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Famous Dining Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Thomas, Dylan
...And we ran down the garden, with the snowballs in our arms, toward the house; and smoke, indeed, was pouring
out of the dining-room, and the gong was bombilating, and Mrs. Prothero was announcing ruin like a town crier
in Pompeii. This was better than all the cats in Wales standing on the wall in a row. We bounded into the
house, laden with snowballs, and stopped at the open door of the smoke-filled room.

Something was burning all right; perhaps it was Mr.Read more of this...



by Nash, Ogden
...ably pleasant;
A yellow, a mellow Martini;
I wish I had one at present.
There is something about a Martini,
Ere the dining and dancing begin,
And to tell you the truth,
It is not the vermouth--
I think that perhaps it's the gin....Read more of this...

by Browning, Robert
...reon's Greek. 
But you--the highest honour in your life, 
The thing you'll crown yourself with, all your days, 
Is--dining here and drinking this last glass 
I pour you out in sign of amity 
Before we part for ever. Of your power 
And social influence, worldly worth in short, 
Judge what's my estimation by the fact, 
I do not condescend to enjoin, beseech, 
Hint secrecy on one of all these words! 
You're shrewd and know that should you publish one 
The world would bra...Read more of this...

by Collins, Billy
...t.

You can only wonder what it would be like
to be wearing such a chandelier on your head
as if you were a walking dining room or concert hall.

But once you see this hat there is no need to read
any biography of Goya or to memorize his dates.

To understand Goya you only have to imagine him
lighting the candles one by one, then placing
the hat on his head, ready for a night of work.

Imagine him surprising his wife with his new invention,
the laughing like a...Read more of this...

by Brooke, Rupert
...When you were there, and you, and you, 
Happiness crowned the night; I too, 
Laughing and looking, one of all, 
I watched the quivering lamplight fall 
On plate and flowers and pouring tea
And cup and cloth; and they and we 
Flung all the dancing moments by 
With jest and glitter. Lip and eye 
Flashed on the glory, shone and cried, 
Improvident, unmemo...Read more of this...



by Levine, Philip
...hine as a black mongrel 
big as a shepherd races 
from one to the other. She 
hides behind the heavy drapes 
in her dining room and listens, 
but they're too far. Who are 
they? They move about her yard 
as though it were theirs. Are they 
the sons of her sons? They've 
taken off their shirts, and she 
sees they're not boys at all -- 
a dark smudge of hair rises 
along the belly of one --, and now 
they have the dog down thrashing 
on his back, snarling and flashi...Read more of this...

by Frost, Robert
...down to sit like people
In other chairs, and something, come to look,
For every room a house has—parlor, bed-room,
And dining-room—thrown pell-mell in the kitchen.
And now and then a smudged, infernal face
Looked in a door behind her and addressed
Her back. She always answered without turning.

“Where will I put this walnut bureau, lady?”
“Put it on top of something that’s on top
Of something else,” she laughed. “Oh, put it where
You can to-night, and go....Read more of this...

by Carroll, Lewis
...Little Birds are dining
Warily and well,
Hid in mossy cell:
Hid, I say, by waiters
Gorgeous in their gaiters -
I've a Tale to tell.

Little Birds are feeding
Justices with jam,
Rich in frizzled ham:
Rich, I say, in oysters
Haunting shady cloisters -
That is what I am.

Little Birds are teaching
Tigresses to smile,
Innocent of guile:
Smile, I say, not smirkle -
Mouth ...Read more of this...

by Tate, James
...ing sundry golf metaphors 
henceforth, because a dog, best friend 
and chief advisor to the General, should. 
While dining with the General I said,
"Let's play the back nine in a sacred rage. 
Let's tee-off over the foredoomed community 
and putt ourselves thunderously, touching bottom." 
He drank it all in, rugged and dusky.
I think I know what he was thinking. 
He held his automatic to my little head 
and recited a poem about my many weaknesses, 
for whi...Read more of this...

by Taylor, Edward
...ing sundry golf metaphors 
henceforth, because a dog, best friend 
and chief advisor to the General, should. 
While dining with the General I said,
"Let's play the back nine in a sacred rage. 
Let's tee-off over the foredoomed community 
and putt ourselves thunderously, touching bottom." 
He drank it all in, rugged and dusky.
I think I know what he was thinking. 
He held his automatic to my little head 
and recited a poem about my many weaknesses, 
for whi...Read more of this...

by Clare, John
...d will eager stoop
To pick the sprouting thistle up
Oft answering on his weary way
Some distant neighbours sobbing bray
Dining the ears of driving boy
As if he felt a fit of joy
Wi in its pinfold circle left
Of all its company bereft
Starvd stock no longer noising round
Lone in the nooks of foddering ground
Each skeleton of lingering stack
By winters tempests beaten black
Nodds upon props or bolt upright
Stands swarthy in the summer light
And oer the green grass seems to lowe...Read more of this...

by Eliot, T S (Thomas Stearns)
...his oath
Was it Mungojerrie--or Rumpelteazer? or could you have sworn 
 that it mightn't be both?

And when you heard a dining-room smash
Or up from the pantry there came a loud crash
Or down from the library came a loud ping
From a vase which was commonly said to be Ming--
Then the family would say: "Now which was which cat?
It was Mungojerrie! AND Rumpelteazer!"-- And there's nothing 
 at all to be done about that!...Read more of this...

by Alger, Julie Hill
...In the red-roofed stucco house
of my childhood, the dining room 
was screened off by folding doors 
with small glass panes. Our neighbors
the Bertins, who barely escaped Hitler, 
often joined us at table. One night 
their daughter said, In Vienna 
our dining room had doors like these.
For a moment, we all sat quite still. 

And when Nath Nong, who has to live
in Massachusetts now, saw a pictur...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...ess to protest—I know all, and expose it. 

Behold, through you as bad as the rest, 
Through the laughter, dancing, dining, supping, of people,
Inside of dresses and ornaments, inside of those wash’d and trimm’d faces, 
Behold a secret silent loathing and despair. 

No husband, no wife, no friend, trusted to hear the confession; 
Another self, a duplicate of every one, skulking and hiding it goes, 
Formless and wordless through the streets of the cities, polite and bl...Read more of this...

by Lorde, Audre
...rob easy subtle spin
of the electric slide boogie
step-stepping
around the corner of the parlor
past the sweet clink
of dining room glasses
and the edged aroma of slightly overdone
dutch-apple pie
all laced together
with the rich dark laughter
of Gloria
and her higher-octave sisters

How hard it is to sleep 
in the middle of life....Read more of this...

by Paterson, Andrew Barton
...young engineer! 
Well, just you tell his Excellence, and put the thing polite, 
I'm sorry, but I can't come down -- I'm dining out tonight!"...Read more of this...

by Lowell, Amy
...-- and all to measurement.
There is a tin coffin,
A deal coffin,
A lead coffin,
And Captain Bennett's best mahogany dining-table
Has been sawed up for the grand outer coffin.
Tap! Tap! Tap!
Sunshine outside in the square,
But inside, only hollow coffins and the tapping upon them.
The men whistle,
And the coffins grow under their hammers
In the darkness of the shop.
Tap! Tap! Tap!
Tramp of men.
Steady tramp of men.
Slit-eyed Chinese with long pigtails
B...Read more of this...

by Aiken, Conrad
...ot talking much,
But meaning as much in silence as in words,
There in that empty room with palms about us,
That private dining-room . . . And as we sat there
I felt my future changing, day by day,
With unknown streets opening left and right,
New streets with farther lights, new taller houses,
Doors swinging into hallways filled with light,
Half-opened luminous windows, with white curtains
Streaming out in the night, and sudden music,—
And thinking of this, and thr...Read more of this...

by Bonnefoy, Yves
...>
To this figure, seen from afar, moving on its way,
I dedicate the words that cannot say what they would.

(In the dining room
Of the Sunday afternoon, in summer,
The shutters closed against the heat,
The table cleared, he suggested
Cards, since these are the only pictures
In the childhood house to satisfy
The needs of dream, but he leaves,
And when he does, the child clumsily takes the cards,
He puts the winning ones in the other’s hand,
Then waits feverishly for the ga...Read more of this...

by St Vincent Millay, Edna
...no spark of light. 
There I'll come when I'm a man 
With a camel caravan; 
Light a fire in the gloom 
Of some dusty dining-room; 
See the pictures on the walls, 
Heroes fights and festivals; 
And in a corner find the toys 
Of the old Egyptian boys....Read more of this...

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