New Classic Poems – Contemporary Verse That Rhymes

New Classic Poems
Then and Now
When all of the smoke had settled around,
The bartender shouted, "I knew!"
For there on the floor, right next to the door,
Was the body of Trapper McGrew.
'Tis told now and then by some trappers up north,
When the wind howls down through the trees,
When snowdrifts are high, and dark is the sky,
And the temperature drops by degrees
That the ghost of old Trapper returns now and then
To seek Lila and Starr - those he knew.
Strange noises those nights, on the nights there are fights,
But it's only old Trapper McGrew.
In This Court
Vincent W. Williams
In this court, with mind entrammeled,
That his soul may work its will–
harb'ring wondrous wingéd lispings
whispered on the lips of skill–
Actor's dances speak their capers
in such accents dark and sweet!
Murder's Madness melts with Music
humming strains of Love's conceit.
Captured in this court of conjure,
Where his masque must rhyme his verse,
strides the maniac incarnate
doomed by Thespis' ancient curse.
Roaring now, or then in shadows
cast by mute Illusion's mime:
Actors fancy some immortal
trick is worked on mortal time.
In this court, behold magicians,
Priests of histrionic cant,
Hypnotists and mad musicians
hymning dithyrambic chant–
Transferred souls that pine and pant.
85