Famous Jangle Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Dinner in a Quick Lunch Room

by Stephen Vincent Benet
 Soup should be heralded with a mellow horn, 
Blowing clear notes of gold against the stars; 
Strange entrees with a jangle of glass bars 
Fantastically alive with subtle scorn; 
Fish, by a plopping, gurgling rush of waters, 
Clear, vibrant waters, beautifully austere; 
Roast, with a thunder of drums to stun the ear, 
A screaming fife, a voice from ancient...Read more of this...

The House Of Dust: Part 04: 02: Death: And A Derisive Chorus

by Conrad Aiken
 The door is shut. She leaves the curtained office,
And down the grey-walled stairs comes trembling slowly
Towards the dazzling street.
Her withered hand clings tightly to the railing.
The long stairs rise and fall beneath her feet.

Here in the brilliant sun we jostle, waiting
To tear her secret out . . . We laugh, we hurry,
We go our way, revolving, sinister, slow.
She blinks...Read more of this...

Waters Of Babylon

by Louis Untermeyer
What presses about us here in the evening
As you open a window and stare at a stone-gray sky,
And the streets give back the jangle of meaningless movement
That is tired of life and almost too tired to die.
Night comes on, and even the night is wounded;
There, on its breast, it carries a curved, white scar.
What will you find out there that...Read more of this...

John Skelton

by Robert Graves
 What could be dafter 
Than John Skelton’s laughter? 
What sound more tenderly 
Than his pretty poetry? 
So where to rank old Skelton? 
He was no monstrous Milton, 
Nor wrote no “Paradise Lost,” 
So wondered at by most, 
Phrased so disdainfully, 
Composed so painfully. 
He struck what Milton missed, 
Milling an English grist 
With homely turn and twist. 
He was...Read more of this...

Clowns Houses

by Dame Edith Sitwell
 BENEATH the flat and paper sky 
The sun, a demon's eye, 
Glowed through the air, that mask of glass; 
All wand'ring sounds that pass

Seemed out of tune, as if the light 
Were fiddle-strings pulled tight. 
The market-square with spire and bell 
Clanged out the hour in Hell;

The busy chatter of the heat 
Shrilled like a parakeet; 
And shuddering at...Read more of this...

Fore-Warning

by Robert William Service
 I'd rather be the Jester than the Minstrel of the King;
I'd rather jangle cap and bells than twang the stately harp;
I'd rather make his royal ribs with belly-laughter ring,
Than see him sitting in the suds and sulky as a carp.
I'd rather be the Court buffoon than its most high-browed sage:
 So you who read, take head, take heed, -
...Read more of this...

Concert Party

by Siegfried Sassoon
 (EGYPTIAN BASE CAMP)


They are gathering round.... 
Out of the twilight; over the grey-blue sand, 
Shoals of low-jargoning men drift inward to the sound— 
The jangle and throb of a piano ... tum-ti-tum... 
Drawn by a lamp, they come 
Out of the glimmering lines of their tents, over the shuffling sand. 

O sing us the songs, the songs of our...Read more of this...

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