James Kenneth Stephen Poems

At school I sometimes read a book,
And learned a lot of lessons;
Some small amount of pains I took,
And showed much acquiescence
...

1. IN THE BACKS.

As I was strolling lonely in the Backs,
I met a woman whom I did not like.
...

(From Her Point of View)

When I had firmly answered 'No',
And he allowed that that was so,
...

In a wild moraine of forgotten books,
On the glacier of years gone by,
As I plied my rake for order's sake,
There was one that caught my eye:
...

I am not ambitious at all:
I am not a poet, I know
(Though I do love to see a mere scrawl
To order and symmetry grow).
...

There are people, I know, to be found,
Who say, and apparently think,
That sorrow and care may be drowned
By a timely consumption of drink.
...

Of sentences that stir my bile,
Of phrases I detest,
There's one beyond all others vile;
"He did it for the best."
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I. The husband's.

She's not a faultless woman; no!
She's not an angel in disguise:
...

Two voices are there: one is of the deep;
It learns the storm-cloud's thunderous melody,
Now roars, now murmurs with the changing sea,
Now bird-like pipes, now closes soft in sleep:
...