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Archibald MacLeish Short Poems

Famous Short Archibald MacLeish Poems. Short poetry by famous poet Archibald MacLeish. A collection of the all-time best Archibald MacLeish short poems


by Archibald MacLeish
 Will it last? he says.
Is it a masterpiece?
Will generation after generation
Turn with reverence to the page?

Birdseye scholar of the frozen fish,
What would he make of the sole, clean, clear
Leap of the salmon that has disappeared?

To be, yes!--whether they like it or not!
But not to last when leap and water are forgotten,
A plank of standard pinkness in the dish.

They also live
Who swerve and vanish in the river.



by Delmore Schwartz
 I should have been a plumber fixing drains.
And mending pure white bathtubs for the great Diogenes
(who scorned all lies, all liars, and all tyrannies),

And then, perhaps, he would bestow on me -- majesty!
(O modesty aside, forgive my fallen pride, O hidden
 majesty,
The lamp, the lantern, the lucid light he sought for 

 All too often -- sick humanity!)

by Archibald MacLeish
 There is no dusk to be, 
There is no dawn that was, 
Only there's now, and now, 
And the wind in the grass.

Days I remember of 
Now in my heart, are now; 
Days that I dream will bloom 
White the peach bough.

Dying shall never be 
Now in the windy grass; 
Now under shooken leaves 
Death never was.


Book: Radiant Verses: A Journey Through Inspiring Poetry