Loading...
en
English Español Français Italiano

James Kenneth Stephen

To R. K.

As long I dwell on some stupendous
  And tremendous (Heaven defend us!)
  Monstr’-inform’-ingens-horrendous
  Demoniaco-seraphic
  Penman’s latest piece of graphic.
                BROWNING.
  Will there never come a season
  Which shall rid us from the curse
  Of a prose which knows no reason
  And an unmelodious verse:
  When the world shall cease to wonder
  At the genius of an Ass,
  And a boy’s eccentric blunder
  Shall not bring success to pass:
  When mankind shall be delivered
 From the clash of magazines,
 And the inkstand shall be shivered
 Into countless smithereens:
 When there stands a muzzled stripling,
 Mute, beside a muzzled bore:
 When the Rudyards cease from kipling
 And the Haggards Ride no more.

#EnglishWriters

Other works by James Kenneth Stephen...
The Ballade of the Incompetent Ballade-Monger

I am not ambitious at all: I am not a poet, I know (Though I do love to see a mere s… To order and symmetry grow). My muse is uncertain and slow,
A Parodist’s Apology

If I’ve dared laugh at you, Rober… ’Tis with eyes that with you have… You have oftener left me smiling o… Than any beside, one bard except. But once you spoke to me, storm-to…
Drinking Song

There are people, I know, to be f… Who say, and apparently think, That sorrow and care may be drowne… By a timely consumption of drink. Does not man, these enthusiasts as…
Men and Women

1. IN THE BACKS. As I was strolling lonely in the… I met a woman whom I did not like… I did not like the way the woman w… Loose-hipped, big-boned, disjointe…
A Sonnet (Two Voices Are There)

Two voices are there: one is of th… It learns the storm-cloud’s thunde… Now roars, now murmurs with the ch… Now bird-like pipes, now closes so… And one is of an old half-witted s…
A Sonnet

Two voices are there: one is of th… It learns the storm-cloud’s thunde… Now roars, now murmurs with the ch… Now bird-like pipes, now closes so… And one is of an old half-witted s…
Of F.W.H.M. to One That Smokes

Spare us the hint of slightest des… Spotless preserve us an untainted… Not for thy sake, oh goddess of cr… Not for thy sake, oh woman, but fo…
 1
The Old School List

In a wild moraine of forgotten boo… On the glacier of years gone by, As I plied my rake for order’s sa… There was one that caught my eye: And I sat by the shelf till I los…
The Malefactor’s Plea

Of sentences that stir my bile, Of phrases I detest, There’s one beyond all others vile… “He did it for the best.” Of course he did: I don’t suppose…
4th July 1882, Malines. Midnight

Belgian, with cumbrous tread and i… Who in the murky middle of the nig… Designing to renew the foul pursui… In which thy life is passed, ill-f… And wishing on the platform to ali…
 1
Steam-Launches on the Thames

Henley, June 7, 1891. Shall we, to whom the stream by ri… Who travel silent, save, perchance… Whose track’s a ripple,—leaves the… Nor frights the swan—scarce makes…
Wordsworth

Two voices are there: one is of th… It learns the storm cloud’s thunde… Now roars, now murmurs with the ch… Now birdlike pipes, now closes sof… And one is of an old half-witted s…
The Philosopher and the Philanthropist

Searching an infinite Where, Probing a bottomless When, Dreamfully wandering, Ceaselessly pondering, What is the Wherefore of men:
After the Golden Wedding (Three Soliloquies)

I. The husband’s. She’s not a faultless woman; no! She’s not an angel in disguise: She has her rivals here below: She’s not an unexampled prize:
England and America

1. ON A RHINE STEAMER. Republic of the West, Enlightened, free, sublime, Unquestionably best Production of our time.



Top