Famous Clip Poems by Famous Poets

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

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A Carol of Harvest for 1867

...
Gather the cotton in Mississippi or Alabama—dig and hoard the golden, the sweet
 potato of
 Georgia and the Carolinas,
Clip the wool of California or Pennsylvania, 
Cut the flax in the Middle States, or hemp, or tobacco in the Borders, 
Pick the pea and the bean, or pull apples from the trees, or bunches of grapes from the
 vines, 
Or aught that ripens in all These States, or North or South, 
Under the beaming sun, and under Thee....Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt


Advertisement For The Waldorf-Astoria

...ere this afternoon, all you jobless.
 Why not?
Dine with some of the men and women who got rich off of
 your labor, who clip coupons with clean white fingers
 because your hands dug coal, drilled stone, sewed gar-
 ments, poured steel to let other people draw dividends
 and live easy.
(Or haven't you had enough yet of the soup-lines and the bit-
 ter bread of charity?)
Walk through Peacock Alley tonight before dinner, and get
 warm, anyway. You've got nothing else to do....Read more of this...
by Hughes, Langston

Allouette

...

Hark! from springs of joy unseen
Spray their jewelled notes.
Tangle them in nets of green,
Twist their lyric throats;
Clip their wings and string them tight,
Stab them with a skewer,
All to tempt the apptite
Of the epicure.

Shade of Shelley! Come not nigh
This accursèd spot,
Where for sixpence one can buy
Skylarks for the pot;
Dante, paint a blacker hell,
Plunge in deeper darks
Wretches who can slay and sell
Sunny-hearted larks.

You who eat, you are the worst:
By internal...Read more of this...
by Service, Robert William

An Attempt At Jealousy

...u call a mind?
Or has he contrived to bring you out--
given you an in-tray and an out?

How did I ever fall for a paper-clip?
How could I ever listen to office gossip
even in bed and find it so intelligent?
Was is straight biological bent?

I suppose you go jogging together?
Tackle the Ridgeway in nasty weather?
Face force 55 gales and chat about prep
or how you bested that Birmingham rep?

He must be mad with excitement.
So must you. What an incitement
to lust all those pres...Read more of this...
by Raine, Craig

Big Night On The Town

...r to find yourself,
order scotch and water.
damned bar's sloppy wet, it soaks
part of one of your shirt
sleeves.
It's a clip joint-the scotch is weak.
you order a bottle of beer.
Madame Death walks up to you
wearing a dress.
she sits down, you buy her a
beer, she stinks of swamps, presses
a leg against you.
the bar tender sneers.
you've got him worried, he doesn't
know if you're a cop, a killer, a
madman or an
Idiot.
you ask for a vodka.
you pour the vodka into the top of
the...Read more of this...
by Bukowski, Charles


Dolor

...
Lonely reception room, lavatory, switchboard,
The unalterable pathos of basin and pitcher,
Ritual of multigraph, paper-clip, comma,
Endless duplication of lives and objects.
And I have seen dust from the walls of institutions,
Finer than flour, alive, more dangerous than silica,
Sift, almost invisible, through long afternoons of tedium,
Dropping a fine film on nails and delicate eyebrows,
Glazing the pale hair, the duplicate grey standard faces....Read more of this...
by Roethke, Theodore

Endimion and Phoebe (excerpts)

...grace
With vestal rites had hallowed all the place.
Upon this mount there stood a stately grove,
Whose reaching arms to clip the welkin strove,
Of tufted cedars, and the branching pine,
Whose bushy tops themselves do so entwine,
As seem'd, when Nature first this work begun,
She then conspir'd against the piercing sun;
Under whose covert (thus divinely made)
Ph{oe}bus' green laurel flourish'd in the shade,
Fair Venus' myrtle, Mars his warlike fir,
Minerva's olive, and the weep...Read more of this...
by Drayton, Michael

Holy-Cross Day

...ew you mount to a Turk.
Lo, Micah,---the selfsame beard on chin
He was four times already converted in!
Here's a knife, clip quick---it's a sign of grace---
Or he ruins us all with his hanging-face.

VIII.

Whom now is the bishop a-leering at?
I know a point where his text falls pat.
I'll tell him to-morrow, a word just now
Went to my heart and made me vow
I meddle no more with the worst of trades---
Let somebody else pay his serenades.

IX.

Groan all together now, whee-hee-...Read more of this...
by Browning, Robert

How Robin and His Outlaws Lived in The Woods

...under, were she ne'er so great,
: No fright to great or small;

No,—not a single kiss unliked,
: Nor one look-saddening clip;
Accurst be he, said Robin Hood,
: Makes pale a woman's lip.

Only on the haughty rich,
: And on their unjust store,
He'd lay his fines of equity
: For his merry men and the poor.

And special was his joy, no doubt
: (Which made the dish to curse)
To light upon a good fat friar,
: And carve him of his purse.

A monk to him was a toad in the hole,
: And ...Read more of this...
by Hunt, James Henry Leigh

In The Kalahari Desert

...her old pomander stuck with cloves,
forgotten in some pungent tallboy.

The dogs drank under the wagon
with a far away clip-clopping sound,

and Roger spat into the fire,
leaned back and watched his phlegm

like a Welsh rarebit
bubbling on the brands. . . 

When Baby died, they sewed her
in a scrap of carpet and prayed,

with milk still darkening
Isabella's grubby button-through.

Makololo was sick next day
and still the Helmores didn't come.

The outspanned oxen moved away
...Read more of this...
by Raine, Craig

Marginalia

...me nags to offer help but I’ve too much

On already and the clock keeps ticking.

"It’s a pity she won’t turn round and clip his ear"

But better not to interfere. Damn my bloody superego

Nattering like an old woman or Daisy nagging 

About my pipe and my loud voice on buses –

No doubt she’s right – smoking’s not good 

And hearing about psychosis, medication and end-on-sections

Isn’t what people are on buses for.



I long for a girl in summer, pubescent

With a twinkle i...Read more of this...
by Tebb, Barry

On The New Forcers Of Conscience Under The Long Parliament

...s,
Your plots and packing wors then those of Trent,
That so the Parliament
May with their wholsom and preventive Shears
Clip your Phylacteries, though bauk your Ears,
And succour our just Fears
When they shall read this clearly in your charge
New Presbyter is but Old Priest Writ Large....Read more of this...
by Milton, John

Sohrab and Rustum

...o famed, so brave, to send to war,
And I to tarry with the snow-hair'd Zal,
My father, whom the robber Afghans vex,
And clip his borders short, and drive his herds,
And he has none to guard his weak old age.
There would I go, and hang my armour up,
And with my great name fence that weak old man,
And spend the goodly treasures I have got,
And rest my age, and hear of Sohrab's fame,
And leave to death the hosts of thankless kings,
And with these slaughterous hands draw sword no...Read more of this...
by Arnold, Matthew

The Ghost

...urled, 
`Self and Pelf', my friend, has ever been the motto for the world.' 

And he said: `If you'd be happy, you must clip your fancy's wings, 
Stretch your conscience at the edges to the size of earthly things; 
Never fight another's battle, for a friend can never know 
When he'll gladly fly for succour to the bosom of the foe. 
At the power of truth and friendship let your lip in scorn be curled -- 
`Self and Pelf', my friend, remember, is the motto of the world. 

`Where...Read more of this...
by Baudelaire, Charles

The Gold Key

...he key.
Presto!
It opens this book of odd tales 
which transform the Brothers Grimm.
Transform?
As if an enlarged paper clip
could be a piece of sculpture.
(And it could.)...Read more of this...
by Sexton, Anne

The Great Adventure of Max Breuck

...shine. From inside
Come shouts and streams of laughter, and a snatch
Of song, soon drowned and lost again in mirth,
The clip of tankards on a table top,
And stir of booted heels. Against the patch
Of candle-light a shadow falls, its girth
Proclaims the host himself, and master of his shop.

2
This is the tavern of one Hilverdink,
Jan Hilverdink, whose wines are much esteemed.
Within his cellar men can have to drink
The rarest cordials old monks ever schemed
To coax from pulpy...Read more of this...
by Lowell, Amy

The Maoris Wool

...uch as he could get, and let the wool be shipped; 
And wedged into a "Cargo Tank", full up from stern to bow, 
A mighty clip of wool went Home from Rooti-iti-au. 

It was the Bold Bank Manager who drew a heavy cheque; 
Rerenga cashed it thoughtfully, then clasped him round the neck; 
A hug from him was not at all a thing you'd call a lark -- 
You see he lived on mutton-birds and dried remains of shark -- 
But still it showed his gratitude; and, as he pouched the pelf, 
"I'll ...Read more of this...
by Paterson, Andrew Barton

The Medal

...Cyclop-like, in human flesh to deal, 
Chop up a minister at every meal; 
Perhaps not wholly to melt down the king, 
But clip his regal rights within the ring; 
From thence to asssume the power of peace and war 
And ease him by degrees of public care. 
Yet, to consult his dignity and fame, 
He should have leave to exercise the name, 
And hold the cards while Commons played the game. 
For what can power give more than food and drink, 
To live at ease and not be bound to think? ...Read more of this...
by Dryden, John

The Millers Tale

...white as is the blossom on the rise*. *twig 
A merry child he was, so God me save;
Well could he letten blood, and clip, and shave,
And make a charter of land, and a quittance.
In twenty manners could he trip and dance,
After the school of Oxenforde tho*, *then
And with his legges caste to and fro;
And playen songes on a small ribible*; *fiddle
Thereto he sung sometimes a loud quinible* *treble
And as well could he play on a gitern.* *guitar
In all the town was brewh...Read more of this...
by Chaucer, Geoffrey

The Philistine And The Bohemian

...ce and murmured: "Ass!"
Seized his scissors and fiercely sheared,
Severed his buccaneering beard;
Grabbed his hair, and clip! clip! clip!
Off came a bunch with every snip.
Ran to a tailor's in startled state,
Suits a dozen commanded straight;
Coats and overcoats, pants in pairs,
Everything that a dandy wears;
Socks and collars, and shoes and ties,
Everything that a dandy buys.
Chums looked at him with wondering stare,
Fancied they'd seen him before somewhere;
A Brummell, a D'...Read more of this...
by Service, Robert William

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