Famous Laugh Poems by Famous Poets

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

See also:

Lovers Gifts LVIII: Things Throng and Laugh

by Rabindranath Tagore
 Things throng and laugh loud in the sky; the sands and dust dance
and whirl like children. Man's mind is aroused by their shouts; his
thoughts long to be the playmates of things.
Our dreams, drifting in the stream of the vague, stretch their
arms to clutch the earth, -their efforts stiffen into bricks and
stones, and thus the city of man is built.
Voices...Read more of this...

Ossawatomie

by Carl Sandburg
 I DON’T know how he came,
shambling, dark, and strong.

He stood in the city and told men:
My people are fools, my people are young and strong, my people must learn, my people are terrible workers and fighters.
Always he kept on asking: Where did that blood come from?

They said: You for the fool killer, you for the booby hatch and a...Read more of this...

Fiddler Jones

by Edgar Lee Masters
 The earth keeps some vibration going
There in your heart, and that is you.
And if the people find you can fiddle,
Why, fiddle you must and for all your life.
What do you see, a harvest ofclover?
Or a meadow to awlk through to the river?
The wind's in the corn; you rub your hands
for beeves hereafter ready for market;
Or else you hear the...Read more of this...

Lancelot

by Edwin Arlington Robinson
 Gawaine, aware again of Lancelot 
In the King’s garden, coughed and followed him; 
Whereat he turned and stood with folded arms 
And weary-waiting eyes, cold and half-closed— 
Hard eyes, where doubts at war with memories
Fanned a sad wrath. “Why frown upon a friend? 
Few live that have too many,” Gawaine said, 
And wished unsaid, so thinly came the light...Read more of this...

Why Did I Laugh Tonight? No Voice Will Tell

by John Keats
 Why did I laugh tonight? No voice will tell:
No God, no Demon of severe response,
Deigns to reply from Heaven or from Hell.
Then to my human heart I turn at once.
Heart! Thou and I are here, sad and alone;
I say, why did I laugh? O mortal pain!
O Darkness! Darkness! ever must I moan,
To question Heaven and Hell and Heart in...Read more of this...

The Rule of the A.J.C

by Andrew Barton Paterson
 Come all ye bold trainers attend to my song, 
It's a rule of the A.J.C. 
You mustn't train ponies, for that's very wrong 
By the rules of the A.J.C. 
You have to wear winkers when crossing the street, 
For fear that a pony you'd happen to meet 
If you hear one about, you must beat a retreat -- 
That's...Read more of this...

Writing To Onegin

by Ruth Padel
 (After Pushkin) 
Look at the bare wood hand-waxed floor and long 
White dressing-gown, the good child's writing-desk 
And passionate cold feet
Summoning music of the night - tumbrils, gongs
And gamelans - with one neat pen, one candle
Puttering its life out hour by hour. 
Is "Tell Him I love him" never a good idea? You can't wish this
Unlived - this world...Read more of this...

So What

by Ruth Stone
For me the great truths are laced with hysteria.
How many Einsteins can we tolerate?
I leap into the uncertainty principle.
After so many smears, you want to wash it off with a laugh.
Ha ha, you say. So what if it's a meltdown?
Last lines to poems I will write immediately....Read more of this...

Modern Love XXXVII: Along the Garden Terrace

by George Meredith
 Along the garden terrace, under which 
A purple valley (lighted at its edge 
By smoky torch-flame on the long cloud-ledge 
Whereunder dropped the chariot), glimmers rich, 
A quiet company we pace, and wait 
The dinner-bell in prae-digestive calm. 
So sweet up violet banks the Southern balm 
Breathes round, we care not if the bell be late: 
Though here and...Read more of this...

348. Song—I hae been at Crookieden

by Robert Burns
 I HAE been at Crookieden,
 My bonie laddie, Highland laddie,
Viewing Willie and his men,
 My bonie laddie, Highland laddie.
There our foes that burnt and slew,
 My bonie laddie, Highland laddie,
There, at last, they gat their due,
 My bonie laddie, Highland laddie.


Satan sits in his black neuk,
 My bonie laddie, Highland laddie,
Breaking sticks to roast the Duke,
 My bonie laddie,...Read more of this...

They shut me up in Prose --

by Emily Dickinson
 They shut me up in Prose --
As when a little Girl
They put me in the Closet --
Because they liked me "still" --

Still! Could themself have peeped --
And seen my Brain -- go round --
They might as wise have lodged a Bird
For Treason -- in the Pound --

Himself has but to will
And easy as a Star
Abolish his Captivity --
And laugh...Read more of this...

A Sea Dirge

by Lewis Carroll
 There are certain things--as, a spider, a ghost,
 The income-tax, gout, an umbrella for three--
That I hate, but the thing that I hate the most
 Is a thing they call the Sea.

Pour some salt water over the floor--
 Ugly I'm sure you'll allow it to be:
Suppose it extended a mile or more,
 That's very like the Sea.

Beat a dog...Read more of this...

The Great Lover

by Rupert Brooke
 I have been so great a lover: filled my days
So proudly with the splendour of Love's praise,
The pain, the calm, and the astonishment,
Desire illimitable, and silent content,
And all dear names men use, to cheat despair,
For the perplexed and viewless streams that bear
Our hearts at random down the dark of life.
Now, ere the unthinking silence on that strife
Steals down, I...Read more of this...

Since Hannah Moved Away

by Judith Viorst
The tires on my bike are flat.The sky is grouchy gray.At least it sure feels like thatSince Hanna moved away.Chocolate ice cream tastes like prunes.December's come to stay.They've taken back the Mays and JunesSince Hanna moved away.Flowers smell like halibut.Velvet feels like hay.Every handsome dog's a muttSince Hanna moved away.Nothing's fun to laugh about.Nothing's fun to play.They call me, but...Read more of this...

Preludes

by T S (Thomas Stearns) Eliot
 I

THE WINTER evening settles down
With smell of steaks in passageways.
Six o’clock.
The burnt-out ends of smoky days.
And now a gusty shower wraps
The grimy scraps
Of withered leaves about your feet
And newspapers from vacant lots;
The showers beat
On broken blinds and chimney-pots,
And at the corner of the street
A lonely cab-horse steams and stamps.
And then the lighting of the lamps.

II

The morning comes to consciousness
Of...Read more of this...

Conviction (iv)

by Stevie Smith
 I like to get off with people,
I like to lie in their arms
I like to be held and lightly kissed,
Safe from all alarms.

I like to laugh and be happy
With a beautiful kiss,
I tell you, in all the world
There is no bliss like this....Read more of this...

Rose Leaves

by Robert William Service
 When they shall close my careless eyes
And look their last upon my face,
I fear that some will say: "her lies
 A man of deep disgrace;
His thoughts were bare, his words were brittle,
He dreamed so much, he did so little.

When they shall seal y coffin lid
And this worn mask I know as ME,
Shall from the sight of man be hid
...Read more of this...

My Fancy

by Lewis Carroll
 I painted her a gushing thing,
With years about a score;
I little thought to find they were
A least a dozen more;
My fancy gave her eyes of blue,
A curly auburn head:
I came to find the blue a green,
The auburn turned to red.

She boxed my ears this morning,
They tingled very much;
I own that I could wish her
A somewhat lighter touch;
And if you...Read more of this...

The Sea

by Lewis Carroll
 There are certain things -a spider, a ghost,
The income-tax, gout, an umbrella for three - 
That I hate, but the thing that I hate the most
Is a thing they call the SEA.

Pour some salt water over the floor - 
Ugly I'm sure you'll allow it to be:
Suppose it extended a mile or more,
That's very like the SEA.

Beat a dog...Read more of this...

The Last Laugh

by John Betjeman
 I made hay while the sun shone.
My work sold.
Now, if the harvest is over
And the world cold,
Give me the bonus of laughter
As I lose hold....Read more of this...

The Last Laugh

by Wilfred Owen
 'O Jesus Christ! I'm hit,' he said; and died.
Whether he vainly cursed, or prayed indeed,
 The Bullets chirped - 'In vain! vain! vain!'
 Machine-guns chuckled, 'Tut-tut! Tut-tut!'
 And the Big Gun guffawed.


Another sighed, - 'O Mother, Mother! Dad!'
Then smiled, at nothing, childlike, being dead.
 And the lofty Shrapnel-cloud
 Leisurely gestured, - 'Fool!'
 And the falling splinters tittered.


'My Love!' one...Read more of this...

Sonnet LIIII

by Edmund Spenser
 OF this worlds Theatre in which we stay,
My loue lyke the Spectator ydly sits
beholding me that all the pageants play,
disguysing diuersly my troubled wits.
Sometimes I ioy when glad occasion sits,
and mask in myrth lyke to a Comedy:
soone after when my ioy to sorrow flits,
I waile and make my woes a Tragedy.
Yet she beholding me with constant eye,
delights not in...Read more of this...

Only A Boche

by Robert William Service
 We brought him in from between the lines: we'd better have let him lie;
For what's the use of risking one's skin for a tyke that's going to die?
What's the use of tearing him loose under a gruelling fire,
When he's shot in the head, and worse than dead, and all messed up on the wire?
However, I say, we brought him...Read more of this...

Fallen Leaves

by Robert William Service
 Why should I be the first to fall
Of all the leaves on this old tree?
Though sadly soon I know that all
Will lose their hold and follow me.
While my birth-brothers bravely blow,
Why should I be first to go?

Why should I be the last to cling
Of all the leaves on this bleak bough?
I've fluttered since the fire of Spring
And I am...Read more of this...

The Demiurges Laugh

by Robert Frost
 It was far in the sameness of the wood;
I was running with joy on the Demon's trail,
Though I knew what I hunted was no true god.
i was just as the light was beginning to fail
That I suddenly head--all I needed to hear:
It has lasted me many and many a year.

The sound was behind me instead of before,
A sleepy sound,...Read more of this...

Dont forget to view our wonderful member Laugh poems.

Get a Premium Membership
Turn off ads, get more exposure for your poetry, and get more features with a Premium Membership.
Book: Diverse Voices: The Poetry of Human Rights and the Pursuit of Peace