American literature zaliczenie

You do not do, you do not do Any more, black shoe In which I have lived like a foot For thirty years, poor and white, Barely daring to breathe or Achoo.

Sylvia Plath - Daddy

Daddy, I have had to kill you. You died before I had time--- Marble-heavy, a bag full of God, Ghastly statue with one grey toe Big as a Frisco seal

Sylvia Plath - Daddy

And a head in the freakish Atlantic Where it pours bean green over blue In the waters off beautiful Nauset. I used to pray to recover you. Ach, du.

Sylvia Plath - Daddy

In the German tongue, in the Polish town Scraped flat by the roller Of wars, wars, wars. But the name of the town is common. My Polack friend

Sylvia Plath - Daddy

Says there are a dozen or two. So I never could tell where you Put your foot, your root, I never could talk to you. The tongue stuck in my jaw.

Sylvia Plath - Daddy

It stuck in a barb wire snare. Ich, ich, ich, ich, I could hardly speak. I thought every German was you. And the language obscene

Sylvia Plath - Daddy

An engine, an engine Chuffing me off like a Jew. A Jew to Dachau, Auschwitz, Belsen. I began to talk like a Jew. I think I may well be a Jew.

Sylvia Plath - Daddy

The snows of the Tyrol, the clear beer of Vienna Are not very pure or true. With my gypsy ancestress and my weird luck And my Tarot pack and my Tarot pack I may be a bit of a Jew.

Sylvia Plath - Daddy

I have always been scared of *you*, With your Luftwaffe, your gobbledygoo. And your neat mustache And your Aryan eye, bright blue. Panzer-man, panzer-man, O You---

Sylvia Plath - Daddy

Not God but a swastika So black no sky could squeak through. Every woman adores a Fascist, The boot in the face, the brute Brute heart of a brute like you.

Sylvia Plath - Daddy

You stand at the blackboard, daddy, In the picture I have of you, A cleft in your chin instead of your foot But no less a devil for that, no not Any less the black man who

Sylvia Plath - Daddy

Bit my pretty red heart in two. I was ten when they buried you. At twenty I tried to die And get back, back, back to you. I thought even the bones would do.

Sylvia Plath - Daddy

But they pulled me out of the sack, And they stuck me together with glue. And then I knew what to do. I made a model of you, A man in black with a Meinkampf look

Sylvia Plath - Daddy

And a love of the rack and the screw. And I said I do, I do. So daddy, I'm finally through. The black telephone's off at the root, The voices just can't worm through.

Sylvia Plath - Daddy

If I've killed one man, I've killed two--- The vampire who said he was you and drank my blood for a year, Seven years, if you want to know. Daddy, you can lie back now.

Sylvia Plath - Daddy

There's a stake in your fat, black heart And the villagers never liked you. They are dancing and stamping on you. They always *knew* it was you. Daddy, daddy, you bastard, I'm through.

Sylvia Plath - Daddy

She wanted a little room for thinking: but she saw diapers steaming on the line, a doll slumped behind the door.

Rita Dove - Daystar

So she lugged a chair behind the garage to sit out the children's naps.

Rita Dove - Daystar

Sometimes there were things to watch-- the pinched armor of a vanished cricket, a floating maple leaf. Other days she stared until she was assured when she closed her eyes she'd see only her own vivid blood.

Rita Dove - Daystar

She had an hour, at best, before Liza appeared pouting from the top of the stairs. And just what was mother doing out back with the field mice? Why, building a palace.

Rita Dove - Daystar

Later that night when Thomas rolled over and lurched into her, she would open her eyes and think of the place that was hers for an hour--where she was nothing, pure nothing, in the middle of the day.

Rita Dove - Daystar

The art of losing isn't hard to master; so many things seem filled with the intent to be lost that their loss is no disaster.

Elizabeth Bishop - One Art

Lose something every day. Accept the fluster of lost door keys, the hour badly spent. The art of losing isn't hard to master.

Elizabeth Bishop - One Art

Then practice losing farther, losing faster: places, and names, and where it was you meant to travel. None of these will bring disaster.

Elizabeth Bishop - One Art

I lost my mother's watch. And look! my last, or next-to-last, of three loved houses went. The art of losing isn't hard to master.

Elizabeth Bishop - One Art

I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster, some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent. I miss them, but it wasn't a disaster.

Elizabeth Bishop - One Art

--Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture I love) I shan't have lied. It's evident the art of losing's not too hard to master though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.

Elizabeth Bishop - One Art

There's in my mind a woman of innocence, unadorned but fair-featured and smelling of apples or grass.

Denise Lavertov - In Mind

She wears a utopian smock or shift, her hair is light brown and smooth, and she is kind and very clean without ostentation- but she has no imagination

Denise Lavertov - In Mind

And there's a turbulent moon-ridden girl or old woman, or both, dressed in opals and rags, feathers and torn taffeta, who knows strange songs but she is not kind.

Denise Lavertov - In Mind

Come you, cartoonists, Hang on a strap with me here At seven o’clock in the morning On a Halsted street car.

Carl Sandburg - Halsted Street Car

Take your pencils And draw these faces.

Carl Sandburg - Halsted Street Car

Try with your pencils for these crooked faces, That pig-sticker in one corner—his mouth— That overall factory girl—her loose cheeks.

Carl Sandburg - Halsted Street Car

Find for your pencils A way to mark your memory Of tired empty faces.

Carl Sandburg - Halsted Street Car

After their night’s sleep, In the moist dawn And cool daybreak,

Carl Sandburg - Halsted Street Car

Faces Tired of wishes, Empty of dreams.

Carl Sandburg - Halsted Street Car

I ASKED the professors who teach the meaning of life to tell me what is happiness.

Carl Sandburg - Happiness

And I went to famous executives who boss the work of thousands of men.

Carl Sandburg - Happiness

They all shook their heads and gave me a smile as though I was trying to fool with them

Carl Sandburg - Happiness

And then one Sunday afternoon I wandered out along the Desplaines river

Carl Sandburg - Happiness

And I saw a crowd of Hungarians under the trees with their women and children and a keg of beer and an accordion.

Carl Sandburg - Happiness

CLIFF KLINGENHAGEN had me in to dine With him one day; and after soup and meat, And all the other things there were to eat,

Edwin Arlington Robinson - Cliff Klingenhagen

Cliff took two glasses and filled one with wine And one with wormwood. Then, without a sign For me to choose at all, he took the draught Of bitterness himself, and lightly quaffed It off, and said the other one was mine.

Edwin Arlington Robinson - Cliff Klingenhagen

And when I asked him what the deuce he meant By doing that, he only looked at me 1 And smiled, and said it was a way of his.

Edwin Arlington Robinson - Cliff Klingenhagen

And though I know the fellow, I have spent Long time a-wondering when I shall be As happy as Cliff Klingenhagen is.

Edwin Arlington Robinson - Cliff Klingenhagen

WHENEVER Richard Cory went down town, We people on the pavement looked at him: He was a gentleman from sole to crown, Clean favored, and imperially slim.

Edwin Arlington Robinson - Richard Cory

And he was always quietly arrayed, And he was always human when he talked; But still he fluttered pulses when he said, "Good-morning," and he glittered when he walked.

Edwin Arlington Robinson - Richard Cory

And he was rich—yes, richer than a king, And admirably schooled in every grace: In fine, we thought that he was everything To make us wish that we were in his place.

Edwin Arlington Robinson - Richard Cory

So on we worked, and waited for the light, And went without the meat, and cursed the bread; And Richard Cory, one calm summer night, Went home and put a bullet through his head.

Edwin Arlington Robinson - Richard Cory

MY long two-pointed ladder’s sticking through a tree Toward heaven still, And there’s a barrel that I didn’t fill Beside it, and there may be two or three Apples I didn’t pick upon some bough.

Robert Frost - After Apple Picking

But I am done with apple-picking now. Essence of winter sleep is on the night, The scent of apples: I am drowsing off. I cannot rub the strangeness from my sight I got from looking through a pane of glass

Robert Frost - After Apple Picking

I skimmed this morning from the drinking trough And held against the world of hoary grass. It melted, and I let it fall and break. But I was well Upon my way to sleep before it fell, And I could tell What form my dreaming was about to take.

Robert Frost - After Apple Picking

Magnified apples appear and disappear, Stem end and blossom end, And every fleck of russet showing clear.

Robert Frost - After Apple Picking

My instep arch not only keeps the ache, It keeps the pressure of a ladder-round. I feel the ladder sway as the boughs bend. And I keep hearing from the cellar bin

Robert Frost - After Apple Picking

The rumbling sound Of load on load of apples coming in. For I have had too much Of apple-picking: I am overtired Of the great harvest I myself desired.

Robert Frost - After Apple Picking

There were ten thousand thousand fruit to touch, Cherish in hand, lift down, and not let fall.

Robert Frost - After Apple Picking

For all That struck the earth, No matter if not bruised or spiked with stubble, Went surely to the cider-apple heap As of no worth.

Robert Frost - After Apple Picking

One can see what will trouble This sleep of mine, whatever sleep it is. Were he not gone, The woodchuck could say whether it’s like his Long sleep, as I describe its coming on, Or just some human sleep.

Robert Frost - After Apple Picking

TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Robert Frost - The Road not taken

Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim, Because it was grassy and wanted wear; Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same,

Robert Frost - The Road not taken

And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back.

Robert Frost - The Road not taken

I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.

Robert Frost - The Road not taken

Well, son, I'll tell you: Life for me ain't been no crystal stair. It's had tacks in it, And splinters, And boards torn up, And places with no carpet on the floor -- Bare.

Langston Hughes - Mother to Son

But all the time I'se been a-climbin' on, And reachin' landin's, And turnin' corners, And sometimes goin' in the dark Where there ain't been no light. So boy, don't you turn back.

Langston Hughes - Mother to Son

Don't you set down on the steps 'Cause you finds it's kinder hard. Don't you fall now -- For I'se still goin', honey, I'se still climbin', And life for me ain't been no crystal stair.

Langston Hughes - Mother to Son

I, too, sing America. I am the darker brother. They send me to eat in the kitchen When company comes, But I laugh, And eat well, And grow strong.

Langston Hughes - I, Too

Tomorrow, I'll be at the table When company comes. Nobody'll dare Say to me, "Eat in the kitchen," Then.

Langston Hughes - I, Too

Besides, They'll see how beautiful I am And be ashamed-- I, too, am America.

Langston Hughes - I, Too

Constantly risking absurdity and death whenever he performs above the heads of his audience

Lawrence Ferlinghetti - Constantly Risking Absurdity

the poet like an acrobat climbs on rime to a high wire of his own making and balancing on eyebeams above a sea of faces

Lawrence Ferlinghetti - Constantly Risking Absurdity

paces his way to the other side of the day performing entrachats and sleight-of-foot tricks and other high theatrics and all without mistaking

Lawrence Ferlinghetti - Constantly Risking Absurdity

any thing for what it may not be For he's the super realist who must perforce perceive taut truth

Lawrence Ferlinghetti - Constantly Risking Absurdity

before the taking of each stance or step in his supposed advance toward that still higher perch where Beauty stands and waits with gravity to start her death-defying leap

Lawrence Ferlinghetti - Constantly Risking Absurdity

And he a little charleychaplin man who may or may not catch her fair eternal form spreadeagled in the empty air of existence

Lawrence Ferlinghetti - Constantly Risking Absurdity

The whiskey on your breath Could make a small boy dizzy; But I hung on like death: Such waltzing was not easy.

Theodore Roethke - My Papa's Waltz

We romped until the pans Slid from the kitchen shelf; My mother's countenance Could not unfrown itself.

Theodore Roethke - My Papa's Waltz

The hand that held my wrist Was battered on one knuckle; At every step you missed My right ear scraped a buckle.

Theodore Roethke - My Papa's Waltz

You beat time on my head With a palm caked hard by dirt, Then waltzed me off to bed Still clinging to your shirt.

Theodore Roethke - My Papa's Waltz

With a love a madness for Shelley Chatterton Rimbaud and the needy-yap of my youth has gone from ear to ear: I HATE OLD POETMEN!

Gregory Corso - I am 25

Especially old poetmen who retract who consult other old poetmen who speak their youth in whispers, saying:--I did those then but that was then that was then--

Gregory Corso - I am 25

O I would quiet old men say to them:--I am your friend what you once were, thru me you'll be again--

Gregory Corso - I am 25

Then at night in the confidence of their homes rip out their apology-tongues and steal their poems.

Gregory Corso - I am 25

What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why, I have forgotten, and what arms have lain Under my head till morning; but the rain Is full of ghosts tonight, that tap and sigh Upon the glass and listen for reply;

Edna St. Vincent Millay - What Lips my Lips have kissed, and where, and why

And in my heart there stirs a quiet pain For unremembered lads that not again Will turn to me at midnight with a cry. Thus in the winter stands a lonely tree, Nor knows what birds have vanished one by one,

Edna St. Vincent Millay - What Lips my Lips have kissed, and where, and why

Yet know its boughs more silent than before: I cannot say what loves have come and gone; I only know that summer sang in me A little while, that in me sings no more.

Edna St. Vincent Millay - What Lips my Lips have kissed, and where, and why

I know I am but summer to your heart, And not the full four seasons of the year; And you must welcome from another part Such noble moods as are not mine, my dear.

Edna St. Vincent Millay - I know I am but summer to your heart

No gracious weight of golden fruits to sell Have I, nor any wise and wintry thing; And I have loved you all too long and well To carry still the high sweet breast of Spring.

Edna St. Vincent Millay - I know I am but summer to your heart

Wherefore I say: O love, as summer goes, I must be gone, steal forth with silent drums, That you may hail anew the bird and rose When I come back to you, as summer comes.

Edna St. Vincent Millay - I know I am but summer to your heart

Else will you seek, at some not distant time, Even your summer in another clime.

Edna St. Vincent Millay - I know I am but summer to your heart

Oh, is it, then, Utopian To hope that I may meet a man Who'll not relate, in accents suave, The tales of girls he used to have?

Dorothy Parker - De Profundis

Why is it, when I am in Rome, I'd give an eye to be at home, But when on native earth I be, My soul is sick for Italy?

Dorothy Parker - On Being a Woman

And why with you, my love, my lord, Am I spectacularly bored, Yet do you up and leave me- then I scream to have you back again?

Dorothy Parker - On Being a Woman

She has no need to fear the fall Of harvest from the laddered reach Of orchards, nor the tide gone ebbing From the steep beach.

Louise Bogan - Portrait

Nor hold to pain's effrontery Her body's bulwark, stern and savage, Nor be a glass, where to forsee Another's ravage.

Louise Bogan - Portrait

What she has gathered, and what lost, She will not find to lose again. She is possessed by time, who once Was loved by men.

Louise Bogan - Portrait

Razors pain you; Rivers are damp; Acids stain you; And drugs cause cramp. Guns aren't lawful; Nooses give; Gas smells awful; You might as well live.

Dorothy Parker - Resume

According to Brueghel when Icarus fell it was spring

William Carlos Williams - Landscape With the Fall of Icarus

a farmer was ploughing his field the whole pageantry

William Carlos Williams - Landscape with the fall of Icarus

of the year was awake tingling with itself

William Carlos Williams - Landscape with the fall of Icarus

sweating in the sun that melted the wings' wax

William Carlos Williams - Landscape with the Fall of Icarus

unsignificantly off the coast there was

William Carlos Williams - Landscape with the Fall of Icarus

a splash quite unnoticed this was Icarus drowning

William Carlos Williams - Landscape with the fall of Icarus

A rumpled sheet Of brown paper About the length

William Carlos Williams - The Term

And apparent bulk Of a man was Rolling with the

William Carlos William - The Term

Wind slowly over And over in The street as

William Carlos Williams - The Term

A car drove down Upon it and Crushed it to

William Carlos Williams - The Term

The ground. Unlike A man it rose Again rolling

William Carlos Williams - The Term

With the wind over And over to be as It was before.

William Carlos Williams - The Term

E. P. Ode pour l'élection de son sépulchre For three years, out of key with his time, He strove to resuscitate the dead art Of poetry; to maintain "the sublime" In the old sense. Wrong from the start i

Ezra Pound - Life and Contacts

No, hardly, but, seeing he had been born In a half savage country, out of date; Bent resolutely on wringing lilies from the acorn; Capaneus; trout for factitious bait:

Ezra Pound - Life and Contacts

"Idmen gar toi panth, os eni Troie Caught in the unstopped ear; Giving the rocks small lee-way The chopped seas held him, therefore, that year.

Ezra Pound - Life and Contacts

His true Penelope was Flaubert, He fished by obstinate isles; Observed the elegance of Circe's hair Rather than the mottoes on sun-dials.

Ezra Pound - Life and Contacts

Unaffected by "the march of events", He passed from men's memory in l'an trentiesme De son eage; the case presents No adjunct to the Muses' diadem.

Ezra Pound - Life and Contacts

On the stage I stumbled, my fur boot caught on a slivered board. Rustle of stealthy giggles.

Mary Tallmountain - Indian Blood

Beendaaga’ made of velvet Crusted with crystal beads Hung form brilliant tassels of wool, Wet with my sweat.

Mary Tallmountain - Indian Blood

Children’s faces stared. I felt their flowing force. Did I crouch like goh in the curious quiet?

Mary Tallmountain - Indian Blood

They butted to the stage, darting questions; pointing. Do you live in an igloo? Hah! You eat blubber!

Mary Tallmountain - Indian Blood

Hemmed in by ringlets of brass, grass-pale eyes, the fur of daghooda-aak trembled.

Mary Tallmountain - Indian Blood

Late in the night I bit my hand until it was pierced with moons of dark Indian blood.

Mary Tallmountain - Indian Blood

Dear Sirs: Of course I'll come. I've packed my galoshes and three packets of tomato seeds. Denise calls them love apples. My father says where we're going they won't grow.

Dwight Okita - In Response to Executive Order 9066

I am a fourteen-year-old girl with bad spelling and a messy room. If it helps any, I will tell you I have always felt funny using chopsticks and my favorite food is hot dogs.

Dwight Okita - In Response to Executive Order 9066

My best friend is a white girl named Denise- we look at boys together. She sat in front of me all through grade school because of our names: O'Connor, Ozawa. I know the back of Denise's head very well.

Dwight Okita - In Response to Executive Order 9066

I tell her she's going bald. She tells me I copy on tests. We're best friends. I saw Denise today in Geography class. She was sitting on the other side of the room.

Dwight Okita - In Response to Executive Order 9066

"You're trying to start a war," she said, "giving secrets away to the Enemy. Why can't you keep your big mouth shut?" I didn't know what to say.

Dwight Okita - In Response to Executive Order 9066

I gave her a packet of tomato seeds and asked her to plant them for me, told her when the first tomato ripened she'd miss me.

Dwight Okita - In Response to Executive Order 9066