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Famous Grinds Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Mayakovsky, Vladimir
...shout or say. 

In our pride, we raise up again 
the cities¡¯ towers of Babel, 
but god, 
confusing tongues, 
grinds 
cities to pasture. 

In silence the street pushed torment. 
A shout stood erect in the gullet. 
Wedged in the throat, 
bulging taxis and bony cabs bristled. 
Pedestrians have trodden my chest 
flatter than consumption. 

The city has locked the road in gloom. 

But when ¨C 
nevertheless! ¨C 
the street coughed up...Read more of this...



by Williams, William Carlos (WCW)
...r. 

The open street-door lets in the breath of 
the morning wind from over the lake. 
The bus coming to a halt grinds from its sullen brakes— 
lullaby, lullaby. The crackle of a newspaper, 
the movement of the troubled coat beside you— 
sleep, sleep, sleep, sleep . . . 
It is the sting of snow, the burning liquor of 
the moonlight, the rush of rain in the gutters packed 
with dead leaves: go to sleep, go to sleep. 
And the night passes—and never p...Read more of this...

by Swinburne, Algernon Charles
...strife on strife,
How should we love peace?

Ye whose meat is sweet
And your wine-cup red,
Us beneath your feet
Hunger grinds as wheat,
Grinds to make you bread.

Ye whose night is bright
With soft rest and heat,
Clothed like day with light,
Us the naked night
Slays from street to street.

Hath your God no rod,
That ye tread so light?
Man on us as God,
God as man hath trod,
Trod us down with might.

We that one by one
Bleed from either's rod.
What for us hath...Read more of this...

by Field, Eugene
...ord, the lance,
The morris dance,
The highland song, the greenwood ditty,
Of these I read,
Or, when the need,
My Miller grinds me grist that's gritty!

When of such stuff
We've had enough,
Why, there be other friends to greet us;
We'll moralize
In solemn wise
With Plato or with Epictetus.

Sneer as you may,
I'm proud to say
That I, for one, am very grateful
To Heaven, that sends
These genial friends
To banish other friendships hateful!

And when I'm done,
I'd have no son
...Read more of this...

by Brown, Thomas Edward
...to Him:—‘Art Thou the Christ?’ 
He saith—‘Thou say’st.’ 

Like to an ox 
That staggers ’neath the mortal blow, 
She grinds upon the rocks:— 
Then straight and low 
Leaps forth the levelled line, and in our quarter locks 
The cradle’s rigged; with swerving of the blast 
We go, 
Our Captain last— 
Demands 
‘Who fired that shot?’ Each silent stands— 
Ah, sweet perplexity! 
This too was He. 

I have an arbour wherein came a toad 
Most hideous to see— 
Immediate, seizing s...Read more of this...



by Vaughan, Henry
...sessed, and yet to miss;
To wed a true but absent bliss:
Are lingering tortures, and their smart
Dissects and racks and grinds the heart!
As soul and body in that state
Which unto us seems separate,
Cannot be said to live, until
Reunion; which days fulfil
And slow-paced seasons: so in vain
Through hours and minutes (Time's long train,)
I look for thee, and from thy sight,
As from my soul, for life and light.
For till thine eyes shine so on me,
Mine are fast-closed and wil...Read more of this...

by Lawson, Henry
...ves go flowing faster in the fear of being late;
But slowly drag the moments, whilst beneath the dust and heat
The city grinds the owners of the faces in the street 
 Grinding body, grinding soul,
 Yielding scarce enough to eat 
Oh! I sorrow for the owners of the faces in the street. 

And then the only faces till the sun is sinking down
Are those of outside toilers and the idlers of the town,
Save here and there a face that seems a stranger in the street,
Tells of the ci...Read more of this...

by Service, Robert William
...horny hand and lagging limb
He slaves to keep me free;
That I may have a golden time,
And praise the Lord on high,
Life grinds into the bloody grime
A better man than I. 

Yet if in sheer humility
I yield this yokel place,
Will he not think it mockery
And spit into my face,
Saying: "How can you care a damn,
As now my way you bar,
When it's because of what I am,
You, Sir, are what you are?" 

But no, he did not speak like that,
Nor homage did I pay;
I did not lift my bowle...Read more of this...

by Atwood, Margaret
...been mysticism
or heresy. It isn't now.
Outside there are sirens.
Someone's been run over.
The century grinds on....Read more of this...

by Schiller, Friedrich von
...ught can restrain;
And arms--invite its shock.

It tears in twain like tender grass,
The strongest forest-trees;
It grinds to dust the hardened brass,
Though stout and firm it be.

And yet this beast, that none can tame,
Its threat ne'er twice fulfils;
It dies in its self-kindled flame.
And dies e'en when it kills.

IX.

We children six our being had
From a most strange and wondrous pair,--
Our mother ever grave and sad,
Our father ever free from care....Read more of this...

by Schiller, Friedrich von
...be placed."
"Whence do ye, then, derive the destiny, great and gigantic,
Which raises man up on high, e'en when it grinds him to dust?"--
"All mere nonsense! Ourselves, our worthy acquaintances also,
And our sorrows and wants, seek we, and find we, too, here."
"But all this ye possess at home both apter and better,--
Wherefore, then, fly from yourselves, if 'tis yourselves that ye seek?"
"Be not offended, great hero, for that is a different question;
Ever is destiny ...Read more of this...

by Baudelaire, Charles
...the water's plane.

The winged visitor, so awkward and weak!
So recently beautiful, now comic and ugly!
One sailor grinds a pipe into his beak,
Another, limping, mimics the infirm bird that once could fly.

The poet is like the prince of the clouds
Who haunts the storm and laughs at lightning.
He's exiled to the ground and its hooting crowds;
His giant wings prevent him from walking....Read more of this...

by Holmes, Oliver Wendell
...fierce desire, -- 
Untamed, unscared, unconquered Punch! 
My ear a pleasing torture finds 
In tones the withered sibyl grinds, -- 
The dame sans merci's broken strain, 
Whom I erewhile, perchance, have known, 
When Orleans filled the Bourbon throne, 
A siren singing by the Seine. 

But most I love the tube that spies 
The orbs celestial in their march; 
That shows the comet as it whisks 
Its tail across the planets' disks, 
As if to blind their blood-shot eyes; 
Or wheel...Read more of this...

by Levy, Amy
...om my head.

I open the garret window,
Let the music in and the moon;
See the woman grin for coppers,
While the man grinds out the tune.

Grind me a dirge or a requiem,
Or a funeral-march sad and slow,
But not, O not, that waltz tune
I heard so long ago.

I stand upright by the window,
The moonlight streams in wan:--
O God! with its changeless rise and fall
The tune twirls on and on....Read more of this...

by Edson, Russell
...e great tongue curled 
forward; the thick laces dragging like ships' rope 
on the ground as the huge thing squeals and 
grinds forward; children everywhere, they look 
from the shoelace holes, they crowd about the 
old woman, even as she pilots this huge shoe 
over the earth . . . 

 Soon the huge shoe is descending the 
opposite horizon, a monstrous snail squealing 
and grinding into the earth . . . 

 The man turns to his breakfast again, but sees 
i...Read more of this...

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Book: Shattered Sighs