Month: November 2020

“The Soldiers” by Sherard Vines

"The Soldiers" 

At first with fruit and flowers and drink

They went, libated; festal day

When demigods in columns swing

Amid the maniac mob.      I saw

Massed women singing at the quay

Songs of their land, ere the high ship

Crept hooting out to sea. And then

How one would crowd to watch a squad

Catching the snap and unity

Of drill, at practice days afield

Invading hidden villages

In laps of downs.      They, still unwhipped,

Plod on obediently to death

Without the cheering and the praise

 

[ . . . ]

 

Sherard Vines' poem "The Soldiers" was published in 1917 in the second "cycle" or issue of Wheels. To read this poem in full in a digitized version of this publication, follow the link(s) below:

Archive.org

Librivox audio recording hosted on Archive.org

The Modernist Journals Project

Hysteric meed of yesterday ;

“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