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Famous Crumb Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Dickinson, Emily
...looked like frightened beads, I thought;
He stirred his velvet head

Like one in danger; cautious,
I offered him a crumb,
And he unrolled his feathers
And rowed him softer home

Than oars divide the ocean,
Too silver for a seam,
Or butterflies, off banks of noon,
Leap, splashless, as they swim....Read more of this...



by Dickinson, Emily
...A little bread -- a crust -- a crumb --
A little trust -- a demijohn --
Can keep the soul alive --
Not portly, mind! but breathing -- warm --
Conscious -- as old Napoleon,
The night before the Crown!

A modest lot -- A fame petite --
A brief Campaign of sting and sweet
Is plenty! Is enough!
A Sailor's business is the shore!
A Soldier's -- balls! Who asketh more,
Must seek the neighboring ...Read more of this...

by Bishop, Elizabeth
...At six o'clock we were waiting for coffee, 
waiting for coffee and the charitable crumb 
that was going to be served from a certain balcony 
—like kings of old, or like a miracle. 
It was still dark. One foot of the sun 
steadied itself on a long ripple in the river. 

The first ferry of the day had just crossed the river. 
It was so cold we hoped that the coffee 
would be very hot, seeing that the sun 
was not going to wa...Read more of this...

by Rich, Susan
...
he creates the most fragile

of confections: madelines

and pinwheels, pomegranate crisps

and blue florentines;

each crumb to reincarnate

a woman – a savoring

of what the living once could bring....Read more of this...

by Hardy, Thomas
...berries now are gone 
From holly and cotoneaster 
Around the house. The flakes fly!--faster 
Shutting indoors that crumb-outcaster 
We used to see upon the lawn 
Around the house. The flakes fly faster, 
And all the berries now are gone!...Read more of this...



by Hardy, Thomas
...the Judgement-day

And sat upright. While drearisome
Arose the howl of wakened hounds:
The mouse let fall the altar-crumb,
The worm drew back into the mounds,

The glebe cow drooled. Till God cried, "No;
It's gunnery practice out at sea
Just as before you went below;
The world is as it used to be:

"All nations striving strong to make
Red war yet redder. Mad as hatters
They do no more for Christés sake
Than you who are helpless in such matters.

"That this is ...Read more of this...

by García Lorca, Federico
...day is a wounded boy.

Not a flicker of lark was left in the air
when I met you in the caverns of wine.
Not the crumb of a cloud was left in the ground
when you were drowned in the river.

A giant of water fell down over the hills,
and the valley was tumbling with lilies and dogs.
In my hands' violet shadow, your body,
dead on the bank, was an angel of coldness....Read more of this...

by Dickinson, Emily
...God gave a loaf to every bird,
But just a crumb to me;
I dare not eat it, though I starve,--
My poignant luxury
To own it, touch it, prove the feat
That made the pellet mine,--
Too happy in my sparrow chance
For ampler coveting.

It might be famine all around,
I could not miss an ear,
Such plenty smiles upon my board,
My garner shows so fair.
I wonder how the rich may feel,--
An...Read more of this...

by Browning, Robert
...ch his first sermon
to the Jews: as it was of old cared for in tine
merciful bowels of the Church, that, so to
speak, a crumb at least from her conspicuous
table here in Rome should be, though but
once yearly, cast to the famishing dogs, under-trampled
and bespitten-upon beneath the feet
of the guests. And a moving sight in truth,
this, of so many of the besotted blind restif
and ready-to-perish Hebrews! now maternally
brought---nay (for He saith, `Compel them
to come in'...Read more of this...

by Dickinson, Emily
...many warm.

I've heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me....Read more of this...

by Dickinson, Emily
...e by her muteness --
Most she won me by the way
She presented her small figure --
Plea itself -- for Charity --

Were a Crumb my whole possession --
Were there famine in the land --
Were it my resource from starving --
Could I such a plea withstand --

Not upon her knee to thank me
Sank this Beggar from the Sky --
But the Crumb partook -- departed --
And returned On High --

I supposed -- when sudden
Such a Praise began
'Twas as Space sat singing
To herself -- and men --

'Tw...Read more of this...

by Silverstein, Shel
...re only one inch tall, you'd ride a worm to school.
The teardrop of a crying ant would be your swimming pool.
A crumb of cake would be a feast
And last you seven days at least,
A flea would be a frightening beast
If you were one inch tall.

If you were only one inch tall, you'd walk beneath the door,
And it would take about a month to get down to the store.
A bit of fluff would be your bed,
You'd swing upon a spider's thread,
And wear a thimble on your head
If...Read more of this...

by Allingham, William
...with snow, -- 
Alas! in Winter, dead and dark, 
Where can poor Robin go? 
Robin, Robin Redbreast, 
O Robin dear! 
And a crumb of bread for Robin, 
His little heart to cheer....Read more of this...

by Rich, Adrienne
...akes its wry announcement
That imperfection has a certain tang.
Maybe we shouldn't turn our pockets out
To the last crumb or lingering bit of fluff,
But all we can confess of what we are
Has in it the defeat of isolation--
If not our own, then someone's, anyway.

So I come back to saying this good-by,
A sort of ceremony of my own,
This stepping backward for another glance.
Perhaps you'll say we need no ceremony,
Because we know each other, crack and flaw,
Like two...Read more of this...

by Cullen, Countee
...new self the sire,
After aeons weathered,
Reincarnate by fire,
Falcon may not nor eagle
Swerve from his eyrie,
Nor any crumb inveigle
Down to an earthly tree.

That fish of the dread regime
Invented to become
The fable and the dream
Of the Lord's aquarium,
Leviathan, the jointed
Harpoon was never wrought
By which the Lord's anointed
Will suffer to be caught.

Bird of the deathless breast,
Fish of the frantic fin,
That bright chimeric beast
Flashing the argent skin,--...Read more of this...

by Robinson, Edwin Arlington
...hat fell, and he that saw, and he that heard. 
And I am here, at last; and if at last
I give myself to make another crumb 
For this pernicious feast of time and men— 
Well, I have seen too much of time and men 
To fear the ravening or the wrath of either. 

Yes, it is Paul you see—the Saul of Tarsus
That was a fiery Jew, and had men slain 
For saying Something was beyond the Law, 
And in ourselves. I fed my suffering soul 
Upon the Law till I went famishing, 
Not ...Read more of this...

by Dickinson, Emily
...ts a better Latitude --
We -- are the Birds -- that stay.

The Shrivers round Farmers' doors --
For whose reluctant Crumb --
We stipulate -- till pitying Snows
Persuade our Feathers Home....Read more of this...

by Bradstreet, Anne
...may your worthy self from whom it came? 
The principal might yield a greater sum, 
Yet handled ill, amounts but to this crumb; 
My stock's so small I know not how to pay, 
My bond remains in force unto this day; 
Yet for part payment take this simple mite, 
Where nothing's to be had, kings loose their right. 
Such is my debt I may not say forgive, 
But as I can, I'll pay it while I live; 
Such is my bond, none can discharge but I, 
Yet paying is not paid until I die....Read more of this...

by Cohen, Leonard
...r II. 
Nothing left to do 
when you know that you've been taken. 
Nothing left to do 
when you're begging for a crumb 
Nothing left to do 
when you've got to go on waiting 
waiting for the miracle to come. 
I dreamed about you, baby. 
It was just the other night. 
Most of you was naked 
Ah but some of you was light. 
The sands of time were falling 
from your fingers and your thumb, 
and you were waiting 
for the miracle, for the miracle to come 
Ah bab...Read more of this...

by Akhmatova, Anna
...his?

Let me drink of such a poison,
That I would be deaf and dumb,
And my unglorious glory
Wash away to the final crumb.



x x x

The blue lacquer dims of heaven,
And the song is better heard.
It's the little trumpet made of dirt,
There's no reason for her to complain.
Why does she forgive me,
And whoever told her of my sins?
Or is that this voice that now repeats
The last poems that you wrote for me?



x x x

Instead of wisdom -- ex...Read more of this...

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