Charlotte Mew – Absence

Sometimes I know the way

You walk, up over the bay;

It is a wind from that far sea

That blows the fragrance of your hair to me.

Or in this garden when the breeze

Touches my trees

To stir their dreaming shadows on the grass

I see you pass.

In sheltered beds, the heart of every rose

Serenely sleeps to-night. As shut as those

Your garded heart; as safe as they fomr the beat, beat

Of hooves that tread dropped roses in the street.

Turn never again

On these eyes blind with a wild rain

Your eyes; they were stars to me.--

There are things stars may not see.

But call, call, and though Christ stands

Still with scarred hands

Over my mouth, I must answer. So

I will come--He shall let me go!

Carl Sandburg – Dream Girl

You will come one day in a waver of love,

Tender as dew, impetuous as rain,

The tan of the sun will be on your skin,

The purr of the breeze in your murmuring speech,

You will pose with a hill-flower grace.

You will come, with your slim, expressive arms,

A poise of the head no sculptor has caught

And nuances spoken with shoulder and neck,

Your face in a pass-and-repass of moods

As many as skies in delicate change

Of cloud and blue and flimmering sun.

Yet,

You may not come, O girl of a dream,

We may but pass as the world goes by

And take from a look of eyes into eyes,

A film of hope and a memoried day.

Emily Dickinson – To fight aloud is very brave (Poem 138)

To fight aloud, is very brave - 
But gallanter, I know
Who charge within the bosom
The Calvalry of Wo - 

Who win, and nations do not see - 
Who fall - and none observe - 
Whose dying eyes, no Country
Regards with patriot love - 

We trust, in plumed procession
For such, the Angels go -
Rank after Rank, with even feet -
And Uniforms of snow.

Carl Sandburg – Do You Want Affidavits

THERE'S a hole in the bottom of the sea.

Do you want affidavits?

There's a man in the moon with money for you.

Do you want affidavits?

There are ten dancing girls in a sea-chamber off Nantucket waiting for you.

There are tall candles in Timbuctoo burning penance for you.

There are-anything else?

Speak now-for now we stand amid the great wishing windows-and the law says we are free to be wishing all this week at the windows.

Shall I raise my right hand and swear to you in the monotone of a notary public? this is 'the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.'

Edgar Allan Poe – An Acrostic

Elizabeth it is in vain you say

"Love not" — thou sayest it in so sweet a way:

In vain those words from thee or L. E. L.

Zantippe's talents had enforced so well:

Ah! if that language from thy heart arise,

Breathe it less gently forth — and veil thine eyes.

Endymion, recollect, when Luna tried

To cure his love — was cured of all beside —

His folly — pride — and passion — for he died.