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Famous Cases Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Eliot, T S (Thomas Stearns)
...enbranched candelabra
  Reflecting light upon the table as
  The glitter of her jewels rose to meet it,
  From satin cases poured in rich profusion;
  In vials of ivory and coloured glass
  Unstoppered, lurked her strange synthetic perfumes,
  Unguent, powdered, or liquid— troubled, confused
  And drowned the sense in odours; stirred by the air
  That freshened from the window, these ascended                          90
  In fattening the prolonged candle-flames,
  ...Read more of this...



by Clampitt, Amy
...y, as of an affliction that
 might once, long ago, have been prevented.

Unclassifiable castoffs, misfits, marginal cases:
when you're one yourself, or close to it, there's
a reassurance in proving you haven't quite gone
under by taking up with somebody odder than you are.
Or trying to. "They're my friends," she'd say of
her cats—Mollie, Mitzi and Caroline, their names were,
and she was forever taking one or another in a cab
to the vet—as though she had no others....Read more of this...

by Browning, Robert
...n restored to life 
By a Nazarene physician of his tribe: 
--'Sayeth, the same bade "Rise," and he did rise. 
"Such cases are diurnal," thou wilt cry. 
Not so this figment!--not, that such a fume, 
Instead of giving way to time and health, 
Should eat itself into the life of life, 
As saffron tingeth flesh, blood, bones and all! 
For see, how he takes up the after-life. 
The man--it is one Lazarus a Jew, 
Sanguine, proportioned, fifty years of age, 
The body's hab...Read more of this...

by Sexton, Anne
...ick, yellow as old snow.

And when you drive off, my darling,
Yes, sir! Yes, sir! It's one for my dame,
your sample cases branded with my father's name,

your itinerary open,
its tolls ticking and greedy,
its highways built up like new loves, raw and speedy....Read more of this...

by Plath, Sylvia
...ed
And folded his hands, that were shaking: goodbye, goodbye.

Now the washed sheets fly in the sun,
The pillow cases are sweetening. 

It is a blessing, it is a blessing:
The long coffin of soap-colored oak,

The curious bearers and the raw date
Engraving itself in silver with marvelous calm.


(5)

The gray sky lowers, the hills like a green sea
Run fold upon fold far off, concealing their hollows,

The hollows in which rock the thoughts of the...Read more of this...



by McGonagall, William Topaz
...roically in trying to make their escape;
Oh, it was horrible to see men and women trying to reach the door!
But in many cases death claimed the victory, and their struggles were o'er. 

Alas! 'twas pitiful the shrieks of the audience to hear,
Especially as the flames to them drew near;
Because on every face were depicted despair and woe,
And many of them jumped from the windows into the street below. 

The crushed and charred bodies were carried into London Hotel yard...Read more of this...

by Larkin, Philip
...e shall turn them into if we shall keep
A few cathedrals chronically on show 
Their parchment plate and pyx in locked cases 
And let the rest rent-free to rain and sheep.
Shall we avoid them as unlucky places?

Or after dark will dubious women come
To make their children touvh a particular stone;
Pick simples for a cancer; or on some
Advised night see walking a dead one?
Power of some sort or other will go on
In games in riddles seemingly at random;
But supers...Read more of this...

by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...
That lookt half-dead, brake bright, and flashed as those 
Dull-coated things, that making slide apart 
Their dusk wing-cases, all beneath there burns 
A jewelled harness, ere they pass and fly. 
So Gareth ere he parted flashed in arms. 
Then as he donned the helm, and took the shield 
And mounted horse and graspt a spear, of grain 
Storm-strengthened on a windy site, and tipt 
With trenchant steel, around him slowly prest 
The people, while from out of kitchen came 
...Read more of this...

by Smart, Christopher
...efore it was the Lord's in the Mosaic sacrifices. 

For the very particular laws of Moses are the determinations of CASES that fell under his cognizance. 

For the Devil can make the shadow thicker by candlelight by reason of his pow'r over malignant fire. 

For the Romans clipped their words in the Augustan thro idleness and effeminacy and paid foreign actors for speaking them out. 

For when the weight and the pow'r are equivalent the prop is of none effect....Read more of this...

by Service, Robert William
...y my cards upon the table,
And with deep shame and blame avow
I am too old to read you now;
So I will lock you in glass cases
And shun your sad, reproachful faces."

 * * * * * * * * *

My library is noble planned,
Yet in it desolate I stand;
And though my thousand books I prize,
Feeling a witling in their eyes,
I turn from them in weariness
To wallow in the Daily Press.

For, oh, I never, never will
The noble field of knowledge till:
I pattern words with artful trick...Read more of this...

by Brautigan, Richard
...one afternoon. We decided the best thing to do witl:

him was to pack him in a big shipping crate with a couple of

cases of sweet wine and send him to Nelson Algren.

 Nelson Algren is always writing about Railroad Shorty, a

hero of the Neon Wilderness (the reason for "The Face on

the Barroom Floor") and the destroyer of Dove Linkhorn in

A Walk on the Wild Side.

 We thought that Nelson Algren would make the perfect

custodian for Trout Fishing in America Shor...Read more of this...

by Sexton, Anne
...We laughed and this
was good.

5.

I checked out for the last time
on the first of May;
graduate of the mental cases,
with my analysts's okay,
my complete book of rhymes,
my typewriter and my suitcases.

All that summer I learned life
back into my own
seven rooms, visited the swan boats,
the market, answered the phone,
served cocktails as a wife
should, made love among my petticoats

and August tan. And you came each
weekend. But I lie.
You seldom cam...Read more of this...

by Carroll, Lewis
...interest in the concern:

Though the Barrister tried to appeal to its pride,
 And vainly proceeded to cite
A number of cases, in which making laces
 Had been proved an infringement of right.

The maker of Bonnets ferociously planned
 A novel arrangement of bows:
While the Billiard-marker with quivering hand
 Was chalking the tip of his nose.

But the Butcher turned nervous, and dressed himself fine,
 With yellow kid gloves and a ruff--
Said he felt it exactly like go...Read more of this...

by Pope, Alexander
...on Earth, are treasur'd there.
There Heroe's Wits are kept in pondrous Vases,
And Beau's in Snuff-boxes and Tweezer-Cases.
There broken Vows, and Death-bed Alms are found,
And Lovers Hearts with Ends of Riband bound;
The Courtiers Promises, and Sick Man's Pray'rs,
The Smiles of Harlots, and the Tears of Heirs, 
Cages for Gnats, and Chains to Yoak a Flea;
Dry'd Butterflies, and Tomes of Casuistry.

But trust the Muse---she saw it upward rise,
Tho' mark'd by none bu...Read more of this...

by Lowell, Amy
...l
Gleamed black, and never moved at all.

Paul's watches were like amulets,
Wrought into patterns and rosettes;
The cases were all set with stones,
And wreathing lines, and shining zones.
He knew the beauty in a curve,
And the Shadow tortured every nerve
With its perfect rhythm of outline
Cutting the whitewashed wall. So fine
Was the neck he knew he could have spanned
It about with the fingers of one hand.
The chin rose to a mouth he guessed,
But could not see...Read more of this...

by McGonagall, William Topaz
...after Alois came home,
He began the printing of the Sprig of Moss on the stone;
And by taking the impressions of watch-cases he discovered, one day,
What is now called the art of Lithography. 

So Alois plodded on making known his great discovery,
Until he obtained the notice of the Royal Academy,
Besides, he obtained a gold Medal, and what was more dear to his heart,
He lived to see the wide extension of his art. 

And when life's prospects may at times appear drear...Read more of this...

by Byron, George (Lord)
...ucer's 'Wife of Bath,' Pulci's 'Morgante Maggiore,' Swift's 'Tale of a Tub,' and the other
works above referred to, are cases in point of the freedom with which saints, &c. may be permitted to converse in works not intended to be serious. 

Q.R. 

*** Mr. Southey being, as he says, a good Christian and vindictive, threatens, I understand, a reply to this our answer. It is to be hoped that his visionary faculties will be in the mean time have acquired a...Read more of this...

by Eliot, T S (Thomas Stearns)
...es of sevenbranched candelabra
Reflecting light upon the table as
The glitter of her jewels rose to meet it,
From satin cases poured in rich profusion;
In vials of ivory and coloured glass
Unstoppered, lurked her strange synthetic perfumes,
Unguent, powdered, or liquid - troubled, confused
And drowned the sense in odours; stirred by the air
That freshened from the window, these ascended 
In fattening the prolonged candle-flames,
Flung their smoke into the laquearia,
Stirring ...Read more of this...

by Marvell, Andrew
...gs build?
The Beasts are by their Denns exprest:
And Birds contrive an equal Nest;
The low roof'd Tortoises do dwell
In cases fit of Tortoise-shell:
No Creature loves an empty space;
Their Bodies measure out their Place.

But He, superfluously spread,
Demands more room alive then dead.
And in his hollow Palace goes
Where Winds as he themselves may lose.
What need of all this Marble Crust
T'impark the wanton Mose of Dust,
That thinks by Breadth the World t'unite
Th...Read more of this...

by Lowell, Robert
...l shaving mirrors,
and see the shaky future grow familiar
in the pinched, indigenous faces
of these thoroughbred mental cases,
twice my age and half my weight.
We are all old-timers,
each of us holds a locked razor....Read more of this...

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