DEMON POEMS

A Hero

Three times I had the lust to kill,
To clutch a throat so young and fair,
And squeeze with all my might until
No breath of being lingered there.
.....

Robert Service

The Tay Bridge Disaster

Beautiful Railway Bridge of the Silv'ry Tay!
Alas! I am very sorry to say
That ninety lives have been taken away
On the last Sabbath day of 1879,
.....

William Topaz Mcgonagall

Pray For Me

She rushed into a house
darkghost where haltup
evildims where hiddown
Her room was tumultly dreadful
.....

Saviour A Willie

Alone

From childhood's hour I have not been
As others were-I have not seen
As others saw-I could not bring
My passions from a common spring-
.....

Edgar Allan Poe

Beware Of Dogs

No Fela and son could tell of
this present roaring Government.
We would soon forget this forgery pain
upon the odours the land created.
.....

John Chizoba Vincent

The Trail Of Ninety-eight

Gold! We leapt from our benches. Gold! We sprang from our stools.
Gold! We wheeled in the furrow, fired with the faith of fools.
Fearless, unfound, unfitted, far from the night and the cold,
Heard we the clarion summons, followed the master-lure-Gold!
.....

Robert Service

Beyond The Complexion

Africa my dying land
Africa the field of blood
Africa the ignorant and blind
This mythical spiritual mantra
.....

Senty De Poet

Some Of The Demon And Some Of The Angel

2 eyes, 2 nostrils, one face
does not make us all the same
Eye colour or size
does not define your life
.....

Fihaal

My Comforter

Well hast thou spoken, and yet, not taught
A feeling strange or new;
Thou hast but roused a latent thought,
A cloud-closed beam of sunshine, brought
.....

Emily Jane Brontë

Endymion: Book I

ENDYMION.

A Poetic Romance.

.....

John Keats

All Alone

She was all alone
songs and books were her only friends
To all others she was unknown
Her miseries could never end.
.....

Fihaal

Locksley Hall Sixty Years After

Late, my grandson! half the morning have I paced these sandy tracts,
Watch'd again the hollow ridges roaring into cataracts,

Wander'd back to living boyhood while I heard the curlews call,
.....

Alfred Lord Tennyson

The Mask Of Evil

On my wall hangs a Japanese carving,
The mask of an evil demon, decorated with gold lacquer.
Sympathetically I observe
The swollen veins of the forehead, indicating
.....

Bertolt Brecht

Lancelot 06

The dark of Modred's hour not yet availing,
Gawaine it was who gave the King no peace;
Gawaine it was who goaded him and drove him
To Joyous Gard, where now for long his army,
.....

Edwin Arlington Robinson

Free Town

Trudging down the route,
the dark and feared one,
Cornellia saw a small angel turned demon

.....

Yusuf Olabisi

Afternoon Tea

As I was saying . . . (No, thank you; I never take cream with my tea;
Cows weren't allowed in the trenches-got out of the habit, y'see.)
As I was saying, our Colonel leaped up like a youngster of ten:
“Come on, lads!” he shouts, “and we'll show 'em,” and he sprang to the head of the men.
.....

Robert Service

How We Drove The Trotter

Oh, he was a handsome trotter, and he couldn't be completer,
He had such a splendid action and he trotted to this metre,
Such a pace and such a courage, such a record-killing power,
That he did his mile in two-fifteen, his twenty in the hour.
.....

William Thomas Goodge

The Wizard Way

[Dedicated to General J.C.F. Fuller]

Velvet soft the night-star glowed
Over the untrodden road,
.....

Aleister Crowley

Emily, John, James, And I

EMILY JANE was a nursery maid,
JAMES was a bold Life Guard,
JOHN was a constable, poorly paid
(And I am a doggerel bard).
.....

William Schwenck Gilbert

Astræa At The Capitol

WHEN first I saw our banner wave
Above the nation's council-hall,
I heard beneath its marble wall
The clanking fetters of the slave!
.....

John Greenleaf Whittier

Deep Inside

What will be there deep inside the ocean?
Some says there will be precious gems & deposit,
Others imagine that there will be abundant life,
These are all the thoughts created by the mind,
.....

Norbu Dorji

Tamerlane - Early Version

I.

I have sent for thee, holy friar;1
But 'twas not with the drunken hope,
.....

Edgar Allan Poe

Ballad (2)

A sultry garden stood the night.

We kept silent ourselves about what grips us horribly.

.....

Georg Trakl

The Raven

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore-
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping-rapping at my chamber door.
.....

Edgar Allan Poe

Out Of The Cradle Endlessly Rocking

1

Out of the cradle endlessly rocking,
Out of the mocking-bird's throat, the musical shuttle,
.....

Walt Whitman

Christmas Eve

I

Out of the little chapel I burst
Into the fresh night-air again.
.....

Robert Browning

Marmion: Canto Iii. - The Inn

I.

The livelong day Lord Marmion rode:
The mountain path the Palmer showed,
.....

Walter Scott (sir)

The Wanderings Of Oisin: Book I

S. Patrick. You who are bent, and bald, and blind,
With a heavy heart and a wandering mind,
Have known three centuries, poets sing,
Of dalliance with a demon thing.
.....

William Butler Yeats

The Night Before

Look you, Dominie; look you, and listen!
Look in my face, first; search every line there;
Mark every feature,-chin, lip, and forehead!
Look in my eyes, and tell me the lesson
.....

Edwin Arlington Robinson

Saint Oluf (from The Old Danish)

St. Oluf was a mighty king,
Who rul'd the Northern land;
The holy Christian faith he preach'd,
And taught it, sword in hand.
.....

George Borrow

Words From The Wind

I called to the wind of the Winter,
As he sped like a steed on his way,
'Oh! rest for awhile on thy journey,
And answer these questions, I pray.
.....

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

To A Friend

“You damn me with faint praise.”


Yes, faint was my applause and cold my praise,
.....

Joseph Rodman Drake

Vers De Societe

This chain of white arms round the room-
The demon waltz-bewilders me:
Or am I drunk with this good wine?
Vive la compagnie!
.....

Elizabeth Stoddard

The King Of Terrors

I.

As a shadow He flew, but sorrow and wail
Came up from his path, like the moan of the gale.
.....

Sam G. Goodrich

The War After The War

I.
Yonder, with eyes that tears, not distance, dim,
With ears the wide world's thickness cannot daunt,
We see tumultuous miseries that haunt
.....

John Le Gay Brereton

Sea-shore Memories

OUT of the cradle endlessly rocking,
Out of the mocking-bird's throat, the musical shuttle,
Out of the Ninth-month midnight,
Over the sterile sands, and the fields beyond, where the child,
.....

Walt Whitman

Questions Of Life

A bending staff I would not break,
A feeble faith I would not shake,
Nor even rashly pluck away
The error which some truth may stay,
.....

John Greenleaf Whittier

Abolition Of Slavery In The District Of Columbia, 1862

When first I saw our banner wave
Above the nation's council-hall,
I heard beneath its marble wall
The clanking fetters of the slave!
.....

John Greenleaf Whittier

The Dark House

Where a faint light shines alone,
Dwells a Demon I have known.
Most of you had better say
“The Dark House”, and go your way.
.....

Edwin Arlington Robinson

Lamia

Part 1

Upon a time, before the faery broods
Drove Nymph and Satyr from the prosperous woods,
.....

John Keats

The Demiurge's Laugh

It was far in the sameness of the wood;
I was running with joy on the Demon's trail,
Though I knew what I hunted was no true god.
It was just as the light was beginning to fail
.....

Robert Frost

An Island

Take it away, and swallow it yourself.
Ha! Look you, there's a rat.
Last night there were a dozen on that shelf,
And two of them were living in my hat.
.....

Edwin Arlington Robinson

The Devil Of Pope-fig Island

BY master Francis clearly 'tis expressed:
The folks of Papimania are blessed;
True sleep for them alone it seems was made
With US the copy only has been laid;
.....

Jean De La Fontaine

Why Did I Laugh Tonight? No Voice Will Tell

Why did I laugh tonight? No voice will tell:
No God, no Demon of severe response,
Deigns to reply from Heaven or from Hell.
Then to my human heart I turn at once.
.....

John Keats

The Impossible Thing

A DEMON, blacker in his skin than heart,
So great a charm was prompted to impart;
To one in love, that he the lady gained,
And full possession in the end obtained:
.....

Jean De La Fontaine

Ben Jonson Entertains A Man From Stratford

You are a friend then, as I make it out,
Of our man Shakespeare, who alone of us
Will put an ass's head in Fairyland
As he would add a shilling to more shillings,
.....

Edwin Arlington Robinson

Captain Craig Ii

Yet that ride had an end, as all rides have;
And the days coming after took the road
That all days take,-though never one of them
Went by but I got some good thought of it
.....

Edwin Arlington Robinson

London Bridge

“Do I hear them? Yes, I hear the children singing-and what of it?
Have you come with eyes afire to find me now and ask me that?
If I were not their father and if you were not their mother,
We might believe they made a noise. . . . What are you-driving at!”
.....

Edwin Arlington Robinson

On The Way

(Philadelphia, 1794)

Note.- The following imaginary dialogue between
Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr, which is not based upon
.....

Edwin Arlington Robinson

Rembrandt To Rembrandt

(AMSTERDAM, 1645)


And there you are again, now as you are.
.....

Edwin Arlington Robinson