The Giant Book of Poetry

by William H. Roetzheim, Editor

  669

  Belovëd, my Belovëd, when I think

  146

  “Bent double, like old beggars under sacks

  430

  Beside him in the old Ford pickup

  627

  Black is the sky, but the land is white

  357

  Blue, blue is the grass about the river

  33

  Bobbing on the breeze blown waves

  438

  Body is something you need in order to stay

  619

  Brother of the blowfly

  610

  Bulkeley, Hunt, Willard, Hosmer, Meriam, Flint

  141

  By that fallen house

  302

  Call him not heretic whose works attest

  168

  Called by people a poet

  504

  Christmas Eve, and twelve of the clock.

  269

  Christmas was in the air and all was well

  309

  Clear moments are so short

  601

  Come not, when I am dead

  181

  Come, be my camera

  621

  Come, Sleep; O Sleep! the certain knot of peace

  42

  Concerning your letter in which you ask

  496

  Darest thou now O soul

  208

  Daughters of Time, the hypocritic Days

  141

  Day and night my thoughts incline

  231

  Death be not proud, though some have callëd thee

  53

  Death, coming in his sleep

  506

  “Deny your God!” They ringed me with their spears

  385

  Do not go gentle into that good night

  453

  Doing, a filthy pleasure is, and short

  35

  Each morning she is wheeled into the picture

  575

  Entreat me not to leave thee

  32

  Even if God did not exist

  221

  Everything stands wondrously multicolored

  635

  Everything the power of the world does

  294

  Fair Isabel, poor simple Isabel!

  120

  False though she be to me and love

  61

  Farewell, German radio with your green eye

  600

  Farm boys wild to couple

  468

  Father and Mother, and Me

  297

  First semester of my senior year

  668

  First, I would have her be beautiful

  540

  Five mites of monads dwelt in a round drop

  281

  … for a whole year he sought to accumulate the most

  613

  For the first twenty years, since yesterday

  53

  For we have thought the longer thoughts

  433

  Four talked about the pine tree. One defined it by genus

  499

  From my mother’s sleep I fell into the State

  452

  Gather ye rosebuds while ye may

  55

  Gent, Nugget, Swank, and Dude

  598

  George Burns likes to insist that he always

  624

  Gone hath the Spring, with all its flowers

  167

  Good we must love, and must hate ill

  51

  Great Pascal had his pit always in sight.

  228

  Green water of lagoons

  472

  Ha! whare ye gaun, ye crowlin ferlie!

  66

  Half a league, half a league

  182

  Hamelin Town’s in Brunswick

  196

  He first deceased; she for a little tried

  51

  He is dead, the beautiful youth

  148

  He said

  604

  He saw her from the bottom of the stairs

  338

  Helpless to throw them away

  641

  Her young employers having got in late

  463

  Here there is death. But even here, they say

  314

  Here they are. The soft eyes open

  467

  Here was a place where none would ever come

  308

  Here with a loaf of bread beneath the bough

  39

  His parents would sit alone together

  579

  Home they brought her warrior dead

  181

  “Hope” is the thing with feathers

  235

  How can I, that girl standing there

  298

  How cold are thy baths, Apollo!

  148

  How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

  147

  How easily happiness begins by

  584

  How I would paint the future

  473

  How much are they deceived who vainly strive

  60

  How much longer can I get away

  534

  I am glad God saw Death

  391

  I am locked in a little cedar box

  588

  I am the boy with his hands raised over his head

  670

  I am the only being whose doom

  206

  I am useless

  352

  I ask them to take a poem

  563

  I asked a blind man the way east

  472

  I asked God if it was okay to be melodramatic

  606

  I asked you, baby

  435

  I believe in the soul; so far

  532

  I can feel the tug

  538

  I caught this morning morning’s minion

  281

  I couldn’t attend the opera this season.

  654

  I dreamed that one had died in a strange place

  298

  I felt a Funeral, in my Brain

  236

  I grew up bent over a chessboard

  531

  I had been hungry, all the Years

  236

  I had withdrawn in forest, and my song

  321

  I haled me a woman from the street

  362

  I have eaten

  402

  I have gone out, a possessed witch

  495

  I have read, in some old marvelous tale

  152

  I heard a Fly buzz—when I died

  237

  I know how worthless this poem will be

  505

  I laid me down upon a bank

  62

  I learned from my mother how to love

  664

  I leave our house, our town, familiar fields

  605

  I like to see it lap the miles

  238

  I look into my glass

  269

  I love living in a town so small

  649

  I love to go out on summer nights and watch the stones grow

  515

  I make a pact with you, Walt Whitman

  410

  I met a traveler from an antique land

  106

  I passed along the water’s edge below the humid trees

  301

  I place my hope on the water

  632

  I read to the entire plebe class

  583

  I saw a creature, naked, bestial

  319

  I saw in Louisiana a live-oak growing

  208

  I saw my father naked, once, I

  587

  I see them standing at the formal gates of their colleges

  586

  I shall not soon
forget

  498

  I stood still and was a tree amid the wood

  414

  I stopped to pick up the bagel

  448

  I strove with none; for none was worth my strife

  100

  I taste a liQuor never brewed

  239

  I think that I shall never see

  416

  I thought once how Theocritus had sung

  145

  I threw a snowball across the backyard.

  502

  I tried to refine that neighbor of mine

  365

  I walk down the garden-paths

  353

  I wandered lonely as a cloud

  70

  I want to be famous so I can be humble about

  542

  I was a lawyer like Harmon Whitney

  306

  I was climbing up a mountain-path

  292

  I was watching a robin fly after a finch—the smaller bird

  572

  I watched them once, at dusk, on television, run

  625

  I will not crush the world’s corolla of wonders

  431

  I will teach you my townspeople

  402

  I wish I could remember the first day

  264

  I worship shadows like my daughter worships sun

  655

  I would bathe myself in strangeness

  413

  I would like to watch you sleeping

  536

  I wrote a poem on the mist

  391

  I, too, dislike it

  417

  I’d dislocated my life, so I went to the zoo

  525

  I’ll strike thee without enmity

  221

  I’ll win the way

  482

  I’m in trouble, she said

  510

  I’m slim as a silver stiletto, lit

  666

  If I had been a ten year old stranger

  650

  If I should die, think only this of me

  415

  If thou must love me, let it be for nought

  146

  If thou survive my well-contented day

  46

  If tired of trees I seek again mankind

  350

  If when my wife is sleeping

  396

  If yellow betokens infidelity

  417

  If you can keep your head when all about you

  295

  If you didn’t see the six-legged dog

  529

  If you ever find

  516

  If you were an alley violinist

  454

  If you will tell me why the fen

  417

  I’m Nobody! Who are you?

  240

  Imagine a poem that starts with a couple

  520

  In 1978 I write something about how

  614

  In a field

  519

  In Love, if Love be Love, if Love be ours

  184

  In Mather’s Magnalia Christi

  159

  In May, when sea-winds pierced our solitudes

  143

  In Sarajevo

  499

  In sixth grade Mrs. Walker

  661

  In the steamer is the trout

  660

  In the terrible years of Yezhovism I spent seventeen

  426

  In the tower the bell

  638

  In time’s assembly line

  634

  In Worcester, Massachusetts

  440

  In youth my wings were strong and tireless

  303

  Ink runs from the corners of my mouth.

  519

  Isn’t it nice that everyone has a grocery list

  616

  Isn’t one of your prissy rich peoples’ swans

  665

  It hangs deep in his robes, a delicate

  590

  It is a lie—their Priests, their Pope

  193

  It is an ancient Mariner

  75

  It is my house, and yet one room is locked.

  649

  It rests me to be among beautiful women

  411

  It was a summer evening

  96

  It was like keeping a puppy in your underpants

  507

  It was many and many a year ago

  170

  It was moon-light, and the earth sparkled

  305

  It was three slim does and a ten-tined buck

  271

  It’s spring and Jake toddles to the garden

  573

  It’s so easy to lose track of things. A screwdriver, for instance

  583

  I’ve known a Heaven like a tent

  240

  I’ve oft been told by learned friars

  101

  I’ve stayed in the front yard all my life

  456

  Jane looks down at her organdy skirt

  478

  Just off the highway to Rochester, Minnesota

  485

  Just think! some night the stars will gleam

  356

  King David and King Solomon

  291

  Know, Celia, since thou art so proud

  56

  Kruger sets his feet

  577

  Lament him, Mauchline husbands a’

  64

  Last eve I passed beside a blacksmith’s door

  434

  Laugh, and the world laughs with you

  286

  Let not Woman e’er complain

  65

  Let us go then, you and I

  421

  Like a skein of loose silk blown against a wall

  413

  Like people or dogs, each day is unique and has its own

  581

  Like the mild-eyed angels sweet

  226

  Like thousands, I took just pride and more than just

  458

  Listen, my children, and you shall hear

  155

  literal translations lose music while

  602

  Lo, as a careful housewife runs to catch

  48

  Looks like what drives me crazy

  435

  Lord of the winds! I feel thee nigh

  111

  Love may arise from a generous sentiment—namely

  220

  Loveliest of trees, the cherry now

  287

  Loving in truth, and fain in verse my love to show

  41

  Manhattan’s streets I sauntered pondering

  211

  Márgarét, are you gríeving

  280

  Mary sat musing on the lamp-flame at the table

  331

  Meanwhile from her red mouth the woman

  222

  Morning and evening

  246

  Moving from Cheer to Joy, from Joy to All

  450

  Music, when soft voices die

  103

  My aspens dear, whose airy cages quelled

  278

  My black face fades

  609

  My brother kept

  658

  My candle burns at both ends

  429

  My days among the Dead are past

  99

  My father lives by the ocean

  636

  My favorite time to write is in the late afternoon

  567

  My friends & I speak mostly to one another’s machine

  596

  My heart was heavy, for its trust had been

  168

  My life closed twice before its close

  241

  My little Son, who look’d from thoughtful
eyes

  230

  My long two-pointed ladder’s sticking through a tree

  327