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Famous Grandfathers Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Ginsberg, Allen
...ed and suffering 
 beggars holy the hideous human angels! 
Holy my mother in the insane asylum! Holy the cocks 
 of the grandfathers of Kansas! 
Holy the groaning saxophone! Holy the bop 
 apocalypse! Holy the jazzbands marijuana 
 hipsters peace & junk & drums! 
Holy the solitudes of skyscrapers and pavements! Holy 
 the cafeterias filled with the millions! Holy the 
 mysterious rivers of tears under the streets! 
Holy the lone juggernaut! Holy the vast lamb of the 
 middle ...Read more of this...



by Sandburg, Carl
...roglyphs of the rat footprints
chatter the pedigrees of the rats
and babble of the blood
and gabble of the breed
of the grandfathers and the great-grandfathers
of the rats.

And the wind shifts
and the dust on a door sill shifts
and even the writing of the rat footprints
tells us nothing, nothing at all
about the greatest city, the greatest nation
where the strong men listened
and the women warbled: Nothing like us ever was....Read more of this...

by Yeats, William Butler
...Old fathers, great-grandfathers,
Rise as kindred should.
If ever lover's loneliness
Came where you stood,
Pray that Heaven protect us
That protect your blood.

The mountain throws a shadow,
Thin is the moon's horn;
What did we remember
Under the ragged thorn?
Dread has followed longing,
And our hearts are torn....Read more of this...

by Crane, Stephen
...o bigger than my finger.
I laughed, and spoke to one near me,
"Will he prevail?"
"Surely," replied this other;
"His grandfathers beat them many times."
Then did I see much virtue in grandfathers --
At least, for the little man
Who stood against the mountains....Read more of this...

by Spenser, Edmund
...adth and length: 
This people's virtue yet so fruitful was 
Of virtuous nephews that posterity 
Striving in power their grandfathers to pass, 
The lowest earth join'd to the heaven high; 
To th' end that having all parts in their power 
Nought from the Roman Empire might be 'quite, 
And that though time doth Commonwealths devour, 
Yet no time should so low embase their height, 
That her head earth'd in her foundations deep, 
Should not her name and endless honour keep. 

...Read more of this...



by Ginsberg, Allen
...any loves who never get bread?
How many Aunts with holes in their head?
How many sisters skulls on the ground?
How many grandfathers make no more sound?

How many fathers in woe
How many sons nowhere to go?
How many daughters nothing to eat?
How many uncles with swollen sick feet?

Millions of babies in pain
Millions of mothers in rain
Millions of brothers in woe
Millions of children nowhere to go

 New York, November 14-16, 1971...Read more of this...

by Lawson, Henry
...

His frockcoat is green and the nap is no more, 
And his hat is not quite at its best; 
He wears the peaked collar our grandfathers wore, 
The black-ribbon tie that was legal of yore, 
And the coat buttoned over his breast. 


When first he came in, for a moment I thought 
That my vision or wits were astray; 
For a picture and page out of Dickens he brought--- 
‘Twas an old file dropped in from the Chancery Court 
To the wine-vault just over the way. 

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

by Mueller, Lisel
...
and none of us tells it
the same way twice

Because grandmothers looking like spiders
want to enchant the children
and grandfathers need to convince us
what happened happened because of them

and though we listen only
haphazardly, with one ear,
we will begin our story
with the word and...Read more of this...

Dont forget to view our wonderful member Grandfathers poems.


Book: Reflection on the Important Things