Short Poems

The calm,
Cool face of the river
Asked me for a kiss.

Storken bringer os alle de Smaa,
Bringer han rigtigt mange,
Saa skal han Characteren faae:
„Udmærket godt med Slange".

Down between the walls of shadow
Where the iron laws insist,
The hunger voices mock.

The worn wayfaring men
With the hunched and humble shoulders,
Throw their laughter into toil.

Says England to Germany: 'Africa's ours.'
Says Germany: 'Ours, I opine.'
Says Africa: 'Tell me, delectable Pow'rs,
What is it that ought to be mine?'

Success allures us in the earth and skies:
We seek to win her, but, too amorous,
Mocking, she flees us. Haply, were we wise,
We would not strive and she would come to us.

Stroke a flint, and there is nothing to admire:
Strike a flint, and forthwith flash out sparks of fire.

Kind Reader! take your choice to cry or laugh;
Here HAROLD lies, but where's his Epitaph?
If such you seek, try Westminster, and view
Ten thousand just as fit for him as you.

Athens

It’s God who exalts, whomever He wishes,
Self-effacing is the man, humility he practises,
Swaggering suits only to the brainless being,
As to an empty vessel, noise pleases.

Stuttered-over-again World,
where I shall have been
a Guest, a Name,
sweated down from the Wall,
that a Wound licks up.

Some dummy built this pencil wrong,
The eraser's down here where the point belongs,
And the point's at the top - so it's no good to me,
It's amazing how stupid some people can be.