Richard Aldington Poems

Come, thrust your hands in the warm earth
And feel her strength through all your veins;
Breathe her full odors, taste her mouth,
Which laughs away imagined pains;
...

Water ruffled and speckled by galloping wind
Which puffs and spurts it into tiny pashing breaks
Dashed with lemon-yellow afternoon sunlight.
The shining of the sun upon the water
...

I

Like a gondola of green scented fruits
Drifting along the dark canals of Venice,
...

Zeus,
Brazen-thunder-hurler,
Cloud-whirler, son-of-Kronos,
Send vengeance on these Oreads
...

How could I love you more?
I would give up
Even that beauty I have loved too well
That I might love you better.
...

Four days the earth was rent and torn
By bursting steel,
The houses fell about us;
Three nights we dared not sleep,
...

I

The bitterness. the misery, the wretchedness of childhood
Put me out of love with God.
...

Why do you always stand there shivering
Between the white stream and the road?

The people pass through the dust
...

I turn the page and read:
"I dream of silent verses where the rhyme
Glides noiseless as an oar."
The heavy musty air, the black desks,
...

In Nineveh
And beyond Nineveh
In the dusk
They were afraid.
...