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Famous Caustic Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Burns, Robert
...ight:
His uncomb’d grizzly locks, wild staring, thatch’d
A head for thought profound and clear, unmatch’d;
Yet tho’ his caustic wit was biting-rude,
His heart was warm, benevolent, and good....Read more of this...



by Burns, Robert
...ght;
His uncomb’d, hoary locks, wild-staring, thatch’d
A head, for thought profound and clear, unmatch’d;
Yet, tho’ his caustic wit was biting-rude,
His heart was warm, benevolent and good.
 · · · · · · O Dulness, portion of the truly blest!
Calm, shelter’d haven of eternal rest!
Thy sons ne’er madden in the fierce extremes
Of Fortune’s polar frost, or torrid beams;
If mantling high she fills the golden cup,
With sober, selfish ease they sip it up;
Conscious the bounteous...Read more of this...

by Mayakovsky, Vladimir
...d brain, 
like an over-fed lackey on a greasy settee, 
with my heart's bloody tatters I'll mock again; 
impudent and caustic, I'll jeer to superfluity. 

Of Grandfatherly gentleness I'm devoid, 
there's not a single grey hair in my soul! 
Thundering the world with the might of my voice, 
I go by -- handsome, 
twenty-two-year-old. 

Gentle ones! 
You lay your love on a violin. 
The crude lay their love on a drum. 
but you can't, like me, turn insi...Read more of this...

by Plath, Sylvia
...oughts are crabbed and sallow,
My tears like vinegar,
Or the bitter blinking yellow
Of an acetic star.

Tonight the caustic wind, love,
Gossips late and soon,
And I wear the wry-faced pucker of
The sour lemon moon.

While like an early summer plum,
Puny, green, and tart,
Droops upon its wizened stem
My lean, unripened heart....Read more of this...

by Crane, Hart
...ing eidolon!) and yet again.
Until the bright logic is won
Unwhispering as a mirror
Is believed.

Then, drop by caustic drop, a perfect cry
Shall string some constant harmony,--
Relentless caper for all those who step
The legend of their youth into the noon....Read more of this...



by Service, Robert William
...I: "There's nothing after Death,--
 Your priests are just deceivers."

In middle age I was not so
 Contemptuous and caustic.
Thought I: "There's much I do not know:
 I'd better be agnostic.
The hope of immortality
 'Tis foolish to be flouting."
So in the end I came to be
 A doubter of my doubting.

Now I am old, with steps inclined
 To hesitate and falter;
I find I get such peace of mind
 Just sitting by an altar.
So Friends, don't scorn the family pew...Read more of this...

by Hardy, Thomas
...s gaunt anatomy. 

And cracking frieze and rotten metope 
Express, as though they were an open tome 
Top-lined with caustic monitory gnome; 
"Dunces, Learn here to spell Humanity!" 

And yet within these ruins' very shade 
The singing workmen shape and set and join 
Their frail new mansion's stuccoed cove and quoin 
With no apparent sense that years abrade, 
Though each rent wall their feeble works invade 
Once shamed all such in power of pier and groin....Read more of this...

Dont forget to view our wonderful member Caustic poems.


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