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Famous Bread Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Book: Radiant Verses: A Journey Through Inspiring Poetry
...Lying, thinking
Last night
How to find my soul a home
Where water is not thirsty
And bread loaf is not stone
I came up with one thing
And I don't believe I'm wrong
That nobody,
But nobody
Can make it out here alone.

Alone, all alone
Nobody, but nobody
Can make it out here alone.

There are some millionaires
With money they can't use
Their wives run round like banshees
Their children sing the blues
They've got expensive doctors
To cu...Read more of this...
by Angelou, Maya



...single in an endless file  
Bring diadems and fagots in their hands. 
To each they offer gifts after his will 5 
Bread kingdoms stars and sky that holds them all. 
I in my pleach¨¨d garden watched the pomp  
Forgot my morning wishes hastily 
Took a few herbs and apples and the Day 
Turned and departed silent. I too late 10 
Under her solemn fillet saw the scorn. ...Read more of this...
by Emerson, Ralph Waldo
...solation reap'd the famish'd land; 
The torch was lighted, and the flame was spread, 
And Carnage smiled upon her daily bread. 

XI. 

Fresh with the nerve the new-born impulse strung, 
The first success to Lara's numbers clung: 
But that vain victory hath ruin'd all; 
They form no longer to their leader's call: 
In blind confusion on the foe they press, 
And think to snatch is to secure success. 
The lust of booty, and the thirst of hate, 
Lure on the broken brig...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)
...I see the temples of the deaths of the bodies of Gods—I see the old signifiers. 

I see Christ once more eating the bread of his last supper, in the midst of youths and old
 persons;
I see where the strong divine young man, the Hercules, toil’d faithfully and long, and
 then
 died;

I see the place of the innocent rich life and hapless fate of the beautiful nocturnal son,
 the
 full-limb’d Bacchus; 
I see Kneph, blooming, drest in blue, with the crown of feathers on his h...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt
...ears 
And sedentary numness craze my limbs
To a contemptible old age obscure.
Here rather let me drudge and earn my bread,
Till vermin or the draff of servil food
Consume me, and oft-invocated death
Hast'n the welcom end of all my pains.

Man. Wilt thou then serve the Philistines with that gift
Which was expresly giv'n thee to annoy them?
Better at home lie bed-rid, not only idle,
Inglorious, unimploy'd, with age out-worn. 
But God who caus'd a fountain at thy...Read more of this...
by Milton, John



...aileth new
Into an unknown fiord.

"I was a fool and wasted ale--
My slaves found it sweet;
I was a fool and wasted bread,
And the birds had bread to eat.

"The kings go up and the kings go down,
And who knows who shall rule;
Next night a king may starve or sleep,
But men and birds and beasts shall weep
At the burial of a fool.

"O, drunkards in my cellar,
Boys in my apple tree,
The world grows stern and strange and new,
And wise men shall govern you,
And you shal...Read more of this...
by Chesterton, G K
...haughty mood, 
Nor I forgive a father's blood! 

XVI. 

"Within thy father's house are foes; 
Not all who break his bread are true: 
To these should I my birth disclose, 
His days, his very hours, were few: 
They only want a heart to lead, 
A hand to point them to the deed. 
But Haroun only knows — or knew — 
This tale, whose close is almost nigh: 
He in Abdallah's palace grew, 
And held that post in his Serai 
Which holds he here — he saw him die: 
But what could sin...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)
...ll but yon widowed, solitary thing,
That feebly bends beside the plashy spring;
She, wretched matron, forced in age for bread
To strip the brook with mantling cresses spread,
To pick her wintry ****** from the thorn,
To seek her nightly shed, and weep till morn;
She only left of all the harmless train,
The sad historian of the pensive plain.

Near yonder copse, where once the garden smiled,
And still where many a garden flower grows wild;
There, where a few torn shrubs th...Read more of this...
by Goldsmith, Oliver
...e,’ said Satan, ‘come away, 
I’ll soon see if you’ll obey! 
John for disobedience bled, 
But you can turn the stones to bread. 
God’s high king and God’s high priest 
Shall plant their glories in your breast, 
If Caiaphas you will obey, 
If Herod you with bloody prey 
Feed with the sacrifice, and be 
Obedient, fall down, worship me.’ 
Thunders and lightnings broke around, 
And Jesus’ voice in thunders’ sound: 
‘Thus I seize the spiritual prey. 
Ye smiters with dis...Read more of this...
by Blake, William
...expected. 
(I've thought of that old dog for years, 
And of how near I come to tears.) 

But you, you minds of bread and cheese, 
Are less divine tha[n] that dog's fleas, 
You suck blood from kindly friends, 
And kill them when it serves your ends., 
Double traitors, double black, 
Stabbing only in the back, 
Stabbing with the knives you borrow 
From the friends you bring to sorrow. 
You stab all that's true and strong, 
Truth and strength you say are wrong, ...Read more of this...
by Masefield, John
...pt;  And in a quiet home once more my father slept.   Four years each day with daily bread was blest,  By constant toil and constant prayer supplied.  Three lovely infants lay upon my breast;  And often, viewing their sweet smiles, I sighed,  And knew not why. My happy father died  When sad distress reduced the childrens' meal:  Thrice happy! that from hi...Read more of this...
by Wordsworth, William
...y sent,
4.29 Whose loins I've cloth'd, and bellies I have fed,
4.30 With mine own fleece, and with my household bread.
4.31 Yea, justice I have done, was I in place,
4.32 To cheer the good and wicked to deface.
4.33 The proud I crush'd, th'oppressed I set free,
4.34 The liars curb'd but nourisht verity.
4.35 Was I a pastor, I my flock did feed
4.36 And gently lead the lambs, as they had need.
4.37 A Captain I, with skill I t...Read more of this...
by Bradstreet, Anne
...rvice, as Thou ownest theirs above,
Whose joy we echo and in pain await. 

Grant body and soul each day their daily bread
And should in spite of grace fresh woe begin,
Even as our anger soon is past and dead
Be Thy remembrance mortal of our sin:
By Thee in paths of peace Thy sheep be led,
And in the vale of terror comforted....Read more of this...
by Bridges, Robert Seymour
...aw the Grail, 
The Holy Grail, descend upon the shrine: 
I saw the fiery face as of a child 
That smote itself into the bread, and went; 
And hither am I come; and never yet 
Hath what thy sister taught me first to see, 
This Holy Thing, failed from my side, nor come 
Covered, but moving with me night and day, 
Fainter by day, but always in the night 
Blood-red, and sliding down the blackened marsh 
Blood-red, and on the naked mountain top 
Blood-red, and in the sleeping mere...Read more of this...
by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...
     XIII.

     Onward, amid the copse 'gan peep
     A narrow inlet, still and deep,
     Affording scarce such breadth of brim
     As served the wild duck's brood to swim.
     Lost for a space, through thickets veering,
     But broader when again appearing,
     Tall rocks and tufted knolls their face
     Could on the dark-blue mirror trace;
     And farther as the Hunter strayed,
     Still broader sweep its channels made.
     The shaggy mounds no longe...Read more of this...
by Scott, Sir Walter
...and vanished may have taken 
Down to the perils of a depth not known, 
From death defended though by men forsaken, 
The bread that every man must eat alone; 
He may have walked while others hardly dared 
Look on to see him stand where many fell; 
And upward out of that, as out of hell, 
He may have sung and striven 
To mount where more of him shall yet be given, 
Bereft of all retreat,
To sevenfold heat,— 
As on a day when three in Dura shared 
The furnace, and were spared 
F...Read more of this...
by Robinson, Edwin Arlington
...material stuff." 

"Yet well-bred men," he faintly said,
"Are not willing to be fed:
Nor are they well without the bread." 

Her visage scorched him ere she spoke:
"There are," she said, "a kind of folk
Who have no horror of a joke. 

"Such wretches live: they take their share
Of common earth and common air:
We come across them here and there: 

"We grant them - there is no escape -
A sort of semi-human shape
Suggestive of the man-like Ape." 

"In all such th...Read more of this...
by Carroll, Lewis
...(I only give the heads) — he said, 
He meant no harm in scribbling; 'twas his way 
Upon all topics; 'twas, besides, his bread, 
Of which he butter'd both sides; 'twould delay 
Too long the assembly (he was pleased to dread), 
And take up rather more time than a day, 
To name his works — he would but cite a few — 
'Wat Tyler' — 'Rhymes on Blenheim' — 'Waterloo.' 

XCVII 

He had written praises of a regicide: 
He had written praises of all kings whatever; 
He had written f...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)
...this world began,
Yet ever liv'd in perfect chastity.
I will not vie* with no virginity. *contend
Let them with bread of pured* wheat be fed, *purified
And let us wives eat our barley bread.
And yet with barley bread, Mark tell us can,8
Our Lord Jesus refreshed many a man.
In such estate as God hath *cleped us,* *called us to
I'll persevere, I am not precious,* *over-dainty
In wifehood I will use mine instrument
As freely as my Maker hath it sent.
If I be ...Read more of this...
by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...Thou didst thy crust with me divide, 
Thou didst thy cloak around me fold; 
And, sitting silent by thy side, 
I ate the bread in peace untold: 
Given kindly from thy hand, 'twas sweet 
As costly fare or princely treat 
On royal plate of gold. 

Sharp blew the sleet upon my face, 
And, rising wild, the gusty wind 
Drove on those thundering waves apace, 
Our crew so late had left behind; 
But, spite of frozen shower and storm, 
So close to thee, my heart beat warm, 
And tra...Read more of this...
by Bronte, Charlotte

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Book: Reflection on the Important Things