Famous Helmeted Poems by Famous Poets

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

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The Man In The Dead Machine

by Donald Hall
 High on a slope in New Guinea
The Grumman Hellcat
lodges among bright vines
as thick as arms. In 1943,
the clenched hand of a pilot
glided it here
where no one has ever been. 

In the cockpit, the helmeted
skeleton sits
upright, held
by dry sinews at neck
and shoulder, and webbing
that straps the pelvic cross
to the cracked
leather of the seat, and the breastbone
to the canvas cover
of the...Read more of this...

Goliath and David

by Robert Graves
 (For D. C. T., Killed at Fricourt, March, 1916)


Yet once an earlier David took 
Smooth pebbles from the brook: 
Out between the lines he went 
To that one-sided tournament, 
A shepherd boy who stood out fine
And young to fight a Philistine 
Clad all in brazen mail. He swears 
That he’s killed lions, he’s killed bears, 
And those that scorn...Read more of this...

The Pearl Diver

by Andrew Barton Paterson
 Kanzo Makame, the diver, sturdy and small Japanee, 
Seeker of pearls and of pearl-shell down in the depths of the sea, 
Trudged o'er the bed of the ocean, searching industriously. 

Over the pearl-grounds the lugger drifted -- a little white speck: 
Joe Nagasaki, the "tender", holding the life-line on deck, 
Talked through the rope to the diver, knew when...Read more of this...

Gangrene

by Philip Levine
 Vous êtes sorti sain et sauf des basses 
calomnies, vous avey conquis les coeurs. 

Zola, J'accuse


One was kicked in the stomach 
until he vomited, then 
 made to put back 
into his mouth what they had 
brought forth; when he tried to drown 
 in his own stew 
he was recovered. "You are 
worse than a ****** or Jew,"...Read more of this...

Mossbawn: Two Poems in Dedication

by Seamus Heaney
 1. Sunlight

There was a sunlit absence.
The helmeted pump in the yard
heated its iron,
water honeyed

in the slung bucket
and the sun stood
like a griddle cooling
against the wall

of each long afternoon.
So, her hands scuffled
over the bakeboard,
the reddening stove

sent its plaque of heat
against her where she stood
in a floury apron
by the window.

Now she dusts the board
with a goose's wing,
now sits, broad-lapped,
with whitened nails

and...Read more of this...

The Roman Road

by Thomas Hardy
 The Roman Road runs straight and bare 
As the pale parting-line in hair 
Across the heath. And thoughtful men 
Contrast its days of Now and Then, 
And delve, and measure, and compare; 

Visioning on the vacant air 
Helmeted legionnaires, who proudly rear 
The Eagle, as they pace again 
The Roman Road. 

But no tall brass-helmeted legionnaire 
Haunts it for...Read more of this...

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