American poet (1898-1943)
And I have listened also, in my youth,
And more than once or twice,
To the trained speech, the excellent advice,
The clear, dramatic statement of the sum,
And, after it was dumb,
Heard, like a spook, the curious echo come,
The echo of unkempt and drawling mirth
--The lounging mirth of cracker-barrel men,
Snowed in by winter, spitting at the fire,
And telling the disreputable truth
With the sad eye that marks the perfect liar--
And, by that laughter, was set free again.
STEPHEN VINCENT BENÉT
Western Star
For the cold of the pistol-butt and the bullet's heat,
For the ropes that choke, the manacles that bind,
The huge voice, metal, that lies from a thousand tubes
And the stuttering machine-gun that answers all.
STEPHEN VINCENT BENÉT
"Litany for Dictatorships", Young Adventure
Love is not a delicate toying,
A slim and shimmering mesh;
It is two souls wrenched into one,
Two bodies made one flesh.
STEPHEN VINCENT BENÉT
Young Adventure
There is a wilderness we walk alone
However well-companioned
STEPHEN VINCENT BENÉT
Western Star