Famous Effective Poems by Famous Poets

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

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The Guardian Angel Of The Private Life

by Jorie Graham
 All this was written on the next day's list.
On which the busyness unfurled its cursive roots,
pale but effective,
and the long stem of the necessary, the sum of events,
built-up its tiniest cathedral...
(Or is it the sum of what takes place? )
If I lean down, to whisper, to them,
down into their gravitational field, there where they head busily on
into the woods,...Read more of this...

Behavior

by Walt Whitman
 BEHAVIOR—fresh, native, copious, each one for himself or herself, 
Nature and the Soul expressed—America and freedom expressed—In it the finest
 art, 
In it pride, cleanliness, sympathy, to have their chance, 
In it physique, intellect, faith—in it just as much as to manage an army or a city,
 or to
 write a book—perhaps more, 
The youth, the laboring person, the...Read more of this...

The Battle of Flodden Field

by William Topaz McGonagall
 'Twas on the 9th of September, a very beautiful day,
That a numerous English army came in grand array,
And pitched their tents on Flodden field so green
In the year of our Lord fifteen hundred and thirteen. 

And on the ridge of Braxton hill the Scottish army lay,
All beautifully arrayed, and eager for the fray,
And near by stood their noble king...Read more of this...

To The Author Of Glare

by David Lehman
 There comes a time when the story turns into twenty
different stories and soon after that he academy of shadows
retreats to the cave of a solitary boy in a thriving

metropolis where no one remembers the original story
whic is, of course, a sign of its great success: to be forgotten
implies you were once known, and that is something we

can prize more...Read more of this...

Rogue Elephant

by A R Ammons
 The reason to be autonomous is to stand there,
a cleared instrument, ready to act, to search

the moral realm and actual conditions for what
needs to be done and to do it: fine, the

best, if it works out, but if, like a gun, it
comes in handy to the wrong choice, why then

you see the danger in the effective: better
then an autonomy...Read more of this...

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