Famous Damage Poems by Famous Poets

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

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There was an old person of Slough

by Edward Lear
There was an old person of Slough,Who danced at the end of a bough;But they said, "If you sneeze, you might damage the trees,You imprudent old person of Slough." ...Read more of this...

On Looking Into The Eyes Of A Demon Lover

by Sylvia Plath
 Here are two pupils
whose moons of black
transform to cripples
all who look:

each lovely lady
who peers inside
take on the body
of a toad.

Within these mirrors
the world inverts:
the fond admirer's
burning darts

turn back to injure
the thrusting hand
and inflame to danger
the scarlet wound.

I sought my image
in the scorching glass,
for what fire could damage
a witch's face?

So I stared in that furnace
where beauties char
but found radiant Venus
reflected...Read more of this...

Oh! what damage may the vessels filled to flowing do,

by Omar Khayyam
Oh! what damage may the vessels filled to flowing do,
and how incomplete are they who possess riches! The
eyes of beautiful Turkish women are a feast to the heart,
yet they are simple learners from the slaves who own
them....Read more of this...

James Simmons R.i.p

by Barry Tebb
 You were the one I wanted most to know

So like yet unlike, like fire and snow,

The casual voice, the sharp invective,

The barbed wit, the lapsed Irish Protestant

Who never gave a ****, crossed the palms

Of the great and good with coins hot with contempt

For the fakers and the tricksters whose poetry

Deftly bent to fashion’s latest slant.



You wrote from the heart,...Read more of this...

In re a Gentleman One

by Andrew Barton Paterson
 We see it each day in the paper, 
And know that there's mischief in store; 
That some unprofessional caper 
Has landed a shark on the shore. 
We know there'll be plenty of trouble 
Before they get through with the fun, 
Because he's been coming the double 
On clients, has "Gentleman, One". 
Alas for the gallant attorney, 
Intent upon cutting...Read more of this...

Fit the First: ( Hunting of the Snark )

by Lewis Carroll
 The Landing 

"Just the place for a Snark!" the Bellman cried,
As he landed his crew with care;
Supporting each man on the top of the tide
By a finger entwined in his hair. 
"Just the place for a Snark! I have said it twice:
That alone should encourage the crew.
Just the place for a Snark! I have said it thrice:
What I tell...Read more of this...

They Should Have Asked My Husband

by Pam Ayres
You know this world is complicated, imperfect and oppressed
And it’s not hard to feel timid, apprehensive and depressed.
It seems that all around us tides of questions ebb and flow
And people want solutions but they don’t know where to go.

Opinions abound but who is wrong and who is right.
People need a prophet, a diffuser of the light.
Someone they can turn to...Read more of this...

Exiles

by Constantine P Cavafy
 It goes on being Alexandria still. Just walk a bit
along the straight road that ends at the Hippodrome
and you'll see palaces and monuments that will amaze you.
Whatever war-damage it's suffered,
however much smaller it's become,
it's still a wonderful city.
And then, what with excursions and books
and various kinds of study, time does go by.
In the evenings we meet on the sea...Read more of this...

An Arundel Tomb

by Philip Larkin
 Side by side, their faces blurred,
The earl and countess lie in stone,
Their proper habits vaguely shown
As jointed armour, stiffened pleat,
And that faint hint of the absurd -
The little dogs under their feet.

Such plainness of the pre-baroque
Hardly involves the eye, until
It meets his left-hand gauntlet, still
Clasped empty in the other; and
One sees, with a sharp tender shock,
His hand withdrawn, holding...Read more of this...

Orion

by Adrienne Rich
 Far back when I went zig-zagging
through tamarack pastures
you were my genius, you
my cast-iron Viking, my helmed
lion-heart king in prison.
Years later now you're young

my fierce half-brother, staring
down from that simplified west
your breast open, your belt dragged down
by an oldfashioned thing, a sword
the last bravado you won't give over
though it weighs you down as you stride

and the stars in it are...Read more of this...

Joe Ramsbottom

by Marriott Edgar
 Joe Ramshottom rented a bit of a farm 
From its owner, Squire Goslett his name;
And the Gosletts came over with William the First,
And found Ramsbottoms here when they came.

One day Joe were ploughing his three-acre field
When the front of his plough hit a rock,
And on closer inspection o' t' damage he found
As the coulter had snapped wi' the shock.

He'd...Read more of this...

The Cruel Moon

by Robert Graves
 The cruel Moon hangs out of reach 
Up above the shadowy beech. 
Her face is stupid, but her eye 
Is small and sharp and very sly. 
Nurse says the Moon can drive you mad? 
No, that’s a silly story, lad! 
Though she be angry, though she would 
Destroy all England if she could, 
Yet think, what damage can she...Read more of this...

French Quarter Singer

by Jennifer Reeser
 Strumming your polished guitar with long, nail-lightened fingers,
where are you now, leaning forward a peasant-dressed arm –
lark on the near side of midnight, my crescent curb lady,
ear to your sound, dangling each with a silver folk charm?
Sweet was your voice for an evening, amid the brash jazzy –
seamless soprano, your scales a tough, platinum thread.
Angel on brick, tipping jar...Read more of this...

Travels With John Hunter

by Les Murray
 We who travel between worlds 
lose our muscle and bone. 
I was wheeling a barrow of earth 
when agony bayoneted me. 

I could not sit, or lie down, 
or stand, in Casualty. 
Stomach-calming clay caked my lips, 
I turned yellow as the moon 

and slid inside a CAT-scan wheel 
in a hospital where I met no one 
so much...Read more of this...

A Thought

by Ehsan Sehgal
I thought I would hug you
I would love you
I would adore you
But it was my thought
Only a thought
That often remains a thought
I take very care of it
The damage will not happen
Nor it will wipe out
From my mind
That thought is energy of my body
My heart and soul
And the light of my life
You know why
The reason is that
In my thought
You exist; you...Read more of this...

A Thought

by Ehsan Sehgal
I thought I would hug you
I would love you
I would adore you
But it was my thought
Only a thought
That often remains a thought
I take very care of it
The damage will not happen
Nor it will wipe out
From my mind
That thought is energy of my body
My heart and soul
And the light of my life
You know why
The reason is that
In my thought
You exist; you...Read more of this...

eight roundels

by Rg Gregory
 (roundel: variation of the rondeau
consisting of three stanzas of three
lines each, linked together with but
two rhymes and a refrain at the end
of the first and third group)



1.
the blind rose

today's fullness is tomorrow's gone
(the next day after no one knows)
last year's dream now feeds upon
 what blindly grows

imagine if you like a rose
on which no likely sun has shone
a darkness...Read more of this...

Diving into the Wreck

by Adrienne Rich
 First having read the book of myths,
and loaded the camera,
and checked the edge of the knife-blade,
I put on
the body-armor of black rubber
the absurd flippers
the grave and awkward mask.
I am having to do this
not like Cousteau with his
assiduous team
aboard the sun-flooded schooner
but here alone.

There is a ladder.
The ladder is always there
hanging innocently
close to the side of the schooner.
We know what...Read more of this...

Be a part

by Ehsan Sehgal
"Never be enemy, even you have reasons for that, never hurt and damage to anyone, you will look happy, safe, satisfy within you. You are the society and society is you, be like a perfume, be like a blossom, be a part of harmony, love, friendship, justice, integration and tolerance. Just fight against your own criminal and negative thoughts, you...Read more of this...

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