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Famous Figuring Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Shakespeare, William
...ding in his monarchy.

''Look here, what tributes wounded fancies sent me,
Of paled pearls and rubies red as blood;
Figuring that they their passions likewise lent me
Of grief and blushes, aptly understood
In bloodless white and the encrimson'd mood;
Effects of terror and dear modesty,
Encamp'd in hearts, but fighting outwardly.

''And, lo, behold these talents of their hair,
With twisted metal amorously impleach'd,
I have received from many a several fair,
Their kind...Read more of this...



by MacLeish, Archibald
...Science, that simple saint, cannot be bothered
Figuring what anything is for:
Enough for her devotions that things are
And can be contemplated soon as gathered.

She knows how every living thing was fathered,
She calculates the climate of each star,
She counts the fish at sea, but cannot care
Why any one of them exists, fish, fire or feathered.

Why should she? Her religion is to tell
By rote her...Read more of this...

by Berryman, John
...Three 'coons come at his garbage. He be cross,
I figuring porcupine & took Sir poker
unbarring Mr door,
& then screen door. Ah, but the little 'coon,
hardly a foot (not counting tail) got in with 
two more at the porch-edge

and they swirled, before some two swerve off
this side of crab tree, and my dear friend held
with the torch in his tiny eyes
two feet off, banded, but then he gave &
shot away too....Read more of this...

by Robinson, Edwin Arlington
...flash of leaves,— 
And Isaac said the day was glorious;
But somewhere at the end of the first mile 
I found that I was figuring to find 
How long those ancient legs of his would keep 
The pace that he had set for them. The sun 
Was hot, and I was ready to sweat blood;
But Isaac, for aught I could make of him, 
Was cool to his hat-band. So I said then 
With a dry gasp of affable despair, 
Something about the scorching days we have 
In August without knowing it sometim...Read more of this...

by Masefield, John
...ith hammers; a tale, a dream. 

O Beauty, let me know again 
The green earth cold, the April rain, the quiet waters figuring sky, 
The one star risen. 
So shall I pass into the feast 
Not touched by King, Merchant, or Priest; 
Know the red spirit of the beast, 
Be the green grain; 
Escape from prison....Read more of this...



by Collins, Billy
...
who is somehow managing to navigate

this crowd with his cumbersome drums.
And I bow deeply to Thelonious Monk
for figuring out a way
to motorize -- or whatever -- his huge piano
so he could be with us today.

This music is loud yet so confidential.
I cannot help feeling even more
like the center of the universe
than usual as I walk along to a rapid
little version of "The Way You Look Tonight,"

and all I can say to my fellow pedestrians,
to the woman in the whit...Read more of this...

by Hardy, Thomas
...was in play
By that briny green;
Yes, notes alway
Warm, real, and keen,
What his back years bring-
A phantom of his own figuring.

Of this vision of his they might say more:
Not only there
Does he see this sight,
But everywhere
In his brain-day, night,
As if on the air
It were drawn rose bright-
Yea, far from that shore
Does he carry this vision of heretofore:

A ghost-girl-rider. And though, toil-tried,
He withers daily,
Time touches her not,
But she still rides gail...Read more of this...

Dont forget to view our wonderful member Figuring poems.


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