Famous Addict Poems by Famous Poets

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

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You Take My Hand

by Margaret Atwood
 You take my hand and
I'm suddenly in a bad movie,
it goes on and on and 
why am I fascinated

We waltz in slow motion
through an air stale with aphrodisms
we meet behind the endless ptted palms
you climb through the wrong windows

Other people are leaving
but I always stay till the end
I paid my money, I
want to see what happens.

In chance bathtubs I...Read more of this...

Gignol

by Robert William Service
 Addict of Punch and Judy shows
 I was when I was small;
My kiddy laughter, I suppose,
 Rang louder than them all.
The Judge with banter I would bait,
 The Copper was a wretch;
But oh how I would hiss my hate
 For grim Jack Ketch.

Although a grandsire grey I still
 Love Punch and Judy shows,
And with my toddlers help to fill
...Read more of this...

The Addict

by Anne Sexton
 Sleepmonger,
deathmonger,
with capsules in my palms each night,
eight at a time from sweet pharmaceutical bottles
I make arrangements for a pint-sized journey.
I'm the queen of this condition.
I'm an expert on making the trip
and now they say I'm an addict.
Now they ask why.
WHY!

Don't they know that I promised to die!
I'm keeping in practice.
I'm merely staying in shape.
The pills are a mother, but...Read more of this...

On the Circuit

by Wystan Hugh (W H) Auden
Among pelagian travelers,Lost on their lewd conceited wayTo Massachusetts, Michigan,Miami or L.A., An airborne instrument I sit,Predestined nightly to fulfillColumbia-Giesen-Management'sUnfathomable will, By whose election justified,I bring my gospel of the MuseTo fundamentalists, to nuns,to Gentiles and to Jews, And daily, seven days a week,Before a local sense has jelled,From talking-site to talking-siteAm jet-or-prop-propelled. Though warm my welcome everywhere,I shift so...Read more of this...

Church Going

by Philip Larkin
Once i am sure there's nothing going on
I step inside letting the door thud shut.
Another church: matting seats and stone 
and little books; sprawlings of flowers cut
For Sunday brownish now; some brass and stuff
Up at the holy end; the small neat organ;
And a tense musty unignorable silence 
Brewed God knows how long. Hatless I take off
My cylce-clips in awkward revrence...Read more of this...

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