Category: Digital Anthology

“The Kingfisher” by William H. Davies

"The Kingfisher"

It was the Rainbow gave thee birth,

And left thee all her lovely hues;

And, as her mother's name was Tears,

So runs it in thy blood to choose

For haunts the lonely pools, and keep

In company with trees that weep.

 

Go you and, with such glorious hues,

Live with proud Peacocks in green parks;

On lawns as smooth as shining glass,

Let every feather show its marks;

Get thee on boughs and clap thy wings

Before the windows of proud kings.

 

Nay, lovely Bird, thou art not vain;

Thou hast no proud, ambitious mind;

I also love a quiet place

That's green, away from all mankind;

A lonely pool, and let a tree

Sigh with her bosom over me.

 

William H. Davies' poem "The Kingfisher" was printed in Georgian Poetry, 1911-1912. To read it in a digitized version of this publication, follow the link(s) below:

Archive.org

“Hermes of the Ways” by H.D.

Hermes of the Ways

I

The hard sand breaks,

And the grains of it

Are clear as wine.

 

Far off over the leagues of it,

The wind,

Playing on the wide shore,

Piles little ridges,

And the great waves

Break over it.

 

But more than the many-foamed ways

Of the sea,

I know him

Of the triple path-ways,

Hermes,

Who awaiteth.

[ . . . ]

 

H.D.'s "Hermes of the Ways" was published in the 1914 imagist anthology, Des Imagistes. To read this poem in full in a digitized version of this publication, follow the links below:

Archive.org

The Blue Mountain Project (The Glebe)

The Modernist Journals Project (Charles and Albert Boni edition)

 

“The Fight” by Robert Alden Sanborn

"The Fight"

Smoke—more smoke—thickening the air, staining

the air blue-grey, rising on waves of breath, and

falling, and filling the channels of breath, and red-

dening eyes.

 

Smoke—wreathing the rafters, lying in grey-blue

folds over the sloping bank of men—they may be

men over there, men's faces and bodies slanting

down to the parapet

[ . . . ]

Robert Alden Sanborn's poem "The Fight" was published in the third Others anthology in 1920. To read this poem in full in a digitized version of this publication, follow the link(s) below:

Archive.org

“Fleecing Time” by Edith Sitwell

"Fleecing Time"

Queen Venus, like a bunch of roses,
Fat and pink that splashed dew closes,

Underneath dark mulberry trees,
Wandered with the fair-haired breeze.

Among the dark leaves preening wings
Sit golden birds of light; each sings,

[ . . . ]

Edith Sitwell's poem "Fleecing Time" was published in the 1920 Wheels anthology. Follow the link(s) below to read this poem in full in a digitized version of this publication:

Archive.org

Modernist Journals Project

“Milk for the Cat” by Harold Monro

"Milk for the Cat"

When the tea is brought at five o'clock,
And all the neat curtains are drawn with care.
The little black cat with bright green eyes
Is suddenly purring there.

At first she pretends, having nothing to do,
She has come in merely to blink by the grate.
But, though tea may be late or the milk may be sour,
She is never late.

And presently her agate eyes
Take a soft large milky haze.
And her independent casual glance
Becomes a stiff, hard gaze.

Then she stamps her claws or lifts her ears,
Or twists her tail and begins to stir.
Till suddenly all her lithe body becomes
One breathing, trembling purr.

The children eat and wriggle and laugh;
The two old ladies stroke their silk:
But the cat is grown small and thin with desire,
Transformed to a creeping lust for milk.

The white saucer like some full moon descends
At last from the clouds of the table above;
She sighs and dreams and thrills and glows.
Transfigured with love.

She nestles over the shining rim.
Buries her chin in the creamy sea;
Her tail hangs loose; each drowsy paw
Is doubled under each bending knee.

A long, dim ecstasy holds her life;
Her world is an infinite shapeless white,
Till her tongue has curled the last holy drop.
Then she sinks back into the night,

Draws and dips her body to heap
Her sleepy nerves in the great arm-chair,
Lies defeated and buried deep
Three or four hours unconscious there.

 

Harold Monro's poem "Milk for the Cat" was published in Georgian Poetry, 1913-1915. To read this poem in a digitized version of this publication, follow the link(s) below: 

Archive.org

HathiTrust 

Project Gutenberg (text version)

 

“Church Parade” by Osbert Sitwell

"Church Parade"

The flattened sea is harsh and blue—
Lies stiff beneath—one tone, one hue,

While concertina waves unfold
The painted shimmering sands of gold.

Each bird that whirls and wheels on high
Must strangle, stifle in, its cry,

For nothing that's of Nature born
Should seem so on the Sabbath morn.

The terrace glitters hard and white,
Bedaubed and flecked with points of light

That flicker at the passers-by—
Reproachful as a curate's eye.

[ . . . ]

 

Osbert Sitwell's poem "Church Parade" was published in the 1920 Wheels anthology. To read this poem in full in a digitized version of this publication, follow the links below:

Archive.org

Modernist Journals Project

“Soldiers” by F.S. Flint

"Soldiers"
To R.A. 

Brother,

I saw you on a muddy road

in France

pass by with your battalion,

rifle at the slope, full marching order,

arm swinging;

and I stood at ease,

[ . . . ]

F.S. Flint's poem "Soldiers" was published in the 1917 Some Imagist Poets anthology. To read this poem in full in a digitized version of this publication, follow the link(s) below:

HathiTrust - Digitized by the University of Virginia

The Modernist Journals Project

Project Gutenberg (HTML version)

“Childhood Memories” by William Saphier

"Childhood Memories"

Those years are foliage of trees,

their trunks hidden by bushes'

behind them a grey haze topped with silver

hides the swinging steps of my first love

the Danube.

 

On its face

grave steel palaces with smoking torches,

parading monasteries moved slowly to the Black Sea

till the bared branches scratched the north wind.

 

On its bed

a great Leviathan waited

for the ceremonies on the arrival of Messiah

and bobbing small fishes snapped sun splinters

 

for the pleasure of the monster.

Along its shores

red capped little hours danced

with rainbow colored kites,

messengers to heaven.

 

My memory is a sigh

of swallows swinging

through a slow dormant summer

to a timid line on the horizon.

 

William Saphier's poem "Childhood Memories" was published in the third Others anthology in 1920. To read this poem in a digitized version of this publication follow the link(s) below:

Archive.org

“The Ambush” by William Kean Seymour

"The Ambush"

Wild one, wild one, fleeing through the woods,

Your skin is rent with thorns, dark fear is in

your eyes."

 

"A deer was caught by giant snakes with soft and gleaming

hoods:

[ . . . ]

 

William Kean Seymour's poem "The Ambush" was published in the 1920 Wheels anthology. To read this poem in full in a digitized version of this publication, follow the link(s) below:

Archive.org

The Modernist Journals Project

 

“Beauty and Beauty” by Rupert Brooke

"Beauty and Beauty"

When Beauty and Beauty meet
All naked, fair to fair,
The earth is crying-sweet,
And scattering-bright the air,
Eddying, dizzying, closing round,
With soft and drunken laughter;
Veiling all that may befall
After—after—

Where Beauty and Beauty met,
Earth's still a-tremble there,
And winds are scented yet,
And memory-soft the air,
Bosoming, folding glints of light,
And shreds of shadowy laughter;
Not the tears that fill the years
After—after—

Rupert Brooke's poem "Beauty and Beauty" was published in Georgian Poetry, 1913-1915. To read this poem in a digitized version of this publication, follow the link(s) below:

Archive.org

HathiTrust 

Project Gutenberg (text version)