8 quotes
No hope. And the X-ray photographs under his arm
Confirm the message. His wife stands timidly by.
The opposite brick-built house looks lofty and calm,
Its chimneys steady against the mackerel sky.
A Few Late Chrysanthemums (1954)
But I'm dying now and done for,
What on earth was all the fun for?
I am ill and old and terrified and tight.
A Few Late Chrysanthemums (1954)
Milk and then just as it comes dear?
I’m afraid the preserve’s full of stones;
Beg pardon, I’m soiling the doileys
With afternoon tea-cakes and scones.
A Few Late Chrysanthemums (1954)
In the Garden City Café with its murals on the wall
Before a talk on "Sex and Civics" I meditated on the Fall.
A Few Late Chrysanthemums (1954)
Phone for the fish-knives, Norman
As Cook is a little unnerved;
You kiddies have crumpled the serviettes
And I must have things daintily served.
A Few Late Chrysanthemums (1954)
No love that in a family dwells,
No carolling in frosty air,
Nor all the steeple-shaking bells
Can with this single Truth compare—
That God was man in Palestine
And lives to-day in Bread and Wine.
A Few Late Chrysanthemums (1954)
In the licorice fields at Pontefract
My love and I did meet
And many a burdened licorice bush
Was blooming round our feet;
Red hair she had and golden skin,
Her sulky lips were shaped for sin,
Her sturdy legs were flannel-slack'd
The strongest legs in Pontefract.
A Few Late Chrysanthemums (1954)
And behind their frail partitions
Business women lie and soak,
Seeing through the draughty skylight
Flying clouds and railway smoke.
Rest you there, poor unbelov'd ones,
Lap your loneliness in heat,
All too soon the tiny breakfast,
Trolley-bus and windy street!
A Few Late Chrysanthemums (1954)