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The University of Virginia Edition of The Works of Stephen Crane

Volume X : Poems and Literary Remains
Crane, Stephen (1871-1900)

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The Black Riders and Other Lines
 1. 
[I. Black riders came from the sea]
 2. 
[II. Three little birds in a row]
 3. 
[III. In the desert]
 4. 
[IV. Yes, I have a thousand tongues]
 5. 
[V. Once there came a man]
 6. 
[VI. God fashioned the ship of the world carefully]
 7. 
[VII. Mystic shadow, bending near me]
 8. 
[VIII. I looked here]
 9. 
[IX. I stood upon a high place]
 10. 
[X. Should the wide world roll away]
 11. 
[XI. In a lonely place]
 12. 
[XII. Well, then, I hate Thee, unrighteous picture]
 13. 
[XIII. If there is a witness to my little life]
 14. 
[XIV. There was crimson clash of war]
 15. 
[XV. “Tell brave deeds of war.”]
 16. 
[XVI. Charity, thou art a lie]
 17. 
[XVII. There were many who went in huddled procession]
 18. 
[XVIII. In Heaven]
 19. 
[XIX. A god in wrath]
 20. 
[XX. A learned man came to me once]
 21. 
[XXI. There was, before me]
 22. 
[XXII. Once I saw mountains angry]
 23. 
[XXIII. Places among the stars]
 24. 
[XXIV. I saw a man pursuing the horizon]
 25. 
[XXV. Behold, the grave of a wicked man]
 26. 
[XXVI. There was set before me a mighty hill]
 27. 
[XXVII. A youth in apparel that glittered]
 28. 
[XXVIII. “Truth,” said a traveller]
 29. 
[XXIX. Behold, from the land of the farther suns]
 30. 
[XXX. Supposing that I should have the courage]
 31. 
[XXXI. Many workmen]
 32. 
[XXXII. Two or three angels]
 33. 
[XXXIII. There was One I met upon the road]
 34. 
[XXXIV. I stood upon a highway]
 35. 
[XXXV. A man saw a ball of gold in the sky]
 36. 
[XXXVI. I met a seer]
 37. 
[XXXVII. On the horizon the peaks assembled]
 38. 
[XXXVIII. The ocean said to me once]
 39. 
[XXXIX. The livid lightnings flashed in the clouds]
 40. 
[XL. And you love me?]
 41. 
[XLI. Love walked alone]
 42. 
[XLII. I walked in a desert]
 43. 
[XLIII. There came whisperings in the winds]
 44. 
[XLIV. I was in the darkness]
 45. 
[XLV. Tradition, thou art for suckling children]
 46. 
[XLVI. Many red devils ran from my heart]
 47. 
[XLVII. “Think as I think,” said a man]
 48. 
[XLVIII. Once there was a man]
 49. 
[XLIX. I stood musing in a black world]
 50. 
[L. You say you are holy]
 51. 
[LI. A man went before a strange god]
 52. 
[LII. Why do you strive for greatness, fool?]
 53. 
[LIII. Blustering god]
 54. 
[LIV. “It was wrong to do this,” said the angel]
 55. 
[LV. A man toiled on a burning road]
 56. 
[LVI. A man feared that he might find an assassin]
 57. 
[LVII. With eye and with gesture]
 58. 
[LVIII. The sage lectured brilliantly]
 59. 
[LIX. Walking in the sky]
 60. 
[LX. Upon the road of my life]
 61. 
[LXI]
 62. 
[LXII. There was a man who lived a life of fire]
 63. 
[LXIII. There was a great cathedral]
 64. 
[LXIV. Friend, your white beard sweeps the ground]
 65. 
[LXV. Once, I knew a fine song]
 66. 
[LXVI. If I should cast off this tattered coat]
 67. 
[LXVII. God lay dead in Heaven]
 68. 
[LXVIII. A spirit sped]
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War is Kind
 69. 
[Do not weep, maiden, for war is kind]
 70. 
[What says the sea, little shell]
 71. 
[To the maiden]
 72. 
[A little ink more or less]
 73. 
[“Have you ever made a just man?”]
 74. 
[I explain the silvered passing of a ship at night]
 75. 
[I have heard the sunset song of the birches]
 76. 
[Fast rode the knight]
 77. 
[Forth went the candid man]
 78. 
[You tell me this is God]
 79. 
[On the desert]
 80. 
[A newspaper is a collection of half-injustices]
 81. 
[The wayfarer]
 82. 
[A slant of sun on dull brown walls]
 83. 
[Once a man clambering to the house-tops]
 84. 
[There was a man with tongue of wood]
 85. 
[The successful man has thrust himself]
 86. 
[In the night]
 87. 
[The chatter of a death-demon from a tree-top]
 88. 
[The impact of a dollar upon the heart]
 89. 
[A man said to the universe]
 90. 
[When the prophet, a complacent fat man]
 91. 
[There was a land where lived no violets]
 92. 
[There was one I met upon the road]
 93. 
[Aye, workman, make me a dream]
 94. 
[Each small gleam was a voice]
 95. 
[The trees in the garden rained flowers]
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[“INTRIGUE”]
 96. 
[Thou art my love]
 97. 
[Love forgive me if I wish you grief]
 98. 
[Ah, God, the way your little finger moved]
 99. 
[Once I saw thee idly rocking]
 100. 
[Tell me why, behind thee]
 101. 
[And yet I have seen thee happy with me]
 102. 
[I heard thee laugh]
 103. 
[I wonder if sometimes in the dusk]
 104. 
[Love met me at noonday]
 105. 
[I have seen thy face aflame]
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Uncollected Poems
 106. 
[“I'D RATHER HAVE—”]
 107. 
[Ah, haggard purse, why ope thy mouth]
 108. 
[Little birds of the night]
 109. 
[A god came to a man]
 110. 
[One came from the skies]
 111. 
[There is a grey thing that lives in the tree-tops]
 112. 
[intermingled]
 113. 
[A soldier, young in years, young in ambitions]
 114. 
[A row of thick pillars]
 115. 
[Chant you loud of punishments]
 116. 
[If you would seek a friend among men]
 117. 
[A lad and a maid at a curve in the stream]
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[“LEGENDS”]
 118. 
[I. A man builded a bugle for the storms to blow]
 119. 
[II. When the suicide arrived at the sky]
 120. 
[III. A man said: “Thou tree!”]
 121. 
[IV. A warrior stood upon a peak and defied the stars]
 122. 
[V. The wind that waves the blossoms]
 123. 
[Oh, a rare old wine ye brewed for me]
 124. 
[Tell me not in joyous numbers]
 125. 
[When a people reach the top of a hill]
 126. 
[A man adrift on a slim spar]
 127. 
[There exists the eternal fact of conflict]
 128. 
[On the brown trail]
 129. 
[Rumbling, buzzing, turning, whirling Wheels]
 130. 
[“THE BATTLE HYMN”]
 131. 
[Unwind my riddle]
 132. 
[A naked woman and a dead dwarf]
 133. 
[A grey and boiling street]
 134. 
[Bottles and bottles and bottles]
 135. 
[The patent of a lord]
 136. 
[My cross!]

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[The successful man has thrust himself]

The successful man has thrust himself
Through the water of the years,
Reeking wet with mistakes,
Bloody mistakes,
Slimed with victories over the lesser
A figure thankful on the shore of money.
Then, with the bones of fools
He buys silken banners
Limned with his triumphant face;
With the skins of wise men
He buys the trivial bows of all.
Flesh painted with marrow
Contributes a coverlet
A coverlet for his contented slumber.
In guiltless ignorance, in ignorant guilt
He delivers his secrets to the riven multitude.
“Thus I defended: Thus I wrought.”
Complacent, smiling,
He stands heavily on the dead.
Erect on a pillar of skulls
He declaims his trampling of babes;
Smirking, fat, dripping,
He makes speech in guiltless ignorance,
Innocence.
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