Famous Dry Land Poems by Famous Poets

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

See also:

Love in Arizona

by Dejan Stojanovic
You are from California 
I am from the Midwest 
But we met in Arizona 
And went to the desert 
To measure thorns 
Of the lonely, dispersed cactuses 
Measure the light rays, 
Measure the distance, 
Between us and the world 
Measure the love and kisses and screams 
In the solemn silence of the desert. 
We kissed the dusty ground 
And asked...Read more of this...

Dream Barker

by Jean Valentine
 We met for supper in your flat-bottomed boat. 
I got there first: in a white dress: I remember
Wondering if you'd come. Then you shot over the bank, 
A Virgilian ****** Jim, and poled us off
To a little sea-food barker's cave you knew.

What'll you have? you said. Eels hung down, 
Bamboozled claws hung up from the crackling weeds. 
The light...Read more of this...

A Fish Answers

by James Henry Leigh Hunt
 Amazing monster! that, for aught I know, 
With the first sight of thee didst make our race 
For ever stare! O flat and shocking face, 
Grimly divided from the breast below! 
Thou that on dry land horribly dost go 
With a split body and most ridiculous pace, 
Prong after prong, disgracer of all grace, 
Long-useless-finned, haired, upright, unwet, slow!...Read more of this...

Three HaPence a Foot

by Marriott Edgar
 I'll tell you an old-fashioned story 
That Grandfather used to relate, 
Of a joiner and building contractor; 
'Is name, it were Sam Oglethwaite.

In a shop on the banks of the Irwell, 
Old Sam used to follow 'is trade, 
In a place you'll have 'eard of, called Bury; 
You know, where black puddings is made.

One day, Sam were filling a...Read more of this...

The Seafarer

by Ezra Pound
 (From the early Anglo-Saxon text) 

May I for my own self song's truth reckon,
Journey's jargon, how I in harsh days
Hardship endured oft.
Bitter breast-cares have I abided,
Known on my keel many a care's hold,
And dire sea-surge, and there I oft spent
Narrow nightwatch nigh the ship's head
While she tossed close to cliffs. Coldly afflicted,
My feet were by frost benumbed.
Chill its chains...Read more of this...

Patience Taught By Nature

by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
 'O DREARY life,' we cry, ' O dreary life ! '
And still the generations of the birds
Sing through our sighing, and the flocks and herds
Serenely live while we are keeping strife
With Heaven's true purpose in us, as a knife
Against which we may struggle ! Ocean girds
Unslackened the dry land, savannah-swards
Unweary sweep, hills watch unworn, and rife
Meek leaves drop year]y...Read more of this...

Dont forget to view our wonderful member Dry Land poems.

Get a Premium Membership
Turn off ads, get more exposure for your poetry, and get more features with a Premium Membership.
Book: Diverse Voices: The Poetry of Human Rights and the Pursuit of Peace