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Famous Brisk Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Frost, Robert
...o bare ground, the apple trees 
To whips and poles. There's nobody about. 
The chimney, though, keeps up a good brisk smoking. 
And I lie back and ride. I take the reins 
Only when someone's coming, and the mare 
Stops when she likes: I tell her when to go. 
I've spoiled Jemima in more ways than one. 
She's got so she turns in at every house 
As if she had some sort of curvature, 
No matter if I have no errand there. 
She thinks I'm sociable. I...Read more of this...



by Milton, John
...ee, here be all the pleasures
That fancy can beget on youthful thoughts,
When the fresh blood grows lively, and returns
Brisk as the April buds in primrose season.
And first behold this cordial julep here,
That flames and dances in his crystal bounds,
With spirits of balm and fragrant syrups mixed.
Not that Nepenthes which the wife of Thone
In Egypt gave to Jove-born Helena
Is of such power to stir up joy as this,
To life so friendly, or so cool to thirst.
Why sho...Read more of this...

by Plath, Sylvia
...In the rectory garden on his evening walk
Paced brisk Father Shawn. A cold day, a sodden one it was
In black November. After a sliding rain
Dew stood in chill sweat on each stalk,
Each thorn; spiring from wet earth, a blue haze
Hung caught in dark-webbed branches like a fabulous heron.

Hauled sudden from solitude,
Hair prickling on his head,
Father Shawn perceived a ghost
Shaping itself from ...Read more of this...

by Rossetti, Christina
...in
Racing, whisking, tumbling, hobbling;
Let alone the herds
That used to tramp along the glen,
In groups or single,
Of brisk fruit-merchant men.

Till Lizzie urged, "O Laura, come,
I hear the fruit-call, but I dare not look:
You should not loiter longer at this brook:
Come with me home.
The stars rise, the moon bends her arc,
Each glow-worm winks her spark,
Let us get home before the night grows dark;
For clouds may gather even
Though this is summer weather,
Put out ...Read more of this...

by Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth
...
Only waited on the others
Only served their guests in silence.
And when all the guests had finished, 
Old Nokomis, brisk and busy, 
From an ample pouch of otter, 
Filled the red-stone pipes for smoking 
With tobacco from the South-land, 
Mixed with bark of the red willow, 
And with herbs and leaves of fragrance.
Then she said, "O Pau-Puk-Keewis, 
Dance for us your merry dances, 
Dance the Beggar's Dance to please us, 
That the feast may be more joyous, 
That the time...Read more of this...



by Austen, Jane
...h! What can you do Ma'am?'

Said Miss Beckford, 'Suppose 
If you think there's no risk, 
I take a good Dose 
Of calomel brisk.'--

'What a praise worthy Notion.' 
Replied Mr. Newnham. 
'You shall have such a potion 
And so will I too Ma'am.'...Read more of this...

by Marvell, Andrew
...hen; 
At table jolly as a country host 
And soaks his sack with Norfolk, like a toast; 
At night, than Chanticleer more brisk and hot, 
And Sergeant's wife serves him for Pertelotte. 

Paint last the King, and a dead shade of night 
Only dispersed by a weak taper's light, 
And those bright gleams that dart along and glare 
From his clear eyes, yet these too dark with care. 
There, as in the calm horror all alone 
He wakes, and muses of th' uneasy throne; 
Raise up a s...Read more of this...

by Belloc, Hilaire
...ther,
Who had some dignity or other,
The Garter, or no matter what,
I can't remember all the Lot!
Said "Oh! That I were Brisk and Spry
To give him that for which to cry!"
(An empty wish, alas! For she
Was Blind and nearly ninety-three).

The Dear Old Butler thought-but there!
I really neither know nor care
For what the Dear Old Butler thought!
In my opinion, Butlers ought
To know their place, and not to play
The Old Retainer night and day.
I'm getting tired and so are...Read more of this...

by Herbert, George
...the newly arrived so proud to be here, 

and busy, 

the plovers should have keys and a whistle on a lanyard each 
like brisk brutish phys ed teachers they probably once were...Read more of this...

by Ashbery, John
...meaningful, that others felt this way
Years ago. I go on consulting
This mirror that is no longer mine
For as much brisk vacancy as is to be
My portion this time. And the vase is always full
Because there is only just so much room
And it accommodates everything. The sample
One sees is not to be taken as
Merely that, but as everything as it
May be imagined outside time--not as a gesture
But as all, in the refined, assimilable state.
But what is this universe t...Read more of this...

by Whittier, John Greenleaf
...unbar, 
Shall I not see thee waiting stand, 
And, white against the evening star, 
The welcome of thy beckoning hand? 

Brisk wielder of the birch and rule, 
The master of the local school 
Held at the fire his favored place, 
Its warm glow lit a laughing face 
Fresh-hued and fair, where scarce appeared 
The uncertain prophecy of beard. 
He teased the mitten-blinded cat, 
Played cross-pins on my uncle's hat, 
Sang songs, and told us what befalls 
In classic Dartmouth's co...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...f well-grown apprentices, 
The swing of their axes on the square-hew’d log, shaping it toward the shape of a mast, 
The brisk short crackle of the steel driven slantingly into the pine, 
The butter-color’d chips flying off in great flakes and slivers, 
The limber motion of brawny young arms and hips in easy costumes;
The constructor of wharves, bridges, piers, bulk-heads, floats, stays against the sea; 
—The city fireman—the fire that suddenly bursts forth in the close-pack’d...Read more of this...

by Eliot, T S (Thomas Stearns)
...280
       The stern was formed
       A gilded shell
       Red and gold
       The brisk swell
       Rippled both shores
       Southwest wind
       Carried down stream
       The peal of bells
       White towers
            Weialala leia                                                 290
            Wallala leialala

  "Trams and dusty trees.
  Highbury bore me. Richmond and Kew
  Undid me. By Richmond I raised ...Read more of this...

by Browning, Robert
...
And now it is made---why, my heart's blood, that went trickle,
Trickle, but anon, in such muddy driblets,
Is pumped up brisk now, through the main ventricle,
And genially floats me about the giblets.
I'll tell you what I intend to do:
I must see this fellow his sad life through---
He is our Duke, after all,
And I, as he says, but a serf and thrall.
My father was born here, and I inherit
His fame, a chain he bound his son with;
Could I pay in a lump I should prefer it...Read more of this...

by Schiller, Friedrich von
...are simmering,
Dip this wand of clay [45] within;
If like glass the wand be glimmering,
Then the casting may begin.
Brisk, brisk now, and see
If the fusion flow free;
If--(happy and welcome indeed were the sign!)
If the hard and the ductile united combine.
For still where the strong is betrothed to the weak,
And the stern in sweet marriage is blent with the meek,
Rings the concord harmonious, both tender and strong
So be it with thee, if forever united,
The heart to t...Read more of this...

by Bishop, Elizabeth
...br>
Two rubber boots show,
illuminated, solemn.
A dog gives one bark.

A woman climbs in 
with two market bags,
brisk, freckled, elderly.
"A grand night. Yes, sir,
all the way to Boston."
She regards us amicably.

Moonlight as we enter 
the New Brunswick woods,
hairy, scratchy, splintery;
moonlight and mist
caught in them like lamb's wool
on bushes in a pasture.

The passengers lie back.
Snores. Some long sighs.
A dreamy divagation
begi...Read more of this...

by Walcott, Derek
...s start pulling in the seine
of the dark sea, deep, deep inland.


5 Shabine Encounters the
 Middle Passage

Man, I brisk in the galley first thing next dawn,
brewing li'l coffee; fog coil from the sea
like the kettle steaming when I put it down
slow, slow, 'cause I couldn't believe what I see:
where the horizon was one silver haze,
the fog swirl and swell into sails, so close
that I saw it was sails, my hair grip my skull,
it was horrors, but it was beautiful.
We flo...Read more of this...

by Hecht, Anthony
...out a family;
It's a great blessing. Though I mean no harm.
And as for visitors, why, I have you,
All cheerful, brisk and punctual every Sunday,
Like church, even if the aisles smell of phenol.
And you always bring even better gifts than any 
On your book-trolley. Though they mean only good,
Families can become a sort of burden.
I've only got my father, and he won't come,
Poor man, because it would be too much for him.
And for me, too, so it's best the...Read more of this...

by Eliot, T S (Thomas Stearns)
...leia
 Wallala leialala
 Elizabeth and Leicester
 Beating oars 
 The stern was formed
 A gilded shell
 Red and gold
 The brisk swell
 Rippled both shores
 Southwest wind
 Carried down stream
 The peal of bells
 White towers
 Weialala leia 
 Wallala leialala
"Trams and dusty trees.
Highbury bore me. Richmond and Kew
Undid me. By Richmond I raised my knees
Supine on the floor of a narrow canoe."
"My feet are at Moorgate, and my heart
Under my feet. After the ...Read more of this...

by Lawrence, D. H.
...e goes, the little one,
Bud of the universe,
Pediment of life.
Setting off somewhere, apparently.
Whither away, brisk egg?

His mother deposited him on the soil as if he were no more than droppings,
And now he scuffles tinily past her as if she were an old rusty tin.

A mere obstacle,
He veers round the slow great mound of her --
Tortoises always foresee obstacles.

It is no use my saying to him in an emotional voice:
"This is your Mother, she laid you when yo...Read more of this...

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Book: Reflection on the Important Things