Famous Fling Poems by Famous Poets

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

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75. Halloween

...nt wi’ primsie Mallie;
An’ Mary, nae doubt, took the drunt,
 To be compar’d to Willie:
Mall’s nit lap out, wi’ pridefu’ fling,
 An’ her ain fit, it brunt it;
While Willie lap, and swore by jing,
 ’Twas just the way he wanted
 To be that night.


Nell had the fause-house in her min’,
 She pits hersel an’ Rob in;
In loving bleeze they sweetly join,
 Till white in ase they’re sobbin:
Nell’s heart was dancin at the view;
 She whisper’d Rob to leuk for’t:
Rob, stownlins, prie’d he...Read more of this...
by Burns, Robert


A Dream of the Unknown

...ix'd with a sound of waters murmuring 
Along a shelving bank of turf, which lay 5 
Under a copse, and hardly dared to fling 
Its green arms round the bosom of the stream, 
But kiss'd it and then fled, as thou mightest in dream. 

There grew pied wind-flowers and violets, 
Daisies, those pearl'd Arcturi of the earth, 10 
The constellated flower that never sets; 
Faint oxlips; tender bluebells, at whose birth 
The sod scarce heaved; and that tall flower that wets¡ª 
...Read more of this...
by Shelley, Percy Bysshe

Beowulf (Old English)

...hose fingers cracked.
The fiend made off, but the earl close followed.
The monster meant -- if he might at all --
to fling himself free, and far away
fly to the fens, -- knew his fingers’ power
in the gripe of the grim one. Gruesome march
to Heorot this monster of harm had made!
Din filled the room; the Danes were bereft,
castle-dwellers and clansmen all,
earls, of their ale. Angry were both
those savage hall-guards: the house resounded.
Wonder it was the wine-hall...Read more of this...
by Anonymous,

Charmides

...k retreat
Watched the young swains his frolic playmates bring
The firstling of their little flock, and the shy shepherd fling

The crackling salt upon the flame, or hang
His studded crook against the temple wall
To Her who keeps away the ravenous fang
Of the base wolf from homestead and from stall;
And then the clear-voiced maidens 'gan to sing,
And to the altar each man brought some goodly offering,

A beechen cup brimming with milky foam,
A fair cloth wrought with cunning i...Read more of this...
by Wilde, Oscar

Comus

...s
Thither all their bounties bring.
There eternal Summer dwells;
And west winds with musky wing
About the cedarn alleys fling
Nard and cassia's balmy smells.
Iris there with humid bow
Waters the odorous banks, that blow
Flowers of more mingled hue
Than her purfled scarf can shew,
And drenches with Elysian dew
(List, mortals, if your ears be true)
Beds of hyacinth and roses,
Where young Adonis oft reposes,
Waxing well of his deep wound,
In slumber soft, and on the ground
Sadly...Read more of this...
by Milton, John


Dover Beach

...ere the sea meets the moon-blanch'd land,
Listen! you hear the grating roar
Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling,
At their return, up the high strand,
Begin, and cease, and then again begin,
With tremulous cadence slow, and bring
The eternal note of sadness in.

Sophocles long ago
Heard it on the {AE}gean, and it brought
Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow
Of human misery; we
Find also in the sound a thought,
Hearing it by this distant northern sea.
...Read more of this...
by Arnold, Matthew

Dream Variations

...To fling my arms wide
In some place of the sun,
To whirl and to dance
Till the white day is done.
Then rest at cool evening
Beneath a tall tree
While night comes on gently,
 Dark like me-
That is my dream!

To fling my arms wide
In the face of the sun,
Dance! Whirl! Whirl!
Till the quick day is done.
Rest at pale evening...
A tall, slim tree...
Night coming ten...Read more of this...
by Hughes, Langston

Song of Myself

...ll the same to me—I accept Time, absolutely.

It alone is without flaw—it rounds and completes all; 
That mystic, baffling wonder I love, alone completes all. 

I accept reality, and dare not question it; 
Materialism first and last imbuing. 

Hurrah for positive science! long live exact demonstration!
Fetch stonecrop, mixt with cedar and branches of lilac; 
This is the lexicographer—this the chemist—this made a grammar of the
 old cartouches; 
These mariners put ...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt

The Ballad of the White Horse

...a servant
Knows more than priests and kings,
But he that has been an ill servant,
He knows all earthly things.

"Pride flings frail palaces at the sky,
As a man flings up sand,
But the firm feet of humility
Take hold of heavy land.

"Pride juggles with her toppling towers,
They strike the sun and cease,
But the firm feet of humility
They grip the ground like trees.

"He that hath failed in a little thing
Hath a sign upon the brow;
And the Earls of the Great Army
Have no such...Read more of this...
by Chesterton, G K

The Cremona Violin

...her they rang,
For the plopping of guns and rockets
And the chinking of silver to spend, in one's 
pockets,
And the shuffling and clapping of feet,
And the loud flapping
Of flags, with the drums,
As the military comes.
It's a famous tune to walk to,
And I wonder where they're off to.
Step-step-stepping to the beating of the drums.
But the rhythm changes as though a mist
Were curling and twisting
Over the landscape.
For a moment a rhythmless, tuneless fog
Encompasses her. Then...Read more of this...
by Lowell, Amy

The Darkling Thrush

...g
     Of joy illimited;
An aged thrush, frail, gaunt, and small,
     In blast-beruffled plume,
Had chosen thus to fling his soul
     Upon the growing gloom.

So little cause for carolings
     Of such ecstatic sound
Was written on terrestrial things
     Afar or nigh around,
That I could think there trembled through
     His happy good-night air
Some blessed Hope, whereof he knew
     And I was unaware....Read more of this...
by Hardy, Thomas

The Ghosts

...rain-pan, else a blank, heavens of glory now and then;
Gave him the magical genius touch; God-given power to gouge out, fling
Flat in your face a soul-thought -- Bing!
Twiddle your heart-strings in his clutch. "Bah!" said Smith, "let my body lie
 stripped to the buff in swinish shame,
If I can blaze in the radiant sky out of adoring stars my name.
Sober am I nonentitized; drunk am I more than half a god.
Well, let the flesh be sacrificed; spirit shall speak and shame the clod...Read more of this...
by Service, Robert William

The Lady of the Lake

...'s spring
     And down the fitful breeze thy numbers flung,
        Till envious ivy did around thee cling,
     Muffling with verdant ringlet every string,—
        O Minstrel Harp, still must thine accents sleep?
     Mid rustling leaves and fountains murmuring,
        Still must thy sweeter sounds their silence keep,
     Nor bid a warrior smile, nor teach a maid to weep?

     Not thus, in ancient days of Caledon, 10
        Was thy voice mute amid the festal ...Read more of this...
by Scott, Sir Walter

The Last Tournament

...still, 
For I have flung thee pearls and find thee swine.' 

And little Dagonet mincing with his feet, 
`Knight, an ye fling those rubies round my neck 
In lieu of hers, I'll hold thou hast some touch 
Of music, since I care not for thy pearls. 
Swine? I have wallowed, I have washed--the world 
Is flesh and shadow--I have had my day. 
The dirty nurse, Experience, in her kind 
Hath fouled me--an I wallowed, then I washed-- 
I have had my day and my philosophies-- 
And thank t...Read more of this...
by Tennyson, Alfred Lord

The Living Dead

...rief best-sellerdom elected;
And then, "thumbs down," we slink away
And die forgotten and neglected.

Ah well, my lyric fling I've had;
A thousand bits of verse I've minted;
And some, alas! were very bad,
And some, alack! were best unprinted.
But if I've made my muse a bawd
(Since I am earthy as a ditch is),
I'll answer humbly to my God:
Most men at times have toyed with bitches.

Yes, I have played with Lady Rhyme,
And had a long and lovely innings;
And when the Umpire calls...Read more of this...
by Service, Robert William

The Mermaid

...d feel their immortality
Die in their hearts for the love of me.

III

But at night I would wander away, away,
 I would fling on each side my low-flowing locks,
And lightly vault from the throne and play
 With the mermen in and out of the rocks;
We would run to and fro, and hide and seek,
 On the broad sea-wolds in the crimson shells,
Whose silvery spikes are nighest the sea.
But if any came near I would call and shriek,
And adown the steep like a wave I would leap
 From the ...Read more of this...
by Tennyson, Alfred Lord

The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam

...low Cheek of hers to incarnadine. 

VII.
Come, fill the Cup, and in the Fire of Spring
The Winter Garment of Repentance fling:
The Bird of Time has but a little way
To fly -- and Lo! the Bird is on the Wing. 

VIII.
Whether at Naishapur or Babylon,
Whether the Cup with sweet or bitter run,
The Wine of Life keeps oozing drop by drop,
The Leaves of Life kep falling one by one. 

IX.
Morning a thousand Roses brings, you say;
Yes, but where leaves the Rose of Yesterday?
And this ...Read more of this...
by Khayyam, Omar

The Sacrifice

...nees to me, and cry, 'Hail king': 
What ever scoffs or scornfulness can bring, 
I am the floor, the sink, where they it fling: 
Was ever grief like mine? 

Yet since man's sceptres are as frail as reeds, 
And thorny all their crowns, bloody their weeds; 
I, who am Truth, turn into truth their deeds: 
Was ever grief like mine? 

The soldiers also spit upon that face, 
Which Angels did desire to have the grace, 
And Prophets once to see, but found no place: 
Was ever grief like...Read more of this...
by Herbert, George

The Triumph of Life

...un,
Throw back their heads & loose their streaming hair,
And in their dance round her who dims the Sun
Maidens & youths fling their wild arms in air
As their feet twinkle; they recede, and now
Bending within each other's atmosphere
Kindle invisibly; and as they glow
Like moths by light attracted & repelled,
Oft to new bright destruction come & go.
Till like two clouds into one vale impelled
That shake the mountains when their lightnings mingle
And die in rain,--the fiery band...Read more of this...
by Shelley, Percy Bysshe

Writing To Onegin

...would holler
Don't! Stay on an even keel! Don't dollop over
All you are, to a man who'll go to town 
On his next little fling. If he's entranced today 
By the way you finger your silk throat inside your collar,
Tomorrow there'll be Olga, Sally, Jane. But then I'd whisper
Go for it, petal. Nothing's as real as what you write.
His funeral, if he's not up to it. What we feel
Is mortal, and won't come again.
*
So cut, weeks later, to an outside shot: the same girl
Taking cover ("...Read more of this...
by Padel, Ruth

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