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Famous Disordered Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Robinson, Edwin Arlington
...s, and hitherto had held
Irrelevant, or not prime to the purpose.
And there were some, of course, and there be now,
Disordered and reduced amazedly
To resignation by the mystic seal
Of young finality the gods had laid
On everything that made him a young demon;
And one or two shot looks at him already
As he had been their executioner;
And once or twice he was, not knowing it, -- 
Or knowing, being sorry for poor clay
And saying nothing .... Yet, for all his...Read more of this...



by Berryman, John
...Come touch me baby in his waking dream
disordered Henry murmured. I'll read you Hegel
and that will hurt your mind
I can't remember when you were unkind
but I will clear that block, I'll set you on fire
along with our babies

to save them up the high & ruined stairs,
my growing daughters. I am insane, I think,
they say & act so.
But then they let me out, and I must save them,
High fir...Read more of this...

by Hugo, Victor
...plant a monstrous kiss 
 Upon her rosy lips,—while Zeno bent 
 Before the massive chair, and with intent 
 Her robe disordered as he raised her feet; 
 Her dainty ankles thus their gaze to meet. 
 And while the mystic sleep was all profound, 
 The pit gaped wide like grave in burial ground. 
 
 XVI. 
 
 WHAT THEY ATTEMPT BECOMES DIFFICULT. 
 
 Bearing the sleeping Mahaud they moved now 
 Silent and bent with heavy step and slow. 
 Zeno faced darkness—Joss turne...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 Marvell, Andrew
...led them on. 
Bold Duncombe next, of the projectors chief, 
And old Fitz-harding of the Eaters Beef. 
Late and disordered out the drinkers drew, 
Scarce them their leaders, they their leaders knew. 
Before them entered, equal in command, 
Apsley and Brod'rick, marching hand in hand. 
Last then but one, Powell that could not ride, 
Led the French standard, weltering in his stride. 
He, to excuse his slowness, truth confessed 
That 'twas so long before he c...Read more of this...



by Meredith, George
...unding of the Matin-bell,
And lo! her place was vacant, and the hum
Of loneliness was round me. Then I rose,
And my disordered brain did guide my foot
To that old wood where our first love-salute
Was interchanged: the source of many throes!
There did I see her, not alone. I moved
Toward her, and made proffer of my arm.
She took it simply, with no rude alarm;
And that disturbing shadow passed reproved.
I felt the pained speech coming, and declared
My firm belie...Read more of this...

by Meredith, George
...unding of the Matin-bell,
And lo! her place was vacant, and the hum
Of loneliness was round me. Then I rose,
And my disordered brain did guide my foot
To that old wood where our first love-salute
Was interchanged: the source of many throes!
There did I see her, not alone. I moved
Toward her, and made proffer of my arm.
She took it simply, with no rude alarm;
And that disturbing shadow passed reproved.
I felt the pained speech coming, and declared
My firm belie...Read more of this...

by Khayyam, Omar
...n! this veil of flesh is naught; this nine-fold
vault of brilliant heaven is naught. Then give thyself
to joy in this disordered place [the world], for life is
but an instant wed to it, and that is equally naught.
298...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
...ight they needs must last 
Endless, and no solution will be found: 
War wearied hath performed what war can do, 
And to disordered rage let loose the reins 
With mountains, as with weapons, armed; which makes 
Wild work in Heaven, and dangerous to the main. 
Two days are therefore past, the third is thine; 
For thee I have ordained it; and thus far 
Have suffered, that the glory may be thine 
Of ending this great war, since none but Thou 
Can end it. Into thee such vi...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
... 
He added not, and from her turned; but Eve, 
Not so repulsed, with tears that ceased not flowing 
And tresses all disordered, at his feet 
Fell humble; and, embracing them, besought 
His peace, and thus proceeded in her plaint. 
Forsake me not thus, Adam! witness Heaven 
What love sincere, and reverence in my heart 
I bear thee, and unweeting have offended, 
Unhappily deceived! Thy suppliant 
I beg, and clasp thy knees; bereave me not, 
Whereon I live, thy gentle lo...Read more of this...

by Fu, Du
...> My wife and children are shocked to see me, Then calm themselves and wipe their tears. I floated through this disordered life, By chance I have managed to return alive. The neighbours all lean over the wall, And they as well are sighing and sobbing. Late at night we bring out candles, And face each other as in a dream....Read more of this...

by McGonagall, William Topaz
...the damp had silenced their fire which made the men feel melancholy,
But the Russians were hurled down the ravine in a disordered mass
At the charge of the bayonet-- an inspiring sight!-- nothing could it surpass. 

General Cathcart thought he could strike a blow at an unbroken Russian line;
Oh! the scene was really very sublime,
Because hand to hand they fought with a free will,
And with one magnificent charge they hurled the Russians down the hill. 

But while Gene...Read more of this...

by Aeschylus,
...hid from sight,
Covered with wreckage and the death of men;
The reefs and headlands were with corpses filled,
And in disordered flight each ship was rowed,
As many as were of the Persian host.
But they, like tunnies or some shoal of fish,
With broken oars and fragments of the wrecks
Struck us and clove us; and at once a cry
Of lamentation filled the briny sea,
Till the black darkness' eye did rescue us.
The number of our griefs, not though ten days
I talked togethe...Read more of this...

by Fitzgerald, Edward
...;
Whose momentary tenure not to break,
Walking as one who knows he soon may wake,
So fairly carry the full cup, so well
Disordered insolence and passion quell,
That there be nothing after to upbraid
Dreamer or doer in the part he played;
Whether tomorrow's dawn shall break the spell,
Or the last trumpet of the Eternal Day,
When dreaming, with the night, shall pass away....Read more of this...

by Scott, Sir Walter
...in circle deep,
     And slowly scale the pathway steep,
     While on the rear in thunder pour
     The rabble with disordered roar
     With grief the noble Douglas saw
     The Commons rise against the law,
     And to the leading soldier said:
     'Sir John of Hyndford, 'twas my blade
     That knighthood on thy shoulder laid;
     For that good deed permit me then
     A word with these misguided men.—
     XXVIII,

     'Hear, gentle friends, ere yet for m...Read more of this...

by McGonagall, William Topaz
...to conquer or die whatever would befall,
But in the face of overwhelming odds, and covered to the last,
The broken and disordered Sepoys were flying fast 

Before the victorious Afghan soldiers, whose cheers on the air arose,
But the gallant band poured in deadly volleys on their foes;
And, outnumbered and surrounded, they fell in sections like ripe grain;
Still the heroes held their ground, charging with might and main. 

The British force, alas! were shut up like sheep...Read more of this...

by Lowell, Amy
...endingly on their flat surfaces, and 
they seemed
sprinkled with silver. The little boy sighed as he looked 
at his disordered
toys on the floor. They were motionless, and their colours 
were dull.
The dark wainscoting absorbed the sun. There was none 
left for toys.

The square was quite empty now. Only the wind ran round 
and round it,
spinning. Away over in the corner where a street opened 
into the square,
the wind had stopped. Stopped runn...Read more of this...

by Tebb, Barry
...kettle shrills: you turn down the gas

And scurry back to your poem as you would to a sick child

And ease the pain of disordered lines.

The face of your mother smiles like a Madonna bereft

And the faces of our children are always somewhere

As you focus your midnight eyes soft with tears.



You create to survive, a Balzac writing against the clock

A Baudelaire writing against the bailiff’s knock

A Val?ry in the throes of ‘Narcisse Parle’.



When a far cloc...Read more of this...

by Brautigan, Richard
...hen the jar was full he turned the

water off with a sudden but delicate motion like a famous brain surgeon

removing a disordered portion of the imagination. Then he screwed the

lid tightly onto the top of the jar and gave it a good shake.

The first part of the ceremony was over.

Like the inspired priest of an exotic cult, he had performed the first part

of the ceremony well.

His mother came around the side of the house and said in a voice filled

with s...Read more of this...

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