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Famous Demolished Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Hope, Alec Derwent (A D)
...and desolate grey 
In the field uniform of modern wars, 
Darkens her hills, those endless, outstretched paws 
Of Sphinx demolished or stone lion worn away. 

They call her a young country, but they lie: 
She is the last of lands, the emptiest, 
A woman beyond her change of life, a breast 
Still tender but within the womb is dry. 

Without songs, architecture, history: 
The emotions and superstitions of younger lands, 
Her rivers of water drown among inland sands, 
The...Read more of this...



by Browning, Robert
...up to its full law 
Since there's no higher law that counterchecks. 
Put natural religion to the test 
You've just demolished the revealed with--quick, 
Down to the root of all that checks your will, 
All prohibition to lie, kill and thieve, 
Or even to be an atheistic priest! 
Suppose a pricking to incontinence-- 
Philosophers deduce you chastity 
Or shame, from just the fact that at the first 
Whoso embraced a woman in the field, 
Threw club down and forewent his brain...Read more of this...

by Tebb, Barry
...ng

The search is going on.





53



They have washed the town hall walls and made new

The stones; Back Lane was demolished a week after I found it;

The gas lamp anchored to the wall is gone, the cobbles

Sold off, the steel base of an office block already raised.

Upper Accommodation Road no longer forks in two, one way

Had Deidre’s mother’s shop, with odds and ends, combs and

Cotton reels and hairgrips on cards; the road and the

Shop have gone and Deidre has ...Read more of this...

by Tebb, Barry
...(To Paul Sykes, author of 'Sweet Agony')

He demolished five doors at a sitting

And topped it off with an outsize window

One Christmas afternoon, when drunk;

Sober he smiled like an angel, bowed,

Kissed ladies’ hands and courtesy

Was his middle name.

She tried to pass for thirty at fifty-six,

Called him "My Sweet piglet" and laid out

Dainty doylies for his teatime treats; always

She wore b...Read more of this...

by Marvell, Andrew
...e crown; 
Our merchantmen, lest they be burned, we drown. 
So when the fire did not enough devour, 
The houses were demolished near the Tower. 
Those ships that yearly from their teeming hole 
Unloaded here the birth of either Pole-- 
Furs from the north and silver from the west, 
Wines from the south, and spices from the east; 
From Gambo gold, and from the Ganges gems-- 
Take a short voyage underneath the Thames, 
Once a deep river, now with timber floored, 
And shr...Read more of this...



by Brecht, Bertolt
...
But what in this case is an unfruitful attitude
Is merely a feeble attitude. Give criticism arms
And states can be demolished by it.

Canalising a river
Grafting a fruit tree
Educating a person
Transforming a state
These are instances of fruitful criticism
And at the same time instances of art....Read more of this...

by Brecht, Bertolt
...es?
In the books you will find the names of kings.
Did the kings haul up the lumps of rock?
And Babylon, many times demolished
Who raised it up so many times? In what houses
of gold-glittering Lima did the builders live?
Where, the evening that the Wall of China was finnished
Did the masons go? Great Rome
Is full of triumphal arches. Who erected them? Over whom
Did the Caesars triumph? Had Byzantium, much praised in song
Only palaces for its inhabitans? Even in fabled...Read more of this...

by Wilmot, John
...bear arms.

I'll tell of whores attacked, their lords at home,
Bawds' quarters beaten up, and fortress won,
Windows demolished, watches overcome,
And handsome ills by my contrivance done.

Nor shall our love-fits, Cloris, be forgot,
When each the well-looked link-boy strove t'enjoy,
And the best kiss was the deciding lot:
Whether the boy fucked you, or I the boy.

With tales like these I will such heat inspire,
As to important mischief shall incline.
I'll make...Read more of this...

by Clare, John
...m the view
And danced it o'er the waves as pleasures boat
Light hearted as a thought in May -
Trays—uptorn bushes—fence demolished rails
Loaded with weeds in sluggish motions stray
Like water monsters lost each winds and trails
Till near the arches—then as in affright
It plunges—reels—and shudders out of sight

Waves trough—rebound—and fury boil again
Like plunging monsters rising underneath
Who at the top curl up a shaggy main
A moment catching at a surer breath
Then plungin...Read more of this...

by Southey, Robert
...en solitary pace
The scatter'd Abbeys hallowed rounds I trace
And listen to the echoings of my feet.
Or on the half demolished tomb,
Whole warning texts anticipate my doom:
Mark the clear orb of night
Cast thro' the storying glass a faintly-varied light.

Nor will I not in some more gloomy hour
Invoke with fearless awe thine holier power,
Wandering beneath the sainted pile
When the blast moans along the darksome aisle,
And clattering patters all around
The midnight sh...Read more of this...

by Browning, Robert
...s and clay,
6 You thumbed, thrust, patted and polished,
7 Then laughed 'They will see some day
8 Smith made, and Gibson demolished.'

9 My business was song, song, song;
10 I chirped, cheeped, trilled and twittered,
11 'Kate Brown's on the boards ere long,
12 And Grisi's existence embittered!'

13 I earned no more by a warble
14 Than you by a sketch in plaster;
15 You wanted a piece of marble,
16 I needed a music-master.

17 We studied hard in our styles,
18 Chipped e...Read more of this...

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