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Famous Howling Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Book: Radiant Verses: A Journey Through Inspiring Poetry
...the windowpanes, grey raindrops 
howled together, 
piling on a grimace 
as though the gargoyles 
of Notre Dame were howling. 

Damn you! 
Isn¡¯t that enough? 
Screams will soon claw my mouth apart. 

Then I heard, 
softly, 
a nerve leap 
like a sick man from his bed. 
Then, 
barely moving, 
at first, 
it soon scampered about, 
agitated, 
distinct. 
Now, with a couple more, 
it darted about in a desperate dance. 

The plaster on the ground floor crashed....Read more of this...
by Mayakovsky, Vladimir



...Gambol'd by day, and filled the night with cries; 
In what superior to the brutal race 
That fled before them thro' the howling wilds, 
Were all those num'rous tawny tribes which swarm'd 
From Baffin's bay to Del Fuego south, 
From California to the Oronoque. 
Far from the reach of fame they liv'd unknown 
In listless slumber and inglorious ease; 
To them fair science never op'd her stores, 
Nor sacred truth sublim'd the soul to God; 
No fix'd abode their wand'ring genius kne...Read more of this...
by Brackenridge, Hugh Henry
...itself disown:
It felt, yet could escape, the magic tone
Whose prelude held all envy, hate, and wrong,
But what was howling in one breast alone,
Silent with expectation of the song,
Whose master's hand is cold, whose silver lyre unstrung.

Live thou, whose infamy is not thy fame!
Live! fear no heavier chastisement from me,
Thou noteless blot on a remembered name!
But be thyself, and know thyself to be!
And ever at thy season be thou free
To spill the venom when t...Read more of this...
by Shelley, Percy Bysshe
...swollen mushrooms? Are not our wide plains
Speckled with countless fleeces? Have not rains
Green'd over April's lap? No howling sad
Sickens our fearful ewes; and we have had
Great bounty from Endymion our lord.
The earth is glad: the merry lark has pour'd
His early song against yon breezy sky,
That spreads so clear o'er our solemnity."

 Thus ending, on the shrine he heap'd a spire
Of teeming sweets, enkindling sacred fire;
Anon he stain'd the thick and spongy sod
With wine, ...Read more of this...
by Keats, John
...ike yelping hound 
 Pursued by wolves, November comes to bound 
 In joy from rock to rock, like answering cheer 
 To howling January now so near— 
 "Come on!" the Donjon cries to blasts o'erhead— 
 It has seen Attila, and knows not dread. 
 Oh, dismal nights of contest in the rain 
 And mist, that furious would the battle gain, 
 'The tower braves all, though angry skies pour fast 
 The flowing torrents, river-like and vast. 
 From their eight pinnacles the gorgons ...Read more of this...
by Hugo, Victor



...e town, 
And proudly glitter in a title page. 

Now, wrapt in ninefold fur, his squeamish grace 
Defies the fury of the howling storm; 
And whilst the tempest whistles round his face, 
Exults to find his mantled carcase warm. 

Now rumbling coaches furious drive along, 
Full of the majesty of city dames, 
Whose jewels sparkling in the gaudy throng, 
Raise strange emotions and invidious flames. 

Now Merit, happy in the calm of place, 
To mortals as a highlander appears, 
And ...Read more of this...
by Chatterton, Thomas
...Than in the circles past are these. They urge 
 Huge weights before them. On, with straining breasts, 
 They roll them, howling in their ceaseless toils. 
 And those that to the further side belong 
 l)o likewise, meeting in the midst, and thus 
 Crash vainly, and recoil, reverse, and cry, 
 "Why dost thou hold?" "Why dost thou loose?" 
 No rest 
 Their doom permits them. Backward course they bend; 
 Continual crescents trace, at either end 
 Meeting again in fresh rebound, a...Read more of this...
by Alighieri, Dante
...e-open
On the incessant heat-lightning flicker of situations.

Nightlong, in the granite yard, invisible cats
Have been howling like women, or damaged instruments.
Already he can feel daylight, his white disease,
Creeping up with her hatful of trivial repetitions.
The city is a map of cheerful twitters now,
And everywhere people, eyes mica-silver and blank,
Are riding to work in rows, as if recently brainwashed....Read more of this...
by Plath, Sylvia
...l betrays,
To fill the hollows, sink the hills,
Bridge gulfs, drain swamps, build dams and mills,
And fit the bleak and howling place
For gardens of a finer race,
The world-soul knows his own affair,
Fore-looking when his hands prepare
For the next ages men of mould,
Well embodied, well ensouled,
He cools the present's fiery glow,
Sets the life pulse strong, but slow.
Bitter winds and fasts austere.
His quarantines and grottos, where
He slowly cures decrepit flesh,
And brings...Read more of this...
by Emerson, Ralph Waldo
...the sullen den. 

Was I not vexed, in these gloomy ways
To walk alone so long?
Around me, wretches uttering praise,
Or howling o'er their hopeless days,
And each with Frenzy's tongue; - 

A brotherhood of misery,
Their smiles as sad as sighs;
Whose madness daily maddened me,
Distorting into agony
The bliss before my eyes! 

So stood I, in Heaven's glorious sun,
And in the glare of Hell;
My spirit drank a mingled tone,
Of seraph's song, and demon's moan;
What my soul bore, my...Read more of this...
by Brontë, Emily
...
The Queen of vintage bowed before his throne, 
A rich pomegranate gemmed her gown, 
A ripe sheaf bound her zone. 
But howling Winter fled afar, 
To hills that prop the polar star, 
And lives on deer-borne car to ride 
With barren darkness at his side, 
Round the shore where loud Lofoden 
Whirls to death the roaring whale, 
Round the hall where runic Odin 
Howls his war-song to the gale; 
Save when adown the ravaged globe 
He travels on his native storm, 
Deflowering Nature'...Read more of this...
by Campbell, Thomas
...nd now this
 spot
 approaching, filling; 
—And I can hear what maybe you do not—a terrible aesthetical commotion, 
With howling, desperate gulp of “flower” and “bower,” 
With “Sonnet to Matilda’s Eyebrow” quite, quite frantic;
With gushing, sentimental reading circles turn’d to ice or stone; 
With many a squeak, (in metre choice,) from Boston, New York, Philadelphia, London; 
As she, the illustrious Emigré, (having, it is true, in her day, although the same,
 chan...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt
...gry main
With shadows horrible ! Still, the small boat
Struggled amid the waves, a sombre speck
Upon the wide domain of howling Death!
Saint HUBERT sigh'd ! while HENRY'S speaking eye
Alternately the stormy scene survey'd
And his low hovel's safety. So past on
The hour of midnight,--and, since first they knew
The solitary scene, no midnight hour
E'er seem'd so long and weary.
While they stood,
Their hands fast link'd together, and their eyes
Fix'd on the troublous Ocean, sudd...Read more of this...
by Robinson, Mary Darby
...e pull,
And the barest branch is beautiful
One moment, while it breaks.

"So rides my soul upon the sea
That drinks the howling ships,
Though in black jest it bows and nods
Under the moons with silver rods,
I know it is roaring at the gods,
Waiting the last eclipse.

"And in the last eclipse the sea
Shall stand up like a tower,
Above all moons made dark and riven,
Hold up its foaming head in heaven,
And laugh, knowing its hour.

"And the high ones in the happy town
Propped of...Read more of this...
by Chesterton, G K
...ay the summer calms were past.  On as we drove, the equinoctial deep  Ran mountains-high before the howling blast.  We gazed with terror on the gloomy sleep  Of them that perished in the whirlwind's sweep,  Untaught that soon such anguish must ensue,  Our hopes such harvest of affliction reap,  That we the mercy of the waves should rue.  We readied the western world, a poor, devoted crew. &...Read more of this...
by Wordsworth, William
...ence they turned, dismayed and fast,
When he his gaping jaws op'd wide,
Vomited forth his poisonous blast,
And like the howling jackal cried."

"But soon their courage I restored;
They seized with rage the foe abhorred,
While I against the beast's loins threw
My spear with sturdy arm and true:
But, powerless as a bulrush frail,
It bounded from his coat of mail;
And ere I could repeat the throw,
My horse reeled wildly to and fro
Before his basilisk-like look,
And at his poison...Read more of this...
by Schiller, Friedrich von
....
The nakedness of woman is the work of God. 

Excess of sorrow laughs. Excess of joy weeps.

The roaring of lions, the howling of wolves, the raging of the
stormy sea, and the destructive sword. are portions of
eternity too great for the eye of man.

The fox condemns the trap, not himself.

Joys impregnate. Sorrows bring forth.

Let man wear the fell of the lion. woman the fleece of the sheep.

The bird a nest, the spider a web, man friendship.

The selfish smiling fool. & t...Read more of this...
by Blake, William
...upon the topmost rock
Of Teneriffe; 'mid the tempestuous night,
On which, in calmest meditation held,
Thou hear'st with howling winds the beating rain
And drifting hail descend; or if the skies
Unclouded shine, and through the blue serene
Pale Cynthia rolls her silver-axled car,
Whence gazing steadfast on the spangled vault
Raptured thou sitt'st, while murmurs indistinct
Of distant billows soothe thy pensive ear
With hoarse and hollow sounds; secure, self-blest,
There oft tho...Read more of this...
by Warton, Thomas
...s are profoundly dark." 

"Her speech," he said, "hath caused this pain.
Easier I count it to explain
The jargon of the howling main, 

"Or, stretched beside some babbling brook,
To con, with inexpressive look,
An unintelligible book." 

Low spake the voice within his head,
In words imagined more than said,
Soundless as ghost's intended tread: 

"If thou art duller than before,
Why quittedst thou the voice of lore?
Why not endure, expecting more?" 

"Rather than that," he gro...Read more of this...
by Carroll, Lewis
...)

CIII 

Those grand heroics acted as a spell: 
The angels stopp'd their ears and plied their pinions; 
The devils ran howling, deafen'd, down to hell; 
The ghosts fled, gibbering, for their own dominions — 
(For 'tis not yet decided where they dwell, 
And I leave every man to his opinions); 
Michael took refuge in his trump — but, lo! 
His teeth were set on edge, he could not blow! 

CIV 

Saint Peter, who has hitherto been known 
For an impetuous saint, upraised his keys, ...Read more of this...
by Byron, George (Lord)

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Book: Reflection on the Important Things