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Famous Disorder Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Teasdale, Sara
...red in your eyes,
Drawn somehow toward you. See the open park
Lying below us with a million lamps
Scattered in wise disorder like the stars.
We look down on them as God must look down
On constellations floating under Him
Tangled in clouds. . . . Come, then, and let us walk
Since we have reached the park. It is our garden,
All black and blossomless this winter night,
But we bring April with us, you and I;
We set the whole world on the trail of sprin...Read more of this...



by Kizer, Carolyn
...e joked on your bed as you turned into
a witty wraith.

When you died I cleaned out your bureau drawers:
your usual disorder; an assortment of gorgeous wigs
and prosthetic breasts
tossed in garbage bags, to spare your gentle spouse.
Then the bequests

you had made to every friend you had!
For each of us a necklace or a ring.
A snapshot for me:
We two, barefoot in chiffon, laughing amid blossoms
your last wedding day....Read more of this...

by de la Mare, Walter
...she neither prais'd nor chid: 
So ev'ry servant took his course; 
And bad at first, they all grew worse. 
Slothful disorder fill'd his stable; 
And sluttish plenty deck'd her table. 
Their beer was strong; their wine was port; 
Their meal was large; their grace was short. 
They gave the poor the remnant-meat 
Just when it grew not fit to eat. 
They paid the church and parish rate; 
And took, but read not the receipt; 
For which they claim'd their Sunday's due...Read more of this...

by Pope, Alexander
...eat Wits sometimes may gloriously offend,
And rise to Faults true Criticks dare not mend;
From vulgar Bounds with brave Disorder part,
And snatch a Grace beyond the Reach of Art,
Which, without passing thro' the Judgment, gains
The Heart, and all its End at once attains.
In Prospects, thus, some Objects please our Eyes,
Which out of Nature's common Order rise,
The shapeless Rock, or hanging Precipice.
But tho' the Ancients thus their Rules invade,
(As Kings dispense w...Read more of this...

by Pushkin, Alexander
...t your feet.
It ill becomes me: that I'm older,
Time I should be more sensible...
And yet the frivolous disorder
Fills every jitter of my soul.
Say you'll be gone - I'm jaded, yawning;
You're back - I'm sad, I suffer through -
Yet how can I be clear, from owning,
My angel, all my care for you!
When off the stairs your weightless footfall,
Your dress's rustle, reaches me,
Your voice, as maidenly, as youthful -
I lose my senses instantly.
You smile at me...Read more of this...



by Cohen, Leonard
...coming from the feel
 that it ain't exactly real,
 or it's real, but it ain't exactly there.
 From the wars against disorder,
 from the sirens night and day,
 from the fires of the homeless,
 from the ashes of the gay:
 Democracy is coming to the U.S.A. 
 It's coming through a crack in the wall,
 on a visionary flood of alcohol;
 from the staggering account
 of the Sermon on the Mount
 which I don't pretend to understand at all.
 It's coming from the silen...Read more of this...

by Herbert, George
...otions could not pierce 
Thy silent ears; 
Then was my heart broken, as was my verse: 
My breast was full of fears 
And disorder: 

My bent thoughts, like a brittle bow, 
Did fly asunder: 
Each took his way; some would to pleasures go, 
Some to the wars and thunder 
Of alarms. 

As good go any where, they say, 
As to benumb 
Both knees and heart, in crying night and day, 
Come, come, my God, O come, 
But no hearing. 

O that thou shouldst give dust a tongue 
To cry to...Read more of this...

by Gregory, Rg
...ternity's recorder -
with an intricate sense of pattern power can't delete
the round honours those cracks in the divine disorder
 the moment makes complete 


7. 
the actor

acting is not the true self's dissipation
but not its preening either - outside the role
it honours it best fights shy of reputation -
 being what prometheus stole
it is a distant spark of that first live coal
a conscious glimpse of human desperation
rekindled as a longing to console

the waning spiri...Read more of this...

by Estep, Maggie
...ss, upon hearing me
read a rendition of this poem, stated that it ought to be the theme song
for borderline personality disorder. He's right.


I'm an Emotional Idiot
so get away from me.
I mean, 
COME HERE. 

Wait, no,
that's too close, 
give me some space
it's a big country, 
there's plenty of room, 
don't sit so close to me.

Hey, where are you? 
I haven't seen you in days.
Whadya, having an affair?
Who is she? 
Come on, 
aren't I enough for you?

G...Read more of this...

by Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth
...ent where words of comfort availed not.
Thus to the Gaspereau's mouth moved on that mournful procession.

There disorder prevailed, and the tumult and stir of embarking.
Busily plied the freighted boats; and in the confusion
Wives were torn from their husbands, and mothers, too late, saw their children
Left on the land, extending their arms, with wildest entreaties.
So unto separate ships were Basil and Gabriel carried,
While in despair on the shore Evangeline...Read more of this...

by Sexton, Anne
...Because there was no other place
to flee to,
I came back to the scene of the disordered senses,
came back last night at midnight,
arriving in the thick June night
without luggage or defenses,
giving up my car keys and my cash,
keeping only a pack of Salem cigarettes
the way a child holds on to a toy.
I signed myself in where a stranger
puts the inked-in X's—
for this is a mental hospital,
not a child's game.

Today an intern ...Read more of this...

by Ammons, A R
...bility is
high along the peripheries of
spider
   webs:
   you can go all
  around the fringing attachments

  and find
disorder ripe,
entropy rich, high levels of random,
 numerous occasions of accident:

2) the possible settings
of a web are infinite:

 how does
the spider keep
  identity
 while creating the web
 in a particular place?

 how and to what extent
  and by what modes of chemistry
  and control?

it is
wonderful
 how things work: I will tell you
   about it
   b...Read more of this...

by Tsvetaeva, Marina
...s legs on a wooden floor, 
Children - is sun in the gloomy motives, 
Hypotheses' of happy sciences world. 

Eternal disorder in the ring's gold, 
Tender word's whispers in semi-sleep, 
On the wall in a cozy child's room, the dreaming 
Peaceful pictures of birds and sheep. 

Children - is evening, evening on the couch, 
In the fog, through the window, glimmer street lamps, 
A measured voice of the tale of King Saltan, 
Mermaid-sisters of seas from tales. 

Children...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...r 
Stood ruled, stood vast infinitude confined; 
Till at his second bidding Darkness fled, 
Light shone, and order from disorder sprung: 
Swift to their several quarters hasted then 
The cumbrous elements, earth, flood, air, fire; 
And this ethereal quintessence of Heaven 
Flew upward, spirited with various forms, 
That rolled orbicular, and turned to stars 
Numberless, as thou seest, and how they move; 
Each had his place appointed, each his course; 
The rest in circuit wall...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...br> 
And now, their mightiest quelled, the battle swerved, 
With many an inroad gored; deformed rout 
Entered, and foul disorder; all the ground 
With shivered armour strown, and on a heap 
Chariot and charioteer lay overturned, 
And fiery-foaming steeds; what stood, recoiled 
O'er-wearied, through the faint Satanick host 
Defensive scarce, or with pale fear surprised, 
Then first with fear surprised, and sense of pain, 
Fled ignominious, to such evil brought 
By sin of disob...Read more of this...

by Fu, Du
...and li to Wife children surprised I be present Shock calm more wipe tears Life disorder meet float swing Return alive chance succeed Neighbour satisfied top of wall Sigh also sob Night late more grasp candle Opposite like dream  Red clouds tower in the west, The sun is sinking on the plain. A sparrow chirps on the wicker gate, I return from a thousand 

The Dance
by Schiller, Friedrich von
...sion blended;
All, in sweet chaos whirled again, that gentle world is ended!
No!--disentangled glides the knot, the gay disorder ranges--
The only system ruling here, a grace that ever changes.
For ay destroyed--for ay renewed, whirls on that fair creation;
And yet one peaceful law can still pervade in each mutation.
And what can to the reeling maze breathe harmony and vigor,
And give an order and repose to every gliding figure?
That each a ruler to himself doth but h...Read more of this...

by Pope, Alexander
...is refulgent Queen, with Pow'rs combin'd,
Of broken Troops an easie Conquest find.
Clubs, Diamonds, Hearts, in wild Disorder seen,
With Throngs promiscuous strow the level Green. 
Thus when dispers'd a routed Army runs,
Of Asia's Troops, and Africk's Sable Sons,
With like Confusion different Nations fly,
In various habits and of various Dye,
The pierc'd Battalions dis-united fall,
In Heaps on Heaps; one Fate o'erwhelms them all.

The Knave of Diamonds now tries hi...Read more of this...

by Brecht, Bertolt
...asses for wisdom.
I can do none of this:
Indeed I live in the dark ages!

2.

I came to the cities in a time of disorder
When hunger ruled.
I came among men in a time of uprising
And I revolted with them.
So the time passed away
Which on earth was given me.

I ate my food between massacres.
The shadow of murder lay upon my sleep.
And when I loved, I loved with indifference.
I looked upon nature with impatience.
So the time passed away
Which...Read more of this...

by Brecht, Bertolt
...To the cities I came in a time of disorder
That was ruled by hunger.
I sheltered with the people in a time of uproar
And then I joined in their rebellion.
That's how I passed my time that was given to me on this Earth.

I ate my dinners between the battles,
I lay down to sleep among the murderers,
I didn't care for much for love
And for nature's beauties I had little patience.Read more of this...

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