Great Poems by American Women (22 page)

Titles are given, in italics, only when distinct from the first lines.

 

A bird came down the walk

A bit of color against the blue

A black cat among roses

Above them spread a stranger sky

Across the narrow beach we flit

Advice Gratis to Certain Women

African Chief, The

After the fierce midsummer all ablaze

A gentle maiden, whose large loving eyes

Ah! little flower, upspringing, azure-eyed

Ah! woman still

Aidenn

All Greece hates

All I could see from where I stood

“All quiet along the Potomac,” they say

All things within this fading world hath end

Almost afraid they led her in

Along Ancona's hills the shimmering heat

A mariner sat on the shrouds one night

Amber husk

America

America, Commerce, and Freedom

America the Beautiful

A narrow fellow in the grass

And, lo! leading a blessed host comes one

And this was once the realm of Nature, where

A night: mysterious, tender, quiet, deep

Answer, The

Any Woman to a Soldier

Appraisal

As by the instrument she took her place

A single flow'r he sent me, since we met

As the wind at play with a spark

A tall tree talking with the wind

At a Symphony

At the dead of night by the side of the Sea

At westward window of a palace gray

Author to Her Book, The

A vestal priestess, proudly pure

Avoid the reeking herd

A wounded deer leaps highest

Backward, turn backward, O Time, in your flight

Barter

Battle Hymn of the Republic

Beauty

Because I could not stop for Death

Beds of Fleur-de-lys, The

Before the Birth of One of Her Children

Behold, I send thee to the heights of song

Bell of the Wreck, The

Bend low, O dusky Night

Bluebeard's Closet

Bright, glowing Sappho! child of love and song!

Burial of Schlesinger, The

By the time you swear you're his

Caged Bird, A

Come, my Susan, quit your chamber

Common Inference, A

Conservative, A

Creed

Crime of the Ages, The

Curfew Must Not Ring To-Night

Daddy

Dancing Girl, A

Day, in melting purple dying

Dead Child, The

Delilah

Democracy

Double Standard, A

Do you blame me that I loved him?

Dream, A

Drowned Mariner, The

Eagle and the Mole, The

Echoes

Ellen Learning to Walk

Emerson

England's sun was slowly setting o'er the hill-tops far away

Euclid alone has looked on Beauty bare

Evening Prospect, An

Farewell, A

Far up the lonely mountain-side

Fasten the chamber!

Few, in the days of early youth

First Fig

First of that train which cursed the wave

Flaxman

For Eager Lovers

For, lo! the living God doth bare his arm

1492

Friendship After Love

From a bright hearth-stone of our land

Fruitionless

Garden by Moonlight, The

Georgia Volunteer, A

Gifts

Giving Back the Flower

God's World

Good-by: nay, do not grieve that it is over

Grandma told me all about it

Grandmither, think not I forget, when I come back to town

Grieve Not, Ladies

Hail, happy saint! on thine immortal throne

Hail, happy shades! though clad with heavy snows

Harold the Valiant

Heard you that shriek? It rose

Heart of a Woman, The

Heat

Heaven is mirrored, Love, deep in thine eyes

He fumbles at your spirit

Helen

Helen Hunt Jackson

Her Horoscope

He who plants a tree

He woos me with those honeyed words

High at the window in her cage

High-lying, sea-blown stretches of green turf

Hope is the thing with feathers

How blest a life a sailor leads

How long it seems since that mild April night

How say that by law we may torture and chase

Hymn to the Evening, An

I am weary of the working

I, being born a woman and distressed

I believe if I should die

I do not own an inch of land

I felt a funeral in my brain

If ever two were one, then surely we

If I can stop one heart from breaking

If thy sad heart, pining for human love

If to repeat thy name when none may hear me

I had come to the house, in a cave of trees

I had forgotten the gesture of branches

I had no thought of violets of late

I have done it again

I have had enough

I heard a fly buzz when I died

I hear in my heart, I hear in its ominous pulses

I hoped that he would love me

I know a story, fairer, dimmer, sadder

I know it must be winter (though I sleep)

I'll not believe the dullard dark

I looked in my heart while the wild swans went over

I love my life, but not too well

I mid the hills was born

Imitation of Sappho

I'm nobody! Who are you?

I never saw a moor

In every line a supple beauty

Indian Names

Indian's Welcome to the Pilgrim Fathers, The

Individuality

Instruction

Instrumental Music

In tangled wreaths, in clustered gleaming stars

In the earnest path of duty

In the midnight of darkness and terror

Into her mother's bedroom to wash the ballooning body

Into the golden vessel of great song

I Shall Not Care

I Sit and Sew

I sit and sew—a useless task it seems

I stood and watched the still, mysterious Night

It lies around us like a cloud

I, too, dislike it: there are things that are important beyond all this fiddle

It sings to me in sunshine

I understand what you were running for

I walk down the garden paths

Jessie Mitchell's Mother

Kiss, The

Lady Lazarus

Last Giustiniani, The

Late-born and woman-souled I dare not hope

Laugh, and the world laughs with you

Learning to Read

Let deep dejection hide her pallid face

Let No Charitable Hope

Letter, The

Let us walk in the white snow

Life

Life has loveliness to sell

Life, like a marble block, is given to all

Likeness, A

Lincoln

Lines

Little cramped words scrawling all over the paper

Look, The

Louisa May Alcott

Love-Knot, The

Love Song

Love Unexpressed

Love Unsought

Medusa

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord

Minuet, The

Morning-Glory, The

Mother Who Died Too, The

My Babes in the Wood

My beautiful trembler! how wildly she shrinks!

My candle burns at both ends

My hands that guide a needle

My heart has grown rich with the passing of years

My Last Dance

My life closed twice before its close

My Lighthouses

My mother's hands are cool and fair

Nearer Home

Never think she loves him wholly

New Colossus, The

New-England Boy's Song About Thanksgiving Day, The

New Ezekiel, The

Night

Night, and beneath star-blazoned summer skies

Nightingale Unheard, The

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame

Now let no charitable hope

Now the noisy winds are still

O beautiful for spacious skies

Ode to Sappho

Oh, grieve not, Ladies, if at night

Oh, I would have these tongues oracular

Oh! would I were as firm and cold

Old Time, thou'rt a sluggard; how long dost thou stay

O, my strong-minded sisters, aspiring to vote

On Being Brought from Africa to America

One lily scented all the dark. It grew

One Night

One Perfect Rose

One sweetly solemn thought

On Imagination

On our lone pathway bloomed no earthly hopes

On the Birth of Her Sister Margaret

On the Death of the Rev. Mr. George Whitefield—1770

Opal

Oread

Other World, The

O thorn-crowned Sorrow, pitiless and stern

Over the river, and through the wood

O wife, wife, wife! As if the sacred name

O wind, rend open the heat

“O World-God, give me Wealth!” the Egyptian cried

O world, I cannot hold thee close enough!

O yes, I love you, and with all my heart

Painted Fan, A

Parting Hymn, A

Patterns

Pity Me Not

Pity me not because the light of day

Plant a Tree

Poem

Poetry

Poets make pets of pretty, docile words

Poet, write!

Poppies on the Wheat

Portrait, A

Prelude

Pretty Words

Prologue, The

Renascence

Return to Tomhanick

Rocked in the cradle of the deep

Rock Me to Sleep

Roses and butterflies snared on a fan

Roses Only

Rubric

Sad music breathes upon the air

Sandpiper, The

Sappho

Say not of Beauty she is good

Sea Poppies

Sea-Side Cave, The

Seaward

See how the black ship cleaves the main

Segovia and Madrid

She comes—the spirit of the dance!

Sheltered Garden

She sat alone beside the couch of death

She's Free!

She was so little—little in her grave

Slave Auction, The

Slave Mother, The

So, because you chose to follow me

into the subtle sadness of night

Sojourn in the Whale

Solitary, The

Solitude

Somewhere I read, in an old book whose name

Song
(Brooks)

Song
(Rowson)

Song Before Grief, A

Song for Our Flag, A

Songs for My Mother

Sonnet

Sonnet V

Soon as the sun forsook the eastern main

Sorrow

Sorrow, my friend

South, The

Spicewood

Stanzas

Strephon kissed me in the spring

Strip of Blue
, A

Success is counted sweetest

Sweet babe, I cannot hope thou wilt be freed

Taxi, The

Tears

Tell me

The charms of melody, in simple airs

The day you march away—let the sun shine

The garden beds I wandered by

The heart of a woman goes forth with the dawn

The illustration

The night was dark and fearful

There is no frigate like a book

There's a certain slant of light

The rose just bursting into bloom

The sale began—young girls were there

The shell of objects inwardly consumed

The spicewood burns along the gray, spent sky

The sweetest notes among the human heart-strings

The twilight's inner flame grows blue and deep

They tell me that I must not love

This is my letter to the world

Thoreau's Flute

Thou ill-formed offspring of my feeble brain

Thou two-faced year, Mother of Change and Fate

Thy various works, imperial queen, we see

'Tis true, one half of woman's life is hope

To
———

To an Amiable Friend Mourning the Death

of an Excellent Father

To a Steam Roller

To Edgar Allan Poe

Toll!—Toll!—Toll!

To My Dear and Loving Husband

To-Night