week 2
babayarovicant
week_2_poems.docxWeek 2 poems
Poem 1
William Carlos Williams: THIS IS JUST TO SAY
1934
I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox
and which
5
you were probably
saving
for breakfast
Forgive me
they were delicious
10
so sweet
and so cold
Poem 2
Gwendolyn Brooks: WE REAL COOL
1960
The Pool Players.
Seven at the Golden Shovel.
We real cool. We
Left school. We
Lurk late. We
Strike straight. We
Sing sin. We
5
Thin gin. We
Jazz June.
We Die soon.
Poem 3
Wallace Stevens: ANECDOTE OF THE JAR
1923
I placed a jar in Tennessee,
And round it was, upon a hill.
It made the slovenly wilderness
Surround that hill.
The wilderness rose up to it,
5
And sprawled around, no longer wild.
The jar was round upon the ground
And tall and of a port in air.
It took dominion everywhere.
The jar was gray and bare.
10
It did not give of bird or bush,
Like nothing else in Tennessee.
Poem 4
Archibald MacLeish: ARS POETICA
1926
A poem should be palpable and mute
As a globed fruit,
Dumb
As old medallions to the thumb,
Silent as the sleeve-worn stone
5
Of casement ledges where the moss has grown—
A poem should be wordless
As the flight of birds.
* *
A poem should be motionless in time
As the moon climbs,
10
Leaving, as the moon releases
Twig by twig the night-entangled trees,
Leaving, as the moon behind the winter leaves,
Memory by memory the mind—
A poem should be motionless in time
As the moon climbs.
15
* *
A poem should be equal to:
Not true.
For all the history of grief
An empty doorway and a maple leaf.
20
For love
The leaning grasses and two lights above the sea—
A poem should not mean
But be.
Poem 5
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E. E. Cummings: SOMEWHERE I HAVE NEVER TRAVELLED, GLADLY BEYOND 1931 somewhere i have never travelled, gladly beyond any experience, your eyes have their silence: in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me, or which i cannot touch because they are too near 5 your slightest look easily will unclose me though i have closed myself as fingers, you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens (touching skilfully, mysteriously)her first rose or if your wish be to close me, i and my life will shut very beautifully, suddenly, 10 as when the heart of this flower imagines the snow carefully everywhere descending; nothing which we are to perceive in this world equals the power of your intense fragility:whose texture compels me with the colour of its countries, 15 rendering death and forever with each breathing (i do not know what it is about you that closes and opens;only something in me understands the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses) nobody, not even the rain, has such small hands 20
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Poem 6
Robert Herrick: TO THE VIRGINS, TO MAKE MUCH OF TIME
1648
Gather ye rose-buds while ye may,
Old Time is still a-flying;
And this same flower that smiles today,
Tomorrow will be dying.
The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun,
5
The higher he’s a-getting,
The sooner will his race be run,
And nearer he’s to setting.
That age is best which is the first,
When youth and blood are warmer;
10
But being spent, the worse, and worst
Times still succeed the former.
Then be not coy, but use your time,
And while ye may, go marry;
15
For having lost but once your prime,
Christopher Marlowe: THE PASSIONATE SHEPHERD TO HIS LOVE
1600
Come live with me and be my love,
And we will all the pleasures prove
That valleys, groves, hills, and fields,
Woods, or steepy mountain yields.
And we will sit upon the rocks,
5
Seeing the shepherds feed their flocks,
By shallow rivers to whose falls
Melodious birds sing madrigals.
And I will make thee beds of roses
And a thousand fragrant posies,
10
A cap of flowers, and a kirtle
Embroidered all with leaves of myrtle;
A gown made of the finest wool
Which from our pretty lambs we pull;
15
Fair lined slippers for the cold,
With buckles of the purest gold;
A belt of straw and ivy buds,
With coral clasps and amber studs:
And if these pleasures may thee move,
Come live with me, and be my love.
20
The shepherds’ swains shall dance and sing
For thy delight each May morning:
If these delights thy mind may move,
Then live with me and be my love.
