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Famous Short School Poems. Short School Poetry by Famous Poets

Famous Short School Poems. Short School Poetry by Famous Poets. A collection of the all-time best School short poems

See also: Short Member Poems

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by Emily Dickinson

The Hills in Purple syllables

 The Hills in Purple syllables
The Day's Adventures tell
To little Groups of Continents
Just going Home from School.


by Gwendolyn Brooks

We Real Cool

 We real cool. We
Left School. We

Lurk late. We
Strike straight. We

Sing sin. We
Thin gin. We

Jazz June. We
Die soon.


by Robert Burns

167. Epitaph for Mr. William Michie, Schoolmaster

 HERE lie Willie Michie’s banes;
 O Satan, when ye tak him,
Gie him the schulin o’ your weans,
 For clever deils he’ll mak them!


by Robert Burns

166. Epitaph for William Nicol, High School, Edinburgh

 YE maggots, feed on Nicol’s brain,
 For few sic feasts you’ve gotten;
And fix your claws in Nicol’s heart,
 For deil a bit o’t’s rotten.


by Robert Burns

196. Epitaph for Mr. W. Cruickshank

 HONEST 1 Will to Heaven’s away
 And mony shall lament him;
His fau’ts they a’ in Latin lay,
 In English nane e’er kent them.


 Note 1. Of the Edinburgh High School. [back]


by Emily Dickinson

One and One -- are One --

 One and One -- are One --
Two -- be finished using --
Well enough for Schools --
But for Minor Choosing --

Life -- just -- or Death --
Or the Everlasting --
More -- would be too vast
For the Soul's Comprising --


by Emily Dickinson

God permit industrious angels

God permit industrious angels
Afternoons to play.
I met one, -- forgot my school-mates,
All, for him, straightaway.

God calls home the angels promptly
At the setting sun;
I missed mine. How dreary marbles,
After playing the Crown!


by Thomas Edward Brown

My Garden

 A garden is a lovesome thing, God wot!
Rose plot,
Fringed pool,
Ferned grot--
The veriest school
Of peace; and yet the fool
Contends that God is not--
Not God! in gardens! when the eve is cool?
Nay, but I have a sign;
'Tis very sure God walks in mine.


by Emily Dickinson

A feather from the Whippoorwill

 A feather from the Whippoorwill
That everlasting -- sings!
Whose galleries -- are Sunrise --
Whose Opera -- the Springs --
Whose Emerald Nest the Ages spin
Of mellow -- murmuring thread --
Whose Beryl Egg, what Schoolboys hunt
In "Recess" -- Overhead!


by Emily Dickinson

This heart that broke so long

 This heart that broke so long --
These feet that never flagged --
This faith that watched for star in vain,
Give gently to the dead --

Hound cannot overtake the Hare
That fluttered panting, here --
Nor any schoolboy rob the nest
Tenderness builded there.


by Emily Dickinson

God permits industrious Angels

 God permits industrious Angels --
Afternoons -- to play --
I met one -- forgot my Schoolmates --
All -- for Him -- straightway --
God calls home -- the Angels -- promptly --
At the Setting Sun --
I missed mine -- how dreary -- Marbles --
After playing Crown!


by Robert Burns

78. Epitaph for James Smith

 LAMENT him, Mauchline husbands a’,
 He aften did assist ye;
For had ye staid hale weeks awa,
 Your wives they ne’er had miss’d ye.


Ye Mauchline bairns, as on ye press
 To school in bands thegither,
O tread ye lightly on his grass,—
 Perhaps he was your father!


by Donald Justice

On The Death Of Friends In Childhood

 We shall not ever meet them bearded in heaven
Nor sunning themselves among the bald of hell;
If anywhere, in the deserted schoolyard at twilight,
forming a ring, perhaps, or joining hands
In games whose very names we have forgotten.
Come memory, let us seek them there in the shadows.


by Rg Gregory

art school

 each sunset is unique
so others tell us

fools - with flowers
of envy pushing

through their teeth
i think differently

a feeble skill that
can't repeat itself

i'll have the sun in
for a spell to make

a proper artist of him
by time i finish with

this yellow fickle lout
his sunset will be perfect


by Emily Dickinson

I shall know why -- when Time is over

 I shall know why -- when Time is over --
And I have ceased to wonder why --
Christ will explain each separate anguish
In the fair schoolroom of the sky --

He will tell me what "Peter" promised --
And I -- for wonder at his woe --
I shall forget the drop of Anguish
That scalds me now -- that scalds me now!


by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

TO ORIGINALS.

 In these numbers be express'd
Meaning deep, 'neath merry jest.
-----

TO ORIGINALS.

A FELLOW says: "I own no school or college;
No master lives whom I acknowledge;
And pray don't entertain the thought
That from the dead I e'er learnt aught."
This, if I rightly understand,
Means: "I'm a blockhead at first hand."

 1815.


by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

MAIDEN WISHES.

 WHAT pleasure to me
A bridegroom would be!
When married we are,
They call us mamma.
No need then to sew,
To school we ne'er go;
Command uncontroll'd,
Have maids, whom to scold;
Choose clothes at our ease,
Of what tradesmen we please;
Walk freely about,
And go to each rout,
And unrestrained are
By papa or mamma.

1767-9.


by Jane Kenyon

The Suitor

 We lie back to back. Curtains
lift and fall,
like the chest of someone sleeping. 
Wind moves the leaves of the box elder; 
they show their light undersides,
turning all at once
like a school of fish. 
Suddenly I understand that I am happy. 
For months this feeling 
has been coming closer, stopping
for short visits, like a timid suitor.


by Hugo Williams

Saturday Morning

 Everyone who made love the night before 
was walking around with flashing red lights 
on top of their heads-a white-haired old gentlemen, 
a red-faced schoolboy, a pregnant woman 
who smiled at me from across the street 
and gave a little secret shrug, 
as if the flashing red light on her head 
was a small price to pay for what she knew.


by Robert Frost

What Fifty Said

 When I was young my teachers were the old.
I gave up fire for form till I was cold.
I suffered like a metal being cast.
I went to school to age to learn the past.

Now when I am old my teachers are the young.
What can't be molded must be cracked and sprung.
I strain at lessons fit to start a suture.
I go to school to youth to learn the future.


by Elizabeth Bishop

Casabianca

 Love's the boy stood on the burning deck
trying to recite "The boy stood on
the burning deck." Love's the son
 stood stammering elocution
 while the poor ship in flames went down.

Love's the obstinate boy, the ship,
even the swimming sailors, who
would like a schoolroom platform, too,
 or an excuse to stay
 on deck. And love's the burning boy.


by Emily Dickinson

Taken from men -- this morning

 Taken from men -- this morning --
Carried by men today --
Met by the Gods with banners --
Who marshalled her away --

One little maid -- from playmates --
One little mind from school --
There must be guests in Eden --
All the rooms are full --

Far -- as the East from Even --
Dim -- as the border star --
Courtiers quaint, in Kingdoms
Our departed are.


by William Butler Yeats

Another Song Of A Fool

 This great purple butterfly,
In the prison of my hands,
Has a learning in his eye
Not a poor fool understands.

Once he lived a schoolmaster
With a stark, denying look;
A string of scholars went in fear
Of his great birch and his great book.

Like the clangour of a bell,
Sweet and harsh, harsh and sweet.
That is how he learnt so well
To take the roses for his meat.


by Richard Brautigan

Gee, You're So Beautiful That It's Starting To Rain

 Oh, Marcia, 
I want your long blonde beauty
to be taught in high school,
so kids will learn that God
lives like music in the skin
and sounds like a sunshine harpsicord.
I want high school report cards 
to look like this:

Playing with Gentle Glass Things
A

Computer Magic
A

Writing Letters to Those You Love
A

Finding out about Fish
A

Marcia's Long Blonde Beauty
A+!


by A R Ammons

Rapids

 Fall's leaves are redder than 
spring's flowers, have no pollen, 
and also sometimes fly, as the wind 
schools them out or down in shoals 
or droves: though I 
have not been here long, I can 
look up at the sky at night and tell 
how things are likely to go for 
the next hundred million years: 
the universe will probably not find 
a way to vanish nor I 
in all that time reappear.


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