Quotations.ch
  Directory : From an Anthology, Some Imagist Poets, of 1915
GUIDE SUPPORT US BLOG
  • The Project Gutenberg EBook of Some Imagist Poets, by
  • Richard Aldington and H.D. and John Gould Fletcher and F.S. Flint and D.H. Lawrence and Amy Lowell
  • This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
  • almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
  • re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
  • with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
  • Title: Some Imagist Poets
  • An Anthology
  • Author: Richard Aldington
  • H.D.
  • John Gould Fletcher
  • F.S. Flint
  • D.H. Lawrence
  • Amy Lowell
  • Release Date: October 17, 2009 [EBook #30276]
  • Language: English
  • *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SOME IMAGIST POETS ***
  • Produced by Meredith Bach, Stephanie Eason, and the Online
  • Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net. (This
  • file was produced from images generously made available
  • by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
  • SOME IMAGIST POETS
  • SOME IMAGIST
  • POETS
  • AN ANTHOLOGY
  • BOSTON AND NEW YORK
  • HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
  • The Riverside Press Cambridge
  • 1915
  • COPYRIGHT, 1915, BY HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
  • ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
  • _Published April 1915_
  • PREFACE
  • In March, 1914, a volume appeared entitled "Des Imagistes." It was a
  • collection of the work of various young poets, presented together as a
  • school. This school has been widely discussed by those interested in new
  • movements in the arts, and has already become a household word.
  • Differences of taste and judgment, however, have arisen among the
  • contributors to that book; growing tendencies are forcing them along
  • different paths. Those of us whose work appears in this volume have
  • therefore decided to publish our collection under a new title, and we have
  • been joined by two or three poets who did not contribute to the first
  • volume, our wider scope making this possible.
  • In this new book we have followed a slightly different arrangement to that
  • of the former Anthology. Instead of an arbitrary selection by an editor,
  • each poet has been permitted to represent himself by the work he considers
  • his best, the only stipulation being that it should not yet have appeared
  • in book form. A sort of informal committee--consisting of more than half
  • the authors here represented--have arranged the book and decided what
  • should be printed and what omitted, but, as a general rule, the poets
  • have been allowed absolute freedom in this direction, limitations of space
  • only being imposed upon them. Also, to avoid any appearance of precedence,
  • they have been put in alphabetical order.
  • As it has been suggested that much of the misunderstanding of the former
  • volume was due to the fact that we did not explain ourselves in a preface,
  • we have thought it wise to tell the public what our aims are, and why we
  • are banded together between one set of covers.
  • The poets in this volume do not represent a clique. Several of them are
  • personally unknown to the others, but they are united by certain common
  • principles, arrived at independently. These principles are not new; they
  • have fallen into desuetude. They are the essentials of all great poetry,
  • indeed of all great literature, and they are simply these:--
  • 1. To use the language of common speech, but to employ always the _exact_
  • word, not the nearly-exact, nor the merely decorative word.
  • 2. To create new rhythms--as the expression of new moods--and not to copy
  • old rhythms, which merely echo old moods. We do not insist upon
  • "free-verse" as the only method of writing poetry. We fight for it as for
  • a principle of liberty. We believe that the individuality of a poet may
  • often be better expressed in free-verse than in conventional forms. In
  • poetry, a new cadence means a new idea.
  • 3. To allow absolute freedom in the choice of subject. It is not good art
  • to write badly about aeroplanes and automobiles; nor is it necessarily bad
  • art to write well about the past. We believe passionately in the artistic
  • value of modern life, but we wish to point out that there is nothing so
  • uninspiring nor so old-fashioned as an aeroplane of the year 1911.
  • 4. To present an image (hence the name: "Imagist"). We are not a school of
  • painters, but we believe that poetry should render particulars exactly and
  • not deal in vague generalities, however magnificent and sonorous. It is
  • for this reason that we oppose the cosmic poet, who seems to us to shirk
  • the real difficulties of his art.
  • 5. To produce poetry that is hard and clear, never blurred nor indefinite.
  • 6. Finally, most of us believe that concentration is of the very essence
  • of poetry.
  • The subject of free-verse is too complicated to be discussed here. We may
  • say briefly, that we attach the term to all that increasing amount of
  • writing whose cadence is more marked, more definite, and closer knit than
  • that of prose, but which is not so violently nor so obviously accented as
  • the so-called "regular verse." We refer those interested in the question
  • to the Greek Melic poets, and to the many excellent French studies on the
  • subject by such distinguished and well-equipped authors as Remy de
  • Gourmont, Gustave Kahn, Georges Duhamel, Charles Vildrac, Henri Ghéon,
  • Robert de Souza, André Spire, etc.
  • We wish it to be clearly understood that we do not represent an exclusive
  • artistic sect; we publish our work together because of mutual artistic
  • sympathy, and we propose to bring out our coöperative volume each year for
  • a short term of years, until we have made a place for ourselves and our
  • principles such as we desire.
  • CONTENTS
  • RICHARD ALDINGTON
  • Childhood 3
  • The Poplar 10
  • Round-Pond 12
  • Daisy 13
  • Epigrams 15
  • The Faun sees Snow for the First Time 16
  • Lemures 17
  • H. D.
  • The Pool 21
  • The Garden 22
  • Sea Lily 24
  • Sea Iris 25
  • Sea Rose 27
  • Oread 28
  • Orion Dead 29
  • JOHN GOULD FLETCHER
  • The Blue Symphony 33
  • London Excursion 39
  • F. S. FLINT
  • Trees 53
  • Lunch 55
  • Malady 56
  • Accident 58
  • Fragment 60
  • Houses 62
  • Eau-Forte 63
  • D. H. LAWRENCE
  • Ballad of Another Ophelia 67
  • Illicit 69
  • Fireflies in the Corn 70
  • A Woman and Her Dead Husband 72
  • The Mowers 75
  • Scent of Irises 76
  • Green 78
  • AMY LOWELL
  • Venus Transiens 81
  • The Travelling Bear 83
  • The Letter 85
  • Grotesque 86
  • Bullion 87
  • Solitaire 88
  • The Bombardment 89
  • BIBLIOGRAPHY 93
  • Thanks are due to the editors of _Poetry_, _The Smart Set_,
  • _Poetry and Drama_, and _The Egoist_ for their courteous
  • permission to reprint certain of these poems which have been
  • copyrighted to them.
  • RICHARD ALDINGTON
  • RICHARD ALDINGTON
  • CHILDHOOD
  • I
  • The bitterness, the misery, the wretchedness of childhood
  • Put me out of love with God.
  • I can't believe in God's goodness;
  • I can believe
  • In many avenging gods.
  • Most of all I believe
  • In gods of bitter dullness,
  • Cruel local gods
  • Who seared my childhood.
  • II
  • I've seen people put
  • A chrysalis in a match-box,
  • "To see," they told me, "what sort of moth would come."
  • But when it broke its shell
  • It slipped and stumbled and fell about its prison
  • And tried to climb to the light
  • For space to dry its wings.
  • That's how I was.
  • Somebody found my chrysalis
  • And shut it in a match-box.
  • My shrivelled wings were beaten,
  • Shed their colours in dusty scales
  • Before the box was opened
  • For the moth to fly.
  • And then it was too late,
  • Because the beauty a child has,
  • And the beautiful things it learns before its birth,
  • Were shed, like moth-scales, from me.
  • III
  • I hate that town;
  • I hate the town I lived in when I was little;
  • I hate to think of it.
  • There were always clouds, smoke, rain
  • In that dingy little valley.
  • It rained; it always rained.
  • I think I never saw the sun until I was nine--
  • And then it was too late;
  • Everything's too late after the first seven years.
  • That long street we lived in
  • Was duller than a drain
  • And nearly as dingy.
  • There were the big College
  • And the pseudo-Gothic town-hall.
  • There were the sordid provincial shops--
  • The grocer's, and the shops for women,
  • The shop where I bought transfers,
  • And the piano and gramaphone shop
  • Where I used to stand
  • Staring at the huge shiny pianos and at the pictures
  • Of a white dog looking into a gramaphone.
  • How dull and greasy and grey and sordid it was!
  • On wet days--it was always wet--
  • I used to kneel on a chair
  • And look at it from the window.
  • The dirty yellow trams
  • Dragged noisily along
  • With a clatter of wheels and bells
  • And a humming of wires overhead.
  • They threw up the filthy rain-water from the hollow lines
  • And then the water ran back
  • Full of brownish foam bubbles.
  • There was nothing else to see--
  • It was all so dull--
  • Except a few grey legs under shiny black umbrellas
  • Running along the grey shiny pavements;
  • Sometimes there was a waggon
  • Whose horses made a strange loud hollow sound
  • With their hoofs
  • Through the silent rain.
  • And there was a grey museum
  • Full of dead birds and dead insects and dead animals
  • And a few relics of the Romans--dead also.
  • There was the sea-front,
  • A long asphalt walk with a bleak road beside it,
  • Three piers, a row of houses,
  • And a salt dirty smell from the little harbour.
  • I was like a moth---
  • Like one of those grey Emperor moths
  • Which flutter through the vines at Capri.
  • And that damned little town was my match-box,
  • Against whose sides I beat and beat
  • Until my wings were torn and faded, and dingy
  • As that damned little town.
  • IV
  • At school it was just dull as that dull High Street.
  • They taught me pothooks--
  • I wanted to be alone, although I was so little,
  • Alone, away from the rain, the dingyness, the dullness,
  • Away somewhere else--
  • The town was dull;
  • The front was dull;
  • The High Street and the other street were dull--
  • And there was a public park, I remember,
  • And that was damned dull too,
  • With its beds of geraniums no one was allowed to pick,
  • And its clipped lawns you weren't allowed to walk on,
  • And the gold-fish pond you mustn't paddle in,
  • And the gate made out of a whale's jaw-bones,
  • And the swings, which were for "Board-School children,"
  • And its gravel paths.
  • And on Sundays they rang the bells,
  • From Baptist and Evangelical and Catholic churches.
  • They had the Salvation Army.
  • I was taken to a High Church;
  • The parson's name was Mowbray,
  • "Which is a good name but he thinks too much of it--"
  • That's what I heard people say.
  • I took a little black book
  • To that cold, grey, damp, smelling church,
  • And I had to sit on a hard bench,
  • Wriggle off it to kneel down when they sang psalms,
  • And wriggle off it to kneel down when they prayed--
  • And then there was nothing to do
  • Except to play trains with the hymn-books.
  • There was nothing to see,
  • Nothing to do,
  • Nothing to play with,
  • Except that in an empty room upstairs
  • There was a large tin box
  • Containing reproductions of the Magna Charta,
  • Of the Declaration of Independence
  • And of a letter from Raleigh after the Armada.
  • There were also several packets of stamps,
  • Yellow and blue Guatemala parrots,
  • Blue stags and red baboons and birds from Sarawak,
  • Indians and Men-of-war
  • From the United States,
  • And the green and red portraits
  • Of King Francobollo
  • Of Italy.
  • V
  • I don't believe in God.
  • I do believe in avenging gods
  • Who plague us for sins we never sinned
  • But who avenge us.
  • That's why I'll never have a child,
  • Never shut up a chrysalis in a match-box
  • For the moth to spoil and crush its bright colours,
  • Beating its wings against the dingy prison-wall.
  • THE POPLAR
  • Why do you always stand there shivering
  • Between the white stream and the road?
  • The people pass through the dust
  • On bicycles, in carts, in motor-cars;
  • The waggoners go by at dawn;
  • The lovers walk on the grass path at night.
  • Stir from your roots, walk, poplar!
  • You are more beautiful than they are.
  • I know that the white wind loves you,
  • Is always kissing you and turning up
  • The white lining of your green petticoat.
  • The sky darts through you like blue rain,
  • And the grey rain drips on your flanks
  • And loves you.
  • And I have seen the moon
  • Slip his silver penny into your pocket
  • As you straightened your hair;
  • And the white mist curling and hesitating
  • Like a bashful lover about your knees.
  • I know you, poplar;
  • I have watched you since I was ten.
  • But if you had a little real love,
  • A little strength,
  • You would leave your nonchalant idle lovers
  • And go walking down the white road
  • Behind the waggoners.
  • There are beautiful beeches down beyond the hill.
  • Will you always stand there shivering?
  • ROUND-POND
  • Water ruffled and speckled by galloping wind
  • Which puffs and spurts it into tiny pashing breakers
  • Dashed with lemon-yellow afternoon sunlight.
  • The shining of the sun upon the water
  • Is like a scattering of gold crocus-petals
  • In a long wavering irregular flight.
  • The water is cold to the eye
  • As the wind to the cheek.
  • In the budding chestnuts
  • Whose sticky buds glimmer and are half-burst open
  • The starlings make their clitter-clatter;
  • And the blackbirds in the grass
  • Are getting as fat as the pigeons.
  • Too-hoo, this is brave;
  • Even the cold wind is seeking a new mistress.
  • DAISY
  • "_Plus quam se atque suos amavit omnes,
  • Nunc_..."
  • CATULLUS.
  • You were my playmate by the sea.
  • We swam together.
  • Your girl's body had no breasts.
  • We found prawns among the rocks;
  • We liked to feel the sun and to do nothing;
  • In the evening we played games with the others.
  • It made me glad to be by you.
  • Sometimes I kissed you,
  • And you were always glad to kiss me;
  • But I was afraid--I was only fourteen.
  • And I had quite forgotten you,
  • You and your name.
  • To-day I pass through the streets.
  • She who touches my arm and talks with me
  • Is--who knows?--Helen of Sparta,
  • Dryope, Laodamia....
  • And there are you
  • A whore in Oxford Street.
  • EPIGRAMS
  • A GIRL
  • You were that clear Sicilian fluting
  • That pains our thought even now.
  • You were the notes
  • Of cold fantastic grief
  • Some few found beautiful.
  • NEW LOVE
  • She has new leaves
  • After her dead flowers,
  • Like the little almond-tree
  • Which the frost hurt.
  • OCTOBER
  • The beech-leaves are silver
  • For lack of the tree's blood.
  • At your kiss my lips
  • Become like the autumn beech-leaves.
  • THE FAUN SEES SNOW FOR THE FIRST TIME
  • Zeus,
  • Brazen-thunder-hurler,
  • Cloud-whirler, son-of-Kronos,
  • Send vengeance on these Oreads
  • Who strew
  • White frozen flecks of mist and cloud
  • Over the brown trees and the tufted grass
  • Of the meadows, where the stream
  • Runs black through shining banks
  • Of bluish white.
  • Zeus,
  • Are the halls of heaven broken up
  • That you flake down upon me
  • Feather-strips of marble?
  • Dis and Styx!
  • When I stamp my hoof
  • The frozen-cloud-specks jam into the cleft
  • So that I reel upon two slippery points....
  • Fool, to stand here cursing
  • When I might be running!
  • LEMURES
  • In Nineveh
  • And beyond Nineveh
  • In the dusk
  • They were afraid.
  • In Thebes of Egypt
  • In the dusk
  • They chanted of them to the dead.
  • In my Lesbos and Achaia
  • Where the God dwelt
  • We knew them.
  • Now men say "They are not":
  • But in the dusk
  • Ere the white sun comes--
  • A gay child that bears a white candle--
  • I am afraid of their rustling,
  • Of their terrible silence,
  • The menace of their secrecy.
  • H. D.
  • H. D.
  • THE POOL
  • Are you alive?
  • I touch you.
  • You quiver like a sea-fish.
  • I cover you with my net.
  • What are you--banded one?
  • THE GARDEN
  • I
  • You are clear,
  • O rose, cut in rock,
  • hard as the descent of hail.
  • I could scrape the colour
  • from the petal,
  • like spilt dye from a rock.
  • If I could break you
  • I could break a tree.
  • If I could stir
  • I could break a tree,
  • I could break you.
  • II
  • O wind,
  • rend open the heat,
  • cut apart the heat,
  • rend it sideways.
  • Fruit can not drop
  • through this thick air:
  • fruit can not fall into heat
  • that presses up and blunts
  • the points of pears
  • and rounds the grapes.
  • Cut the heat,
  • plough through it,
  • turning it on either side
  • of your path.
  • SEA LILY
  • Reed,
  • slashed and torn,
  • but doubly rich--
  • such great heads as yours
  • drift upon temple-steps,
  • but you are shattered
  • in the wind.
  • Myrtle-bark
  • is flecked from you,
  • scales are dashed
  • from your stem,
  • sand cuts your petal,
  • furrows it with hard edge,
  • like flint
  • on a bright stone.
  • Yet though the whole wind
  • slash at your bark,
  • you are lifted up,
  • aye--though it hiss
  • to cover you with froth.
  • SEA IRIS
  • I
  • Weed, moss-weed,
  • root tangled in sand,
  • sea-iris, brittle flower,
  • one petal like a shell
  • is broken,
  • and you print a shadow
  • like a thin twig.
  • Fortunate one,
  • scented and stinging,
  • rigid myrrh-bud,
  • camphor-flower,
  • sweet and salt--you are wind
  • in our nostrils.
  • II
  • Do the murex-fishers
  • drench you as they pass?
  • Do your roots drag up colour
  • from the sand?
  • Have they slipped gold under you;
  • rivets of gold?
  • Band of iris-flowers
  • above the waves,
  • You are painted blue,
  • painted like a fresh prow
  • stained among the salt weeds.
  • SEA ROSE
  • Rose, harsh rose,
  • marred and with stint of petals,
  • meagre flower, thin,
  • sparse of leaf.
  • more precious
  • than a wet rose,
  • single on a stem--
  • you are caught in the drift.
  • Stunted, with small leaf,
  • you are flung on the sands,
  • you are lifted
  • in the crisp sand
  • that drives in the wind.
  • Can the spice-rose
  • drip such acrid fragrance
  • hardened in a leaf?
  • OREAD
  • Whirl up, sea--
  • Whirl your pointed pines,
  • Splash your great pines
  • On our rocks,
  • Hurl your green over us,
  • Cover us with your pools of fir.
  • ORION DEAD
  • [_Artemis speaks_]
  • The cornel-trees
  • uplift from the furrows,
  • the roots at their bases
  • strike lower through the barley-sprays.
  • So arise and face me.
  • I am poisoned with the rage of song.
  • _I once pierced the flesh
  • of the wild-deer,
  • now am I afraid to touch
  • the blue and the gold-veined hyacinths?_
  • _I will tear the full flowers
  • and the little heads
  • of the grape-hyacinths.
  • I will strip the life from the bulb
  • until the ivory layers
  • lie like narcissus petals
  • on the black earth._
  • _Arise,
  • lest I bend an ash-tree
  • into a taut bow,
  • and slay--and tear
  • all the roots from the earth._
  • The cornel-wood blazes
  • and strikes through the barley-sprays,
  • but I have lost heart for this.
  • I break a staff.
  • I break the tough branch.
  • I know no light in the woods.
  • I have lost pace with the winds.
  • JOHN GOULD FLETCHER
  • JOHN GOULD FLETCHER
  • THE BLUE SYMPHONY
  • I
  • The darkness rolls upward.
  • The thick darkness carries with it
  • Rain and a ravel of cloud.
  • The sun comes forth upon earth.
  • Palely the dawn
  • Leaves me facing timidly
  • Old gardens sunken:
  • And in the gardens is water.
  • Sombre wreck--autumnal leaves;
  • Shadowy roofs
  • In the blue mist,
  • And a willow-branch that is broken.
  • O old pagodas of my soul, how you glittered across green trees!
  • Blue and cool:
  • Blue, tremulously,
  • Blow faint puffs of smoke
  • Across sombre pools.
  • The damp green smell of rotted wood;
  • And a heron that cries from out the water.
  • II
  • Through the upland meadows
  • I go alone.
  • For I dreamed of someone last night
  • Who is waiting for me.
  • Flower and blossom, tell me do you know of her?
  • Have the rocks hidden her voice?
  • They are very blue and still.
  • Long upward road that is leading me,
  • Light hearted I quit you,
  • For the long loose ripples of the meadow-grass
  • Invite me to dance upon them.
  • Quivering grass
  • Daintily poised
  • For her foot's tripping.
  • O blown clouds, could I only race up like you,
  • Oh, the last slopes that are sun-drenched and steep!
  • Look, the sky!
  • Across black valleys
  • Rise blue-white aloft
  • Jagged, unwrinkled mountains, ranges of death.
  • Solitude. Silence.
  • III
  • One chuckles by the brook for me:
  • One rages under the stone.
  • One makes a spout of his mouth,
  • One whispers--one is gone.
  • One over there on the water
  • Spreads cold ripples
  • For me
  • Enticingly.
  • The vast dark trees
  • Flow like blue veils
  • Of tears
  • Into the water.
  • Sour sprites,
  • Moaning and chuckling,
  • What have you hidden from me?
  • "In the palace of the blue stone she lies forever
  • Bound hand and foot."
  • Was it the wind
  • That rattled the reeds together?
  • Dry reeds,
  • A faint shiver in the grasses.
  • IV
  • On the left hand there is a temple:
  • And a palace on the right-hand side.
  • Foot-passengers in scarlet
  • Pass over the glittering tide.
  • Under the bridge
  • The old river flows
  • Low and monotonous
  • Day after day.
  • I have heard and have seen
  • All the news that has been:
  • Autumn's gold and Spring's green!
  • Now in my palace
  • I see foot-passengers
  • Crossing the river:
  • Pilgrims of Autumn
  • In the afternoons.
  • Lotus pools:
  • Petals in the water.
  • Such are my dreams.
  • For me silks are outspread.
  • I take my ease, unthinking.
  • V
  • And now the lowest pine-branch
  • Is drawn across the disk of the sun.
  • Old friends who will forget me soon
  • I must go on,
  • Towards those blue death-mountains
  • I have forgot so long.
  • In the marsh grasses
  • There lies forever
  • My last treasure,
  • With the hope of my heart.
  • The ice is glazing over,
  • Torn lanterns flutter,
  • On the leaves is snow.
  • In the frosty evening
  • Toll the old bell for me
  • Once, in the sleepy temple.
  • Perhaps my soul will hear.
  • Afterglow:
  • Before the stars peep
  • I shall creep out into darkness.
  • LONDON EXCURSION
  • 'BUS
  • Great walls of green,
  • City that is afar.
  • We gallop along
  • Alert and penetrating,
  • Roads open about us,
  • Housetops keep at a distance.
  • Soft-curling tendrils,
  • Swim backwards from our image:
  • We are a red bulk,
  • Projecting the angular city, in shadows, at our feet.
  • Black coarse-squared shapes,
  • Hump and growl and assemble.
  • It is the city that takes us to itself,
  • Vast thunder riding down strange skies.
  • An arch under which we slide
  • Divides our lives for us:
  • After we have passed it
  • We know we have left something behind
  • We shall not see again.
  • Passivity,
  • Gravity,
  • Are changed into hesitating, clanking pistons and wheels.
  • The trams come whooping up one by one,
  • Yellow pulse-beats spreading through darkness.
  • Music-hall posters squall out:
  • The passengers shrink together,
  • I enter indelicately into all their souls.
  • It is a glossy skating rink,
  • On which winged spirals clasp and bend each other:
  • And suddenly slide backwards towards the centre,
  • After a too-brief release.
  • A second arch is a wall
  • To separate our souls from rotted cables
  • Of stale greenness.
  • A shadow cutting off the country from us,
  • Out of it rise red walls.
  • Yet I revolt: I bend, I twist myself
  • I curl into a million convolutions:
  • Pink shapes without angle,
  • Anything to be soft and woolly,
  • Anything to escape.
  • Sudden lurch of clamours,
  • Two more viaducts
  • Stretch out red yokes of steel,
  • Crushing my rebellion.
  • My soul
  • Shrieking
  • Is jolted forwards by a long hot bar--
  • Into direct distances.
  • It pierces the small of my back.
  • APPROACH
  • Only this morning I sang of roses;
  • Now I see with a swift stare,
  • The city forcing up through the air
  • Black cubes close piled and some half-crumbling over.
  • My roses are battered into pulp:
  • And there swells up in me
  • Sudden desire for something changeless,
  • Thrusts of sunless rock
  • Unmelted by hissing wheels.
  • ARRIVAL
  • Here is too swift a movement,
  • The rest is too still.
  • It is a red sea
  • Licking
  • The housefronts.
  • They quiver gently
  • From base to summit.
  • Ripples of impulse run through them,
  • Flattering resistance.
  • Soon they will fall;
  • Already smoke yearns upward.
  • Clouds of dust,
  • Crash of collapsing cubes.
  • I prefer deeper patience,
  • Monotony of stalled beasts.
  • O angle-builders,
  • Vainly have you prolonged your effort,
  • For I descend amid you,
  • Past rungs and slopes of curving slippery steel.
  • WALK
  • Sudden struggle for foothold on the pavement,
  • Familiar ascension.
  • I do not heed the city any more,
  • It has given me a duty to perform.
  • I pass along nonchalantly,
  • Insinuating myself into self-baffling movements.
  • Impalpable charm of back streets
  • In which I find myself:
  • Cool spaces filled with shadow.
  • Passers-by, white hammocks in the sunlight.
  • Bulging outcrush into old tumult;
  • Attainment, as of a narrow harbour,
  • Of some shop forgotten by traffic
  • With cool-corridored walls.
  • 'BUS-TOP
  • Black shapes bending,
  • Taxicabs crush in the crowd.
  • The tops are each a shining square
  • Shuttles that steadily press through woolly fabric.
  • Drooping blossom,
  • Gas-standards over
  • Spray out jingling tumult
  • Of white-hot rays.
  • Monotonous domes of bowler-hats
  • Vibrate in the heat.
  • Silently, easily we sway through braying traffic,
  • Down the crowded street.
  • The tumult crouches over us,
  • Or suddenly drifts to one side.
  • TRANSPOSITION
  • I am blown like a leaf
  • Hither and thither.
  • The city about me
  • Resolves itself into sound of many voices,
  • Rustling and fluttering,
  • Leaves shaken by the breeze.
  • A million forces ignore me, I know not why,
  • I am drunken with it all.
  • Suddenly I feel an immense will
  • Stored up hitherto and unconscious till this instant.
  • Projecting my body
  • Across a street, in the face of all its traffic.
  • I dart and dash:
  • I do not know why I go.
  • These people watch me,
  • I yield them my adventure.
  • Lazily I lounge through labyrinthine corridors,
  • And with eyes suddenly altered,
  • I peer into an office I do not know,
  • And wonder at a startled face that penetrates my own.
  • Roses--pavement--
  • I will take all this city away with me--
  • People--uproar--the pavement jostling and flickering--
  • Women with incredible eyelids:
  • Dandies in spats:
  • Hard-faced throng discussing me--I know them all.
  • I will take them away with me,
  • I insistently rob them of their essence,
  • I must have it all before night,
  • To sing amid my green.
  • I glide out unobservant
  • In the midst of the traffic
  • Blown like a leaf
  • Hither and thither,
  • Till the city resolves itself into a clamour of voices,
  • Crying hollowly, like the wind rustling through the forest,
  • Against the frozen housefronts:
  • Lost in the glitter of a million movements.
  • PERIPETEIA
  • I can no longer find a place for myself:
  • I go.
  • There are too many things to detain me,
  • But the force behind is reckless.
  • Noise, uproar, movement
  • Slide me outwards,
  • Black sleet shivering
  • Down red walls.
  • In thick jungles of green, this gyration,
  • My centrifugal folly,
  • Through roaring dust and futility spattered,
  • Will find its own repose.
  • Golden lights will gleam out sullenly into silence,
  • Before I return.
  • MID-FLIGHT
  • We rush, a black throng,
  • Straight upon darkness:
  • Motes scattered
  • By the arc's rays.
  • Over the bridge fluttering,
  • It is theatre-time,
  • No one heeds.
  • Lost amid greenness
  • We will sleep all night;
  • And in the morning
  • Coming forth, we will shake wet wings
  • Over the settled dust of to-day.
  • The city hurls its cobbled streets after us,
  • To drive us faster.
  • We must attain the night
  • Before endless processions
  • Of lamps
  • Push us back.
  • A clock with quivering hands
  • Leaps to the trajectory-angle of our departure.
  • We leave behind pale traces of achievement:
  • Fires that we kindled but were too tired to put out,
  • Broad gold fans brushing softly over dark walls,
  • Stifled uproar of night.
  • We are already cast forth:
  • The signal of our departure
  • Jerks down before we have learned we are to go.
  • STATION
  • We descend
  • Into a wall of green.
  • Straggling shapes:
  • Afterwards none are seen.
  • I find myself
  • Alone.
  • I look back:
  • The city has grown.
  • One grey wall
  • Windowed, unlit.
  • Heavily, night
  • Crushes the face of it.
  • I go on.
  • My memories freeze
  • Like birds' cry
  • In hollow trees.
  • I go on.
  • Up and outright
  • To the hostility
  • Of night.
  • F. S. FLINT
  • F. S. FLINT
  • TREES
  • Elm trees
  • and the leaf the boy in me hated
  • long ago--
  • rough and sandy.
  • Poplars
  • and their leaves,
  • tender, smooth to the fingers,
  • and a secret in their smell
  • I have forgotten.
  • Oaks
  • and forest glades,
  • heart aching with wonder, fear:
  • their bitter mast.
  • Willows
  • and the scented beetle
  • we put in our handkerchiefs;
  • and the roots of one
  • that spread into a river:
  • nakedness, water and joy.
  • Hawthorn,
  • white and odorous with blossom,
  • framing the quiet fields,
  • and swaying flowers and grasses,
  • and the hum of bees.
  • Oh, these are the things that are with me now,
  • in the town;
  • and I am grateful
  • for this minute of my manhood.
  • LUNCH
  • Frail beauty,
  • green, gold and incandescent whiteness,
  • narcissi, daffodils,
  • you have brought me Spring and longing,
  • wistfulness,
  • in your irradiance.
  • Therefore, I sit here
  • among the people,
  • dreaming,
  • and my heart aches
  • with all the hawthorn blossom,
  • the bees humming,
  • the light wind upon the poplars,
  • and your warmth and your love
  • and your eyes ...
  • they smile and know me.
  • MALADY
  • I move;
  • perhaps I have wakened;
  • this is a bed;
  • this is a room;
  • and there is light....
  • Darkness!
  • Have I performed
  • the dozen acts or so
  • that make me the man
  • men see?
  • The door opens,
  • and on the landing--
  • quiet!
  • I can see nothing: the pain, the weariness!
  • Stairs, banisters, a handrail:
  • all indistinguishable.
  • One step farther down or up,
  • and why?
  • But up is harder. Down!
  • Down to this white blur;
  • it gives before me.
  • Me?
  • I extend all ways:
  • I fit into the walls and they pull me.
  • Light?
  • Light! I know it is light.
  • Stillness, and then,
  • something moves:
  • green, oh green, dazzling lightning!
  • And joy! this is my room;
  • there are my books, there the piano,
  • there the last bar I wrote,
  • there the last line,
  • and oh the sunlight!
  • A parrot screeches.
  • ACCIDENT
  • Dear one!
  • you sit there
  • in the corner of the carriage;
  • and you do not know me;
  • and your eyes forbid.
  • Is it the dirt, the squalor,
  • the wear of human bodies,
  • and the dead faces of our neighbours?
  • These are but symbols.
  • You are proud; I praise you;
  • your mouth is set; you see beyond us;
  • and you see nothing.
  • I have the vision of your calm, cold face,
  • and of the black hair that waves above it;
  • I watch you; I love you;
  • I desire you.
  • There is a quiet here
  • within the thud-thud of the wheels
  • upon the railway.
  • There is a quiet here
  • within my heart,
  • but tense and tender....
  • This is my station....
  • FRAGMENT
  • ... That night I loved you
  • in the candlelight.
  • Your golden hair
  • strewed the sweet whiteness of the pillows
  • and the counterpane.
  • O the darkness of the corners,
  • the warm air, and the stars
  • framed in the casement of the ships' lights!
  • The waves lapped into the harbour;
  • the boats creaked;
  • a man's voice sang out on the quay;
  • and you loved me.
  • In your love were the tall tree fuchsias,
  • the blue of the hortensias, the scarlet nasturtiums,
  • the trees on the hills,
  • the roads we had covered,
  • and the sea that had borne your body
  • before the rocks of Hartland.
  • You loved me with these
  • and with the kindness of people,
  • country folk, sailors and fishermen,
  • and the old lady who had lodged us and supped us.
  • You loved me with yourself
  • that was these and more,
  • changed as the earth is changed
  • into the bloom of flowers.
  • HOUSES
  • Evening and quiet:
  • a bird trills in the poplar trees
  • behind the house with the dark green door
  • across the road.
  • Into the sky,
  • the red earthenware and the galvanised iron chimneys
  • thrust their cowls.
  • The hoot of the steamers on the Thames is plain.
  • No wind;
  • the trees merge, green with green;
  • a car whirs by;
  • footsteps and voices take their pitch
  • in the key of dusk,
  • far-off and near, subdued.
  • Solid and square to the world
  • the houses stand,
  • their windows blocked with venetian blinds.
  • Nothing will move them.
  • EAU-FORTE
  • On black bare trees a stale cream moon
  • hangs dead, and sours the unborn buds.
  • Two gaunt old hacks, knees bent, heads low,
  • tug, tired and spent, an old horse tram.
  • Damp smoke, rank mist fill the dark square;
  • and round the bend six bullocks come.
  • A hobbling, dirt-grimed drover guides
  • their clattering feet to death and shame.
  • D. H. LAWRENCE
  • D. H. LAWRENCE
  • BALLAD OF ANOTHER OPHELIA
  • Oh, the green glimmer of apples in the orchard,
  • Lamps in a wash of rain,
  • Oh, the wet walk of my brown hen through the stackyard,
  • Oh, tears on the window pane!
  • Nothing now will ripen the bright green apples,
  • Full of disappointment and of rain,
  • Brackish they will taste, of tears, when the yellow dapples
  • Of Autumn tell the withered tale again.
  • All round the yard it is cluck, my brown hen,
  • Cluck, and the rain-wet wings,
  • Cluck, my marigold bird, and again
  • Cluck for your yellow darlings.
  • For the grey rat found the gold thirteen
  • Huddled away in the dark,
  • Flutter for a moment, oh the beast is quick and keen,
  • Extinct one yellow-fluffy spark.
  • * * * * * *
  • Once I had a lover bright like running water,
  • Once his face was laughing like the sky;
  • Open like the sky looking down in all its laughter
  • On the buttercups--and buttercups was I.
  • What then is there hidden in the skirts of all the blossom,
  • What is peeping from your wings, oh mother hen?
  • 'T is the sun who asks the question, in a lovely haste for wisdom--
  • What a lovely haste for wisdom is in men?
  • Yea, but it is cruel when undressed is all the blossom,
  • And her shift is lying white upon the floor,
  • That a grey one, like a shadow, like a rat, a thief, a rain-storm
  • Creeps upon her then and gathers in his store.
  • Oh, the grey garner that is full of half-grown apples,
  • Oh, the golden sparkles laid extinct--!
  • And oh, behind the cloud sheaves, like yellow autumn dapples,
  • Did you see the wicked sun that winked?
  • ILLICIT
  • In front of the sombre mountains, a faint, lost ribbon of rainbow,
  • And between us and it, the thunder;
  • And down below, in the green wheat, the labourers
  • Stand like dark stumps, still in the green wheat.
  • You are near to me, and your naked feet in their sandals,
  • And through the scent of the balcony's naked timber
  • I distinguish the scent of your hair; so now the limber
  • Lightning falls from heaven.
  • Adown the pale-green, glacier-river floats
  • A dark boat through the gloom--and whither?
  • The thunder roars. But still we have each other.
  • The naked lightnings in the heaven dither
  • And disappear. What have we but each other?
  • The boat has gone.
  • FIREFLIES IN THE CORN
  • _A Woman taunts her Lover_
  • Look at the little darlings in the corn!
  • The rye is taller than you, who think yourself
  • So high and mighty: look how its heads are borne
  • Dark and proud in the sky, like a number of knights
  • Passing with spears and pennants and manly scorn.
  • And always likely!--Oh, if I could ride
  • With my head held high-serene against the sky
  • Do you think I'd have a creature like you at my side
  • With your gloom and your doubt that you love me? O darling rye,
  • How I adore you for your simple pride!
  • And those bright fireflies wafting in between
  • And over the swaying cornstalks, just above
  • All their dark-feathered helmets, like little green
  • Stars come low and wandering here for love
  • Of this dark earth, and wandering all serene--!
  • How I adore you, you happy things, you dears
  • Riding the air and carrying all the time
  • Your little lanterns behind you: it cheers
  • My heart to see you settling and trying to climb
  • The cornstalks, tipping with fire their spears.
  • All over the corn's dim motion, against the blue
  • Dark sky of night, the wandering glitter, the swarm
  • Of questing brilliant things:--you joy, you true
  • Spirit of careless joy: ah, how I warm
  • My poor and perished soul at the joy of you!
  • _The Man answers and she mocks_
  • You're a fool, woman. I love you and you know I do!
  • --Lord, take his love away, it makes him whine.
  • And I give you everything that you want me to.
  • --Lord, dear Lord, do you think he ever _can_ shine?
  • A WOMAN AND HER DEAD HUSBAND
  • Ah, stern cold man,
  • How can you lie so relentless hard
  • While I wash you with weeping water!
  • Ah, face, carved hard and cold,
  • You have been like this, on your guard
  • Against me, since death began.
  • You masquerader!
  • How can you shame to act this part
  • Of unswerving indifference to me?
  • It is not you; why disguise yourself
  • Against me, to break my heart,
  • You evader?
  • You've a warm mouth,
  • A good warm mouth always sooner to soften
  • Even than your sudden eyes.
  • Ah cruel, to keep your mouth
  • Relentless, however often
  • I kiss it in drouth.
  • You are not he.
  • Who are you, lying in his place on the bed
  • And rigid and indifferent to me?
  • His mouth, though he laughed or sulked
  • Was always warm and red
  • And good to me.
  • And his eyes could see
  • The white moon hang like a breast revealed
  • By the slipping shawl of stars,
  • Could see the small stars tremble
  • As the heart beneath did wield
  • Systole, diastole.
  • And he showed it me
  • So, when he made his love to me;
  • And his brows like rocks on the sea jut out,
  • And his eyes were deep like the sea
  • With shadow, and he looked at me,
  • Till I sank in him like the sea,
  • Awfully.
  • Oh, he was multiform--
  • Which then was he among the manifold?
  • The gay, the sorrowful, the seer?
  • I have loved a rich race of men in one--
  • --But not this, this never-warm
  • Metal-cold--!
  • Ah, masquerader!
  • With your steel face white-enamelled
  • Were you he, after all, and I never
  • Saw you or felt you in kissing?
  • --Yet sometimes my heart was trammelled
  • With fear, evader!
  • You will not stir,
  • Nor hear me, not a sound.
  • --Then it was you--
  • And all this time you were
  • Like this when I lived with you.
  • It is not true,
  • I am frightened, I am frightened of you
  • And of everything.
  • O God!--God too
  • Has deceived me in everything,
  • In everything.
  • THE MOWERS
  • There's four men mowing down by the river;
  • I can hear the sound of the scythe strokes, four
  • Sharp breaths swishing:--yea, but I
  • Am sorry for what's i' store.
  • The first man out o' the four that's mowin'
  • Is mine: I mun claim him once for all:
  • --But I'm sorry for him, on his young feet, knowin'
  • None o' the trouble he's led to stall.
  • As he sees me bringin' the dinner, he lifts
  • His head as proud as a deer that looks
  • Shoulder-deep out o' th' corn: and wipes
  • His scythe blade bright, unhooks
  • His scythe stone, an' over the grass to me!
  • --Lad, tha 's gotten a chilt in me,
  • An' a man an' a father tha 'lt ha'e to be,
  • My young slim lad, an' I'm sorry for thee.
  • SCENT OF IRISES
  • A faint, sickening scent of irises
  • Persists all morning. Here in a jar on the table
  • A fine proud spike of purple irises
  • Rising above the class-room litter, makes me unable
  • To see the class's lifted and bended faces
  • Save in a broken pattern, amid purple and gold and sable.
  • I can smell the gorgeous bog-end, in its breathless
  • Dazzle of may-blobs, when the marigold glare overcast
  • You with fire on your brow and your cheeks and your chin as you dipped
  • Your face in your marigold bunch, to touch and contrast
  • Your own dark mouth with the bridal faint lady-smocks
  • Dissolved in the golden sorcery you should not outlast.
  • You amid the bog-end's yellow incantation,
  • You sitting in the cowslips of the meadows above,
  • --Me, your shadow on the bog-flame, flowery may-blobs,
  • Me full length in the cowslips, muttering you love--
  • You, your soul like a lady-smock, lost, evanescent,
  • You, with your face all rich, like the sheen on a dove--!
  • You are always asking, do I remember, remember
  • The buttercup bog-end where the flowers rose up
  • And kindled you over deep with a coat of gold?
  • You ask again, do the healing days close up
  • The open darkness which then drew us in,
  • The dark that swallows all, and nought throws up.
  • You upon the dry, dead beech-leaves, in the fire of night
  • Burnt like a sacrifice;--you invisible--
  • Only the fire of darkness, and the scent of you!
  • --And yes, thank God, it still is possible
  • The healing days shall close the darkness up
  • Wherein I breathed you like a smoke or dew.
  • Like vapour, dew, or poison. Now, thank God,
  • The golden fire has gone, and your face is ash
  • Indistinguishable in the grey, chill day,
  • The night has burnt you out, at last the good
  • Dark fire burns on untroubled without clash
  • Of you upon the dead leaves saying me yea.
  • GREEN
  • The sky was apple-green,
  • The sky was green wine held up in the sun,
  • The moon was a golden petal between.
  • She opened her eyes, and green
  • They shone, clear like flowers undone,
  • For the first time, now for the first time seen.
  • AMY LOWELL
  • AMY LOWELL
  • VENUS TRANSIENS
  • Tell me,
  • Was Venus more beautiful
  • Than you are,
  • When she topped
  • The crinkled waves,
  • Drifting shoreward
  • On her plaited shell?
  • Was Botticelli's vision
  • Fairer than mine;
  • And were the painted rosebuds
  • He tossed his lady,
  • Of better worth
  • Than the words I blow about you
  • To cover your too great loveliness
  • As with a gauze
  • Of misted silver?
  • For me,
  • You stand poised
  • In the blue and buoyant air,
  • Cinctured by bright winds,
  • Treading the sunlight.
  • And the waves which precede you
  • Ripple and stir
  • The sands at my feet.
  • THE TRAVELLING BEAR
  • Grass-blades push up between the cobblestones
  • And catch the sun on their flat sides
  • Shooting it back,
  • Gold and emerald,
  • Into the eyes of passers-by.
  • And over the cobblestones,
  • Square-footed and heavy,
  • Dances the trained bear.
  • Tho cobbles cut his feet,
  • And he has a ring in his nose
  • Which hurts him;
  • But still he dances,
  • For the keeper pricks him with a sharp stick,
  • Under his fur.
  • Now the crowd gapes and chuckles,
  • And boys and young women shuffle their feet in time to the dancing bear.
  • They see him wobbling
  • Against a dust of emerald and gold,
  • And they are greatly delighted.
  • The legs of the bear shake with fatigue
  • And his back aches,
  • And the shining grass-blades dazzle and confuse him.
  • But still he dances,
  • Because of the little, pointed stick.
  • THE LETTER
  • Little cramped words scrawling all over the paper
  • Like draggled fly's legs,
  • What can you tell of the flaring moon
  • Through the oak leaves?
  • Or of my uncurtained window and the bare floor
  • Spattered with moonlight?
  • Your silly quirks and twists have nothing in them
  • Of blossoming hawthorns,
  • And this paper is dull, crisp, smooth, virgin of loveliness
  • Beneath my hand.
  • I am tired, Beloved, of chafing my heart against
  • The want of you;
  • Of squeezing it into little inkdrops,
  • And posting it.
  • And I scald alone, here, under the fire
  • Of the great moon.
  • GROTESQUE
  • Why do the lilies goggle their tongues at me
  • When I pluck them;
  • And writhe, and twist,
  • And strangle themselves against my fingers,
  • So that I can hardly weave the garland
  • For your hair?
  • Why do they shriek your name
  • And spit at me
  • When I would cluster them?
  • Must I kill them
  • To make them lie still,
  • And send you a wreath of lolling corpses
  • To turn putrid and soft
  • On your forehead
  • While you dance?
  • BULLION
  • My thoughts
  • Chink against my ribs
  • And roll about like silver hail-stones.
  • I should like to spill them out,
  • And pour them, all shining,
  • Over you.
  • But my heart is shut upon them
  • And holds them straitly.
  • Come, You! and open my heart;
  • That my thoughts torment me no longer,
  • But glitter in your hair.
  • SOLITAIRE
  • When night drifts along the streets of the city,
  • And sifts down between the uneven roofs,
  • My mind begins to peek and peer.
  • It plays at ball in old, blue Chinese gardens,
  • And shakes wrought dice-cups in Pagan temples,
  • Amid the broken flutings of white pillars.
  • It dances with purple and yellow crocuses in its hair,
  • And its feet shine as they flutter over drenched grasses.
  • How light and laughing my mind is,
  • When all the good folk have put out their bed-room candles,
  • And the city is still!
  • THE BOMBARDMENT
  • Slowly, without force, the rain drops into the city. It stops a moment on
  • the carved head of Saint John, then slides on again, slipping and
  • trickling over his stone cloak. It splashes from the lead conduit of a
  • gargoyle, and falls from it in turmoil on the stones in the Cathedral
  • square. Where are the people, and why does the fretted steeple sweep about
  • in the sky? Boom! The sound swings against the rain. Boom, again! After
  • it, only water rushing in the gutters, and the turmoil from the spout of
  • the gargoyle. Silence. Ripples and mutters. Boom!
  • The room is damp, but warm. Little flashes swarm about from the firelight.
  • The lustres of the chandelier are bright, and clusters of rubies leap in
  • the bohemian glasses on the _étagère_. Her hands are restless, but the
  • white masses of her hair are quite still. Boom! Will it never cease to
  • torture, this iteration! Boom! The vibration shatters a glass on the
  • _étagère_. It lies there formless and glowing, with all its crimson gleams
  • shot out of pattern, spilled, flowing red, blood-red. A thin bell-note
  • pricks through the silence. A door creaks. The old lady speaks: "Victor,
  • clear away that broken glass." "Alas! Madame, the bohemian glass!" "Yes,
  • Victor, one hundred years ago my father brought it--" Boom! The room
  • shakes, the servitor quakes. Another goblet shivers and breaks. Boom!
  • It rustles at the window-pane, the smooth, streaming rain, and he is shut
  • within its clash and murmur. Inside is his candle, his table, his ink, his
  • pen, and his dreams. He is thinking, and the walls are pierced with beams
  • of sunshine, slipping through young green. A fountain tosses itself up at
  • the blue sky, and through the spattered water in the basin he can see
  • copper carp, lazily floating among cold leaves. A wind-harp in a
  • cedar-tree grieves and whispers, and words blow into his brain, bubbled,
  • iridescent, shooting up like flowers of fire, higher and higher. Boom! The
  • flame-flowers snap on their slender stems. The fountain rears up in long
  • broken spears of disheveled water and flattens into the earth. Boom! And
  • there is only the room, the table, the candle, and the sliding rain.
  • Again, Boom!--Boom!--Boom! He stuffs his fingers into his ears. He sees
  • corpses, and cries out in fright. Boom! It is night, and they are shelling
  • the city! Boom! Boom!
  • A child wakes and is afraid, and weeps in the darkness. What has made the
  • bed shake? "Mother, where are you? I am awake." "Hush, my Darling, I am
  • here." "But, Mother, something so queer happened, the room shook." Boom!
  • "Oh! What is it? What is the matter?" Boom! "Where is Father? I am so
  • afraid." Boom! The child sobs and shrieks. The house trembles and creaks.
  • Boom!
  • Retorts, globes, tubes, and phials lie shattered. All his trials oozing
  • across the floor. The life that was his choosing, lonely, urgent, goaded
  • by a hope, all gone. A weary man in a ruined laboratory, that was his
  • story. Boom! Gloom and ignorance, and the jig of drunken brutes. Diseases
  • like snakes crawling over the earth, leaving trails of slime. Wails from
  • people burying their dead. Through the window he can see the rocking
  • steeple. A ball of fire falls on the lead of the roof, and the sky tears
  • apart on a spike of flame. Up the spire, behind the lacings of stone,
  • zig-zagging in and out of the carved tracings, squirms the fire. It spouts
  • like yellow wheat from the gargoyles, coils round the head of Saint John,
  • and aureoles him in light. It leaps into the night and hisses against the
  • rain. The Cathedral is a burning stain on the white, wet night.
  • Boom! The Cathedral is a torch, and the houses next to it begin to scorch.
  • Boom! The bohemian glass on the _étagère_ is no longer there. Boom! A
  • stalk of flame sways against the red damask curtains. The old lady cannot
  • walk. She watches the creeping stalk and counts. Boom!--Boom!--Boom!
  • The poet rushes into the street, and the rain wraps him in a sheet of
  • silver. But it is threaded with gold and powdered with scarlet beads. The
  • city burns. Quivering, spearing, thrusting, lapping, streaming, run the
  • flames. Over roofs, and walls, and shops, and stalls. Smearing its gold on
  • the sky the fire dances, lances itself through the doors, and lisps and
  • chuckles along the floors.
  • The child wakes again and screams at the yellow petalled flower flickering
  • at the window. The little red lips of flame creep along the ceiling beams.
  • The old man sits among his broken experiments and looks at the burning
  • Cathedral. Now the streets are swarming with people. They seek shelter and
  • crowd into the cellars. They shout and call, and over all, slowly and
  • without force, the rain drops into the city. Boom! And the steeple crashes
  • down among the people. Boom! Boom, again! The water rushes along the
  • gutters. The fire roars and mutters. Boom!
  • THE END
  • BIBLIOGRAPHY
  • BIBLIOGRAPHY
  • JOHN GOULD FLETCHER
  • _Fire and Wine._ Grant Richards, Ltd., London, 1913.
  • _Fool's Gold._ Max Goschen, London, 1913.
  • _The Dominant City._ Max Goschen, London, 1913.
  • _The Book of Nature._ Constable & Co., London, 1913.
  • _Visions of the Evening._ Erskine McDonald, London, 1913.
  • _Irradiations: Sand and Spray._ Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 1914.
  • F. S. FLINT
  • _The Net of Stars._ Elkin Mathews, London, 1909.
  • D. H. LAWRENCE
  • _Love Poems and Others._ Duckworth & Co., London, 1913.
  • Prose: _The White Peacock._ William Heinemann, London, 1911.
  • _The Trespasser._ Duckworth & Co., London, 1912.
  • _Sons and Lovers._ Duckworth & Co., London, 1913.
  • Drama: _The Widowing of Mrs. Holroyd._ Mitchell Kennerley, New York,
  • 1914.
  • AMY LOWELL
  • _A Dome of Many-Coloured Glass._ Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston,
  • 1912. The Macmillan Company, New York, 1914.
  • _Sword Blades and Poppy Seed._ The Macmillan Company, New York; and
  • Macmillan & Co., London, 1914.
  • The Riverside Press
  • CAMBRIDGE . MASSACHUSETTS
  • U . S . A
  • End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Some Imagist Poets, by
  • Richard Aldington and H.D. and John Gould Fletcher and F.S. Flint and D.H. Lawrence and Amy Lowell
  • *** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SOME IMAGIST POETS ***
  • ***** This file should be named 30276-8.txt or 30276-8.zip *****
  • This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
  • http://www.gutenberg.org/3/0/2/7/30276/
  • Produced by Meredith Bach, Stephanie Eason, and the Online
  • Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net. (This
  • file was produced from images generously made available
  • by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
  • Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
  • will be renamed.
  • Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
  • one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
  • (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
  • permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules,
  • set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
  • copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
  • protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project
  • Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
  • charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you
  • do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
  • rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
  • such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
  • research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
  • practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is
  • subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
  • redistribution.
  • *** START: FULL LICENSE ***
  • THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
  • PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
  • To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
  • distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
  • (or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
  • Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
  • Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
  • http://gutenberg.org/license).
  • Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
  • electronic works
  • 1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
  • electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
  • and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
  • (trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all
  • the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
  • all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
  • If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
  • Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
  • terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
  • entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
  • 1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be
  • used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
  • agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few
  • things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
  • even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See
  • paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project
  • Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
  • and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
  • works. See paragraph 1.E below.
  • 1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
  • or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
  • Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the
  • collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an
  • individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
  • located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
  • copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
  • works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
  • are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
  • Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
  • freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
  • this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
  • the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
  • keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
  • Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
  • 1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
  • what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in
  • a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check
  • the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
  • before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
  • creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
  • Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning
  • the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
  • States.
  • 1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
  • 1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
  • access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
  • whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
  • phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
  • Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
  • copied or distributed:
  • This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
  • almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
  • re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
  • with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
  • 1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
  • from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
  • posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
  • and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
  • or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
  • with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
  • work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
  • through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
  • Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
  • 1.E.9.
  • 1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
  • with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
  • must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
  • terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked
  • to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
  • permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
  • 1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
  • License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
  • work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
  • 1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
  • electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
  • prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
  • active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
  • Gutenberg-tm License.
  • 1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
  • compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
  • word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or
  • distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
  • "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
  • posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
  • you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
  • copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
  • request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
  • form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
  • License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
  • 1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
  • performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
  • unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
  • 1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
  • access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
  • that
  • - You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
  • the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
  • you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is
  • owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
  • has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
  • Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments
  • must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
  • prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
  • returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
  • sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
  • address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
  • the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
  • - You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
  • you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
  • does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
  • License. You must require such a user to return or
  • destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
  • and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
  • Project Gutenberg-tm works.
  • - You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
  • money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
  • electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
  • of receipt of the work.
  • - You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
  • distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
  • 1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
  • electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
  • forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
  • both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
  • Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the
  • Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
  • 1.F.
  • 1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
  • effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
  • public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
  • collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
  • works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
  • "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
  • corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
  • property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
  • computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
  • your equipment.
  • 1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
  • of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
  • Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
  • Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
  • Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
  • liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
  • fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
  • LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
  • PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
  • TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
  • LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
  • INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
  • DAMAGE.
  • 1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
  • defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
  • receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
  • written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you
  • received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
  • your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with
  • the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
  • refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
  • providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
  • receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy
  • is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
  • opportunities to fix the problem.
  • 1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
  • in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
  • WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
  • WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
  • 1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
  • warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
  • If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
  • law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
  • interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
  • the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any
  • provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
  • 1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
  • trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
  • providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
  • with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
  • promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
  • harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
  • that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
  • or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
  • work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
  • Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
  • Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
  • Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
  • electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
  • including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists
  • because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
  • people in all walks of life.
  • Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
  • assistance they need, are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
  • goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
  • remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project
  • Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
  • and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
  • To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
  • and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
  • and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org.
  • Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
  • Foundation
  • The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
  • 501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
  • state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
  • Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
  • number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
  • http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
  • Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
  • permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
  • The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
  • Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
  • throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at
  • 809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
  • business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact
  • information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
  • page at http://pglaf.org
  • For additional contact information:
  • Dr. Gregory B. Newby
  • Chief Executive and Director
  • gbnewby@pglaf.org
  • Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
  • Literary Archive Foundation
  • Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
  • spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
  • increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
  • freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
  • array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations
  • ($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
  • status with the IRS.
  • The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
  • charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
  • States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
  • considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
  • with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations
  • where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To
  • SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
  • particular state visit http://pglaf.org
  • While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
  • have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
  • against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
  • approach us with offers to donate.
  • International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
  • any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
  • outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
  • Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
  • methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other
  • ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
  • To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate
  • Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
  • works.
  • Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
  • concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
  • with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
  • Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
  • Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
  • editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
  • unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily
  • keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
  • Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
  • http://www.gutenberg.org
  • This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
  • including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
  • Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
  • subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.