Famous Identify Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Dream Song 53: He lay in the middle of the world and twicht

by John Berryman
 He lay in the middle of the world, and twicht.
More Sparine for Pelides,
human (half) & down here as he is,
with probably insulting mail to open
and certainly unworthy words to hear
and his unforgiving memory.

-”I seldom go to films. They are too exciting,
said the Honourable Possum.
-”It takes me so long to read the 'paper,
said to me one day a novelist hot...Read more of this...

Speak the Truth to the People

by Mari Evans
Speak the truth to the people
Talk sense to the people
Free them with honesty
Free the people with Love and Courage for their Being
Spare them the fantasy
Fantasy enslaves
A slave is enslaved
Can be enslaved by unwisdom
Can be re-enslaved while in flight from the enemy
Can be enslaved by his brother whom he loves
His brother whom he trusts whom he loves
His brother whom he trusts
His...Read more of this...

To Think of Time

by Walt Whitman
 1
TO think of time—of all that retrospection! 
To think of to-day, and the ages continued henceforward! 

Have you guess’d you yourself would not continue? 
Have you dreaded these earth-beetles? 
Have you fear’d the future would be nothing to you?

Is to-day nothing? Is the beginningless past nothing? 
If the future is nothing, they are just as surely nothing. 

To think...Read more of this...

Identification In Belfast

by Robert Lowell
 (I.R.A. Bombing)

The British Army now carries two rifles,
one with rubber rabbit-pellets for children,
the other's of course for the Provisionals....
'When they first showed me the boy, I thought oh good,
it's not him because he's blonde—
I imagine his hair was singed dark by the bomb.
He had nothing on him to identify him,
except this box of joke trick matches;
he liked to have...Read more of this...

The Gundaroo Bullock

by Andrew Barton Paterson
 Oh, there's some that breeds the Devon that's as solid as a stone, 
And there's some that breeds the brindle which they call the "Goulburn Roan"; 
But amongst the breeds of cattle there are very, very few 
Like the hairy-whiskered bullock that they breed at Gundaroo. 
Far away by Grabben Gullen, where the Murrumbidgee flows, 
There's a block of...Read more of this...

Spirit whose Work is Done

by Walt Whitman
 SPIRIT whose work is done! spirit of dreadful hours! 
Ere, departing, fade from my eyes your forests of bayonets; 
Spirit of gloomiest fears and doubts, (yet onward ever unfaltering pressing;) 
Spirit of many a solemn day, and many a savage scene! Electric spirit! 
That with muttering voice, through the war now closed, like a tireless phantom flitted,
Rousing the land...Read more of this...

Lyman frederick and jim

by Eugene Field
 (FOR THE FELLOWSHIP CLU 

Lyman and Frederick and Jim, one day,
Set out in a great big ship--
Steamed to the ocean adown the bay
Out of a New York slip.
"Where are you going and what is your game?"
The people asked those three.
"Darned if we know; but all the same
Happy as larks are we;
And happier still we're going to be!"
Said Lyman
And Frederick
And...Read more of this...

Continuing To Live

by Philip Larkin
 Continuing to live -- that is, repeat
A habit formed to get necessaries --
Is nearly always losing, or going without.
 It varies.

This loss of interest, hair, and enterprise --
Ah, if the game were poker, yes,
You might discard them, draw a full house!
 But it's chess.

And once you have walked the length of your mind, what
You command is clear as a...Read more of this...

This Dust and its Feature --

by Emily Dickinson
 This Dust, and its Feature --
Accredited -- Today --
Will in a second Future --
Cease to identify --

This Mind, and its measure --
A too minute Area
For its enlarged inspection's
Comparison -- appear --

This World, and its species
A too concluded show
For its absorbed Attention's
Remotest scrutiny --...Read more of this...

Fear

by Raymond Carver
 Fear of seeing a police car pull into the drive.
Fear of falling asleep at night.
Fear of not falling asleep.
Fear of the past rising up.
Fear of the present taking flight.
Fear of the telephone that rings in the dead of night.
Fear of electrical storms.
Fear of the cleaning woman who has a spot on her cheek!
Fear of dogs I've been told won't...Read more of this...

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