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Famous Chipped Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Lowell, Amy
...I learnt to write to you in happier days,
And every letter was a piece I chipped
From off my heart, a fragment newly clipped
From the mosaic of life; its blues and grays,
Its throbbing reds, I gave to earn your praise.
To make a pavement for your feet I stripped
My soul for you to walk upon, and slipped
Beneath your steps to soften all your ways.
But now my letters are like blossoms pale
We strew upon a grave with hopeles...Read more of this...



by Doty, Mark
...-
no separation
of nature and art

for Father Wilerus!
He's built fabulous blooms
--bristling mosaic tiles
bunched into chipped,

permanent roses---
and more glisteny
stuff than I can catalogue,
which seems to he the point:

a spectacle, saints
and Stars and Stripes
billowing in hillocks
of concrete. Stubborn

insistence on rendering
invisibles solid. What's
more frankly actual
than cement? Surfaced,

here, in pure decor:
even the railings
curlicued with rows
of ident...Read more of this...

by Berryman, John
...nce the Lord frown down
upon her ancient cradle thinking 'This one
will do before she die

for two and seventy years of chipped indignities
at least,' and with his thunder clapped a promise?
In that far away town
who looky upon my mother with shame & rage
that any should endure such pilgrimage,
growled Henry sweating, grown

but not grown used to the goodness of this woman
in her great strength, in her hope superhuman,
no, no, not used at all.
I declare a mystery, he mumb...Read more of this...

by Jobe, James Lee
...our life

try to tell you something, but what?


Noon is a plate of mashed potatoes and gravy.

Midnight is an ugly chipped plate

that you only use when you are alone.


Sunset is a wise cat who ignores you

even when you are offering food; her conception

of what life is, or isn't, far exceeds our own.


This moment is a desert at midnight,

the hunting moon is full, and owls 

fly through a cloudless sky.


The past is a winding, green river valley

deep be...Read more of this...

by Sexton, Anne
...one of them.
He gave in like a small wave, a sudden
hole in his belly and the years all gone
where the Pacific noon chipped its light out.
Like a bean bag, outflung, head loose
and anonymous, he lay. Did the sea move fire
for its battle season? Does he lie there
forever, where his rifle waits, giant
and straight?...I think you die again
and live again,
Johnny, each summer that moves inside
my mind....Read more of this...



by Tebb, Barry
...On some lonely Adriatic shore

Beating again and again

Threshings of green sea foam

Flecked like the marble Leonardo

Chipped for his ‘Moses’.

And my tears came as suddenly

In that dream, criss-crossed

With memory and desire.

Grandad Nicky had worked

Down the pits for a pittance

To bring up his six children

But nothing left over for more

Than a few nuts and an orange

For six Christmas stockings

So hopefully hung, weighted by pennies,

Stretched across the ...Read more of this...

by Lowell, Amy
...The Empress sits alone, and the clock ticks, one 
after one.
The clock nicks off the edges of her life. She is chipped 
like
an old bit of china; she is frayed like a garment of last year's 
wearing.
She is soft, crinkled, like a fading rose. And each minute 
flows by
brushing against her, shearing off another and another petal.
The Empress crushes her breasts with her hands and weeps. And 
the tall clouds
sail over Malmaison like a procession of stat...Read more of this...

by Lowell, Amy
...or a moment, ringed And 
bright; then flung itself out, a thin blade
Of spotted lightning, and its tail was winged With chipped 
and sparkled sunshine. And the shade
Broke up and splintered into shafts of light Wheeling about 
the fish, who churned the air
And made the fish-line hum, and bent the rod Almost 
to snapping. Care
The young man took against the twigs, with slight,
Deft movements he kept fish and line in tight
Obedience to his will with every prod.

IX
...Read more of this...

by Tebb, Barry
...e vision was given

Complete with backcloth of resplendent stars

The bridge’s grey transmuted to a sheen of pearl

The chipped steps became transparent stairs to heaven

Our worn clothes, like Cinders’ at the ball, cloaks and gowns

Of infinite splendour but only for the night, remember!

I passed the muse’s diadem to Sheila Pritchard,

My genius-child-poet of whom Redgrove said

“Of course, you are in love” and wrote for her

‘My Perfect Rose!’



Last year a poet saw it

I...Read more of this...

by Hicok, Bob
...br> Thank you I say to kill the silence 
with my mouth, meaning **** you, meaning die 
you shoulder-shrugging fusion of chipped chromosomes 
and puss, meaning enough. That a portal exists in my wall 
that even its makers can't govern seems an accurate mirror 
of life. Here's the truce I offer: I'll pay whatever's asked 
to be left alone. To receive a fax from me stand beside 
your mailbox for a week. It will come in what appears 
to be an envelope. While w...Read more of this...

by Service, Robert William
...oys, drink in whiskey straight:
`The Chewed-ear Jenkins Hirsute Propagation Syndicate'."

The boys wuz on, an' soon chipped in the necessary dust;
They primed up a committy to negotiate the deal;
Then Missis Jenkins yielded, bein' rather in disgust,
An' all wuz signed an' witnessed, an' invested with a seal.
They rounded up old Chewed-ear, an' they broke it what they'd done;
Allowed they'd bought an interest in his chance of raisin' hair;
They yanked his hat off anxio...Read more of this...

by Service, Robert William
...
For the bullet ain't made wot's got me name.
Yet some of 'em buzzed onhealthily near,
And one little blighter just chipped me ear.
But there! I got to the trench all right,
When sudden I jumped wi' a start o' fright,
And a word that doesn't look well in type:
I'd clean forgotten me old clay pipe.

So I had to do it all over again,
Crawling out on that filthy plain.
Through shells and bombs and bullets and all --
Only this time -- I do not crawl.
I run lik...Read more of this...

by Levine, Philip
..., you don't shout, 
In the long run it doesn't help the pain. 

I gather the brittle bits and cut my finger 
On the chipped rim of my wife's favorite glass, 
And cannot make the simple bleeding linger. 
"Captain, Captain, there's no one watching us."...Read more of this...

by Lowell, Amy
...-- greener, bluer -- with the jar of 
moving water.
Jagged green-white bowls of pressed glass
Rearing snow-peaks of chipped sugar
Above the lighthouse-shaped castors
Of grey pepper and grey-white salt.
Grey-white placards: "Oyster Stew, Cornbeef Hash, Frankfurters":
Marble slabs veined with words in meandering lines.
Dropping on the white counter like horn notes
Through a web of violins,
The flat yellow lights of oranges,
The cube-red splashes of apples,
In high p...Read more of this...

by Larkin, Philip
...Now in the day
All's ravelled under the sun by the wind's blowing.
He has gone to look at the floods, and I
Carry a chipped pail to the chicken-run,
Set it down, and stare. All is the wind
Hunting through clouds and forests, thrashing
My apron and the hanging cloths on the line.
Can it be borne, this bodying-forth by wind
Of joy my actions turn on, like a thread
Carrying beads? Shall I be let to sleep
Now this perpetual morning shares my bed?
Can even death dry up...Read more of this...

by Simic, Charles
...ube

In the hand so wizened
All the lines said: fate.



Do you take this line
Stretching to infinity?

I take this chipped tooth
On which to cut it in half.

Do you take this circle
Bounded by a single curved line?

I take this breath
That it cannot capture.

Then you may kiss the spot
Where her bridal train last rustled.



Winter can come now,
The earth narrow to a ditch--

And the sky with its castles and stone lions
Above the empty plains.

The snow c...Read more of this...

by Browning, Robert
...etch in plaster;
15 You wanted a piece of marble,
16 I needed a music-master.

17 We studied hard in our styles,
18 Chipped each at a crust like Hindoos,
19 For air looked out on the tiles,
20 For fun watched each other's windows.

21 You lounged, like a boy of the South,
22 Cap and blouse--nay, a bit of beard too;
23 Or you got it, rubbing your mouth
24 With fingers the clay adhered to.

25 And I--soon managed to find
26 Weak points in the flower-fence facing,
27...Read more of this...

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