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Famous Exhibition Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Browning, Robert
...case of mania--subinduced 
By epilepsy, at the turning-point 
Of trance prolonged unduly some three days: 
When, by the exhibition of some drug 
Or spell, exorcization, stroke of art 
Unknown to me and which 'twere well to know, 
The evil thing out-breaking all at once 
Left the man whole and sound of body indeed,-- 
But, flinging (so to speak) life's gates too wide, 
Making a clear house of it too suddenly, 
The first conceit that entered might inscribe 
Whatever it was mind...Read more of this...



by Service, Robert William
...He gave a picture exhibition,
Hiring a little empty shop.
Above its window: FREE ADMISSION
Cajoled the passers-by to stop;
Just to admire - no need to purchase,
Although his price might have been low:
But no proud artist ever urges
Potential buyers at his show.

Of course he badly needed money,
But more he needed moral aid.
Some people thought his pictures funny,
...Read more of this...

by McGonagall, William Topaz
...cloth is the best I ever did see,
In the year of our Lord eighteen hundred and ninety-three. 

At the International Exhibition, and the Isle of Man Exhibition,
He got a gold medal from each, in recognition
Of his Scotch Tweeds, so good and grand,
Which cannot be surpassed in fair Scotland. 

Therefore, good people, his goods are really grand,
And manufactured at Weensforth Mill, Hawick, Scotland;
Where there's always plenty of Tweeds on hand,
For the ready cash at the...Read more of this...

by Field, Eugene
...z sumwhat racy,
In come that feller Pettibone, 'nd sez, "With your permission,
I'd like to put a picture I have made on exhibition."
He sot the picture on the bar 'nd drew aside its curtain,
Sayin', "I reckon you'll allow as how that's art, f'r certain!"
And then we looked, with jaws agape, but nary word wuz spoken,
And f'r a likely spell the charm uv silence wuz unbroken--
Till presently, as in a dream, remarked Three-Fingered Hoover:
"Onless I am mistaken, this is Petti...Read more of this...

by Harcombe, Dale
...e
  who remember.



*first published Northern Perspective Vol 17 no 2 – 1994
This poem was included as part of the exhibition in memory of Anita Cobby held at Q theatre in Penrith 2003...Read more of this...



by Whitman, Walt
...aw, wrapt in her yellow-hemm’d cloth, is offering moccasins and
 bead-bags for sale; 
The connoisseur peers along the exhibition-gallery with half-shut eyes bent
 sideways; 
As the deck-hands make fast the steamboat, the plank is thrown for the
 shore-going passengers; 
The young sister holds out the skein, while the elder sister winds it off in a
 ball, and stops now and then for the knots; 
The one-year wife is recovering and happy, having a week ago borne her first...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...ck, crowbar, spade,
Shingle, rail, prop, wainscot, jamb, lath, panel, gable, 
Citadel, ceiling, saloon, academy, organ, exhibition-house, library, 
Cornice, trellis, pilaster, balcony, window, shutter, turret, porch, 
Hoe, rake, pitch-fork, pencil, wagon, staff, saw, jack-plane, mallet, wedge, rounce, 
Chair, tub, hoop, table, wicket, vane, sash, floor,
Work-box, chest, string’d instrument, boat, frame, and what not, 
Capitols of States, and capitol of the nation of States, 
...Read more of this...

by Heaney, Seamus
...gourd.
Oval-faced, prune-skinned, prune-stones for teeth.

They unswaddled the wet fern of her hair
And made an exhibition of its coil,
Let the air at her leathery beauty.
Pash of tallow, perishable treasure:
Her broken nose is dark as a turf clod,
Her eyeholes blank as pools in the old workings.
Diodorus Siculus confessed
His gradual ease with the likes of this:
Murdered, forgotten, nameless, terrible
Beheaded girl, outstaring axe
And beatification, outstarin...Read more of this...

by Service, Robert William
...chipmunk, save a touch of the lumbago,
 And they calls me Old Methoosalah, and `blagues' me all the day.
I'm their exhibition sniper, and they work me like a Dago,
 And laugh to see me plug a Boche a half a mile away.
 Oh I hold the highest record in the regiment, they say.

And at night they gather round me, and I tell them of my roaming
 In the Country of the Crepuscule beside the Frozen Sea,
Where the musk-ox runs unchallenged, and the cariboo goes homing;
 An...Read more of this...

by Dickinson, Emily
...re is a finished feeling
Experienced at Graves --
A leisure of the Future --
A Wilderness of Size.

By Death's bold Exhibition
Preciser what we are
And the Eternal function
Enabled to infer....Read more of this...

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Book: Reflection on the Important Things