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Famous Caste Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Book: Radiant Verses: A Journey Through Inspiring Poetry
...In Virgynë the sweltrie sun gan sheene, 
And hotte upon the mees did caste his raie; 
The apple rodded from its palie greene, 
And the mole peare did bende the leafy spraie; 
The peede chelandri sunge the livelong daie; 
'Twas nowe the pride, the manhode of the yeare, 
And eke the grounde was dighte in its moste defte aumere. 

The sun was glemeing in the midde of daie, 
Deadde still the aire, and eke the welken blue, 
When f...Read more of this...
by Chatterton, Thomas



...Day!
 Call a truce, then, to our labors -- let us feast with friends and neighbors,
 And be merry as the custom of our caste;
 For if "faint and forced the laughter," and if sadness follow after,
 We are richer by one mocking Christmas past....Read more of this...
by Kipling, Rudyard
...ht be his.

If I'm quiet, he's quieter.
So I forget him.
Yet, as I bend down
To tie my shoelaces,
He's standing up.

We caste a single shadow.
Whose shadow?

I'd like to say:
"He was un the beginning
And he'll be in the end,"
But one can't be sure.

At night
As I sit
Shuffling the cards of our silence,
I say to him:

"Though you utter
Every one of my words,
You are a stranger.
It's time you spoke."...Read more of this...
by Simic, Charles
...outshine the dying day. 
O soft! the lotus-buds upon the stream 
Are stirring like sweet maidens when they dream. 


A caste-mark on the azure brows of Heaven, 
The golden moon burns sacred, solemn, bright 
The winds are dancing in the forest-temple, 
And swooning at the holy feet of Night. 
Hush! in the silence mystic voices sing 
And make the gods their incense-offering....Read more of this...
by Naidu, Sarojini
...on ami...)
The gendarmes enquiringly
 look at the tec,
the tec, -
 at the gendarmerie.
With what delight
 that gendarme caste
would have me
 strung-up and whipped raw
because I hold
 in my hands
 hammered-fast
sickle-clasped
 my red Soviet passport.
I'd tear
 like a wolf
 at bureaucracy.
For mandates
 my respect's but the slightest.
To the devil himself
 I'd chuck
 without mercy
every red-taped paper,
 But this ...
I pull out
 of my wide trouser-pockets
duplicate
of a pricele...Read more of this...
by Mayakovsky, Vladimir



...ges—One age is but a part—ages are but a part; 
Recall the angers, bickerings, delusions, superstitions, of the idea of caste, 
Recall the bloody cruelties and crimes. 

Anticipate the best women;
I say an unnumbered new race of hardy and well-defined women are to spread through all
 These
 States, 
I say a girl fit for These States must be free, capable, dauntless, just the same as a
 boy. 

Anticipate your own life—retract with merciless power, 
Shirk nothing—retract in tim...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt
...ms, nor fiercest lightnings of the war, have purified the
 atmosphere;)
—Let the theory of America still be management, caste, comparison! (Say! what other
 theory
 would you?) 
Let them that distrust birth and death still lead the rest! (Say! why shall they not lead
 you?)

Let the crust of hell be neared and trod on! let the days be darker than the nights! let
 slumber bring less slumber than waking time brings! 
Let the world never appear to him or her for whom it was all ...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt
...nurtured Treason's monstrous growth, 
Made murder pastime, and the hell 
Of prison-torture possible; 
The cruel lie of caste refute, 
Old forms remould, and substitute 
For Slavery's lash the freeman's will, 
For blind routine, wise-handed skill; 
A school-house plant on every hill, 
Stretching in radiate nerve-lines thence 
The quick wires of intelligence; 
Till North and South together brought 
Shall own the same electric thought, 
In peace a common flag salute, 
And, side...Read more of this...
by Whittier, John Greenleaf
...implest, a teacher of the thoughtfullest; 
A novice beginning, yet experient of myriads of seasons; 
Of every hue and caste am I, of every rank and religion; 
A farmer, mechanic, artist, gentleman, sailor, quaker; 
A prisoner, fancy-man, rowdy, lawyer, physician, priest.

I resist anything better than my own diversity; 
I breathe the air, but leave plenty after me, 
And am not stuck up, and am in my place. 

(The moth and the fish-eggs are in their place; 
The suns...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt
...and shoulde wane soon.
In gaudy green her statue clothed was,
With bow in hand, and arrows in a case*. *quiver
Her eyen caste she full low adown,
Where Pluto hath his darke regioun.
A woman travailing was her beforn,
But, for her child so longe was unborn,
Full piteously Lucina  gan she call,
And saide; "Help, for thou may'st best of all."
Well could he painte lifelike that it wrought;
With many a florin he the hues had bought.
Now be these listes made, and Theseus,
That ...Read more of this...
by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...e rouged an' I've ranged in my time;
I've 'ad my pickin' o' seethearts,
 An' four o' the lot was prime.
One was an 'arf-caste widow,
 One was awoman at Prome,
One was the wife of a jemadar-sais
 An' one is a girl at 'ome.

Now I aren't no 'and with the ladies,
 For, takin' 'em all along,
You never can say till you've tried 'em,
 An' then you are like to be wrong.
There's times when you'll think that you mightn't,
 There's times when you'll know that you might;
But the things ...Read more of this...
by Kipling, Rudyard
...quittance.
In twenty manners could he trip and dance,
After the school of Oxenforde tho*, *then
And with his legges caste to and fro;
And playen songes on a small ribible*; *fiddle
Thereto he sung sometimes a loud quinible* *treble
And as well could he play on a gitern.* *guitar
In all the town was brewhouse nor tavern,
That he not visited with his solas*, *mirth, sport
There as that any *garnard tapstere* was. *licentious barmaid*
But sooth to say he was somedeal squaimo...Read more of this...
by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...'aps, it's us.

For monthly, after Labour,
 We'd all sit down and smoke
(We dursn't give no banquits,
 Lest a Brother's caste were broke),
An' man on man got talkin'
 Religion an' the rest,
An' every man comparin'
 Of the God 'e knew the best.

So man on man got talkin',
 An' not a Brother stirred
Till mornin' waked the parrots
 An' that dam' brain-fever-bird;
We'd say 'twas 'ighly curious,
 An' we'd all ride 'ome to bed,
With Mo'ammed, God, an' Shiva
 Changin' pickets in our...Read more of this...
by Kipling, Rudyard
...e
 Success, despite of people—Illustrates evil as well as good; 
How many hold despairingly yet to the models departed, caste, myths, obedience,
 compulsion, and
 to infidelity; 
How few see the arrived models, the Athletes, the Western States—or see freedom or
 spirituality—or hold any faith in results,
(But I see the Athletes—and I see the results of the war glorious and
 inevitable—and
 they again leading to other results;) 
How the great cities appear—How the Democratic m...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt
...ek by answere of this Appollo,
That Grekes sholden swich a peple bringe,
Thorugh which that Troye moste been for-do,
He caste anoon out of the toun to go; 
For wel wiste he, by sort, that Troye sholde
Destroyed ben, ye, wolde who-so nolde.

For which, for to departen softely
Took purpos ful this forknowinge wyse,
And to the Grekes ost ful prively 
He stal anoon; and they, in curteys wyse,
Hym deden bothe worship and servyse,
In trust that he hath conning hem to rede
In every ...Read more of this...
by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...to calle, and dresse him up to ryse,
Remembringe him his erand was to done
From Troilus, and eek his greet empryse;
And caste and knew in good plyt was the mone
To doon viage, and took his wey ful sone 
Un-to his neces paleys ther bi-syde;
Now Ianus, god of entree, thou him gyde!

Whan he was come un-to his neces place,
'Wher is my lady?' to hir folk seyde he;
And they him tolde; and he forth in gan pace, 
And fond, two othere ladyes sete and she,
With-inne a paved parlour; a...Read more of this...
by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...our honour, and seen him almost sterve,
And been so looth to suffren him yow serve.'

With that she gan hir eyen on him caste 
Ful esily, and ful debonairly,
Avysing hir, and hyed not to faste
With never a word, but seyde him softely,
'Myn honour sauf, I wol wel trewely,
And in swich forme as he can now devyse, 
Receyven him fully to my servyse,

'Biseching him, for goddes love, that he
Wolde, in honour of trouthe and gentilesse,
As I wel mene, eek mene wel to me,
And myn hon...Read more of this...
by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...heth she, and maketh him the mowe.

From Troilus she gan hir brighte face
Awey to wrythe, and took of him non hede,
But caste him clene out of his lady grace, 
And on hir wheel she sette up Diomede;
For which right now myn herte ginneth blede,
And now my penne, allas! With which I wryte,
Quaketh for drede of that I moot endyte.

For how Criseyde Troilus forsook, 
Or at the leste, how that she was unkinde,
Mot hennes-forth ben matere of my book,
As wryten folk through which it...Read more of this...
by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...with-holde of wepinge at the leste,
And Antenor he kiste, and made feste.

And ther-with-al he moste his leve take,
And caste his eye upon hir pitously,
And neer he rood, his cause for to make, 
To take hir by the honde al sobrely.
And lord! So she gan wepen tendrely!
And he ful softe and sleighly gan hir seye,
'Now hold your day, and dooth me not to deye.'

With that his courser torned he a-boute 
With face pale, and un-to Diomede
No word he spak, ne noon of al his route;
Of...Read more of this...
by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...very haughty, with Law on one
 side,
 and Peace on the other, 
A stupendous Trio, all issuing forth against the idea of caste; 
—What historic denouements are these we so rapidly approach? 
I see men marching and countermarching by swift millions;
I see the frontiers and boundaries of the old aristocracies broken; 
I see the landmarks of European kings removed; 
I see this day the People beginning their landmarks, (all others give way;) 
—Never were such sharp questions ask’d...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt

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Book: Radiant Verses: A Journey Through Inspiring Poetry