Poetry Codex

American

Stephen Vincent Benét

1898–1943

Stephen Vincent Benét (1898–1943) was an American poet, short-story writer and novelist, born in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, the younger brother of the poet William Rose Benét. He studied at Yale, where he published Five Men and Pompey (1915) while still an undergraduate, and Young Adventure (1918), the first of the two books in this archive, was published by Yale University Press.

He went on to win two Pulitzer Prizes for poetry, for the Civil War narrative John Brown's Body (1929) and, posthumously, for Western Star (1944), and wrote some of the best-known American short stories of his generation. Heavens and Earth (1920), his second collection of verse, followed soon after his Yale years. Only these two early books are included here.

Poems (79)

  1. Dedication: To W. R. B.
  2. The Drug-Shop, or, Endymion in Edmonstoun
  3. Rain after a Vaudeville Show
  4. The City Revisited
  5. Going Back to School
  6. Nos Immortales
  7. Young Blood
  8. The Quality of Courage
  9. Campus Sonnets 1: Before an Examination
  10. Campus Sonnets 2: Talk
  11. Campus Sonnets 3: May Morning
  12. Campus Sonnets 4: Return -- 1917
  13. Alexander VI Dines with the Cardinal of Capua
  14. The Breaking Point
  15. Lonely Burial
  16. Dinner in a Quick Lunch Room
  17. The Hemp (A Virginia Legend)
  18. Poor Devil!
  19. Ghosts of a Lunatic Asylum
  20. The White Peacock (France -- Ancient Regime)
  21. Colors (For D. M. C.)
  22. A Minor Poet
  23. The Lover in Hell
  24. Winged Man
  25. Music
  26. The Innovator (A Pharaoh Speaks)
  27. Love in Twilight
  28. The Fiddling Wood
  29. Portrait of a Boy
  30. Portrait of a Baby
  31. The General Public
  32. Road and Hills
  33. Elegy for an Enemy (For G. H.)
  34. The First Vision of Helen
  35. The Last Vision of Helen
  36. The Retort Discourteous (Italy—16th Century)
  37. Two at the Crossroads
  38. Sir John Rimbeck to the Princess of Acre
  39. Three Days’ Ride
  40. The Plow (A New England Tragedy)
  41. Colloquy of the Statues (The Avenue. Night Before Pershing’s Parade)
  42. Lunch-Time Along Broadway
  43. The Walkers (Strike Pickets—Lower Fifth Ave.)
  44. 8:30 A. M. on 32nd Street
  45. Chanson at Madison Square
  46. Hymn in Columbus Circle (After Seeing a Certain Window Display)
  47. The Etcher
  48. Grand Larceny
  49. November Prothalamion
  50. Expressions Near the End of Winter
  51. Lost Lights
  52. Come Back!
  53. Resurrection (To J. W. A.)
  54. Flood-Tide (Maine Coast—1917)
  55. The Song of Cold and Pain
  56. Wisdom-Teeth
  57. The Original Impulse
  58. Lunch at a City Club (For, though not to, D. M. C.)
  59. The Knockout
  60. Devourer of Nations
  61. Abraham’s Bosom
  62. Prohibition
  63. Mortuary Parlors
  64. Talk
  65. Nearsight
  66. Before Michael’s Last Fight
  67. Always the Sonnetteer
  68. Portrait of Young Love
  69. Two More Muses
  70. Operation (For J. F. C. Jr.)
  71. The Trapeze Performer (For C. M.)
  72. Epitaph to Be Spoken
  73. Judgment
  74. Boarding-House Hall
  75. Blood Brothers
  76. Watchmen
  77. “Les Cruches Cassées”
  78. P. P. C.—Madam Life
  79. Positively the Last Performance!

See Stephen Vincent Benét in the full archive →