Famous Criminals Poems by Famous Poets
These are examples of famous Criminals poems written by some of the greatest and most-well-known modern and classical poets. PoetrySoup is a great educational poetry resource of famous criminals poems. These examples illustrate what a famous criminals poem looks like and its form, scheme, or style (where appropriate).
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by
Gibran, Kahlil
...h destroyed Babylon and shook the foundation of Jerusalem and left Rome in ruins. It is that which made people call criminals great mean; made writers respect their names; made historians relate the stories of their inhumanity in manner of praise.
The only authority I obey is the knowledge of guarding and acquiescing in the Natural Law of Justice.
What justice does authority display when it kills the killer? When it imprisons the robber? When it descends on a ...Read more of this...
by
Whitman, Walt
...And my sweet Love, bequeath’d here and elsewhere, never dies.
3
Aloof, dissatisfied, plotting revolt,
Comrade of criminals, brother of slaves,
Crafty, despised, a drudge, ignorant,
With sudra face and worn brow, black, but in the depths of my heart, proud as any;
Lifted, now and always, against whoever, scorning, assumes to rule me;
Morose, full of guile, full of reminiscences, brooding, with many wiles,
(Though it was thought I was baffled and dispell’d, and my wi...Read more of this...
by
Berryman, John
...e cold,
unkissed.
(—My psychiatrist can lick your psychiatrist.) Women get under
things.
All these old criminals sooner or later
have had it. I've been reading old journals.
Gottwald & Co., out of business now.
Thick chests quit. Double agent, Joe.
She holds her breath like a seal
and is whiter & smoother.
Rilke was a jerk.
I admit his griefs & music
& titled spelled all-disappointed ladies.
A threshold worse than the circ...Read more of this...
by
Ginsberg, Allen
...,
until the soul illuminated its hair for a second,
who crashed through their minds in jail waiting for
impossible criminals with golden heads and the
charm of reality in their hearts who sang sweet
blues to Alcatraz,
who retired to Mexico to cultivate a habit, or Rocky
Mount to tender Buddha or Tangiers to boys
or Southern Pacific to the black locomotive or
Harvard to Narcissus to Woodlawn to the
daisychain or grave,
who demanded sanity trials accusing the...Read more of this...
by
Blake, William
...e call'd the holy things,
And their sublime intent given to their kings.
All the atonements of Jehovah spurn'd,
And criminals to sacrifices turn'd....Read more of this...
by
Smart, Christopher
...place and the bark in the second.
For, when the nation is at war, it is better to abstain from the punishment of criminals especially, every act of human vengeance being a check to the grace of God.
For the letter ? [Hebrew character lamed] which signifies GOD by himself is on the fibre of some leaf in every Tree.
For ? is the grain of the human heart and on the network of the skin.
For ? is in the veins of all stones both precious and common.
F...Read more of this...
by
Smart, Christopher
...prosper you. I wish you good luck in the name of the Lord Jesus!
For I prophecy that there will be more mercy for criminals.
For I prophecy that there will be less mischief concerning women.
For I prophecy that they will be cooped up and kept under due controul.
For I prophecy that there will be full churches and empty play-houses.
For I prophecy that they will learn to take pleasure in glorifying God with great cheerfulness.
For I prophecy...Read more of this...
by
Whitman, Walt
...persons are not, in any respect, worse than
undetected
persons—and are not in any respect worse than I am myself;
Of criminals—To me, any judge, or any juror, is equally criminal—and any
reputable
person is also—and the President is also....Read more of this...
by
Masters, Edgar Lee
...out but A. D. Blood,
In his night shirt, waving a stick of wood,
And roaring about the cursed saloons,
And the criminals they made?
"You drunken Oscar Hummel", he said,
As I stood there weaving to and fro,
Taking the blows from the stick in his hand
Till I dropped down dead at his feet....Read more of this...
by
Whitman, Walt
...siness, imports, exports, custom, authority, precedents, pallor,
dyspepsia, smut, ignorance, unbelief!
Let judges and criminals be transposed! let the prison-keepers be put in prison! let those
that
were prisoners take the keys! Say! why might they not just as well be transposed?)
Let the slaves be masters! let the masters become slaves!
Let the reformers descend from the stands where they are forever bawling! let an idiot or
insane person appear on each of the stands! ...Read more of this...
by
Whitman, Walt
...th to
babes;
What living and buried speech is always vibrating here—what howls
restrain’d by decorum;
Arrests of criminals, slights, adulterous offers made, acceptances, rejections
with convex lips;
I mind them or the show or resonance of them—I come, and I depart.
9
The big doors of the country barn stand open and ready;
The dried grass of the harvest-time loads the slow-drawn wagon;
The clear light plays on the brown gray and green intertinged;
The ...Read more of this...
by
Lehman, David
...ith him
Unless he heard wrong and she said Argentina
Where they could learn the tango and pursue the widows
Of Nazi war criminals unrepentant to the end.
But no, she said Australia. She'd been born in New Zealand.
The difference between the two places was the difference
Between a hamburger and a chocolate malted, she said.
In the candy store across from the elementary school,
They planned their tryst. She said Australia, which meant
She was willing to go t...Read more of this...
by
Jeffers, Robinson
...ere good hunters, good herdsmen and swordsman,
But now the world is turned upside down;
The good do evil, the hope's in criminals; in vice
That dissolves the cities and war to destroy them.
Through wars and corruptions the house will fall.
Mourn whom it falls on. Be glad: the house is mined, it will fall.
IV
Rain, hail and brutal sun, the plow in the roots,
The pitiless pruning-iron in the branches,
Strengthen the vines, they are all feeding friends
Or power...Read more of this...
by
Gibran, Kahlil
...eak became commonplace; the throngs curried and praised.
Thus does the first touch of humanity's selfishness make criminals of the humble, and make killers of the sons of peace; thus does the early greed of humanity grow and strike back at humanity a thousand fold!...Read more of this...
by
Field, Edward
...he lie of brotherly love
in their white Christian teeth.
Wasn't his flesh human flesh
even made from the bodies of criminals,
the worst the Baron could find?
But love is not necessarily implicit in human flesh:
Their hatred was now his hatred,
so he set out on his new career
his previous one being the victim,
the good man who suffers.
Now no longer the hunted but the hunter
he was in charge of his destiny
and knew how to be cold and clever,
preserving barely a sp...Read more of this...
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