Famous Composing Poems by Famous Poets

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

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116. On a Scotch Bard gone to the West Indies

...d him aye a dainty chiel,
 An’ fou o’ glee:
He wad na wrang’d the vera deil,
 That’s owre the sea.


Farewell, my rhyme-composing billie!
Your native soil was right ill-willie;
But may ye flourish like a lily,
 Now bonilie!
I’ll toast you in my hindmost gillie,
 Tho’ owre the sea!...Read more of this...
by Burns, Robert


62. Epistle to William Simson

...face descrive,
 And I, wi’ pleasure,
Shall let the busy, grumbling hive
 Bum owre their treasure.


Fareweel, “my rhyme-composing” brither!
We’ve been owre lang unkenn’d to ither:
Now let us lay our heads thegither,
 In love fraternal:
May envy wallop in a tether,
 Black fiend, infernal!


While Highlandmen hate tools an’ taxes;
While moorlan’s herds like guid, fat braxies;
While terra firma, on her axis,
 Diurnal turns;
Count on a friend, in faith an’ practice,
 In Robert Bu...Read more of this...
by Burns, Robert

A Spring Piece Left In The Middle

...
 black chair?
My head puts on its cap by itself,
 I fly out of the printer's,
 I'm on the street.
The lead dirt of the composing room
 on my face,
seventy-five cents in my pocket.
 SPRING IN THE AIR...

In the barbershops
 they're powdering
 the sallow cheeks
 of the pariah of Publishers Row.
And in the store windows
 three-color bookcovers
 flash like sunstruck mirrors.
But me,
I don't have even a book of ABC's
that lives on this street
and carries my name on its door!
But ...Read more of this...
by Hikmet, Nazim

Another Day

...sand and
broken glass.

you begin eating the sandwhich.

it's something.
it's a minor, difficult,
sensible action
like composing a popular song
to make a 14-year old
weep.
you order another beer.
jesus,look at that guy
his hands hang down almost to his knees and he's
whistling.
well, time to get out.
pivk up the bill.
tip.
go to the register.
pay.
pick up a toothpick.
go out the door.
your car is still there.
and there are 3 men with heads
and necks
like ostriches all gettin...Read more of this...
by Bukowski, Charles

City Gent

...ongue,
and I am perfectly happy
to see your head, quick
round the door like a dryad,

as I pretend to be Ovid
in exile, composing Tristia
and sad for the shining,
the missed, the muscular beach....Read more of this...
by Raine, Craig


Darius

...The poet Phernazis is composing
the important part of his epic poem.
How Darius, son of Hystaspes,
assumed the kingdom of the Persians. (From him
is descended our glorious king
Mithridates, Dionysus and Eupator). But here
philosophy is needed; he must analyze
the sentiments that Darius must have had:
maybe arrogance and drunkenness; but no -- rather
like an understanding of the v...Read more of this...
by Cavafy, Constantine P

Gyroscope

...ng nothing perhaps
But being something agreeable to watch,
A silver nearly silence gleaning a still-
ness out of speed, composing unity
From spin, so that its hollow spaces seem
Solids of light, until it wobbles and
Begins to whine, and then with an odd lunge
Eccentric and reckless, it skids away
And drops dead into its own skeleton....Read more of this...
by Nemerov, Howard

Jubilate Agno: Fragment B Part 1

...on the right hand of God. 

For the nightly Visitor is at the window of the impenitent, while I sing a psalm of my own composing. 

For there is a note added to the scale, which the Lord hath made fuller, stronger and more glorious. 

For I offer my goat as he browses the vine, bless the Lord from chambering and drunkeness. 

For there is a traveling for the glory of God without going to Italy or France. 

For I bless the children of Asher for the evil I did them and the goo...Read more of this...
by Smart, Christopher

Melancholy

...I am the Empire in the last of its decline, 
That sees the tall, fair-haired Barbarians pass,--the while 
Composing indolent acrostics, in a style 
Of gold, with languid sunshine dancing in each line.

The solitary soul is heart-sick with a vile 
Ennui. Down yon, they say, War's torches bloody shine. 
Alas, to be so faint of will, one must resign 
The chance of brave adventure in the splendid file,-

Of death, perchance! Alas, so lagging in desire! 
Ah,...Read more of this...
by Verlaine, Paul

Song of the Exposition

...ia and Nevada passing on and on till they become
 bullion; 
You shall watch how the printer sets type, and learn what a composing stick is; 
You shall mark, in amazement, the Hoe press whirling its cylinders, shedding the printed
 leaves
 steady and fast: 
The photograph, model, watch, pin, nail, shall be created before you.

In large calm halls, a stately Museum shall teach you the infinite, solemn lessons of
 Minerals;

In another, woods, plants, Vegetation shall be illustr...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt

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