Famous Gnat Poems by Famous Poets

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

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The Jolly Company

by Rupert Brooke
 The stars, a jolly company,
I envied, straying late and lonely;
And cried upon their revelry:
"O white companionship! You only
In love, in faith unbroken dwell,
Friends radiant and inseparable!"

Light-heart and glad they seemed to me
And merry comrades (EVEN SO
GOD OUT OF HEAVEN MAY LAUGH TO SEE
THE HAPPY CROWDS; AND NEVER KNOW
THAT IN HIS LONE OBSCURE DISTRESS
EACH WALKETH IN A WILDERNESS).

But I, remembering,...Read more of this...

Size circumscribes -- it has no room

by Emily Dickinson
 Size circumscribes -- it has no room
For petty furniture --
The Giant tolerates no Gnat
For Ease of Gianture --

Repudiates it, all the more --
Because intrinsic size
Ignores the possibility
Of Calumnies -- or Flies....Read more of this...

the rest home

by Rg Gregory
 professor piebald
(the oldest man in the home) was meek
at the same time ribald
he clothed his matter (so to speak)
in latin and (was it) greek
it caused no great offence
to nobody did it make sense
to make a rude joke
in languages nobody spoke

once he'd changed the word agenda
at a home's committee meeting to pudenda
this sort of thing was tolerated by the other
inmates...Read more of this...

The three tailors

by Eugene Field
 I shall tell you in rhyme how, once on a time,
Three tailors tramped up to the inn Ingleheim,
On the Rhine, lovely Rhine;
They were broke, but the worst of it all, they were curst
With that malady common to tailors--a thirst
For wine, lots of wine.

"Sweet host," quoth the three, "we're hard up as can be,
Yet skilled in the practice of cunning...Read more of this...

The Worlds All Right

by Robert William Service
 Be honest, kindly, simple, true;
Seek good in all, scorn but pretence;
Whatever sorrow come to you,
Believe in Life's Beneficence!

The World's all right; serene I sit,
And cease to puzzle over it.
There's much that's mighty strange, no doubt;
But Nature knows what she's about;
And in a million years or so
We'll know more than to-day we know.
Old Evolution's under way --
 What ho! the...Read more of this...

Translations: Dante - Inferno Canto XXVI

by Alan Seeger
 Florence, rejoice! For thou o'er land and sea 
So spread'st thy pinions that the fame of thee 
Hath reached no less into the depths of Hell. 
So noble were the five I found to dwell 
Therein -- thy sons -- whence shame accrues to me 
And no great praise is thine; but if it be 
That truth unveil in...Read more of this...

Ninetieth Birthday

by R S Thomas
 You go up the long track
That will take a car, but is best walked
On slow foot, noting the lichen
That writes history on the page
Of the grey rock. Trees are about you
At first, but yield to the green bracken,
The nightjars house: you can hear it spin
On warm evenings; it is still now
In the noonday heat, only the lesser
Voices sound, blue-fly...Read more of this...

The Fingers of the Light

by Emily Dickinson
 The Fingers of the Light
Tapped soft upon the Town
With "I am great and cannot wait
So therefore let me in."

"You're soon," the Town replied,
"My Faces are asleep --
But swear, and I will let you by,
You will not wake them up."

The easy Guest complied
But once within the Town
The transport of His Countenance
Awakened Maid and Man

The Neighbor in the Pool
Upon His Hip...Read more of this...

The Gnat Nebula

by T Wignesan
Full pummelling fisticuffs
Stitch over stitch
In and out
Imperceptibly kaleidoscopic
Swirling from ear to ear
Sporadic
Thrumming mystical notes
Notes of whisper
Whisper in the ear
Now a bothered swish of clawing
Cleaving slipping fingers
Immalleable rolling universal ball

Microcosmic needle into
Macrocosmic wool all
Silently thudding kneading pulling
Sealing a sin all opened unforgiven
Eternally whispering to a few
And never really heard

Pummelling sewing the invisible centre
Round and round the darkless sun
Only the end that...Read more of this...

Wonder -- is not precisely Knowing

by Emily Dickinson
 Wonder -- is not precisely Knowing
And not precisely Knowing not --
A beautiful but bleak condition
He has not lived who has not felt --

Suspense -- is his maturer Sister --
Whether Adult Delight is Pain
Or of itself a new misgiving --
This is the Gnat that mangles men --...Read more of this...

Who Giants know with lesser Men

by Emily Dickinson
 Who Giants know, with lesser Men
Are incomplete, and shy --
For Greatness, that is ill at ease
In minor Company --

A Smaller, could not be perturbed --
The Summer Gnat displays --
Unconscious that his single Fleet
Do not comprise the skies --...Read more of this...

The Lyon And The Gnat

by Anne Kingsmill Finch
 To the still Covert of a Wood 
About the prime of Day, 
A Lyon, satiated with Food, 
With stately Pace, and sullen Mood, 
Now took his lazy way. 

To Rest he there himself compos'd, 
And in his Mind revolv'd, 
How Great a Person it enclos'd, 
How free from Danger he repos'd, 
Though now in Ease dissolv'd! 

Who Guard, nor...Read more of this...

Auguries Of Innocence

by William Blake
 To see a world in a grain of sand
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And eternity in an hour.
A robin redbreast in a cage
Puts all heaven in a rage.
A dove-house filled with doves and pigeons
Shudders hell through all its regions.
A dog starved at his master's gate
Predicts the ruin of the state.
A horse...Read more of this...

Oberons Feast

by Robert Herrick
 Hapcot! To thee the Fairy State 
I with discretion, dedicate. 
Because thou prizest things that are 
Curious, and un-familiar. 
Take first the feast; these dishes gone, 
We'll see the Fairy Court anon. 
A little mushroon table spread, 
After short prayers, they set on bread; 
A moon-parched grain of purest wheat, 
With some small glit'ring grit, to eat 
His choice...Read more of this...

TO My Lord Colrane In Answer to his Complemental Verses sent me under the Name of CLEANOR

by Anne Killigrew
 LOng my dull Muse in heavy slumbers lay, 
Indulging Sloth, and to soft Ease gave way, 
Her Fill of Rest resolving to enjoy, 
Or fancying little worthy her employ. 
When Noble Cleanors obliging Strains
Her, the neglected Lyre to tune, constrains. 
Confus'd at first, she rais'd her drowsie Head, 
Ponder'd a while, then pleas'd, forsook her Bed. 
Survey'd each Line...Read more of this...

It would have starved a Gnat --

by Emily Dickinson
 It would have starved a Gnat --
To live so small as I --
And yet I was a living Child --
With Food's necessity

Upon me -- like a Claw --
I could no more remove
Than I could coax a Leech away --
Or make a Dragon -- move --

Not like the Gnat -- had I --
The privilege to fly
And seek a Dinner for...Read more of this...

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