, { "title": "Stars", "author": "Joyce Kilmer", "lines": [ "(For the Rev. James J. Daly, S. J.)", "", "Bright stars, yellow stars, flashing through the air,", "Are you errant strands of Lady Mary's hair?", "As she slits the cloudy veil and bends down through,", "Do you fall across her cheeks and over heaven too?", "Gay stars, little stars, you are little eyes,", "Eyes of baby angels playing in the skies.", "Now and then a winged child turns his merry face", "Down toward the spinning world -- what a funny place!", "Jesus Christ came from the Cross (Christ receive my soul!)", "In each perfect hand and foot there was a bloody hole.", "Four great iron spikes there were, red and never dry,", "Michael plucked them from the Cross and set them in the sky.", "Christ's Troop, Mary's Guard, God's own men,", "Draw your swords and strike at Hell and strike again.", "Every steel-born spark that flies where God's battles are,", "Flashes past the face of God, and is a star." ], "linecount": "17" } ]