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Famous Earthquakes Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Hope, Billy Jno
...roken with spite
at the inevitable chorus of pop songs
sutured for soft light

i burdened siesta
with a thousand little earthquakes
i listened where you suffered vertigo

flowers have faded
bellies betray
caught the wistful eye
that curved beneath my eyelids

something slime
and panic strewn
we gather the remnants of democracy

silence herds mad laughter
cumulus scorn
haunted horizons running
running to weep...Read more of this...



by Pope, Alexander
...canopy the skies."


But errs not Nature from this gracious end,
From burning suns when livid deaths descend,
When earthquakes swallow, or when tempests sweep
Towns to one grave, whole nations to the deep?
"No, ('tis replied) the first Almighty Cause
Acts not by partial, but by gen'ral laws;
Th' exceptions few; some change since all began:
And what created perfect?"--Why then man?
If the great end be human happiness,
Then Nature deviates; and can man do less?
As much tha...Read more of this...

by Hecht, Anthony
...gh pinecones 
and primrose marshes, a short train ride away.

7) My country was struck by history more deadly than 
earthquakes or hurricanes.

8) My father was busy eluding the monsters. My mother 
told me the walls had ears. I learned the burden of secrets.

9) I moved into the too bright days, the too dark nights 
of adolescence.

10) Two parents, two daughters, we followed the sun 
and the moon across the ocean. My grandparents stayed 
behind i...Read more of this...

by Pope, Alexander
...canopy the skies." 
But errs not Nature from this gracious end, 
From burning suns when livid deaths descend, 
When earthquakes swallow, or when tempests sweep 
Towns to one grave, whole nations to the deep? 
"No ('tis reply'd) the first Almighty Cause 
Acts not by partial, but by gen'ral laws; 
Th' exceptions few; some change since all began, 
And what created perfect?" -- Why then Man? 
If the great end be human Happiness, 
Then Nature deviates; and can Man do less? 
As...Read more of this...

by Atwood, Margaret
...ove. Seeing the rows of heads 
and upturned eyes, imploring
but ready to snap at my ankles,
I understand floods and earthquakes, and the urge 
to step on ants. I keep the beat,
and dance for them because
they can't. The music smells like foxes,
crisp as heated metal
searing the nostrils
or humid as August, hazy and languorous
as a looted city the day after,
when all the rape's been done
already, and the killing,
and the survivors wander around
looking for garbage
...Read more of this...



by Keats, John
...ons in close clusters stood,
Amaz'd and full offear; like anxious men
Who on wide plains gather in panting troops,
When earthquakes jar their battlements and towers.
Even now, while Saturn, rous'd from icy trance,
Went step for step with Thea through the woods,
Hyperion, leaving twilight in the rear,
Came slope upon the threshold of the west;
Then, as was wont, his palace-door flew ope
In smoothest silence, save what solemn tubes,
Blown by the serious Zephyrs, gave of swe...Read more of this...

by Darwish, Mahmoud
...y when my words
were stones
I was a friend to streams.

On the day when my words
were a rebellion
I was a friend to earthquakes.

On the day when my words
were bitter apples
I was a friend to the optimist.

But when my words became
honey...
flies covered
my lips!......Read more of this...

by Untermeyer, Louis
...e gulp to him;
Two great streams from Paradise
Cool his lips and scarce suffice.
When he shifts from side to side

Earthquakes gape and open wide;
When a nightmare makes him snore,
All the dead volcanoes roar.
In the space between each toe,
Kingdoms rise and saviours go;
Epochs fall and causes die
In the lifting of his eye.
Wars and justice, love and death,
These are but his wasted breath;
Chews a planet for his cud—
Behemot sweating blood.
Roused from his unc...Read more of this...

by Blake, William
...>

1. Ages on ages roll'd over him!
In stony sleep ages roll'd over him!
Like a dark waste stretching chang'able
By earthquakes riv'n, belching sullen fires
On ages roll'd ages in ghastly 
Sick torment; around him in whirlwinds
Of darkness the eternal Prophet howl'd
Beating still on his rivets of iron
Pouring sodor of iron; dividing
The horrible night into watches. 

2. And Urizen (so his eternal name)
His prolific delight obscurd more & more
In dark secresy hidin...Read more of this...

by Desnos, Robert
...ing on the ground and linen drying in farm country
I call tornadoes and hurricanes
storms typhoons cyclones
tidal waves
earthquakes
I call the smoke of volcanoes and the smoke of cigarettes
the rings of smoke from expensive cigars
I call lovers and loved ones
I call the living and the dead
I call gravediggers I call assassins
I call hangmen pilots bricklayers architects
assassins
I call the flesh
I call the one I love
I call the one I love
I call the one I love
the jubilant m...Read more of this...

by Auden, Wystan Hugh (W H)
...e pleasure-haters who became unjust.

Yet, like a sentinel, he could not sleep. The night was full of wrong,
Earthquakes and executions: soon he would be dead,
And still all over Europe stood the horrible nurses
Itching to boil their children. Only his verses
Perhaps could stop them: He must go on working: Overhead,
The uncomplaining stars composed their lucid song. ...Read more of this...

by Housman, A E
...Wake not for the world-heard thunder, 
Nor the chimes that earthquakes toll; 
Stars may plot in heaven with planet, 
Lightning rive the rock of granite, 
Tempest tread the oakwood under, 
Fear not you for flesh or soul; 
Marching, fighting, victory past, 
Stretch your limbs in peace at last. 

Stir not for the soldier's drilling, 
Nor the fever nothing cures; 
Throb of drum and timbal's rattle 
Call but men aliv...Read more of this...

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