Famous Coastal Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Here Died

...e and head, 
And they spy the lay of each lonely spot where an enemy's foot might tread. 

In the cooling breeze of the coastal streams, or out where the townships bake, 
They march in fancy, and fight in dreams, and die for Australia's sake. 
They hold the fort till relief arrives, when the landing parties storm, 
And they take the pride of their fresh young lives in the set of a uniform. 

Where never a loaded shell was hurled, nor a rifle fired to kill, 
The schoolboy scou...Read more of this...
by Lawson, Henry


In the Storm that is to come

...he East will call to the West for scouts in the storm that is to be:
The West cries out to the East in drought, but the coastal towns are dumb;
And the East must look to the West for food in the war that is to come.

The rain comes down on the Western land and the rivers run to waste,
When the city folk rush for the special tram in their childless, senseless haste,
And never a pile of a lock we drive - but a few mean tanks we scratch - 
For the fate of a nation is nought comp...Read more of this...
by Lawson, Henry

Magpiety

...es
slowly down. Your breath slows
 and you know
you're back in central
 California
on your way to San Francisco
 or the coastal towns
with their damp sea breezes
 you haven't
even a hint of. But first
 you must cross
the Pacheco Pass. People
 expect you, and yet
you remain, still leaning forward
 into the grasses
that if you could hear them
 would tell you
all you need to know about
 the life ahead. 

 . . .

Out of a sense of modesty
 or to avoid the truth
I've been writing ...Read more of this...
by Levine, Philip

Picture Postcard From The Other World

...faiths he held goes on 
with only the faith that even more 
will be lost. Like me a wanderer, 
someone with a taste for coastal towns 
sparkling in the cold winter sun, boardwalks 
without walkers, perfect beaches shrouded 
in the dense fogs of December, morning cafes 
before the second customer arrives, 
the cats have been fed, and the proprietor 
stops muttering into the cold dishwater. 
I give you the gift of language, my gift 
and no more, so that wherever you go 
words f...Read more of this...
by Levine, Philip

Redbud Trail - Winter

...ok people walked 
these canyons and ridges. Pomo, too.
Gathering acorns to trade, the sweetest 
was said to be from the Coastal Live Oaks.
Or bringing down a mule deer, a Tule elk,
meat for everyone, garments or a drumskin
from the hide, tools from the bones,
a knife, a skewer, thanks given
to the beast??™s soul for its gift. 



Once up on the ridge, the view takes me,
Brushy Sky High Mountain looms above 
like an overanxious parent, the creek sings 
old songs for the valley...Read more of this...
by Jobe, James Lee


Tempest

...ed on a cliff a maid,
Her raiment white above the breakers,
When the mad sea reared up and played
Its whips of spray on coastal acres
And now and then the lightnings flush,
And purple gleams upon her hover,
And fluttering up in swirling rush,
The wind rides in her airy cover?
Fair is the sea in gales arrayed,
The heavens drained of blue and flashing,
But fairer on her cliff the maid
Than storms and skies and breakers crashing....Read more of this...
by Pushkin, Alexander

The Star of Australasia

...hen the storm is come, and fight for it side by side, 
Who'll hold the cliffs 'gainst the armoured hells 
that batter a coastal town, 
Or grimly die in a hail of shells when the walls come crashing down. 
And many a pink-white baby girl, the queen of her home to-day, 
Shall see the wings of the tempest whirl the mist of our dawn away -- 
Shall live to shudder and stop her ears to the thud of the distant gun, 
And know the sorrow that has no tears when a battle is lost and won...Read more of this...
by Lawson, Henry

This Be The Verse

...s,
Who half the time were soppy-stern
And half at one another's throats.

Man hands on misery to man.
It deepens like a coastal shelf.
Get out as early as you can,
And don't have any kids yourself....Read more of this...
by Larkin, Philip

Voyages

...
a yearning, but I like it the way it is. 
Not once has the ocean wind changed 
and brought the taste of salt 
over the coastal hills and through 
the orchards to my back yard. Not once 
have I wakened cold and scared 
out of a dreamless sleep 
into a dreamless life and cried 
and cried out for what I left behind....Read more of this...
by Levine, Philip

Whatever Happened?

...hat can't be printed can be thrown away.

Later, it's just a latitude: the map
Points out how unavoidable it was:
'Such coastal bedding always means mishap.'

Curses? The dark? Struggling? Where's the source
Of these yarns now (except in nightmares, of course)?...Read more of this...
by Larkin, Philip

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