Famous In Short Poems by Famous Poets

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

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In this short Life

by Emily Dickinson
 In this short Life
That only lasts an hour
How much -- how little -- is
Within our power...Read more of this...

From The Short Story What The Swallows Did

by Louisa May Alcott
 Swallow, swallow, neighbor swallow, 
Starting on your autumn flight, 
Pause a moment at my window, 
Twitter softly your good-night; 
For the summer days are over, 
All your duties are well done, 
And the happy homes you builded 
Have grown empty, one by one. 
Swallow, swallow, neighbor swallow, 
Are you ready for your flight? 
Are all the feather cloaks completed?...Read more of this...

The Winters are so short

by Emily Dickinson
 The Winters are so short --
I'm hardly justified
In sending all the Birds away --
And moving into Pod --

Myself -- for scarcely settled --
The Phoebes have begun --
And then -- it's time to strike my Tent --
And open House -- again --

It's mostly, interruptions --
My Summer -- is despoiled --
Because there was a Winter -- once --
And al the Cattle...Read more of this...

In re a Gentleman One

by Andrew Barton Paterson
 We see it each day in the paper, 
And know that there's mischief in store; 
That some unprofessional caper 
Has landed a shark on the shore. 
We know there'll be plenty of trouble 
Before they get through with the fun, 
Because he's been coming the double 
On clients, has "Gentleman, One". 
Alas for the gallant attorney, 
Intent upon cutting...Read more of this...

Belfast Tune

by Joseph Brodsky
Here's a girl from a dangerous town
She crops her dark hair short
so that less of her has to frown
when someine gets hurt.

She folds her memories like a parachute.
Dropped she collects the peat
and cooks her veggies at home: they shoot
here where they eat.

Ah there's more sky in these parts than say 
ground. Hence her voice's pitch 
and her stare stains your...Read more of this...

Short Order

by Charles Bukowski
 I took my girlfriend to your last poetry reading,
she said.
yes, yes? I asked.
she's young and pretty, she said.
and? I asked.
she hated your
guts.
then she stretched out on the couch
and pulled off her
boots.
I don't have very good legs,
she said.
all right, I thought, I don't have very good
poetry; she doesn't have very good
legs.
scramble two....Read more of this...

A Very Short Song

by Dorothy Parker
 Once, when I was young and true,
Someone left me sad-
Broke my brittle heart in two;
And that is very bad.

Love is for unlucky folk,
Love is but a curse.
Once there was a heart I broke;
And that, I think, is worse....Read more of this...

Days Too Short

by William Henry Davies
 When primroses are out in Spring, 
And small, blue violets come between; 
When merry birds sing on boughs green, 
And rills, as soon as born, must sing; 

When butterflies will make side-leaps, 
As though escaped from Nature's hand 
Ere perfect quite; and bees will stand 
Upon their heads in fragrant deeps; 

When small clouds are so silvery white 
Each...Read more of this...

Translation From the Gull Language

by Thomas Moore
 'Twas grav'd on the Stone of Destiny,
In letters four, and letters three;
And ne'er did the King of the Gulls go by
But those awful letters scar'd his eye;
For he knew that a Prophet Voice had said
"As long as those words by man were read,
The ancient race of the Gulls should ne'er
One hour of peace or plenty share."
But years and years...Read more of this...

Let It Enfold You

by Charles Bukowski
 either peace or happiness,
let it enfold you

when i was a young man
I felt these things were
dumb,unsophisticated.
I had bad blood,a twisted
mind, a pecarious
upbringing.

I was hard as granite,I
leered at the 
sun.
I trusted no man and
especially no
woman.

I was living a hell in
small rooms, I broke
things, smashed things,
walked through glass,
cursed.
I challenged everything,
was continually being
evicted,jailed,in and
out of fights,in and aout
of my mind.
women were something
to...Read more of this...

From The Short Story A Christmas Dream And How It Came True

by Louisa May Alcott
 From our happy home 
Through the world we roam 
One week in all the year, 
Making winter spring 
With the joy we bring 
For Christmas-tide is here. 

Now the eastern star 
Shines from afar 
To light the poorest home; 
Hearts warmer grow, 
Gifts freely flow, 
For Christmas-tide has come. 

Now gay trees rise 
Before young eyes, 
Abloom with tempting...Read more of this...

Ode On Indolence

by John Keats
 One morn before me were three figures seen,
 I With bowed necks, and joined hands, side-faced;
And one behind the other stepp'd serene,
 In placid sandals, and in white robes graced;
They pass'd, like figures on a marble urn,
 When shifted round to see the other side;
 They came again; as when the urn once more
Is shifted round, the first seen...Read more of this...

The Faerie Queene Book III Canto VI

by Edmund Spenser
The birth of faire Belphoebe and
Of Amoret is told.
The Gardins of Adonis fraught
With pleasures manifold.
 
And gentle sprite deforme with rude rusticity.
 But to this faire Belphoebe in her berth
The heauens so fauourable were and free,
Looking with myld aspect vpon the earth,
In th'Horoscope of her natiuitee,
That all the gifts of grace and chastitee
On her they poured forth of plenteous horne;
Ioue...Read more of this...

Sonnets xx

by William Shakespeare
 POOR soul, the centre of my sinful earth-- 
My sinful earth these rebel powers array-- 
Why dost thou pine within and suffer dearth, 
Painting thy outward walls so costly gay? 
Why so large cost, having so short a lease, 
Dost thou upon thy fading mansion spend? 
Shall worms, inheritors of this excess, 
Eat up thy charge? Is this thy...Read more of this...

That short -- potential stir

by Emily Dickinson
 That short -- potential stir
That each can make but once --
That Bustle so illustrious
'Tis almost Consequence --

Is the eclat of Death --
Oh, thou unknown Renown
That not a Beggar would accept
Had he the power to spurn --...Read more of this...

Contained in this short Life

by Emily Dickinson
 Contained in this short Life
Are magical extents
The soul returning soft at night
To steal securer thence

As Children strictest kept
Turn soonest to the sea
Whose nameless Fathoms slink away
Beside infinity...Read more of this...

Toward those short trees

by Masaoka Shiki
Toward those short trees
We saw a hawk descending
On a day in spring...Read more of this...

I reason Earth is short

by Emily Dickinson
 I reason, Earth is short --
And Anguish -- absolute --
And many hurt,
But, what of that?

I reason, we could die --
The best Vitality
Cannot excel Decay,
But, what of that?

I reason, that in Heaven --
Somehow, it will be even --
Some new Equation, given --
But, what of that?...Read more of this...

Sestina IV

by Francesco Petrarch
SESTINA IV. Chi è fermato di menar sua vita. HE PRAYS GOD TO GUIDE HIS FRAIL BARK TO A SAFE PORT.  Who is resolved to venture his vain lifeOn the deceitful wave and 'mid the rocks,Alone, unfearing death, in little bark,Can never be far distant from his end:Therefore betimes he should...Read more of this...

Be My Mistress Short or Tall

by Robert Herrick
 Be my mistress short or tall 
And distorted therewithall 
Be she likewise one of those 
That an acre hath of nose 
Be her teeth ill hung or set 
And her grinders black as jet 
Be her cheeks so shallow too 
As to show her tongue wag through 
Hath she thin hair, hath she none 
She's to me a paragon....Read more of this...

Sonnet 124: If my dear love were but the child of state

by William Shakespeare
 If my dear love were but the child of state,
It might for Fortune's bastard be unfathered,
As subject to Time's love or to Time's hate,
Weeds among weeds, or flowers with flowers gathered.
No, it was builded far from accident;
It suffers not in smiling pomp, nor falls
Under the blow of thralled discontent,
Whereto th' inviting time our fashion calls.
It fears not policy, that...Read more of this...

Variations on The short night

by Yosa Buson
 Below are eleven Buson haiku
beginning with the phrase
'The short night--'


The short night--
on the hairy caterpillar
beads of dew.

The short night--
patrolmen
washing in the river.

The short night--
bubbles of crab froth
among the river reeds.

The short night--
a broom thrown away
on the beach.

The short night--
the Oi River
has sunk two feet.

The short night--
on the outskirts of the village
a small shop opening.

The short night--
broken, in the shallows,
a...Read more of this...

A Precise Woman

by Yehuda Amichai
 A precise woman with a short haircut brings order
to my thoughts and my dresser drawers,
moves feelings around like furniture
into a new arrangement.
A woman whose body is cinched at the waist and firmly divided
into upper and lower,
with weather-forecast eyes
of shatterproof glass.
Even her cries of passion follow a certain order,
one after the other:
tame dove, then wild dove,
then peacock, wounded peacock, peacock,...Read more of this...

Afridi Love

by Adela Florence Cory Nicolson
   Since, Oh, Beloved, you are not even faithful
     To me, who loved you so, for one short night,
   For one brief space of darkness, though my absence
     Did but endure until the dawning light;

   Since all your beauty—which was mine—you squandered
    ...Read more of this...

From The Short Story Shadow-Children

by Louisa May Alcott
 Little shadows, little shadows 
Dancing on the chamber wall, 
While I sit beside the hearthstone 
Where the red flames rise and fall. 
Caps and nightgowns, caps and nightgowns, 
My three antic shadows wear; 
And no sound they make in playing, 
For the six small feet are bare. 

Dancing gayly, dancing gayly, 
To and fro all together, 
Like a family...Read more of this...

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