Get Your Premium Membership

Famous Launch Poems by Famous Poets

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

See also:

by Mayakovsky, Vladimir
...
lightly opened his lips, 
and the inspired fool burst into song ¨C 
if you please! 
But it seems, 
before they can launch into a song, 
poets must tramp for days with callused feet, 
and the sluggish fish of the imagination 
flounders softly in the slush of the heart. 
And while, with twittering rhymes, they boil a broth 
of loves and nightingales, 
the tongueless street merely writhes 
for lack of something to shout or say. 

In our pride, we raise up a...Read more of this...



by Pope, Alexander
...a Critick's noble Name,
Be sure your self and your own Reach to know.
How far your Genius, Taste, and Learning go;
Launch not beyond your Depth, but be discreet,
And mark that Point where Sense and Dulness meet.

Nature to all things fix'd the Limits fit,
And wisely curb'd proud Man's pretending Wit:
As on the Land while here the Ocean gains,
In other Parts it leaves wide sandy Plains;
Thus in the Soul while Memory prevails,
The solid Pow'r of Understanding fails;
Wh...Read more of this...

by Mayakovsky, Vladimir
...to muzzle their gaping
 pointed titles.

The favorite 
 of all the armed forces
the cavalry of witticisms
 ready
to launch a wild hallooing charge,
reins its chargers still,
 raising
the pointed lances of the rhymes.
and all
 these troops armed to the teeth,
which have flashed by
 victoriously for twenty years,
all these,
 to their very last page,
I present to you,
 the planet’s proletarian.

The enemy
 of the massed working class
is my enemy too
 inveterate and o...Read more of this...

by Lawson, Henry
...tles and gewgaws from "home".
Shall a knighthood frighten Asia when she comes with the hate of hell?
Will the motor-launch race the torpedo, or the motor-car outspeed the shell?

Keep the wealth you have won from the cities, spend the wealth you have won on the land,
Save the floods that run into the ocean – save the floods that sink into the sand!
Make farms fit to live on, build workshops and technical schools for your sons;
Keep the wealth of the land in Australia – ma...Read more of this...

by Tebb, Barry
...si bend in the wind.





30



In Golden Acre Park no more

The miniature Railway, boating

On the lake with motor launch

Or self-propelled boat,

No more the water chute,

Pitch and puff golf, aviary

Paddling pool, aeroflight,

Bathing pool, music tower,

All, all are gone.



The winter garden Dance Pavilion

Is gone from Golden Acre Park

Only the kingfisher’s blue flash

As it rides to its island hide

Where white swans glide.





31



The house I was bor...Read more of this...



by Whitman, Walt
...1
BROTHER of all, with generous hand, 
Of thee, pondering on thee, as o’er thy tomb, I and my Soul, 
A thought to launch in memory of thee, 
A burial verse for thee. 

What may we chant, O thou within this tomb?
What tablets, pictures, hang for thee, O millionaire? 
—The life thou lived’st we know not, 
But that thou walk’dst thy years in barter, ’mid the haunts of brokers; 
Nor heroism thine, nor war, nor glory. 

Yet lingering, yearning, joining soul with thin...Read more of this...

by Rossetti, Christina
...gleaming neck
Like a rush-imbedded swan,
Like a lily from the beck,
Like a moonlit poplar branch,
Like a vessel at the launch
When its last restraint is gone.

Backwards up the mossy glen
Turned and trooped the goblin men,
With their shrill repeated cry,
"Come buy, come buy."
When they reached where Laura was
They stood stock still upon the moss,
Leering at each other,
Brother with ***** brother;
Signalling each other,
Brother with sly brother.
One set his basket...Read more of this...

by Brontë, Emily
...ht my name,
And Hate will trample me,
Will load me with a coward's shame?
A traitor's perjury. 

False friends will launch their covert sneers;
True friends will wish me dead;
And I shall cause the bitterest tears
That you have ever shed. 

The dark deeds of my outlawed race
Will then like virtues shine;
And men will pardon their disgrace,
Beside the guilt of mine. 

For, who forgives the accursed crime
Of dastard treachery?
Rebellion, in its chosen time,
May Free...Read more of this...

by Lawrence, D. H.
....

A come and go of March-day loves 
Through the flower-vine, trailing screen;
A fluttering in of doves.
Then a launch abroad of shrinking doves
Over the waste where no hope is seen
Of open hands: 
Dance in and out 
Small-bosomed girls of the spring of love,
With a bubble of laughter, and shrilly shout 
Of mirth; then the dripping of tears on your glove....Read more of this...

by Wilde, Oscar
...the bleak tangles of the bosk.

And sometimes, while the old nurse cons
Her book, they steal across the square,
And launch their paper navies where
Huge Triton writhes in greenish bronze.

And now in mimic flight they flee,
And now they rush, a boisterous band -
And, tiny hand on tiny hand,
Climb up the black and leafless tree.

Ah! cruel tree! if I were you,
And children climbed me, for their sake
Though it be winter I would break
Into spring blossoms white and b...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...cent intuitions, 
Again with fair Creation.

11
O we can wait no longer! 
We too take ship, O soul! 
Joyous, we too launch out on trackless seas! 
Fearless, for unknown shores, on waves of extasy to sail, 
Amid the wafting winds, (thou pressing me to thee, I thee to me, O soul,)
Caroling free—singing our song of God, 
Chanting our chant of pleasant exploration. 

With laugh, and many a kiss, 
(Let others deprecate—let others weep for sin, remorse, humiliation;) 
O sou...Read more of this...

by Tagore, Rabindranath
...I must launch out my boat. 
The languid hours pass by on the 
shore---Alas for me! 

The spring has done its flowering and taken leave. 
And now with the burden of faded futile flowers I wait and linger. 

The waves have become clamorous, and upon the bank in the shady lane 
the yellow leaves flutter and fall. 

What emptiness do you gaze upon! 
Do ...Read more of this...

by Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth
...ws of ships, 
That steadily at anchor ride. 
And with a voice that was full of glee, 
He answered, "Erelong we will launch 
A vessel as goodly, and strong, and stanch, 
As ever weathered a wintry sea!" 
And first with nicest skill and art, 
Perfect and finished in every part, 
A little model the Master wrought, 
Which should be to the larger plan 
What the child is to the man, 
Its counterpart in miniature; 
That with a hand more swift and sure 
The greater labor might be...Read more of this...

by Wilde, Oscar
...emory
That foster-brother of remorse and pain
Drops poison in mine ear, - O to be free,
To burn one's old ships! and to launch again
Into the white-plumed battle of the waves
And fight old Proteus for the spoil of coral-flowered caves!

O for Medea with her poppied spell!
O for the secret of the Colchian shrine!
O for one leaf of that pale asphodel
Which binds the tired brows of Proserpine,
And sheds such wondrous dews at eve that she
Dreams of the fields of Enna, by the far ...Read more of this...

by Turner Smith, Charlotte
...vessel, with its ribband sail
And gilded paper pennant: in the pool,
Left by the salt wave on the yielding sands,
They launch the mimic navy--Happy age!
Unmindful of the miseries of Man!--
Alas! too long a victim to distress,
Their Mother, lost in melancholy thought,
Lull'd for a moment by the murmurs low
Of sullen billows, wearied by the task
Of having here, with swol'n and aching eyes
Fix'd on the grey horizon, since the dawn
Solicitously watch'd the weekly sail
From her d...Read more of this...

by Scott, Sir Walter
...ine flew:
     High stood the henchman on the prow;
     So rapidly the barge-mall row,
     The bubbles, where they launched the boat,
     Were all unbroken and afloat,
     Dancing in foam and ripple still,
     When it had neared the mainland hill;
     And from the silver beach's side
     Still was the prow three fathom wide,
     When lightly bounded to the land
     The messenger of blood and brand.
     XIII.

     Speed, Malise, speed! the dun deer's hi...Read more of this...

by Kipling, Rudyard
...odly wings,
 To please his foolishness?
Sit down at the heart of men and things,
 Companion of the Press!

The Pope may launch his Interdict,
 The Union its decree,
But the bubble is blown and the bubble is pricked
 By Us and such as We.
Remember the battle and stand aside
 While Thrones and Powers confess
That King over all the children of pride
 Is the Press--the Press--the Press!...Read more of this...

by Kipling, Rudyard
...will blame it on the deep (for the watch must have their sleep),
 And Love can come and wake us when 'tis past.

Oh launch them down with music from the beach,
 Oh warp them out with garlands from the quays --
Most resolute -- a damsel unto each --
 New prows that seek the old Hesperides!
  (Foul weather!)
Though we know their voyage is vain, yet we see our path again
 In the saffroned bridesails scenting all the seas!
  (Foul weather!)...Read more of this...

by Lawrence, D. H.
...ship, with oars and food 
and little dishes, and all accoutrements 
fitting and ready for the departing soul. 

Now launch the small ship, now as the body dies 
and life departs, launch out, the fragile soul 
in the fragile ship of courage, the ark of faith 
with its store of food and little cooking pans 
and change of clothes, 
upon the flood's black waste 
upon the waters of the end 
upon the sea of death, where still we sail 
darkly, for we cannot steer, and have no po...Read more of this...

by Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth
...ch of Fate!
Into those realms of love and hate,
Into that darkness blank and drear,
By some prophetic feeling taught,
I launch the bold, adventurous thought,
Freighted with hope and fear;
As upon subterranean streams,
In caverns unexplored and dark,
Men sometimes launch a fragile bark,
Laden with flickering fire,
And watch its swift-receding beams,
Until at length they disappear,
And in the distant dark expire.

By what astrology of fear or hope
Dare I to cast thy horosco...Read more of this...

Dont forget to view our wonderful member Launch poems.


Book: Shattered Sighs