Famous Beginners Poems by Famous Poets

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

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A Few Rules for Beginners

...Babies must not eat the coal
And they must not make grimaces,
Nor in party dresses roll
And must never black their faces.

They must learn that pointing's rude,
They must sit quite still at table,
And must always eat the food
Put before them--if they're able.

If they fall, they must not cry,
Though it's known how painful this is;
No--there's always Mother...Read more of this...
by Mansfield, Katherine


Alfred Lord Tennyson - The Coming Of Arthur

..., and before 
The stateliest of her altar-shrines, the King 
That morn was married, while in stainless white, 
The fair beginners of a nobler time, 
And glorying in their vows and him, his knights 
Stood around him, and rejoicing in his joy. 
Far shone the fields of May through open door, 
The sacred altar blossomed white with May, 
The Sun of May descended on their King, 
They gazed on all earth's beauty in their Queen, 
Rolled incense, and there past along the hymns 
A voic...Read more of this...
by Tennyson, Alfred Lord

Asparagus

...Mr. Ramsbottom went to the races, 
A thing as he'd ne'er done before,
And as luck always follers beginners, 
Won five pounds, no-less and no-more.

He felt himself suddenly tempted
To indulge in some reckless orgee, 
So he went to a caffy-a-teerer 
And had a dressed crab with his tea.

He were crunching the claws at the finish
And wondering what next he would do, 
Then his thoughts turned to home and to Mother,
And what she would say when she knew. 

Fo...Read more of this...
by Edgar, Marriott

Beginners

...HOW they are provided for upon the earth, (appearing at intervals;) 
How dear and dreadful they are to the earth; 
How they inure to themselves as much as to any—What a paradox appears their age; 
How people respond to them, yet know them not; 
How there is something relentless in their fate, all times;
How all times mischoose the objects of their adulatio...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt

By A Swimming Pool Outside Syracusa

...communicate in Italian
with Roberto and Giuseppe, who have begun
to resemble the two male characters
in my Italian for Beginners,
the ones who are always shopping
or inquiring about the times of trains,
and now I can hardly speak or write English.

I have made important pronouncements
in this remote limestone valley
with its trickle of a river,
stating that it seems hotter
today even than it was yesterday
and that swimming is very good for you,
very beneficial, you might say...Read more of this...
by Collins, Billy


For You

...live in your blood now,
Alive and crying, “Let us out, let us out.”

The peace of great changes be for you.
Whisper, Oh beginners in the hills.
Tumble, Oh cubs—to-morrow belongs to you.

The peace of great loves be for you.
Rain, soak these roots; wind, shatter the dry rot.
Bars of sunlight, grips of the earth, hug these.

The peace of great ghosts be for you,
Phantoms of night-gray eyes, ready to go
To the fog-star dumps, to the fire-white doors.

Yes, the peace of great pha...Read more of this...
by Sandburg, Carl

Ornithology For Beginners

...The bird that feeds from off my palm
Is sleek, affectionate, and calm,
But double, to me, is worth the thrush
A-flickering in the elder-bush....Read more of this...
by Parker, Dorothy

The Ancestral Dwelling

...merica,
Dearer than if they were haunted by ghosts of royal splendour;
These are the homes that were built by the brave beginners of a nation,
They are simple enough to be great, and full of a friendly dignity. 

I love the old white farmhouses nestled in New England valleys,
Ample and long and low, with elm-trees feathering over them:
Borders of box in the yard, and lilacs, and old-fashioned Howers,
A fan-light above the door, and little square panes in the windows,
The wood...Read more of this...
by Dyke, Henry Van

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