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Famous Expansive Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Paterson, Andrew Barton
...ass-grown streets with dust are deep; 
'Twere vain endeavour to express 
The dreamless silence of its sleep, 
Its wide, expansive drunkenness. 
The yearly races mostly drew 
A lively crowd at Dandaloo. 

There came a sportsman from the East, 
The eastern land where sportsmen blow, 
And brought with him a speedy beast -- 
A speedy beast as horses go. 
He came afar in hope to "do" 
The little town of Dandaloo. 

Now this was weak of him, I wot -- 
Exceeding weak...Read more of this...



by Moore, Marianne
...She loves herself so much,
she cannot see herself enough --
a statuette of ivory on ivory,
the logical last touch
to an expansive splendor
earned as wages for work done:
one is not rich but poor
when one can always seem so right.
What can one do for them --
these savages
condemned to disaffect
all those who are not visionaries
alert to undertake the silly task
of making people noble?
This model of petrine fidelity
who "leaves her peaceful husband
only because she has seen...Read more of this...

by Browning, Robert
...stiffer hence.

XVI.

One is incisive, corrosive:
Two retorts, nettled, curt, crepitant;
Three makes rejoinder, expansive, explosive;
Four overbears them all, strident and strepitant,
Five ... O Danaides, O Sieve!

XVII.

Now, they ply axes and crowbars;
Now, they prick pins at a tissue
Fine as a skein of the casuist Escobar's
Worked on the bone of a lie. To what issue?
Where is our gain at the Two-bars?

XVIII.

_Est fuga, volvitur rota._
...Read more of this...

by Laurence Dunbar, Paul
...riz and bowed.
I was kind o' disapp'inted
At de smallness of de man,
Case I 'd allus pictered great folks
On a mo' expansive plan;
But I t'ought I could respect him
An' tek in de wo'ds he said,
Fu' dey sho was somp'n knowin'
In de bald spot on his haid.
But hit did seem so't o' funny
Aftah waitin' fu' a week
Dat de people kep' on shoutin'
So de man des could n't speak;
De ho'ns dey blared a little,
Den dey let loose on de drums,—.
Some one toll me dey was play...Read more of this...

by McGonagall, William Topaz
...ace the blinds are drawn completely,
And every house is half hidden with the sable drapery;
And along the line of march expansive arches were erected,
While the spectators standing by seemed very dejected. 

And through the Central Avenue, to make the decorations complete,
There were pedestals erected, rising fourteen to fifteen feet,
And at the foot and top of each pedestal were hung decorations of green bay,
Also beautiful wreaths and evergreen festoons all in grand arr...Read more of this...



by Plath, Sylvia
....
Your dissatisfactions, on the other hand,
Arrive through the mailslot with loving regularity,
White and blank, expansive as carbon monoxide. 

No day is safe from news of you,
Walking about in Africa maybe, but thinking of me....Read more of this...

by Riley, James Whitcomb
...ous.
Your dissatisfactions, on the other hand,
Arrive through the mailslot with loving regularity,
White and blank, expansive as carbon monoxide.

No day is safe from news of you,
Walking about in Africa maybe, but thinking of me....Read more of this...

by Lear, Edward
...re was a young lady of Firle,Whose hair was addicted to curl;It curled up a tree, and all over the sea,That expansive young lady of Firle. ...Read more of this...

by Emerson, Ralph Waldo
...r of doom? 
Fair the soul's recess and shrine, 
Magic-built to last a season; 
Masterpiece of love benign, 
Fairer that expansive reason 
Whose omen't is, and sign. 
Wilt thou not ope thy heart to know 
What rainbows teach, and sunsets show? 
Verdict which accumulates 
From lengthening scroll of human fates, 
Voice of earth to earth returned, 
Prayers of saints that inly burned,-- 
Saying, What is excellent, 
As God lives, is permanent; 
Hearts are dust, hearts' loves rem...Read more of this...

by Emerson, Ralph Waldo
...of doom.
Fair the soul's recess and shrine,
Magic-built, to last a season,
Masterpiece of love benign!
Fairer than expansive reason
Whose omen 'tis, and sign.
Wilt thou not ope this heart to know
What rainbows teach and sunsets show,
Verdict which accumulates
From lengthened scroll of human fates,
Voice of earth to earth returned,
Prayers of heart that inly burned;
Saying, what is excellent, 
As God lives, is permanent 
Hearts are dust, hearts' loves remain, 
Heart's...Read more of this...

by Rossetti, Christina
...t blows?
You would not peck? I thank you for good will,
Believe, but leave that truth untested still.

Spring's and expansive time: yet I don't trust
March with its peck of dust,
Nor April with its rainbow-crowned brief showers,
Nor even May, whose flowers
One frost may wither thro' the sunless hours.
Perhaps some languid summer day,
When drowsy birds sing less and less,
And golden fruit is ripening to excess,
If there's not too much sun nor too much cloud,
And the wa...Read more of this...

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