Famous Half Mast Poems by Famous Poets

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

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A Ballad of Footmen

...Now what in the name of the sun and the stars
Is the meaning of this most unholy of wars?
Do men find life so full of humour and joy
That for want of excitement they smash up the toy?
Fifteen millions of soldiers with popguns and horses
All bent upon killing, because their "of courses"
Are not quite the same. All these men by the ears,
And nine nations of ...Read more of this...
by Lowell, Amy


A Brother In Need

...NOW, rallying once if ne'er again, 
With flag at half-mast flown, 
A people in dire need and strain 
Mans Tyra's bastion. 

Betrayed in danger's hour, betrayed 
Before the stress of strife! 
Was this the meaning that it had-- 
That clasp of hands at Axelstad 
Which gave the North new life? 

The words that seemed as if they rushed 
From deepest heart-sprin...Read more of this...
by Ibsen, Henrik

A Day Like Any Other

...Such insignificance: a glance
at your record on the doctor's desk
or a letter not meant for you.
How could you have known? It's not true
that your life passes before you
in rapid motion, but your watch
suddenly ticks like an amplified heart,
the hands freezing against a white
that is a judgment. Otherwise nothing.
The face in the mirror is still yours.
Two...Read more of this...
by Mueller, Lisel

Grandad And A Pramload Of Clocks

...Wheeling them in,
the yard gate at half-mast 
with its ticking hinge,
the tin bucket with a hairnet of webs,
the privy door ajar,
the path gloved with moss
ploughed by metal 
through a scalped tyre -
in the shadows of the hood,
in the ripped silk
of the rocking, buckled pram,
none of the dead clocks moving.

And carrying them in
to a kitchen table,
a near-...Read more of this...
by Lindley, John

The Galley-Slave

...Oh gallant was our galley from her caren steering-wheel
To her figurehead of silver and her beak of hammered steel;
The leg-bar chafed the ankle and we gasped for cooler air,
But no galley on the waters with our galley could compare!

Our bulkheads bulged with cotton and our masts were stepped in gold --
We ran a mighty merchandise of niggers in the hold;
...Read more of this...
by Kipling, Rudyard


The Hon. Sec

...The flag that hung half-mast today
Seemed animate with being
As if it knew for who it flew
And will no more be seeing.

He loved each corner of the links-
The stream at the eleventh,
The grey-green bents, the pale sea-pinks,
The prospect from the seventh;

To the ninth tee the uphill climb,
A grass and sandy stairway,
And at the top the scent of thyme
And ...Read more of this...
by Betjeman, John

The Humble-Bee

...BURLY dozing humble-bee  
Where thou art is clime for me. 
Let them sail for Porto Rique  
Far-off heats through seas to seek; 
I will follow thee alone 5 
Thou animated torrid-zone! 
Zigzag steerer desert cheerer  
Let me chase thy waving lines; 
Keep me nearer me thy hearer  
Singing over shrubs and vines. 10 

Insect lover of the sun  
Joy of...Read more of this...
by Emerson, Ralph Waldo

The Wanderer

...ALL day they loitered by the resting ships, 
Telling their beauties over, taking stock; 
At night the verdict left my messmate's lips, 
"The Wanderer is the finest ship in dock." 

I had not seen her, but a friend, since drowned, 
Drew her, with painted ports, low, lovely, lean, 
Saying, "The Wanderer, clipper, outward bound, 
The loveliest ship my eyes ha...Read more of this...
by Masefield, John

What Forgotten Realm?

...Let me introduce to you
my poetry: it's an island flying
from book to book
searching for
the page where it was born,
then stops at my house, both wings wounded,
for its meals of flesh and cold phrases.

I paid dearly for the poem's visit!
My best words lie down to sleep in the nettles,
my greenest syllables dream
of a silence as young as themselves.

Offer...Read more of this...
by Bosquet, Alain

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