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Famous Glum Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Laurence Dunbar, Paul
...you see."
So he fixes up his plan
An' hunts up de fa'merman.
When de fa'mer see him come,
He 'mence lookin' mighty glum,
An' he ketches up a stick;
But de weasel speak up quick:
"Hol' on, Mistah Fa'mer man,
I wan' 'splain a little plan.
Ef you waits, I 'll tell you whah
An' jes' how to ketch ol' Bah.
But I tell yow now you mus'
Gin me one fat chicken fus'."
Den de man he scratch his haid,
Las' he say, "I'll mek de trade."
So de weasel et his hen,
Smacked his ...Read more of this...



by Browning, Robert
...y birds struck dumb
At the warning slash
Of his driver's-lash---
I would laugh like the valiant Thumb
Facing the castle glum
And the giant's fee-faw-fum!

XX.

Then, were the world well stripped
Of the gear wherein equipped
We can stand apart,
Heart dispense with heart
In the sun, with the flowers unnipped,---
Oh, the world's hangings ripped,
We were both in a bare-walled crypt!

XXI.

Each in the crypt would cry
``But one freezes here! and why? 
``When a heart, as ch...Read more of this...

by Carroll, Lewis
...uld be dumb,
And full DOLORUM OMNIUM,
Excepting when YOU choose to come
And share my dinner?
At other times be sour and glum
And daily thinner?

Must he then only live to weep,
Who'd prove his friendship true and deep
By day a lonely shadow creep,
At night-time languish,
Oft raising in his broken sleep
The moan of anguish?

The lover, if for certain days
His fair one be denied his gaze,
Sinks not in grief and wild amaze,
But, wiser wooer,
He spends the time in writing lays,
A...Read more of this...

by Sassoon, Siegfried
...If I were fierce, and bald, and short of breath 
I'd live with scarlet Majors at the Base, 
And speed glum heroes up the line to death. 
You'd see me with my puffy petulant face, 
Guzzling and gulping in the best hotel, 
Reading the Roll of Honour. "Poor young chap," 
I'd say -- "I used to know his father well; 
Yes, we've lost heavily in this last scrap."
And when the war is done and youth stone dead, 
I'd toddle safely home and die -- in bed.Read more of this...

by Laurence Dunbar, Paul
...k up, Ike, an' 'spress yo'se'f.

'T ain't no use a-lookin' sad,
An' a-mekin' out you's mad;
Ef you's gwine to be so glum,
Wondah why you evah come.
I don't lak nobody 'roun'
Dat jes' shet dey mouf an' frown,--
Oh, now, man, don't act a dunce!
Cain't you talk? I tol' you once,
Speak up, Ike, an' 'spress yo'se'f.

Wha'd you come hyeah fu' to-night?
Body'd t'ink yo' haid ain't right.
I's done all dat I kin do,--
Dressed perticler, jes' fu' you;
Reckon I'd 'a' bet...Read more of this...



by Laurence Dunbar, Paul
...k up, Ike, an' 'spress yo'se'f.
'T ain't no use a-lookin' sad,
An' a-mekin' out you 's mad;
Ef you 's gwine to be so glum,
Wondah why you evah come.
I don't lak nobidy 'roun'
Dat jes' shet dey mouf an' frown,—
Oh, now, man, don't act a dunce!
Cain't you talk? I tol' you once,
Speak up, Ike, an' 'spress yo'se'f.
Wha 'd you come hyeah fu' to-night?
Body 'd t'ink yo' haid ain't right.
I 's done all dat I kin do,[Pg 185]Read more of this...

by Bishop, Elizabeth
...cooperate,
Not a kitten shall be drowned
 In the Marxist State.

Joy and Love will both be yours,
 Minnow, don't be glum.
Happy days are coming soon--
 Sleep, and let them come......Read more of this...

by de la Mare, Walter
...
And minstrelsy. 
They called -- called -- called; 
Came no reply: 
Nought but the ripples' 
Sandy sigh. 
Then glum and silent 
They sat instead, 
Vacantly brooding 
On home and bed, 
Till both together 
Stood up and said: -- 
'Us knows not, dreams not, 
Where you be, 
Turvey, unless 
In the deep blue sea; 
But axcusing silver -- 
And it comes most willing -- 
Here's us two paying our forty shilling; 
For it's sartin sure, Turvey, 
Safe and sound, 
You danced us a sq...Read more of this...

by Raleigh, Sir Walter
...earned man, in many a bygone session, 
His kids were his delight, and physics his profession;
Now Griggs, grown old and glum, and less intent on knowledge,
Physics himself at home, and sends his kids to college....Read more of this...

by McKay, Claude
...step the passenger lightly hops, 
And seeks his cab or tram-car homeward bound; 
The waiters pass out weary, listless, glum, 
To spend their tips on harlots, cards and rum....Read more of this...

by Mayakovsky, Vladimir
...with a second deluge, 
Now’s the hour whose coming it dreads.
Too slow, the wagon of years,
The oxen of days — too glum.
Our god is the god of speed,
Our heart — our battle drum.
Is there a gold diviner than ours/
What wasp of a bullet us can sting?
Songs are our weapons, our power of powers,
Our gold — our voices — just hear us sing!
Meadow, lie green on the earth!
With silk our days for us line!
Rainbow, give color and girth
To the fleet-foot steeds of time.Read more of this...

by Whittier, John Greenleaf
...wicked skipper knew
Of the fields so green and the sky so blue.
Riding there in his sorry trim,
Like an Indian idol glum and grim,
Scarcely he seemed the sound to hear
Of voices shouting, far and near:
'Here's Flud Oirson, fur his horrd horrt,
Torr'd an' futherr'd an' corr'd in a corrt
By the women o' Morble'ead!'

'Hear me, neighbors!' at last he cried, -
'What to me is this noisy ride?
What is the shame that clothes the skin
To the nameless horror that lives within?
Wak...Read more of this...

by Sassoon, Siegfried
...y joy, 
Slept soundly through the lonesome dark, 
And whistled early with the lark. 

In winter trenches, cowed and glum, 
With crumps and lice and lack of rum, 
He put a bullet through his brain. 
No one spoke of him again. 

You smug-faced crowds with kindling eye 
Who cheer when soldier lads march by, 
Sneak home and pray you'll never know 
The hell where youth and laughter go....Read more of this...

by Bishop, Elizabeth
...to rob?

"I raised him to be honest,
 Even here, in Babylon slum."
The customers had another,
 Looking serious and glum.

But one of them said to another,
 When he got outside the door,
"He wasn't much of a burglar,
 He got caught six times--or more."

This morning the little soldiers
 are on Babylon hill again;
Their gun barrels and helmets
 Shine in a gentle rain.

Micuçú is buried already.
 They're after another two,
But they say they aren't as dangero...Read more of this...

by Masefield, John
...o sore 
I don't think I'd a stood much more. 
Bill in his corner bathed his thumb, 
Buttoned his shirt and glowered glum. 
"I'll never shake your hand" he said. 
"I'd rather see my children dead. 
I've been about had some fun with you, 
But you're a liar and I've done with you. 
You've knocked me out, you didn't beat me; 
Look out the next time that you meet me, 
There'll be no friend to watch the clock for you 
And no convenient thumb to crock for you, 
A...Read more of this...

by Lanier, Sidney
...id it many years.
-- Once Famine tricked himself with ears of corn,
And Hate strung flowers on his spiked belt,
And glum Revenge in silver lilies pranked him,
And Lust put violets on his shameless front,
And all minced forth o' the street like holiday folk
That sally off afield on Summer morns.
-- Once certain hounds that knew of many a chase,
And bare great wounds of antler and of tusk
That they had ta'en to give a lord some sport,
-- Good hounds, that would have die...Read more of this...

by Hardy, Thomas
...front of Waterloo, 
To Pap’lotte and Smohain. 

The Guard Imperial wavered on the height; 
The Emperor’s face grew glum; 
“I sent,” he said, “to Grouchy yesternight,
And yet he does not come!” 

’Twas then, Good Father, that the French espied, 
Streaking the summer land, 
The men of Bl?cher. But the Emperor cried, 
“Grouchy is now at hand!” 

And meanwhile Vand’leur, Vivian, Maitland, Kempt, 
Met d’Erlon, Friant, Ney; 
But Grouchy—mis-sent, blamed, yet blame-exempt— ...Read more of this...

by Service, Robert William
...bet).
Well, there's not much to say.
I wish I had a pet,
Or something I could play.

Cheer up! don't get so glum
And sick of everything;
The worst is yet to come;
God help you till the Spring.
God shield you from the Fear;
Teach you to laugh, not moan.
Ha! ha! it sounds so *****--
Alone, alone, alone!...Read more of this...

by Pushkin, Alexander
...kons,
Nods quickly, smiles as from afar
And shoots, within two flashing seconds,
Into still water like a star.

The glum old man slept not an instant;
All day, not even once he prayed:
Before his eyes still hung and glistened
The wondrous, the relentless shade...
The grove puts on its gown of nightfall;
The moon walks on the cloudy floor;
And there's the maiden - pale, delightful,
Reclining on the spellbound shore.

She looks at him, her hair she brushes,
...Read more of this...

by Service, Robert William
...r>"
The guide was shocked, but trained was he
To do as he was bid.
So three dames of the Middle West,
Dyspeptically glum
Went back to town, and quite depressed
The guide was chewing gum....Read more of this...

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Book: Reflection on the Important Things