Famous Checking Poems by Famous Poets

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

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As I Sat Alone by Blue Ontario's Shores

...diverse, he is the key,
He is the equalizer of his age and land, 
He supplies what wants supplying—he checks what wants checking, 
In peace, out of him speaks the spirit of peace, large, rich, thrifty, building populous
 towns,
 encouraging agriculture, arts, commerce, lighting the study of man, the Soul, health,
 immortality, government; 
In war, he is the best backer of the war—he fetches artillery as good as the
 engineer’s—he can make every word he speaks draw blood; 
The...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt


Axe Handles

...y ears!
"When making an axe handle
 the pattern is not far off."
And I say this to Kai
"Look: We'll shape the handle
By checking the handle
Of the axe we cut with—"
And he sees. And I hear it again:
It's in Lu Ji's We Fu, fourth century
A.D. "Essay on Literature" - in the
Preface: "In making the handle 
Of an axe
By cutting wood with an axe
The model is indeed near at hand."
My teacher Shih-hsiang Chen
Translated that and taught it years ago
And I see: Pound was an axe,
Chen ...Read more of this...
by Snyder, Gary

Canzone VIII

...l it seems the fateOf man, that tears should chase his transient smile:And, checking thus my burning wishes, IBack to myself return, to muse and sigh. The amorous anxious thought,Which reigns within you, flashes so on me,That from my heart it draws all other joy;Whence works and words so wroughtRead more of this...
by Petrarch, Francesco

Canzone X

...=i0>Yet, were the knot undone,Wherewith my weak tongue Love is wont to bind,Checking its speech, when her sweet face puts onAll its great charms, then would I courage find,Words on that point so apt and new to use,As should make weep whoe'er might hear the tale.But the old wounds I bear,Stamp'd on my tortured heart, such pow...Read more of this...
by Petrarch, Francesco

Land Mine

...,
 Then wisely flew away.
'In half a jiffy you'll be dead,'
 I thought I heard it say;
As there upon the railway line,
 Checking an urge to cough,
I laboured to de-fuse the mine
 That had not yet gone off.

I tapped around the time-clock rim,
 Then something worried me.
I heard the singing of a hymn:
 Nearer my God to Thee.
That damned Salvation Army band!
 I phoned back to the boys:
'Please tell them,--they will understand,--
 Cut out the bloody noise!'

Silence . . . I went...Read more of this...
by Service, Robert William


Matins

...from the flower beds: in fact
I'm looking for courage, for some evidence
my life will change, though
it takes forever, checking
each clump for the symbolic
leaf, and soon the summer is ending, already
the leaves turning, always the sick trees
going first, the dying turning
brilliant yellow, while a few dark birds perform
their curfew of music. You want to see my hands?
As empty now as at the first note.
Or was the point always
to continue without a sign?...Read more of this...
by Gluck, Louise

The Clasp

...clasp. It happened very
fast-grab, crush, crush,
crush, release-and at the first extra
force, she swung her head, as if checking
who this was, and looked at me,
and saw me-yes, this was her mom,
her mom was doing this. Her dark,
deeply open eyes took me
in, she knew me, in the shock of the moment
she learned me. This was her mother, one of the
two whom she most loved, the two
who loved her most, near the source of love 
was this....Read more of this...
by Olds, Sharon

The Guardian Angel Of The Private Life

...rying to make time and place seem small,
sliding its slim tears into the deep wallet of each new event
on the list
then checking it off -- oh the satisfaction -- each check a small kiss,
an echo of the previous one, off off it goes the dry high-ceilinged
obligation,
checked-off by the fingertips, by the small gust called done that swipes
the unfinishable's gold hem aside, revealing
what might have been, peeling away what should . . .
There are flowerpots at their feet.
There ...Read more of this...
by Graham, Jorie

The Sea to the Shore

...o thee, biding thy maiden coyness,
Under the silver of morning, under the purple of night ?
Taming my ancient rudeness, checking my heady clamor­
Thus, is it thus I must woo thee, oh, my delight? 

Nay, 'tis no way of the sea thus to be meekly suitor­
I shall storm thee away with laughter wrapped in my beard of snow,
With the wildest of billows for chords I shall harp thee a song for thy bridal,
A mighty lyric of love that feared not nor would forego! 

With a red-gold weddin...Read more of this...
by Montgomery, Lucy Maud

Walking Across The Atlantic

...wd to clear the beach
before stepping onto the first wave.

Soon I am walking across the Atlantic
thinking about Spain,
checking for whales, waterspouts.
I feel the water holding up my shifting weight.
Tonight I will sleep on its rocking surface.

But for now I try to imagine what
this must look like to the fish below,
the bottoms of my feet appearing, disappearing....Read more of this...
by Collins, Billy

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