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Famous Inky Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Jobe, James Lee
...ng, green river valley

deep between pine covered ridges;

what can you make of that?


Night is a secret plant growing inky black against the sky.

When this plant's life is over, then day returns 

like a drunken husband who stayed out until breakfast.


A smile is a quick glimpse at the pretty face of hope.

Hope's face is framed by the beautiful night sky.

Hope's face is framed by the gray-blue dawn.


This is your life, these seconds and years

are t...Read more of this...



by Verhaeren, Emile
...ld! My heart struggles with its desires, my heart whose evil weeds, between the rocks of stubbornness, rear slyly their inky or burning flowers;
My heart, so false, so true, as the day may be, my contradictory heart, my heart ever exaggerated with immense joy or with criminal fear....Read more of this...

by Lear, Edward
...Ii Inky, Dinky, Thinky, Inky, Blacky minky, Bottle of ink! ...Read more of this...

by Ginsberg, Allen
...n as hairs of Einstein!
Father Whitman I celebrate a matter that renders Self
 oblivion!
Grand Subject that annihilates inky hands & pages'
 prayers, old orators' inspired Immortalities,
I begin your chant, openmouthed exhaling into spacious
 sky over silent mills at Hanford, Savannah River,
 Rocky Flats, Pantex, Burlington, Albuquerque
I yell thru Washington, South Carolina, Colorado, 
 Texas, Iowa, New Mexico,
Where nuclear reactors creat a new Thing under the 
 Sun, where ...Read more of this...

by Service, Robert William
...d goblin eyes a-wink.

'Twas weird to see and it 'wildered me in a *****, hypnotic dream,
Till I saw a spot like an inky blot come floating down the stream;
It bobbed and swung; it sheered and hung; it romped round in a ring;
It seemed to play in a tricksome way; it sure was a merry thing.

In freakish flights strange oily lights came fluttering round its head,
Like butterflies of a monster size--then I knew it for the Dead.
Its face was rubbed and slicked and scr...Read more of this...



by Lawson, Henry
...noon,
While hobble-chains and camp-ware
Are jingling to a tune. 

An hour has filled the heavens
With storm-clouds inky black;
At times the lightning trickles
Around the drover's track;
But Harry pushes onward,
His horses' strength he tries,
In hope to reach the river
Before the flood shall rise. 

The thunder from above him
Goes rolling o'er the plain;
And down on thirsty pastures
In torrents falls the rain.
And every creek and gully
Sends forth its little flood...Read more of this...

by Kipling, Rudyard
...e for the Church's grace?
(Shoal ! 'Ware shoal !) Not I! 

Through the blur of the whirling snow, 
 Or the black of the inky sleet, 
The lanterns gather and grow, 
 And I look for the homeward fleet. 
 Rattle of block and sheet--
"Ready about-stand by!"
 Shall I ask them a fee ere they fetch the quay?
(Shoal! 'Ware shoal!) Not I!

I dip and I surge and I swing
 In the rip of the racing tide,
By the gates of doom I sing,
 On the horns of death I ride.
 A ship-length ov...Read more of this...

by Lawson, Henry
...dome 
If you had a wife and children and a lot of bills at home. 

Did you ever guard the cattle when the night was inky-black, 
And it rained, and icy water trickled gently down your back 
Till your saddle-weary backbone fell a-aching to the roots 
And you almost felt the croaking of the bull-frog in your boots -- 
Sit and shiver in the saddle, curse the restless stock and cough 
Till a squatter's irate dummy cantered up to warn you off? 
Did you fight the drought and pl...Read more of this...

by Service, Robert William
...to blow.
It was icy cold, but the hot sweat rolled down my cheeks, and I don't know why;
And the greasy smoke in an inky cloak went streaking down the sky.

I do not know how long in the snow I wrestled with grisly fear;
But the stars came out and they danced about ere again I ventured near;
I was sick with dread, but I bravely said: "I'll just take a peep inside.
I guess he's cooked, and it's time I looked"; . . . then the door I opened wide.

And...Read more of this...

by Service, Robert William
...nks for all,"
And casually lit a long cigar.

He bore a battered stetson on the grizzle of his dome,
And a bunch of inky whiskers on his jaw;
The suddenly I knew the guy - 'twas Black Moran from Nome.
A guinney like greased lightening on the draw.
But no one got his number in that wild and wooly throng,
As they hailed his invitation with eclaw,
And they crowded round the stranger, but I knew something was wrong.
When in there stomped the Sheriff, Red McGraw.Read more of this...

by Scott, Sir Walter
...eath me cast.
          The sun is set;—the clouds are met,
               The lowering scowl of heaven
          An inky hue of livid blue
               To the deep lake has given;
     Strange gusts of wind from mountain glen
     Swept o'er the lake, then sunk again.
     I heeded not the eddying surge,
     Mine eye but saw the Trosachs' gorge,
     Mine ear but heard that sullen sound,
     Which like an earthquake shook the ground,
     And spoke the stern a...Read more of this...

by Brontë, Emily
...m - and one like blood;
And one like sapphire, seemed to be;
But, where they joined their triple flood
It tumbled in an inky sea. 

The spirit sent his dazzling gaze
Down through that ocean's gloomy night
Then, kindling all, with sudden blaze,
The glad deep sparkled wide and bright -
White as the sun, far, far more fair
Than its divided sources were!" 

"And even for that spirit, seer,
I've watched and sought my life - time long;
Sought him in heaven, hell, earth and air ...Read more of this...

by Shelley, Percy Bysshe
...he flagging wing
Of the roused cormorant in the lightningflash
Looked like the wreck of some wind-wandering
Fragment of inky thunder-smoke--this haven
Was as a gem to copy heaven engraven.

On which that Lady played her many pranks,
Circling the image of a shooting star
(Even as a tiger on Hydaspes' banks
Outspeeds the antelopes which speediest are)
In her light boat; and many quips and cranks
She played upon the water; till the car
Of the late moon, like a sick matron wa...Read more of this...

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