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Famous Limpet Poems by Famous Poets

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

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by Burns, Robert
...n stowp as toom’s a whissle;
An’ d—mn’d excisemen in a bussle,
 Seizin a stell,
Triumphant crushin’t like a mussel,
 Or limpet shell!


Then, on the tither hand present her—
A blackguard smuggler right behint her,
An’ cheek-for-chow, a chuffie vintner
 Colleaguing join,
Picking her pouch as bare as winter
 Of a’ kind coin.


Is there, that bears the name o’ Scot,
But feels his heart’s bluid rising hot,
To see his poor auld mither’s pot
 Thus dung in staves,
An’ plunder’d ...Read more of this...



by Thomas, Dylan
...be just as well,
For you could then write what you please,
And modern verse is done with ease.

Do not forget that 'limpet' rhymes
With 'strumpet' in these troubled times,
And commas are the worst of crimes;
Few understand the works of Cummings,
And few James Joyce's mental slummings,
And few young Auden's coded chatter;
But then it is the few that matter.
Never be lucid, never state,
If you would be regarded great,
The simplest thought or sentiment,
(For thought, we ...Read more of this...

by ,
...r> The barman
Dispenses igneous potions ?
Somnabulist, the band plays on. 

Cocktail mixer, silvery fish
Dances for limpet clients.
Applause is steeped in lassitude,
Tangled in webs of lovers' whispers
And artful eyelash of the androgynous.
The hovering notes caress the night 
Mellowed deep indigo ?still they play.

Departures linger. Absences do not
Deplete the tavern. They hang over the haze 
As exhalations from receded shores. Soon,
Night reposs...Read more of this...

by Soyinka, Wole
...he barman
Dispenses igneous potions ?
Somnabulist, the band plays on.

Cocktail mixer, silvery fish
Dances for limpet clients.
Applause is steeped in lassitude,
Tangled in webs of lovers' whispers
And artful eyelash of the androgynous.
The hovering notes caress the night
Mellowed deep indigo ?still they play.

Departures linger. Absences do not
Deplete the tavern. They hang over the haze
As exhalations from receded shores. Soon,
Nigh...Read more of this...

by Service, Robert William
...There once was a limpet puffed with pride
Who said to the ribald sea:
"It isn't I who cling to the rock,
It's the rock that clings to me;
It's the silly old rock who hugs me tight,
Because he loves me so;
And though I struggle with all my might,
He will not let me go."

Then said the sea, who hates the rock
That defies him night and day:
"You want to be free - well, leav...Read more of this...



by Raine, Kathleen
...present. 
The helix revolves like a timeless thought, 
Instantaneous from apex to rim 
Like a dance whose figure is limpet or murex, 
cowrie or golden winkle. 

They sleep on the ocean floor like humming-tops 
Whose music is the mother-of-pearl octave of the rainbow, 
Harmonious shells that whisper forever in our ears, 
The world that you inhabit has not yet been created....Read more of this...

by Service, Robert William
...ald top to 'is 'ead,
But when I got through,
Between me and you,
 It was 'orrid and jaggy and red.

"'Ang on like a limpet, Eddy.
 Thank Gord! you ain't dead after all."
It's slow and it's sure and it's steady
 (Which is 'ard, for 'e's big and I'm small).
The rockets are shootin' and shinin',
 It's rainin' a perishin' flood,
The bullets are buzzin' and whinin',
 And I'm up to me stern in the mud.
There's all kinds of 'owlin' and 'ootin';
 It's black as a b...Read more of this...

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