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Famous Car Poems by Famous Poets

These are examples of famous Car poems written by some of the greatest and most-well-known modern and classical poets. PoetrySoup is a great educational poetry resource of famous car poems. These examples illustrate what a famous car poem looks like and its form, scheme, or style (where appropriate).

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by Thomas, Dylan
...t whatever I can find. In goes my hand into that wool-white bell-tongued ball of holidays
resting at the rim of the carol-singing sea, and out come Mrs. Prothero and the firemen.

It was on the afternoon of the Christmas Eve, and I was in Mrs. Prothero's garden, waiting for cats, with her
son Jim. It was snowing. It was always snowing at Christmas. December, in my memory, is white as Lapland,
though there were no reindeers. But there were cats....Read more of this...



by Brackenridge, Hugh Henry
...s her burning sands; than stream long sought 
Through desert flowing and the scorched plain 
To Sheba's troop or Tema's caravan. 


Egypt beholds the dawn of this fair morn 
And boasts her rites mysterious no more; 
Her hidden learning wrapt in symbols strange 
Of hieroglyphic character, engrav'd 
On marble pillar, or the mountain rock, 
Or pyramid enduring many an age. 
She now receives asserted and explain'd 
That holy law, which on mount Sinai writ 
By God's own fi...Read more of this...

by Brackenridge, Hugh Henry
...r broken isles, 
You northern Tartars, and your wand'ring Jews. 
Hear what the voice of history proclaims. 
The Carthaginians, e'er the Roman yoke 
Broke their proud spirits and enslav'd them too, 
For navigation were renown'd as much 
As haughty Tyre with all her hundred fleets; 
Full many: league their vent'rous seamen sail'd 
Thro' strait Gibraltar down the western shore 
Of Africa, and to Canary isles 
By them call'd fortunate, so Flaccus sings, 
Because eternal s...Read more of this...

by Wilde, Oscar
...y foam,
A fair cloth wrought with cunning imagery
Of hounds in chase, a waxen honey-comb
Dripping with oozy gold which scarce the bee
Had ceased from building, a black skin of oil
Meet for the wrestlers, a great boar the fierce and white-tusked
spoil

Stolen from Artemis that jealous maid
To please Athena, and the dappled hide
Of a tall stag who in some mountain glade
Had met the shaft; and then the herald cried,
And from the pillared precinct one by one
Went the glad Greeks ...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...ns mild of calm and serene air,
Above the smoke and stir of this dim spot
Which men call Earth, and, with low-thoughted care,
Confined and pestered in this pinfold here,
Strive to keep up a frail and feverish being,
Unmindful of the crown that Virtue gives,
After this mortal change, to her true servants
Amongst the enthroned gods on sainted seats.
Yet some there be that by due steps aspire
To lay their just hands on that golden key
That opes the palace of eternity.
To...Read more of this...



by Keats, John
...n my bosom? No one dies
Before me, till from these enslaving eyes
Redemption sparkles!--I am sad and lost."

 Thou, Carian lord, hadst better have been tost
Into a whirlpool. Vanish into air,
Warm mountaineer! for canst thou only bear
A woman's sigh alone and in distress?
See not her charms! Is Phoebe passionless?
Phoebe is fairer far--O gaze no more:--
Yet if thou wilt behold all beauty's store,
Behold her panting in the forest grass!
Do not those curls of glossy jet...Read more of this...

by Carver, Raymond
...Fear of seeing a police car pull into the drive.
Fear of falling asleep at night.
Fear of not falling asleep.
Fear of the past rising up.
Fear of the present taking flight.
Fear of the telephone that rings in the dead of night.
Fear of electrical storms.
Fear of the cleaning woman who has a spot on her cheek!
Fear of dogs I've been told won't bite.
F...Read more of this...

by Sexton, Anne
...ch 
I was never slapped with kisses. 
I was the engine that couldn't. 
Cold wigs blew on the trees outside 
and car lights flew like roosters 
on the ceiling. 
Cradle, you are a grave place. 

Interrogator: 
What color is the devil? 

Anne: 
Black and blue. 

Interrogator: 
What goes up the chimney? 

Anne: 
Fat Lazarus in his red suit. 

Forgive us, Father, for we know not. 

Ms. Dog prefers to sunbathe nude. 
Let the indifferent sky look ...Read more of this...

by Brown, Fleda
...br> Not that 

she'd want a poem. She would have been proud, of course, 
of all its mystery, involving her, but scared a little. 
Her eyes would have filled with tears. It always comes 

to that, I don't know why I bother. One gesture 
and she's gone down a well of raw feeling, and I'm left 
alone again. I avert my eyes, to keep from scaring her. 

On her dresser is one of those old glass bottles 
of Jergen's Lotion with the black label, a l...Read more of this...

by Bukowski, Charles
...fold you

when i was a young man
I felt these things were
dumb,unsophisticated.
I had bad blood,a twisted
mind, a pecarious
upbringing.

I was hard as granite,I
leered at the 
sun.
I trusted no man and
especially no
woman.

I was living a hell in
small rooms, I broke
things, smashed things,
walked through glass,
cursed.
I challenged everything,
was continually being
evicted,jailed,in and
out of fights,in and aout
of my mind.
women were something
to scr...Read more of this...

by Campbell, Thomas
...e sheaf bound her zone. 
But howling Winter fled afar, 
To hills that prop the polar star, 
And lives on deer-borne car to ride 
With barren darkness at his side, 
Round the shore where loud Lofoden 
Whirls to death the roaring whale, 
Round the hall where runic Odin 
Howls his war-song to the gale; 
Save when adown the ravaged globe 
He travels on his native storm, 
Deflowering Nature's grassy robe, 
And trampling on her faded form:- 
Till light's returning lord assume 
...Read more of this...

by Soto, Gary
...her gloves, face bright
With rouge. I smiled,
Touched her shoulder, and led
Her down the street, across
A used car lot and a line
Of newly planted trees,
Until we were breathing
Before a drugstore. We
Entered, the tiny bell
Bringing a saleslady
Down a narrow aisle of goods.
I turned to the candies
Tiered like bleachers,
And asked what she wanted -
Light in her eyes, a smile
Starting at the corners
Of her mouth. I fingered
A nickle in my pocke...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...space of seven continued nights he rode 
With darkness; thrice the equinoctial line 
He circled; four times crossed the car of night 
From pole to pole, traversing each colure; 
On the eighth returned; and, on the coast averse 
From entrance or Cherubick watch, by stealth 
Found unsuspected way. There was a place, 
Now not, though sin, not time, first wrought the change, 
Where Tigris, at the foot of Paradise, 
Into a gulf shot under ground, till part 
Rose up a fountain ...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...ed tears;
For me children, and the begetters of children. 

Undrape! you are not guilty to me, nor stale, nor discarded; 
I see through the broadcloth and gingham, whether or no; 
And am around, tenacious, acquisitive, tireless, and cannot be shaken away. 

8
The little one sleeps in its cradle;
I lift the gauze, and look a long time, and silently brush away flies with my
 hand. 

The youngster and the red-faced girl turn aside up the bushy hill; 
I p...Read more of this...

by Masefield, John
...all your own, but don't be rash 
He's got the goods if you've got the cash, 
And what one hand can do he'll do. 
Be careful this next round or two."

Time. There was Bill, and I felt sick 
That luck should play so mean a trick 
And give me leave to knock him out 
After he'd plainly won the bout. 
But by the way the man came at me 
He made it plain he meant to bat me; 
If you'd a seen the way he come 
You wouldn't think he'd crocked a thumb. 
With all his s...Read more of this...

by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...Thebes, and *of sistren two y-born*. *born of two sisters*
Out of the tas the pillers have them torn,
And have them carried soft unto the tent
Of Theseus, and he full soon them sent
To Athens, for to dwellen in prison
Perpetually, he *n'olde no ranson*. *would take no ransom*
And when this worthy Duke had thus y-done,
He took his host, and home he rit anon
With laurel crowned as a conquerour;
And there he lived in joy and in honour
Term of his life; what needeth worde...Read more of this...

by Yeats, William Butler
...An old man cocked his car upon a bridge;
 He and his friend, their faces to the South,
 Had trod the uneven road. Their hoots were soiled,
 Their Connemara cloth worn out of shape;
 They had kept a steady pace as though their beds,
 Despite a dwindling and late-risen moon,
 Were distant still. An old man cocked his ear.

Aherne. What made that Sound?

Robartes.Read more of this...

by Shelley, Percy Bysshe
...the Sun
Or that his banded eyes could pierce the sphere
Of all that is, has been, or will be done.--
So ill was the car guided, but it past
With solemn speed majestically on . . .
The crowd gave way, & I arose aghast,
Or seemed to rise, so mighty was the trance,
And saw like clouds upon the thunder blast
The million with fierce song and maniac dance
Raging around; such seemed the jubilee
As when to greet some conqueror's advance
Imperial Rome poured forth her ...Read more of this...

by Eliot, T S (Thomas Stearns)
...ris, famous clairvoyante,
Had a bad cold, nevertheless
Is known to be the wisest woman in Europe,
With a wicked pack of cards. Here, said she,
Is your card, the drowned Phoenician Sailor,
(Those are pearls that were his eyes. Look!)
Here is Belladonna, the Lady of the Rocks,
The lady of situations. 
Here is the man with three staves, and here the Wheel,
And here is the one-eyed merchant, and this card,
Which is blank, is something he carries on his back,
Which I a...Read more of this...

by Shelley, Percy Bysshe
...ntment of her Father's power
Had changed those ragged blocks of savage stone,
Were heaped in the recesses of her bower;
Carved lamps and chalices, and phials which shone
In their own golden beams--each like a flower
Out of whose depth a firefly shakes his light
Under a cypress in a starless night.

At first she lived alone in this wild home,
And her own thoughts were each a minister,
Clothing themselves or with the ocean-foam,
Or with the wind, or with the speed of fire,
...Read more of this...

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Book: Shattered Sighs