Poems Flashcards
Whenas in silks my Julia goes,
Then, then (methinks) how sweetly flows
That liquefaction of her clothes.
Next, when I cast mine eyes, and see
That brave vibration each way free,
O how that glittering taketh me!
Upon Julia’s Clothes
Robert Herrick
So by sixteen we move in packs
learn to strut and slide
in deliberate lowdown rhythm
talk in syn/co/pa/ted beat
because we want so bad
to be cool, never to be mistaken
for white, even when we leave
these rowdier L.A. streets—
remember how we paint our eyes
like gangsters
flash our legs in nylons
sassy black high heels
or two inch zippered boots
stack them by the door at night
next to Daddy’s muddy gardening shoes
Deliberate (1992)
Amy Uyematsu
The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
God’s Grandeur
Gerard Maley Hopkins
The tiger
He destroyed his cage Yes
YES
The tiger is out
The Tiger
Nael, Grade 1
Is it still three days journey by mule to Mt. Moriah? The father’s fire in applewood
the son and the wood green, aromatic, smoldering
the knife chafing in its sheath
And the ram
o dear God
the ram in the thicket to save the son.
in terram visionis
Christopher Snook
The whiskey on your breath Could make a small boy dizzy; But I hung on like death:
Such waltzing was not easy.
We romped until the pans Slid from the kitchen shelf; My mother’s countenance1 Could not unfrown itself.
The hand that held my wrist Was battered on one knuckle; At every step you missed
My right ear scraped a buckle.
You beat time on my head With a palm caked hard by dirt, Then waltzed me off to bed Still clinging to your shirt.
My Papa’s Waltz
Theodore Rotheke
Yes, you have a lovely garden here,
with flowers, fields and fruits, lakes and streams, beneath a Tree of Life, with nothing to fear,
in a paradise of pleasure, a place of dreams.
And, yes, you have each other’s trust and love, naked, as if one flesh, chaste and free;
and, yes, you have dominion, over and above, everything as far as the eye can see.
And yet, you lack a certain acuity,
a comprehension of all that lies within, of good, of evil, of ambiguity,
of death, and of the leprosy of sin.
Become as gods, transform to something new;
Put hiss in your voice and fork your tongue in two.
Snake
William Baer
Your name is long and difficult, I know. So many people whom we didn’t ask Have told us so
And taken us to task…
But it is not enough
To be nimble, brave, or fleet.
O apple of my eye, the world will drop
Many gilded baubles at your feet
To break your stride: don’t look down, don’t stoop
For Atlanta
A.E. Stallings
I walked and sailed ten thousand miles for love. I left no road untrod,
no sea unsuffered: all for God
(a fisherman I’m not).
Thorn
Jane Greer
Death, be not proud, though some have called thee Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so;
For those whom thou think’st thou dost overthrow Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be, 5 Much pleasure; then from thee much more must flow, And soonest our best men with thee do go, Rest of their bones, and soul’s delivery.
Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men, And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell, 10 And poppy1 or charms can make us sleep as well
And better than thy stroke; why swell’st thou then?
One short sleep past, we wake eternally
And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.
Holy Sonnet 10 (1609)
John Donne
If men weighed the hazards of the sea, none would embark. If they foresaw
the dangers of the ring, rather than taunt the savage bull, they’d cautiously withdraw. If the horseman should prudently reflect on headlong fury of the steed’s wild dash, he’d never undertake to rein him in adroitly, or to wield the cracking lash.
She ponders the choice of a way of life binding until death
(ca. 1670)
Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz
I doubt not God is good, well-meaning, kind,
And did He stoop to quibble could tell why
The little buried mole continues blind,
Why flesh that mirrors Him must some day die,
Make plain the reason tortured Tantalus
Yet Do I Marvel (1925)
Countee Cullen
Life is short, though I keep this from my children. Life is short, and I’ve shortened mine
in a thousand delicious, ill-advised ways,
a thousand deliciously ill-advised ways
Good Bones
Maggie Smith
The piercing chill I feel:
My dead wife’s comb, in our bedroom, Under my heel…
The piercing chill I feel
Taniguchi Buson
It was the amazing white, it was the way he simply Refused to answer our questions, it was the cold pale glance
Lazarus (1961)
Elizabeth Jennings
