Property:Has text
From Off the Road Database
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M
<div class="poem">
<p>He went to war and gained renown,<br />
In every fight he stood his ground,<br />
Bullets passed him thick and fast,<br />
Not a scratch from first to last.
</p>
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<div class="poem">
<p>Fifth Avenue and April<br />
And love and lack of care —<br />
The world is mad with music<br />
Too beautiful to bear.
</p>
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<div class="poem">
<p>The sunlight on the steeple,<br />
The toys we stop to see,<br />
The smiling passing people<br />
Are all for you and me.
</p>
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<div class="poem">
<p>The shining line of motors,<br />
The swaying motor-bus,<br />
The prancing dancing horses<br />
Are passing by for us.
</p>
</div> +
<div class="poem">
<p>"I love you and I love you"—<br />
"And oh, I love you, too!"—<br />
"All of the flower girl's lilies<br />
Were only grown for you!"
</p>
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O
<div class="poem">
<p>Lilacs lift leaves of cool satin<br />
And blossoms of mother-of-pearl<br />
Against the tarnished silver of the deserted house.<br />
Tall, exquisite grasses fill the door-yard with spray.<br />
Through the sun-drenched fragrance drifts the hazy monotone of bees.<br />
Tints of opal and jade; the hush of emerald shadows,<br />
And a sense of the past as a living presence <br />
Distil a haunting wistful peace.
</p>
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<div class="poem">
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<div class="poem">
<p>About me young and careless feet<br />
Linger along the garish street;<br />
<span class="mw-poem-indented" style="display: inline-block; margin-inline-start: 2em;"> Above, a hundred shouting signs</span><br />
Shed down their bright fantastic glow<br />
<span class="mw-poem-indented" style="display: inline-block; margin-inline-start: 2em;"> Upon the merry crowd and lines</span><br />
Of moving carriages below:<br />
O wonderful is Broadway—only <br />
My heart, my heart is lonely.
</p>
</div> +
<div class="poem">
<p>Desire naked, linked with Passion,<br />
Goes strutting by in brazen fashion;<br />
<span class="mw-poem-indented" style="display: inline-block; margin-inline-start: 2em;"> From playhouse, cabaret and inn</span><br />
The rainbow lights of Broadway blaze<br />
<span class="mw-poem-indented" style="display: inline-block; margin-inline-start: 2em;"> All gay without, all glad within;</span><br />
As in a dream I stand and gaze<br />
At Broadway, shining Broadway—only<br />
My heart, my heart is lonely.
</p>
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<div class="poem">
<p>Upon Returning to the Country Road
</p>
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<div class="poem">
<p>O nowhere, golden nowhere!<br />
Sages and fools go on<br />
To your chaotic ocean,<br />
To your tremendous dawn.<br />
Far in your fair dream-haven,<br />
Is nothing or is all...<br />
They press on, singing, sowing<br />
Wild deeds without recall!
</p>
</div> +
<div class="poem">
<p>Were the tramp-days knightly,<br />
True sowing of wild seed?<br />
Did you dare to make the songs<br />
Vanquished workmen need?<br />
Did you waste much money<br />
To deck a leper's feast?<br />
Love the truth, defy the crowd<br />
Scandalize the priest?<br />
On the road to nowhere<br />
What wild oats did you sow?<br />
Stupids find the nowhere-road<br />
Dusty, grim and slow.
</p>
</div> +
<div class="poem">
<p>On the road to nowhere<br />
What wild oats did you sow<br />
When you left your father's house<br />
With your cheeks aglow?<br />
Eyes so strained and eager<br />
To see what you might see?<br />
Were you thief of were you fool<br />
Or most nobly free?
</p>
</div> +
<div class="poem">
<p>Ere their sowing's ended<br />
They turn them on their track,<br />
Look at the caitiff craven wights<br />
Repentant, hurrying back!<br />
Grown ashamed of nowhere,<br />
Of rags endured for years,<br />
Lust for velvet in their hearts,<br />
Pierced with Mammon's spears,<br />
All but a few fanatics<br />
Give up their darling goal,<br />
Seek to be as others are,<br />
Stultify the soul.<br />
Reapings now confront them,<br />
Glut them, or destroy.<br />
Curious seeds, grain or weeds<br />
Sown with awful joy.<br />
Hurried is their harvest,<br />
They make soft peace with men.<br />
Pilgrims pass. They care not,<br />
Will not tramp again.
</p>
</div> +
<div class="poem">
<p>And yet she knows obstruction is in vain:<br />
We will not be put off the final goal<br />
We have it hidden in us to attain,<br />
Not though we have to seize earth by the pole
</p>
</div> +
<div class="poem">
<p>Insisting always on our own way so.<br />
She likes to halt us in our runner tracks,<br />
And make us get down in a foot of snow<br />
Debating what to do without an axe.
</p>
</div> +
<div class="poem">
<p>(To hear us talk)
</p>
</div> +
<div class="poem">
<p>And, tired of aimless circling in one place,<br />
Steer straight off after something into space.
</p>
</div> +
<div class="poem">
<p>The tree the tempest with a crash of wood<br />
Throws down in front of us is not to bar<br />
Our passage to our journey's end for good,<br />
But just to ask us who we think we are
</p>
</div> +
<div class="poem">
<p>Slow their floating step, but tireless, terraced down the great Plateau. <br />
Towards our ways of steam and wireless, silver-paced the brook-beds go. <br />
Past the ladder-walled Pueblos, past the orchards, pear and quince, <br />
Where the back-locked river’s ebb flows, miles and miles the valley glints, <br />
Shining backwards, singing downwards, towards horizons blue and bay. <br />
All the roofs the roads ensconce so dream of visions far away— <br />
Santa Cruz and Ildefonso, Santa Clara, Santa Fé. <br />
Ancient, sacred fears and faiths, ancient, sacred faiths and fears— <br />
Some were real, some were wraiths—Indian, Franciscan years, <br />
Built the Khivas, swung the bells; while the wind sang plain and free, <br />
"Turn your eyes from visioned hells!—look as far as you can see!" <br />
In the Santa Clara Valley, far away and far away, <br />
Dying dreams divide and dally, crystal-terraced waters sally— <br />
Linger towards another day, far and far away—far away.
</p>
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