Famous Civilizations Poems by Famous Poets

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

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A Far Cry From Africa

...ndable as Jews?
Threshed out by beaters, the long rushes break
In a white dust of ibises whose cries
Have wheeled since civilizations dawn
>From the parched river or beast-teeming plain.
The violence of beast on beast is read
As natural law, but upright man
Seeks his divinity by inflicting pain.
Delirious as these worried beasts, his wars
Dance to the tightened carcass of a drum, 
While he calls courage still that native dread
Of the white peace contracted by the dead.

Again...Read more of this...
by Walcott, Derek


As I Sat Alone by Blue Ontario's Shores

..., who is so great, 
It is I who am great, or to be great—it is you up there, or any one; 
It is to walk rapidly through civilizations, governments, theories, 
Through poems, pageants, shows, to form great individuals. 

Underneath all, individuals!
I swear nothing is good to me now that ignores individuals, 
The American compact is altogether with individuals, 
The only government is that which makes minute of individuals, 
The whole theory of the universe is directed to one ...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt

On the Beach at Night Alone

...tery, vegetable, mineral processes—the fishes, the brutes,
All men and women—me also; 
All nations, colors, barbarisms, civilizations, languages; 
All identities that have existed, or may exist, on this globe, or any globe; 
All lives and deaths—all of the past, present, future; 
This vast similitude spans them, and always has spann’d, and shall forever span them, and
 compactly hold them, and enclose them....Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt

Plutonian Ode

...ment of judgements, Divine Wind over vengeful 
 nations, Molester of Presidents, Death-Scandal of
 Capital politics! Ah civilizations stupidly indus-
 trious!
Canker-Hex on multitudes learned or illiterate! Manu-
 factured Spectre of human reason! O solidified
 imago of practicioner in Black Arts
I dare your reality, I challenge your very being! I 
 publish your cause and effect!
I turn the wheel of Mind on your three hundred tons!
 Your name enters mankind's ear! I embody yo...Read more of this...
by Ginsberg, Allen

Salut au Monde

...ctiveness of my race; 
I see the results of the perseverance and industry of my race; 
I see ranks, colors, barbarisms, civilizations—I go among them—I mix indiscriminately, 
And I salute all the inhabitants of the earth.

11
You, whoever you are! 
You daughter or son of England! 
You of the mighty Slavic tribes and empires! you Russ in Russia! 
You dim-descended, black, divine-soul’d African, large, fine-headed, nobly-form’d,
 superbly
 destin’d, on equal terms with me! 
You...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt


The Answer

...Then what is the answer?- Not to be deluded by dreams. 
To know that great civilizations have broken down into violence, 
 and their tyrants come, many times before. 
When open violence appears, to avoid it with honor or choose 
 the least ugly faction; these evils are essential. 
To keep one's own integrity, be merciful and uncorrupted 
 and not wish for evil; and not be duped 
By dreams of universal justice or happiness. These dr...Read more of this...
by Jeffers, Robinson

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