Famous Almanac Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Losses

...alled up the papers, wrote home to our folks, 
And the rates rose, all because of us. 
We died on the wrong page of the almanac, 
Scattered on mountains fifty miles away; 
Diving on haystacks, fighting with a friend, 
We blazed up on the lines we never saw. 
We died like aunts or pets or foreigners. 
(When we left high school nothing else had died 
For us to figure we had died like.) 

In our new planes, with our new crews, we bombed 
The ranges by the desert or the shore, 
F...Read more of this...
by Jarrell, Randall


Monologue At 3 AM

...Better that every fiber crack 
and fury make head, 
blood drenching vivid 
couch, carpet, floor 
and the snake-figured almanac 
vouching you are 
a million green counties from here, 

than to sit mute, twitching so 
under prickling stars, 
with stare, with curse 
blackening the time 
goodbyes were said, trains let go, 
and I, great magnanimous fool, thus wrenched from 
my one kingdom....Read more of this...
by Plath, Sylvia

Sestina

...ight, the old grandmother
sits in the kitchen with the child
beside the Little Marvel Stove,
reading the jokes from the almanac,
laughing and talking to hide her tears.

She thinks that her equinoctial tears
and the rain that beats on the roof of the house 
were both foretold by the almanac,
but only known to a grandmother.
The iron kettle sings on the stove.
She cuts some bread and says to the child,

It's time for tea now; but the child
is watching the teakettle's small har...Read more of this...
by Bishop, Elizabeth

Signs of the Times

...gobbler gwine 'roun' blowin',
Gwine 'roun' gibbin' sass an' slack;
Keep on talkin', Mistah Tu'key,
You ain't seed no almanac.

Fa'mer walkin' th'oo de ba'nya'd
Seein' how things is comin' on,
Sees ef all de fowls is fatt'nin' --
Good times comin' sho's you bo'n.

Hyeahs dat tu'key gobbler braggin',
Den his face break in a smile --
Nebbah min', you sassy rascal,
He's gwine nab you atter while.

Choppin' suet in de kitchen,
Stonin' raisins in de hall,
Beef a-co...Read more of this...
by Laurence Dunbar, Paul

Snowbound a Winter Idyl

...
The Christian pearl of charity! 

So days went on: a week had passed 
Since the great world was heard from last. 
The Almanac we studied o'er, 
Read and reread our little store 
Of books and pamphlets, scarce a score; 
One harmless novel, mostly hid 
From younger eyes, a book forbid, 
And poetry (or good or bad, 
A single book was all we had), 
Where Ellwood's meek, drab-skirted Muse, 
A stranger to the heathen Nine, 
Sang, with a somewhat nasal whine, 
The wars of David an...Read more of this...
by Whittier, John Greenleaf


The Great Adventure of Max Breuck

...his friend
Comes back to give. So Max, in honour, said
No word of love or marriage; but the days
He clipped off on his almanac. The end
Must come! The second year, with feet of lead,
Lagged slowly by till Spring had plumped the willow sprays.

37
Two years had made Christine a woman grown,
With dignity and gently certain pride.
But all her childhood fancies had not flown,
Her thoughts in lovely dreamings seemed to glide.
Max was her trusted friend, did she confess
A closer h...Read more of this...
by Lowell, Amy

The Greedy Man

...The greedy man is he who sits    And bites bits out of plates,Or else takes up an almanac    And gobbles all the dates. ...Read more of this...
by Goose, Mother

To The One Upstairs

...' tails.
Staple the night with starlight.

You'd be better off reading coffee dregs,
Thumbing the pages of the Farmer's Almanac.
But no! You love to put on airs,
And cultivate your famous serenity
While you sit behind your big desk
With zilch in your in-tray, zilch
In your out-tray,
And all of eternity spread around you.

Doesn't it give you the creeps
To hear them begging you on their knees,
Sputtering endearments,
As if you were an inflatable, life-size doll?
Tell them to b...Read more of this...
by Simic, Charles

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