AN

ANTHOLOGY

BY

HAROLD

BLOOM

HAROLD BLOOM AND JESSE ZUBA, EDITORS

A Speciul Publication of

THE LIBRARY OF AMERICA

Contents

Introduction, by Harold Bloom xxv

About This Book, by Jesse Zuba xlix

The Bay Psalm BookPsalme 19 1

Thomas Dudley"Dim Eyes, deaf Ears, cold stomack shew" 2

Roger Williams"God gives them sleep on Ground, on Straw" 3"Boast not proud English, of thy birth & blood," 3"They see Gods wonders that are call'd" 4"The Indians prize not English gold," 4

Anne BradstreetThe Flesh and the Spirit 5For Delivere from a feaver 8"In silent night when rest I took" 8'As weary pilgrim, now at rest" 10

John SaffinConsideratus Considerandus 11

Michael Wigglesworthfrom The Day of Doom: Vanity of Vanities 13

Edward Taylorfrom Preparatory Meditations: First Series

8. Joh. 6.51 1738. IJoh. 2.1 18

from Preparatory Meditations: Second Series12. Ezek. 37.24 1918. Heb. 13.10 21

Let by rain 23Upon a Spider Catching a Fly 24Upon a Wasp Child with Cold 25Huswifery 26The Ebb and Flow 27A Fig for thee Oh! Death 28

vii

VIII CONTENTS

Benjamin Tompson'A Neighbour's Tears" 29

Nicholas Noyes"A Consolatory Poem Dedicated unto Mr. Cotton Mather" 30

John Norton Jr.'A Funeral Elogy" 34

Cotton MatherThe Rain gasped for 37

Mather Byles"Great GOD, how frail a Thing is Man!" 38

William BillingsChester 41An Anthem, for Thanksgiving: Psalm 148 42

Timothy Dwightfrom The Triumph of Infidelity 43

Philip FreneauOn the Religion of Nature 44

Phillis WheatleyOn the Death of the Rev. Mr. George Whitefield 45To a Lady on the Death of Three Relations 46

John Leland"The day is past and gone" 47

Joel Barlowfrom The Columbiad 48

John Quincy AdamsO Lord, Thy All-Discerning Eyes 49

Richard Henry Dana Sr.The Little Beach-Bird 50

Emma Hart WillardRocked in the Cradle of the Deep 51

Lydia Huntley SigourneyThe Coral Insect 52

William Cullen BryantThanatopsis 54To a Waterfowl 56Forest Hymn 57Hymn of the Waldenses 60

CONTENTS

George Washington DoaneEvening 61

Ralph Waldo EmersonThe Problem 62The Rhodora 64Dirge 64Brahma 66Boston Hymn 67rvcoGi ZEOUTOV 70"There is in all the sons of men" 73"I will not live out of me" 74"He walked the streets of great New York" 75"Shun passion, fold the hands of thrift," 76

Henry Wadsworth LongfellowA Psalm of Life 76The Bridge 78The Jewish Cemetery at Newport 80Christmas Bells 82My Cathedral 83

John Greenleaf WhittierFirst-Day Thoughts 83The Eternal Goodness 84Unity 87

Oliver Wendell HolmesThe Chambered Nautilus 88The Living Temple 89

Edmund Hamilton Sears"It came upon the midnight clear," 91

Christopher Pearse CranchCorrespondences 92Enosis 93

Jones VeryThe New Birth 94Enoch 95The Cup 95The New World 96The Created 96Yourself 97The Cottage 97Autumn Flowers 98The Origin of Man 99Night 100

CONTENTS

William Ellery ChanningHymn of the Earth 100

Henry David ThoreauSic Vita 101Music 102Inspiration 103

Julia Ward HoweBattle-Hymn of the Republic 106

James Russell LowellAfter the Burial 107

Herman Melvillefrom Moby-Dick 109from Clarel: A Poem and Pilgrimage in the Holy Land noThe Enthusiast i nFragments of a Lost Gnostic Poem of the 12th Century 112Pontoosuce 112

Walt Whitman"In vain were nails driven through my hands." 115

from Song of Myself 115from Crossing Brooklyn Ferry 120As I Ebb'd with the Ocean of Life 122When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd 125As Adam Early in the Morning 134Chanting the Square Deific 134A Noiseless Patient Spider 136

Frederick Goddard TuckermanSonnets 137"Not the round natural world, not the deep mind," 138

Robert LowryBeautiful River 138

Emily Dickinson"I got so I could take his n a m e - " 140"I felt a Funeral, in my Brain," 141"I know that He exists." 141"After great pain, a formal feeling comes -" 142"Dare you see a Soul at the 'White Heat'?" 142"Our journey had advanced-" 143"It might be lonelier" 143"I heard a Fly buzz-when I d ied-" 144"To pile like Thunder to it's close" 145"'Heavenly Father '-take to thee" 145

CONTENTS

"The Spirit lasts-but in what mode-" 145"My life closed twice before it's close;" 146

Helen Hunt JacksonA Last Prayer 146

Knowles ShawSowing in the Morning 147

Phillips BrooksO Little Town of Bethlehem 148

Sanford F. Bennett"There's a land that is fairer than day," 149

William Dean HowellsWhat Shall It Profit? 150

Sidney LanierA Ballad of Trees and the Master 150

John Banister TabbNekros 151Communion 151Tenebrae 152

Emma LazarusIn the Jewish Synagogue at Newport 152The New Ezekiel 154

Edwin MarkhamIn Death Valley 154

Lizette Woodworth ReeseTrust 155This Very Hour 155

Edith WhartonTerminus 156

W.E.B. Du BoisA Litany at Atlanta 158

Edwin Arlington RobinsonThe Children of the Night 161Karma 163

James Weldon JohnsonThe Creation 163

Paul Laurence DunbarAn Ante-Bellum Sermon 166Religion 169

XII CONTENTS

Vincent O'SullivanOut of the Cloud 169

Tr,umbull Stickney"He said: 'If in his image I was made," 170'And, the last day being come, Man stood alone" 170

Anna Hempstead BranchIn the Beginning Was the Word 171

Robert FrostA Prayer in Spring 175Bereft 175Design 176Once by the Pacific 176Directive 177

Ameen RihaniThe Song of Siva 179Renunciation 180A Sufi Song 180

Carl SandburgOur Prayer of Thanks 181For You 181

William Stanley BraithwaiteThe Eternal Self ' 183

Vachel LindsayGeneral William Booth Enters Heaven 184The Unpardonable Sin 186

Wallace StevensTea at the Palaz of Hoon . 187Sunday Morning 187God Is Good. It Is a Beautiful Night 191Less and Less Human, O Savage Spirit 192Angel Surrounded by Paysans 193Final Soliloquy of the Interior Paramour 194Of Mere Being 194

Kahlil GibranO Soul 195

William Carlos WilliamsBurning the Christmas Greens 195The Gift 198

Sara TeasdaleThe Sanctuary 200

CONTENTS

H.D.from The Walls Do Not Fall 200from The Flowering of the Rod 202

Moyshe-Leyb HalpernMemento Mori 205The Will 205

Robinson JeffersShine, Perishing Republic 207Apology for Bad Dreams 208Hurt Hawks 211The Treasure 212

Marianne MooreThe Steeple-Jack 213

Elinor WylieAddress to My Soul 216

T. S. EliotThe Hippopotamus 217Ash-Wednesday 218Journey of the Magi 225A Song for Simeon 227Little Gidding 228

H. LeivickThe Sturdy in Me 235

John Crowe RansomArmageddon 236

Conrad AikenTetelestai 239

Mikhail NaimyAutumn Leaves 242

Claude McKayI Know My Soul 244Russian Cathedral 244

Edna St. Vincent MillayGod's World 245

Samuel GreenbergGod 245

E. E. Cummings"i thank You God for this amazing" 246

CONTENTS

Charles ReznikoffLuzzato 247Spinoza 247"There is nobody in the street" 248

Jean ToomerPrayer 248The Gods Are Here 248

Jacob GlatshteynWithout Offerings 249

Louise BoganNight 250

John WheelwrightFish Food 251Come Over and Help Us 252Bread-Word Giver 255

Melvin B. TolsonA Song for Myself 256

Leonie AdamsBell Tower 261

Hart CraneLachrymae Christi 262from Voyages 263from The Bridge 264O Carib Isle! 276The Broken Tower 277

Thomas A. DorseyTake My Hand, Precious Lord 278Allen TateThe Cross 279The Twelve 280Sonnets at Christmas 280

Sterling A. BrownSister Lou 281

Laura RidingThere Is No Land Yet 283Faith Upon the Waters 284

Langston HughesThe Negro Speaks of Rivers 285Prayer 286Heaven 286

CONTENTS

Countee CullenSimon the Cyrenian Speaks 286The Litany of the Dark People 287

Carl RakosiMeditation ("Three things remind me of You,") 288Meditation ("How long will you remain a boy?") 288

Richard EberhartThe Groundhog 289The Soul Longs to Return Whence It Came 290

Louis Zukofskyfrom "A" - 12 292

Stanley KunitzBenediction 296

Kenneth RexrothThe Signature of All Things 298

Robert Penn WarrenEvening Hawk 300Heart of Autumn 301

W. H. Audenfrom Horae Canonicae 302

George OppenPsalm 307

Theodore RoethkeThe Waking 308In a Dark Time 309

James Agee"This little time the breath and bulk of being" 310

Elizabeth BishopThe Unbeliever 310Over 2000 Illustrations and a Complete Concordance 311At the Fishhouses 313

William EversonA Canticle to the Waterbirds 315

Jean GarrigueA Demon Came to Me 319

Robert Hayden"From the corpse woodpiles, from the ashes" 319Baha'u'llah in the Garden of Ridwan 320The Broken Dark 321

XVI CONTENTS

Ice Storm '. 322'As my blood was drawn," 322

John Frederick NimsPrayer 323The Dark Night 324Knowledge of God 326

Muriel RukeyserAre You Born? / I 326Are You Born? / II 327

Delmore SchwartzAt a Solemn Musick 327

Karl ShapiroThe Alphabet 329

May SwensonQuestion 330The Lightning 331Big-Hipped Nature 331Each Like a Leaf 332

John BerrymanEleven Addresses to the Lord 334

David IgnatowKaddish 341

Randall Jar r ellJonah 342

William StaffordWith My Crowbar Key 343

Thomas MertonSt. Paul 344In Silence 345Elegy for the Monastery Barn 346

Robert LowellWhere the Rainbow Ends 347

William BronkVirgin and Child with Music and Numbers 348The Mind's Limitations Are Its Freedom 349

Robert DuncanOften I Am Permitted to Return to a Meadow 350

CONTENTS

The Natural Doctrine .- 351God-Spell 352

Amy ClampittA Procession at Candlemas 353Easter Morning 358Brought From Beyond 358A Silence 359

Howard NemerovThe Loon's Cry 361

Richard Wilbur'A World Without Objects Is a Sensible Emptiness" 364Advice to a Prophet 365A Christmas Hymn 366In a Churchyar