Famous Brevity Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Very Like a Whale

by Ogden Nash
 One thing that literature would be greatly the better for
Would be a more restricted employment by the authors of simile and
metaphor.
Authors of all races, be they Greeks, Romans, Teutons or Celts,
Can't seem just to say that anything is the thing it is but have to
go out of their way to say that it is like something else.
What does it...Read more of this...

A Piece Of The Storm

by Mark Strand
 For Sharon Horvath

From the shadow of domes in the city of domes,
A snowflake, a blizzard of one, weightless, entered your room
And made its way to the arm of the chair where you, looking up
From your book, saw it the moment it landed.
That's all There was to it. No more than a solemn waking
To brevity, to the lifting and falling...Read more of this...

Simplicity

by Dejan Stojanovic
The most complicated skill 
Is to be simple. 

To say more while saying less 
Is the secret of being simple. 

To not say all that can be said 
Is the secret of discipline and economy. 

To leave out beautiful sunsets 
Is the secret of good taste. 

To hide feelings when you are near crying 
Is the secret of dignity. 

To...Read more of this...

An Ode to Antares

by Alan Seeger
 At dusk, when lowlands where dark waters glide 
Robe in gray mist, and through the greening hills 
The hoot-owl calls his mate, and whippoorwills 
Clamor from every copse and orchard-side, 
I watched the red star rising in the East, 
And while his fellows of the flaming sign 
From prisoning daylight more and more released, 
Lift their pale lamps, and,...Read more of this...

This docile one inter

by Emily Dickinson
 This docile one inter
While we who dare to live
Arraign the sunny brevity
That sparkled to the Grave.

On her departing span
No wilderness remain
As dauntless in the House of Death
As if it were her own --...Read more of this...

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