Famous Cipher Poems by Famous Poets

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

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1. Faith

by Mark Doty
 "I've been having these
awful dreams, each a little different,
though the core's the same-

we're walking in a field,
Wally and Arden and I, a stretch of grass
with a highway running beside it,

or a path in the woods that opens
onto a road. Everything's fine,
then the dog sprints ahead of us,

exicted; we're calling but
he's racing down a scent and doesn't hear us,
and that's...Read more of this...

The Epic Of The Lion

by Victor Hugo
 ("Un lion avait pris un enfant.") 
 
 {XIII.} 


 A Lion in his jaws caught up a child— 
 Not harming it—and to the woodland, wild 
 With secret streams and lairs, bore off his prey— 
 The beast, as one might cull a bud in May. 
 It was a rosy boy, a king's own pride, 
...Read more of this...

When I have sense of what to sense appears,

by Fernando Pessoa
When I have sense of what to sense appears,

Sense is sense ere 'tis mine or mine in me is.

When I hear, Hearing, ere I do hear, hears.

When I see, before me abstract Seeing sees.

I am part Soul part I in all I touch--

Soul by that part I hold in common with all,

And I the spoiled part, that doth make sense...Read more of this...

Before I Knocked

by Dylan Thomas
 Before I knocked and flesh let enter,
With liquid hands tapped on the womb,
I who was as shapeless as the water
That shaped the Jordan near my home
Was brother to Mnetha's daughter
And sister to the fathering worm.

I who was deaf to spring and summer,
Who knew not sun nor moon by name,
Felt thud beneath my flesh's armour,
As yet was in a molten...Read more of this...

My Cocoon tightens -- Colors tease --

by Emily Dickinson
 My Cocoon tightens -- Colors tease --
I'm feeling for the Air --
A dim capacity for Wings
Demeans the Dress I wear --

A power of Butterfly must be --
The Aptitude to fly
Meadows of Majesty implies
And easy Sweeps of Sky --

So I must baffle at the Hint
And cipher at the Sign
And make much blunder, if at least
I take the clue divine --...Read more of this...

Enigma

by Thomas Moore
 Come riddle-me-ree, come riddle-me-ree,
And tell me, what my name may be.
I am nearly one hundred and thirty years old,
And therefore no chicken, as you may suppose; --
Though a dwarf in my youth (as my nurses have told),
I have, ev'ry year since, been outgrowing my clothes;
Till, at last, such a corpulent giant I stand,
That if folks were to furnish me...Read more of this...

Among School Children

by William Butler Yeats
 I

I walk through the long schoolroom questioning;
A kind old nun in a white hood replies;
The children learn to cipher and to sing,
To study reading-books and histories,
To cut and sew, be neat in everything
In the best modern way - the children's eyes
In momentary wonder stare upon
A sixty-year-old smiling public man.

 II

I dream of a Ledaean body, bent
Above a sinking fire....Read more of this...

This is to Love

by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
This is love: to fly to heaven, every moment to rend a hundred veils;
At first instance, to break away from breath –
first step, to renounce feet;
To disregard this world, to see only that which you yourself have seen I said,   “Heart, congratulations on entering the circle of...Read more of this...

Crow Communes

by Ted Hughes
"Well," said Crow, "What first?" 
God, exhausted with Creation, snored. 
"Which way?" said Crow, "Which way first?" 
God's shoulder was the mountain on which Crow sat. 
"Come," said Crow, "Let's discuss the situation." 
God lay, agape, a great carcass. 

Crow tore off a mouthful and swallowed. 

"Will this cipher divulge itself to digestion
Under hearing beyond understanding?" 

(That was the first...Read more of this...

daughter

by Suheir Hammad
 leaves and leaving call october home
her daughter releases wood
smoke from her skin
rich in scorpio
blood survived the first
flood each new year marks
a circle around her
thick bark middle
this the month summer and
winter fall into each
other and leave orange
yellow ashes
the vibrancy of death
carry it all
coiled in my belly
cut on the cusp 
of libra tail 
tips the scales
tonight it is raining in
the tradition...Read more of this...

The Man Into Whose Yard You Should Not Hit Your Ball

by Thomas Lux
 each day mowed
and mowed his lawn, his dry quarter acre,
the machine slicing a wisp
from each blade's tip. Dust storms rose
around the roar: 6:00 P.M., every day,
spring, summer, fall. If he could mow
the snow he would.
On one side, his neighbors the cows
turned their backs to him
and did what they do to the grass.
Where he worked, I don't know
but it sets...Read more of this...

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