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Famous Gaping Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Browning, Robert
...uild, ere steel strike fire from quartz,
Ere mortar dab brick!

(Here's the town-gate reached: there's the market-place
Gaping before us.)
Yea, this in him was the peculiar grace
(Hearten our chorus!)
That before living he'd learn how to live---
No end to learning:
Earn the means first---God surely will contrive
Use for our earning.
Others mistrust and say, ``But time escapes:
``Live now or never!''
He said, ``What's time? Leave Now for dogs and apes!
``Man has Foreve...Read more of this...



by Brackenridge, Hugh Henry
...o shore 
The flowing fall; great are their dangers too; 
Death ever present to the fearless eye 
And ev'ry billow but a gaping grave; 
Yet all these mighty feats to science owe 
Their rise and glory.--Hail fair science! thou 
Transplanted from the eastern climes dost bloom 
In these fair regions, Greece and Rome no more 
Detain the muses on Cithæron's brow, 
Or old Olympus crown'd with waving woods; 
Or Hæmus' top where once was heard the harp, 
Sweet Orpheus' harp that r...Read more of this...

by Twain, Mark
...maru shade 
And thy balmy soft airs, O sweet Mittagong! 

The Kooringa buffalo pants in the sun, 
The Kondoparinga lies gaping for breath, 
The Kongorong Camaum to the shadow has won, 
But the Goomeroo sinks in the slumber of death; 

In the weltering hell of the Moorooroo plain 
The Yatala Wangary withers and dies, 
And the Worrow Wanilla, demented with pain, 
To the Woolgoolga woodlands despairingly flies; 

Sweet Nangwarry's desolate, Coonamble wails, 
And Tungkillo Kuito ...Read more of this...

by Sidney, Sir Philip
...

O how the pleasant ayres of true loue be
Infected by those vapours which arise
From out that noysome gulfe, which gaping lies
Betweene the iawes of hellish Ielousie!
A monster, others harme, selfe-miserie,
Beauties plague, Vertues scourge, succour of lies;
Who his owne ioy to his owne hurt applies,
And onely cherish doth with iniurie:
Who since he hath, by Natures speciall grace,
So piercing pawes as spoyle when they embrace;
So nimble feet as stirre still, thou...Read more of this...

by Mayakovsky, Vladimir
...at attention stand,
ready for death
 and for immortal fame.

The poems are rigid,
 pressing muzzle
to muzzle their gaping
 pointed titles.

The favorite 
 of all the armed forces
the cavalry of witticisms
 ready
to launch a wild hallooing charge,
reins its chargers still,
 raising
the pointed lances of the rhymes.
and all
 these troops armed to the teeth,
which have flashed by
 victoriously for twenty years,
all these,
 to their very last page,
I present to you,
...Read more of this...



by Keats, John
...s airy goal, haply some bower veils
Those twilight eyes? Those eyes!--my spirit fails--
Dear goddess, help! or the wide-gaping air
Will gulph me--help!"--At this with madden'd stare,
And lifted hands, and trembling lips he stood;
Like old Deucalion mountain'd o'er the flood,
Or blind Orion hungry for the morn.
And, but from the deep cavern there was borne
A voice, he had been froze to senseless stone;
Nor sigh of his, nor plaint, nor passion'd moan
Had more been heard.Read more of this...

by Alighieri, Dante
...or the leap. But undeterred my guide. 
 Stooped down, and gathered in full hands the soil, 
 And cast it in the gaping gullets, to foil 
 Gluttonous blind greed, and those fierce mouths and wide 
 Closed on the filth, and as the craving cur 
 Quietens, that strained and howled to reach his food, 
 Biting the bone, those squalid mouths subdued 
 And silenced, wont above the empty dead 
 To bark insatiate, while they tore unfed 
 The writhing shadows. 
 The straight...Read more of this...

by Milton, John
..., prohibit all egress. 
These passed, if any pass, the void profound 
Of unessential Night receives him next, 
Wide-gaping, and with utter loss of being 
Threatens him, plunged in that abortive gulf. 
If thence he scape, into whatever world, 
Or unknown region, what remains him less 
Than unknown dangers, and as hard escape? 
But I should ill become this throne, O Peers, 
And this imperial sovereignty, adorned 
With splendour, armed with power, if aught proposed 
And ...Read more of this...

by Lowell, Amy
...he came.
But, Gervase, it surprises me that you Should so lack grace 
to stay here." With one hand
She held her gaping bodice to conceal Her 
breast. "I must demand
Your instant absence. Everard, but new
Returned, will hardly care for guests. Adieu."
"Eunice, you're mad." His brain began 
to reel.

XXXVI
He tried again to take her, tried to twist Her 
arms about him. Truly, she had said
Nothing should ever part them. In a mist She pushe...Read more of this...

by Whitman, Walt
...wedding-dances, kissers of brides, tender helpers of children, bearers of
 children,

Soldiers of revolts, standers by gaping graves, lowerers down of coffins,
Journeyers over consecutive seasons, over the years—the curious years, each emerging from
 that
 which preceded it, 
Journeyers as with companions, namely, their own diverse phases, 
Forth-steppers from the latent unrealized baby-days, 
Journeyers gayly with their own youth—Journeyers with their bearded and well-grain...Read more of this...

by Chesterton, G K
...owers of Italy,
And Colan of the Sacred Tree,
And Eldred who beside the sea
Held heavily his farm.

The roof leaned gaping to the grass,
As a monstrous mushroom lies;
Echoing and empty seemed the place;
But opened in a little space
A great grey woman with scarred face
And strong and humbled eyes.

King Alfred was but a meagre man,
Bright eyed, but lean and pale:
And swordless, with his harp and rags,
He seemed a beggar, such as lags
Looking for crusts and ale.

An...Read more of this...

by Poe, Edgar Allan
...eem pendulous in air 
While from a proud tower in the town
Death looks gigantically down.

There open fanes and gaping graves
Yawn level with the luminous waves;
But not the riches there that lie
In each idol's diamond eye-
Not the gaily-jewelled dead
Tempt the waters from their bed;
For no ripples curl alas!
Along that wilderness of glass-
No swellings tell that winds may be
Upon some far-off happier sea-
No heavings hint that winds have been
On seas less ...Read more of this...

by Stevens, Wallace
...s shy 
525 To fetch the one full-pinioned one himself 
526 Out of her botches, hot embosomer. 
527 The third one gaping at the orioles 
528 Lettered herself demurely as became 
529 A pearly poetess, peaked for rhapsody. 
530 The fourth, pent now, a digit curious. 
531 Four daughters in a world too intricate 
532 In the beginning, four blithe instruments 
533 Of differing struts, four voices several 
534 In couch, four more person?, intimate 
535 As buff...Read more of this...

by Schiller, Friedrich von
...f upon the ground.
Straight at him rushed each nimble hound;
Yet thence they turned, dismayed and fast,
When he his gaping jaws op'd wide,
Vomited forth his poisonous blast,
And like the howling jackal cried."

"But soon their courage I restored;
They seized with rage the foe abhorred,
While I against the beast's loins threw
My spear with sturdy arm and true:
But, powerless as a bulrush frail,
It bounded from his coat of mail;
And ere I could repeat the throw,
My hors...Read more of this...

by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...d had bathed all his hair:
The nail y-driven in the shode* at night, *hair of the head 
The colde death, with mouth gaping upright.
Amiddes of the temple sat Mischance,
With discomfort and sorry countenance;
Eke saw I Woodness* laughing in his rage, *Madness
Armed Complaint, Outhees*, and fierce Outrage; *Outcry
The carrain* in the bush, with throat y-corve**, *corpse **slashed
A thousand slain, and not *of qualm y-storve*; *dead of sickness*
The tyrant, with the prey...Read more of this...

by Chaucer, Geoffrey
...or to creep,
And at that hole he looked in full deep,
And at the last he had of him a sight.
This Nicholas sat ever gaping upright,
As he had kyked* on the newe moon. *looked 
Adown he went, and told his master soon,
In what array he saw this ilke* man. *same

This carpenter to *blissen him* began, *bless, cross himself*
And said: "Now help us, Sainte Frideswide.
A man wot* little what shall him betide. *knows
This man is fall'n with his astronomy
...Read more of this...

by Warton, Thomas
...owing pall.
Now let Monimia mourn streaming eyes
Her joys incestuous, and polluted love:
Now let soft Juliet in the gaping tomb
Print the last kiss on her true Romeo's lips,
His lips yet reeking from the deadly draught:
Or Jaffier kneel for one forgiving look.
Nor seldom let the Moor on Desdemone
Pour the misguided threats of jealous rage.
By soft degrees the manly torrent steals
From my swollen eyes; and at a brother's woe
My big heart melts in sympathizing tears...Read more of this...

by Pope, Alexander
...ed Shades,
Or bright as Visions of expiring Maids.
Now glaring Fiends, and Snakes on rolling Spires,
Pale Spectres, gaping Tombs, and Purple Fires:
Now Lakes of liquid Gold, Elysian Scenes,
And Crystal Domes, and Angels in Machines.

Unnumber'd Throngs on ev'ry side are seen
Of Bodies chang'd to various Forms by Spleen.
Here living Teapots stand, one Arm held out,
One bent; the Handle this, and that the Spout: 
A Pipkin there like Homer's Tripod walks;
Here sighs ...Read more of this...

by Dyke, Henry Van
...spoiled with praising, tries
At every step to win admiring eyes, ----
No favourite mountebank, whose acting draws 
From gaping crowds loud thunder of applause,
Was vainer than the King: his only thirst
Was to be hailed, in every race, the first.
When tournament was held, in knightly guise
The King would ride the lists and win the prize;
When music charmed the court, with golden lyre
The King would take the stage and lead the choir;
In hunting, his the lance to slay the bo...Read more of this...

by Johnson, Samuel
...n and grandeur load the tainted gales,
47 Few know the toiling statesman's fear or care,
48 Th' insidious rival and the gaping heir.

49 Once more, Democritus, arise on earth,
50 With cheerful wisdom and instructive mirth,
51 See motley life in modern trappings dress'd,
52 And feed with varied fools th' eternal jest:
53 Thou who couldst laugh where want enchain'd caprice,
54 Toil crush'd conceit, and man was of a piece;
55 Where wealth unlov'd without a mourner died;
56 A...Read more of this...

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