Famous Irked Poems by Famous Poets

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

See also:

A Wanderer

...WHEN Watkin shifts the burden of his cares
And all that irked him in his bound employ 
Once more become a vagrom-hearted boy 
He moves to roundelays and jocund airs;
Loitering with dusty harvestmen he shares 5
Old ale and sunshine; or with maids half-coy 
Pays court to shadows; fools himself with joy 
Shaking a leg at junketings and fairs.

Sometimes returning down his breezy miles 
A snatch of wayward A...Read more of this...
by Sassoon, Siegfried


Gawain and the Green Knight

...bak, bigynez to scrape,
The frothe femed at his mouth vnfayre bi the wykez,
Whettez his whyte tuschez; with hym then irked
Alle the burnez so bolde that hym by stoden
To nye hym on-ferum, bot neyghe hym non durst
for wothe;
He hade hurt so mony byforne
That al thuyght thenne ful lothe
Be more wyth his tusches torne,
That breme watz and braynwod bothe,
Til the knyyght com hymself, kachande his blonk,
Syygh hym byde at the bay, his burnez bysyde;
He lyyghtes luflyc...Read more of this...
by Eliot, T S (Thomas Stearns)

She To Him

...cedes to mind,
And judgment, though you scarce its process know,
Recalls the excellencies I once enshrined,
And you are irked that they have withered so:

Remembering that with me lies not the blame,
That Sportsman Time but rears his brood to kill,
Knowing me in my soul the very same--
One who would die to spare you touch of ill!--
Will you not grant to old affection's claim
The hand of friendship down Life's sunless hill?...Read more of this...
by Hardy, Thomas

She to Him I

...des to mind,
And judgment, though you scarce its process know, 
Recalls the excellencies I once enshrined, 
And you are irked that they have withered so: 

Remembering that with me lies not the blame, 
That Sportsman Time but rears his brood to kill,
Knowing me in my soul the very same— 
One who would die to spare you touch of ill!— 
Will you not grant to old affection’s claim 
The hand of friendship down Life’s sunless hill?...Read more of this...
by Hardy, Thomas

Telephoning In Mexican Sunlight

...e outdoor public telephone
in Mexican sunlight, in my purple shirt.
Someone had called it a man/woman
shirt. The phrase irked me. But then
I remembered that Rainer Maria
Rilke, who until he was seven wore
dresses and had long yellow hair,
wrote that the girl he almost was
"made her bed in his ear" and "slept him the world."
I thought, OK this shirt will clothe the other in me.
As we fell into long-distance love talk
a squeaky chittering started up all around,
and every few se...Read more of this...
by Kinnell, Galway


The Alcázar

...give in . . .
But never mind, Dad - carry on:
You know we've got to win."

And so they shot him at the dawn.
No bandage irked his eyes,
A lonely lad, so wistful wan,
He made his sacrifice.
he saw above the Citadel
His flag of glory fly,
And crying: "long live Spain!" he fell
And died as heroes die....Read more of this...
by Service, Robert William

The Comedian As The Letter C

...t, degree 
365 Of buttons, measure of his salt. Such trash 
366 Might help the blind, not him, serenely sly. 
367 It irked beyond his patience. Hence it was, 
368 Preferring text to gloss, he humbly served 
369 Grotesque apprenticeship to chance event, 
370 A clown, perhaps, but an aspiring clown. 
371 There is a monotonous babbling in our dreams 
372 That makes them our dependent heirs, the heirs 
373 Of dreamers buried in our sleep, and not 
374 The oncoming fanta...Read more of this...
by Stevens, Wallace

The Drug-Shop or Endymion in Edmonstoun

...slow smoke climbing the sky's cup 
From where the village lay. 

And after -- much ache of the wrists, 
Where the cords irked her -- till she came, 
The price of many amethysts, 
Hither. And now the ultimate shame 
Blew trumpet in the lists. 

And so she trod the poppies there, 
Remembering other poppies, too, 
And did not seem to see or care. 
Without, the first gray drops of dew 
Sweetened the trembling air. 

She trod the poppies. Hours passed 
Until she slept at length --...Read more of this...
by Benet, Stephen Vincent

The Song of Seven Cities

...softly when it walked before my Cities--
Neither King nor Army vexed my peoples at their toil.
Never horse nor chariot irked or overbore my Cities.
Never Mob nor Ruler questioned whence they drew their spoil.

Banded, mailed and arrogant from sunrise unto sunset,
Singing while they sacked it, they possessed the land at large.
Yet when men would rob them, they resisted, they made onset
And pierced the smoke of battle with a thousand-sabred charge.

So they warred and traffick...Read more of this...
by Kipling, Rudyard

The White Cliffs

...o intimate a phase
For one as cool and beautiful as she.

We were not friends or foes. She seemed to be
Always a little irked— fretted to find
That other women lived among mankind.
Now for the first time after years of meeting,
Never exchanging more than formal greeting,
She spoke to me— that sharp determined way
People will speak when they have things to say.

XLVII 
ROSAMUND: Susan, go home with your offspring. Fly. 
Live in America. SUSAN: Rosamund, why? 
ROSAMUND: Why, my...Read more of this...
by Miller, Alice Duer

Dont forget to view our wonderful member Irked poems.

Get a Premium Membership
Get more exposure for your poetry and more features with a Premium Membership.
Book: Reflection on the Important Things

Member Area

My Admin
Profile and Settings
Edit My Poems
Edit My Quotes
Edit My Short Stories
Edit My Articles
My Comments Inboxes
My Comments Outboxes
Soup Mail
Poetry Contests
Contest Results/Status
Followers
Poems of Poets I Follow
Friend Builder

Soup Social

Poetry Forum
New/Upcoming Features
The Wall
Soup Facebook Page
Who is Online
Link to Us

Member Poems

Poems - Top 100 New
Poems - Top 100 All-Time
Poems - Best
Poems - by Topic
Poems - New (All)
Poems - New (PM)
Poems - New by Poet
Poems - Read
Poems - Unread

Member Poets

Poets - Best New
Poets - New
Poets - Top 100 Most Poems
Poets - Top 100 Most Poems Recent
Poets - Top 100 Community
Poets - Top 100 Contest

Famous Poems

Famous Poems - African American
Famous Poems - Best
Famous Poems - Classical
Famous Poems - English
Famous Poems - Haiku
Famous Poems - Love
Famous Poems - Short
Famous Poems - Top 100

Famous Poets

Famous Poets - Living
Famous Poets - Most Popular
Famous Poets - Top 100
Famous Poets - Best
Famous Poets - Women
Famous Poets - African American
Famous Poets - Beat
Famous Poets - Cinquain
Famous Poets - Classical
Famous Poets - English
Famous Poets - Haiku
Famous Poets - Hindi
Famous Poets - Jewish
Famous Poets - Love
Famous Poets - Metaphysical
Famous Poets - Modern
Famous Poets - Punjabi
Famous Poets - Romantic
Famous Poets - Spanish
Famous Poets - Suicidal
Famous Poets - Urdu
Famous Poets - War

Poetry Resources

Anagrams
Bible
Book Store
Character Counter
Cliché Finder
Poetry Clichés
Common Words
Copyright Information
Grammar
Grammar Checker
Homonym
Homophones
How to Write a Poem
Lyrics
Love Poem Generator
New Poetic Forms
Plagiarism Checker
Poetics
Poetry Art
Publishing
Random Word Generator
Spell Checker
Store
What is Good Poetry?
Word Counter