Coffee House
Sunday, November 27th, 2005
Archive for 2005
Looking out of a coffee shop window
Friday, November 25th, 2005
Richard Cory – Edwin Arlington Robinson (1869-1935)
Tuesday, November 22nd, 2005Whenever 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.
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.
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.
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.
On my first son – Ben Jonson (1573-1637)
Wednesday, November 16th, 2005Farewell, thou child of my right hand, and joy.
My sin was too much hope of thee, loved boy.
Seven years thou wert lent to me, and thee I pay,
Exacted by thy fate, on the just day.
O could I lose all father now! For why
Will man lament the state he should envy,
To have so soon ‘scaped world’s and flesh’s rage,
And if no other misery, yet age?
Rest in soft peace, and asked, say, “Here doth lie
Ben Jonson his best piece of poetry,”
For whose sake henceforth all his vows be such
As what he loves may never like too much.
