Famous Lethal Poems by Famous Poets

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

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Dedication

...e is in me no wizardry of words.
I speak to you with silence like a cloud or a tree.

What strengthened me, for you was lethal.
You mixed up farewell to an epoch with the beginning of a new one,
Inspiration of hatred with lyrical beauty,
Blind force with accomplished shape.

Here is the valley of shallow Polish rivers. And an immense bridge
Going into white fog. Here is a broken city,
And the wind throws the screams of gulls on your grave
When I am talking with you.

What is ...Read more of this...
by Milosz, Czeslaw


Eclogues

...Eclogue the First. 

Whanne Englonde, smeethynge from her lethal wounde, 
From her galled necke dyd twytte the chayne awaie, 
Kennynge her legeful sonnes falle all arounde, 
(Myghtie theie fell, 'twas Honoure ledde the fraie,) 
Thanne inne a dale, bie eve's dark surcote graie, 
Twayne lonelie shepsterres dyd abrodden flie, 
(The rostlyng liff doth theyr whytte hartes affraie,) 
And whythe the owlette trembled and d...Read more of this...
by Chatterton, Thomas

Fear

...
Fear of waking up to find you gone.
Fear of not loving and fear of not loving enough.
Fear that what I love will prove lethal to those I love.
Fear of death.
Fear of living too long.
Fear of death.

I've said that....Read more of this...
by Carver, Raymond

Frustration

...had I some poison gas,
I could make the moments pass
Bumping off a number of
People whom I do not love.

But I have no lethal weapon-
Thus does Fate our pleasure step on!
So they still are quick and well
Who should be, by rights, in hell....Read more of this...
by Parker, Dorothy

Late Ripeness

...ts from yesterday and from centuries ago -
a sword blow, the painting of eyelashes before a mirror
of polished metal, a lethal musket shot, a caravel
staving its hull against a reef - they dwell in us,
waiting for a fulfillment.

I knew, always, that I would be a worker in the vineyard,
as are all men and women living at the same time,
whether they are aware of it or not....Read more of this...
by Milosz, Czeslaw


Little Joke

...Stripping an almond tree in flower 
The wise apothecary's skill 
A single drop of lethal power 
From perfect sweetness can distill

From bitterness in efflorescence, 
With murderous poisons packed therein; 
The poet draws pellucid essence 
Pure as a drop of metheglin....Read more of this...
by Wylie, Elinor

The Macaronis

...l are,--
 Let it be to their credit.
They mostly fail to win a war,
 --Oh they themselves have said it.
"Allergic we to lethal guns
 And military might:
We love our homes and little ones,
 And loath to fight."

But Teutons are a warrior race
 Who seek the sword to rattle;
And in the sun they claim a place,
 Even at price of battle.
The prestige of a uniform
 Is sacred in their sight;
They deem that they are soldiers born
 And might is right.

And so I love Italians though
 Th...Read more of this...
by Service, Robert William

The Mantra-Yoga

...sion of some happier birth?
Spring's earliest snowdrop? Summer's latest rose?

II

Thou knowest what asp hath fixed its lethal tooth
In the white breast that trembled like a flower
At thy name whispered. thou hast marked how hour
By hour its poison hath dissolved my youth, 
Half skilled to agonise, half skilled to soothe
This passion ineluctable, this power
Slave to its single end, to storm the tower
That holdeth thee, who art Authentic Truth.

O golden hawk! O lidless eye! B...Read more of this...
by Crowley, Aleister

The Power of the Dog

...rteen years which Nature permits
Are closing in asthma, or tumour, or fits,
And the vet's unspoken prescription runs
To lethal chambers or loaded guns,
Then you will find -- it's your own affair --
But . . . you've given your heart to a dog to tear.

When the body that lived at your single will,
With its whimper of welcome, is stilled (how still!)
When the spirit hat answered your every mood
Is gone -- wherever it goes -- for good,
You will discover how much you care,
And wil...Read more of this...
by Kipling, Rudyard

The Sniper

...ain.

Just let me dream when we will see
 And end of soldierin';
When flags of famous victory
 Will be amoulderin':
An' lethal steel an' battle blast
 Be nightmares of the past....Read more of this...
by Service, Robert William

Valentine

...ive and faithful
as we are,
for as long as we are.

Take it.
Its platinum loops shrink to a wedding-ring,
if you like.

Lethal.
Its scent will cling to your fingers,
cling to your knife....Read more of this...
by Duffy, Carol Ann

Years End

...ori?
Does the blood-thrust nipple against its eager
mate recall, through lust, a breast's transformations
sometimes are lethal?

Now or later, what's the enormous difference?
If one day is good, is a day sufficient?
Is it fear of death with which I'm so eager
to live my life out

now and in its possible permutations
with the one I love? (Only four days later,
she was on a plane headed west across the
Atlantic, work-bound.)

Men and women, mortally wounded where we
love and no...Read more of this...
by Hacker, Marilyn

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