Get Your Premium Membership

Famous Chests Poems by Famous Poets

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

See also:

by Browning, Robert
...ts:
Wait ye the warning?
Our low life was the level's and the night's;
He's for the morning.
Step to a tune, square chests, erect each head,
'Ware the beholders!
This is our master, famous calm and dead,
Borne on our shoulders.

Sleep, crop and herd! sleep, darkling thorpe and croft,
Safe from the weather!
He, whom we convoy to his grave aloft,
Singing together,
He was a man born with thy face and throat,
Lyric Apollo!
Long he lived nameless: how should spring take no...Read more of this...



by Thomas, Dylan
...vel done in Erse
Or written backwards in Welsh verse,
Or paintings on the backs of vests,
Or Sanskrit psalms on lepers' chests.
But if this proved imposs-i-ble
Perhaps it would be just as well,
For you could then write what you please,
And modern verse is done with ease.

Do not forget that 'limpet' rhymes
With 'strumpet' in these troubled times,
And commas are the worst of crimes;
Few understand the works of Cummings,
And few James Joyce's mental slummings,
And few y...Read more of this...

by Mayakovsky, Vladimir
...ards,
 sectarians,
 lickspittles.
They strut around
 proudly
 as peacocks,
badges and fountain pens
 studding their chests.
We’ll lick the lot of ’em-
 but
 to lick ’em
is no easy job
 at the very best.
On snow-covered lands
 and on stubbly fields,
in smoky plants
 and on factory sites,
with you in our hearts,
 Comrade Lenin,
 we build,
we think,
 we breathe,
 we live,
 and we fight!”
Awhirl with events,
 packed with jobs one too many,
the day slowly sinks
 as the...Read more of this...

by Manrique, Jorge
...g his legions;
A Constantine in faith eterne;
Gamaliel in the love he bore
His native regions.

He left no weighty chests of treasure,
Nor ever unto wealth attained
Nor store excelling;
To fight the Moors was all his pleasure
And thus his fortresses he gained,
Demesne, and dwelling.

Amid the lists where he prevailed
Fell knights and steeds into his hands
Through fierce compression,
Whereby he came to be regaled
With vassals and with feudal lands
In fair poss...Read more of this...

by Berryman, John
...sooner or later
have had it. I've been reading old journals.
Gottwald & Co., out of business now.
Thick chests quit. Double agent, Joe.
She holds her breath like a seal
and is whiter & smoother.

Rilke was a jerk.
I admit his griefs & music
& titled spelled all-disappointed ladies.
A threshold worse than the circles
where the vile settle & lurk,
Rilke's. As I said,—...Read more of this...



by Alighieri, Dante
...orture and most dire despair 
 Came from them, as the spirits wailed their doom. 

 I said, "Who are they, in these chests that lie 
 Confined, and join in this lamenting cry?" 

 My Master answered, "These in life denied 
 The faith that saves, and that resisting pride 
 Here brought them. With their followers, like to like, 
 Assorted are they, and the keen flames strike 
 With differing anguish, to the same degree 
 They reached in their rebellion." 
 While
 he...Read more of this...

by Finch, Anne Kingsmill
...(His Friend demands) where such right Schemes were bred? 
What Phrenzy, what Delirium mars the Scull, 
Which fill'd the Chests, and was it self so full? 
Here interrupting, sadly he Reply'd, 
In Me's no Change, but Fate must all Things guide; 
To Providence I attribute my Loss.

Vain-glorious Man do's thus the Praise engross, 
When Prosp'rous Days around him spread their Beams: 
But, if revolv'd to opposite Extreams, 
Still his own Sence he fondly will prefer, 
And Provid...Read more of this...

by Eliot, T S (Thomas Stearns)
...or two came loose on the roof,
Which presently ceased to be waterproof,
If the drawers were pulled out from the bedroom chests,
And you couldn't find one of your winter vests,
Or after supper one of the girls
Suddenly missed her Woolworth pearls:

Then the family would say: "It's that horrible cat!
It was Mungojerrie--or Rumpelteazer!"-- And most of the time 
 they left it at that.

Mungojerrie and Rumpelteazer had a very unusual gift of the 
 gab.
They were highly ef...Read more of this...

by Rozewicz, Tadeusz
...The hair is not shot through with light
is not parted by the breeze
is not touched by any hand
or rain or lips

In huge chests
clouds of dry hair
of those suffocated
and a faded plait
a pigtail with a ribbon
pulled at school
by naughty boys....Read more of this...

by Bishop, Elizabeth
...lare

with stupid eyes
while from their beaks there rise
the uncontrolled, traditional cries.

Deep from protruding chests
in green-gold medals dressed,
planned to command and terrorize the rest,

the many wives 
who lead hens' lives
of being courted and despised;

deep from raw throats
a senseless order floats
all over town. A rooster gloats

over our beds
from rusty irons sheds
and fences made from old bedsteads,

over our churches 
where the tin rooster perches,
ov...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...the market; 
I loiter, enjoying his repartee, and his shuffle and break-down.

Blacksmiths with grimed and hairy chests environ the anvil; 
Each has his main-sledge—they are all out—(there is a great heat in
 the fire.) 

From the cinder-strew’d threshold I follow their movements; 
The lithe sheer of their waists plays even with their massive arms; 
Over-hand the hammers swing—over-hand so slow—over-hand so sure:
They do not hasten—each man hits in his place...Read more of this...

by Owen, Wilfred
...Halted against the shade of a last hill,
They fed, and, lying easy, were at ease
And, finding comfortable chests and knees
Carelessly slept. But many there stood still
To face the stark, blank sky beyond the ridge,
Knowing their feet had come to the end of the world.

Marvelling they stood, and watched the long grass swirled
By the May breeze, murmurous with wasp and midge,
For though the summer oozed into their veins
Like the injected drug for their bon...Read more of this...

by Zaran, Lisa
...except the urgency 
of youth. Men 

have been 
solitary 
for ages 
carrying the 
stoniest of hearts 
in their broad chests 
while we women 

begin too early 
brush the brown leaves 
from our shoulders, go 
from bloom to fade 
as soon as 
we see the sunrise 

We let our eyes go first 
Then there is the limp lolling 
of our hearts from side to side 
the tongue we cut away 
the blind kiss on the backlash of night 
the giving giving giving of skin 

As women 
we blindly wish ...Read more of this...

by Lowell, Amy
...,
Pipkins, and mugs, and many lots
Of lacquered canisters, black and gold,
Like those in which Chinese tea is sold.
Chests, and puncheons, kegs, and flasks,
Goblets, chalices, firkins, and casks.
In a corner three ancient amphorae leaned
Against the wall, like ships careened.
There was dusky blue of Wedgewood ware,
The carved, white figures fluttering there
Like leaves adrift upon the air.
Classic in touch, but emasculate,
The Greek soul grown effeminate.
...Read more of this...

by Lindsay, Vachel
...soul that prays that it may sleep and sleep
Like a white statue dropped into the deep,
Covered with sand, covered with chests of gold,
And slave-bones, tossed from many a pirate hold.

But for this prayer thou wilt not bind in Hell
My soul, that shook with love for Fame and Truth—
In Such unquenched desires consumed his youth—
Let me turn dust, like dead leaves in the Fall,
Or wood that lights an hour your knightly hall— 

Amen....Read more of this...

by Seeger, Alan
...hore.

Tree-ferns, therefore, and potted palms they brought,
Tripods and urns in rare and curious taste,
Polychrome chests and cabinets inwrought
With pearl and ivory etched and interlaced;
Pendant brocades with massive braid were caught,
And chain-slung, oriental lamps so placed
To light the lounger on some low divan,
Sunken in swelling down and silks from Hindustan.

And there was spread, upon the ample floors,
Work of the Levantine's laborious loom,
Such as by Euxi...Read more of this...

by Lowell, Amy
...uniforms 
of France.
Alas! No! The uniforms of France, Great Imperial 
France, are done.
They will rot away in chests and hang to dusty tatters in barn lofts.
These are other armies. And their name?
Hush, be still for shame;
Be still and imperturbable like the marble arch.
Another bright spark falls through the blue air.
Over the Place du Carrousel a wailing of despair.
Crowd your horses back upon the people, Uhlans and Hungarian Lancers,
They see...Read more of this...

by Walcott, Derek
...ween
the Police Marine Branch and Hotel Venezuelana
one Sunday at noon. Young men without flags
using shirts, their chests waiting for holes.
They kept marching into the mountains, and their
noise ceased as foam sinks into sand.
They sank in the bright hills like rain, every one
with his own nimbus, leaving shirts in the streets,
and the echo of power at the end of the street.
Propeller-blade fans turn over the Senate;
the judges, they say, still sweat in carm...Read more of this...

by Masters, Edgar Lee
...Williams, could not fill
Her orders for new hats, and every seamstress
Plied busy needles making gowns; old trunks
And chests were opened for their store of laces
And rings and trinkets were brought out of hiding
And all the youths fastidious grew of dress;
Notes passed, and many a fair one's door at eve
Knew a bouquet, and strolling lovers thronged
About the hills that overlooked the river.
Then, since the mercy seats more empty showed,
One of God's chosen lifted up his...Read more of this...

by Seeger, Alan
...s blood 
Retreating, cast the cumbrous load away: 
They, when brown foemen lopped the bridges down, 
Who tipped thonged chests into the stream below 
And over wealth that might have ransomed kings 
Passed on to safety; -- cheated, guerdonless -- 
Found (through their fingers the bright booty slipped) 
A city naked, of that golden dream 
Shorn in one moment like a sunset sky. 


Deep in a chamber that no cheerful ray 
Purged of damp air, where in unbroken night 
Black scor...Read more of this...

Dont forget to view our wonderful member Chests poems.


Book: Shattered Sighs