Helen

H. D.

All Greece hates

the still eyes in the white face,

the lustre as of olives

where she stands,

and the white hands.

All Greece reviles

the wan face when she smiles,

hating it deeper still

when it grows wan and white,

remembering past enchantments

and past ills.

Greece sees unmoved,

God’s daughter, born of love,

the beauty of cool feet

and slenderest knees,

could love indeed the maid,

only if she were laid,

white ash amid funereal cypresses.

H. D.

Born Hilda Doolittle in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, H.D. is remembered as a leading figure of the Imagist movement, though she developed an independent…

Grade levels

7-9 / Sec. 1-3

10-12 / Sec. 4 & 5 / CEGEP 1

James Wright

A Blessing

Just off the highway to Rochester, Minnesota,

Twilight bounds softly forth on the grass.

And the eyes of those two Indian ponies

Darken with kindness.

They have come gladly out of the willows

Sarah Tolmie

31

We’re all aware that human hair is dead

Yet we spend thousands taking care of it.

It’s like an endless funeral.

The moment your hair hits air, it’s toast.

It only lives inside the follicle.

Edwin Arlington Robinson

Miniver Cheevy

Miniver Cheevy, child of scorn,

Grew lean while he assailed the seasons;

He wept that he was ever born,

W. E. B. Du Bois

The Song of the Smoke

I am the Smoke King

I am black!

I am swinging in the sky,

I am wringing worlds awry;

I am the thought of the throbbing mills,

I am the soul of the soul-toil kills,

#readpoetry

H. D.

H. D.

James Wright

A Blessing

Sarah Tolmie

31

Edwin Arlington Robinson

Miniver Cheevy

W. E. B. Du Bois

The Song of the Smoke

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