Get Your Premium Membership

Famous Actuality Poems by Famous Poets

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

See also:

by Doty, Mark
...hing
 was moving, and
 --you understand

it takes longer to tell this
 than to see it, only
 a train window's worth

of actuality--
 I knew what moved
 was an arm,

the arm of the (man
 or woman?) in the center
 of that hapless welter

in layer upon layer
 of coats blankets scarves
 until the form

constituted one more
 gray unreadable;
 whoever

was lifting a hammer,
 and bringing it down
 again, tapping at

what work
 I couldn't say;
 whoever, under

the great exhausted dom...Read more of this...



by Schwartz, Delmore
...ress my face
Against it, hoping with substantial touch,
Colorful sight, or turning things to gain once more
The look of actuality, the certainty
Of those who run down stairs and drive a car.
Then let us be each other's truth, let us
Affirm the other's self, and be
The other's audience, the other's state,
Each to the other his sonorous fame.

Now you will be afraid, when, waking up,
Before familiar morning, by my mute side
Wan and abandoned then, when, waking up,
You s...Read more of this...

by Schwartz, Delmore
...ut support
And yet too dear to touch,
That life should seek its end
Where no will can descend,
Facing a gun to see
Long actuality.

What is this that is
The good of nothingness,
The death of Socrates
And that strange man on the cross
Seeking out all loss?
For men love life until
It shames both face and will.

Neither in hell nor heaven
Is the answer given,
Both are a servant's pay:
But they wish to know
how far the will can go,
Lest their infinite play
And their desir...Read more of this...

by Schwartz, Delmore
...he office building rises to its tyranny,
Is our anguished diminution until we die.

Whence, if ever, shall come the actuality
Of a voice speaking the mind's knowing,
The sunlight bright on the green windowshade,
And the self articulate, affectionate, and flowing,
Ease, warmth, light, the utter showing,
When in the white bed all things are made....Read more of this...

by Schwartz, Delmore
...r is wrong, for it is his immortal soul which
 he wished to redeem,
Lifting it and sifting it, free and white, from the actuality of 
 youth's banality, vulgarity, 
 pomp and affectation of his early 
 works of poetry.

So too in the same way a Famous American Poet 
When fame at last had come to him sought out the fifty copies
of his first book of poems which had been privately printed 
by himself at his own expense.
He succeeded in securing 48 of the 50 copies, burne...Read more of this...



Dont forget to view our wonderful member Actuality poems.


Book: Reflection on the Important Things