Famous Dont Poems by Famous Poets

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

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I Dont Feel At Home Where I Am

by Regina Derieva
 I don't feel at home where I am,
or where I spend time; only where,
beyond counting, there's freedom and calm,
that is, waves, that is, space where, when there,
you consist of pure freedom, which, seen,
turns that Gorgon, the crowd, to stone,
to pebbles and sand . . . where life's mean-
ing lies buried, that never let one
come within cannon shot yet.
From cloud-covered...Read more of this...

I Dont Like Flowers..

by Anna Akhmatova
I don't like flowers - they do remind me often
Of funerals, of weddings and of balls;
Their presence on tables for a dinner calls.

But sub-eternal roses' ever simple charm
Which was my solace when I was a child,
Has stayed - my heritage - a set of years behind,
Like Mozart's ever-living music's hum.
...Read more of this...

Reality Jew

by D A Levy
When i was a little kid
my parents never told me
i didn't find out until
i got out of high school
then when people asked me,
I ASKED THEM,
"Nationality or Religion?"

When i was a little kid
my parents brought me up as a christian
that when i discovered,
i was different
i wasnt THAT sick!
so at sixteen
still being a virgin forest
i decided
i must be a buddhist monk,
Then when...Read more of this...

Dont Cheer

by Robert William Service
 Don't cheer, damn you! Don't cheer!
Silence! Your bitterest tear
Is fulsomely sweet to-day. . . .
Down on your knees and pray.

See, they sing as they go,
Marching row upon row.
Who will be spared to return,
Sombre and starkly stern?
Chaps whom we knew - s0 strange,
Distant and dark with change;
Silent as those they slew,
Something in them dead too.
Who will return this way,
To sing...Read more of this...

Dont Go Far Off Not Even For A Day

by Pablo Neruda
 Don't go far off, not even for a day, because -- 
because -- I don't know how to say it: a day is long 
and I will be waiting for you, as in an empty station 
when the trains are parked off somewhere else, asleep. 

Don't leave me, even for an hour, because 
then the little drops of anguish...Read more of this...

Le Gout du Néant

by Charles Baudelaire
 Morne esprit, autrefois amoureux de la lutte,
L'Espoir, dont l'éperon attisait ton ardeur,
Ne veut plus t'enfourcher! Couche-toi sans pudeur,
Vieux cheval dont le pied à chaque obstacle bute. 
Résigne-toi, mon coeur; dors ton sommeil de brute.

Esprit vaincu, fourbu! Pour toi, vieux maraudeur,
L'amour n'a plus de gout, non plus que la dispute;
Adieu donc, chants du cuivre et soupirs de la flûte!
Plaisirs, ne...Read more of this...

Dont worry spiders

by Kobayashi Issa
 Don't worry, spiders,
I keep house
casually....Read more of this...

Poem (Dont look...)

by Harold Pinter
 Don't look.
The world's about to break.

Don't look.
The world's about to chuck out all its light
and stuff us in the chokepit of its dark,
That black and fat suffocated place
Where we will kill or die or dance or weep
Or scream of whine or squeak like mice
To renegotiate our starting price....Read more of this...

Dream Song 265: I dont know one damned butterfly from another

by John Berryman
 I don't know one damned butterfly from another
my ignorance of the stars is formidable,
also of dogs & ferns
except that around my house one destroys the other
When I reckon up my real ignorance, pal,
I mumble "many returns"-”

next time it will be nature & Thoreau
this time is Baudelaire if one had the skill
and even those problems O
At the mysterious urging of...Read more of this...

Dream Song 67: I dont operate often. When I do

by John Berryman
 I don't operate often. When I do,
persons take note.
Nurses look amazed. They pale.
The patient is brought back to life, or so.
The reason I don't do this more (I quote)
is: I have a living to fail-”

because of my wife & son-”to keep from earning.
-”Mr Bones, I sees that.
They for these operations thanks you, what?
not pays you. -”Right.
You have seldom been...Read more of this...

Dont know about the people

by Kobayashi Issa
 Approaching my village:

 Don't know about the people,
 but all the scarecrows
 are crooked....Read more of this...

Dont put up my Thread and Needle --

by Emily Dickinson
 Don't put up my Thread and Needle --
I'll begin to Sew
When the Birds begin to whistle --
Better Stitches -- so --

These were bent -- my sight got crooked --
When my mind -- is plain
I'll do seams -- a Queen's endeavor
Would not blush to own --

Hems -- too fine for Lady's tracing
To the sightless Knot --
Tucks -- of dainty interspersion...Read more of this...

Cotton Song

by Jean Toomer
 Come, brother, come. Lets lift it;
come now, hewit! roll away!
Shackles fall upon the Judgment Day
But lets not wait for it. 

God's body's got a soul,
Bodies like to roll the soul,
Cant blame God if we dont roll,
Come, brother, roll, roll!

Cotton bales are the fleecy way,
Weary sinner's bare feet trod,
Softly, softly to the throne of God,
"We aint agwine t wait until...Read more of this...

Another Reason Why I Dont Keep A Gun In The House

by Billy Collins
 The neighbors' dog will not stop barking.
He is barking the same high, rhythmic bark
that he barks every time they leave the house.
They must switch him on on their way out.

The neighbors' dog will not stop barking.
I close all the windows in the house
and put on a Beethoven symphony full blast
but I can still hear him muffled under the music,
barking,...Read more of this...

I Dont Know If Youre Alive Or Dead

by Anna Akhmatova
 I don't know if you're alive or dead.
Can you on earth be sought,
Or only when the sunsets fade
Be mourned serenely in my thought?

All is for you: the daily prayer,
The sleepless heat at night,
And of my verses, the white
Flock, and of my eyes, the blue fire.

No-one was more cherished, no-one tortured
Me more, not
Even the one who betrayed me to torture,
Not...Read more of this...

It dont sound so terrible -- quite -- as it did

by Emily Dickinson
 It don't sound so terrible -- quite -- as it did --
I run it over -- "Dead", Brain, "Dead."
Put it in Latin -- left of my school --
Seems it don't shriek so -- under rule.

Turn it, a little -- full in the face
A Trouble looks bitterest --
Shift it -- just --
Say "When Tomorrow comes this way --
I shall have...Read more of this...

You Dont Believe

by William Blake
 You don't believe -- I won't attempt to make ye:
You are asleep -- I won't attempt to wake ye.
Sleep on! sleep on! while in your pleasant dreams
Of Reason you may drink of Life's clear streams.
Reason and Newton, they are quite two things;
For so the swallow and the sparrow sings.

Reason says `Miracle': Newton says `Doubt.'
Aye! that's the way to make...Read more of this...

Dont fear death

by Aleksandr Blok
 Don't fear death in earthly travels. 
Don't fear enemies or friends. 
Just listen to the words of prayers, 
To pass the facets of the dreads. 

Your death will come to you, and never 
You shall be, else, a slave of life, 
Just waiting for a dawn's favor, 
From nights of poverty and strife. 

She'll build with you a common...Read more of this...

We dont cry -- Tim and I

by Emily Dickinson
 We don't cry -- Tim and I,
We are far too grand --
But we bolt the door tight
To prevent a friend --

Then we hide our brave face
Deep in our hand --
Not to cry -- Tim and I --
We are far too grand --

Nor to dream -- he and me --
Do we condescend --
We just shut our brown eye
To see to...Read more of this...

The Men That Dont Fit In

by Robert William Service
 There's a race of men that don't fit in,
 A race that can't stay still;
So they break the hearts of kith and kin,
 And they roam the world at will.
They range the field and they rove the flood,
 And they climb the mountain's crest;
Theirs is the curse of the gypsy blood,
 And they don't know how to rest.

If they...Read more of this...

Your thoughts dont have words every day

by Emily Dickinson
 Your thoughts don't have words every day
They come a single time
Like signal esoteric sips
Of the communion Wine
Which while you taste so native seems
So easy so to be
You cannot comprehend its price
Nor its infrequency...Read more of this...

I Dont Know If History Repeats Itself

by Yehuda Amichai
 I don't Know if history repeats itself
But I do know that you don't.

I remember that city was didvided 
Not only between Jews and Arabs,
But Between me and you,
When we were there together.

We made ourselves a womb of dangers
We built ourselves a house of deadening wars
Like men of far north 
Who build themselves a safe warm house of deadening ice.

The...Read more of this...

Father Death Blues (Dont Grow Old Part V)

by Allen Ginsberg
 Hey Father Death, I'm flying home
Hey poor man, you're all alone
Hey old daddy, I know where I'm going

Father Death, Don't cry any more
Mama's there, underneath the floor
Brother Death, please mind the store

Old Aunty Death Don't hide your bones
Old Uncle Death I hear your groans
O Sister Death how sweet your moans

O Children Deaths go breathe your breaths
Sobbing breasts'll ease your...Read more of this...

Dont imitate me

by Matsuo Basho
 Don't imitate me;
it's as boring
 as the two halves of a melon....Read more of this...

Dont Tell the World that Youre Waiting for Me

by Eliza Cook
 THREE summers have gone since the first time we met, love,
And still 'tis in vain that I ask thee to wed ;
I hear no reply but a gentle " Not yet, love,"
With a smile of your lip, and a shake of your head.
Ah ! how oft have I whispered, how oft have I sued thee,
And breathed my soul's question...Read more of this...

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