Here is a selection from Eli Siegel’s poetic work, which he began in the 1920s. Some poems are from his books Hot Afternoons Have Been in Montana: Poems and Hail, American Development. Many were previously published in noted literary journals, and in The Rightness of Aesthetic Realism: A Periodical.
Poems to Begin With:
- Character Sketch
- The Dark That Was Is Here
- Dear Birds, Tell This to Mothers
- Hot Afternoons Have Been in Montana
- Must I Wait All My Life; or, The Misery Song
- Put Zebras by the Mississippi
All the Poems on This Site:
A
- About Fruits Somewhat
- Aches for Valna’s Coming
- Aesthetic Realism Couplets
- Afternoon
- Afternoon Cold
- Albatross, By Charles Baudelaire, The
- Alice Has Never Been in China
- All for Herself; Shakey
- Also
- Also Not Liking You
- Amiable Thoughts for Someone in a Hospital
- Amoret, Body and Gown
- And It Does, Marianne
- And Its Planks
- And There Are New Smiles; New Smiles
- And There Prevail
- Anger and Musing
- Anonymous Anthropology
- Any Star and Shakey
- Apathetic Landlord
- Art Poétique, By Paul Verlaine
- As I Look from Here
- At Thermopylae, By Simonides of Ceos
- Autumn Song, By Paul Verlaine
B
- Baby in the Carriage
- Ballade Concerning Our Mistake and Knowledge of It
- Balzac and People Living Nonetheless
- Basho Translations
- Baskets: Their Due
- Blackness Dashes Valuably
- Breviary of Ontological Courtesy, The
C
- Candles and Forest
- Carry Me Away, By Henri Michaux
- Chapped Second Fingers
- Character Sketch
- Color and the Inconceivably Unknown
- Come, Spring Flowers
- Comforts
- Contemporary History
- Could Quote Horace, Likewise
- Cydnus, by José Maria de Heredia, The
D
- Dark That Was Is Here, The
- Dear Birds, Tell This to Mothers
- Death, Itself
- Declaration of Freedom as to Print By Annabel Livingston, of Ohio
- Delicately
- Depression Song of a Girl
- Des Après-Midi Chaudes Ont Été Au Montana
- Diamonds Are Correct in This Very Matter
- Dim Lamps
- Disappointment
- Discouraged People
- Ditty Arising from a Perusal of Henry James’ Works
- Doing Eye and Shoulder Things
E
- Eagles Go with the Fine News to Many Places
- Eating
- Existence Is Worthy of Love
- Expiation: I; By Victor Hugo, The
F
- Face So As to Pale Stars
- Fall of the Leaves, By Charles Hubert Millevoye, The
- Familiar Mad Heroine
- Fare Thee Well
- First in Music, A
- First Time
- Forevermore
- Free Poem on “The Siegel Theory of Opposites” in Relation to Aesthetics
- Free Verse
G
- Gertrude Broods Alone
- Girl and Moon
- Girl and Things [1925], A
- Good Will
- Grass Blade
H
- Haikus: Some Instances
- Happiness, By Arthur Rimbaud
- Have the Lily
- He Would Be So Hurt
- Heaven and Being a Good Critic
- Hell, What Is This About, Asked Again
- Hellenic Landscape Was Glad, The
- Him and the World
- Hinges
- Hot Afternoons Have Been in Montana
- How Fine This All
- Humanity
- Hymn to Fourth Avenue
- Hymn to Jazz and the Like
- Hymn, By Charles Baudelaire
I
- I Should Love to Be Loved, By Endre Ady
- I Told You So
- Idea of Beauty Is Adored in This World, By Joachim du Bellay, The
- In a Painting
- In November
- In That Period of History
- In the Best Sunlight Ever
- In White, Having Also Red
- Instance of Dyspepsia, An
- Invitation and Hope
- Is It Me, Darling, or Somebody Else, God Knows Who?—A Love Poem
- It Is the Highest Prudence to Be Worthy of the Invitation Things as Rooms Give
- It Will Be Annabel November
J
- Janet Knows Hell
- Japanese Humanitarian Poem
- Just Literary
K
- Kaddish
L
- La Salle, As Having You in Mind
- Ladies Ever, Ever, Ever Lightly Go Across Sweet, Green Swards
- Lady, Sun and Rain, A
- Laurels Are Cut Down, By Théodore de Banville, The
- Leaves Go South a Little
- Like a Clock, Like Anything
- Lines on Eternity
- List
- Little Cube in Space, The
- Local Stop, Sheridan Square
- Logic the Only Way to Assurance
- Lord Has Stolen Her Whims, The
- Love and Jobs
- Love Lurches Along
- Love; or, When Good Will Wins
M
- Man Walks By, A
- Many Plains
- Marriage, A
- Meadow and a Stem
- Meant To Be
- Meeting Place It Can Be All the Time, The
- Mentioned Any Time
- Milkmaid and the Pot of Milk, By Jean de La Fontaine, The
- Millions of Tons in Chicago
- Milwaukee Eagle
- Miss Edith Lindsay and Form
- Missouri, The
- Moments
- Moose Moves, A
- More Lines on a Voice
- Mourn This Sparrow, By Gaius Valerius Catullus
- Must I Wait All My Life; or, The Misery Song
N
- Naera Says “Coming” No Longer
- Napoleon Was There; Cold, Cold Moscow
- Necessity and Choice Always Prevail
- Neighboring You
- New York Is Of, in More Than One Way
- Night in 1242
- No Reader Attending
- Noise Is of All, The World
- Not Ours
- Nothing: A Study
- Nothing’s at Fault, but Dust Is There
O
- O Broken Dish
- O, The and This
- O, Wounded Birds
- Oak and the Reed, By Jean de La Fontaine, The
- Observations in the Metre of Tamburlaine on the Norman Mailer Turbulence and Its Relations: with the Presence of Byron, Dostoievsky, Bodenheim, and Everyone
- Occupied the Sky
- Ocean, Mr., Mrs. Blink
- On American Boys Dying in 1863, in Virginia, and Later Elsewhere
- Once More Let’s Announce the Team of Leaves and Emotion
- One of the Saddest Things in the World
- One Question
- Our Very Selves
P
- Partly
- Pillars, You Are Brand New, New, New
- Poem of Catullus about Attis, The
- Poems, Chiefly Scientific
- Point
- Pomeriggi Caldi Sono Stati nel Montana
- Praise Will Not Be Taken Back, The
- Preferring Cellars
- Print and the Siegel Theory of Opposites, The
- Prosody Is Ours
- Put Zebras by the Mississippi
Q
- Question
- Question, A
- Quiet
- Quiet, Tears, Babies
R
- Ralph Isham, 1753 and Later
- Recurrent March
- Red and Yellow and Hills
- Rehabilitation
- Restrained Song about Sleet
- Rhode Island Morning for Clarice
- Roar-Roar as Relation
- Roland and the Archbishop: From the Chanson de Roland
S
- Sad Bobolink
- Said the Feather to the Air
- Sameness and Difference in a Tragic Play
- Season of Sowing: Evening, By Victor Hugo
- Seem to Do Most
- Self, Beating, The
- Sentiment Now
- Shakespeare, Compactly
- Shame We Have, The
- Silent Hill, A
- Slanting Soft White on Mountain Is Never Through
- Smell of Fried Potatoes, The
- Smoke Goes Up Slowly
- So Delia Walks the Air
- Solipsism
- Some Lines from Voltaire’s Poem on the Disaster at Lisbon, By François Marie Arouet de Voltaire
- Something Done Well
- Something Else Should Die: A Poem with Rhymes
- Somewhere Along the Line
- Somewhere This
- Song of the Potter: Ceylon Folk Poem, The
- Spark
- Speech of Moon in the Heart of Ceylon
- Speech to Continent on Its Value
- Spider at 6:30, The
- Stars Exhorted, Revealed
- Stars That Summer, The
- Starting
- Still the Dawn
- Strong City Is Our God, By Martin Luther, A
- Stuffy Town
- Summer
- Summer Again in New Jersey
- Sunlight in Slush, in Puddles, and in Wet Municipal Surfaces; or, Miracle on Eighth Avenue below Fourteenth Street
T
- Taker, This
- Technique Is When
- That Are
- Their Birds’ World Was Shaken
- There Has Been Sewing
- These Are Five Haikus
- They Look at Us
- They Resist
- This Is History
- This Is Your Cup of Tea
- This Seen Now
- This Summer Morning Mariana Has
- This to Delia
- Those Who Wait
- Thoughts in 1960 on the Civil War, 1861-1865
- Three Poems about Novels
- Thrills, Life and Reading
- To a Slushy Pear
- To Dylan Thomas
- To Homes
- To the Reader, Charles Baudelaire
- Towards Homer: Free Verse, Beginning with the First Lines of Pope’s Translation of the Odyssey
- Trees in Rain
- Trill Is Trembling Continuity, A
- Twenty-one Distichs about Children
- Two Children's Poems
- Two Stanzas from French Literature about Death: In Stances à Du Perrier By François de Malherbe
- Two Statements
U
- Unbrought Me: Henry James Dearly Suffuses, The
- Understanding Does Not Like It
- Unknown Should Be Good, The
- Uprising of the Flowers; or, It Had to Win, The
V
- Voice, By Henri de Régnier, The
- Voyage, VIII; By Charles Baudelaire, The
W
- Waiting Maine Man, Dead at Little Round Top, Near Gettysburg, July 1863, The
- Walk, Girl, in London
- Waving of the Grain, The
- We Lag
- We’ll Begin Again as Often as Need Be, Any Time
- What Food Deserves: A Canticle
- What Is Newer Than an Ancient Daisy?
- What Now Coheres—Of 1861-1865?
- What We Want to Hear from Ourselves
- When You Meet Someone
- Whence? and Hence; and Whence?— or, The Universe Can Mock Us, Too
- Woeful Ballad on Faking Away, A
- Wolf and the Lamb, By Jean de La Fontaine, The
- World of Weeping Birds, A
- World Says, I’m Your Valentine, My Dear, The
- Worms Go South and They Fit In
Y
- You Can’t Miss the Absolute
- Your Hope Is What I Am
Z
- Zeb Duryea