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Famous Clowns Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Cummings, Edward Estlin (E E)
...a clown's smirk in the skull of a baboon
(where once good lips stalked or eyes firmly stir
red)
my mirror gives me on this afternoon;
i am a shape that can but eat and turd
ere with the dirt death shall him vastly gird 
a coward waiting clumsily to cease
whom every perfect thing meanwhile doth miss;
a hand's impression in an empty glove 
a soon for...Read more of this...



by Sitwell, Dame Edith
...BENEATH the flat and paper sky 
The sun, a demon's eye, 
Glowed through the air, that mask of glass; 
All wand'ring sounds that pass

Seemed out of tune, as if the light 
Were fiddle-strings pulled tight. 
The market-square with spire and bell 
Clanged out the hour in Hell;

The busy chatter of the heat 
Shrilled like a parakeet; 
And shuddering at the...Read more of this...

by Marvell, Andrew
...wer mown.

Alas! said He, these hurts are slight
To those that dye by Loves despight.
With Shepherds-purse, and Clowns-all-heal,
The Blood I stanch, and Wound I seal.
Only for him no Cure is found,
Whom Julianas Eyes do wound.
'Tis death alone that this must do:
For Death thou art a Mower too....Read more of this...

by von Goethe, Johann Wolfgang
...he peasant curses it;
Each nobleman is sorely vex'd,

'Tis hated by the cit.
Be civil, bad though be thy food,

The clowns politely treat;
If to our hosts we're ever rude,

Jail-bread we're forced to eat.

And when the cannons growl around,

And small arms rattle clear,
And trumpet, trot, and drum resound,

We merry all appear;
And as it in the fight may chance,

We yield, then charge amain,
And now retire, and now advance,

And yet a cross ne'er gain.

At length ...Read more of this...

by Sandburg, Carl
...CLOWNS DYINGFIVE circus clowns dying this year, morning newspapers told their lives, how each one horizontal in a last gesture of hands arranged by an undertaker, shook thousands into convulsions of laughter from behind rouge-red lips and powder-white face.

STEAMBOAT BILLWhen the boilers of the Robert E. Lee exploded, a steamboat winner of many race...Read more of this...



by Emerson, Ralph Waldo
...trong,
The insanity of towns to stem
With simpleness for stratagem.
But if the brave old mould is broke,
And end in clowns the mountain-folk,
In tavern cheer and tavern joke,—
Sink, O mountain! in the swamp,
Hide in thy skies, O sovereign lap!
Perish like leaves the highland breed!
No sire survive, no son succeed!

Soft! let not the offended muse
Toil's hard hap with scorn accuse.
Many hamlets sought I then,
Many farms of mountain men;—
Found I not a minstrel seed,
Bu...Read more of this...

by Lindsay, Vachel
...linois. 

There stood beside the town 
Beneath its incense-crown 
An angel and a clown 
In Illinois. 
He was as Clowns are: 
She was snow and star 
With eyes that looked afar 
In Illinois. 

I asked, "How came this place 
Of antique Asian grace 
Amid our callow race 
In Illinois?" 
Said Clown and Angel fair: 
"By laughter and by prayer, 
By casting off all care 
In Illinois."...Read more of this...

by Chesterton, G K
...ss,
The farmer with all his flails;

Tales that tumble and tales that trick,
Yet end not all in scorning--
Of kings and clowns in a merry plight,
And the clock gone wrong and the world gone right,
That the mummers sing upon Christmas night
And Christmas Day in the morning.

"Now here is a good warrant,"
Cried Alfred, "by my sword;
For he that is struck for an ill servant
Should be a kind lord.

"He that has been a servant
Knows more than priests and kings,
But he that...Read more of this...

by Sexton, Anne
...and the birds in their chains 
going mad with throat noises, 
the birds in their tracks 
yelling into their cheeks like clowns, 
lighter, lighter, 
the stars gone, 
the trees appearing in their green hoods, 
the house appearing across the way, 
the road and its sad macadam, 
the rock walls losing their cotton, 
lighter, lighter, 
letting the dog out and seeing 
fog lift by her legs, 
a gauze dance, 
lighter, lighter, 
yellow, blue at the tops of trees, 
more God, more God eve...Read more of this...

by Tebb, Barry
...nt years,

From the famous crossing to the stunted bridge

Caparisoned with carnivals of children,

Cohorts of coloured clowns and Father Christmases.



The years become you as the Clothworkers’ Hall in gold

Became you, and you became it through the protest years,

When the Brotherton’s Portland stone, its white stone

Of innocence was snow in the School of English garden,

‘A living sculpture’, a Grene Knicht awaiting spring.



The years become you, Oxford, Leeds ...Read more of this...

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Book: Shattered Sighs