[Skip Navigation]

Poetry Archives

A continuing selection of classic and contemporary poems.

The Bench Of Boors

Herman Melville

In bed I muse on Tenier’s boors,
Embrowned and beery losels all;
      A wakeful brain
      Elaborates pain:
Within low doors the slugs of boors
Laze and yawn and doze again.

In dreams they doze, the drowsy boors,
Their hazy hovel warm and small:
      Thought’s ampler bound
      But chill is found:
Within low doors the basking boors
Snugly hug the ember-mound.

Sleepless, I see the slumberous boors
Their blurred eyes blink, their eyelids fall:
      Thought’s eager sight
      Aches—overbright!
Within low doors the boozy boors
Cat-naps take in pipe-bowl light.
Online text © 1998-2008 Poetry X. All rights reserved.
From John Marr and Other Poems | 1922
Add Keyword Tags

Separate each tag with a space. You may add as many tags as you'd like to each poem.

What are tags?
Tags, sometimes called “folksonomies,” are words that describe or categorize a poem, like “20th century modernism” or “Italian sonnet”. Tags can help you find poems that have something in common, based on how other people classify them.

More Info

This site will work and look better in a browser that supports web standards, but it is accessible to any Internet device.